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4,500 | France wants Hariri movements' free, able to play role in Lebanon | PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign ministry said on Friday it wanted Lebanon s Saad al-Hariri to be free of his movements and fully able to play an essential role in his country. Our ambassador to Saudi Arabia visited Saad al-Hariri at his home on his return from the trip he made to the United Arab Emirates, to which the (foreign) minister (Jean-Yves Le Drian) referred to this morning, French deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini said. As the minister said, we wish that Saad al-Hariri has all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon, he added. The comments appeared to differ slightly from Le Drian, who said on Europe 1 radio Friday morning, that as far as France was aware Hariri was free of his movements and that it was important he made his own choices. | 1 |
4,501 | Professors Claim Sexual Harassment Ban Is Violating The First Amendment | A group of college professors have released a report that claims the federal government s attempts to combat sexual harassment are stifling educators free speech on university campuses.The American Association of University (AAUP) found that the current interpretation of the government s Title IX laws which cover sexual harassment have made it hard for professors, especially female professors, to teach their students. Right now, if a student finds something offensive and complains about it, universities immediately open up an investigation into that teacher s actions, no matter how questionable that complaint is.According to the report, the failure of the federal government to make meaningful distinctions between conduct and speech or otherwise distinguish between hostile environment sexual harassment is putting academic freedom and free speech in jeopardy. The general counsel of the association and the chairwoman of the subcommittee who wrote the report, Risa L. Lieberwitz spoke to the NY Times, saying: We need to protect academic speech and the freedom that goes with academic speech, as well as due process. Universities are acting in a way that is overly precipitous as well as applying overly broad definitions of sexual harassment because they are afraid of scrutiny. The report even gives examples to support their claims. One of those was regarding Sociology Professor Patty Adler s class, Deviance in US Society, at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Adler had taught the class for more than twenty years and each semester around five hundred students enrolled in it, but in 2013 some of the students complained that her class constituted sexual harassment :At the conclusion of the term, undergraduate teaching assistants participated in and witnessed role-playing exercises featuring subjects relevant to course material involving the global sex trade: these performances animated character types, such as an Eastern European slave whore, a pimp, a bar whore, and a high-end escort. Adler s Dean offered her a buyout for early retirement and indicated if she did not accept the offer, she could incur penalties up to and including forfeiture of her retirement benefits.Her other option was to return to the classroom but never teach the course again. When students, faculty and advocacy groups found out what was happening they protested the school s ultimatum and eventually the university relented and welcomed her back without any conditions. However, the incident took such a toll on her that she only stayed for one semester and then retired.Professor Adler is not alone, similar incidents have happened all across the country and that is the violation of free speech and academic freedom the AAUP found so troubling. The group is not advocating sexual harassment, they are just asking that the government draw clearer lines between what is and what isn t harassment so that students can be properly educated.Right now, the lines are so blurry that colleges and universities are doing a disservice to the students who pay thousands of dollars for a well-rounded curriculum. Of course, these schools should act if a professor is violating the law, but there is a huge difference between harassment and well, this is an uncomfortable, intellectual topic. Nobody benefits when schools don t use common sense when investigating claims.Featured image via Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images | 0 |
4,502 | Two Danish journalists wounded in Islamist knife attack in Gabon | LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - An attacker wielding a knife and crying Allahu Akbar has wounded two Danish journalists in Gabon s capital Libreville, the Gabonese defense minister said. The two reporters for the National Geographic channel were in a popular market for tourist souvenirs on Saturday, when a Nigerien national living in Gabon lunged at them with the knife, Defence Minister Etienne Kabinda Makaga said in a statement on Gabonese television. After his arrest, the 53-year-old suspect, who has lived in Gabon for two decades, told authorities he was carrying out a revenge attack against America for recognizing Israel s capital as Jerusalem, Makaga said, giving no further explanation. A judicial investigation was immediately opened at the public prosecutor s office of Libreville to establish if the acts of the aggressor were isolated or a conspiracy, Makaga said. Oil-rich Gabon has a small Muslim population consisting mostly of foreign workers, although the precise number is not known. It is not normally considered a high risk country for jihadist violence. (This story corrects to make clear attacker was Nigerien from Niger, not Nigerian from Nigeria) | 1 |
4,503 | U.S. GMO food labeling bill passes Senate | (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would for the first time require food to carry labels listing genetically-modified ingredients, which labeling supporters say could create loopholes for some U.S. crops. The Senate voted 63-30 for the bill that would display GMO contents with words, pictures or a bar code that can be scanned with smartphones. The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) would decide which ingredients would be considered genetically modified. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Drawing praise from farmers, the bill sponsored by Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan is the latest attempt to introduce a national standard that would override state laws, including Vermont’s that some say is more stringent, and comes amid growing calls from consumers for greater transparency. “This bipartisan bill ensures that consumers and families throughout the United States will have access, for the first time ever, to information about their food through a mandatory, nationwide label for food products with GMOs,” Stabenow said in a statement. A nationwide standard is favored by the food industry, which says state-by-state differences could inflate costs for labeling and distribution. But mandatory GMO labeling of any kind would still be seen as a loss for Big Food, which has spent millions lobbying against it. Farmers lobbied against the Vermont law, worrying that labeling stigmatizes GMO crops and could hurt demand for food containing those ingredients, but have applauded this law. Critics like Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, say the bill’s vague language and allowance for electronic labels for scanning could limit its scope and create confusion. “When parents go to the store and purchase food, they have the right to know what is in the food their kids are going to be eating,” Sanders said on the floor of the Senate ahead of the vote. He said at a news conference this week that major food manufacturers have already begun labeling products with GMO ingredients to meet the new law in his home state. Another opponent of the bill, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said it would institute weak federal requirements making it virtually impossible for consumers to access information about GMOs. Food ingredients like beet sugar and soybean oil, which can be derived from genetically-engineered crops but contain next to no genetic material by the time they are processed, may not fall under the law’s definition of a bioengineered food, critics say. GMO corn may also be excluded thanks to ambiguous language, some said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised concerns about the involvement of the USDA in a list of worries sent in a June 27 memo to the Senate Agriculture Committee. In a letter to Stabenow last week, the USDA’s general counsel tried to quell those worries, saying it would include commercially-grown GMO corn, soybeans, sugar and canola crops. The vast majority of corn, soybeans and sugar crops in the United States are produced from genetically-engineered seeds. The domestic sugar market has been strained by rising demand for non-GMO ingredients like cane sugar. The United States is the world’s largest market for foods made with genetically altered ingredients. Many popular processed foods are made with soybeans, corn and other biotech crops whose genetic traits have been manipulated, often to make them resistant to insects and pesticides. “It’s fair to say that it’s not the ideal bill, but it is certainly the bill that can pass, which is the most important right now,” said American Soybean Association’s (ASA) director of policy communications Patrick Delaney. The association was part of the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, which lobbied for what labeling supporters termed the Deny Americans the Right to Know, or DARK Act, that would have made labeling voluntary. It was blocked by the Senate in March. | 1 |
4,504 | BREAKING: Oregon Armed Militia Holding Federal Building [Video] | OREGON RANCHERS TAKE A STAND: The feds felt a rancher father and son didn t spend enough time in prison for arson so they ordered them jailed again. Father and son, Dwight and Steven Hammond, were ordered back to jail for burning land in an effort to keep it from endangering their property: CALL TO ACTION: PATRIOT CALL TO ACTION: A Major Storm Is Brewing In Oregon Over Fed Gov Charging Rancher With Terrorism For Insane ReasonHERE S THE LOWDOWN FROM SUPERSTATION95:The feds, operating outside the law, are trying to jail two men without legal jurisdiction. Instead the tables turned when armed Militiamen seized their federal complex instead!The Bundy family of Nevada joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 50 miles southeast of Burns pictured below for years.The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers militia and local citizens both paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison Monday.The story could set the stage for a western-style soap opera. I call it as the sagebrush burns, said Erin Maupin of the long and storied history involving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), special interest groups and the cattle ranchers on the Steens Mountain of Oregon.The latest scene involved two ranchers being sentenced to five years in federal prison for inadvertantly burning about 140 acres of BLM rangeland in two separate fires, years ago. That is an area big enough to feed about three cow-calf pairs for a year in that neck of the woods.Dwight, 73 and son Steven, 46, admitted in a 2012 court case, to lighting two different fires. Both fires started on Hammonds private property. An August lightening storm started numerous fires and a burn ban was in effect while BLM firefighters fought those fires. Despite the ban, without permission or notification to BLM, Steven Hammond started several back fires in an attempt to save the ranch s winter feed. The back burn fire break worked and protected the Hammond s ranch. BLM firefighters saw the back-burn and called it into their headquarters as an arson. Sadly, wind drove the back-burn onto federal land, on which the Hammonds paid for grazing rights. Despite this, the US Attorney for Oregon prosecuted the two men, saying they committed arson against federal property along with nine other charges. The jury convicted the men of only two charges, starting the fires they readily admitted to starting.Arson against federal property calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of five years prison. The Hammonds argued that such minimum mandatory sentences were unconstitutional and a judge agreed. He sentenced the two men to LESS than the five years. Not satisfied, the US Attorney appealed and the Ninth US Circuit ordered the District Court to re-sentence the men in accordance with the statute.THE FIRES:The first, in 2001, was a planned burn on Hammonds own property to reduce juniper trees that have become invasive in that part of the country. That fire burned outside the Hammonds private property line and took in 138 acres of unfenced BLM land before the Hammonds got it put out. No BLM firefighters were needed to help extinguish the fire and no fences were damaged.Dwight s wife Susan shared some crucial details in an exclusive interview with SuperStation95. They called and got permission to light the fire, she said, adding that was customary for ranchers conducting range management burns a common practice in the area. We usually called the interagency fire outfit a main dispatch to be sure someone wasn t in the way or that weather would be a problem. Susan said her son Steven was told that the BLM was conducting a burn of their own somewhere in the region that very same day, but that they believed there would be no problem with the Hammonds going ahead with their planned fire. The court transcript includes the same information in a recording from that phone conversation.In cross-examination of a prosecution witness, the court transcript also includes admission from Mr. Ward, a range conservationist that the 2001 fire improved the rangeland conditions on BLM.Maupin, a former range technician and watershed specialist who resigned from the BLM in 1999, said that collaborative burns between private ranchers and the BLM had become popular in the late 1990s because local university extension researchers were recommending it as a means to manage invasive juniper that steal water from grass and other cover. Juniper encroachment had become an issue on the forefront and was starting to come to a head. We were trying to figure out how to deal with it on a large scale, said the woman whose family also neighbored the Hammonds for a couple of years. In 1999, the BLM started to try to do large scale burn projects. We started to be successful on the Steens Mountain especially when we started to do it on a large watershed scale as opposed to trying to follow property lines. Because private and federal land is intermingled, collaborative burns were much more effective than individual burns that would cover a smaller area, Maupin said.Susan said the second fire, in 2006, was a backfire started by Steven to protect their property from lightening fires. There was fire all around them that was going to burn our house and all of our trees and everything. The opportunity to set a back-fire was there and it was very successful. It saved a bunch of land from burning, she remembers.The BLM asserts that one acre of federal land was burned by the Hammonds backfire and Susan says determining which fire burned which land is a joke because fire burned from every direction.Neighbor Ruthie Danielson also remembers that evening and agrees. Lightening strikes were everywhere, fires were going off, she said.Maupin said prescribed burns to manage juniper were common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, best done late in the fall when the days are cooler.Prescribed burns on federal land in their area have all but stopped due to pressure from special interest groups, Maupin said. As a result, wildfires now burn much hotter due to a ladder of material on the ground grass, brush and trees. The fires now burn really hot and they sterilize the ground. Then you have a weed patch that comes back. Maupin said planned burning in cooler weather like the Hammonds chose to do improves the quality of the forage, and makes for better sage grouse habitat by removing juniper trees that suck up water and house raptors a sage grouse predator.// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Posted by Tim Davis on Saturday, 2 January 2016Militia members from across the country descended on Harney County, Oregon today to protest the conviction of two local ranchers for arson on federal land. They claim that the federal government had no authority in Harney County. The militia occupying the headquarters building at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a splinter group from the larger protest. He called the headquarters building the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds and said he was planning on staying for years. In a message on Facebook Bundy said he planned on establishing the facility as a base for militia members across the country:// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Here it is. Please know these men will speak to people civilly. Do not go up there guns blazing. Stay safe and smart.Posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday, 2 January 2016Via: Think Progress | 0 |
4,505 | UNREAL! ELDERLY HISPANIC TRUMP SUPPORTER Pepper Sprayed By Liberal Thug [Video] | The left keeps talking about how hateful the Trump supporters are but all the vitriol is coming from the commies who keep pepper spraying little kids and old people. Who does this? | 0 |
4,506 | RACIST LIBERAL REPORTER Arrested In Connection With 8 Jewish Community Center Bomb Threats…Blames “Nasty/Racist White Girl” [VIDEO] | The media and the Democrat Party has been coming down pretty hard on President Trump for not doing enough to call out the rise of hateful anti-semitism, as though Trump has a direct line to the anti-semites. Well, as it turns out, the first person to be arrested for his involvement in a string of bomb threats that were made to Jewish Community Centers is an openly racist, leftist journalist. Let that sink in. When 31 year old disgraced journalist Juan Thompson was arrested in connection with making threats against eight Jewish Community Centers, he immediately took to Twitter (where his feed is filled with hateful, racist views) to blame a white former girlfriend for framing you so you d be raped in jail what else? Juan Thompson, of Missouri, is accused of making the threats as part of an extensive cyber-stalking campaign against his ex-girlfriend to harass and intimidate her, the U.S. Attorney s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on March 3.Thompson was fired by The Intercept last February after he was accused of fabricating sources in a story about the Charleston church shooting.Here s what you need to know.1. During One Threat, Thompson Claimed There Were Bombs in a Middle School & There Was Going to be a Jewish Newtown In the now-retracted article, Thompson had claimed that Scott Roof had speculated during a phone conversation that Dylann Roof may been driven to murder nine black churchgoers at a Charleston, South Carolina church because he kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked starting dating a black guy two years back. Thompson s report was picked up by dozens of other news outlets.Thompson was hired by The Intercept s founding editor-in-chief, John Cook, in November 2014. Reed replaced Cook, a former editor of Gawker.com and the current executive editor of Gawker Media, in December 2014. Prior to The Intercept, Thompson had reported in Chicago for DNAInfo and interned at the local NPR affiliate, WBEZ.*On Twitter, Thompson claimed that the threats were made by his ex-girlfriend, the FBI said in court documents.The FBI has been investigating more than 100 bomb threats made to Jewish Community Centers, schools and the Anti-Defamation League, along with other Jewish organizations, since early January. There have been at least five waves of attacks, with multiple threats coming on the same day.Police do not believe Thompson is the main suspect behind the majority of the threats, ABC News reports. Police sources told ABC News that Thompson appears to have taken advantage of national news coverage of the threats to continue his ongoing harassment against his ex-girlfriend in revenge for her breaking up with him. HeavyHere are a few sampling of tweets (language warning) from the racist liberal reporter Juan Thompson:Wow. The #Oscars are fucking and toying and exploiting black ppl like America has done for centuries. White folk are trash. Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 27, 2017Make no mistake. Trump is a developer. This is his and the white establishment's effort to remove black ppl from the southside of Chicago. https://t.co/fe47RB8gQU Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 24, 2017.@ChrisCuomo Thinks there such a thing as shaming white folk. You're an idiot. White ppl have no shame. History taught us that. #dncdebate Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 23, 2017https://twitter.com/Mbarakat1990/status/834603029852725248.@ChrisCuomo You are a horrible race/religious baiter. "How could a black Muslim be opposed to anti-semitism?" #dncdebate Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 23, 2017My family was on food stamps and we actually ate steaks and escargot. Surf and turf all the way. Go fuck yourself Mississippi Senator. #ebt https://t.co/xFVVwrQ7or Juan M. Thompson (@JuanMThompson) February 22, 2017Daily Caller The criminal complaint states that threats made to the Jewish establishments across the country by Thompson were under his name and the name of his ex-girlfriend, and occurred after the relationship ended. The threats were made by both email and phone calls.Dozens of Jewish Community Center bomb threats have occurred throughout the country since President Donald Trump s election, and liberal groups and politicians have attacked Trump for them. The president condemned the threats during his address to Congress, but he reportedly said earlier that day, sometimes it s the reverse, to make people or to make others look bad. Well-known liberal civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz defends anti-semitic accusations by leftist media and Democrat leaders against Trump s top White House advisor Steve Bannon: | 0 |
4,507 | Here’s The List Of Items Trump Banned From Inauguration, Including Guns | Remember when the National Rifle Association warned Americans that President Obama was going to confiscate guns from responsible firearm owners and then he didn t? Remember when Obama spoke at events and those opposed to his presidency showed up armed and the president gave zero f*cks? Then remember when Donald Trump said, I Could Stand In the Middle Of Fifth Avenue And Shoot Somebody And I Wouldn t Lose Any Voters. He probably wasn t wrong there. His supporters are unhinged but devoted. As a candidate, Trump garnered strong support from gun owners and the NRA. As a candidate, he promised to keep the Second Amendment intact. As president-elect, he just banned guns from his inauguration.Gizmodo reports:The transition team has drawn up a list of banned items. For instance, you can t bring drones, selfie sticks, or guns. Which all sounds a bit like 1984, if you ask me. I thought Trump was supposed to be the candidate of freedom. More like the candidate of taking our guns away, amirite?At least it looks like vapes aren t included on the verboten list. Which should make Grover Norquist pretty happy. And it makes sense to ban bicycles, since only granola-gulping, latte-sipping pinkos ride bikes. But why does Trump gotta take away all our fun toys like selfie sticks and firearms?The gun grabbing Marxist-Commie s list of banned items are as follows:Aerosols Ammunition Animals other than service/guide animals Backpacks and bags exceeding size restrictions (18 by 13 by 7 ) Bicycles Balloons Coolers Drones and other unmanned aircraft systems Explosives Firearms Glass, thermal, or metal containers Laser pointers Mace / Pepper spray Packages Selfie Sticks Signs exceeding the size restrictions (20 x 3 x 1/4 ) Structures Supports for signs and placards Toy guns Weapons of any kindAt the bottom of the list it reads, Any other items determined to be potential safety hazards. Ha ha, go find a safe place, Donald, you delicate little snowflake.Why does Trump hate freedom?Photo by Scott Olson via Getty. | 0 |
4,508 | FLASHBACK: Female Terrorist Who Planned To Blow Up NYC Police Funeral Was A Pre-School Teacher [Video] | So a wannabe female bomber was a pre-school teacher by day in Queens, NY and a jihadi the rest of the time.She was a pretty hardcore jihadi who worshipped Bin laden and was a big fan of the Boston Bombers. One of the things we found interesting is her affiliation with ICNA Relief, an Islamic charity affiliated with the Islamic Circle of North America. We don t know much about the organization but found a video of Noelle speaking about her support from ICNA. To be honest, it sounds like a bunch of bs but she s trying to raise funds for a women s shelter. She rambles on and on but you can at least get a better understanding of what an attention wh*re she is.NOELLE (PLEASE GO TO THE 7:00 MARK FOR HER STORY ) ALSO KNOWN AS AISHA ASIF IS A WANNABE JIHADIST WHO CONSPIRED TO BOMB THE NYC POLICE FUNERAL: One of the two Queens women accused of plotting a homemade bomb strike on American soil worked at a preschool, where officials remained tight-lipped Friday after her arrest on terrorism charges.Asia Siddiqui, a 31-year-old native of Saudi Arabia, was behind bars Friday, locked up with her best friend and accused sister in jihad Noelle Valentzas, 28.An undercover operative reported that Valentzas said being a martyr in a suicide attack guarantees entrance into heaven. A picture of Osama bin Laden with an AK-47 allegedly decorated her cell phone. She also allegedly turned her interests to pressure cookers after the Boston Marathon bombing: You can fit a lot of things in [the pressure cooker], even if it s not food, Velentzas told the undercover operative, apparently referencing explosives.She evidently told the undercover operative, If we get arrested, the police will point their guns at us from the back and maybe from the front. If we can get even one of their weapons, we can shoot them. They will probably kill us but we will be martyrs automatically and receive Allah s blessing. Velentzas was allegedly also friends with U.S. airman Tairod Pugh who, last month, was indicted on terrorism charges after allegedly plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.Less than two weeks ago, Velentzas was reportedly asked whether she had heard the news about the recent arrest of Pugh and replied that she did not understand why people were traveling overseas to wage jihad when there were more opportunities of pleasing Allah in the United States. In that same meeting, Velentzas said she needed to learn the science behind bomb-building to avoid being like Faisal Shahzad, the man who drove an SUV full of explosives into Times Square on a warm Saturday night in May 2010. He wasn t able to detonate the bombs. We have no comment at this time, said a worker at 82nd Street Academics in Queens on the day after FBI agents arrested the two Al Qaeda-linked suspects at their homes.The busts followed a two-year undercover probe, with the terrorist sympathizers accused of amassing bomb-making materials and studying bomb-making manuals while plotting their strike.The self-identified citizens of the Islamic State the terrorist organization responsible for beheading Western hostages have billed themselves as some bad bitches. Outside their South Jamaica home on Friday, Valentzas husband (PICTURED BELOW), Abu Bakr, defended his wife and her friend against the federal charges that carry a potential life sentence. He was left at the home with their two kids, ages 5 and 11, after federal agents took Noelle away in handcuffs. The 27-year-old Valentzas, a home health-care worker, was born in Florida, authorities said.She and Siddiqui became close friends and co-conspirators united by a desire to make history through a terrorist attack in the U.S. Both women are American citizens.But a federal criminal complaint said the two suspects were overheard repeatedly discussing violent activities with the undercover agent including a plot to bomb a police funeral.Read more: NYDN | 0 |
