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4,700 | Trump says Iran must stop funding and training 'terrorists and militias' immediately | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran must immediately stop its financial and military support for “terrorists and militias” and he reiterated that it never be permitted to possess atomic arms. “Most importantly, the United States and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon - never, ever - and must cease its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias, and it must cease immediately,” Trump said in public remarks at a meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. The United States brands Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism”. It says Tehran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war and the Hezbollah Shi’ite political party and militia in Lebanon have helped destabilize the Middle East. Trump flew to Israel from Riyadh earlier in the day, on the second leg of his first overseas trip since entering office in January. In his speech at Rivlin’s official residence, Trump said he was deeply encouraged by his conversations with Muslim world leaders in Saudi Arabia. “Many expressed their resolve to help end terrorism and the spread of radicalization. Many Muslim nations have already taken steps to begin following through on this commitment,” he said. “There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran,” Trump told Rivlin. | 1 |
4,701 | China, South Korea agree to mend ties after THAAD standoff | SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - Seoul and Beijing on Tuesday agreed to move beyond a year-long stand-off over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, a dispute that has been devastating to South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers. The unexpected detente comes just days before U.S. President Donald Trump begins a trip to Asia, where the North Korean nuclear crisis will take center stage, and helped propel South Korean stocks to a record high. The installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had angered China, with South Korea s tourism, cosmetics and entertainment industries bearing the brunt of a Chinese backlash, although Beijing has never specifically linked that to the THAAD deployment. Beijing worries the THAAD system s powerful radar can penetrate into Chinese territory. Both sides shared the view that the strengthening of exchange and cooperation between Korea and China serves their common interests and agreed to expeditiously bring exchange and cooperation in all areas back on a normal development track, South Korea s foreign ministry said in a statement. Before the THAAD dispute, bilateral relations flourished, despite Beijing s historic alliance with North Korea and Seoul s close ties with Washington, which includes hosting 28,500 U.S. troops. China is South Korea s biggest trading partner. At this critical moment all stakeholders should be working together to address the North Korea nuclear challenge instead of creating problems for others, said Wang Dong, associate professor of international studies at China s Peking University. This sends a very positive signal that Beijing and Seoul are determined to improve their relations. As part of the agreement, South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam on Nov. 10-11. South Korea recognized China s concerns over THAAD and made it clear the deployment was not aimed at any third country and did not harm China s strategic security interests, China s foreign ministry said. China reiterated its opposition to the deployment of THAAD, but noted South Korea s position and hoped South Korea could appropriately handle the issue, it added. China s position on the THAAD issue is clear, consistent and has not changed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing in Beijing. The thaw is a big relief for South Korean tourism and retail firms as well as K-pop stars and makers of films and soap operas, which had found themselves unofficially unwelcome in China over the past year. In South Korea, a halving of inbound Chinese tourists in the first nine months of the year cost the economy $6.5 billion in lost revenue based on the average spending of Chinese visitors in 2016, data from the Korea Tourism Organization shows. The spat knocked about 0.4 percentage points off this year s expected economic growth, according to the Bank of Korea, which now forecasts an expansion of 3 percent. The sprawling Lotte Group, which provided the land where the THAAD battery was installed and is a major operator of hotels and duty free stores, has been hardest hit. It faces a costly overhaul and is expected to sell its Chinese hypermarket stores for a fraction of what it invested. A spokesman for holding company Lotte Corp expressed hope that South Korean firms activity in China would improve following the announcement. An official at Seoul s presidential Blue House, who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the matter, said improvements for South Korean companies would come slowly. Shares in South Korean tourism and retail companies rallied nonetheless, with Asiana Airlines gaining 3.6 percent and Lotte Shopping up 7.14 percent. The benchmark Kospi index hit a record for a third straight day, gaining 0.9 percent. China has grown increasingly angry with North Korea s ongoing pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions, even as it chafes at U.S. pressure to rein in its isolated ally. The recent deterioration in ties between China and North Korea may have contributed to Tuesday s agreement, the Blue House official said. Pyongyang has undertaken an unprecedented missile testing program in recent months, as well as its biggest nuclear test yet in early September, as it seeks to develop a powerful nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States. The head of NATO on Tuesday urged all United Nations members to fully and transparently implement sanctions against North Korea. North Korea s ballistic and nuclear tests are an affront to the United Nations Security Council, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Tokyo, where he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Separately, a South Korean lawmaker said North Korea probably stole South Korean warship blueprints after hacking into a local shipbuilder s database last April. Expectations had been growing for a warming in the frosty bilateral ties following this month s conclave of China s Communist Party, during which Xi cemented his status as China s most powerful leader after Mao Zedong. Earlier this month, South Korea and China agreed to renew a $56 billion currency swap agreement, while Chinese airlines are reportedly planning to restore flight routes to South Korea that had been cut during the spat. Tuesday s agreement came after high-level talks led by Nam Gwan-pyo, deputy director of national security of the Blue House, and Kong Xuanyou, assistant foreign minister of China and the country s special envoy for North Korea-related matters. | 1 |
4,702 | Sudan disappointed at renewal of U.S. travel ban: foreign ministry | KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s foreign ministry said it was disappointed with U.S. President Donald Trump’s revised executive order banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States. “The foreign ministry expresses its regret and disappointment over the executive order issued by the U.S. president on March. 6 that renewed the ban on immigration of citizens from six countries including Sudan to the United States for 90 days,” it said in a statement. | 1 |
4,703 | Brazil's PSD party floats Meirelles' 2018 presidential bid | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Congressmen from Brazil s Social Democratic Party (PSD) on Wednesday invited Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles to run for president in 2018, growing the list of potential contenders from within President Michel Temer s fragmented coalition. Meirelles, after meeting with PSD lawmakers at his house in Brasilia, wrote on Twitter that he felt honored but was not a candidate. The PSD leader in the lower house of Congress, Marcos Montes, nevertheless said Meirelles received the invitation with enthusiasm but would not respond immediately. Reuters reported late in August, citing a source close to Meirelles, that he wanted to run for president on the PSD ticket, but knew he would have a strong chance only if the economy improved substantially. Meirelles, in his Twitter post, said that he was focusing his energies on helping Brazil obtain sustainable growth after emerging from its worst recorded recession. Under Brazilian rules, ministers who wish to run in the October 2018 election will need to leave their posts by April, although a formal register would only happen in August. Other potential contenders being floated by ruling parties include Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo city mayor Jo o Doria Jr., both from the PSDB party. A civil engineer by training, Meirelles is the former chairman of now defunct BankBoston Corp and former president of Brazil s central bank. | 1 |
4,704 | TERROR EXPERT WARNS: If ISIS Isn’t Stopped, Europe Will Become Urban War Zone | We need to have an honest conversation. Well, that certainly would be refreshing Western powers must ramp up air strikes by 10 to 20 times to have any hope of disrupting the Islamic State group, which risks turning Europe into an urban guerrilla warzone, warned one of the world s leading counter-terrorism experts.David Kilcullen, an Australian army veteran, became the senior counter-insurgency advisor to US General David Petraeus during the Iraq War and is considered a key architect of the Awakening strategy that helped turn the conflict around.In an exclusive interview, he told AFP the Paris attacks showed the Islamic State group (IS) was morphing from a terrorist threat into a structured organisation like the IRA in Ireland or ETA in Spain during the 20th century. It s early days but I think we are starting to see the emergence of a fairly widespread paramilitary underground movement in Western Europe, he told AFP from Washington, where he now leads research firm Caerus Global Solutions. This is not like the expeditionary terrorist attacks of Al-Qaeda where they build a team in one country, smuggle them into another country and they all die, he said. The way the Paris attacks went down with safe houses, stolen cars, weapon caches, guys successfully going underground after attacks this is a lot closer to the classical definition of urban guerrilla warfare. Kilcullen, who famously warned the US against the Iraq invasion in 2003, said the Western strategy against IS in Syria and Iraq has so far been characterised by dishonesty and half-measures. We need to have an honest conversation we re pretending we re not in combat, that we don t have boots on the ground, he said. But we have several thousand on the ground in Iraq and the 50 that are acknowledged in Syria are not the only Western special forces there. We re trying to present this fiction that the war in Iraq is over. Kilcullen rejected suggestions from some analysts and politicians that the West should deploy tens of thousands of troops. That s a fantasy. If you really wanted to take it as our task, you would need way more than that. You would be looking at 200,000, 300,000 even 400,000 troops to do it, he said. And frankly, it wouldn t work. The Iraqis and Iranians would push back hard. Via: NewsMax | 0 |
4,705 | Vatican trip could boost Sanders' fight against Clinton | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sanders has made economic inequality and the plight of the working class a central tenet of his message. Sanders’ April 15 visit to Vatican City, where he will give an economic address at a conference, will come just days before Democrats in New York vote in their state primary. The trip may help the U.S. senator amplify the anti-corporate line of attack he has employed against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he tries to keep his insurgent campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election alive. Sanders, who would be the first Jewish U.S. president if elected, described himself on MSNBC as a “big, big fan of the pope,” who leads the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Speaking to reporters in New York later, Sanders said he hoped to meet with Francis. “The pope’s schedule is determined by the Vatican but I would certainly be enthusiastic about that,” said Sanders, 74, the Brooklyn-born son of Polish-Jewish immigrants. A meeting with the Argentine pontiff could provide an electoral boost to Sanders, who has trailed former Secretary of State Clinton in support among America’s Catholic Democrats. “Pope Francis has criticized the ‘make money at all cost’ capitalist mentality and called for more compassion for the poor,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. “That’s exactly the way, Bernie Sanders wants to define his campaign against Clinton.” Clinton has scored victories over Sanders in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, all of which are more than one-quarter Catholic. A survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that while almost 70 percent of Catholic Democrats thought Clinton would make a good president, just 46 percent thought Sanders would be one. “This is a great play for Sanders because it ties directly his messaging related to income equality, it puts him on the world stage as a leader, and it does it with an institution and leader important to a key voting bloc in a state where every vote is going to count heading into the primary,” said Virginia-based Democratic strategist Bud Jackson. Sanders was invited to speak at the Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself. “I deny that. It was not that way,” Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event. Late April brings nominating contests in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, all states with large populations of Catholic voters. Sanders’ victory earlier this week over Clinton in the Wisconsin primary marked his sixth win in the past seven contests, sparking renewed talk of Clinton’s political vulnerability despite her substantial delegate lead. Sanders this week said Clinton, who is also a former first lady and former U.S. senator, was not qualified to be president. After heavy criticism from Clinton’s campaign and other Democrats, he backed off Friday morning in an interview on NBC’s “Today.” “On her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates,” he said, referring to New York developer Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Clinton has been under fire from progressives since her campaign began. On Thursday, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had a testy exchange at a campaign rally in Philadelphia with protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement over the effects of an anti-crime bill passed during his presidency. At one point, Bill Clinton accused the movement of “defending the people who kill the lives you say matter.” On Friday, he seemed regretful. “I rather vigorously defended my wife, as I am wont to do, and I realized, finally, I was talking past her (the protestor) the same way she was talking past me,” Clinton said at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania. “We have got to stop that in this country. We’ve got to listen to each other again.” In the Republican race, Trump extended his lead nationally over Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The national online poll showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for Cruz and 20 percent for Kasich. | 1 |
4,706 | Honduran protesters, police clash in growing election crisis | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran police fired tear gas at rock-hurling protesters on Thursday after a contentious presidential election that looks set to drag on for two more days without a clear winner, deepening the political crisis in the Central American nation. Both center-right President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his rival Salvador Nasralla, a television game show host allied with leftists, claimed victory after Sunday s election. The vote tally at first favored Nasralla, but then swung in favor of the incumbent after hold-ups in the count, fueling talk of irregularities. International concern has grown about the crisis in the poor coffee-producing nation of more than 9 million, which experienced a military-backed coup in 2009 and suffers from drug gangs and one of the world s highest murder rates. The delays have already led to violence, and observers fear they could risk undermining the eventual winner s legitimacy. One of the four magistrates on the Honduran electoral tribunal flagged serious doubts about the process on Thursday. Marcos Ramiro Lobo called for an independent external auditor to review the results, but was non-committal on whether there was evidence of electoral fraud. We can t be sure of one thing or the other, Lobo told Reuters, expressing concern about the vote count breaking down. What I do know is that serious doubts are being raised. David Matamoros, who chairs the electoral tribunal, on Thursday evening heeded calls from international election observers and Honduras top business group, and said the tribunal would hand-count some 1,031 outstanding ballots, or roughly 6 percent of the total, that had irregularities. That fresh count would be completed in up to two days, and would allow the tribunal to declare a definitive winner with 100 percent of ballots counted, Matamoros said. The tribunal s latest tally showed that with 94.31 percent of ballots counted, Hernandez had secured 42.92 percent of the vote, with Nasralla at 41.42 percent. The Organization of American States (OAS) appeared to have salvaged the credibility of the election on Wednesday by eliciting signed statements from both candidates who vowed to respect the final result once disputed votes had been checked. But a few hours later, Nasralla rejected the accord, saying his opponents were trying to rob him. He urged supporters to take to the streets to defend his triumph. They take us for idiots and want to steal our victory, said Nasralla, who heads a center-left coalition. Nasralla is one of Honduras best-known faces and is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist who was ousted in the 2009 coup after he proposed a referendum on his re-election. On Thursday, Nasralla s coalition issued a statement signed by Zelaya, in which the former president asked for more transparency in the vote count, and said the coalition could not currently accept any decision issued by the tribunal. Luis Larach, the president of COHEP, a powerful business lobby, told Reuters that given the slim difference between the candidates, the hand-count of irregular ballots would be crucial in deciding the winner. For me, it s still up in the air, he said. Nasralla s followers took to the streets, protesting throughout Honduras on Thursday. At least nine people were injured in protests in the capital, Tegucigalpa, as well as two police officers and a soldier, emergency services said. Six of the nine had been shot. There were also reports of a police station and highway toll booths set alight in other parts of Honduras. We re going to keep protesting and won t let them steal this victory, said university student Josue Valladares, 20, as he battled with security forces, who were guarding a vote-count center in Tegucigalpa. The sporadic way in which results have been published, and the reversal of Nasralla s lead, have led the opposition to say Hernandez may have influenced the election tribunal, an allegation Hernandez denies. Opinion polls before the election indicated that Hernandez was favored to win. On Thursday, the OAS urged the tribunal to process all of the ballots before declaring a winner, as did a European Union election monitor. On Monday, the tribunal published more than half the results, showing Nasralla with a five point lead, but then published nothing more for 36 hours. When the count started again, Hernandez began to catch Nasralla. The count has started and stopped ever since. The tribunal blamed a five-hour delay on Wednesday on computer glitches. | 1 |