4,509 | The Wahabi Vote: Poll Shows 68 percent of Saudis prefer Hillary Clinton | 21st Century Wire says Another key swing state has gone to Hillary. The feudal theocratic dictatorship who is funding and supporting ISIS and al Qaeda terrorists groups groups globally has chosen their candidate According to one WikiLeaks email, Clinton herself discussed how Gulf monarchies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Islamic State, IS, ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups. While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region, Clinton wrote. This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the [Kurdish Regional Government]. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure. So the Clinton Foundation has been knowingly accepting millions of dollars in donations from the very same Gulf states that both Secretary Clinton and President Obama knew were funding ISIS, Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria) and many other known takfiri terrorist fighting organizations currently infesting Syria and Iraq.No wonder Clinton plays so well with Saudi Arabia Al Arabiya An opinion poll by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Washington and that included nine Arab countries revealed that 68 percent of the Saudis prefer that Hillary Clinton wins the presidential elections while 46 percent thought Donald Trump was bad.The nine countries included Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), Saudi Arabia and Tunisia and an average of 400 people from each country participated in the questionnaire.Asked which of the candidates will positively influence the US policy towards the Arab region, 65 percent of the Saudis said Clinton s victory will positively impact the Arab region.The Arab public opinion prefers Clinton s win by 66 percent while 11 percent prefer Trump s victory. The highest percentage in support of Clinton winning the presidency was in Morocco and Tunisia while the least percentage in favor of Clinton s victory was in Palestine and Iraq. Meanwhile, the highest percentage in favor of Trump winning was in Iraq and Egypt Continue this story at Al ArabiyaREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2o16 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,510 | TRUMP SLAMS ABC For Ignoring Pro-Life March While Salivating Over Radical Women’s March…ABC CUTS Conversation From Transcripts [VIDEO] | Watch:MUIR: And as we walked through the White House, we asked the president about the voices. Just outside Washington, D.C. And across the country, the more than a million women, men, and children who marched during the inauguration.Let me just ask you while we re standing outside, could you hear the voices from the Women s March here in Washington? We know there were more than a million people who turned out, and you are their president now too.TRUMP: That s true.MUIR: Could you hear them from the White House?TRUMP: No, I couldn t hear them. The crowds were large, but you will have a large crowd on Friday, too, which is mostly pro-life people. You re going to have a lot of people coming on Friday. And I will say this, and I didn t realize this. But I was told. You will have a very large crowd of people. I don t know as large or larger. Some people said it will be larger. Pro-life people and they say the press doesn t cover them.MUIR: I don t want to compare crowd sizes again. I I I TRUMP: No, you should But let me just tell you. What you do say is that the press doesn t cover them.MUIR: We saw the marches around the country and you are their president now. Do you sense the responsibility to reach out now and to unite them? For those women, men and children who marched who are watching this, what would you say to them?TRUMP: I do, but I have to also say, we just had an election. A few weeks ago. And they voted in many cases, and some cases they didn t vote I imagine. And we did have an election. With that being said, absolutely have responsibility to everybody, including people that didn t vote for Donald Trump. Totally.Here s Vice President Mike Pence s amazing speech to the March for Life marchers:Click HERE to see ABC s published transcript. The conversation about ABC intentionally ignoring massive March For Life crowds has been removed. Here is the ABC interview in its entirety: | 0 |
4,511 | Senator Wyden pledges to fight limits on encryption | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden pledged on Wednesday to fight legislation expected shortly in Congress that would limit encryption protection in American technology products. The proposal by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, would give federal judges authority to order technology companies to help law enforcement officials access encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the situation. “I believe weakening strong encryption puts at risk millions of Americans, families and communities from one end of the country to another,” Wyden told Reuters after his speech at the RightsCon digital rights conference in San Francisco. “This issue is as important as any that I’ve been involved in in my 15 years in the intelligence committee.” Asked if he would put a hold on the expected legislation, the Oregon Democrat, who is a leading privacy advocate, said: “I would do anything within my power as a United States senator to block any plan that weakens strong encryption.” His remarks followed a high-stakes confrontation between the U.S. Justice Department and Apple over a court order that the company provide access to an iPhone used by one of the assailants in a deadly shooting rampage last December in San Bernardino, California. The government said on Monday it unlocked the phone without Apple’s help and dropped its legal action. Apple and other technology companies strongly opposed the court order, saying anything that helps authorities bypass the security features of tech products will undermine security for everyone. Government officials have insisted that criminal investigations could be crippled without access to phone data, and both sides are gearing up for a fight in Congress. Wyden said he would revive a 2014 bill he introduced to block court attempts by U.S. law enforcement to undercut encryption as in the Apple case. Without such a measure, he said the FBI would try again to get a precedent allowing it to compel companies to hack their customers “as sure as night follows day.” Recalling his role in the successful fight to stop a copyright bill four years ago opposed by Internet companies, Wyden told the conference: “We can win this fight for security and liberty. I know it’s not going to be easy, but we have done it before.” | 1 |
4,512 | German, Turkish foreign ministers meet after detainee released | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s foreign minister Siegmar Gabriel met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Turkey on Saturday, in a chance to discuss strained ties between the NATO allies after a series of diplomatic incidents. Gabriel and Cavusoglu discussed bilateral relationships as well as difficult themes and expectations on both sides in an informal meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya, the German foreign ministry said on Twitter, without giving further detail. The meeting came a day after the announcement of the release of a further German national who had been detained in Turkey for political reasons, leaving the tally of those still in jail at nine. Ties between the two allies deteriorated after Turkish President Recep Erdogan launched a crackdown on political opponents after a failed coup last year. Germany has criticized the mass arrests and refused to extradite people Turkey says were involved in the plot. Relations with Turkey are a contentious issue in talks on forming a coalition government that Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative bloc is holding with two other parties after she lost support in an election in September. | 1 |
4,513 | Obama, after meeting Mexican leader, praises Mexico as critical partner | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday after meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto that Mexico is a critical partner to the United States on a host of issues, including security and climate change. “I am proud of what we’ve achieved together,” Obama told the Mexican leader, noting that with the heated rhetoric of the U.S. presidential election campaign, Mexico’s importance to the United States as a major trading partner and neighbor is often not acknowledged. | 1 |
4,514 | BUILD THE WALL! How Terrorists Have Been Coming Across Our Border For Years [Video] | OUR GOOD FRIENDS AT TEXAS BORDER VOLUNTEERS are on the border catching illegals all the time. The Vickers family has a ranch that sees hundreds of illegals. Please read the first-hand account of what s really been going on at our border: MIKE VICKERS OF TEXAS BORDER VOLUNTEERS: Probably 60 percent to 70 percent of the groups we encounter are not Mexican, said Dr. Mike Vickers, who started the group and who owns a ranch in South Texas. We see a lot of Chinese and people from India and Pakistan. All day, every day, thousands of people cross by car, by bus and on foot spilling out onto the main streets of Laredo. As she makes a Christmas wreath, flower shop owner Marta Narvaez says she s scared. Narvaez tells us in Spanish she feels sorry for Syrians fleeing war in their homeland. But it s also dangerous, she says, because we don t know if some refugees are also terrorists. We try to piece the story together, Webb County Medical Examiner Dr. Corinne Stern says. When someone dies on the journey north, she interviews the people who stayed with the body. We asked Dr. Stern how people from around the world are getting to Laredo. It s the same story. It s the same story every time, she says. They ll say we crossed the river at night. It s always at night. Always with the help of smugglers who run routes through Central America and Mexico and it s big business. We ask how much did you pay the coyote, Dr. Stern says. The average I hear is $8,000 to $12,000. And somehow they come up with that money. So far this year, her team has not found the body of anyone of Syrian descent. But we know it s happening. We know they re trying to cross our border, Dr. Stern says.Now many lawmakers are calling for tougher border security laws. I think the concern with Syria is: are these folks connected to ISIS? Rep. Will Hurd (R TX) says. His district includes almost all of Texas long border with Mexico. I spent 9 years as an undercover officer in the CIA, Rep. Hurd says. I was chasing Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I ve been on some pretty nasty borders in my career so I know something about stopping bad guys. He calls the terrorist attacks against the French and Russians warnings, and now America must decide how to handle Syrians at our border before it s too late. The House passed legislation and the Senate s picking up saying if we re not able to figure out who these people are, we shouldn t let them in the country, Rep. Hurd says. It s balancing compassion with security. If border towns are the first line of defense, checkpoints are the last. They re about an hour or so north, in rural areas that are always on high alert. We encounter people from different nationalities, Hector Moreno with the U.S. Border Patrol says. Agents at the checkpoint in Falfurrias are known for busting the most undocumented workers and drug runners. But for every person they catch, dozens more trek through the thick South Texas brush to avoid detection. So Border Patrol has added a new tool to its arsenal: rescue beacons, strategically placed on vast ranches that are hotbeds of smuggling activity. The beacons are tall, red towers. At the base is a button people can push if they need emergency or medical help and want to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. It comes in Spanish and in Mandarin.At one time there was an influx of that nationality in these parts of the area, Moreno says. The beacons are more evidence of the worldwide web of immigration. But ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley says when it comes to this latest threat from Syrians, the government isn t coming clean. The Border Patrol do not tell us as ranchers what specific countries these special interest countries these people come from, rancher Dr. Mike Vickers says. And we have a problem with that. Why is Washington keeping it a big secret? Using their pack of dogs as protection, Dr. Vickers and his wife Linda encounter immigrants undeterred by electric fences and barbed wire. They ve personally caught hundreds of people trying to skirt the checkpoint. Whether they re an illegal alien from Mexico or from Syria it is my duty to find them on my property and report them to Border Patrol. No exceptions, Linda Vickers says. One time, something was left behind that Dr. Vickers says proves people from the Middle East have been crossing the border illegally for years now. As he came over the fence, this fell out of his pocket, Dr. Vickers says while holding up a dusty book. And we were right there watching the whole show. It s an Urdu dictionary found two years ago. This is where Urdu is spoken, Dr. Vickers says while pointing at a map inside the book. Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iran. Flip through the dictionary and you ll find key phrases are circled. You must pay in dollars, Dr. Vickers reads. All of these phrases were circled so this is obviously a dictionary the coyote was using to communicate with the people. The old discovery is giving way to new concerns as Syrian refugees make their way west. Mexico s taking them but they re not going to stay in Mexico, Linda Vickers says. They re going to head up here. I think that s a given. Read more: News 4 San Antonio | 0 |
4,515 | HILLARY LANDS COVETED Taxpayer Funded, Planned Parenthood Endorsement | Sadly, this will be the only reason many women will vote for her. Hillary s crimes will suddenly become a distant memory to many female (and some male) voters. Because when it comes to defending a woman s right to kill her baby, every criminal act Hillary s ever committed takes a backseat There are many on the GOP side thankfully, who are still defending the lives of the most vulnerable among us:Planned Parenthood, the national women s health organization that Hillary Clinton often mentions on the campaign trial, will endorse the 2016 candidate for president on Sunday in New Hampshire.This will be the first time the group, which has been mired in controversy since a series of videos by anti-abortion activists were released in 2015, will endorse in a presidential primary. As a lifelong Planned Parenthood supporter, I m honored to have the endorsement of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Clinton said in response to the endorsement. There has never been a more important election when it comes to women s health and reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood s patients, providers, and advocates across the country are a crucial line of defense against the dangerous agenda being advanced by every Republican candidate for president. The group will make the endorsement official at what they are billing as their election kickoff event in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sunday. The group plans to spend at least $20 million in this election cycle, according to a press release.The endorsement was somewhat of a forgone conclusion. Clinton regularly mentions Planned Parenthood on the campaign trail I will defend a woman s right to choose, she says a line that draws applause from Democratic crowds. In Congress and on the campaign trail, Republicans that claim they just hate big government are only too happy to have government step in when it comes to women s bodies and heath, Clinton said at the New Hampshire Democratic Party s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in 2015. It is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it. Planned Parenthood s endorsement, which was first reported by CBS, is sure to draw scorn from Republican presidential candidates, many of whom regularly pledge to defund the group is elected president.In accepting the endorsement, Clinton said the United States needs a president who has what it takes to stop Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood and taking away a woman s right to basic health care. If I m elected, she added, I will be that president. This is the second national women s health group to back Clinton. NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC endorsed Clinton earlier this week, their president stating that Clinton has what it takes to fight Republican attacks on women s reproductive rights, and has the vision and experience to ensure women and families thrive. Via: CNN | 0 |
4,516 | RNC Chief Strategist Has A FULL MELTDOWN On CNN After Hearing FBI Won’t Indict Hillary (VIDEO) | The GOP has been impatiently waiting for the moment that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would be indicted over the issue of her emails, and today they finally got their little hearts broken.Earlier on Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey made the announcement that no conservative wanted to hear that after a lengthy investigation into Clinton s controversial government emails, the FBI would not be recommending that the former Secretary of State be charged with a crime. This makes it truly a sad day for the GOP, and you can tell how bitter they are just by the interviews they re giving.After the FBI made that announcement, Republican Nation Committee (RNC) chief strategist Sean Spicer was in an embarrassing amount of denial when he went on CNN and insisted that the FBI had issued a clear indictment of Clinton s judgement, despite the fact that it didn t recommend a formal indictment at all. Spicer got so worked up over the fact the Clinton wouldn t be charged that he completely lost it, and threw a bit of a temper tantrum over the investigation s results. Spicer said: These findings of the FBI are a clear indictment on Hillary Clinton s judgement and fitness to be president. The office that she s seeking requires the highest level of judgement, making sure that our nation s secrets are protected. CNN host Kate Bolduan reminded Spicer that the FBI had said that no reasonable prosecutor would even think about bringing charges against Clinton.Not fully understanding the irony that his party s candidate is the most unfit presidential candidate of our time, Spicer snapped back, This is someone who wants to be president, Kate! Bolduan then cornered Spicer and asked him if he trusted the FBI to conduct a fair investigation, and the RNC strategist had to admit that he did. Spicer confessed: Well, it sounds like it. The findings that they made are very clear that she did exhibit poor judgement, that it was reckless by their account. And it is not their job to decide whether it is formally prosecuted. John Berman jumped in to point out that Trump had also disagreed with the FBI s assessment, calling it very very unfair. Spicer decided to defend Trump and accuse Clinton of rigging the system. I m not a lawyer. If she had followed the law and used a State Department account or even used a private system like the director pointed out like Gmail then this wouldn t be a problem. She chose to set up a system for herself around the rules that were established for everybody else for a reason. And that reason is she didn t want people to know what she was doing.Any other employee that works at the State Department that did what she did would have their security clearance pulled and would be facing charges. This is absolutely ridiculous. Bolduan took another opportunity to make a complete idiot out of Spicer, when she followed up with this question: Donald Trump in his tweet called this very very unfair. Do you think the investigation was unfair or do you agree with your candidate who thinks it was very very unfair? All Spicer could do was reluctantly say that the investigation was fair, but that he still agreed with Trump that Clinton should be prosecuted. He lamented: The system clearly looks like when the FBI turned it over, the Department of Justice has already seemed to make it very clear what they re going to do with this. You can watch Spicer get all worked up in the interview below:Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
4,517 | In blustery call, Trump pressured Mexico on border wall payment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump pressured the Mexican president to stop voicing opposition in public to his plan to have Mexico pay for a border wall, according to transcripts of phone calls published on Thursday that gave an insight into Trump’s attempts to influence foreign leaders in his first days in office. The Washington Post published texts of sometimes fraught calls with Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just days after the Republican took office on Jan. 20. The substance of the calls has previously been reported but the lengthy transcripts reveal Trump, whose first elected office is the presidency, trying to use a mixture of bluster, tough talk and charm as he fully enters the world of diplomacy. Trump argued with Turnbull over refugees in an acrimonious call on Jan. 28 which the new U.S. president told his counterpart was “unpleasant.” In a Jan. 27 call, Trump pressed Pena Nieto to avoid saying in public that Mexico would not fund the planned border wall. But he complimented the Mexican leader’s “beautiful words” and said he hoped Mexico would change its constitution to allow Pena Nieto to extend his stay in office. The proposed wall, aimed at preventing illegal immigration to the United States, is a bone of contention between Mexico and Washington. Pena Nieto has repeatedly rejected Trump’s promise that Mexico will end up paying billions of dollars for its construction. Trump told the Mexican leader in the call that “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that,” according to the transcript. “You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said. Pena Nieto had earlier scrapped a plan to hold talks with Trump in the United States due to tensions over the wall and trade. The two men have since met, holding talks at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Germany last month. The White House has said the U.S. government will pay for the wall initially to get the project off the ground but that Mexico will eventually reimburse it for the work. Both the White House and Mexico’s foreign ministry did not have any immediate comment on Thursday about the release of the call transcripts. It was the latest in a series of leaks from inside Trump’s administration which have angered the president. The Republican won some sympathy over leaks from a political opponent on Thursday. “I am alarmed at leaks of conversations between two heads of state,” Democratic U.S. Senator Brian Schatz wrote on Twitter. “It doesn’t matter what I think of this president, this is terrible.” In the conversation with Pena Nieto, Trump said both leaders were “in a little bit of a political bind” due to Trump’s campaign pledge to build the wall and have Mexico foot the bill. “I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to. I have been talking about it for a two-year period,” Trump said. He suggested that the two men avoid the issue of paying for the wall when asked. “They are going to say, ‘Who is going to pay for the wall, Mr. President?’ to both of us, and we should both say, ‘We will work it out,’” Trump said. “It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, ‘We will not pay’ and me saying, ‘We will not pay,’” the U.S. president said. Pena Nieto said he understood Trump’s position on how to refer to paying for the border wall and suggested seeking “a creative way to jump over this obstacle.” Toward the end of their conversation, Trump responded effusively to a comment by Pena Nieto about the Mexican leader’s wish for a constructive relationship with the United States. “Your words are so beautiful. Those are beautiful words and I do not think I can speak that beautifully, okay?” Trump said. “I want you to be so popular that your people will call for a constitutional amendment in Mexico so that you can run again for another six years,” he said. By law, Mexican presidents can only serve one six-year term. ‘DRUG INFESTED-DEN’ In comments likely to upset voters in New Hampshire - an important early voting state in the U.S. presidential election primaries - Trump described the state as “a drug-infested den.” “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” he said, complaining that drugs from Mexico are damaging the United States. While Trump won the Republican primary there, he narrowly lost the state to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the general election. New Hampshire officials from both parties lashed out at Trump, with several saying his push to repeal the Obamacare healthcare law would worsen the nation’s opioid crisis. Speaking to Australia’s Turnbull, Trump became irritated that the United States was expected to honor an agreement made by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, to accept as many as 1,250 refugees held in Australian processing centers on remote Pacific islands. Trump said that would make him look bad given his campaign promises to reduce the number of refugees entering the United States, according to the transcript. “This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country,” Trump said. Seeking to win Trump’s support, Turnbull on Friday said Washington could honor the deal while taking as few as 100 refugees from the two offshore centers, should the rest fail to satisfy its vetting. “It has always been subject to American vetting procedures,” Turnbull told reporters in Western Australia state. “Those procedures from the Department of Homeland Security are ongoing.” The dialogue was a “frank conversation between adults”, he added. Trump told Turnbull that their conversation was the most difficult he had held that day, after speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and others. “I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day,” Trump said. “Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.” | 1 |
4,518 | THE GEORGE COSTANZA OF CNN Destroyed On His Own Show: “We have a one-party system, and the media as the other party.” [Video] | CNN Host Brian Stelter was destroyed by former NY Observer Editor Ken Kurson today on Stelter s own show! This was truly epic! Stelter calmly laid out a damning indictment of the mainstream media in the age of Trump Beautiful!Host Stelter pushed back trying to make the claim that the attacks on Trump are just harmless opinion We all know and have watched the BRUTAL and BITTER editorializing from CNN and MSNBC. It s clearly more than that.HERE S A BIT OF THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THE KURSON/STELTER EXCHANGE:KEN KURSON: So the idea here is that the media has become the opposition to Trump. Just listening to the intro to this show, listening to Fareed s show before it, it s no longer that the Republican point of view holds forth, and the Democrats hold them accountable, and the media covers it. It s that the president and the White House put forth their point of view, the media argues with them, and the Democrats have become totally irrelevant to that discussion. It s a stunning thing to watch unfold during this presidency.BRIAN STELTER: About the irrelevancy of the Democratic party?KURSON: Totally! And the way the press has assigned itself the chore of undoing the results of this election, which they simply don t accept. And I think the shame of it is, we no longer have even a two-party system, which many think is too few. We have a one-party system, and the media as the other party.KURSON: During these breaks, when I watch you go on Twitter. The way journalists reward each other for stabbing and needling there s a new system of reward that is out there for journalists that has very little to do with policy and very little to do with advancing this country.STELTER: Where do you go from that to, the media is the opposition.KURSON: Because when I look at the tone, and the way these attacks are launched, and I ve cited a couple of examples for you, or the way that whenever there s a need for the appearance of balance, NPR will hire some conservative who hates the president. Or the New York Times will go get Bret Stephens, whose main contribution is that he hates the president.Whenever there s the need for the appearance of fairness, there s no real effort to where are the pro-Trump journalists in the mainstream media? They don t exist! Because the entire mainstream media is against Trump. And that I think is not just bad for American policy. I think it s bad for journalism.STELTER: I think a lot of journalists are against lying, are against deceit. That s where we are right now.KURSON: I m against lying and deceit. I think the function of the journalist to hold the administration accountable is a critical function enshrined in our Bill of Rights. But when you have a system where the most outrageous attack is what s rewarded with likes on Facebook and followings on Twitter, you re setting yourself up.STELTER: Those are opinion columns! Those are opinion columns!KURSON: No, they re not just opinion columns. It s reporters. And they audition for each other, and they audition for popularity.Kurson couldn t be more right! Have you noticed that since the daily White House press briefings are not televised that the questions and tone from reporters has gotten so much calmer and less dramatic? Playing for the cameras to get that gotcha moment has disappeared so the reporters are focused and civil.Wouldn t it be great if the news would return to the facts?Read more: Legal Insurrection | 0 |
4,519 | WHY Did Two Major Companies, Who Cash In On EASTER Candy Sales, Hiding “Easter” From Packaging? | Americans watch in horror, as ISIS systematically destroys any signs of Christianity in the Middle East. Meanwhile in America, the Left is doing the very same thing but in a much more inconspicuous way. They ve made every effort to remove Christianity from the public s view. They ve removed Christianity from school organizations, public places, and now, in the marketing of products specifically related to religious holidays for the Christian consumer Cadbury was inundated with furious comments from customers on Twitter, questioning why the Easter treats simply said milk chocolate egg with no mention of the Christian festival. One said: Some of us want to know why Easter is hidden on the back now? Why change a good thing?? while another commented: Disgusting you ve dropped the word EASTER .Cadbury sent endless replies to irate shoppers denying claims that they have a policy to remove the Easter slogan on packaging.They wrote on their Twitter: Easter s on the back of our packaging with the other product details.Both Cadbury and Nestle denied that they were getting rid of the word Easter from their products. The word Easter is not included on the front of the packaging for their Mini Eggs Giant Egg or their Dairy Milk Buttons Egg, but Happy Easter is branded on a special edition of the Dairy Milk chocolate bar. It s not on the front as the seasonal design shows what it is. As a seasonal treat the eggs will always be linked with Easter. However customers remained unconvinced, accusing the company of hiding any mention of Easter on the back.Both Cadbury and Nestle denied that they were getting rid of the word Easter from their products. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
4,520 | MELANIA TRUMP Proves ‘Dressing Well Is The Best Revenge’ To Designers Who Wouldn’t Dress Her | If you weren t convinced of the fabulousness of First Lady Melania Trump before her 9-day foreign trip, you re certainly aware now. Not only did she dress impeccably but it was obvious that this wise woman put so much thought into what she would wear on this overseas trip. Who wasn t proud to see our beautiful and smart First Lady in appropriate and stylish outfits every day. She won us over in a big way and made the designers who refused to dress her look like schmucks. She needs no one to hold her hand to put together a wardrobe If anything, First Lady Melania Trump proved to the naysayers that you can be beautiful AND smart Well done!Richard Johnson of the New York Post: Melania Trump is proving to the fashion designers who said they wouldn t help her that dressing well is the best revenge.The first lady s trip to Saudi Arabia, the Vatican, Belgium and Sicily wearing mostly Dolce & Gabbana was a fashion tour de force that has forced many naysayers in the rag trade to rethink.The list of designers who said they wouldn t dress Melania is long, led by Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Christian Siriano and Sophie Theallet.But Melania has managed to look smashing in dozens of different ensembles, from her white Ralph Lauren jumpsuit on election night to the D&G 3-D floral coat she wore in Sicily on Friday.Defending the former model against critics who harped on the garment s $51,500 cost, the Washington Post s Robin Givhan opined, Frankly, the floral coat is beautiful. Givhan gets that Melania Trump is one smart woman who coordinated her fashion according to the place she was visiting:Givhan reported: Clothes can be deeply symbolic. And Trump s choice of Dolce & Gabbana an Italian brand that has been deeply inspired by Sicilian culture for a trip to Sicily makes sense. Gabbana also has been quite vocal and enthusiastic in his willingness to associate his brand with the first lady There is a softening, a melting, stylist Phillip Bloch told me. Fashion people are fickle and fake. They are starting to see she is a beautiful woman who is married to the president, and it is an honor to dress her. Deliveries to Trump Tower have picked up. Most days, the lobby is brimming with wardrobe boxes delivered for Melania, a source told me. Once she tries on the outfits and decides what she will keep, the boxes come back downstairs. Not since Jacqueline Kennedy has there been a first lady who needs less help. She doesn t need couture. She can buy off the rack, and it looks beautiful, Bloch said. She knows her size, and she knows what works on her. She luxuriates in minimal. Read more NYP | 0 |
4,521 | Germany's FDP says won't agree to 'Jamaica' coalition at any price | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s liberal Free Democrats (FDP) set the stage for tough coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives and the Greens, saying they would not agree to a deal that did not promise a change in the German government s direction. It is not up to us to form a Jamaica coalition at any price, deputy party leader Wolfgang Kubicki told journalists on Monday, after Sunday s national election pointed to a three-way tie-up as the most straightforward possibility for a coalition. FDP party leader Christian Lindner said that changes were needed in Germany s energy policy and its stance on euro zone fiscal policy. | 1 |
4,522 | Clinton leads by 7 points as Trump faces grope claims: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton leads rival Donald Trump by seven percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll taken as the Republican nominee fought off accusations of groping women. The Oct. 7-13 poll released on Friday shows that 44 percent of likely voters support Clinton while 37 percent back Trump. That was little changed from Tuesday when the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump trailing by eight points. Two more women came forward on Friday with allegations that Trump had groped them, including a contestant on his reality show, “The Apprentice,” as the businessman said accusations of sexual misconduct against him were part of a plot to discredit him only weeks from the election. Trump’s campaign for the Nov. 8 election has been scrambling to recover from the release a week ago of a 2005 video in which he bragged about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances Support for Clinton has been mostly rising in the seven-day tracking poll since the last week of August, when the candidates were drawing about the same level of support. Since then, Clinton and Trump have faced each other in two heavily watched debates — contests that Americans believe Clinton won, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Former secretary of state Clinton also leads the field in a separate poll question that includes alternative-party candidates. Among likely voters, 44 percent back Clinton, 37 percent support Trump, six percent favor Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and two percent support Jill Stein of the Green Party. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The most recent survey includes 2,889 people who are considered likely voters given their registration status, voting history and stated intention to vote. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of two percentage points. National opinion polls have measured support for the candidates in different ways this year, yet most agree that Clinton is leading and that her advantage has strengthened as the election approaches. RealClearPolitics web site, which tracks most major opinion polls, shows Clinton ahead of Trump by an average of seven percentage points. | 1 |
4,523 | Trump blasts media at Black History Month event | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump opened a “listening session” on Wednesday for Black History Month by lashing out at one of his favorite targets for derision - the news media - complaining to a group of his supporters that most reporters who cover him are a “disgrace.” Trump rehashed his grievances over a report that erroneously said a bust of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the White House Oval Office - a mistake that was quickly corrected but caused a stir on social media. “It was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is,” Trump said, calling the report “fake news.” Trump returned to the theme a couple of times during the portion of the event that was open to media. He slammed CNN, also calling it “fake news,” but praised Fox News, and took one more whack as reporters were led out of the Roosevelt Room. “A lot of the media is actually the opposition party. They’re so biased. It’s a disgrace,” he said. Trump has said he has a “running war” with the media, blaming it for underestimating his chances during the presidential campaign and accusing it of favoring his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He has kept up the attacks since his Jan. 20 inauguration. The listening session at the White House was attended by African-American supporters of Trump and other officials to celebrate the start of Black History Month and discuss issues affecting the black community. Trump pledged during his campaign to improve the lives of black residents of inner cities and crack down on crime and violence in urban areas, especially in Chicago, where murders have spiked. Last month, Trump threatened to “send in the Feds” if Chicago did not get its murder rate under control. One of the attendees, Cleveland-based pastor Darrell Scott, said Trump would take a “proactive” approach to dealing with violence in Chicago that did not simply involve locking people up. “We’re not just going to send in Feds and start arresting black people,” Scott told reporters. Scott told Trump that some “gang” members from Chicago had reached out to him about having a meeting to reduce the violence, which Trump said he encouraged. “If they’re not going to solve the problem – and what you’re doing is the right thing – then we’re going to solve the problem for them,” Trump told Scott while reporters were still in the room. “Because we’re going to have to do something about Chicago.” Pastor Corey Brooks from New Beginnings Church of Chicago, who did not attend the session, said in a phone interview he had spoken with a White House official about a possible meeting with the gang leaders but that details were unclear. Other religious leaders in Chicago were skeptical about such a meeting, saying the city’s splintered gangs no longer had clear leaders. | 1 |
4,524 | This Spontaneous Act By Trump At A VA Rally Showed A Side of Him Most Americans Never See [VIDEO] | After watching this video, and seeing a side of Trump the media rarely shows us, it s easy to understand why all of Donald s kids think he s such a great dad A cute little boy in the audience asked Trump a question at his Manassas, Virginia rally on Dec. 2, 2015. Trump thought it was such a great question, he asked the boy to come up on the stage and ask the question again in front of the mic. The boy wanted to know what materials Trump would use to build the wall. It wasn t his answer Trump gave the young boy that revealed the genuine love Trump has for his fellow American, it was the spontaneous kiss he gave the little boy on the back of his head for asking such a great question.The exchange went like this:The young boy asks Trump a question that may be hard for the audience to hear, so Trump asks boy to come up on stage:Trump: C mon, c mob up here. This is such a great question.Boy: What are the (boy pauses as he realizes he s in front of thousands of supporters) hello. Trump gives him a kiss on the back of his head, almost as if he was proud of him for asking such a great question. What are the walls going to be made of? Trump: That might be the best question I get today. I ll tell you what it s going to be made of. It s going to be made of hardened concrete and it s going to be made out of Rebar and steel (audience applauds). I mean, that s what I do. Did you ever seen the walls they build now, they re this high (gestures to indicate low wall) and they drive trucks over them right? They build a ramp and they take trucks over them with drugs, and we get the drugs and they get the cash. Not good Watch here at the 36 second mark for the sweet, spontaneous kiss:h/t Down Trend | 0 |
4,525 | Two ex-Trump aides charged in Russia probe, third pleads guilty | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election charged President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, with money laundering on Monday. A third former Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty in early October to lying to the FBI, it was announced on Monday. It was a sharp escalation of U.S. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s five-month-old investigation into alleged Russian efforts to tilt the election in Trump’s favour and into potential collusion by Trump aides. Manafort, 68, a longtime Republican operative, and Gates were arraigned at a federal courthouse in Washington. Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges in a 12-count indictment, ranging from money laundering to acting as unregistered agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. The judge ordered house arrest for both men, and set a $10 million (7.57 million pounds) unsecured bond for Manafort and a $5 million unsecured bond for Gates. With unsecured bonds, they are released without having to pay but will owe money if they fail to appear in court. There will be another hearing on Thursday. The developments in the Mueller probe weighed on the U.S. dollar, which slipped 0.5 percent against a basket of currencies. Mueller’s investigation and others by congressional committees into alleged Russian efforts to influence the election have cast a shadow over Trump’s first nine months in office. U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia interfered in the election by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Russia denies the allegations and Trump denies any collusion. Neither Trump nor his campaign was mentioned in the indictment against Manafort and Gates. The charges, some going back more than a decade, centre on Manafort’s work for Ukraine. The indictment includes accusations of conspiracy against the United States, failure to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government and conspiracy to launder money, a count that carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence. A White House spokeswoman said the indictment had nothing to do with Trump or his campaign and showed no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia. “We’ve been saying from Day One there’s no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing. Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing said in a statement that there was no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Downing said Manafort’s work for the Ukrainians ended in 2014, two years before he joined the Trump campaign. Downing accused Mueller of using a “novel” legal theory to prosecute Manafort under a law requiring lobbyists to register with the Department of Justice when they are doing work for a foreign government. In a development directly related to Trump’s 2016 election campaign, it emerged on Monday that Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser, pleaded guilty earlier this month to making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. Mueller’s office said Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents about the timing of contact between him and a professor in London who claimed to have information that would hurt Clinton. Papadopoulos, a little-known former foreign policy adviser in the campaign, made a plea bargain that stated he had since “met with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions,” according to a court document. Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, said Papadopoulos’ role in the campaign was “extremely limited” and that he was a volunteer. “He asked to do things (and) he was basically pushed back or not responded to in any way,” she said. In a May 4 email quoted in the Papadopoulos indictment, a Trump campaign employee forwarded a message from Papadopoulos proposing a meeting between Trump and the Russian government to another campaign official. The employee included a note, according to the indictment, that read: “Let’s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” A source in Washington, who did not want to be identified and who has seen the email, said the sender was Manafort and the recipient was Gates. Manafort ran the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he might have received millions of dollars in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Trump reiterated his frustration on Monday with the Mueller probe, which he has called “a witch hunt.” “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????,” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to Clinton. Mueller has been investigating Manafort’s financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for a political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Both Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars of income from Ukraine work and laundered money through scores of U.S. and foreign entities to hide payments from American authorities, the indictment said. They concealed from the United States their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties and used their wealth to lead a “lavish lifestyle” without paying taxes on the income, it said. The indictment said Manafort owned properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hamptons, Arlington, Virginia, and elsewhere. Prosecutors said Manafort spent almost $1 million on eight rugs in two years and more than $1.3 million on clothes from shops in Beverly Hills, California, and New York City. They also said he had been making payments on four Range Rovers and a Mercedes-Benz. Gates was a longtime business partner of Manafort and has ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trump’s campaign chairman. | 1 |
4,526 | Springer Nature blocks access to certain articles in China | BEIJING (Reuters) - Springer Nature, which publishes science magazines Nature and Scientific American, said on Wednesday it had pulled access to a small number of articles in China to comply with regulations, adding that it viewed the move as regrettable but necessary. The decision comes after Britain s Cambridge University Press (CUP) said in August it had removed from its website in China about 300 papers and book reviews published in the China Quarterly journal, after a request from the Chinese government. CUP, the publishing arm of elite Cambridge University, later reversed its decision and reposted the articles, following an outcry from academics, who attacked the decision as an affront to academic freedom. In a statement, Germany-based Springer Nature said that less than one percent of its content had been limited in mainland China. This action is deeply regrettable, but has been taken to prevent a much greater impact on our customers and authors, it said. This is not editorial censorship and does not affect the content we publish or make accessible elsewhere in the world. It is a local content access decision in China done to comply with specific local regulations, it added. The Financial Times said at least 1,000 Springer Nature articles had been blocked in China, containing sensitive key words like Taiwan, Tibet and Cultural Revolution. Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up censorship, tightened controls on the internet and various aspects of civil society, and strengthened Communist Party authority over academia and other institutions. Beijing said in September that Chinese importers of foreign publications must verify the products were legal. China s State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment sent after office hours. In not taking action we ran the very real risk of all of our content being blocked, Springer Nature said. We do not believe that it is in the interests of our authors, customers, or the wider scientific and academic community, or to the advancement of research, for us to be banned from distributing our content in China. Cambridge University Press had said it had blocked articles on topics including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, the 1960s Cultural Revolution and Tibet, in order to keep its other academic and educational materials available in the country. | 1 |
4,527 | FOX News Just Announced Moderators For Next GOP Debate…This Could Be YUGE! | Will Megyn Kelly be working towards a gotcha moment that has the press talking about her the next day, or will she focus on more serious issues facing Americans? Fox News Megyn Kelly will moderate her second GOP presidential primary debate on Jan. 28, just days before the Iowa caucuses, the network announced Monday.The seventh scheduled showdown between the GOP candidates, which will be held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, will air at 9:00 p.m. EST.The network hasn t explained yet how candidates can qualify to participate in the last debate before the Iowa caucuses.Fox s Bret Baier and Chris Wallace will also return for a second time to moderate along with Kelly. The three anchors moderated the first GOP debate on Aug. 6, which ended with Trump accusing Kelly of unfair treatment. Via: Washington Examiner | 0 |
4,528 | White Supremacists Robocall For Trump Ahead Of Super Tuesday (AUDIO) | A Super PAC representing white nationalists is robocalling voters in Vermont and Minnesota, urging them to vote for Donald Trump.According to Minnesota s StarTribune, the American National Super PAC is not being particularly discriminate with the calls. Democratic voter Roberta Maki received what she described as a shocking call from the group.The group also called Minnesota state representative Carly Melin.Rep. Melin said on Twitter that she recorded the call on her home answering machine.image credit: screen capture Carly Melin via TwitterDuring the 45-second robocall, William Johnson, head of the American Freedom Party, urges voters to support Donald Trump, claiming the white race is dying out in America and Europe. Minnesota s StarTribune published a transcript of the call, which reads, The American Nationalist Super PAC makes this call to support Donald Trump. I am William Johnson, a farmer and white nationalist. The white race is dying out in America and Europe because we are afraid to be called racist. This is our mind-set: It s OK that our government destroys our children s future, but don t call me racist. I m afraid to be called racist. It s OK to give away our country for immigration, but don t call me racist. It s OK that few schools anymore have beautiful white children in the majority, but don t call me racist. Gradual genocide against the white race is OK, but don t call me racist. I m afraid to be called racist. Donald Trump is not a racist, but Donald Trump is not afraid. Don t vote for a Cuban; vote for Donald Trump. This call is not authorized by Donald Trump. The group also placed calls to Iowa voters ahead of the state caucus.Iowa resident, David Dwyer, uploaded a recording of the call to Facebook in January.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Signs that it s going to be a long time until the February caucuses in Iowa: I get a robo call from White Nationalists for Trump. Sigh.Posted by David Dwyer on Saturday, January 9, 2016Donald Trump has the white supremacist vote all tied up, much to the dismay of the other Republican candidates.Trump has doubled-down on the party s long history of using dog-whistle politics to appeal to the lowest element of society. Instead of dog-whistles, Trump has brought the Republican party s racist views to the forefront, using a giant bullhorn.The candidate s racist comments about Hispanics, Blacks, Muslims, Asians, along with every other group that white KKKristian society loves to blame for the problems caused by their own party, has rocketed Trump straight to the head of the pack (or Super PAC).It makes sense. After all, conservative voters have been answering the GOP s more-subtle calls, packed with racist innuendo, for a very long time.Right-wing voters are frustrated and angry at mainstream conservatives, whom they see as too concerned with political correctness, to come right out and say what they mean.They re sick and tired of their political leaders denying and walking back racist comments. They want Trump s brand of honesty and sincerity. They want the GOP to openly promote the party s racists views, helping to make their hate seem more acceptable, and mainstream. To hell with the dog-whistles.With Trump they have a leader who will blast their white supremacist views on a bullhorn, and that s exactly what they want.Image credit from Gage Skidmore, via Flickr | 0 |
4,529 | Libyan forces order investigation into bodies found near Benghazi | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - The head of the eastern-based Libyan National Army ordered an investigation on Saturday into the case of 36 unidentified bodies found near Benghazi two days earlier. A statement signed by Khalifa Haftar said the investigation would try to identify the victims and find out whether they had been held in authorized prisons. It would also aim to identify, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the crime. The finding of the bodies on Thursday night in Al-Abyar, about 70 km (45 miles) east of Benghazi, was the latest in a series of discoveries of corpses, some showing signs of torture and gunshot wounds, on territory controlled by the LNA. Previously, security sources had put the number of bodies at 37. | 1 |
4,530 | Trump says giving peace a chance before U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem: interview | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he wanted to give a shot at achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians before moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In June Trump signed a temporary order to keep the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, despite a campaign promise he made to move it to Jerusalem. In an interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the TBN program “Huckabee,” Trump noted his administration was working on a plan for peace between the two sides. “I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” he said. “If we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen,” he said. Asked if there was a timeframe for the embassy move, Trump said: “We’re going to make a decision in the not too distant future.” | 1 |
4,531 | [VIDEO] FOX News’ Greg Gutfield Asks If The Left Would Care If Planned Parenthood Was Selling Harvested Dolphin Organs | Greg Gutfield asks the question we all would like to know about this horrific woman working for Planned Parenthood in the undercover aborted baby parts brokering video. After discussing the dicing of aborted baby parts over salad and a glass of wine, he asks: I wonder if she made room for dessert? | 0 |
4,532 | Makers Of Fake Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Video Slapped With 15 Felony Charges | Two anti-abortion activists are facing 15 felony charges after they secretly filmed themselves trying to buy aborted fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. (In case you missed it, these attempts were unsuccessful because, duh. But that didn t stop them from editing this video footage and then using it to claim that the women s health provider was selling baby parts. They weren t.)State Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt on Tuesday. The Associated Press reports:The allegations say the pair filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.According to Becerra, Daleiden and Merritt created a fictitious biomedical research company, which they then lied about in order to convince representatives of Planned Parenthood to meet with them and then they secretly recorded them without their knowledge.Daleiden claims these charges are bogus and are only being brought against him because of Planned Parenthood s political cronies. Naturally. The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners, Daleiden said. (For the record, the women s health care provider has committed zero crimes.)Last April, Daleiden claimed on social media that his home had been raided by agents from the California Department of Justice who confiscated all his video footage, among other things. There had been no word on the investigation since then until the charges were filed with the San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday.In January of 2016, Daleiden and Merritt were both indicted on similar charges by a grand jury in Texas. That grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but not only did they find no wrongdoing on the part of the women s health care provider, they also ended up indicting the filmmakers for their bogus video. Unfortunately, these charges were dropped because the prosecutor said the jury had overstepped since this was not why they were convened.Featured image via Eric Kayne/Getty Images | 0 |
4,533 | Your Taxes Buy Billionaires Stadiums, They Charge You $7 For A Hot Dog — Obama Says NO MORE | Imagine you re a billionaire who buys himself an NFL team. You re obviously doing well if you can afford to even consider such a venture, but you re about to start raking it in big time. At an average of $85 per ticket, 70,000 people or so are going to come pouring through the gates.They aren t allowed to bring any food or drinks with them, of course, so if they get hungry they ll be feasting on $7.50 hot dogs and $16 cheese steaks. If you toss a couple of Oreos in the fryer at a cost of about 30 cents they ll fork over another six bucks. That s not including the drinks. The bottom of the barrel at most stadiums is the $5 bottled water.Owners love to chalk up the price of tickets and concessions to the amount of money they pay their players. That certainly does factor in, but if you walk through your local mall you ll see ridiculous amounts of merchandise from teddy bears to framed pictures, hats, jerseys, shoes and even pet clothing with your team s logo on them. it s not there for free. Multiply that times every mall in a team s fan base and what you have is an entity that is so ridiculously profitable it goes beyond description.Why, then, are we footing the bill to build these elitist one percenters new stadiums? With very few exceptions, when an owner wants a stadium, they go directly to those whose campaigns they donate to and get the ball rolling on state funds. They sell fans on voting for these funds because don t you want to have a nicer stadium than the one in Philly? Ask a Washington fan the answer to that one.At the federal level, owners bilk all of us out of tax dollars through a tax exemption on bond interest that means that even if you live in Billings Montana with no chance of ever going to a Wranglers game (because your market is too small for such a team to exist in any sport), you re paying for that shiny new facility they re planning in Los Angeles.According to a 2012 Bloomberg report, the exemption amounts to roughly $4 billion in federal taxpayer money. In President Obama s FY2017 budget, the exemption is eliminated, which would create a savings of $542 million for the year and hopefully create a more cost-conscious building process for stadiums that will still be footed largely by taxpayers at the state and local level.It s welfare for billionaires. A family of four can save for a year and spend upwards of a thousand dollars for a single afternoon at Texas Stadium, but Jerry Jones should be able to be exempt from millions in taxes because he has so much debt on a stadium he could have written a check for.The Presidents proposal will, of course, be met with Republican opposition, because they are in the business of giving billionaires as much of your money as possible.Featured image from cowboyzone.com | 0 |