4,707 | REPORT: Trump Hates Being President, Would Rather Play Golf At His Resort | Donald Trump reportedly no longer likes being president because he thought he would be able to act like a king.Thanks to brave staffers, we now know what life is like in the White House for Trump.Trump has had a very tough first three weeks as reality has made it clear that he can t run the government like a business. In a business, when the boss makes a policy it goes into effect and can t be held up or blocked. But Trump is finding out that his orders as president can be blocked and Trump learned that the hard way after the Ninth Circuit Court ruled against reinstating his travel ban on Thursday.A business owner can also hire their staff without any interference. But a president s staff is different. Cabinet positions must be approved by the Senate and Democrats are showing Republicans that turnabout is fair play by delaying and blocking Trump s nominees.Trump has also had to learn on the job, proving that he should have been paying more attention to briefings and studying rather than posting on Twitter. Of course, it doesn t really help that he is seeking help answering his questions from people like Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, both of whom are just as inexperienced as Trump.According to Politico,In interviews, nearly two dozen people who ve spent time with Trump in the three weeks since his inauguration said that his mood has careened between surprise and anger as he s faced the predictable realities of governing, from congressional delays over his cabinet nominations and legal fights holding up his aggressive initiatives to staff in-fighting and leaks. Trump often asks simple questions about policies, proposals and personnel. And, when discussions get bogged down in details, the president has been known to quickly change the subject to seem in control at all times, one senior government official said or direct questions about details to his chief strategist Steve Bannon, his son-in-law Jared Kushner or House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump has privately expressed disbelief over the ability of judges, bureaucrats or lawmakers to delay or even stop him from filling positions and implementing policies.Paranoia is also running rampant in the Trump White House. Trump would rather the public not know details of his phone calls to world leaders even though such information has been incredibly revealing in that it has exposed Trump s bullying of our allies and his continued sucking up to Russia.Trump has even ordered a witch hunt to find the staffers who are leaking information.Unlike President Obama, who could be leader of the free world and play golf at the same time, Trump apparently would rather leave running the country to others so he can play golf with his rich buddies at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.Seriously, Trump should resign if he can t handle being president. It has only been three weeks and he already hates his new job. And it s only going to get worse for him as he continues to do things that the American people oppose.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images | 0 |
4,708 | Trump Bans The Public From Calling The White House To Comment Or Protest | In another attempt to stifle freedom of expression, President Trump and his administration have dismantled the White House switchboard comment operating system. Instead, callers will be told to take their complaints and comments to Facebook and other White House social media platforms.When called, the White House switchboard states: Thank you for calling the White House comments line. The comment line is currently closed but your comment is important to the President and we urge you to send us a comment online at www.WhiteHouse.gov/contact or send us a message through Facebook messenger. Trump really is becoming the social-media president.Since the end of the transition, when the lines were apparently shut off, the Trump administration has been purging the White House website off all things that generally resemble the Obama White House and thus anything that has to do with equality and inclusion. So this is just another instance of curtailing the openness of the people s house.It seems that the 15 percent of American households without internet will not be able to have Trump hear their concerns, who promised to be a champion of all people and listen to their needs.There is no indication yet from the White House whether this is permanent or temporary, as the incoming administration settles into their positions.Still, there was no downtime for this crucial line of democracy when the Obama administration took over in 2009.Given the Trump administration s penchant for lying and ignoring the people, this should come as no surprise. However, it should worry the public if no future action is taken to address this. The people s house should be readily available at all times, in all fashions.It s only day three, and Donald Trump and his team are showing a brazen disregard for the little things that make us great. When studying authoritarians, one must look at how the littlest of things change before their eyes.This might be one of them a White House that doesn t want to be bombarded with calls from an outraged public.Featured image by Ron Sachs via Getty Images | 0 |
4,709 | House intelligence panel leaders split over session on Russia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The partisan divide over the House Intelligence Committee’s probe of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election deepened on Friday, when the committee’s top Democrat suggested its Republican chairman canceled a public hearing after pressure from the White House. Panel chairman Devin Nunes said he had to cancel next Tuesday’s hearing with officials from former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration in order to have a classified briefing with the directors of the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation. “The committee seeks additional information ... that can only be addressed in closed session,” Representative Nunes told reporters. FBI Director James Comey and NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers testified at a public hearing on Monday at which Comey confirmed for the first time that the FBI is investigating possible ties between Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign as Moscow sought to influence the 2016 election. Representative Adam Schiff, the intelligence committee’s top Democrat, said the cancellation was not in the public interest. “I think that there must have been a very strong pushback from the White House about the nature of Monday’s hearing. It’s hard for me to come to any other conclusion about why an agreed upon hearing would be suddenly canceled,” Schiff told a separate news conference. The scheduled witnesses, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, were in office when the purported hacking and disinformation by Russia to influence the election took place. Russia has denied allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that it sought to influence the election, and Trump, a Republican, has said the controversy was cooked up by Democrats and fanned by hostile media. Nunes also said on Friday that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s lawyers told the committee that he is volunteering to be interviewed, and that the panel would work with his lawyers to decide whether the interview would be open or closed to the public. The New York Times reported last month Manafort was one of several Trump advisers whose contacts with Russian operatives were monitored by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence. Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months last year, dismissed the report, the newspaper said. Many Democrats, including Schiff, have questioned whether a committee led by Nunes, a close Trump ally who served on the president’s transition team, can still be relied on to conduct a credible investigation. They have called for a special prosecutor or select committee. Nunes apologized to the intelligence panel on Thursday for announcing to the public and briefing Trump that U.S. intelligence may have swept up communications by Trump associates before telling the committee. Schiff said Democrats had no intention of giving up on the investigation. “From my point of view, that would be irresponsible of us. So, I think we’re going to do our best to investigate this regardless of the obstacles we’re encountering,” Schiff said. Trump, who in early March tweeted without giving evidence that Obama had wiretapped his campaign while the businessman competed against Democrat Hillary Clinton, said he was “somewhat vindicated” by Nunes’ statement about the surveillance. | 1 |
4,710 | Catalan leader calls for international mediation in Madrid stand-off | MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - The secessionist leader of Catalonia called for international mediation on Monday in the region s dispute with Madrid, a day after hundreds of people were hurt as police swung truncheons and fired rubber bullets to disrupt an independence referendum. Results showed voters had overwhelmingly backed independence in the referendum, which Spain has ruled illegal and which opponents of secession mostly boycotted. The vote was valid and must be implemented, said Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont. It is not a domestic matter, he told a news conference on Monday. He said it was obvious that we need mediation , adding: We don t want a traumatic break ... We want a new understanding with the Spanish state. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy met leaders of other political parties and his conservative government issued a statement saying he was seeking a joint response to the crisis. He also spoke to other European leaders and thanked them for supporting Spain s constitutional order, the statement said. In Barcelona, hundreds of students gathered in a central square to protest at Sunday s police crackdown, chanting pro-independence slogans and waving Catalan flags. The government crackdown had provoked an unacceptable totalitarian situation using state violence, student Albert Lopez said. Another protest was held later outside the headquarters of the Spanish National Police in Barcelona. Elsewhere, life in the city returned to near normal, but the violence had clearly left people in shock and may have hardened attitudes among those who favor independence. There is no possibility of dialogue now with the government. We are clear on that, said a 51-year-old retired worker who declined to give his name. Spain s wealthiest region, wedged in the northeast on the Mediterranean coast below the mountainous border with France, has its own language and culture, and a growing minority there have nurtured hopes of independence for years. Madrid says the constitution prohibits secession and is non-negotiable. The crisis could deepen further if the Catalan regional parliament uses the vote as justification for a unilateral declaration of independence, as foreseen in the referendum law enacted by the region but rejected by Madrid. With 95 percent of the vote counted, authorities said the Yes vote stood at 90.1 percent, on a turnout of 2.26 million out of 5.34 million registered voters. Polls before Sunday s vote put support for secession at only around 40 percent, but most opponents were expected to boycott the vote. The Spanish government has taken the risk that its violent crackdown could increase support for the secessionists. Puigdemont, who held the vote in defiance of a court order, urged Rajoy to say whether he was in favor of mediation, which he said should be overseen by the European Union. He said Brussels had been timid and lacked courage on the matter. An EU spokesman declined to say whether the Union would mediate, although it would be unusual for Brussels to take such a step within one of the bloc s own member states. Other European leaders have mostly shied away from commenting on what they consider an internal matter, although some have expressed alarm at the violence. Rajoy held meetings on Monday with Pedro Sanchez, leader of the opposition Socialists, and centrist Albert Rivera. Rivera called on Rajoy to suspend Catalan autonomy and hold elections in the region to change the nationalist-led government there, something Madrid has not ruled out. Sanchez urged the prime minister, who takes a hard line against Catalan separatism, to start a dialogue with Puigdemont. He disapproved of the police charges which left many injured on Sunday, a Socialist Party statement said. Spain s two biggest trade union federations, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and Workers Committees (Comisiones Obreras), distanced themselves from calls by pro-independence groups and trade unions in Catalonia on Sunday for a general strike in the region on Tuesday. Elsewhere in Spain, Catalonia s bid for independence is fiercely opposed and led to pro-unity demonstrations in many cities from Zaragoza to Madrid over the weekend. I don t agree with the police charging at people but, on the other hand, when you do something illegal you have to take responsibility for the risks, said Madrid resident Gemma Lopez. Any move to impose central control over the region of 7.5 million people risks hurting Spain s emergence from years of recession. Financial markets were rattled. Spain s borrowing costs surged and its blue-chip stock index fell 1.2 percent.[.EU] Ratings agency Fitch said the confrontational nature of the vote in Catalonia increased Spain s near-term political risks and would make a negotiated solution more complicated, but said it views Catalonia s secession from Spain as very unlikely. Catalonia is a center of industry and tourism accounting for a fifth of Spain s economy, a production base for major multi-nationals from Volkswagen to Nestle, and home to Europe s fastest-growing sea port. Although it already has extensive autonomy, its tax revenues are crucial to Spain s state budget. The events in Catalonia have forced Rajoy to delay talks over next year s budget after a key political group withdrew support for his minority government until the issue is resolved. But other parties sharing his opposition to Catalonia s secession suggests that his position is not in danger. The ballot, which asked voters if they wanted an independent republic, has no legal status as it was banned by Spain s Constitutional Court for being at odds with the 1978 constitution, which states Spain cannot be broken up. | 1 |
4,711 | NEW REPORT: OBAMAPHONE Program Stashed $9 BILLION In Private Bank Accounts…Exposes Massive Windfall For Phone Companies | Who could forget the Obamaphone Lady from Cleveland, OH, who unashamedly told an interviewer she was voting for Obama because all minorities in Cleveland get a free Obamaphone from Obama, and He s gonna do more! She actually woke up and admitted that she, and other minorities had been played by Obama in a follow-up video at the bottom of the page.The controversial Obamaphone program, which pays for cellphones for the poor, is rife with fraud, according to a new government report released Thursday that found more than a third of enrollees may not even be qualified.Known officially as the Lifeline Program, the phone giveaway became a symbol of government waste in the previous administration. Now a new report from the Government Accountability Office bears out those concerns.The report, requested by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, also says the program has stashed some $9 billion in assets in private bank accounts rather than with the federal treasury, further increasing risks and depriving taxpayers of the full benefit of that money. A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer everything that could go wrong is going wrong, said Mrs. McCaskill, ranking Democrat on the Senate s chief oversight committee and who is a former state auditor in Missouri. We re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply can t continue, she said. The program, run by the Federal Communications Commission, predates President Obama, but it gained attention during his administration when recipients began to associate the free phone with other benefits he doled out to the poor. Washington TimesThe Daily Caller reported:A massive portion of Obamaphone recipients are receiving the benefit after lying on their applications, according to a new 90-page report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).An undercover sting operation showed ineligible applications were approved 63 percent of the time, and a review that found that 36 to 65 percent of beneficiaries in various categories had lied in easily-detectable ways but were approved anyway.The fraud reached unheard-of proportions because the Federal Communications Commission let the task of screening for eligibility fall to phone companies that profit off of enrolling as many people as possible.GAO undercover investigators applied for free government phones 19 times using criteria that should have been rejected, and we were approved to receive Lifeline services by 12 of the 19 Lifeline providers using fictitious eligibility documentation. All someone has to do to apply for free cell phone service is say that they are on another welfare program, such as food stamps or disability, known as SSI.When Congress considered reforms, phone companies took out daily full-page ads in publications read by Capitol Hill staffers. The wife of the CEO of TracFone, the largest beneficiary of Obamaphones, was a mega-fundraiser for former President Barack Obama.The cause of the fraud rates, shocking even by federal government standards, was always clear: The FCC allowed companies with a profit motive to sign up as many people as possible to determine eligibility.Phone companies swooped into housing projects in vans with neon flashing lights to register users. A woman approached by one such representative outside of a welfare office told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group the man encouraged her to enroll her two-year-old.The companies weren t checking eligibility, and the FCC wasn t ensuring they did or punishing those who didn t. Additionally, the FCC failed to provide many companies with the intra-government databases that would give them the ability to perform some checks, the GAO found.The Obamaphone Lady aka Michelle Dowry made an appearance on Alex Jones show where she admitted to finally waking up, as she discovered that Barack Obama s presidency was a giant hoax. The only thing that Michele and the rest of the the minority community Obama promised to help got during his 8 years in office was a tax-payer funded free phone: | 0 |
4,712 | AG JEFF SESSIONS Warns Leakers…Taking Steps to Stop the Leaks that “Hurt Our Country” [Video] | Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced today that the DOJ is taking steps to reduce the amount of leaking from the White House:Sessions said during his Friday press briefing that everyone in government can do better and must practice more discipline when it comes to the leaking of classified information. Simply put, these leaks hurt our country, Sessions said. All of us in government can do better. To prevent these leaks every agency and Congress have to do better, Sessions said. We are taking a stand. This culture of leaking must stop. Sessions said that there are multiple steps being taken by the National Insider Threat Task Force to prosecute those who leak classified information. Since January the department has more than tripled the number of active leak investigations compared to the number pending at the end of the last administration, Sessions said. And we ve already charged four people with unlawfully disclosing classified material or with concealing contacts with federal officers, he said.AG Sessions also said he s Considering Reviewing Policies Involving Media Subpoenas: | 0 |