4,534 | Cars burnt, police hurt in Brussels after Morocco World Cup success | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Celebrations in Brussels to mark Morocco s return to soccer s World Cup finals for the first time in two decades turned violent late on Saturday, when crowds clashed with police, setting cars on fire and injuring 22 police officers. Images on social media showed overturned, burning cars and broken shop windows in Brussels city center as well as police trucks firing water cannons at crowds gathered in front of the city s stock exchange. Brussels police said that of some 1,500 people had come to celebrate Morocco s 2-0 win over Ivory Coast, but that around 300 started to behave violently and attacked police officers and firemen called to put out burning cars and dust bins. More than 100,000 people of Moroccan origin live in Brussels. Belgium saw an influx of Moroccan workers in the 1960s and 1970s. Prosecutors said that by Sunday morning no arrests had been made, but Belgium s interior minister vowed to hold those responsible to account, calling the events unacceptable. The fundamental problem is that such events are used as an excuse for reckless behavior and doing unacceptable things, Interior Minister Jan Jambon told Belgium s Radio 1. We have camera images - whoever did this will pay for this, there is no way around it, Jambon added. | 1 |
4,535 | IS HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN In YUGE Trouble? SHOCKING Statistics Show Number Of Votes In 2016 WAY DOWN From Election She LOST In 2008 | Meanwhile Trump is about to make history for claiming the most votes ever in the history of the GOP primaries. What was that the mainstream media keeps saying about Trump not being able to beat Hillary? Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has badly underperformed in 2016 compared with her first run for president in 2008, a new data analysis done exclusively by Breitbart News shows.It s particularly telling that she s gotten fewer votes in 2016 than she did in 2008, especially because of the fact that the 2008 race was a three-way race for some time between Clinton, now President Barack Obama, and ex-Sen. John Edwards. She was, despite being the frontrunner for some time, the ultimate loser of that race and she got more votes that year in a much more competitive primary that she ended up losing than she has this year against a devout, proud socialist in Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of Vermont.Clinton is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee in 2016, but her poor performance in the primaries which many believe she should have wrapped up long ago may drag her down heading into the general election, as even many Democratic voters seem to distrust her. To win in November, Clinton will need a strong showing from the Democrat base. This data seems to suggest that she has significant problems with her own party s core voters, meaning that if whoever wins the Republican nomination is able to woo these disaffected Democrats into the GOP camp, there could be a blowout in November for the Republican nominee.In 2016, Clinton has received 12,437,734 votes so far. In the states that have already voted this cycle, when she ran and lost back in 2008, Clinton received 12,727,221 votes.Specifically, the data shows, Clinton has seen a decline of 273,321 votes from 2008 to 2016 among states that have already voted this cycle. That 2.15 percent decrease nationally is exacerbated in several key states that Clinton would need to win to secure the presidency in a general election, suggesting that she s extraordinarily weak on the electoral college scale nationally and that whoever wins the GOP nomination will likely be able to thump her in the general in November. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
4,536 | OUTRAGEOUS! CNN Uses Unauthorized Video Taken From Outside Oval Office to Make Up Story About Feud Between Bannon and Trump [Video] | This video from CNN has been blasted to Daily Mail and to other main stream fake news sources. This is so WRONG! The press continues to actively try and destroy President Trump!Listen to the anchor speak about this like CNN has first-hand knowledge of what happened. Then check out the screen shot below: | 0 |
4,537 | Son of Thailand's ex-PM Thaksin charged with money-laundering | BANGKOK (Reuters) - The only son of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been formally charged with money-laundering, the Department of Special Investigations told Reuters on Wednesday. Panthongtae Shinawatra is accused of receiving a 10 million baht ($300,000) check in 2004 related to an earlier corruption case involving 9.9 billion baht ($296 million) of fraudulent loans extended by the state-owned Krungthai Bank when his father was prime minister. The deputy spokesman of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Woranan Srilum, said Panthongtae had turned himself in on Tuesday but had been released as no arrest warrant for him has been issued. Panthongtae could now gather evidence for his case, Woranan said, while the DSI must decide whether to take the case to the criminal court. Panthongtae was not available for comment. He complained this month of victimization and called for the dropping of the money-laundering investigation. His lawyer declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Supporters of the Shinawatras say the legal action is the latest bid by authorities in junta-ruled Thailand to squeeze the Shinawatra family out of politics and blunt its influence. Beginning in the late 1980s, former policeman Thaksin built a telecommunications conglomerate that made him one of Thailand s richest and most powerful men. After entering politics, he won landslide election victories, beginning in 2001, with the support of the rural and urban poor who saw him as the first political leader to care for them. But he made powerful enemies, especially in the Bangkok-based establishment, which saw him and his populist ways as a threat. Ousted in a 2006 coup, and later convicted of corruption, which he denies, Thaksin has overseen from self-exile victory for his party in every election since, most recently in 2011, when his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, became prime minister. She was ousted in a 2014 coup. Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced Yingluck to five years in jail in absentia for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme. Recently, old cases against Thaksin have been revived, including an accusation that he abused power while he was prime minister by ordering the Export-Import Bank of Thailand to give low interest loans to Myanmar in 2006 to further his business interests. In another case, Thaksin was accused of graft and negligence in connection with the approval of a lottery scheme in 2003. Authorities are also looking to charge him with royal insult and computer crime for an interview he gave to South Korean media in 2015. Thaksin, in a message he posted on Twitter this month, denied any thought of ever offending the royal institution . Watcharapol Prasanrajkit, chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, denied any bid to target the Shinawatras saying the cases just happened to be coming up at this time. How Thaksin s political machine performs in an election expected in November 2018 will be keenly watched. | 1 |
4,538 | Peru opposition wants vice president to govern if president ousted: lawmaker | LIMA (Reuters) - A leading Peruvian opposition lawmaker on Monday called for the country s Vice President Martin Vizcarra to govern the country if Congress ousts President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over graft allegations he denies. Enough political parties have committed to backing a motion to oust Kuczynski in a scheduled vote in the opposition-run Congress on Thursday. Kuczynski has repeatedly said there was nothing improper about recently disclosed business ties that he once denied having with Odebrecht [ODBES.UL], a Brazilian builder at the center of Latin America s biggest corruption scandal. If Kuczynski does depart, Vizcarra would be authorized to carry out the rest of Kuczynski s scheduled 2016-2021 term. Congresswoman Luz Salgado denied her party, Popular Force, which has a majority in Peru s single-chamber Congress, would seek to topple Vizcarra as charged by opponents. If he (Vizcarra) does his job well and assumes the role that history if offering to him, he ll have our corresponding support, said Salgado, a key leader in the party. We re thinking about what s best for the country. We re not trying to find fault in anyone. Kuczynski and Vizcarra s offices declined requests for comment. No major policy changes are expected if Kuczynski were replaced by Vizcarra, a former governor of a copper-rich Andean region and Peru s current ambassador to Canada. But the political crisis has spooked investors in one of Latin America s most stable economies. It s going to have an important impact on the economy. Investments are going to be delayed, said Carlos Galvez, the chief financial officer of Peruvian miner Buenaventura. A 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, Kuczynski was part of a rightward shift in South American politics when he was elected last year. His fight for survival underscores the risks facing political leaders with long business resumes as graft scandals roil the region. Kuczynski has described Popular Force s efforts to unseat him as an authoritarian attack on institutions, and criticized the party for not giving him more time to defend himself. We look like a banana republic. Without a proper procedure, Congress is just usurping the presidency, Housing Minister Carlos Bruce told journalists on Monday. Popular Force said it only hopes to uproot corruption and was acting within the bounds of the constitution. The party emerged from the right-wing movement started by the country s former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori, who is now in prison for graft and human rights crimes. It is now led by Kuczynski s defeated electoral rival Keiko Fujimori. New elections, which would be the worst-case scenario for investors, would only be called if both Vizcarra and Second Vice President Mercedes Araoz leave office before 2021, a scenario Araoz ruled out in an interview with Reuters on Sunday. | 1 |
4,539 | Turkey summons U.S. consulate worker for questioning: Anadolu | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities summoned a U.S. consulate worker to testify on Monday over his relatives alleged links to last year s failed coup attempt, state-run Anadolu news agency said, days after the arrest of another consulate employee. Anadolu said the suspect was wanted for questioning after his wife and daughter were detained in the Black Sea city of Amasya. It did not say whether he had complied with the summons. The man s wife and daughter were detained over alleged links to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, Anadolu said, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the abortive putsch. The two were later brought to Istanbul for legal procedures, it said. U.S. consulate worker N.M.C., husband and father of the suspects in question, has no diplomatic immunity and has been called to the prosecutor s office to testify, Anadolu quoted a statement from the Istanbul prosecutor s office as saying. On Sunday, the U.S. mission in Turkey and the Turkish mission in Washington cut back visa services after Metin Topuz, a U.S. consulate employee, was arrested in Turkey last week. Washington said the charges linking him to Gulen were baseless. The prosecutor s office said that testimony from Topuz pointed to the two suspects detained in Amasya being high-ranking members of Gulen s network. Gulen has denied any role in the failed coup. | 1 |
4,540 | Bette Midler’s Response To Trump Not Accepting Election Results Absolutely MAGICAL (TWEET) | With Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claiming he may not accept the election results on November 8th if he loses to Hillary Clinton, it s left many people criticizing his crybaby behavior.Not only is not accepting the results of our democratic process unpatriotic and dangerous, but it shows what an absolute toddler Trump actually is. He basically believes that if he doesn t win, then Hillary must have cheated. It wouldn t have anything at all to do with the fact that he s a horrible candidate and an even worse human being.Well, not letting this ridiculosity slip by and go unnoticed was the legendary entertainer extraordinaire, Bette Midler. She took to Twitter and gave the Republican candidate a piece of her hilarious mind.Midler tweeted out: Trump sez he may not accept election results if he loses. I don t accept my ass, but guess what s stuffed in the back of my pants right now. Trump sez he may not accept election results if he loses. I don't accept my ass, but guess what's stuffed in the back of my pants right now Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 20, 2016Basically saying, there are a lot of things in life that are hard to accept, but they are in fact true and what is actually going on.Trump needs to realize that the election results are the will of the people and he needs to accept that because that s what s best for the nation as a whole.What is most obvious is the fact that he clearly knows he is going to lose, or he wouldn t be pushing the narrative that the election is rigged as hard as he is. Hopefully, come the evening of November 8th, he does what s right and not what s best for his ego.Featured Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images Twitter | 0 |
4,541 | BLACK MUSLIM CHASES And TACKLES Young White Trump Supporter [VIDEO] | Maybe Hillary or Bernie can use this footage in their next campaign ad. What a great way to bring American voters over to their side A poster on Twitter who identifies as a Black Muslim man claims to have been the person seen on news video chasing and tackling a young white male Trump supporter following a Trump rally in San Jose Thursday. Using the Twitter handle Houdini @sizzle_seyf , the man posted the news video and retweeted congratulations on his chasing and tackling the Trump supporter.This video shows anti-Trump thugs sucker punching and attacking Trump supporters. Near the end of the video, the young white Trump supporter can be seen running from the mob. The pictures and video below show what happened when the black Muslim man finally caught up to him:Here are the still images of anti-Trump Muslim Houdini chasing and tacking a Trump supporter leaving the rally in San Jose, California.Before the Trump rally, Houdini had been posting about My Ramadan. The Muslim punk who calls himself Houdini has made his Twitter account private since bragging about tackling this young Trump supporter Here s the video:Outside Trump rally protestors chased down this kid and tackled him. When he got up we pointed him to police. pic.twitter.com/83O2oNzcMx Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) June 3, 2016Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
4,542 | Trump forces high-wire act for Republican in Virginia governor's race | FRONT ROYAL, Va. (Reuters) - Ralph and Mike Waller are such ardent backers of President Donald Trump that they help stage a counter-protest every Wednesday in front of their Front Royal, Virginia, pawn shop, sparring with anti-Trump demonstrators who gather across the street. But ask them about Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for Virginia governor in next Tuesday’s election, and they show little enthusiasm. “I would like somebody who’s more closely aligned with Trump,” Ralph Waller, who is Mike Waller’s uncle, said from the shop floor, racks of pawned rifles behind him. Gillespie is, in fact, nothing like Trump, a real estate magnate who had never before held political office, although both are members of the same party. Gillespie is a Washington lobbyist who worked in President George W. Bush’s White House, the kind of establishment mainstay Trump bashed on the campaign trail. Moreover, Gillespie has largely kept his distance from Trump, rarely mentioning him by name and notably not asking for Trump’s help in a tight race. But Gillespie still needs voters like the Wallers. Trump, who lost Virginia last year by 5 points to Democrat Hillary Clinton, did best in rural areas such as the counties along Virginia’s mountainous spine, less so in urban areas. That tension has Gillespie looking to thread the thinnest of needles, trying to appeal to voters turned off by Trump while retaining enough of Trump’s passionate base to secure victory. Should he win, Gillespie might provide a blueprint for other Republican candidates unsure how to campaign in an era when the president is popular with fewer than 40 percent of Americans. “If he manages to do this, he’s shown how you engage Trump voters while literally avoiding Donald Trump,” said Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. The Virginia governor’s race, one of only two in the country this year, is being watched nationally by political observers looking for clues about next year’s midterm elections, in which Democrats are seeking to seize one or both houses of Congress. Gillespie has been courting Trump voters by focusing on what he says is the threat posed by illegal immigrants, a longtime Trump campaign theme. He has criticized “sanctuary cities” and run ads warning of the street gang MS-13, which is largely composed of members from Central America. He has also called for preserving Confederate monuments following the clashes between white supremacists and protesters in August in Charlottesville, Virginia. Once trailing significantly behind Democrat Ralph Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor, Gillespie has risen in the polls since the ads began running regularly. Kidd credits the spots for making the race competitive. Sanctuary cities, Gillespie told Reuters in an interview, are “not going to make us safer.” While Virginia has no sanctuary cities, which often do not use municipal funds or resources to enforce federal immigration laws, the issue arose earlier this year when a measure by the state’s legislature to prohibit them was vetoed by Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe. But some argue Gillespie is being too cautious. Corey Stewart, who ran against Gillespie in the gubernatorial primary and garnered support from Trump’s base, said Gillespie erred in not asking the president to campaign for him and in not doing more to harness the energy Trump has stirred. “He’s put the president at a distance, and he has offended a lot of the president’s supporters,” Stewart said. “And it could cost him the election.” Trump has tweeted his support for Gillespie, but that is as far as it has gone. Gillespie said he appreciated Trump’s endorsement but declined to say whether he would ask for more, even parroting Trump’s own words in doing so. “Just like the president doesn’t disclose his military strategy, we don’t disclose our campaign strategy,” he said. At a recent house party in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Washington, Gillespie mixed with a prosperous group of Republicans who snacked on a catered spread and chatted about private schools. He spoke to them about traditional Republican priorities such as economic growth and education reform - and never once mentioned Trump, while referring to other politicians who support him such as Vice President Mike Pence and George W. Bush. “That’s smart,” said Chris Andreas, a Great Falls, Virginia, resident who attended the event and said he believed Trump had hurt the Republican party. In 2016, Trump fared significantly worse in Fairfax County than Republican nominee Mitt Romney did four years earlier. There are more voters to be gained there than anywhere else in the state. The strategy’s downside is that while Democrats hold a large advantage in Northern Virginia, they are losing ground in rural areas. In Warren County, where Front Royal is located, Trump gained 2,000 votes more than Romney largely by attracting wayward Democrats, said Stephen Kurtz, a former chair of the county Republican Party. The pattern, he said, repeated across other counties in rural Virginia. Kurtz said he had heard grumbling over Gillespie’s Washington background and worries some voters energized by Trump may stay home. “It is a hard sell, believe me,” Kurtz said. | 1 |
4,543 | Mother Of DACA Recipient Who Died Rescuing Flood Victims Refused Entry Into U.S. To Bury Her Son | Donald Trump is set to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, an Obama-era policy. It s a real d*ck move that is so appalling even Republicans are calling him out on it. Approximately 800,000 young people will be subject to immediate deportation, and that would have included Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey from Lufkin, Texas who gave his life while trying to rescue others in the state in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.On Wednesday, Guillen disappeared along with two of his friends after their boat hit the bridge over the creek and capsized, the Houston Chronicle reports.One of his friends clung to a tree and was eventually rescued but days later, Guillen and Tomas Carreon Jr. were still missing. Carreon s body was found floating down the creek on Friday.On Sunday, Guillen s body was found as it floated past a sandy berm. A relative quickly dove in and pulled his body to the shoulder of the creek. Soon after, a boat took him to shore.The Houston Chronicle reports:Guillen s father, Jesus Guillen, said he d asked his son not to try and rescue people in the storm, but he insisted, saying he wanted to help people. He cried and prayed on Sunday afternoon as they pulled his son s body from the water. Thank you, God, he said, for the time I had with him. Trump would have had Mr. Guillen deported and now Border agents are refusing to let his mother into the U.S. in order to bury her son.Guillen was a recipient of the DACA program and his father is here legally but his mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, is still in the application process for legal status.Mrs. Guillen said from her home in Rita Ruiz, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, that she s asking God for strength. I ve lost a great son, you have no idea, she said while weeping softly on the other end of the phone. I m asking God to give me strength. She explained that she had hoped that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could go to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border. When we are with God, there are no borders, she said. Man made borders on this earth. To a man like Donald Trump, Alonso Guillen is one bad hombre. To anyone with a heart, he died a hero.Featured image via Christopher Furlong/Getty Images | 0 |
4,544 | Inmate Dead From Alleged Mistreatment In Jail Run By Infamous Pro-Trump Sheriff | Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has been a fixture on Fox News in recent months, appearing on multiple programs on that network to attack the Black Lives Matter movement, which he has compared several times to international terrorists.Clarke has also been an outspoken supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and is often one of the first names Trump backers bring up when attempting to highlight support for the candidate among black voters. Clarke spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this past summer.But while he was busy on the cable network attacking the black community, a man died in the jail under his command. He reportedly died of thirst, of all things.Terrill Thomas, 38, was found dead in a Milwaukee County Jail cell on April 24, nine days after being arrested in connection with a shooting. Other inmates heard Thomas beg for water in the days before he died, the Journal Sentinel reported in July.[ ]Last week the Milwaukee County medical examiner announced that Thomas death was due to profound dehydration, according to the Journal Sentinel. By labeling the death a homicide, the medical examiner indicated that it was caused by the actions of another person, although that judgment does not necessarily mean that anyone will be criminally prosecuted in the case.Inmates at the jail say the water in Thomas jail cell had been cut off for 6 days, and that one inmate warned jailers about the danger to the man s life. Attorney Erik J. Heipt told the site that he has received calls from other inmates to tell him that the water had been cut off to their cells, and another inmate died in 2011 when his water was cut off as well.Clarke is reportedly part of a pro-Trump bus tour arranged by a super PAC that is supporting the candidate.The Huffington Post also reports that Clarke took in over $150,000 in 2015 from speaking fees, travel reimbursements and gifts. Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
4,545 | Trump Just Had The Most AWKWARD Moment With Saudi Crown Prince, HUMILIATES Himself (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s relationship with the press is problematic, to say the least and he only has himself to thank for that. Thanks to his abrasive, immature nature and his nonstop lies and alternative facts , Trump has made the political news environment extremely tense, prompting the press to push back every time he goes off the rails or puts the American people at risk. And to people in other countries, this is absolutely baffling.Earlier today, Trump met with Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and pretty much ruined the meeting by trying to impress the prince. Desperate for approval and a good first impression, Trump decided to make a sarcastic remark and throw the press under the bus, and he humiliated himself when it failed to have the desired effect.In the Oval Office, Trump and the prince sat down for a photo op with reporters and photographers. In the footage, Trump is seen looking nasty and pissed off for the cameras, visibly irritated by something. Finally, he breaks his scowl, turns to the prince and points to members of the press corps and sarcastically remarks: Very nice people. Trump probably thought he was so cool and clever, until his joke feel flat. The prince didn t get Trump s weird, awkward sense of humor and instead of joining in on the insult like Trump probably hoped he would, the prince let out an uneasy laugh, tilted his head and said: We hope so. The prince didn t know it, but it was the perfect response to shut down Trump s bullying of the media. And apparently, people are loving every second of this on Twitter: Trump embarrassing himself in front of other world leaders has now become the norm, and America s reputation continues to deteriorate every time he fails to act presidential. We could hope that this awkward moment with the prince might teach him a lesson, but that s just wishful thinking at this point.Featured image via Sean Rayford / Getty Images | 0 |
4,546 | The Daily Show Hilariously Compares Republicans To Wile E. Coyote In Their Chase Of Trump (VIDEO) | Trevor Noah shredded Republicans on Monday night for being as inept as Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote in their effort to beat Donald Trump.The segment began with Noah talking about Trump s allegedly large penis, which he bragged about during the last GOP Debate. That was a prime time presidential debate where the front-runner reassured the American public that he has a huge penis, Noah said. The thing that people don t actually know is, it s someone else s huge penis and Trump just licenses his name on it. Noah then talked about Ted Cruz defeating Trump in Maine and Kansas because he is a grower, not a shower. Then Noah took aim at poor little Marco Rubio, who could only brag about winning the coveted vote in Puerto Rico, a US territory that doesn t get a say during the election. Good job, Marco Rubio. You only have to go a few hundred miles off shore to find a place that wants you to be president, Noah quipped.The discussion then turned to how Republicans plan to overthrow Trump and replace him with the candidate they want at the convention in July. Ah, democracy where every vote counts. As long as that vote doesn t go against the people who actually control the party, in which case they will disregard your vote, replace it with their vote and then, every vote will count. Noah also pointed out how the other Republican candidates are trashing Trump and urging people not to vote for him but at the same time are saying they will support him if he wins the nomination. As it turns out, all of the GOP candidates signed a pledge to support the nominee whoever that may be and it totally backfired because the RNC didn t expect Trump to be in the lead right now.And that led to the most hilarious joke of the night as Noah played a clip of Wile E. Coyote trying and failing to catch the Trump Roadrunner who speeds by taunting the coyote when his plan backfires.In the end, Noah was of the opinion that Trump s penis must be huge because he s using it to f*ck the entire Republican Party. Here s the video via Comedy Central: Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