4,713 | Mattis says Iran 'fundamentally' in compliance with nuclear deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday Iran was fundamentally in compliance with its nuclear deal, as President Donald Trump s administration weighs whether the 2015 deal serves U.S. security interests. Trump faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with the pact, a decision that could sink an agreement strongly supported by the other powers that negotiated it, including Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union. I believe that they fundamentally are. There have been certainly some areas where they were not temporarily in that regard, but overall our intelligence community believes that they have been compliant and the IAEA also says so, Mattis said during a House of Representatives hearing, using an acronym for the International Atomic Energy Agency. | 1 |
4,714 | For Trump, challenging an election loss would be tough | (Reuters) - If Donald Trump were to challenge the outcome of next month’s presidential election, as he has hinted he might, he would face a difficult and expensive fight, according to election attorneys and a review of voting laws in key battleground states. Trump has said he is worried the Nov. 8 election might be rigged in favor of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and in Wednesday’s debate he refused to say he would accept the outcome. But before any court challenge, Trump probably would have to ask for a recount, said Donald Brey, a Republican election lawyer in Ohio. If the campaign did not pursue out-of-court options first, he said, a judge likely would dismiss the case. Recount rules vary from state to state. North Carolina, for example, doesn’t allow a presidential candidate to request a recount at all if one candidate has a lead of more than 0.5 percent of the total votes cast. In Wisconsin, the challenging candidate must pay the full expense of a recount if the vote in dispute is more than 0.25 percent, and in Colorado if it is more than 0.5 percent. That can be expensive. Officials in one Wisconsin village put the cost of a local recount, in which about 9,000 votes were cast earlier this year, at nearly $13,000, said Michael Maistelman, a Wisconsin election lawyer who represented the unsuccessful candidate. More than 3 million people voted in the 2012 presidential election in Wisconsin. Deciding where to challenge the election would be complicated. Trump, who trailed Clinton by 7 percentage points nationwide in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week, is fighting tight battles in some key states. In Ohio, for example, an average of major opinion polls reviewed by the RealClearPolitics website found Trump to be leading by less than 1 percentage point. In Iowa, he is leading by nearly 4 percent. In some other battleground states, polls suggest support for Trump has eroded in recent weeks. According to the RealClearPolitics website’s poll tally, Clinton has substantial leads in Virginia, Colorado and Wisconsin. She leads Trump by more than 6 percentage points in Pennsylvania, nearly 4 points in Florida and more than two points in North Carolina. To maximize his chances of overturning a Clinton win, Trump might need to challenge the results in several states, said Troy McCurry, a former Republican National Committee lawyer who was part of the party’s recount team in 2012. Trump could try to bring a legal claim without first asking for recount by alleging, for instance, that an abuse of power by an election official, said McCurry, who’s law firm represented Ted Cruz in the Republican primary before McCurry joined the practice. But if Trump’s lawyers were unable to muster specific facts to support that premise, he said, a judge would dismiss the lawsuit. Any lawsuit that withstood early challenges would face an uncertain future. With the U.S. Supreme Court split 4-to-4 between liberal and conservative justices, state supreme courts or federal appeals courts could well make the final ruling in any election dispute. In Pennsylvania, Colorado and Florida, where a majority of both state and federal appeals court judges have Democratic affiliations, Trump might face a more difficult road. Meanwhile, appeals courts in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa are more heavily Republican. Ohio election attorney Brey, who said he dislikes but will vote for Trump, believes a challenge in Ohio would be a last-ditch effort for the candidate. “Let’s put it this way,” he said. “If Ohio is close, Trump’s already lost.” Trump also might face obstacles from his own party, attorneys said, because it would be reluctant to challenge results in a state where, say, it lost the presidential race but won a close U.S. senate race. Numerous studies have shown U.S. elections, which are decentralized and run by the states, are basically sound. “Mr. Trump never mentions what criteria would be necessary for him to make a decision about a challenge,” said Stephen Zack, an attorney who represented Vice President Al Gore in the case that was brought to the Supreme Court over the election recount in Florida in 2000. “Basically it is left as, ‘I’ll see what it smells like and then I will surprise you,’” Zack said. “There are rule-of-law issues that pertain to elections that separate us from anywhere else in the world.” Election officials in several states rejected suggestions the balloting might be rigged. Eric Spencer, election director in Arizona, said that while isolated incidents of voter fraud might occur and should be investigated, election workers come from all political parties and work with integrity. “The notion that the election is rigged is preposterous if not insulting,” Spencer said. Some election watchers question how serious Trump is about a challenge. “A lot of this is just posturing,” McCurry said. “At the end of the day I don’t see how this happens.” | 1 |
4,715 | Senate votes to confirm slate of three CFTC commissioners | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm two Republicans and one Democrat to serve on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the top U.S derivatives regulator. In a voice vote, the Senate approved the nominations of Republican Chris Giancarlo to serve as CFTC chairman, as well as Republican Brian Quintenz and Democrat Rostin “Russ” Behnam to serve as commissioners. However, the Senate did not vote to confirm another Republican nominee, Dawn Stump. A Senate Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Stump was not on the slate of nominees because the party did not want to approve a total of three Republican commissioners and only one Democrat. That would leave the CFTC with just one Democratic commissioner because the other one, Sharon Bowen, announced recently that she planned to step down soon. The aide added that once Republican President Donald Trump selects a second Democrat to replace Bowen, then that person’s nomination will likely be approved along with Stump’s. Giancarlo has already been serving as acting CFTC chairman since Trump took office in January. In a statement, Giancarlo said he was “humbled” by the bipartisan support for him in the Senate. | 1 |
4,716 | Advocates for Americans held in Iran worried by Trump's hard line | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advocates for Americans imprisoned by Iranian authorities said on Friday they were concerned the Trump administration s hard line on Iran would close off the chance for talks to secure the prisoners release. In a major shift in U.S. policy, President Donald Trump announced he would not certify that Iran is complying with a 2015 nuclear deal and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement. The administration also designated Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the dominant player in the country s security, economy and politics, as a terrorist group, a move one expert said would make the group less willing to negotiate over the prisoners. Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who was detained by Iran for 18 months, said on Twitter that Trump s Iran strategy will only hurt American hostages being held in Iran. I hope I m wrong, but it looks to me as though Americans being held hostage in #Iran were just abandoned by @realDonaldTrump, Rezaian wrote, using Trump s Twitter handle. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A State Department official said the United States calls for the immediate release of U.S. citizens held unjustly in Iran. The seven known American citizens and permanent residents who have been detained in the last two years in Iran are businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father Baquer Namazi; Princeton doctoral student Xiyue Wang; art gallery owner Karan Vafadari and his wife Afarin Niasari; Robin Reza Shahini, an Iranian-American from California; and Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese national with U.S. permanent residency. My biggest frustration is still the U.S. government has no plan for how to resolve this, and my husband has been in prison for 15 months, Wang s wife, Hua Qu, told Reuters. She said the new U.S. sanctions made her afraid for her husband s fate, because they show that the relationship is deteriorating. Wang was arrested in August 2016 while doing dissertation research and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, allegations his family and university deny. I don t know when the U.S. government is going to engage Iran, Qu said. He is living in this terror everyday. He is in despair. Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters that designating the IRGC as a terrorist group would make it far more difficult to have a direct line of communication with them. The IRGC is going to be in much less of a mood to engage in a serious negotiation with the United States after this, said Sadjadpour, a friend of Namazi. In January 2016, the Obama administration secured the release of five Americans imprisoned in Iran by agreeing to a much-criticized prisoner swap after protracted direct talks with Iran. In the months following the swap, the Iranian government arrested several more Americans. The IRGC is typically the entity that has detained and interrogated the Americans, according to their family members and human rights groups. Jason Poblete, a U.S.-based attorney for Zakka, said the sanctions could be helpful if it gets these parties talking to each other. He criticized the Obama administration s approach to Iran as not being focused enough on the unconditional release of hostages. Anything that moves us to speaking clearly with one another, which is what the president s doing, is much better than all this flimsy talk that had been taking place until now, Poblete said. | 1 |
4,717 | Obama expands Hawaii marine reserve in final push on climate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will dramatically expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii on Friday, the White House said, an action that will ban commercial fishing from more than 582,500 sq miles (1.5 million sq km) of the Pacific Ocean. Obama will visit the protected area on Sept. 1 to draw attention to the threat that climate change poses to oceans, traveling to Midway Atoll - a remote coral reef that was the site of a pivotal World War Two battle and is now known for its sea turtles, monk seals, and millions of seabirds. Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent most of his childhood there, made curbing climate change a central part of his time in the White House, which draws to a close on Jan. 20. Some of his efforts have been blocked by Congress or held up in court challenges. But preserving public space from development has been something Obama can do using his own power, and he had moved to permanently protect more than 265 million acres of land and water even before the expansion in Hawaii. Obama has also sought to use the star power of his office to raise public concern about climate issues. Trailed by camera crews, he has hiked on an Alaska glacier and walked through the Florida Everglades. His journey to Midway Atoll, a former naval base that is now a rarely visited refuge, is aimed at sending a hopeful message. “The best science shows that the ocean can recover, if you allow it to,” said Senator Brian Schatz, who worked with scientists, environmental groups and native Hawaiians to urge Obama to expand the monument. “As daunting as the problem of climate change is, and as troubling as the situation is with respect to our oceans, they show remarkable resilience, if you give them a chance,” Schatz told Reuters. The monument was first established 10 years ago by former Republican President George W. Bush, who created the world’s largest marine reserve at the time, protecting close to 140,000 sq miles of ocean around the Hawaiian archipelago and inspiring a series of similar projects around the world. The four-fold boost in territory will cover an area with more than 7,000 marine species, including a coral that is the world’s oldest-known living organism at 4,265 years old. “We think of Papahānaumokuākea’s original designation as a catalyst, and we’re hoping it will be again,” said Seth Horstmeyer, a director with Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy project. Only about 3 percent of the world’s oceans have similar protections, according to Pew. Obama is set on Wednesday to address leaders of Pacific islands and a global conference of conservation officials and environmental groups in Honolulu. “We would like the other nations to follow suit,” said Sol Kaho’ohalahala, a seventh-generation native Hawaiian. In an interview, Kaho’ohalahala explained that Papahānaumokuākea, considered a sacred place, figures large in the creation myths of his people. “We are part of this place, we’re not the beginning of this place,” he said. “Our responsibility is really as a people now how to care for this place.” Some Hawaiians had argued against the expansion. Longline commercial fishermen, who have been praised for sustainable fishing, have counted on the area for an estimated 3 to 13 percent of their annual catch of tuna, which is limited under quotas and governed by extensive conservation measures. “Excluding American citizens from American waters and forcing in this case fishermen onto the high seas to do their business - something just doesn’t quite sit right,” said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, explaining the expansion could raise his costs. But Hawaiian Senator Schatz, who worked on a compromise plan to accommodate certain types of fishing and more Native Hawaiian involvement in managing the preserve, said there would be plenty of fish left for longline fishermen in other areas. “They will have very little difficulty fishing up to the limit under the tuna treaty, even with the new boundaries,” Schatz said. | 1 |
4,718 | Trump ‘Diversity Council’ Member Threatens to Quit If Trump Ends DACA…Bye, Bye! [Video] | A member of President Trump s Diversity Council is threatening to quit because he opposes Trump s cancelation of DACA. Bye Bye!Trump diversity council member tells @Acosta he may quit the council if Trump moves ahead to end DACA https://t.co/CCn90EgSdn CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) September 4, 2017 I want to remind him and his team that from an economic standpoint, and again, we re business people if you look at this from a purely economic standpoint again, none of these young people gets government benefits of any sorts so they re not costing us anything. They pay over $2 billion in taxes Is anyone else out there sick of the American people being told illegals cost nothing?DACA Will Cost Americans And Their Government A Huge Amount of Money.On average, people with college degrees pay more in taxes than they receive in government benefits. People without a degree consume more taxes than they pay to federal, state and local tax officials.In 2013, a Heritage Foundation study showed that amnesty for 11 million illegals would spike federal spending by $6,300 billion over the next five decades. That is roughly equivalent to $550,000 per illegal, or $10,000 per illegal per year, much of which will be spent when the immigrant becomes eligible for Social Security and Medicare. That cost estimate does not include the extra costs created when immigrants use their new legal powers as a citizen to bring in more low-skilled migrants.If those 3 million DACA people and their parents soon become legal residents or citizens, then Obama s DACA will cost Americans roughly $1,700 billion over the next 50 years, according to Heritage Foundation s numbers.Moreover, the DACA migrants add to the flood of illegal labor that has driven down wages for ordinary Americans, including urban youths and recent immigrants. Currently, Americans lose roughly $500 billion a year from their salaries because of the immigration tax caused by cheap labor according to the academies report.Via: GP | 0 |
4,719 | WATCH: Kellyanne Conway’s Latest Gushing About Trump Will Make America Vomit | The wicked witch of the White House makes America sick again.As we all know, Donald Trump botched his first visit to Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey by basically holding a rally and bragging about himself without once talking to a victim of the storm or surveying the devastation first-hand.And Trump s do-over trip was just as embarrassing and divisive as he praised the Coast Guard before attacking the media and bragging about his hand size.But Kellyanne Conway thinks all of that adds up to Trump uniting the country.During an appearance on Fox & Friends on Sunday, Conway gushed about Trump s visit to Texas and bragged about his pledge of $1 million to Harvey victims after Abby Huntsman incorrectly claimed that Trump s recent most recent trip has not been criticized by the media. That s what s so significant here, that the president and first lady felt compelled to donate $1 million of their own money, felt compelled to visit twice, to really spend the time yesterday, engage people, look them in the eye, Conway said.The only reason why Trump visited a second time is because he f*cked up his first visit so badly. This is the Donald Trump that so many of us know and are privileged to work with and to know very close and personal, Conway continued.And we all that s complete bullshit because Trump is a vindictive narcissist who only cares about himself. He has proved that time and time again.Furthermore, that $1 million pledge is merely a pledge. He actually hasn t donated a penny yet. And he probably won t since the foundation he uses to donate other people s money to charities is under investigation. Trump won t spend his own money to help those in need.But Conway wasn t done making America puke. She claimed that Trump is uniting the country by helping people who didn t vote for him as if to suggest that he doesn t have to help people who didn t support him in 2016. We look at them as our brothers and sisters in need who are suffering, Conway said. But this man is somebody who has always expressed the capacity and compassion for people in need. Is everyone done laughing yet? Because we all know Trump has zero compassion for anyone. He lacks the capacity to care about others. He only cares about himself and his image. Again, the only reason he went back to Texas a second time is because he refused to take the time to visit victims the first time around. Now he is busy using the victims as props so he can claim to give a damn.Conway then attacked the media for criticizing Trump, despite Huntsman claiming that there was no criticism of this second trip. They look so peevish and so small, Conway said. People are saying he missed an opportunity to unify the country. They are doing exactly that here. And also getting people meeting their needs of food, water, and shelter at the same time. Let s unify as a country beginning with the president. Here s the video via YouTube. The relevant remarks begin at the 5:30 mark.Donald Trump did not unify the country by going to Texas. If anything, he divided it even further by botching his first visit and then attacking the media during his second visit. He couldn t even control himself at a time when petty grievances should be put aside. Kellyanne Conway should be ashamed of herself. And so should Abby Huntsman.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