4,547 | Trump Mocked Mercilessly After He Tries (And Fails) To Mock Clinton | Donald Trump is not a detail person. Learning about issues is apparently below his pay grade, as is spelling, at least if you look at his latest attempt to attack Hillary Clinton.On Friday night, Trump tweeted this:Hillary Clinton should not be given national security briefings in that she is a lose cannon with extraordinarily bad judgement & insticts. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2016Do you notice it? Well, there are three, maybe four, things, actually. He misspelled loose, judgment and instincts. In that might be grammatically okay, but it s still awkward.The problem with a campaign that s being run almost entirely on Twitter, is that most people reading the tweets also have Twitter accounts and they are quick to jump on tweets like Trump. They didn t let us down. Here are just a few of the responses: .@realDonaldTrump you ll have to do some editing to get this under 140 again but the mistakes were too bad to ignore pic.twitter.com/c7CDhCVLD2 shrillary tintin (@theshrillest) July 30, 2016.@realDonaldTrumpQuick spelling lesson: Lose = opposite of win Loose = your mom Matthew Inman (@Oatmeal) July 30, 2016 @SheilaInCT @realDonaldTrump nah, every time he speaks he embarrasses himself What s a few more typos? The Nostra Thomas (@TomTrudeau) July 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump How s the spelling going over there, big cheeto? Andrew W Chamings (@AndrewChamings) July 30, 2016 @Norsemen83 @_NeverTrump Sorry, I honestly thought this tweet was a joke. Trump has the insight and intellect of a angry 11 year old boy Andrew W Chamings (@AndrewChamings) July 30, 2016@realDenaldTrump @realDonaldTrump Dirty Don, you ve got the best words! Unfortunately you can t spell them. You ve become a national joke! Scott Kuhn (@kuhn13) July 30, 2016 @realDonaldTrump dummy pic.twitter.com/PcrYwFfFrN drew olanoff (@drew) July 30, 2016Even Hillary Clinton responded:@Norsemen83 @AndrewChamings @realDonaldTrump It might just be Twitter but he s running for president, he should know how to spell, maybe? Hillary For America (@_NeverTrump) July 30, 2016This isn t the first time Trump has been ridiculed for gawdawful spelling in his tweets. Even the conservative Daily Caller mocked the Republican candidate for his spelling that would be bad if he were in middle school. And then, there was this back in February.If you think about it, proper spelling is probably low on the list of presidential qualifications, but this is a sign of something much more dangerous. This is a time when Trump should be putting his best, most professional face forward, and his sloppiness is an indication that he s really not ready to lead the country. He s impetuous and, in fact, he s the lose cannon. We need a president who thinks before speaking, and the fact that Trump can t even be bothered to run his tweets through a spell checker shows that he has no intention of taking professionalism with him to the White House.Featured image via Sara D. Davis at Getty Images. | 0 |
4,548 | Trump Just Offered The Most BIZARRE Excuse For Russian Prostitute Urination Scandal (VIDEO) | With President-elect Donald Trump s inauguration just days away, it seems like he s still trying to clean up his most recent messes and scandals.One of the most recent bombshells to shake up Trump s deeply flawed transition was the public release of an unverified report that Trump had paid prostitutes to urinate on a bed President Barack Obama had previously slept in while visiting a hotel in Russia. In an interview with Fox News s Ainsley Earhardt, it seems like Trump is still trying to convince America that he didn t do it and his excuses continue to get more pathetic. Trump said: It s fake news. It s all fake news. You know, I can say something about George Washington, I can say something about Abraham Lincoln, I can say something about you. I can just fake news and [the CIA] shouldn t have been a part of it. Clearly nervous about the fact that Penthousehas recently offered a $1 million prize to anyone who could produce the tapes of the scandal, Trump s insecurity and panic came right through as he went into a weird denial-infused rant. Trump said: It s made up. Never existed. Never happened. And the reason I say that so strongly because nothing is ever going to show up. There s never going to be a tape that shows up. There s never going to be anything that shows up. Now, I would be very embarrassed if a tape actually showed up, saying something like that. It would be double embarrassed because I m saying there is no tape. There is no event. I was never even in that room for that period of time. Then, Trump ripped everyone from the GOP to the Democratic Party to the media: It started with the Republican Party when they tried to beat me in the nomination and it went on. The Democrats took over the work, supposedly. And by the intelligence giving it credence by just even talking about it it was very inappropriate. So I don t know who the leaker was. I have no idea, but it s fake news. You can watch Trump miserably fail at doing damage control below:Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
4,549 | Today Is The One-Year Anniversary Of Walter Scott’s Murder By Cop (VIDEO) | On April 4th, 2015, 50-year-old Walter Scott, a father of four, was pulled over by Officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina. The cop reportedly stopped him for a broken brake light. The officer lied and said Scott attacked him and took his taser, but a bystander recorded the incident on a cell phone to the horrifying dismay of the country. The video clearly shows an unarmed Scott running away from the officer. Instead of pursuing Scott, the officer fires eight shots, killing Scott.The city agreed to pay Scott s family $6.5 million, and a grand jury handed down a murder indictment for Officer Michael Slager. Such settlements and indictments for police officers who shoot people are extremely rare, and Walter Scott is one of many black victims over the past few years to be killed by a white police officer, while police departments across the country fail to assume accountability for these constant occurrences. Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, John Crawford III, Michael Brown Jr the list goes on and on.People of color are increasingly at risk for being at the wrong place at the wrong time when it comes to excessive force used by many police departments. Instead of holding the officers and their departments accountable, the victims are often subjected to attacks and criticisms to disregard the outrage, unrest, and civil disobedience in cities like Ferguson, Missouri or Baltimore, Maryland. They don t acknowledge the pain and trauma inflicted on these communities by police departments who police in ways that render unarmed people being shot to death. The officer is currently out on bail of $500,000 awaiting trial later this year. This is a travesty, as given the nature of the crime, no bail should have been granted. Non-violent criminals have received stricter bail bonds. Slager also tried to sue the Southern States Police Benevolent Association for not helping him with his defense.Hopefully, there is a murder conviction in this man s future.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
4,550 | China's RYB Education fires head of Beijing kindergarten embroiled in abuse scandal | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese educational services provider RYB Education Inc said it had removed the head of one of its kindergarten, as allegations of child abuse at the Beijing nursery rocked the country s booming childcare industry. In a statement issued late Saturday, New York-listed RYB also said it had fired a 22-year-old female teacher at the RYB Education New World kindergarten. It said the teacher, surnamed Liu, had been detained by district police on suspicion of abuse. Beijing police were investigating claims of child abuse at the kindergarten in Beijing s Chaoyang district, after state-run Xinhua news agency reported they were checking allegations that children were reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills . Several teachers at the kindergarten had already been suspended since Thursday. RYB s New York-listed shares plunged 38.4 percent on Friday as the scandal sparked outrage among parents and the public. Another woman surnamed Liu was also arrested for allegedly disrupting social order by spreading false information about the alleged kindergarten abuse, Chaoyang police said. The second woman, a 31-year-old from Beijing, was arrested on Thursday. Parents said their children, some as young as three, gave accounts of a naked adult male conducting purported medical check-ups on unclothed pupils, other media said. The Chaoyang district has launched an investigation into all childcare facilities in its area. It had also dispatched officials to the kindergarten and asked the school to communicate with the parents and make sure that the children there are safe. Founded in 1998, RYB provides early education services in China. At the end of June, the Beijing-based company was operating 80 kindergartens and had franchised an additional 175 covering 130 cities and towns in China. It was not the first case of alleged abuse at an RYB school. In 2015, a court in Jilin province found two teachers guilty of physically abusing children at one of its kindergartens in the city of Siping. In that case, staff at the school on multiple occasions used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care , according to a court ruling document. China s education ministry said on Thursday that it had begun a special investigation into the operation of kindergartens, and told education departments nationwide to take heed of these types of incidents . Separate cases of children in China being slapped, beaten with a stick and having their mouths sealed shut with duct tape have also gone viral and fueled anger online. | 1 |
4,551 | hillary clinton laughs when asked if the new emails could sink her campaign | in a major omen of potential election disaster for republicans donald trump has scored the lowest rating in the history of gallups presidential leadership poll
gallup released their presidential leadership survey and the results were historically bad for donald trump
voters rate trump worse than any other presidential candidate in gallups records on having the personality and leadership qualities a president should have previous readings were taken in late october in the and campaigns in those years between and of registered voters said the two majorparty candidates had the right personality and leadership qualities a sharp contrast to trumps current clintons rating of is one percentage point below the previous low score
clintons score while low was one point of the range for previous presidential cycles going back to trumps score was twenty percent below the lowest score in the history of the poll
voters arent going to elect a man to be the next president who they view as lacking the basic qualities of presidential leadership the popular vote total in may reflect the nations political polarization but there is a reason why electoral map projections continue to look very good for the democratic candidate
donald trump has failed the most elemental test for any presidential candidate he doesnt look act or behave like a person who has the qualities needed to occupy the oval office and lead the united states of america
the last week before election day tension that is in the air is normal but the fundamental motivating factors of this contest havent changed democrats are holding on to their electoral map advantage while donald trump has become the central issue and question on the ballot
republicans look to be heading for a major ballot box disaster because voters do not believe that donald trump is fit to be president | 1 |
4,552 | France, Germany to pursue Syria peace efforts through U.N. | PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany will continue efforts through the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, French President Francois Hollande said in a statement on Friday after telephone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The joint statement came after the United States fired missiles at a Syrian airbase from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week by the regime of President Bashar a-Assad. “Assad bears full responsibility for this development,” the statement said. | 1 |
4,553 | Blue-collar Democrats to party: It's still the economy, stupid | (Reuters) - David Betras could see trouble coming. The Democratic Party chairman in Youngstown, Ohio, wrote to Hillary Clinton’s advisers in May warning she needed to put a jobs-focused message at the heart of her White House campaign or else watch blue-collar voters in states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania slip away to Republican Donald Trump. Clinton never responded to Betras, and in the final weeks of her campaign she spent much of her time portraying Trump as unfit, rather than highlighting her economic plans. On Nov. 8, Election Day, Betras’ warning proved prescient - she lost Ohio and Pennsylvania and, on Wednesday, Michigan, too, based on the latest unofficial ballot counts. The surprising upset by Trump, a wealthy businessman who made his promises to renegotiate trade deals and restore jobs a centerpiece of his agenda, was fueled in part by support from white working-class voters in those vital Rust Belt states and elsewhere. After the disastrous election losses at the state and national level, Betras and other Rust Belt Democrats who have found success in blue-collar districts have some advice for their anxious party: the key to recapturing those voters is not a broad change in policy, but a new commitment to listen and act on their economic concerns, and to show Democrats care. “You can have all the great ideas on Earth, but if they don’t think you are on their side they aren’t going to listen to you,” said U.S. Representative Dan Kildee, of Flint, Michigan, one of a small cadre of Democrats in Congress who have learned how to win in working-class districts by emphasizing economic solutions. Democratic U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright, whose district around Scranton, Pennsylvania, was one of the presidential campaign’s prime battlegrounds, also won re-election to a third term with about 54 percent of the vote. About 40,000 Trump voters crossed over to back him, he said in an interview. “Why would they pick me and not also Hillary Clinton? It comes down to credibility,” he said. “I know the pain out there. When I talk to voters, jobs is always my No. 1 message, and I tell them exactly what I’m doing to get more jobs back to the district.” Recalling the 1992 presidential campaign theme of Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton, Cartwright added: “It’s the economy, stupid. These folks are working harder and harder to try and stay in the same place.” The party’s efforts to regain lost ground with blue-collar voters could be a factor in next week’s election for Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. Tim Ryan, whose northeast Ohio district encompasses blue-collar Youngstown, is challenging veteran leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. Ryan has emphasized his ability to talk to working class voters and said in announcing his leadership run that people “need to know we understand that they elected us to fight for economic opportunity for all.” Kildee, who was re-elected to a third term with 61 percent of the vote, said Democrats seeking lessons in the election rubble should not overreact and begin moderating their positions on social issues or shifting their stances to target elements of the party’s base of support. From decimated industrial towns to inner cities or the rural plains, voters share a similar anxiety about an economic system that seems to have left them behind, he said. “Everybody is talking about the same thing, and it’s economic uncertainty - it’s the fear of not having a job, or their kids not getting a job, or not having a retirement,” Kildee said. “If we aren’t talking about jobs and the economy first, no one is listening when you talk about other issues.” ‘GOLD-PLATED TOILETS’ By tapping into those economic worries, Trump captured about two-thirds of whites with no college degree, exit polls showed. That helped him gain the razor-thin margin of victory he needed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan - all picked up by President Barack Obama in 2012 - to win the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. In contrast to Trump, whose rallies were a call to arms against an economic system rigged against everyday Americans, Clinton mentioned but rarely highlighted the many aspects of her economic agenda during the final weeks of the campaign. “We were so off message that a billionaire with gold-plated toilets was the guy who was breaking through and talking to blue-collar families,” said Betras, party chairman in Ohio’s heavily Democratic Mahoning County, where Trump captured 47 percent of the vote, 12 percentage points better than Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. Betras said many blue-collar workers increasingly felt forgotten by the national party, which at times seemed more focused on social and cultural issues than on bread-and-butter economic concerns. The Democratic National Committee did not respond to questions about the party’s efforts to win working-class voters. Betras had urged Clinton in his memo to spend more time talking about ways to entice companies to repatriate manufacturing jobs, or her plans to create jobs through boosting infrastructure programs - both key elements of Trump’s stump speech. Both candidates made frequent visits to Pennsylvania and Ohio. But after the party conventions in July Clinton only traveled to Michigan four times, twice in the last week of the campaign, and never visited Wisconsin. Trump hit both a half-dozen times. David Murray, a registered independent who lives just outside Flint, Michigan, said he voted to re-elect Kildee and backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, but cast his presidential ballot for Trump this time. “I didn’t feel like Clinton really cared about us,” said Murray, a personal service industry worker. “We are still hurting here. I feel as if we haven’t recovered from the economic free fall. Clinton seemed like just another four years of what Obama has done for my area, which is four years of nothing.” Obama appeared to echo the concerns of Betras and the two lawmakers in recent comments on the Democratic post-election hand-wringing. “The key for us — when I say ‘us,’ I mean Americans, but I think particularly for progressives — is to say your concerns are real, your anxieties are real, here’s how we fix them,” Obama said. Trump consistently outperformed Romney’s 2012 totals in areas with heavy concentrations of working-class whites. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, partially in Cartwright’s district, Trump won 58 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 47 percent. In neighboring Lackawana County, Trump won 47 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 36 percent. Sharon Taboada, a juvenile probation officer in Houghton Lake, Michigan, with two sons in college, said she voted for Trump in part because of his economic message. “Clinton talked very little about our economy and I feel she was way out of touch with the working force,” she said. | 1 |
4,554 | HILLARY BASHED TRUMP For Saying He May Not Accept Election Results: Video Shows Her Telling CNN Host Gore Shouldn’t Have Conceded 2000 Election Results | Last night during the third debate, FOX News Chris Wallace asked Donald J. Trump if he would accept the election results? With multiple stories of voter fraud being committed by Democrats across the nation and a video (see below) proving that the DNC and Hillary s campaign are coordinating with criminals to plan massive voter fraud, why would Trump make a statement that he was willing to accept the outcome of the election regardless of how it may be won? Hillary chastised Trump for having VERY LEGITIMATE concerns over the potential for voter fraud to swing the election. Her admonishment was carried by every mainstream media outlet, but wait what about the Al Gore election result?Here s the exchange:Here s Hillary discussing Al Gore s contested election to CNN s Larry King: From everything I ve seen and heard, ah more people did intend to vote for Vice President Al Gore. I hope there still will be an opportunity to have the votes counted. I think that s the best for whoever is inaugurated. Watch Al Gore s announce at a press conference in 2000, that he will continue to contest the results of the election and even suggests the Republicans committed voter fraud in the hotly contested 2000 election against George W. Bush.Al Gore even goes as far as to suggest the GOP prevented blacks from voting (a common Democratic Party tactic). He makes it perfectly clear that he will not concede the election until the Supreme Court makes a decision on the election:And more recently, here is Hillary nodding in agreement with her small crowd of supporters as they chant You won! to her featured guest, professional liar and con-man Al Gore:https://youtu.be/xpYwiYvSO8MWatch Jr. Senator Barack Obama suggest the results of the Florida Supreme Court decision on the Bush-Gore election was incorrect (challenging the election results):WATCH this video and then tell us if you would accept the results of the election if the race is close and Hillary wins: | 0 |
4,555 | Mexico’s Former President UNLOADS On Trump With A Brutal ‘F*ck You’ To The ‘Hated Gringo’ (IMAGE) | Donald Trump has p*ssed off so many people, it s really hard to keep track (unless you re The Donald himself, in which case you ll never let it go). One person he s irritated arguably more than others is Mexico s former president, Vicente Fox, who has being railing against Trump since the very day the disgraced presumptive GOP nominee made his horrifically offensive rapist and drug dealer comments about Mexican immigrants.Fox reminded everyone that he still hates Trump with a passion, and has even come up with some creative nicknames for the business mogul. In an interview on the Kickass Politics podcast, Fox told host Ben Mathis: He is the ugly American. He is the hated gringo because he s attacking all of us. He s offending all of us. Fox also reaffirmed the fact that Mexico would have nothing to do with Trump s idiotic proposed border wall. Restating his opposition to Trump s wall just as strongly as he did the first time, Fox said: I m not going to pay for that f*cking wall. And please don t take out the f*cking full word. Here s the Facebook post with Fox and Mathis, sending a brilliant message to Trump for all of us:During the interview, Fox also had some other amazing choice words for Trump such as crazy and false prophet. He also compared Trump to Latin American demagogues who destroy economies and warned that Trump s proposals could start another war.While many of Trump s opponents have eventually cozied up to the candidate (cough cough Ben Carson) and learned to be somewhat civil with him, Fox is making no apologies and wants to make sure that everyone knows where he stands when it comes to the reality TV star.It s clear that Trump has f*cked with the wrong guy and Fox wants to make sure that Trump knows it. Fox warned: Don t play around with us. We can jump walls. We can swim rivers. And we can defend ourselves. You can listen to Fox s full Trump-bashing interview on iTunes here!Featured image via David Paul Morris / Getty Images | 0 |
4,556 | Ohio system of purging inactive voters not legal: court | CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio’s practice of rescinding voter registrations from people who fail to cast ballots is illegal, a court ruled on Friday, the latest legal decision affecting voting rights ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati reversed an earlier ruling by a federal judge in June and could lead to the reinstatement of thousands of voters in the politically crucial swing state of Ohio. “We don’t believe that any voters should be removed from the rolls simply because they haven’t voted in a few elections,” said Mike Brickner, senior policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit against the practice along with other advocates. Voting rights cases have become pivotal battlegrounds in the lead-up to the hotly contested presidential vote between Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican counterpart Donald Trump. The ACLU and others have challenged laws in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina over voting rights issues. On Friday Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a law requiring authorized identification to be presented before a citizen may vote. At issue in the Ohio case is a policy of purging voters who fail to cast ballots over a six-year period and do not respond to a letter from the state asking if they have moved. A Reuters analysis showed that at least 144,000 voters had been removed from Ohio’s rolls since the last presidential election. In their lawsuit, the ACLU and other plaintiffs argued that the process violates federal voting rights law, which prohibits removing voters from the rolls simply because they have been inactive. In June, a federal judge disagreed, ruling that an exception in the law protected Ohio’s practice. But the appellate court said on Friday that because the removal process was triggered solely by someone’s failure to vote, it was not legal. The appeals court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge George C. Smith to consider possible remedies, including reinstating all voters removed under the process. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, said the state would appeal if Smith orders all of the purged voters to be reinstated, arguing that would open the state to potential fraud by people impersonating voters who have died or moved away. “This ruling overturns 20 years of Ohio law and practice, which has been carried out by the last four Secretaries of State, both Democrat and Republican,” Husted said. | 1 |
4,557 | NY Daily News Mocks ‘Bozo’ Trump’s Iowa Caucus Defeat With Yet Another Brilliant Cover (IMAGE) | Donald Trump, who notoriously called people who finish in second place losers, just had his words come back to bite him in the ass, and, as could be expected, the New York Daily News was right there to give him some much deserved mockery. They referred to Trump as Dead Clown Walking in the headline, and went on to call him a bombastic Bozo in the article.The paper, which has become known for its brilliantly blunt covers, didn t cut Trump any slack at all. They called it like they saw it once agains, and ran an absolutely delicious cover depicting Trump as a clown. We all know that Donald Trump is far too thin-skinned to be running for any political office, much less that of the presidency, and will likely blow a gasket and throw his gazillionth childish Twitter tantrum, as he always does when anyone mocks or criticizes him. Without further ado, here is the brilliant cover:via NY Daily NewsThis is nothing less than absolutely perfect. Trump s campaign has turned an important part of the American political process for a major party into little more than a circus. That s why people are calling them the GOP Clown Car. That s exactly what they are, and Trump has been in the driver s seat the entire time, driving that car straight into a hell of humiliation. Trump s remarks afterward may have been humble, but there was also a touch of fear to them. He said he was really honored, and then remarked on going to New Hampshire: We love New Hampshire. We will go on to win New Hampshire, we will go on to win the nomination. He then seemed to admit that he may not win the general, and even mused about his post-defeat plans: Who knows, I think I might come back here [Iowa] and buy a farm. Watching this buffoon lose is just the most delicious brand of schadenfreude imaginable at this point in time, and I, for one, will make sure to pop plenty of popcorn in anticipation of the inevitable Twitter tirade that is just waiting to burst forth. Featured image from Gage Skidmore/Flickr | 0 |
4,558 | Seth Meyers SLAMS Trump’s Defense Of ‘State TV’ Fox News And Sexual Deviant Bill O’Reilly (VIDEO) | On Wednesday night s episode of Late Night, host Seth Meyers ripped Trump a new one for his continued support of Fox News and his defense of Bill O Reilly. It s not only despicable that Trump (a known sexual harasser) would defend fellow sexual harasser Bill O Reilly, but he did this less than a week after he proclaimed that April would now be known as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Meyers, not one to ever let Trump get away with anything, dedicated his popular segment A Closer Look to this very subject and it was glorious. At the beginning of the segment, Seth focused on Trump s undying, and equally disturbing love and admiration for Fox News and his favorite programs on the failing network. You probably have at least a passing familiarity with Fox News if you ve ever visited an elderly relative or gotten drunk at a bar in a small-town Applebee s, he said, introducing the segment, particularly with one viewer, the president of the United States. He then went on to show pictures of Trump s free Twitter advertisements for Fox and said: The President literally just recommends TV shows now. Instead of a Bible, Trump should have been sworn in on a TV guide. That, of course, drew raucous laughter from the crowd, but it s so true! He cannot stop plugging this network and along with himself, he s made Fox News more of a laughing stock than it was before he was elected! Now, he s coming to O Reilly s defense, which is sure to make things worse for the network who has already lost over 20 advertisers amid the newest sexual harassment scandal they just can t seem to get away from, as much as they ve tried to sweep it under the rug. Soon the only advertisers left on his show are going to be Ivanka Trump s clothing line and Steve Bannon s skin worsener, Meyers joked.Watch the full segment below:Featured image via video screenshot | 0 |
4,559 | CONFUSED PROTESTERS Swarm Outside Trump NYC Fundraiser: ‘Tax the Rich, Not Working People’ | The protesters in NYC must be confused They yelled tax the rich, not working people . Aren t the rich working people too? Many of the rich worked like crazy to be where they are today. Also, the rich pay plenty in taxes already. Don t you love how these people don t want anyone to be successful but want them to give away their hard-earned money?Dozens of protesters yelling shame gathered across the street from Cipriani on East 42nd Street early Saturday where President Trump was to attend a breakfast fundraiser. Members of SEIU aka Obama s Purple Army were out in force doing what they ve been trained to do PROTESTPresidential motorcade departs Cipriani earlier today. We will have the story later on @NY1. pic.twitter.com/uw6kWHdmH0 Shannan Ferry (@ShannanFerry) December 2, 2017 New York hates Trump, several protesters shouted. I believe it s time to stop lining the pockets of the rich and stealing from the poor, said John Eng, a 54-year-old real estate agent from Manhattan who was holding a sign declaring, The poor will have to eat the rich. The protesters were particularly enraged by the Senate s early-morning passage of a $1.2 trillion tax reform bill supported by Trump. A few shouted Kill the bill, don t kill us. That tax plan is an abomination, said Melissa Carpenter, a 51-year-old lawyer from Bayside who wore a Guy Fawkes mask for the occasion. He has some balls to come here. Read more NYP | 0 |
4,560 | McMaster says 'not concerned' after Kushner back-channel reports | TAORMINA, Italy (Reuters) - Asked about reports that Donald Trump’s son-in-law had tried to set up a secret channel of communication with Russia before the president took office, U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that so-called “back-channeling” was normal. McMaster declined to speak specifically about the case of Jared Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser to Trump, but when asked if it would concern him if someone in the administration tried to set up a back channel with the Russian embassy or the Kremlin, he replied “no”. “We have back-channel communications with any number of individual (countries). So generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner,” McMaster said. “So it doesn’t pre-expose you to any sort of content or any kind of conversation or anything. So we’re not concerned about it.” Reuters reported last week that a proposal for a back channel was discussed between McMaster’s predecessor Mike Flynn and the Russian ambassador as Trump prepared to take office. The Washington Post reported on Friday that Kushner participated in that conversation. | 1 |
4,561 | Senate intelligence leaders pledge bipartisan Trump-Russia inquiry | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday promised a thorough investigation into any direct links between Russia and Republican Donald Trump during his successful 2016 run for the White House. Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Mark Warner, its top Democrat, pledged at a joint news conference that they would work together, in contrast with the partisan discord roiling a similar probe by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Burr was asked if the Senate panel wanted to determine if there was anything suggesting a direct link to Trump, and responded: “We know that our challenge is to answer that question for the American people.” Trump’s young presidency has been clouded by allegations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to help him win, while connections between his campaign personnel and Russia also are under scrutiny. Trump dismisses such assertions and Russia denies the allegations. The Senate committee intends to begin interviewing as many as 20 people, including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, beginning as early as Monday. Burr served as a security adviser to Trump’s campaign but said he had not coordinated with him on the scope of the committee’s investigation. He insisted he could remain objective. Burr declined to go along with the White House’s denial of collusion between the campaign and Russian hackers, who U.S. intelligence officials believe favored Trump in last year’s campaign at the expense of Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. “We would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation,” Burr said. “Let us go a little deeper into this before you ask us to write the conclusions. That’s clearly something we intend to do down the road.” Burr and Warner would not comment on the investigation in the House, where the chairman of the intelligence committee, Trump ally Devin Nunes, has been under fire over his handling of the matter. Many Democrats, including Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, called for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation after he met last week with an unidentified source at the White House complex, accusing him of colluding with the White House. Before telling his committee colleagues, Nunes met with House Speaker Paul Ryan, and then Trump, and told reporters the source provided him with evidence that information on Trump’s transition team had been collected during legal surveillance of other targets. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said the discord surrounding the House committee has made the Senate investigation more important than ever. “Clearly in the Senate, it appears that both Democrats and Republicans are acting like adults and taking this matter seriously,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern told Reuters. Warner and Burr both stressed the importance of exposing the activity of Russian hackers, which Warner said included reports of “upwards of 1,000 paid Internet trolls” who spread false negative stories about Clinton. Warner and Burr did disagree slightly, with Warner alluding to some difficulties getting particular documents from intelligence agencies, and Burr defending them. The two senators also indicated they had communicated with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, who was fired last month after misrepresenting meetings with the Russian ambassador. “It would be safe to say we have had conversations with a lot of people and it would be safe to say General Flynn is a part of that list,” Burr said. Neither Burr nor Warner gave a timeline for finishing the investigation. “This is one of the biggest investigations the Hill has seen in my time here,” said Burr, who has been in Congress since 1995. The senators said they also wanted to call attention to what they described as Russia’s attempts to influence upcoming elections in France and Germany. | 1 |
4,562 | A MUST WATCH: The Islamization Of Our Schools [Video] | A short excerpt from CAN s upcoming documentary Exposed: The Islamization of Our Schools .This documentary-in-progress uncovers the ongoing, accelerating indoctrination of U.S. students to Islam, using U.S. taxpayer money. | 0 |
4,563 | ‘The Fuse Is Lit’: Legendary News Anchor Dan Rather Says Trump-Russia Scandal Is About To EXPLODE | Legendary news anchor Dan Rather said on Thursday that it shouldn t be long now before Donald Trump s cozy relationship with Russia becomes a real problem for him. Every once in a while in Washington, the fuse is lit for what seems to be a big scandal. Much more rarely does that fuse lead to an explosion of the magnitude we are seeing with Russia and the new Administration, and frankly the Republicans in Congress, Rather wrote on Facebook. How can anybody say, with all this billowing smoke and sights of actual flames, that there is no need to at least independently investigate whether a fire is burning down the very pillars of our democracy? The numerous investigations currently ongoing into the Trump campaign s constant contact with high-level Russian officials, Michael Flynn s resignation after it was revealed that he lied bigly about his relationship with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, of course now the likelihood that notorious racist Jeff Sessions also perjured himself about his coziness with Kislyak, Rather says things are going to get bad quickly:The pressure is obviously starting to mount as leading Republicans are now calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. This comes in the wake of serious and credible evidence reported by a vigilant press that the Attorney General, mind you the top law enforcement man in the United States, perjured himself in testimony to the Senate about meeting the Russian ambassador during the election. Sessions is but the latest person close to President Trump who seems to be ensnared in a story that is more worthy of Hollywood melodrama than the reality of the governance of our country. Democrats are calling for Sessions to resign, and this story could move very quickly. We are well past the time for any political niceties or benefits of the doubt. We need an independent and thorough investigation of Russia s meddling in our democracy and its ties to the President and his allies, Rather says. We don t know what we don t know. Perhaps there are perfectly innocuous reasons for why Mr Trump won t release his tax returns, why he has continued to speak admirably about President Putin and why his aides and advisors seem to be so close to Russia. That s why we need an investigation. If the air is to be cleared, it needs to be cleared. And if there is deep rot, it needs to be exposed. And quickly. Rather says that the press is doing an admirable job at holding this administration to account, but there is only so much it can do without such things as subpoena powers :Let s just make this clear. This is about a foreign and hostile power trying to influence our election while being in contact with close aides to the presidential campaign that the Kremlin wanted to win. Furthermore, there are serious questions about Mr Trump s longstanding ties to Russian money and influence peddlers. We don t know where this might go, but it isn t going away.Rather is right things are looking pretty bad for Trump. Now we just need to wait for the other shoe to drop.Read his post below:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Every once in a while in Washington, the fuse is lit for what seems to be a big scandal. Much more rarely does that fuse Posted by Dan Rather on Thursday, March 2, 2017Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
4,564 | U.S. House clears way to debate Republican healthcare bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican healthcare bill to repeal and replace major portions of Obamacare cleared a first procedural hurdle in the U.S. House of Representatives when a rule guiding the debate was passed on Thursday. By a partisan vote of 235-192, the Republican-controlled House cleared the way for a debate and vote on passing the legislation later on Thursday. If the bill passes it will hand a major legislative victory to President Donald Trump, but it will face steep hurdles in the Senate. | 1 |
4,565 | Pastor Goes Full Y’all Qaeda Defending Roy Moore: He Only Wanted Teen Girls For Their ‘Purity’ | A pastor who appeared alongside Senate candidate Roy Moore at a campaign rally just days ago just gave a defense of the Alabama Senate candidate that makes Christian purity balls seem even creepier. Flip Benham has quite a history as an anti-gay pastor who was also convicted of stalking a doctor who performed abortion procedures in North Carolina. In reaction to that in 2011, Benham said outside the courtroom while holding a Bible, I can t speak. I can t get within 500 feet. They ve stolen from innocent babies a voice that has spoken for them. Well, that whole pro-life platform of his sure did change since then and his defense of Roy Moore, the twice-removed judge who has been accused of perving on teenage girls when he was 32-years-old, is not going to help the Alabama Republican.The right-wing pastor explained that Moore dated teen girls because of their purity and said that when he got back from Vietnam there weren t any women his age left to date.So, pedophilia, right?On Monday, Benham told a local Alabama radio show that there was nothing wrong with Moore dating teenage girls. I think that, number one, you need to understand, 40 years ago, what the Sitz im Leben was like in Alabama, Benham said, as reported by Right Wing Watch. Judge Roy Moore graduated from West Point and then went on into the service, served in Vietnam and then came back and was in law school. All of the ladies, or many of the ladies that he possibly could have married were not available then, they were already married, maybe, somewhere. So he looked in a different direction and always with the [permission of the] parents of younger ladies He did that because there is something about a purity of a young woman, there is something that is good, that s true, that s straight and he looked for that. Listen to the whole thing below:We re thinking that someone should check into Pastor Flip Benham s browsing history. Benham s words aren t going to help Moore. Pedophiles go after kids because of their purity. Image via screen capture. | 0 |
4,566 | Trump Finally Watched Alec Baldwin Mock His Russia Pee Party On SNL And Went BALLISTIC On Twitter | It took Donald Trump all day, but he apparently got around to watching the cold open Saturday Night Live delivered last night and threw a temper tantrum about it.Alec Baldwin made his triumphant return as Trump on SNL this weekend and nailed a re-enactment of Trump s first press conference in six months.The questions, of course, were all about the dossier alleging that Trump paid prostitutes to pee on his bed at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow. No, no, Baldwin s Trump told the media when asked about the pee parties. I m not talking about the pee-pee. It didn t happen. It wasn t as cool as it sounds. Next question. And then he had to answer a question about the golden shower report. I do not want to talk about the pee-pee. I want to talk about what is really important. I want to bring a thick stream of jobs back. The biggest strongest steadiest stream you ve ever seen. Here s the full video via YouTube.Normally, Trump would have whined about SNL on Twitter at 3 a.m., or during regular morning hours, but this time he waited until Sunday afternoon to do it.Trump attacked NBC as a network first, and then trashed Saturday Night Live along with the cast and called their skits about him a hit job. .@NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017Yes, a man who is about to take over the toughest job in the world is literally once again obsessing over how he is being portrayed on a satire comedy program.He threw a temper tantrum over something he should be able to ignore, thus proving that he is incapable of focusing on the job at hand, and that he is a petty, thin-skinned bully.Needless to say, Twitter mercilessly mocked him for it.@realDonaldTrump @NBCNews uh have you ever watched The Apprentice? Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump LOL pic.twitter.com/IPkc8nEJrE Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 15, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Sweet angel we know you re extremely sensitive, but if you re this thin-skinned about a comedy show, you can t President. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 15, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Remember, dear, when you complain and moan about the pee story and SNL, it makes you seem defensive AND wounded. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 15, 2017Seriously @realDonaldTrump, how long will you continue this petty feud? Founder, @TheOfficialPORP David G. McAfee (@DavidGMcAfee) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Donald, my friend. If SNL hurts your feelings, your skin might be too thin to be the President. Kris Sanchez (@KrisSanchez) January 15, 2017The thin-skinned Narcissist in Chief proves once again he can t help lashing out at SNL. @realDonaldTrump @NBCNews https://t.co/mF3E3Jw8n5 Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 15, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Dude learn to take a joke! pic.twitter.com/cjjlDq1fdp Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump stop watching TV and get back to work. Sahil Lavingia (@shl) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT EVERYTHING Florent Derue (@florentderue) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump You re about to take health insurance away from millions of people and you re worrying about a sketch comedy show Zach Schonfeld (@zzzzaaaacccchhh) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump @NBCNews and yet you can t. stop. watching. Mark Emery (@Mark_Emery) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump don t you have more important shit to do or worry about than tweet how funny SNL is or isn t? Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) January 15, 2017Donald Trump is totally unqualified to be president and he just keeps on proving it every day.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
4,567 | trump rips press in private meeting with media honchos is that good or bad for conservatives | on tuesday president barack obama gave the medal of freedom to several celebrities the last time he will ever hand out such medals | 1 |
4,568 | Trump pushes U.S. labor board toward Republican control | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked an employment lawyer who has represented companies and business groups for a vacancy on the National Labor Relations Board. The selection of William Emanuel, 75, to fill one of the two vacancies at the agency brings it closer to having a Republican majority, which is expected to undo a series of recent decisions seen as favoring unions. The five-member NLRB oversees union elections and disputes between workers, unions, and employers. Emanuel, a Los Angeles-based partner at law firm Littler Mendelson, has worked with Republicans in Congress and major trade groups from an array of industries, and has for decades defended employers in cases before the board. He is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, an influential group of lawyers credited with pushing Trump to nominate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to the high court. Emanuel said in a statement that it is an honor to be nominated. Industry groups such as the National Retail Federation and the National Restaurant Association hailed Emanuel’s nomination, saying he would help repair damage done to businesses by rulings from the NLRB during the Barack Obama administration. Trump last week said he intended to nominate fellow Republican Marvin Kaplan, a lawyer with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, to another vacancy on the board. The positions require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The NLRB has been controlled by Democrats for nearly a decade and they currently have a 2-1 majority. When it has no vacancies, the board typically includes three members from the president’s party and two from the opposing party. Under Trump, lawyers and business groups expect the board to roll back a series of policy changes adopted during the administration of former President Barack Obama. They include rules designed to speed the union election process and a 2015 decision that made it easier for companies to be held liable for legal violations by contractors, staffing agencies, and franchisees. It was not clear when the Senate could vote on Trump’s nominees but several lawyers and other experts said the process could stretch into the fall. Kaplan previously worked for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives crafting employment-related legislation. | 1 |
4,569 | YIKES! Former Dem Pollster Makes Bold Prediction: “The Dam Is About To Break” [VIDEO] | Jimmy Carter s Democrat pollster Pat Caddell is predicting a Trump Tsunami, reminiscent of the Carter-Reagan election. Carter was ahead in all of the polls leading up to the election and Reagan shocked the world when he crushed him in a landslide Watch: | 0 |
4,570 | Starbucks Customer In Chicago Goes On INSANE Racist Rant; You’ve Never Heard Anything Like This (VIDEO) | A young white man in Chicago became an internet sensation and a probable future ex-con after on Tuesday, he made a bunch of violent and humiliating slave references to Starbucks customers who happened to be African-American. The exchange quickly escalated to violence and now, the racist man has been charged with a misdemeanor after one of his victims ended up in a hospital.21-year-old William Boucher was offended after someone spilled coffee on his light suit. The exchange spilled out into the West Loop street where a TV cameraman and several bystanders were able to capture it on their cell phones. In the beginning of the video, you can hear 23-year-old William Boucher yelling Shut up slave! Do not talk to me! Your children are disposable vermin! Boucher yells at one man, who is also videotaping him, and spits on the 30-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman.The man shoves Boucher, who continues ranting at black bystanders. Get on all fours right now! he yells. Get on all fours! Do not walk off on two legs! You don t deserve to walk on two legs, vermin. Source: Raw StoryThings got violent whenHe punched on man and spit on two other people. Just as things appeared to be over, Boucher, for no apparent reason, punched a homeless man, sending him to the ground. That s when bystanders tackled Boucher.Here s the video: Calling people racist slurs. When I was coming to work, I was not expecting to see that, said Juan Torres, who works at the Starbucks where the incident happened. I was shocked because I thought it was going to end right there. Security was going to come. The cops were going to show up, Torres said.The 57-year-old punching victim was admitted to the hospital to be treated for an eye injury. Boucher has been charged with a misdemeanor.Boucher s Facebook page lists him as a drop out, an entrepreneur, a socialist and a world evangelist. Featured image via Billy Boucher Facebook page | 0 |
4,571 | Ireland set to vote on loosening abortion laws in May or June | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland plans to hold a referendum next May or June on whether it should loosen some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday. Abortion has long been a divisive issue in once stridently Catholic Ireland where, after a debate elicited large street protests from both sides, a complete ban was lifted in 2013. Terminations were allowed if a mother s life was in danger. The ... proposal is to have a standalone referendum in May or June next year and will very much follow on from the recommendations of the all-party committee which is considering the matter, Varadkar told parliament. A panel of citizens called together to advise government on the issue voted overwhelmingly that the eighth amendment of the constitution, which enshrines an equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child, should be changed. The all-party committee is considering those recommendations and is due to report to parliament by the end of the year on the referendum and potential shape of future legislation. Opinion polls show a large majority of voters want some change. Ireland became the first country to adopt gay marriage by popular vote in 2015 and campaigners seeking a repeal of the eighth amendment want that social change extended to abortion, citing the thousands of Irish women who travel abroad, mostly to England, for terminations each year. Anti-abortion supporters demand no further changes to the law. The human rights arms of the United Nations and Council of Europe have pressed the government to, at a very minimum, decriminalize abortion and widen the law to allow for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape or incest. The referendum on abortion will be among seven the government plans to call within the next two years, it said on Tuesday, including a vote to remove the crime of blasphemy from the constitution. | 1 |
4,572 | Acting SEC chair signals support for penalties in foreign bribery cases | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, known for his critical views on corporate penalties, expressed some support on Friday for imposing them in cases in which companies violate foreign bribery laws. “I am generally comfortable with assessing civil monetary penalties in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases,” Acting SEC Chairman Michael Piwowar said in remarks at the Practising Law Institute’s “SEC Speaks” conference. “According to academic literature, there is evidence that when such violations are revealed to the market, the stock price does not always fall, and may even increase,” he added. Piwowar’s comments come at a time when many on Wall Street have been questioning whether the Justice Department and the SEC will ease enforcement of the FCPA. Prior to being elected, President Donald Trump expressed concern about the FCPA, calling it a “horrible law” that should be changed. In addition, Trump’s pick to lead the SEC, attorney Jay Clayton, previously chaired a committee at the New York City Bar Association which drafted a paper that was somewhat critical of how the law was being enforced. Clayton is still awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation. Piwowar’s comments suggest there is likely to be some support among SEC commissioners to continue pursuing foreign bribery cases, given the impact FCPA disclosures have on share prices. Piwowar is well known for being critical about how the SEC decides when to assess corporate penalties generally, amid concerns that sizeable fines against public companies may in some cases unduly punish ordinary shareholders who are already victims of the alleged wrongdoing. He previously voted against imposing penalties against JPMorgan Chase & Co over its “London Whale” trades. The SEC did not win authority from Congress to seek penalties until 1990, and even then, the agency was slow to embrace the practice until after the major accounting scandals at companies like Enron and Worldcom. But in 2006, then-SEC Chair Chris Cox shifted gears amid concerns from some SEC officials about corporate penalties and issued guidance that spells out factors the commission should consider when determining whether to levy them. Piwowar said on Friday he closely follows those guidelines. “It is entirely appropriate to discipline and punish corporate malefactors who violate our laws,” he said. But the SEC must “remember the innocent investors” who are also victims, he added. | 1 |
4,573 | Trump campaign manager Manafort offered to brief Russian billionaire during 2016 race: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, offered to provide briefings to a Russian billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin on the status of the 2016 U.S. presidential election less than two weeks before Trump accepted the Republican nomination, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. “If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in an email to an overseas intermediary between him and aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. The Post said portions of the July 7, 2016, email were read to it, as were other parts of Manafort’s correspondence. The email was one of tens of thousands of documents turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Post reported, who along with several congressional committees is investigating alleged Russian efforts to tip the 2016 election in Trump’s favor and whether any members of Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow’s effort. Mueller’s office declined to comment on the Post story. Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni told Reuters the emails were an attempt by Manafort to collect unpaid debts. Maloni told the Post that no briefings took place. The Post said there was no evidence Deripaska ever received Manafort’s alleged offer or that any briefings took place. A spokesman for Deripaska told the paper the emails were scheming by “consultants in the notorious ‘beltway bandit’ industry.” Russia has denied it interfered in the U.S. election, and Trump has said there was no collusion with his campaign. | 1 |
4,574 | frau von maus aufgefressen weil sie nicht sofort kreischend auf stuhl gesprungen ist | beim jupiter spuren römischer zivilisation im all entdeckt schatz ich bin wieder da oder da oder hier hütchenspieler von der arbeit zurück kindergarten städtischer hort kämpft mit heizungsproblem die letzten kröten zusammengekratzt tierschützer wollen amphibientunnel bauen will endlich wissen wes geistes kind es ist gespenst macht dna test limo nahte millionärskind bekommt getränk mit nobelkarosse angeliefert schulabbrecher eingestellt bewerber überzeugt abrissfirma mit einschlägigen qualifikationen jok sod adl wwe hwi koltom rbo jetzt bestellen der postillonnewstickerkalender nur der postillon newsticker artikel teilen | 0 |