4,720 | White House Now Planting Fake Stories To Discredit Reporters Who Expose Trump’s Bullsh*t | Apparently, the White House is not pleased that the story of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer furiously confiscating cell phones as he looks for the source of leaks leaked. In fact, the Trump Team is so displeased that the decided to get a little payback against one of the reporters who exposed it.Six hours after the story broke the Washington Examiner published a report claiming that the Alex Isenstadt, co-author of Politico s report on Spicer s leak hunt, laughed at the Navy SEAL Donald Trump s stupidity killed in Yemen.Isenstadt had asked Spicer about one of the leaks a revelation Spicer had berated a junior spokesperson, Jessica Ditto, in the middle of a staff meeting, causing her to cry. The only time Jessica recalls almost getting emotional is when we had to relay the information on the death of Chief Ryan Owens, Spicer said, referring to the SEAL. The Examiner then reports:Unsaid, according to White House officials, is that Isenstadt appeared dismissive and laughed at Spicer s answer. He started laughing about that SEAL, said one informed official, also upset at Politico s insulting description of Ditto in the story as a more junior spokesperson. In reality, Isenstadt chuckled at Spicer s cartoonish reaction to the question. It didn t take long for people to see what was going on:My goodness, this is obvious what's going on here. https://t.co/c8nF0oYigB Steven Ginsberg (@stevenjay) February 27, 2017Reporter writes story WH doesn't like/disputes. WH anonymously plants false story about reporter. https://t.co/2ZGue3uxfz Carrie Budoff Brown (@cbudoffbrown) February 27, 2017@cbudoffbrown @TheDailyEdge My favorite part is that it's anonymously sourced. ??? El Franch se (@dannyboi965) February 27, 2017@stevenjay @maggieNYT Understand that these people will do whatever it takes to get what they want. Bannon is driving this train wreck. OttolineMorrell (@OttolineMorrell) February 27, 2017@stevenjay @dcexaminer They claim media fabricates facts & engineers stories, yet they're doing precisely that. Totally Hitler-esque. TheSheepleResistance (@SheepleResist) February 27, 2017@stevenjay @dcexaminer So the plan here is to plant fake anonymous sources to discredit all anonymous sourcing? Nicole (@skilledscribe) February 27, 2017As some noted, it is particularly hilarious that this was anonymously sourced the exact kind of sourcing Trump says cannot be trusted. Apparently, we can expect to see more of this FAKE NEWS (am I doing that right?) anytime someone makes the Trump administration uncomfortable. Then, of course, there are the dossiers a Trump staffer says the administration has compiled to blackmail non-compliant reporters So, journalists keep reporting everything you can about this corrupt administration until all of you are involved in the Pizzagate coverup. It means you have done your job well.Featured image via Getty Images (John W. Adkisson) | 0 |
4,721 | johnson johnson loses yet another multimillion dollar case over baby powder | by eric blair we recently moved back to the mainland united states after ten years of traveling and living abroad our homeschooled kids are getting | 0 |
4,722 | Any Brexit deal will come at end of two-year negotiations: May | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday she expected any deal with the European Union to be struck close to the end of the two-year negotiating period and only then would Britain know the costs or benefits. We are negotiating a deal. We will not have negotiated that deal until, I suspect, close to the end of the period (which has been set aside), May told parliament. | 1 |
4,723 | Pennsylvania attorney general facing trial will not seek re-election | HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who faces trial in August for allegedly leaking secret grand jury information, on Tuesday ruled out running for a second term. Kane is the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state’s top law enforcement officer, and her current four-year term concludes at the end of 2016. “(I’m) a mother first and foremost,” Kane, who is divorced and has two teenage sons, told reporters at a news conference in Scranton. “I have two very important people at home,” said Kane, 49, of Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. “As you all know, being a single mother… that in itself is a full-time job.” She vigorously defended her time in office, especially her efforts to “rid the state of corruption” but declined to answer further questions. Tuesday marked the deadline in Pennsylvania for filing nominating petitions for the May primary election. Kane was expected to face at least two and possibly three Democratic opponents in the primary while at the same time defending herself against the legal charges. Kane has been in legal hot water ever since her indictment last summer for allegedly passing grand jury information to a reporter as part of a personal feud. Her law license was suspended in October as a result of the grand jury indictment. Kane has portrayed herself as a victim of an “old boys’ network” worried about her efforts to expose prosecutors and Supreme Court judges who had exchanged sexually explicit or offensive emails on state computers. Last week, Democrats in the state Senate defeated a Republican-led effort to remove her from office on the grounds that her suspended law license made it impossible for her to do her job. One of her chief critics, Representative Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican, said on Tuesday he welcomed her decision not to run but also wished she had resigned. He said he would continue to support a separate effort in the House of Representatives to impeach Kane. | 1 |
4,724 | WHOA! Did Donald Trump Just Imply Obama Is Working On Behalf Of Muslim Terrorists? [VIDEO] | And if Trump did indeed imply Obama was working on behalf of Muslim terrorists do you believe he s correct? | 0 |
4,725 | COMMUNIST VIETNAMESE LEADER THANKS U.S. Anti-War Activists For Helping With Their Victory Only Days Before Obama’s Visit | Obama s historic Embracing the Communists Tour wouldn t be complete without a stop in Vietnam All on the American taxpayers dime, of course In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day and President Barack Obama s scheduled trip to Vietnam, a prominent Vietcong communist leader privately thanked American anti-war activists for helping defeat the U.S.-allied government in Vietnam in the 1970s, saying protest demonstrations throughout the United States were extremely important in contributing to Vietnam s victory. For Vietnamese guerrilla leader Madam Nguyen Thi Binh, who sent the private letter from Hanoi dated April 20, victory meant the communist takeover of South Vietnam. The letter addressed veteran American anti-war activists who gathered in Washington, D.C., at a May 3 reunion of radical May Day anti-war leaders.The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a copy of the letter at the meeting.Binh, now age 90, originally served as the highest ranking Vietnamese delegate to the Paris Peace Talks that imposed a ceasefire in the country in 1973.The Vietcong was a ragtag group of communist guerrillas who were allied with the official communist government in North Vietnam. The country was cut in two in 1954, with the south seeking to build a democratic state allied to the West.Binh s frank admission highlights a secret side of the communist s effective lobbying influence in the United States. Rather than live in the southern part of the country, which for decades she represented as a diplomat, it appears after the war Binh was living in Hanoi, the original capital of North Vietnam.In her letter, she extolled the American anti-war movement, saying it was a key component that advanced the communist takeover of South Vietnam. The Vietnamese people have great appreciation for the peace and antiwar movements in the United States and view those movements contribution as important in shortening the war, she wrote and which was read to an assembled group of May Day anti-war activists in Washington, D.C.The May Day tribe consisted of thousands of radical anti-war protesters bent on shutting down Washington, D.C., in May 1971 through three days of massive civil disobedience. More than 12,000 protesters were arrested, for filling the streets to block feds from getting to work.The Nixon administration was so fearful of violence against federal employees, it deployed 5,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division and thousands more from the Marine Corps barracks to protect the 14th Street Bridge, a major thoroughfare into the nation s capital from Virginia.The protesters rallying cry was, if the government won t stop the war, we ll stop the government. The war temporarily ended in 1973 when the Paris Peace Treaty was signed that imposed a ceasefire on all parties.That ceasefire was abruptly broken in 1975, however, when the North Vietnamese forces launched a surprise Spring Offensive. Leading the offensive were hundreds of T-54 and T-55 heavy Russian tanks that left secret sanctuaries in neighboring Cambodia and flooded into South Vietnam. Regular North Vietnamese troops spearheaded the offensive, along with guerrillas tied to the Vietcong, which also called themselves the National Liberation Front of Vietnam.By the time the Russian tanks were about to drive into Saigon, a liberal Congress filled with anti-war lawmakers already had hamstrung their South Vietnamese allies. Congress cut military aid to Saigon by 50 percent and handcuffed the South Vietnamese military facing the communist onslaught by barring any U.S. air support or other meaningful military assistance to the government.The offensive was relatively quick, trapping hundreds of thousands of pro-American Vietnamese troops and millions of civilians who had trusted Washington and openly supported the United States.The lasting images of those dark, chaotic days were captured by American news networks, which showed the panic in the capital city.Harrowing pictures depicted U.S. helicopters frantically trying to ferry thousands of panic-stricken Vietnamese citizens and U.S. officials off the roof of the American Embassy. The videos depicted Vietnamese clinging from helicopters in a desperate effort to escape the onrushing communist army.The defeat ultimately triggered an international humanitarian crisis where at least 800,000 Vietnamese boat people fled their communist conquerors. Many bravely undertook perilous journeys in small boats across the Gulf of Thailand to escape the new communist warlords. An unknown number of refugees drowned in the exodus.After the communists defeated the South Vietnamese army, more than 1 million South Vietnamese citizens who had supported the United States were left behind and imprisoned in re-education camps. About 100,000 faced summary execution by the communist victors.Bill Cowan, who was a Purple Heart Marine platoon leader in Vietnam, told TheDCNF that U.S. troops were demoralized when the U.S. media only highlighted anti-war protesters and not the heroism of many of the Vietnamese who were trying to keep their country free. The media fueled the anti-war movement, empowering the protestors, the North Vietnamese, and the Vietcong, he told TheDCNF. It was rare to have a good news story about what was happening there, Cowan said. I recall a reporter coming to interview me at the village I was living at and apologizing after she was done by saying, You know, this story will probably never see the light of day. My editors will quash it because it has too many good things in here about what you guys are doing. Cowan told TheDCNF.Fred Rustmann, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was deployed in Vietnam for two years and later assigned to cover the Paris Peace Talks where Binh was the chief Vietcong delegate, called her a great propagandist. She was really the propaganda arm of the Vietcong. And she was very effective. She was living in a villa in Paris in the southern suburbs, which was a very communist, socialist neighborhood, Rustmann told TheDCNF in an interview. He said ironically Binh spent more time in Paris than in Vietnam.In Paris, she was regularly interviewing with leftist news organization. She had these leftist kids and try to influence them. I believe she met several times with Jane Fonda. Binh actually recalled in her latest letter many meetings she had with American anti-war activists. She wrote, The first time I met representatives of the American anti-war movement was at a week-long conference held in Bratislava in 1967, with the attendees of about forty Americans. Before parting, we were shaking hands, holding hands, she recalled in her letter, adding, During the war years, I also met many other Americans in different places organized by U.S. citizen groups opposed to the war. Obama visited Vietnam last week for a three-day trip, and hailed its communist leadership and downplayed the human rights problems that persist.Hours before Air Force One touched down, Vietnam had scheduled national elections for its one-party National Assembly. Reminiscent of previous old communist regimes from the Soviet Union days, the state-run press reported that 98.77 percent of the public voted in the election.Only one sentence in Obama s main speech to the Vietnamese public made any reference to human rights problems in the country.Vietnamese government officials also blocked dissidents from meeting with Obama or his advisers when the American delegation arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said it shows the meeting was the source of significant discomfort for Vietnam s rulers. Via: Daily Caller | 0 |
4,726 | House Speaker Ryan easily wins primary: media | MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan handily won a primary election for his congressional seat on Tuesday, a contest overshadowed by presidential candidate Donald Trump’s brief refusal last week to endorse his fellow Republican. Ryan, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2012, had roughly 84 percent of the vote compared with challenger Paul Nehlen’s 16 percent, with 87 percent of voting areas reporting results, the Journal Sentinel reported at 11 p.m. local time. “I am humbled and honored that Wisconsinites in the 1st Congressional District support my efforts to keep fighting on their behalf,” Ryan said in a statement. In the general election for the 1st Congressional District seat in southeast Wisconsin on Nov. 8, he will likely face Iraq war veteran Ryan Solen, who won the Democrat primary on Tuesday. Nehlen thanked his supporters in a brief Twitter post after the polls closed. “Truly an amazing journey,” he said. The race became the center of attention a week ago when Trump refused to endorse Ryan during an interview with the Washington Post. In a sign of the tension between the politicians, Trump told the newspaper he was “not quite there yet” - echoing a phrase Ryan had used about Trump. On Friday, Trump endorsed Ryan and Senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire during a campaign stop in Green Bay, a show of support that could be a step to mend his frayed relations with fellow Republicans. Trump, a former reality TV star, has troubled many in the Republican establishment with his off-the-cuff, often insulting, style and controversial policies. These include a proposed ban on Muslims visiting the United States and his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out undocumented immigrants. Ryan, Ayotte and McCain had criticized Trump’s feud with the family of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery. Trump had a running dispute with Khan’s parents after they criticized him at last month’s Democratic National Convention. | 1 |
4,727 | Trump chooses pro wrestling magnate Linda McMahon to head SBA | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will nominate professional wrestling magnate and former Senate candidate Linda McMahon as his choice to head the Small Business Administration. Trump’s announcement said McMahon would be a key player in his effort to generate stronger job growth and roll back federal regulations. McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former CEO of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010. She was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. The SBA, which has at least one office in every U.S. state, provides support to small businesses such as by extending loans and making sure they get a percentage of federal contracts. Trump said McMahon had helped the WWE grow from a 13-person operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees worldwide. Trump is a WWE Hall of Fame member. If confirmed by the Senate, McMahon would join a Trump economic team that includes Wall Street executives Steven Mnuchin at the Treasury Department and Wilbur Ross at Commerce. “Linda has a tremendous background and is widely recognized as one of the country’s top female executives advising businesses around the globe,” Trump said in the announcement. McMahon said her goal as the SBA chief would be to promote small businesses and help them grow and thrive. “Our small businesses are the largest source of job creation in our country,” she said. | 1 |
4,728 | WATCH: Trump Supporters Believe These BIZARRE Campaign Ads Are Real (VIDEO) | During a segment of Triumph s Summer Election Special, Donald Trump supporters got trolled hard. A group of Trump supporters volunteered to be a part of a focus group. As far as the Trump supporters know, they have been selected to watch and review potential Trump campaign video advertisements.What they don t know is that the campaign ads they are watching are entirely fictional. The point of the prank is to test the supporter s loyalty to their chosen candidate. We decided to assemble a group of them for an unfiltered view at how they connect with Trump s vision for America, as Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog puts it.The phony ads they watch are rather extreme bizarre even. During the ad, a Trump impersonator says that they will build a giant electrified fence as a temporary way to keep any illegals out while they construct the real wall that Trump has promised to build if he is elected president.The people in the focus group also watch an ad where Trump calls out Hillary Clinton, demanding that she reveal to the world that she is a man pretending to be a woman.Another ad features Trump s solution to helping women feel more secure in bathrooms. Rather than banning transgender individuals from using the restroom, Trump will provide every woman who uses a public bathroom with a firearm.Spoiler alert: The Trump supporters totally fall for the gag, believing they are real. Now, it is important to keep in mind that research has shown that people tend to offer opinions about subjects that are ridiculous. However, given just how extreme the advertisements are, it s still rather pathetic not to mention hilarious.You can watch the video in full, below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