4,575 | JUST IN: Senior GOP Rep Announces His Retirement…A BIG LOSS | Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) announced Tuesday he will not seek another term in Congress in 2018, telling supporters he has already stayed far longer than I had originally planned. Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was first elected to the House in 2002 and is described by the Dallas Morning News as a staunch Constitutional conservative. PASSED OVER FOR TREASURY SECRETARY:Hensarling s future has been a source of speculation for months. He was passed over to be Trump s Treasury Secretary, a gig that ended up going to Steve Mnuchin. And Hensarling s term as House Financial Services chairman will expire at the end of next year.HENSARLING TRIES TO ROLL BACK OBAMA REGS:Hensarling in June saw the House OK his roll back of far-reaching banking regulations created under President Barack Obama but the Senate has not moved on the bill. He s also been unable to get much traction on his plans to overhaul a beleaguered flood insurance program. I HAVE ALREADY STAYED FAR LONGER THAN I HAD ORIGINALLY PLANNED Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned, Hensarling wrote to supporters on Tuesday.He added, Since my term as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee comes to an end next year, the time seems right for my departure. Although I will not be running for reelection, there are 14 months left in my congressional term to continue the fight for individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited constitutional government the causes for which I remain passionate. Hensarling s retirement announcement comes as Democrats look to 2018 as their best chance to take back the majority since losing the House in 2010.ONE OF THE NOTABLE THINGS HENSARLING TRIED TO DO:Texas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling told a conference of mortgage bankers Wednesday his 2013 bill that would have ended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still remains the best path forward for reform of the housing finance market.Appearing at a meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association Wednesday morning in downtown Washington, the conservative chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said the legislation still represents the best vehicle for reform. The bill cleared the committee with Republican votes in 2013, but failed to advance in the House thanks to finance industry skepticism.Notably, it would have dissolved the bailed-out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In their stead, it would have created a privately-run utility to facilitate the creation of mortgage-backed securities and support a secondary market for home loans.The bill would have removed government backing for mortgage-backed utilities, though. At the time, many industry groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, argued eliminating the government backstop for mortgage-backed securities would make 30-year fixed-rate loans unavailable.READ MORE: DALLAS NEWS | 0 |
4,576 | Trump’s Policy Adviser? A Former Lobbyist With Ties To An African Warlord | Who is Paul Manafort? Well, for starters, he s a former principal lobbyist with the firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMS & K), a firm that had close ties to the Reagan and Bush White House and works closely with Republicans on Capitol Hill.But that s not where the firm has made most of its money. Before merging with Gold & Liebengood to form BKSH & Associates in 1996, BMS & K was renowned for representing a multitude of sketchy African dictators, warlords, guerilla warfare groups and individuals responsible for the most reprehensible human rights violations in the world.One of their most notorious clients was Angolan war lord Jonas Savimbi, who oversaw what The Daily Beast documents as mass-amputation of those they deemed the enemy, and state-sanctioned rape. Savimbi and his guerilla army sought to take back control of the Marxist dominated, Soviet Union backed government in Angola through UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). A bloody civil war, over two hundred people died a day, and Manafort s lobbying firm oversaw a negotiations for the continuation of warfare. Senator Bill Bradley, in his memoirs, noted that had it not been for Manafort s heavy lobbying, a ceasefire would have been reached sooner.As John Prendergast wrote in a 1999 essay for the United States Institute of Peace:The government s branding of Jonas Savimbi as a war criminal creates a thin but important precedent for reversing the state of total impunity that exists presently. Savimbi is indeed responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity, but of course he is not alone The Human Rights Watch documented the horrors of child soldiers at he hands of Savimbi, writing that those forced into the guerilla warfare were robbed of their childhood and forced to fight in one of the most violent civil wars in world history:Both the largest opposition group, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the government used child soldiers in the war. Children s rights groups have estimated that as many as 11,000 children were involved in the last years of the fighting. Some children received weapons and arms training and fought in the conflict. Many others acted as porters, cooks, spies and laborers .UNITA soldiers regularly beat children for infractions and assigned them hazardous duties. UNITA combatants also sexually abused girls and assigned them as wives to soldiers.Now where did Manafort come into play? Well, Savimbi courted his lobbying firm to get United States leaders on board with the coup (after all, the United States was still heavily invested in the Cold War). And through their lobbying efforts quickly got President Reagan and Congressional Republicans to convince the CIA and other American intelligence agencies like the State Department to fund and support Savimbi.Between 1985 and 1989, Savimbi and UNITA paid Manafort and his associates over $850,000 while the United States supplied $42 million for their efforts.Even though using child soldiers was (and still is) banned by International law and Angolan law, the freedom fighters (as Reagan called them) were still in the business of heavy exploitation. And Manafort and his associates didn t care, so long as they got their paycheck.And now he s an advisor to Donald Trump. Any questions?Featured image via Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images | 0 |
4,577 | Nominee for U.S. Army secretary warns about impact of further troop cuts | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nominee to be the next U.S. Army secretary told lawmakers on Thursday that cutting the size of the force had increased the risk to American security and that further reductions would require a rethinking of the Army’s role and priorities. Eric Fanning, a longtime senior defense official who would be the first openly gay military service secretary, told his confirmation hearing that reducing the Army to 450,000 troops by 2018 from about 490,000 currently, was manageable but would increase the risk to national security. The Pentagon is in the process of cutting almost $1 trillion in projected defense spending over a decade under a 2011 deal approved by the White House and Congress. Cutting the active-duty Army to 420,000 soldiers, which could be required if the spending cuts are not reversed, “would require a whole new set of assumptions and guidance on what the Army is supposed to do and what its priorities should be,” said Fanning, who would replace Army Secretary John McHugh, who stepped down several months ago. Republican presidential candidates have blasted the cuts, promising more military spending to confront international threats including Islamic State. Fanning would bring unique experience to the job because he has served at senior levels in all three branches of the U.S. armed forces, including stints as acting Air Force secretary and acting Army secretary. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were largely positive about Fanning’s nomination, although the panel waited several months to take it up, leading the administration to name him acting Army secretary. That prompted Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the committee, to write a letter to the White House in November charging Fanning’s appointment as acting secretary was a violation of a law barring nominees from taking steps that presume they will be confirmed. While the White House disagreed, Fanning stepped down in deference to McCain’s concerns and has since been preparing for the confirmation hearing. Advocacy groups said Fanning’s nomination was a significant sign of progress in protecting the rights of gays and lesbians to serve in the world’s most powerful military. For many years, the U.S. military followed a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allowed gays to serve only if they did not disclose their sexual orientation. It abolished that policy in 2011. | 1 |
4,578 | As Trump visits U.N., New York prepares for 'Super Bowl' of security | NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York police and a host of federal agencies are preparing for the annual traffic and security nightmare known as the United Nations General Assembly, featuring a week of speeches by U.S. President Donald Trump and a parade of other dignitaries. The meeting of the world’s top leaders and diplomats, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, will bring street closures, thousands of police officers and hundreds of protesters to midtown Manhattan, an area already plagued with gridlock on an average weekday. “It’s the equivalent of the Super Bowl of security,” said J. Peter Donald, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department. Trump will be on hand on Monday and Tuesday, when he will address the body of world leaders for the first time. It was not immediately clear whether he would stay at his Manhattan penthouse about a mile away from United Nations headquarters or sleep at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. The event also comes just days after a homemade bomb on a packed commuter train in London injured 22 people, though it failed to fully explode. A handful of anti-Trump protests in New York have been scheduled, with more sure to come. A march on Monday to combat “white supremacy” will start from Grand Central Terminal, while the left-wing activist group Code Pink has organized a Tuesday march to the U.N. to protest Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Other protesters will gather outside the U.N. to call out specific countries, including a rally against Iran President Hassan Rouhani. The NYPD’s elite counterterrorism unit, along with detectives from the intelligence bureau and officers from the aviation, harbor, highway and traffic units, will be on hand throughout the week. Donald said the department has plenty of “muscle memory” from previous years. “It’s a full assortment of personnel from nearly every part of the police department,” Donald said. “We’ll be prepared for anything. We’ll have backup plans and backup plans for the backup plans.” The U.S. Secret Service, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and various other federal agencies are also involved in providing security during both Trump’s visit and the general assembly. Vast swaths of the area near the United Nations, on the far east side of midtown Manhattan, will be closed to vehicle traffic, and the Coast Guard will heavily restrict boat traffic on the East River. Police did not immediately offer an estimate on how much the week’s security and traffic measures would cost. | 1 |
4,579 | Mexico minister says Trump team receptive in trade discussions | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Thursday his talks in Washington D.C. with a key trade adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump over the future of bilateral commerce had shown the U.S. side was receptive to Mexico’s point of view. Guajardo told Mexican television he had held long talks with Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday on how the two countries should seek to modernize the NAFTA trade agreement sensibly, and how to avoid obstacles to free trade. The talks had shown the U.S. side was receptive to what Mexico had to say, Guajardo said. | 1 |
4,580 | Republican senators start attack on U.S. consumer financial watchdog | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans lawmakers are starting to put in motion plans to destroy or defang the U.S. agency intended to protect individuals from financial fraud. On Tuesday, two Texas Republicans, Senator Ted Cruz and Representative John Ratcliffe, introduced a one-page bill to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau entirely. Their move comes a few days after Representative Jed Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, outlined a plan to limit the independent agency’s power and to crimp its funding via Congress’ budget process. The agency focuses on financial products such as mortgages and student loans. Next up: David Perdue, a Republican from Georgia on the Senate Banking Committee, will introduce a bill to make the CFPB more accountable to Congress by changing its funding mechanism, according to an aide. Unlike a complete elimination of the agency, which would require 60 votes, Perdue’s bill could be affixed to budget legislation that could become law with a 51-vote majority vote in the Senate. Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown, the senior Democrat on the Banking Committee, have vowed to block changes they say would weaken the CFPB’s independence. Killing the agency altogether would be a hard sell, and even some banking lobbyists have said they would be comfortable with a more restricted CFPB. The agency, which is also facing a court test, was created in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Its sole director, currently Richard Cordray, serves a fixed term and its budget flows through the Federal Reserve without being subject to congressional review. Republicans criticizing the CFPB say it overreaches its authority, pushes unnecessary regulation on small banks and uses large fines to direct lenders’ behavior without going through proper rule-making processes. Perdue has also struck at the agency more specifically, introducing a resolution to repeal a new CFPB regulation requiring prepaid cards to disclose their terms prominently. Hensarling’s plan, which anti-CFPB lobbyists and congressional staffers are positing as a compromise, would push some CFPB powers to other agencies while making its budget subject to congressional review and its director a political appointee. Others want to see the agency become a five-member bipartisan commission. President Donald Trump, also a Republican, was elected partly on promises to lighten regulation and is expected to sign any CFPB-related legislation that reaches his desk. | 1 |
4,581 | Traumatized Indiana Mom ‘Terrified’ After Becoming Target Of White Supremacists (VIDEO) | Mia Frias-Russell, an African American mother of three, recently moved from Indianapolis, Indiana to the smaller town of Campbellsburg, nearly 600 miles away. According to City Data, the town has a population of less than 600 people and 97.4 percent of the residents are white.Ms. Russell says she has experienced various forms of racial discrimination since moving to the small Indiana town. During an interview with WTHR, she said people yell racial slurs at her while she s outside working in the yard.On July 20, the situation escalated. Ms. Russell stepped outside her Campbellsburg home that morning to find racial slurs sprayed all over her house. The words N*gg*r go, and N*gg*r b*tch were among the messages left for the mother and her three children. Her car was also painted with racial slurs. Authorities also believe that the vandals put sugar in the vehicle s gas tank.The terrified mom recorded a video of the aftermath, which she then uploaded to Facebook. I m scared, she said through her tears, I don t know who could have done this. Ms. Russell went on to say that the day before someone tried to run her car off the road.Watch the video below via YouTube:According to WTHR, Ms. Russell is renting her home in Campbellsburg. She is now trying to get out of her lease because she does not feel safe living in the area. She described the incident as both traumatizing and terrifying. Authorities say they are looking for the people responsible for vandalizing Ms. Russell s home. According to ISP Sgt. Jerry Goodin those responsible will be charged with criminal mischief. The police may also upgrade the charges using the state s bias crime statute. Indiana s bias crime statute is similar to hate crimes statutes used to enhance criminal charges in other parts of the United States.It s unimaginable that, in the year 2016, this young mother does not feel safe driving down the street or even falling asleep in her own home. This is terrorism and those who were involved should be prosecuted as terrorists, not as vandals or petty criminals.Image credit; video screen capture via Mia Frias-Russell on Facebook | 0 |
4,582 | Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Founders Get Arrested At U.S. Capitol | The co-founders of Ben & Jerry s Ice Cream, Ben Cohen, and Jerry Greenfield, were two of the 1200+ arrested in the past week at the U.S. Capitol to protest the influence big money has in politics as part of the Democracy Spring movement. According to the U.S. Capitol Police, those arrested were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, which is unlawful demonstration activity. Both Cohen and Greenfield were processed and released on scene.Ben Cohen also runs a non-profit, Stamp Stampede, which literally stamps money out of politics. The stamps stamp money with slogans such as Not to be used for bribing politicians. No matter what issue you are most passionate about environment, healthcare, soaring prescription drug costs the root cause is always linked to corporations giving so-called donations in large sums to politicians, in a process Senator John McCain has called legalized bribery, Ben Cohen told me in an interview for the New York Observer in December 2015. A few hundred really wealthy people put in the majority of early contributions to our country s presidential candidates, he said. In the context of congress, our representatives get gobs of money from corporations through lobbyists for either passing or not passing legislation, essentially transforming our democracy into an oligarchy. We can t tackle the rest of the problems until we tackle this basic one. It s difficult to address because it requires an amendment to overturn a Supreme Court decision, but that s what Americans have done throughout history we have worked to overturn egregious decisions, which is why we have the constitutional amendment process. The non-profit s website, StampStampede.org, has photos of stamped money posing with Senator Elizabeth Warren and other advocates for getting money out of politics. As long as corporate and wealthy influences can undermine democracy through campaign contributions, the gridlock in congress will persist and most likely worsen. Big money doesn t want meaningful progressive reforms, they want to influence legislation to insulate themselves from the rigors of a competitive market while exploiting tax loopholes and government subsidies to maximize their profits at the expense of the working and middle classes in America.Featured Image Courtesy of Flickr | 0 |
4,583 | Trump Just Promised To Only Pick A White Man For VP – His Reason Will Make You SICK | According to Donald Trump, Joe The Plumber was right when he said the only American thing we can do is elect a white Republican President, emphasis on white. On Thursday, the Trump campaign somehow managed to lower the bar of decency even more than they already have. Speaking on The Donald s behalf, his campaign chair made a promise that will make Trump s poorly educated white supremacist supporters happy Trump will only pick a white man for Vice President, regardless of qualifications or other factors, because minorities are apparently incapable of being good at the job. He needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn t want to do, Paul Manafort told the Huffington Post. He seems himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO. There is a long list of who that person could be, the campaign chair continued, and every one of them has major problems. But no matter what their problems, every single one of them is better than those blacks and Mexicans, according to Manafort. He says that the campaign likely won t choose a woman or a member of any minority group:Only Trump s idiot supporters would view choosing a running-mate based on their qualifications for the job rather than sex and skin color pandering. Is this really who Republicans want to lead the nation someone who wants to literally build a wall to keep brown people out of the country, someone who thinks simply being from Mexico makes one a drug dealer, someone who tweets out white supremacist propaganda and encourages his supporters to beat up black people at his rallies (even offering to pay their legal fees)?featured image via Getty Images/Spencer Platt | 0 |
4,584 | GRAVE DIGGING PROTESTERS Start to Dig Up Confederate General’s Grave…Threaten to Go Deeper | THIS HAPPENED IN 2015 BUT IS STILL RELEVANT TODAY: A group of protesters decided to go digging to destroy a Confederate General s grave. No kidding! Does anyone out there think this will do anything productive? It s horrible to desecrate someone s grave so these people are doing what they preach against This is hateful! Let it be!The campaigners claim it has taken officials in Memphis, Tennessee, too long to exhume Nathan Bedford Forrest who was a lieutenant general in the Confederate States Army. They also want the statue of the soldier on a horse on the burial site to be removed. The rebel cavalryman, who died in 1877, has been buried in the city s Health Sciences Park since 1904.The city s mayor, AC Wharton, began a push to remove the body and statue in the wake of the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, but needs approval from several branches of government before he can take action. Members of the protest group, who call themselves the Commission on Religion and Racism, removed only a small patch of grass from the park, but threatened to return with heavy machinery to tear down the wartime symbol. Isaac Richmond, the group s leader, told local station WREG: If he s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone. We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up. We are going to bring the back hoe, the tractors and the men with the equipment to raise Bedford Forrest from the soil of Memphis. Read more: DM | 0 |
4,585 | Ohio judge warns Trump campaign as voter advocates score court wins | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Ohio ordered Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday not to intimidate voters as voting-rights advocates scored a string of last-minute victories in several politically competitive states. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin creates the possibility of fines or jail time for Trump allies who harass voters, a significant victory for Democrats who had worried the real-estate mogul was encouraging supporters to cause mayhem at the polls on Nov. 8. The ruling also deals a blow to a Trump-aligned “exit poll” that seeks to mobilize thousands of supporters. The Trump campaign appealed the decision. On the campaign trail, Trump has warned that the election may be rigged and has called on supporters to keep an eye on voting activity for possible signs of fraud in large cities. Democrats have launched a legal blitz in Ohio and five other battleground states to prevent that from happening. They are also trying to stop a paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers, from conducting its own monitoring operation. Numerous studies have found that U.S. voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Voting-rights advocates also won legal victories in three other states on Friday, building on a string of decisions that have rolled back election restrictions across the country. In Arizona, a federal judge suspended a state law that prohibits advocates’ ability to collect absentee ballots. “Having more options to turn in your ballot ensures that more people take part in the democratic process,” said Spencer Scharff, voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party. In North Carolina, a judge ordered election officials to restore the voting rights of thousands who had been removed from registration lists in recent weeks. And in Kansas, a state court blocked a dual-registration system that would have prevented 20,000 registered voters from casting ballots for local offices because they were unable to prove U.S. citizenship. The Ohio ruling does not prevent the state Republican Party from sending trained volunteers into polling places to make sure election laws are being followed. However, it does impose restrictions on Trump supporters who take it on themselves to monitor voting activity, saying they may not interrogate voters within 100 feet of a polling place, block them from entering, or photograph them as they come and go. Many of those activities are already illegal, but the judge’s order means that anybody who engages in them could be held in contempt of court, exposing them to additional civil or criminal penalties. “It backs the law with the power of contempt,” said Rick Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California at Irvine. The order also deals a blow to a Trump-allied “exit poll” that aims to mobilize supporters to canvass voters in an effort to sniff out instances of voter manipulation. The organizer of that effort, Republican operative Roger Stone, told Reuters he would fight the ruling regardless of the outcome of the election. “The Democrats’ lawyers have perjured themselves and perpetrated a fraud before the court,” he wrote in a text message. The order also applies to Democrats, who have focused their efforts on making sure their supporters can vote. “With this decision, Ohioans can feel confident that they will be able to make their voices heard in this election,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said in a prepared statement. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. | 1 |
4,586 | (VIDEO) MICHELLE OBAMA’S LATEST TACKY AD FOR KIDS: “EAT YOUR “EFFEN” VEGETABLES!” | Can she just go away and stop with the tacky commercials. What kids say effen ? That s not even the least bit funny. I don t know about you but I m not encouraging my kids to say or think it s the least bit appropriate to say something like this. Michelle Obama is hoping her new ad with Jimmy Kimmel will encourage kids to eat their effen fruits and vegetables. The First Lady appeared on Thursday s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk up her new healthy eating initiative. I couldn t be more excited about a new campaign called FNV, she says in the PSA. As in eat your effen vegetables, Kimmel chimes in. | 0 |
4,587 | Trump open to dropping healthcare provision in Senate tax bill: aide | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump would not insist on including repeal of an Obama-era health insurance mandate in a bill intended to enact the biggest overhaul of the tax code since the 1980s, a senior White House aide said on Sunday. The version of tax legislation put forward by Senate Republican leaders would remove a requirement in former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law that taxes Americans who decline to buy health insurance. “If we can repeal part of Obamacare as part of a tax bill ... that can pass, that’s great,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “If it becomes an impediment to getting the best tax bill we can, then we are OK with taking it out.” It was too soon to say whether eliminating the repeal of the so-called individual mandate would increase the bill’s chances of passing. The provision was not an impediment now, Mulvaney said. Republican senators who have been critical of the plan said that some middle-income taxpayers could see any benefits of the tax cuts wiped out by higher health insurance premiums if the repeal of the Obamacare mandate goes through. Among them was Senator Susan Collins, one of a handful of Republicans who voted in July to block a broader Republican attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. “I don’t think that provision should be in the bill. I hope the Senate will follow the lead of the House and strike it,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Republicans can only afford to lose two votes on the tax bill because of their slim 52-48 majority in the Senate. Getting rid of the mandate is one of Republican Trump’s main goals. He campaigned for president last year on a promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, but Congress has not agreed so far on how to do that. Another top Trump administration official, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, said the individual mandate “isn’t a bargaining chip.” “The president thinks we should get rid of it and I think we should get rid of it,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” Mnuchin said the objective “right now” was to keep repeal of the mandate in the bill. “We are going to work with the Senate as we go through this. We are going to get something to the president to sign this year,” he said. The House of Representatives last week passed its tax bill. Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, consider a tax bill critical to their party’s prospects in the 2018 U.S. congressional elections. Democrats call the Republican plan a giveaway to corporations and the rich. Trump had urged lawmakers to add repeal of the mandate to the tax bill, writing on Twitter last week that the provision was “unfair” and “highly unpopular.” The next day, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did just that. The mandate plays a critical role in Obamacare by requiring young, healthy people, who might otherwise go without coverage, to purchase insurance and help offset the costs of covering sicker and older Americans. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that repealing the mandate would increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 13 million by 2027. Republican Senator Roy Blunt said he thought the Senate bill would pass with or without the individual mandate repeal. “It depends on where the votes are,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Appearing on several television shows, Collins said she also wanted the Senate to “skew more of the relief to middle-income taxpayers.” She advocated keeping the top tax rate of 39.6 percent for people who make $1 million or more a year, as the House does, as well as the deduction for state and local taxes. The corporate tax does not need to be cut so steeply to 20 percent, Collins said. A 22 percent rate would garner an additional $200 billion and allow the Senate to restore the deduction for state and local property taxes, she told ABC. Collins has emerged as a pivotal lawmaker in the tax debate, along with Republican Senators John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Ron Johnson, all of whom are also on the fence or oppose the bill. The Senate bill needs work, Collins told ABC’s “This Week.” “I want to see changes in that bill,” she said. “And I think there will be changes.” | 1 |
4,588 | Trump Denies Leaking Israeli Source, Confirming Source Is Israeli On International Television (VIDEO) | Trump s third day across seas may end up being his most devastating. Sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump opened his mouth and immediately started blundering his way into an international incident.As the pair of world leaders sat down, Trump seemed to want to get something off his chest that had been bothering him. Last week, it was reported that Trump had leaked classified intelligence about ISIS to the Russians during their closed-door meeting in the Oval Office. Trump s White House frantically denied it before eventually conceding it had happened, but claimed it wasn t that big of a deal. Then news came that it was an Israeli spy that Trump had just exposed by his careless leak.And now Trump, sitting in Israel, wanted to make one thing clear: He never shared the part about the source being Israeli. He said this on international television.Trump just said he never mentioned Israel in his meeting w/ Russians.(That was not the issue Story never alleged Trump divulged source.) pic.twitter.com/oSi8rQmQe0 Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 22, 2017That s, uh, a pretty stunning admission. The implications were immediately clear to everyone but Trump. Trump may as well have just confirmed that it was an Israeli informant. The spy is likely to face death if caught by ISIS, who now, thanks to Trump s internationally broadcast statement, know to look for one.Unreal. Trump seems to have just accidentally confirmed Israel was the source of the intel with this admission. https://t.co/yPcQPADYte Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 22, 2017Trump just used his photo op with Netanyahu to defend sharing sensitive intel with the Russians in the Oval, saying he never said "Israel." Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 22, 2017He lacks the cognitive acuity to keep all this stuff straight. And he s likely getting worse. https://t.co/J05lufjjCt Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 22, 2017His hamfisted non-denial denial is textbook Trump. The initial report never claimed that Trump divulged the nationality of the spy. His denial of doing so is fighting a point that nobody was trying to make. It wasn t that he gave away the source (until now), it s that he handed over information to the Russians which their intelligence community could use to track down the source.Again, nobody ever reported that he mentioned Israel. The question was always whether his reference to specific intel compromised them. https://t.co/6X463csGwO Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) May 22, 2017Trump is beleaguered by so many scandals and lies he likely cannot remember what his position is on any of them. It may help explain why he constantly contradicts himself and his staff when it comes to which lie he plans on using to defend himself. White House aides have told reporters that nobody wants to go on television to defend him anymore because he so quickly changes his stories that anything they say will be exposed as a complete lie within hours.Meanwhile, Trump seems oblivious to even a basic level of competency. Leaking intel to the Russians while bragging in the Oval Office is bad. Confirming the source of the intel was Israeli while sitting next to the Israeli prime minister is a whole new level of bad.Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
4,589 | Fox News, Huffington Post Reporters Brawl Outside WHCD (IMAGES) | Fox News reporter Jesse Watters and Huffington Post s Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim got into a heated confrontation following last night s White House Correspondents Dinner.The Washington Post reports that punches were thrown as the two flailed around, ultimately upending a table and bumping into several people. While no one seems to have captured the fight on video, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel managed to get a photo of what looks like Watters getting his ass kicked by Grim.Image credit: screen capture, Dave Weigel via TwitterThe Washington Post reports that the two men were among a group of WHCD attendees who had gathered in a heated tent outside the main party area.The fight broke out after Grim said he recognized Watters as the ambush journalist, who engineered an on-camera confrontation of writer Amanda Terkel, now a HuffPo colleague of Grim. Terkel describes how Watters, an O Reilly Factor correspondent, stalked, ambushed, harassed and accosted her in this Think Progress article.Upon recognizing Watters at the WHCD, Grim decided to give Watters a taste of his own medicine.According to witnesses who spoke with the Washington Post, Grim approached Watters, whipping out his camera phone and filming him. Grim later posted to Twitter that ambush guy didn t take well to being ambushed himself.Image credit: screen capture Ryan Grim, via TwitterOnce the confrontation became physical, a crowd of bystanders intervened to keep the peace.The Washington Post reports that RNC executive director Sean Spicer stepped in to separate the two men, during what he described as an effort to stay true to the party venue. The Washington Post reached out to Watters for comment, but did not get a response.They did reach Grim, who was described as unrepentant. Ambush guy can t take getting ambushed, he said. Maybe he should think about his life choices. Image credit: Dave Weigel via Twitter | 0 |
4,590 | FBI DATA Shows Black-On-Black Murders Off The Charts During Obama Presidency…So Why Is Obama Chasing Cops From Black Neighborhoods? | America has never seen two people living in the White House play the victim card with such frequency and with such passion. The truth of the matter is, Barack Obama and his race-obsessed wife will go down as two people who did less for the black community than any President in modern-day history.The data suggest that even as whites enjoy the benefits of improved public safety from the last two decades, blacks cannot do so in anything like the same way. In 2015, there was an overall 13 percent uptick in the murder tally compared to 2014, all of it concentrated in cities and neighborhoods where large numbers of black people live. Murder rose by more than 50 percent in Washington, D.C., and by 63 percent in Baltimore, which alone account for about 15 percent of the national increase.Black victims accounted for nearly two-thirds of the year-over-year increase, which translates to 944 additional black people murdered out of just under 1,500 additional victims nationwide. More than half of this increase (about 811 additional murders) came just from among blacks aged 17 to 39.Whatever the cause of last year s increase in murders, blacks were the only group represented so disproportionately within it. The number of Hispanic murder victims ticked up by 8 percent, about the same as the increase in white victims.These FBI data should alarm any person of good will who thinks that all black lives matter. They reveal a true and massive problem. The fact that most African-American murder victims were slain by other African-Americans (as most white victims are killed by other whites) should not lessen the appeal within the black community of a strong law and order message from political candidates. They would, after all, be the chief beneficiaries of strong law and order policies to precisely the same extent that they are currently the chief victims of rising violent crime.popThe data suggest that even as whites enjoy the benefits of improved public safety from the last two decades, blacks cannot do so in anything like the same way. In 2015, there was an overall 13 percent uptick in the murder tally compared to 2014, all of it concentrated in cities and neighborhoods where large numbers of black people live. Murder rose by more than 50 percent in Washington, D.C., and by 63 percent in Baltimore, which alone account for about 15 percent of the national increase.Black victims accounted for nearly two-thirds of the year-over-year increase, which translates to 944 additional black people murdered out of just under 1,500 additional victims nationwide. More than half of this increase (about 811 additional murders) came just from among blacks aged 17 to 39.Whatever the cause of last year s increase in murders, blacks were the only group represented so disproportionately within it. The number of Hispanic murder victims ticked up by 8 percent, about the same as the increase in white victims.Reuters On the sidewalk of a public housing development in Brooklyn, New York notorious for gang violence and drug activity, the words Fascist pig, go home! in black spray paint are fading but still legible.These are the Marcy Houses, 27 brick H-block buildings, each six stories high, that are home to nearly 4,300 people, many of whom are black or Latino. The rapper Jay-Z, who grew up in the complex, described Marcy as a block away from hell, the place where news cameras never come, in a song called Where I m From. In recent years, Marcy has had a group of very reliable visitors: the police, who patrol on foot and in cars as part of a controversial broken windows strategy that focuses on cracking down on small crimes to prevent bigger ones. Until three weeks ago, they had been an ever-present, highly visible presence in Marcy Houses.Now, the police have all but disappeared, raising safety concerns among some residents while pleasing others who view the police strategy as oppressive. A reporter saw only one police car on a visit on Thursday.These FBI data should alarm any person of good will who thinks that all black lives matter. They reveal a true and massive problem. The fact that most African-American murder victims were slain by other African-Americans (as most white victims are killed by other whites) should not lessen the appeal within the black community of a strong law and order message from political candidates. They would, after all, be the chief beneficiaries of strong law and order policies to precisely the same extent that they are currently the chief victims of rising violent crime. Via:Washington Examiner | 0 |
4,591 | STILL BITTER BILL CLINTON: Trump knows how to get ‘angry, white men to vote for him’ | HERE S CLINTON FROM THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER:Former President Bill Clinton said in a recent review that President-elect Donald Trump doesn t know much but one thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him. Clinton made the comment to a local newspaper reporter at the Record-Review in New York earlier this month, Politico reported Monday.Clinton first said that Trump doesn t know much before noting something the president-elect does know. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him, Clinton said.During the interview, Clinton blamed FBI Director James Comey for his wife s election loss, noting how Comey sent a letter to Congress about a week before Election Day announcing that the bureau was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton s private email server. Comey did announce that the investigation was closed again before the election.TRUMP IS ALL CLASS IN HIS EFFORT TO REACH OUT TO THE CLINTONS:Clinton also said he received a cordial phone call from Trump the day after the election, describing it as reminiscent from when they were friends 15 years ago.READ MORE: WFB | 0 |
4,592 | Democrats Introduce Legislation To Probe Russian Voting Hacks, Trump PISSED | It s no secret that Donald Trump got a lot of help from the Russian government this election. From the wildfire of fake news spread across the internet to leaks on Hillary Clinton, Russia and its dear leader Vladimir Putin were in the bag for the new president-elect.But there s proof that the Kremlin and its band of thugs may have acted in a more nefarious, intricate way and Democrats want to expose that.House Democrats, led by ranking member Adam Schiff (California) of the Committee on Intelligence, are set to introduce legislation that calls for a federal probe into whether or not and to what extent the Russian government played in the U.S. election via hacking, to take action on evidence of foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. California Rep. Eric Swalwell and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings will introduce the bill in the lame duck sessionIn a letter to the White House, Schiff asked that President Obama share with members of Congress a classified report that details Russia s potential role in swaying the outcome of the election and that it very well could have given us President Trump:We are deeply concerned by Russian efforts to undermine, interfere with and even influence the outcome of our recent election. By eroding Americans and foreigners trust in US institutions, Russia both weakens our country and sows global instability and uncertainty.The letter, signed by all six Democrats on the committee, comes days after Senate Democrats sent the White House a similar letter urging transparency on Russia.In Time magazine, Donald Trump told interviewers that he does not believe Russia had instigated a hack (or any other meddling) and that the concern of such was politically motivated by the Democrats: I don t believe it. I don t believe they interfered, Trump said in an interview with Time magazine, which named him person of the year.When asked by Time if the conclusion reached by U.S. officials was motivated by politics, Trump responded, I think so. While it s unclear how much of an impact the intrusions had on the election outcome, the revelations proved embarrassing for the Democratic Party and cost DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job at the top of the committee.Instead, Trump famously blamed any hacking and counter-election offenses by a 400 pound guy in a basement somewhere in the United States (without providing evidence).While Trump peddles conspiracy theories, Democrats seek to legitimize the electoral process of the United States.Featured image via Winn McNamee/Getty Images | 0 |
4,593 | BREAKING REPORT: CLINTON AND TWO AIDES BROKE NATIONAL SECURITY LAWS | Hillary Clinton is trying to blame the State Department for her lawlessness but new information is coming out showing the destruction of evidence by two Clinton aides. Thank goodness for Judicial Watch and their effort to get to the bottom of this e-mail scandal. Hillary Clinton and two aides appear to have violated two national security laws by sending classified information on a private email server, according to a former Army counterintelligence agent and investigator for a public interest law group.Additionally, the two Clinton aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, disregarded a federal judge s order this month requiring both to make sworn statements to the court that all government documents in their possession will be returned to federal officials, said Chris Farrell, director of investigations for Judicial Watch, the law group. What we have is a secretary of state, the only cabinet official in our history, who established her own private email server in an effort to avoid the normal protocols for unclassified and classified communications. It s an end run, he said.Farrell, in a briefing on the Clinton email affair at the Judicial Watch offices, said supporters of Clinton have sought to portray the use of the private email system to send classified information as a minor administrative matter. It is not, he said. It is a national security crime, and should be a national security crime investigation, he said, noting that Clinton created the private email server a week before she took up her duties at Foggy Bottom, indicating that she planned to avoid using official email that must be stored under federal rules.Two laws apply to the mishandling of classified data on unsecure networks, Farrell said.The first is 18 USC Sec. 1924, which outlaws the unauthorized removal and storage of classified information. Penalties can include fines and imprisonment for up to one year.That statute was used to prosecute retired Army General David Petraeus, a former CIA director who provided classified documents to his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell. Petraeus was sentenced to two years probation and a $40,000 fine as part of a plea deal in March.A second federal statute that prosecutors could use to charge Clinton and her aides is 18 USC Sec. 793, a more serious felony statute Farrell described as a hammer. That law covers national defense information and people who misuse it to injure the United States or benefit a foreign power.Those convicted of violating that law face fines and up to 10 years in prison.Farrell said he that as an Army counterintelligence officer, he has conducted investigations in the past that are similar to the Clinton email probe. He also worked at a special security officer who was in charge of SCIFs special facilities used for handling sensitive intelligence. When it comes the law on these, intent doesn t matter, Farrell said. Mishandling top-secret information should bring down the full weight of the law on violators, he said.The Clinton email matter is a serious national security crime issue, Farrell said. It s not two agencies fighting over classification after the fact. Judicial Watch currently has 18 lawsuits pending against the State Department seeking access to records under the Freedom of Information Act. THE CLINTON E-MAIL SCANDAL EXPLAINED IN 2 1/2 MINUTES: A hearing on one of the lawsuits is set for Thursday before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who recently ordered Clinton, Abedin, and Mills to make the sworn statements regarding federal documents in their possession.According to Farrell, only Clinton supplied the sworn statement that promised to return all government data and not destroy any records involved in the case. Abedin and Mills, however, did not and instead supplied the court with statements from their lawyers.Thursday s court hearing will be the latest turn in an unfolding security scandal involving the former secretary of state that has the potential to undermine her bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination.Via: WFB | 0 |
4,594 | Australian police say car that hit pedestrians in Melbourne was a deliberate act | SYDNEY (Reuters) - A car was deliberately driven into pedestrians in the Australian city of Melbourne on Thursday, injuring up to 14 people, though the motive was not known, police said. We believe based on what we have seen that it is a deliberate act, Victorian Police commander Russell Barrett told media in Melbourne. The motivations are unknown. | 1 |
4,595 | Spy agencies concerned about possible U.S. election hacks: NSA chief | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American intelligence agencies are concerned about reports that foreign governments may be attempting to undermine the Nov. 8 U.S. elections through cyber attacks, Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, said on Tuesday. “We continue to be actively concerned,” Rogers told a Senate hearing, responding to a question from Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Marcel Lettre, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, testified that the government is taking any such activities “quite seriously” and said an “aggressive investigation” is under way. McCain noted that one of the two states in which media reports said there was evidence of attempted Russian hacking was his home state, Arizona. Some analysts have said Arizona, which recently has been reliably Republican in presidential elections, could be tilting more toward the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, this year. McCain, a Republican, himself is in a tougher than usual re-election fight. Rogers said he could not provide specifics about spy agencies’ current assessment of the alleged hacking in a public setting. But he added, “I will say this, that it continues to be an issue of great focus ... for the foreign intelligence community, attempting to generate insights into what foreign nations are doing in this area.” Under further questioning, Rogers declined to characterize the activity as by a foreign nation-state. Lettre said the government would adopt a policy for dealing with any such activity once it had the results of the investigation. “The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security has an aggressive investigation underway,” Lettre said. U.S. security officials have said that, starting last year, hackers infiltrated computers of the Democratic National Committee, Clinton’s presidential campaign and her party’s congressional fundraising committee. U.S. officials said they have concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible, leading to calls by some Democrats and cyber security officials for the Obama administration to blame Russia publicly. Kremlin officials have dismissed the allegations as absurd, but there is anxiety in Washington over the possibility that a foreign power might be using hacked information to meddle in the November elections. | 1 |
4,596 | Former Iraqi president Talabani buried in Kurdish home region | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Jalal Talabani, whose presidency of post-Saddam Iraq symbolized the resurgence of the country s long-oppressed Kurdish people, was brought home on Friday and borne to his burial through streets crowded with tens of thousands of mourners. Iraqi and Kurdish TV showed the Iraqi Airways plane which carried Talabani s coffin from Germany, where he died on Tuesday at the age of 83, landing in Sulaimaniya, his home city in northern Iraq. A 21-gunshot salute was given for the coffin, draped in the red, white and green Kurdish flag stamped with a golden sun. A military band played the Iraqi national anthem, Mawtini (my nation), and Chopin s funeral march. The Kurdish flag on the coffin triggered a wave of protests on media close to Shi ite political groups which support the Iraqi government. Al-Etejah TV interrupted its broadcast because the coffin was not draped by the Iraqi flag . The plane that brought the body home was given special exemption from a ban on international flights to the Kurdish region imposed a week ago by the Iraqi government, in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence. Talabani, a veteran leader of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, became Iraq s president in 2005, the first person to hold the job after the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led invasion. Although the presidency has few real powers, the decision to give it to a member of the Kurdish minority symbolized unity for Iraq under a constitution intended to share power among ethnic and religious groups. Executive authority lies in the hands of a prime minister from the Shi ite Arab majority. Talabani stepped down as president in 2014 after a long period of treatment following a stroke in 2012. His successor, Fuad Musam, also a Kurd, presided over the ceremony at the airport on Friday. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is demanding that the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cancels the outcome of last week s independence vote, did not come to the funeral. Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji represented the central government. The government delegation protested strongly because the Iraqi flag wasn t put on Mam Jalal s coffin, even though the national anthem was played, said a government spokesman in a statement. Talabani is affectionately known as Mam, the Kurdish for uncle . Holding pictures of Talabani and waving the green flags of his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, tens of thousands gathered along the airport road and around Sulaimaniya Grand Mosque, where the prayer for the dead was held. The funeral procession of a dozen SUVs struggled to make its way through the dense crowd from the mosque to his grave on a hill overlooking Sulaimaniya, near the Talabani family home. The Dabashan hill was covered with people as he was laid to rest in early evening. At the airport ceremony, Kurdish regional government leader Masoud Barzani, Talabani s rival for decades in the movement for self-rule, sat between President Masum and Talabani s widow Hero. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the highest-ranking foreign official in attendance, repeated Tehran s assertion that the independence vote was a strategic mistake , Iranian media said. Talabani had been too ill to express his views about the independence referendum. His PUK party gave it only lukewarm support. Unlike Barzani, Talabani had good ties with Iran and the Iranian-backed Shi ite groups that effectively rule in Baghdad. The Baghdad government, Iran and Turkey all strongly opposed the referendum. Washington, an ally of the Kurds for decades, had also urged them not to hold it. Kurdish media and social media were rife with complaints about the flight ban imposed by Baghdad, which, they said, had prevented larger international participation at the funeral. Born in 1933 in what was then a monarchy ruled under the British mandate, Talabani studied law at Baghdad University, joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 1946 and by his mid-twenties was a lieutenant to the independence movement s patriarch, Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Masoud Barzani s father. He split from the KDP and formed the PUK in 1974, drawing support from the urban elite and from the small Kurdish Shi ite community. He regarded himself as a modern, socialist, urban alternative to the tribal authority wielded by the elder Barzani. Talabani s harshest lesson came in 1988 when Iraq gassed Kurdish towns near the Iranian border during an Iranian-PUK offensive in the waning days of the Iran-Iraq war. In a brutal campaign, Iraqi forces killed tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians and uprooted many more from their homes. Talabani s PUK has remained the most powerful political force in his home city of Sulaimaniya, while Barzani s KDP dominates the regional capital Erbil. One of Talabani s sons, Qubad, is deputy prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government. | 1 |
4,597 | Saudi-led coalition says strike hit a legitimate target in Yemen | CAIRO (Reuters) - A Saudi-led military coalition said on Saturday an air strike that hit a market in Yemen s northern Saadah province was a legitimate military target, the Saudi news agency reported. On Wednesday, medics and a Reuters witness said an air strike carried out by the coalition killed 26 people at a hotel and an adjoining market. The attack, which struck the Sahar district of the vast territory that borders Saudi Arabia, demolished the budget hotel and reduced market stalls outside to a heap of twisted sheet metal. The coalition statement reviewed the incident and quoted its spokesman as saying the target was the gathering point for some armed Houthi militants. The military alliance led by Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes against Yemen s armed Houthi movement, which hails from Saadah and now controls much of the country. | 1 |
4,598 | offizieller friseur des weißen hauses erlitt am wahlabend nervenzusammenbruch | freitag november musik statt lärm erster laubbläser mit eingebauter trompete vorgestellt mit video bochum dpo laubbläser sind nicht gerade für ihr angenehmes betriebsgeräusch bekannt und sorgen so immer wieder für frust und nachbarschaftsstreit doch derartige probleme dürften bald der vergangenheit angehören ein hersteller aus bochum hat mit dem miles davis ein neuartiges modell vorgestellt bei dem eine trompete so in das gerät verbaut ist dass statt lästigem surren und rauschen fröhliche musik ertönt chefentwickler roger fähnrich erklärt wie es zu dieser erfindung kam alle versuche leisere laubbläser zu konstruieren scheiterten weil es technisch unmöglich ist den durch blasgeschwindigkeiten von bis zu stundenkilometern erzeugten lärm zu dämpfen daher habe man sich nach wegen umgesehen das geräusch umzuleiten ein kollege der privat in einer jazzbigband spielt hatte dann die zündende idee so fähnrich er brachte eine alte trompete mit und baute sie in den blasschlauch ein der prototyp des miles davis war geschaffen statt nervtötendem laubbläserlärm erzeugt das gerät nun eine fröhliche melodie im einsatz klingt das dann so erste kunden sind begeistert mein nachbar hat mich für meinen laubbläser gehasst wenn ich den miles davis anwerfe macht er das fenster auf und wippt fröhlich mit mittlerweile sind wir die besten freunde berichtet friedrich geffner die euphorie ist so groß dass sich inzwischen bereits erste laubblasorchester bilden kein wunder dass den bochumer gartenmaschinenhersteller immer mehr anfragen erreichen ob es auch möglich wäre andere blasinstrumente wie saxophon tuba und blockflöte einzubauen ein australischer kunde habe gar den einbau eines didgeridoos angefragt wir arbeiten daran so fähnrich auch wenn erste tests mit der tuba sich im alltagsbetrieb als wenig praktikabel erwiesen da aufgrund der erzeugten vibrationen mehr blätter von den umliegenden bäumen fielen als weggeblasen werden konnten ssi dan idee ari bildmaterial shutterstock artikel teilen | 0 |
4,599 | Reports that Trump eyeing revamp of spy agencies are false: spokesman | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s spokesman on Thursday rejected media reports that said the Republican president-elect was planning to restructure the nation’s intelligence agencies, calling the reports “100 percent false.” “There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters in a conference call. “All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative.” | 1 |
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