4,729 | Cops Dragged A Half-Naked Woman Into Her Courtroom, But What This Judge Did Is AWESOME (VIDEO) | A Louisville, Kentucky Metro Corrections judge was outraged when jail officials dragged a female, African-American inmate before her. The woman was not wearing a jail jumpsuit, and appeared to not be wearing any pants, period. Speaking of those, the inmate says she was denied feminine hygiene products, as well. What the hell is going on? a clearly exasperated Judge Amber Wolf demanded upon seeing the woman, whose attorney explained that jailers refused to give her pants and any kind of hygiene products that she needed specifically feminine hygiene products. This is outrageous; is this for real? the judge asked, wondering if she was in the Twilight Zone. This can t wait, Wolf said as she pulled out her phone and angrily made a phone call demanding that someone come explain to her why the woman was not given pants. What the hell is going on? Wolf said into the phone. I m holding her here until she is dressed appropriately to go back to jail. This is outrageous. She then demanded that court staff find anything, I don t care what it is that the woman could use to cover herself.Jail officials say that the woman was wearing athletic shorts, the same ones she was wearing when she was arrested three days prior, when she made her court appearance. In other words, she was forced to wear dirty clothing for multiple days in a row. This was their defense. On top of that, jail spokesman Steve Durham says that it is standard practice to put inmates through this sort of dehumanizing treatment: This is pretty standard that when individuals are arrested, they remain in the clothing that they ve been arrested in, Especially for the first 72 hours. But Metro Corrections Deputy Director Dwayne Clark, who brought the defendant pants, says that this was completely improper. Dressed like she was, she should have been changed into a jumpsuit, he said. I gotta look into why she wasn t. Wolf released the woman, who was put through all this for failing to complete a diversion program after a years-old shoplifting charge, on time served with a $100 fine, saying that the jail also dropped the ball by holding her for more than a day. This is not normal. I ve never seen this happen, Wolf told the woman, describing her treatment as completely inhumane. I m sorry you had to go through this, the judge said.Watch footage of this badass in a robe standing up for someone s basic human rights below:WDRB 41 Louisville NewsFeatured image via screengrab | 0 |
4,730 | A Racist Massacre In Milwaukee This Week Shows Where The Politics Of Hate Will Lead America | This week, a racially-motivated massacre took place at an apartment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The triple homicide shows where the politics of hate will lead America.Three people were slaughtered in horrifying circumstances this week, because their white neighbor was enraged by their ethnic origin and grasp of the English language. The terrifying scenes unfolded at a four unit apartment complex. One unit was occupied by Dan J Popp, one by the Manso-Perez family, and one by Phia Vue, his wife Mai, and their four children.The Journel-Sentinel reports that 40-year-old Jesus R. Manso-Perez and his son passed the apartment of their 39-year-old neighbor Dan J. Popp on their way to the basement laundry room. Popp invited them into his home with the offer of a neigborly beer, which they declined. Popp then cut short the niceties and got straight to his point, asking the pair where they were from. At their response, he reportedly said: Oh, that s why you don t speak English. You re Puerto Rican. The father and son bid their goodbyes and went on to do their laundry. However, when they made their way back up to their apartment, Popp was waiting for them on the stairs, rifle in hand. You guys got to go, Popp said, according to police, before shooting Jesus in the head, killing him. He then fired at his son, but missed.Hearing the gunshots, Phia and Mai K. Vue hid in the bedroom with their four children and a 25-year-old relative who had been watching the children that day. The couple had just returned home from a day trip. When Popp began hammering at their door, they called the police and stayed in their hiding places. But Popp kicked down their door and searched the home until he found them. He demanded 36-year-old Phia leave the room, took him into the bathroom and shot him dead. Then he returned for Mai, dragging her and two young daughters out of the apartment while the rest of the family ran out in front and around them.The couple s young son was first to reach the police and told them: He shot my father; he s in the bathroom. A further shot then rang out from the apartment complex as Popp shot and killed 32-year-old Mai.Popp then surrendered himself to police. He has no previous criminal record, and is detained on bail of $150,000, while mental health assessments are completed.The explosion of violence is however, the terrifying end game of the ever escalating racist rhetoric and violence we are seeing in the current political climate. The very worst elements of white America are being unleashed. The bitter hatred of difference, the idea that non-European immigrants to the United States are the root of all evil and that everything wrong with the nation can be traced back to those groups.There is very good reason why, at home and abroad, the rise of the racist right in modern America is being compared to the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1930 s Germany. That reason is simple: the comparison is accurate.Depressed wages, a perceived crisis of masculinity, the demand for a tough leader who would drive through his agenda as an authoritarian, an obsession with a perceived dent to national pride which must be remedied with a show of economic and military force at home and abroad and pure, unadulterated racism.When you unleash this level of anger at a scapegoat, people set out to hurt and kill that scapegoat.This is the vision of America that the racist right represents. And it is a vision of hell.The victory of such forces would be a disaster for America as a nation, but also for the international community in which she sits. This is not some television show where we sit back and watch the fall-out from the safety of our couch. This is real life. The racist right is a real and present danger, and it must be confronted with relentless and unwavering opposition by everyone who has a stake in a progressive, free, and hopeful America.Featured image via Gawker | 0 |
4,731 | VIGILANTE PIRATES INTERCEDE Where Government Fails: Prevent Refugees From Reaching Sweden’s Shores | Like the Soldiers of Oden vigilante group we reported about in February, the National Framed vigilante group is tired of waiting for an inept government to protect its citizens from dangerous criminals arriving by boat from nations who have no intention of assimilating in their country. They ve decided instead, to take matters into their own hands A far right group of vigilante pirate migrant hunters are patrolling Sweden s southern coast by speedboat in a bid to tackle illegal immigration.Nationell Framtid s boats monitor the strait of resund, a 5km stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden for illegal migrants who they say are entering Sweden with the help of organised criminal gangs and left wing Danish do-gooders who think they are helping .Their pseudo-paramilitary get up all in black punctuated with a bright red tie and insignia badge on their chest paired with black balaclavas and doc martins are a sinister sight on the misty water.Dennis Ljung, 31, leads the patrol his far right group the Nationell Framtid translated as National Future emerged in April last year during the migrant crisis. We need to take our country back. Our aim is to cleanse our nation free of all immigrants. What we do out on the ocean is just a small step to stop more the mass immigration we have faced for decades, he told MailOnline.While he is heavily in debt and unemployed, Dennis is one of the few members of the group without a criminal record according to local media reports. At least 11 members have reportedly been convicted for weapons offences and several violent crimes. He dismisses allegations the organisation has neo-Nazi sympathies despite also admitting that of course they are in touch with the Soldiers of Odin a gang of violent white supremacist vigilantes patrolling Finland s streets to prevent migrant sex attacks . We are a broader organisation than them. We have a written manifesto that outlines our political views, and a code of conduct for how members of Nationell Framtid are supposed to behave we are not supposed to use violence unless it is necessary for example, said Dennis. I will never say that we are an organisation of Nazis. Of course we have members who have been involved in that movement, but we are strong nationalists. That is it. Far right vigilante anti-migrant groups across Europe have mushroomed since violence blamed on newcomers rocked the continent.While authorities say they received a record 163,000 applications for asylum in 2015 and are expecting a further 100,000 this year, nearly half may be rejected.Members of Nationell Framtid have been drawn to the group for different reasons, but one thing is clear they feel the government is not doing enough to prevent illegal immigration to Sweden.Two small speedboats patrol the strait, three men per boat who work 5 or 6 days each week.To help them track down their target suspicious boats , they re armed with radar, radios, binoculars and intel from supporters in Denmark who tip them off to when are where smugglers cross. Once their target is acquired, the team spring into action.Charging through the waters at full speed, shouting warnings through a megaphone the men tell the captain to stop and that they have called the police then shadow them until they leave the Swedish coastline and return to Denmark.If they refuse, the men manoeuvre their small speedboat in front of the boat to stop them from progressing and scream: We won t leave until you turn around . All boats that we challenge have turned around and gone back to Denmark, Dennis told MailOnline. In most cases we haven t actually seen any immigrants, we just know that they are inside the boats. At first, their aggressive tactics and menacing attire caused a problem, Dennis admitted to MailOnline during a three-hour interview on their boat in the middle of the strait. As three men in balaclavas and black uniforms we can easily be seen as some kind of modern age pirates. If they have not heard about us they probably see us as dangerous maniacs, but people are used to us and seem to accept what we are doing. Some even praise us since the coast guard is not doing its job, he said. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
4,732 | Pope denounces healthcare inequality in rich countries | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis condemned on Thursday inequality in healthcare, particularly in rich countries, saying governments had a duty to ensure the common good for all its citizens. Increasingly sophisticated and costly treatments are available to ever more limited and privileged segments of the population, Francis said in an address to a conference of European members of the World Medical Association. This raises questions about the sustainability of healthcare delivery and about what might be called a systemic tendency toward growing inequality in healthcare, he said. The tendency was clearly apparent when you compared healthcare cover between countries and continents, the pope said, adding that it was also visible within more wealthy countries, where access to healthcare risks being more dependent on individuals economic resources than on their actual need for treatment. Francis did not mention any countries. Healthcare is a big issue in the United States, where President Donald Trump has vowed to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, introduced by his predecessor, Barack Obama, which aimed to make it easier for lower-income households to get health insurance. He said healthcare legislation needed a broad vision and a comprehensive view of what most effectively promotes the common good in each concrete situation. In speaking of end-of-life issues, Francis re-affirmed the Catholic Church s long-standing teaching that it is morally acceptable for a patient or a family to suspend or reject disproportionate measures to keep a terminally ill person alive. But he stressed that this was different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death . Regarding end-of-life decisions, the pope said governments had a duty to protect all those involved, defending the fundamental equality whereby everyone is recognized under law as a human being living with others in society . | 1 |
4,733 | Trump Just Threw APPALLING Temper Tantrums At Some Of Our Closest Allies On The Phone | Trump has wasted absolutely no time letting some of our allies know what he really thinks of them. On a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, he went off about a pledge the U.S. made to accept 1,250 refugees from a detention center in Australia. There are also rumors floating around that he threatened to send troops to Mexico if they don t get a handle on the border situation.While speaking to Mexico s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, last Friday, he allegedly told Nieto to control Mexico s bad hombres, or else we would send troops in to do it for him. The Associated Press first reported on an excerpt someone in the White House gave them of the phone call s transcript: You have a bunch of bad hombres down there, Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. You aren t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn t, so I just might send them down to take care of it. Both the White House and Pena Nieto are denying that the call went this way, but a Mexican news outlet published something similar to what the AP has, and even said Trump was humiliating Pena Nieto. If it is, indeed, true that Trump said these words, then he seriously just cut down and threatened one of our neighbors with military action, or worse, invasion. Which would be the next logical step seeing as how he s done everything else he can to piss Mexico off.With Australian Prime Minister Turnbull, who was trying to confirm that we d honor our pledge to accept refugees, Trump said, This is the worst deal ever, and accused Turnbull of trying to send the next Boston bombers to us. He also blasted Turnbull about how the deal was going to kill him politically, because that s really what matters to him. Actually doing his job? Meh.Australia is one of our closest allies and Trump not only tore into him, it sounds like he hung up on Turnbull, too, well before the call was scheduled to end.We ve fought alongside, and received support from, Australia in the Middle East. They are not an ally we want to alienate, and yet, here Trump is, working as hard as he possibly can to do just that until they fall in line with what he wants.He also spent part of the call bragging about his inauguration numbers really? He s still not over that?Anybody who thought Trump would calm the hell down after winning the election, and actually treat foreign leaders with the dignity and respect of everyone else, was sorely mistaken. He uses Twitter to berate anyone with whom he has a disagreement why would he treat foreign leaders any differently?When he s finished bullying the entire world, we won t have any allies left (except maybe Russia).Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images | 0 |
4,734 | FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP ON WOMEN’S DAY: “I’m an Immigrant Who Grew Up Under Communism So I Know All About Equality” [Video] | As an immigrant myself, having grown up in a communist society, I know all too well the value and importance of freedom and equal opportunity. Ideas which this great nation was founded and has continued to strive towards throughout its history. It was all women except when the President and Vice President walked in to say a few words: A few of the women attending were: Second lady Karen Pence: Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway:Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, Monaco s ambassador to the U.S. Maguy Maccario Doyle and first daughter Ivanka Trump:Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
4,735 | Trump offers to mediate talks on Qatar crisis | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be willing to step in and mediate the worst dispute in decades among the U.S.-allied Arab states and Qatar, and said he thinks a deal could come quickly. If I can help mediate between Qatar and, in particular, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, I would be willing to do so, and I think you would have a deal worked out very quickly, Trump said at a joint news conference with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes with the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which is home to the region s biggest U.S. military base. The nations say Doha supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, charges Qatar s leaders deny. Kuwait has been trying to mediate the dispute. What is important is that we have stopped any military action, Sheikh Sabah said. While both sides in the dispute have ruled out the use of armed force, some ordinary Qataris have said they worry about the possibility of military action, given the ferocity of the criticism their country has received from media in the four Arab states. Sheikh Sabah said he had received a letter from Qatar that expressed willingness to discuss a list of 13 demands from its neighbors. We know that not all of these 13 demands are acceptable, Sheikh Sabah said, referring specifically to issues that affected Qatari sovereignty. A great part of them will be resolved, he said. For its part, Doha said Trump had called Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss mediation efforts. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Al Jazeera TV that any mediation had to come without conditions , reiterating that Doha would not negotiate while transport links with neighbors remained cut. The Arab powers responded with a joint statement accusing Qatar of putting preconditions on negotiations which it said showed a lack of seriousness in resolving the dispute. The four countries reiterated an accusation that Qatar continued to finance terrorism and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Qatari officials have repeatedly said the demands are so draconian that they suspect the four countries never seriously intended to negotiate them, and were instead seeing to hobble Doha s sovereignty. At the same time, they have said Qatar is interested in negotiating a fair and just solution to any legitimate issues of concern to fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member states. The joint statement praised what the countries called Trump s firm assertion that the only way to resolve the crisis was by stopping the support and financing of terrorism and his unwillingness to resolve the crisis unless this is achieved . They expressed regret about the Kuwaiti emir s comment about stopping military intervention. The military option was not and will not be (used) in any circumstance, the statement said. | 1 |
4,736 | WATCH: Wolf Blitzer NAILS Giuliani To The Wall For Ten Grueling Minutes Over His FBI Claims | Sometimes it takes a wolf to catch a snake.Rudy Giuliani has been making the media rounds over the last two days, bragging that he knew about FBI Director James Comey s letter two days before it went public.That means Giuliani has been getting inside information from the supposedly non-partisan Federal Bureau of Investigation that he has likely been passing on to Donald Trump, which means the FBI appears to be colluding with Trump s campaign to sabotage Hillary Clinton.And during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday night, Giuliani was cornered over it because the only way he could possibly get such information is if a current FBI agent is passing information to him personally, or through someone else. No, I ve spoken to no current FBI agents, Giuliani claimed when asked by Blitzer. Gosh, in the last eight months, nine months, ten months, certainly not about this. Then Giuliani claimed that everything he has been hearing is just hearsay. But that apparently has not stopped him from spewing the hearsay on Fox News and elsewhere in an effort to smear Hillary Clinton. So, I ve had lots of conversations with them and they have told me a lot about the I guess the disagreement between the Justice Department on the one hand and the FBI on the other. But it all comes from former FBI agents and it s all hearsay. But that s hard to believe since Giuliani claimed that he knew about Comey s letter two days in advance and that letter was actually released. It was not hearsay.Blitzer then hit Giuliani with a statement written by Democratic congressmen accusing him of obtaining leaked information from FBI agents.The statement reads: This morning Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump s closest and most vocal campaign advisers, appeared on national television and confirmed that he had obtained leaked information about the FBI s review of Clinton-related e-mails several days before FBI Director James Comey sent his letter to Congress last Friday about this letter. In fact, Mr. Giuliani went even further and bragged about the information that he had obtained stating, Did I hear about it? You re darn right I heard about it. Again, the only way Giuliani could have heard about this is if a current FBI agent leaked the information to him or passed it to him through someone else. Either way, the FBI has a serious breach that is being used to help Donald Trump. That s not correct, Giuliani responded. I ve had no conversations with anyone inside the FBI. I have heard for the last four months a tremendous amount of information about the consternation within the FBI, the fact that FBI agents were very unhappy about the way they were being treated by the Justice Department. But none of it came from any current I haven t talked to a current FBI agent. So Giuliani just admitted that he is getting this information from former agents who are getting the information from current agents.Blitzer actually got Giuliani to claim that he didn t know that Comey was going to release the information he did, and that it came as a surprise, but Giuliani did an about-face only seconds later and said it wasn t a surprise. Seriously, Blitzer did a great job of getting Giuliani to tie himself in knots.The former NYC mayor then repeated his alleged hearsay once again by claiming that he has heard from his sources that FBI agents are angry at the Justice Department for not indicting Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that Director Comey recommended that charges were not warranted.Giuliani then claimed that he read articles about it somewhere, but didn t specify where the articles came from and said he s not sure if they are true.So Giuliani claims that he is talking to former FBI agents, and that what he has heard is merely hearsay that he spreads anyway as if it s the truth, and then he claims that he read this information in articles even though he doesn t know if what he is reading is the truth, and he still repeats it to anyone within earshot.And Wolf Blitzer drove a stake through the heart of Giuliani s bullshit by asking one question. But let me ask you a question, Mayor. If you don t know it s true, why are you suggesting it? Why are you going on national television talking about these issues if you don t know it s true? Giuliani once again touted his FBI sources, only to then be informed by Blitzer that FBI agents sign a form agreeing to never reveal information about investigations and that they have a responsibility to not leak information to people like Giuliani.Here s the video via YouTube.[ad3media campaign= 1302 ]The FBI should be thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department to find out who is leaking information to a private citizen who also happens to be a surrogate for a presidential candidate who will do anything to smear his opponent in an effort to win the election. This is a major breach within the FBI and it definitely looks like the FBI is working with Republicans to persecute Hillary Clinton. People need to be fired for this and the first person to lose their job should be Director Comey.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
4,737 | poll sexism was not a factor in hillarys loss daily wire | aaron bandler november
presidentelect donald trump that is still a term that is surreal to a lot of people as he was not expected to win on tuesday what were the driving factors that propelled trump to the presidency how was he able to pull off such a stunning upset
here are seven reasons why trump won
hillary clinton was unable to get the minority vote to turn out for her last night dems were calling the race a whitelash wrong mitt won of white vote trump won minority voters didnt turn out david french davidafrench november
in fact trump was able to get a larger share of the minority vote than mitt romney did in as the daily wire has explained
unsurprisingly trump lost to clinton in the latino and black votes by margins of percent to percent and percent and percent respectively surprisingly this was better than romney fared among the aforementioned demographics in as he lost both groups by margins of percent to percent and percent to percent respectively
michael barone has noted that turnout fell in heavily black philadelphia cleveland detroit and milwaukee millennial generation turnout was tepid and trump carried white millennials by points
the enthusiasm was just not there for clinton
trump was able to pull in former obama voters according to the washington post trump was able to win over onethird of the counties that went for obama twice clinton was only able to win six of the counties that didnt go for obama trump was better at obtaining crossover voters than clinton was
so who are these former obama voters who voted for trump in and what caused them to switch
these former obama voters felt that trump cared about them and the democrat party did not john daniel davidson explains in the federalist that clinton and the democrat party took the bluecollar working class whites in the rust belt for grantedexemplified by clintons pledge to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of businessand it was to their detriment the rust belt has been in economic decline for years but it has suffered greatly from the obama administrations regulations towards coal
while the democrats wrote off the rust belt trump actually acknowledged their struggles and that was all it took
trump was the first national political figure in generations who saw them acknowledged that they have been left behind that their cities and towns are in a state of persistent decline and promised to help out somehow writes davidson when youre used to being dismissed as bitter folks who cling to guns and religion as president obama did in or denounced as deplorables and irredeemable as hillary clinton did during this election respect goes a long wayeven if there are no easy solutions from washington or anywhere else to the problems that plague your town
the fbi reopening its investigation into hillarys emails helped trump per redstate author ed klein said on the steve malzberg show that clinton was sobbing inconsolably on election night and was blaming fbi director james comey reopening the investigation as well as obama for not stopping the investigation as to why she lost
theres no question that the reopening of the investigation did considerably help trump as the polls severely tightened after the announcement poll numbers showed that the vast majority of americans felt that hillary was acting in an immoral manner the spotlight was off of trumps vulgar comments towards women and his sexual assault accusers and instead the focus was on clintons private email server but clinton is leaving out one major person who is responsible for her loss
hillary was a terrible candidate if clinton had been elected president she would have been the first elected president to have been the subject of numerous fbi investigations she broke the law by using her private email server to conduct official state department business and there was a lot of quid pro quo that occurred at the clinton foundation clinton is robotic and devoid of charisma with a record in politics that is short of accomplishments but rich in failure sleaze and corruption basically clinton is an obama democrat without obamas charm according to jonah goldberg
she may have been the only democratic candidate that could lose to trump and the democrats wanted to coronate her from the beginning they have no one to blame but themselves for president trump
the public no longer has any faith in the mediaand that includes latenight comics will rahn wrote at cbs news that the unbearable smugness of the clintonbiased media was offputting to a lot of voters as they sneered at trump supporters as stupid backward hicks while doing everything they could to prop up clinton trumps vitriol toward the press ended up benefiting him politically poll numbers reflect this as trust in the media has declined over the years rahn explains
journalists increasingly dont even believe in the possibility of reasoned disagreement and as such ascribe cynical motives to those who think about things a different way we see this in the ongoing veneration of facts the ones peddled by explainer websites and data journalists who believe themselves to be curiously postideological
that the explainers and data journalists so frequently get things hilariously wrong never invites the soulsearching youd think it would instead it all just somehow leads us to more smugness more meanness more certainty from the reporters and pundits faced with defeat we retreat further into our bubble assumptions left unchecked no its the voters who are wrong
as a direct result we get it wrong with greater frequency out on the road we forget to ask the right questions we cant even imagine the right question we go into assignments too certain that what we find will serve to justify our biases the publics estimation of the press declines even further fewer than oneinthree americans trust the press per gallup which starts the cycle anew
the same applies to latenight comics mollie hemingway writes in the federalist that jon stewart is partly responsible for the election of trump because of how he singlehandedly destroyed cnns crossfire resulting in a new age of hyperpolitical hyperliberal latenight comedy stewarts the daily show spawned stephen colbert john oliver trevor noah and several other lefty comics that perverted comedy into smarmy leftwing political lectures talking down to conservatives
jon stewart is known for brutally deriding a show that featured people of differing views civilly discussing issues of the day writes hemingway he got that show killed and significantly strengthened the world where cultural elites engaged in groupthink mockery of those with whom they disagree the results include a further erosion of civility a decrease in americans ability to understand each other and their concerns and of all things presidentelect donald trump
which all culminates into the main reason why trump was elected
americans are tired of being trashed by leftist elites ben shapiro explains
trump won because many americans were sick of being told that they were the racists as barack obama and his department of justice stoked race riots in major cities around the country
trump won because many americans were sick of watching other americans being destroyed for their supposed intolerance for their religious beliefs for their unwillingness to label women men and men women for their support for traditional marriage or conservative political candidates
trump won because many americans were tired of the medias constant harping on americas flaws we were supposedly sexist racist and homophobic americans said that they did not believe the media and they were right to do so
in other words the left has been tearing down america as a country infested with intolerant prejudicial bigots who are incapable of thinking for themselves and needed to rely on them on how to live their lives the people finally had had enough so they elected the man whom they felt best stuck it to the leftist elites tags | 1 |
4,738 | WELL, DUH! Transgender Wins International Women’s Weightlifting Title | Just last month a transgender high school wrestler won wrestling the girls:BRITISH COLUMNIST KATIE HOPKINS Has BRUTAL Reaction To Trans H.S. Student Beating Girls In Wrestling Matches [VIDEO]NEW ZEALAND TRANSGENDER WINS WEIGHTLIFTING TITLE:Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has dominated her first major competition, taking out the Australian International in Melbourne on a night she made history as the first transgender athlete to represent New Zealand.Hubbard, 39, won the women s over 90kg division at the Melbourne event, setting four unofficial national records in the process. Hubbard lifted a combined total of 268kg 19kg better than silver medallist Iuniarra Sipaia of Samoa.Australia s Kaitlyn Fassina claimed the bronze medal with 223kg.Read more: NZ Herald | 0 |
4,739 | the battle at unesco | what feminists can learn from melania trump october ilana mercer
in recent interviews donald trumps wife melania trump observed wryly that almost every malicious liefilled article about herself or he husband was written by a female indeed women seem to have a particular stake in bringing mr trump down
the contrast between mrs trump and the many histrionic shrews prosecuting her husband is stark in both her interviews with cnns condescending anderson cooper and fox newss ainsley earhardt mrs trump was the embodiment of strength
when a liberal woman declares shes a strong woman usually uttered in a tartlike staccato inflection shes using a cliché look at her actions youll see that strong to liberal distaff means kicking and screaming until she brings others into compliance with her worldview and ways
a strong liberal woman is one who hammers you about your obligation to forkout for her trojans and her trivora and if birth control fails our liberated libertine then youre on the hook for her abortions and abortifacients and dont dare doubt any of the intemperate charges leveled by this prototype liberal succubus against a man any man to doubt her is to harm her
it was not without significance that hillary clintons first general election speech in june was before planned parenthood at the time media buried the story of one named rajiv k fernando who had donated to the clinton foundation and was given a seat as hillarys nuclear weapons advisor watching this i was thinking endemic corruption the trillion debt the dire jobs report the terrifying prospect of negative interest rates and the fate of savers but hillary and her gynobrigade in media and across the country were cheering for a universal right to taxpayerpaid dilation and curettage dc
melania trump on the other hand is authentically strong
in her refusal to impart salacious tellall tidbits to interviewers in the way she guards her privacy and that of her family in her serene gracious and beautiful manners and bearingmrs trump exemplifies a european womans good breeding shes a class act her enemies are the cultural underclass
nor does mrs trump display any of the histrionics about men exhibited by her american counterparts there are images on the internet of presidents being inappropriate with women in particular you can watch a grainy youtube clip of barack obama appearing to be showing off his crotch to giggling female reporters in another the president with frances nicolas sarkozy is eying the shapely behind of a young woman passing by much to media chagrin melania refused to get worked up about the access hollywood tape in which her husband engaged in lockerroom talk
men will be men if theyre not saying it theyre thinking it
more material than her mien were melania trumps words of reason on the sovietstyle witchhunt launched against her husband with media mediation she said this all sexual assault allegations should be handled in a court of law to accuse someone man or woman without evidence is damaging and unfair this was the exact verdict of famed defense attorney tom mesereau about the bill cosby pileon quit the feeding frenzy give the man his due process investigate the women counseled mesereau esq at the time
the very embodiment of the malevolent liberal matriarchy rising is the sainted michelle obama the first lady was lauded for an unhinged antitrump address to the nations women in a world where americans have been beheaded on camera women raped en masse on europes streets and christians exterminated in the middle eastthe first lady bewailed being shaken to her shallow core by raunchy words i cant stop thinking about it groaned michelle about mr trumps access hollywood indiscretion it has shaken me to my core in a way i could not have predicted
the ritualistic decapitation on the altar of a catholic priest by muslim migrants in france thats something i cant stop thinking about the machinegunning of five macys shoppers and employees by a turkish muslim immigrant arcan cetin in my neck of the woods that has shaken me to my core in a way i could not have predicted again mrs obamas pitiful case against mr trump has strengthened nothing but her dramaqueen credentials
candidate clinton crowed that mrs obamas long whinge for women was a compelling and strong case about the stakes in the election about who we are as americans indeed the implicit case michelle put to women is this a mammoth national debt a shrinking job market rising lawlessness and racial strife an annual intake of mostly thirdworld immigrants exceeding million the dangers to life and limb of importing more islam fuhgeddaboudit what counts whimpered michelle obama voice tremblingyes mrs obama almost brought herself to tearswas to ferret out microaggression and find a safeplace to hunker down
as i write sen elizabeth warren has stormed a stage somewhere for hillary clinton phony pocahontas is hollering about the power of nasty women to immiserate clinton and warren make for a resentful domineering powerhungry pair whove made it big in life through the use of state power the human backdrop to their displays of female force invariably looks the same
whereas trump rallies are packed with hopefilled beaming faces a clintonwarren affair is festooned with malevolentlooking aggrieved women and their frightened lowt houseboys the background music enfeebled squeaking courtesy of a female pop singer like katy perry whose outoftune yelps and bedroom whispers would be unheard if not for the marvel of autotune autotune is the holy grail of recording that corrects intonation problems in vocals or solo instruments in real time without distortion or artifacts it was invented by a male engineer
shudder
if this melodramatic neurotic message is the voice of americas womenand legions of republican women have seconded itthen count me with her with melania | 1 |
4,740 | UK not prepared to pay for EU single market access during transition: government source | FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) - Britain is not prepared to pay for access to the European Union s single market during a post-Brexit transition period, a UK government source said on Friday. During a speech in Florence Prime Minister Theresa May called for Britain to stay in the single market under its current terms during a roughly two-year transition period. Following the speech, a government source said Britain was categorically not prepared to pay for single market access, and that a commitment to honor Britain s obligations referred only to specific programs during the transition period. | 1 |
4,741 | Secret Service Officially Can’t Afford To Pay Agents Thanks To Trump’s Constant Golf Trips | Donald Trump has been wasting taxpayer dollars on his personal vacations, protection for his giant golden tower in New York, security at his golf clubs, and pretty much everything else you can imagine ever since he assumed office, but if you needed an example of how bad things are we can t even afford to pay the Secret Service agents protecting him anymore.CNBC reports that more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year thanks to the crushing workload Donald Trump has brought them.The Secret Service has a big job with the Trump family. Not only do they have to protect him as he jaunts from golf course to golf course, but they are also forced to protect his sniveling children on their business trips both in the United States and abroad. The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law, Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles said in an interview. I can t change that. I have no flexibility. The Trump family is such a big problem that Alles says that without more funding, he won t even be able to pay agents for work they have already done:The compensation crunch is so serious that the director has begun discussions with key lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents, from $160,000 per year to $187,000 for at least the duration of Trump s first term.But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, according to the agency. I don t see this changing in the near term, Alles said.As the Trump family continues to bleed the country dry with their constant vacations and business trips all of which require Secret Service protection Congress is actually considering giving them more money to flush down the toilet as they are forced to pay for hotel rooms, travel, and even $60,000 (and growing) in golf cart rentals.The solution isn t to give the Trump family more money. It s time for Congress to take action to limit travel or pass legislation that would exempt personal vacations and business trips for the President s children from requiring Secret Service protection once the agency s budget has been exhausted.It s time for the Trump family to begin living within the country s means.Featured image via Getty Images/Alex wong | 0 |
4,742 | Trump Fans Start Screaming ‘WIKILEAKS’ In PATHETIC Attempt To Link Trump’s ‘Assassin’ To Hillary | In a sorry attempt to smear the protester who allegedly threatened Trump with a sign in Reno, people are already working on creating fake connections for Austyn Crites, who didn t even have the gun the Trumpkins at the Reno rally claimed. Since the original story disintegrated before their eyes, they re now turning to other, ahem, methods to show that Hillary was really behind Crites non-assassination attempt.Crites is a #NeverTrumper, but is still a Republican and has no ties to Hillary that anyone s aware of. Nevertheless, Trump is among the first who tried to paint him as such by asking how much Hillary had paid him to protest at his rally. That was just before he told his people to get Crites out of there.There are stories floating around claiming that, because Crites name has been mentioned on Wikileaks, he must be a paid Hillary shill. Nobody could ever possibly show up on the joke that is Wikileaks if they re not connected to Hillary in some way, right? Right. Ha. Crites name apparently does show up on Wikileaks, but even this right-wing site says they re not in connection with any of Podesta s emails. Rather, he shows up in connection with a company called Stratfor, which is a global intelligence agency The Atlantic characterizes as just The Economist a week later and several hundred times more expensive. Yet Wikileaks claims that Stratfor is a front for a global network of shadowy informants and spies, and even publishes its payment laundering scheme for those people. The truth is that Stratfor is, more or less, a joke among analysts and others who actually know what s going on in the world, and their methods of information gathering are no different than journalistic methods.In other words, in reporting this, Wikileaks appears desperate to The Atlantic, and the people screaming SMOKING HILLARY GUN!! because Crites name appears in a few Wikileaks dumps are just as pitifully desperate.They don t care, though. They re going about their task of exposing the connection between Trump s assassin and Hillary with all the gleeful abandon there is in the badly misinformed, paranoid extremist.Mediaite also found evidence that these poor, desperate souls are creating fake profiles for Austyn Crites trying to link him to Hillary. The one that they screencapped is a little too obvious to be serious because it lists him as a money launderer for the Clinton Foundation and a paid protester for the DNC. It also claims he studied Civil Disobedience at the University of Chicago s Booth School of Business.They re getting just flat out ridiculous now, especially given that James Comey just crushed their hopes of any indictment against Hillary over new emails, and the Secret Service destroyed their dreams of proving that Hillary s hiring people to murder Donald Trump.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
4,743 | Moscow blames 'two-faced U.S. policy' for Russian general's Syria death: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that the two-faced policy of the United States was to blame for the death of Russian Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov in Syria, the RIA news agency quoted him as saying. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that Asapov had been killed by Islamic State shelling near Deir al-Zor. Moscow has complained about what it has suggested are suspiciously friendly ties between U.S.-backed militias, U.S. special forces, and Islamic State in the area, accusing Washington of trying to slow the advance of the Syrian army. The death of the Russian commander is the price, the bloody price, for two-faced American policy in Syria, Ryabkov told reporters, according to RIA. Ryabkov questioned Washington s intention to fight Islamic State in Syria. The American side declares that it is interested in the elimination of IS ... but some of its actions show it is doing the opposite and that some political and geopolitical goals are more important for Washington, Ryabkov was quoted as saying. Earlier on Monday, American-backed Syrian militias said that Russian warplanes had struck their positions in Deir al-Zor province near a natural gas field they seized from Islamic State last week. Russia denied that. Ryabkov also said that Russia wanted to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency and had not violated the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, rejecting allegations made against it by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier this month. | 1 |
4,744 | Merkel's CDU agrees to pursue grand coalition in Germany | BERLIN (Reuters) - Leaders of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative party agreed on Sunday to pursue a grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) to break the political deadlock in Europe s biggest economy. Merkel, whose fourth term was plunged into doubt a week ago when three-way coalition talks with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens collapsed, was handed a political lifeline by the SPD on Friday. Under intense pressure to preserve stability and avoid new elections, the SPD reversed its position and agreed to talk to Merkel, raising the prospect of a new grand coalition, which has ruled for the past four years, or a minority government. We have the firm intention of having an effective government, Daniel Guenther, conservative premier of the state of Schleswig Holstein, told reporters after a four-hour meeting of leading members of Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU). We firmly believe that this is not a minority government but that it is an alliance with a parliamentary majority. That is a grand coalition, he said. The meeting came after the conservative state premier of Bavaria threw his weight behind a new right-left tie-up. An alliance of the conservatives and SPD is the best option for Germany - better anyway than a coalition with the Free Democrats and Greens, new elections or a minority government, Horst Seehofer, head of the Bavarian CSU, told Bild am Sonntag. An Emnid poll also showed on Sunday that 52 percent of Germans backed a grand coalition. Several European leaders have emphasised the importance of getting a stable German government in place quickly so the bloc can discuss its future, including proposals by French President Emmanuel Macron on euro zone reforms and Brexit. Merkel, who made clear on Saturday she would pursue a grand coalition, says that an acting government under her leadership can do business until a new coalition is formed. The youth wing of Merkel s conservatives raised pressure on the parties to get a deal done by Christmas, saying if there was no deal, the conservatives should opt for a minority government. In an indication, however, that the process will take time, the CDU agreed on Sunday evening to delay a conference in mid-December that had been due to vote on the three-way coalition. The SPD premier of the state of Lower Saxony said he feared there was no way a decision would be reached this year. It is a long path for the SPD, said Stephan Weil on ARD television. Merkel is against going down the route of a minority government because of its inherent instability, but pundits have said one possibility is for the conservatives and Greens to form a minority government with informal SPD support. The Greens have said they are open to a minority government. Even before any talks get under way, the two blocs have started to spar over policy priorities. Merkel, whose conservatives won most parliamentary seats in a Sept. 24 vote but bled support to the far right, has said she wants to maintain sound finances in Germany, cut some taxes and invest in digital infrastructure. She has to keep Bavaria s CSU on board by sticking to a tougher migrant policy that may also help win back conservatives who switched to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The SPD needs a platform for its policies after its poorest election showing since 1933. Leading SPD figures have outlined conditions including investment in education and homes, changes in health insurance and no cap on asylum seekers. Most experts believe the SPD has the stronger hand and several prominent economists said they expected the SPD to wield significant influence in a new grand coalition. If there is a grand coalition or even if there is toleration (of a minority government) I would expect more emphasis on the SPD s programme, Clemens Fuest, president of the Ifo institute, told business newspaper Handelsblatt. That would mean higher state spending and smaller tax cuts than would have been agreed with other potential partners. The SPD is divided, with some members arguing that a grand coalition has had its day. The SPD premier of the state of Rhineland Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, said she preferred the idea of the SPD tolerating a minority government over a grand coalition, making clear that the party would not agree to a deal at any price. | 1 |
4,745 | Trump Immediately Erases Civil Rights And LGBT Pages On White House Website (IMAGES) | Donald Trump hasn t even been in office for a day and he is already declaring that gay people and people of color don t matter.Despite saying that he will work for all Americans during his inaugural address, his actions speak much louder than his words.As soon as he took control of the White House s website on Friday after the inauguration, Trump immediately removed pages from the issues section that deal with civil rights, the LGBT community, climate change, and healthcare.Here are some images grabbed by The Daily Beast.Trump replaced the Civil Rights page with a page supporting law enforcement that calls for more police officers and libels inner cities as crime-ridden and black people as criminals. In our nation s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent, the site claims, which is a lie that the Daily Beast pointed out, saying, homicides in Washington, D.C. were down in 2016 over 2015. Apparently, Trump s idea of civil rights for black people is hiring more racist police officers to execute them.Looking for some of these pages now redirects people to a page where Trump can send his gullible supporters bullshit propaganda.Clearly, Donald Trump intends to ignore civil rights and the LGBT community for the next four years as Republicans rush to legalize discrimination.This is especially frightening since Trump nominated the very racist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General, and has already decided to slash funding for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.This is how quick democracy is dying in America. Trump hasn t even been in charge for a day and he is already attacking civil rights and the LGBT community. By removing both issues from the White House website, Trump just announced that he doesn t care about either.America is under attack from within and we can t afford to wait until 2018 to do something about it.Featured image via the Daily Beast | 0 |
4,746 | CNN’s JAKE TAPPER Denies Mass Terror Attacks Have Happened in America…Senator Credits “Secret Sauce” [Video] | Left-wing Democrat activists Jake Tapper claims that mass murder Islamic terrorist attacks resembling those recently in seen in London have not taken place in America. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) agrees, asserting that Muslims in America as better integrated than their counterparts in Europe Um, has Senator Warner been to Dearborn, Michigan or Minnesota s Little Mogadishu?Isolation of the Somali Muslim community AND teaching Sharia law in Muslim schools in Minneapolis are the two main reasons why we should still fear their recruitment to terrorism. Assimilation hasn t happened and that s a HUGE problem!During the election last year, I stumbled upon a reporter s videos and couldn t believe my eyes. THIS is the end game that the Democrats are hoping for:WAKE UP AMERICA! SOMALI CANDIDATES IN MINNESOTA Only Speak In Somali At Caucus Guess Who They re Voting For [Video]A very recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses a new Somali Mall:Minneapolis Council Member Abdi Warsame pledges to build new Somali mallPete Hegseth goes to Little Mogadishu and finds out that many Somali Muslims don t speak English and that they actually teach Sharia law in school but not sure about American law. This all goes back to the REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM and the HUGE problem with bringing over 3 million MOSTLY Muslims to the U.S. in the past 30 years. We need to take a look at defunding this program because it s ballooned way past what it was originally intended to be. | 0 |
4,747 | Donald Trump Let Fly With The F-Word During A New Hampshire Stump Speech (VIDEO) | It was only a matter of time before this happened. The very first instance of an American presidential candidate in the modern age dropping the f-bomb during a stump speech occurred this week. And, naturally, it was Donald Trump who broke through the taboo then backed over it just to make sure it s dead.Indeed, Trump let fly with the f-word on Friday during one of his stream-of-consciousness rants that pass for stump speeches. And, frankly, I don t know whether to scowl or cheer. In spite of Trump s general awfulness, I m leaning cheer. We re gonna bring businesses back. We re gonna have businesses that used to be in New Hampshire, that are now in Mexico, come back to New Hampshire, and you can tell them to go f*ck themselves! Because they let you down, and they left![youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-_Nwi2FyY&w=560&h=315]Yes, let s tell corporations that send jobs to places like Mexico and China to go f*ck themselves. You know, corporations like Trump s.There s something particularly exciting when f*ck becomes demystified. It should be. It s just a word. We can t say it on non-pay cable or on the radio or on websites because advertisers don t like it but we can show unspeakable scenes of violence and other horrors all the time. There s something perverse and unjust about that. So, in that regard, Trump can feel free to let the expletives fly. But if he s elected, I wonder if his FCC appointees will be equally lenient. On the other hand, Trump s use of f*ck is another step away from presidential decorum on the Republican side, and one step closer to amateur-hour composed of reality show hacks running for the highest office in the land. I m honestly torn.For the record, Trump has said f*ck in public before, but not during a presidential stump speech.Featured image via video screen grab. | 0 |
4,748 | cops fire tear gas on water protectors as they attempt to reclaim sacred land | by brandon turbeville as the us presidential selection circus draws to a close the united states and turkey have announced a new plan to defeat | 0 |
4,749 | TOP DEMOCRAT ACTIVIST WHO LAUNCHED ONLINE CAMPAIGN TO THREATEN AND BULLY 12 YR OLD CONSERVATIVE Is Facing Charges [Video] | CJ Pearson, the 12 year old conservative social media sensation who was bullied and threatened by grown-ups on the left, has more class in his little finger than the entire Democrat party combined. Here is a video message to President Barack Obama by CJ Pearson regarding his hatred for America that has over 1 million hits:The woman who launched an online campaign of bullying and veiled threats against Internet sensation CJ Pearson, frightening the young conservative s family enough to drive the boy briefly out of politics late last week, has been identified as a top Democratic activist from Baltimore.And the Pearson family is planning to press charges.According to a Facebook posting Sunday by Ali A. Akbar of Vice and Victory, a consulting firm that works with CJ, the woman behind the Twitter account Mona Hussein Obama is actually named Mona Brown. What she did was against the law, Akbar said on the video, vowing to expose a troll, a bully, a grown adult and top Democrat activist in Maryland for bullying a 12-year-old. Late last week, Brown began her Twitter campaign of harassment against Pearson in retaliation for Internet videos harshly critical of Obama that have made the boy an Internet sensation. Her tweets ranged from insults your fam has been bowing down to white ppl to hints of violence Wish we could switch Trayvon s life for yours. On Facebook Friday, the 12-year-old announced he had had enough. After much thought and consideration, I ve decided to take a break from politics and political commentary, he wrote. I had a horribly rough night on Twitter after a woman not only threatened to sue me for expressing my opinions but threatened my family. The boy handed over his social media accounts to Vice and Victory, which quickly set up a support fund and hashtag #StandWithCJ.CJ s Facebook page now includes an apology Brown sent after her true identity became known. I apologize and am deeply ashamed of the horrible statements I made to @cjpearson, she wrote.She then goes on to complain about how the right wing is attacking her family apparently missing the irony that she earlier attacked the Pearson family and wished for their death.Pearson plans to get back into politics and says that the incident has only made his resolve stronger. After much thought and consideration, I have decided to press forward and continue to fight for what I believe in, he wrote on Facebook. Mona s hate has only strengthened my resolve and has encouraged me to continue to do what I love and what I do best. Via: Biz Pac Review | 0 |
4,750 | At least 30 Burundian refugees die in clashes with Congolese security forces | KINSHASA (Reuters) - At least 30 Burundian refugees have been killed in clashes with Congolese security forces over plans to send some of them home, a Reuters witness and local activists said on Saturday. Police and soldiers opened fire as the refugees protested over the plan in the town of Kamanyola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, the activists told Reuters. Congo s government spokesman Lambert Mende denied that those killed were refugees, saying that the clashes broke out when assailants from an unidentified armed group attacked an office belonging to the national intelligence agency. Five soldiers and 20 of the attackers were killed in the fighting, Mende said. More than 400,000 refugees have fled Burundi - including 40,000 to neighboring Congo - since violence erupted in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term in office, a move his opponents said was unconstitutional. Wendo Joel, an activist from a Congolese pro-democracy and human right group, said the refugees had seized a weapon and killed a soldier as they tried to free some of their arrested compatriots. The soldiers first fired in the air but there were many refugees, Joel told Reuters. I have counted 32 bodies. There are also about 100 wounded. Reuters TV footage showed more than 30 bodies covered by sheets on the roadside in Kamanyola, with many more wounded also lying in the street. A U.N. spokeswoman confirmed that at least 18 Burundian asylum seekers had been killed but said the toll was likely to rise. Many others had taken shelter at the U.N. peacekeeping mission s nearby base, she added. According to a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, more than 2,000 Burundian refugees live in Kamanyola with host families. In a statement, Burundi s main opposition grouping, CNARED, accused Burundian army troops and members of the ruling CNDD-FDD s youth group Imbonerakure of carrying out the killings with the Congolese army. Burundian officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but Burundi s foreign minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe wrote on Twitter: My heart sinks as I learn of the shootings in Eastern #DRC. Clarifications are needed on the shootings & circumstances around, he added. The violence in Burundi has killed over 700 people and a U.N. commission said last week there were reasonable grounds to believe authorities had committed crimes against humanity. The government rejected the commission s findings as propaganda . | 1 |
4,751 | Chicago Cops Busted Yelling ‘F**king N***gers’ On Hot Dispatch Mic (AUDIO) | Once again, the police demonstrate just how absolutely justified people of color are in not trusting them. After the violence and chaos that erupted and eventually resulted in the cancellation of a Donald Trump rally in Chicago, Illinois on Friday night, some extremely vulgar and racist language was used between police officers just hours later over their dispatch radios. Very clearly, on the tape that has been circulating on social media, the phrases Typical f ing n s and Black lives matter, my a are spat maliciously by two of Chicago s finest. The disturbing words were uttered over the feeds from the Far South Side and Morgan Park areas both of which are populated mostly by African Americans.Here is a description of the vile exchange, via New York Daily News:The roughly 8:30 a.m. exchange started with a dispatcher joking with a police officer that it was too early to be bothering you. They said a friendly good morning to each other.Another cop asked, How many boyfriends do you have? The dispatcher replied with a joke. Why you all in my Kool-Aid? Why you over here? Another voice said, You can answer that again, and a muffled voice said something that sounded like, You got busted over the air again. Two seconds later, a man s voice said, Typical f ing n s. A police officer asked the dispatcher to find out what radio that comment came from and she said she couldn t track its location but had alerted her boss.A few indecipherable noises followed before another voice said the ethnic slur again. Black lives matter, my a . F ing n s, the voice said. The minute-long recording then ended.You can listen here:[soundcloud url= https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251822805 params= color=ff5500 width= 100% height= 166 iframe= true /]Now, of course, the Chicago Police Department is in full on damage control mode. They have reduced this extreme racism to inappropriate transmission on a police frequency and released the following statement: The statements made are absolutely unacceptable and Superintendent [John] Escalante has ordered an immediate internal affairs investigation into this incident, CPD officials said. Should the investigation reveal that a member of the police department made the statements, he will be immediately suspended and disciplinary proceedings will be launched. Considering that it was over police dispatch, it is highly unlikely that anyone BUT a Chicago police officer or someone else who has access to that feed in such a position said it. Further, forget suspended fire these people once they are identified. They obviously cannot police neighborhoods for people of color in a fair and unbiased way. Don t we have enough issues with police racism? Don t we have enough racist cops using their position to literally murder people of color? Shame on you, Chicago PD, if you allow these racists to keep their jobs. Then again, with the way things usually go in these cases, I won t be surprised if nobody is disciplined at all, let alone fired as they should be.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
4,752 | Kremlin: Putin, Trump to meet on sidelines of G20 summit | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty summit in Hamburg next week, but no separate meeting is planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. “They will meet in any case there, on the sidelines of this summit, but no (separate) meeting is planned at the moment,” Peskov said. | 1 |
4,753 | Hypocrisy In Georgia: Teen Charged In Accidental Shooting Death, While Parents Largely Go Unprosecuted | A 17-year-old teenager is dead today after his 16-year-old friend accidentally shot him in the face with an unsecured gun. Now the teen who shot him is facing dire consequences.According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a group of boys were playing with a loaded gun inside an apartment complex when the shooting occurred. Relatives of the boys, who ranged from ages 13 to 17, told reporters that they were all friends or cousins.The 16-year-old was apparently holding the gun just after midnight when it discharged and struck the older boy in the face. After the shooting the suspect ran home and told his family that he shot someone. The family members drove him back to the scene where he was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.In 2014, News 21 found that 28,000 children and teens are killed each year in the United States by firearms. To put this into perspective, that means that for every soldier who was killed in Afghanistan (over eleven years) at least thirteen kids were killed in America.Teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 made up over two-thirds of all youth gun deaths in America.The News21 findings are compiled in the most complete database to date from records obtained from 49 state health departments and FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports.Many of the children who are killed each year die in an unintentional shooting. Often times these accidents happen because they or another child get their hands on an unsecured weapon and it discharges. As a matter of fact, American children are SIXTEEN times more likely to be killed in an accidental shooting than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.Although the kid in this case was charged with a crime, negligent parents rarely are. Twenty-seven states (Georgia included) and the District of Columbia have child access prevention (CAP) laws; these laws hold parents responsible when their children access a gun and someone is hurt but enforcement is almost nonexistent. According to the Shreveport Times police often feel guilty charging parents who are grieving the loss of a child.Slate reported:Even in states where these laws exist, they re both inconsistent standards and penalties for culpability vary widely from state to state and inconsistently applied, with prosecutors often choosing not to pursue cases against negligent parents out of sympathy, perhaps, or a sense that these cases are hard to win. And that s understandable: These shootings are tragedies, after all, and why compound a family s misery by sending a grieving parent to jail? But CAP laws are only effective as a deterrent if they re vigorously enforced.So parents get away with their negligence, but a scared 16-year-old kid is charged with a crime. As a mother, this appalls me. I would fully expect to be charged with a crime if my son picked up my gun and hurt himself or someone else. As adults we are responsible for keeping our little humans as safe as we can and if we do something that was so neglectful that someone dies as a result, we should be charged.To give us a pass, but prosecute a child is mind-boggling. Meanwhile, this shooting and this shooting and this shooting all go unprosecuted in the same state.Featured image via Freakout Nation | 0 |
4,754 | House Speaker Paul Ryan renominated to top House post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives nominated Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday for re-election to his post next year, as lawmakers giddy with election success smoothed over their differences and pledged to unite behind Republican President-elect Donald Trump. Ryan, who faced no challengers from Republican ranks, was nominated in a unanimous voice vote in a closed-door meeting of all Republican lawmakers in the House. He will face an election in January, when all members of the new House, both majority Republicans and minority Democrats, vote on a new speaker. While January’s outcome is not guaranteed, Republicans who had been feuding with each other and Trump before the election said Tuesday they thought Ryan was in a solid position to be re-elected speaker now that intra-party tensions have dramatically lessened with the Republican election victory. “Politics is politics, but this is as unified as I’ve ever seen it,” said New York Republican Representative Peter King, who has been in Congress since 1993. Republicans kept their majorities in both the House and Senate in the Nov. 8 elections in which voters elected Trump to the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Ryan, 46, had criticized Trump numerous times during the campaign, which angered some of Trump’s supporters in the Republican caucus. Had Trump lost the election, these Republicans and some conservatives who already had doubts about Ryan might have sought to blame him and block his re-election. But lawmakers said Trump’s election, along with a stronger-than-expected performance at the polls by House Republicans, changed the outlook. “To suggest that President-elect Trump’s victory didn’t weigh as a factor in terms of the speaker’s race would be disingenuous” said Representative Mark Meadows, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus. However, one conservative lawmaker, Representative Raul Labrador, continued to express skepticism about Ryan ahead of Tuesday’s vote, and said he would not consider Tuesday’s outcome binding on his vote in January. “I haven’t heard from him what he wants to change — what’s going to be different the next two years than the last two years?” Labrador asked reporters. Ryan, for his part, said House Republicans would be working “hand in glove” with Trump. “We’re going to do everything we can to help him be as successful as he can,” Ryan told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Republicans also re-elected three other lawmakers to leadership positions: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and the chairwoman of the Republican conference, Cathy McMorris Rodgers. | 1 |
4,755 | GEORGIA REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE’S Neighborhood Blocked Off After Threatening Discovery in Mailboxes: “Your neighbor Karen Handel is a dirty fascist” | We just reported on the Virginia shooter s message to Karen Handel (see below) and now this. Is anyone going to want to be a candidate for anything if this threatening behavior continues? The left has gotten so dangerous in their rhetoric and their violence. Whoever did this should be punished to the max to set an example for other leftists.Georgia Republican Karen Handel s neighborhood HAS BEEN BLOCKED OFF after reports that letters containing a white powdery substance and calling Handel a dirty fascist were left at homes of her neighbors.Police officers have been going from mailbox to mailbox after finding the suspicious package, according to local reports, which also indicate that Roswell police continue to flood to the area.The content of the threatening letter, posted below, contains graphic language. Your neighbor Karen Handel is a dirty fascist cunt but I m sure you already knew that, the letter says, according to a picture. Take a whiff of the powder and join her in the hospital you Bourgeoisie motherfuckers. RESIST THE FASCIST TAKEOVER!!!!, it says. STRING UP THE COLLABORATORS! The situation is being monitored by local WSB-TV by a helicopter.Handel acknowledged the reports and said her campaign was coordinating with local law enforcement. This afternoon we had some suspicious packages delivered to our house and to our neighbors, Handel said. The packages contained threatening letters and a suspicious substance. The police were quickly notified and street is now being blocked off. We will continue to coordinate with law enforcement as necessary. OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON HANDEL S RESPONSE TO THE VIRGINIA SHOOTER:Candidate Handel s Excellent Response to Alexandria Shooter Calling Her A Republican B**ch PLEASE NOTE THAT HANDEL AND DEMOCRAT JOHN OSOFF ARE IN A BATTLE THAT WILL TAKE PLACE ON JUNE 20TH IN THE 6TH DISTRICT GEORGIA RUNOFF GET OUT AND VOTE HANDEL!IF YOU WANT TO DONATE TO KAREN HANDEL: DONATE HEREKaren Handel, the Republican candidate for Congress in Georgia s sixth district, on Wednesday afternoon addressed that morning s shooting at a Republican congressional baseball team practice.A gunman who police identified as James T. Hodgkinson opened fire on Republican lawmakers practicing for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, Va., wounding five people including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.). Hodgkinson had penned a Facebook rant against Handel last week. My thoughts are with the victims of this morning s despicable, unprovoked attack on the Republican congressional softball team, wrote Handel, Georgia s former secretary of state. Representative Scalise is a friend, and my heart goes out to him and his family. Steve and I wish him and the others wounded a speedy recovery. They remain in our thoughts and prayers. I also want to commend the heroic actions of the Capitol Police officers who clearly prevented today s attack from being a much bigger tragedy, she wrote.Handel also addressed expletive comments that Hodgkinson made about her on social media.Hodgkinson posted an article about Handel to his Facebook, calling her a Republican Bitch who wants People to Work for Slave Wages, NBC affiliate WXIA reported. Republican Bitch Wants People to Work for Slave Wages, when a Livable Wage is the Only Way to Go! Vote Blue, It s Right for You! Hodgkinson wrote on Facebook. I am aware that the suspect recently made vile comments about me on social media, Handel said in her statement. It also appears that the suspect targeted members of Congress specifically because he disagreed with their views. Hodgkinson s social media posts indicate he was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and loathed President Donald Trump and Republican policies.Handel echoed calls by others, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), for bipartisan unity following the attack. We should not allow our political differences to escalate to violent attacks. We must all refuse to allow the politics of our country to be defined in this way, she wrote. Now more than ever, we must unite as a one nation under God. It is incumbent upon all of us to work together in a civil and productive way, even when we disagree. READ MORE: WFB | 0 |
4,756 | HYSTERICAL! NANCY PELOSI AND Fellow Dems Clueless On How A Mic Works: “I can hear you, can you hear us?” [Video] | HILARIOUS: Nancy Pelosi and fellow dems protesting Trump s ban repeatedly struggle to figure out what s wrong with their mic. pic.twitter.com/wb0saiLi5V Asa J (@asamjulian) January 31, 2017 | 0 |
4,757 | HEARTLESS DEMOCRATS Invite Illegals To Taunt Trump During Policy Speech While Trump’s Guests, Parents Of Children Murdered By Illegal Aliens, Endure Their Hate | Jessica Davis (right) and Susan Oliver (left) (pictured above) are the widows of two Northern California sheriff s deputies who were shot to death in 2014 by a convicted felon who had twice been deported to Mexico.Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes tried to plead guilty to the murders of Sacramento County Sheriff s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff s Deputy Michael Davis Jr. but was ordered to stand trial in October.Jamiel Shaw Sr., the father of a Los Angeles teen who was killed by a gang member who was in the country illegally, will also attend and sit with First Lady Melania Trump. Shaw s son, a standout football player, was shot by Pedro Espinoza as he walked home. Espinoza was sentenced to death in 2012.Shaw strongly supported Trump during the election, speaking during the Republican National Convention and appearing with Trump at a rally in Costa Mesa. SHAW SPEAKING AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION:The other guests invited by the president to the speech are Maureen McCarthy Scalia, the widow of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; Megan Crowley, a young woman who was expected to die within a few years of being born; and Kenisha Merriweather, a low-income African-American woman who struggled in school before attending private school on scholarship and becoming the first person in her family to graduate high school and college. LA Times | 0 |
4,758 | Cassidy says 'absolutely' senators may still back healthcare bill: CNN | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said on Monday he still expects to be able to convince reluctant fellow Republican senators to support the revised bill that is the party’s latest effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. Asked in an interview with CNN whether the revisions announced on Monday could sway holdout U.S. senators into supporting the legislation, Cassidy said: “Absolutely. The bracing principle is that we give the patient the power and give states the resources to provide care for those who don’t have it. “We think it’s good policy which therefore will get folks to vote for it.” | 1 |
4,759 | WHY UNEDUCATED SOMALI REFUGEES Who Don’t Speak English Are Fleeing Arizona For Minnesota [VIDEO] | A few weeks ago, we reported on the first female Muslim legislator, Ilhan Omar, the 34-year-old Democrat community organizer who came to America as a refugee from Somalia. Ilhan was one of only two state legislators who voted to prevent Life Insurance companies from denying benefits to benefactors of terrorists who died committing an act of terror against Americans.Omar is also a vocal opponent of President Trump (see video here) and his plan to better vet refugees coming from nations that are terror hotbeds. It s not unrealistic that the largest Somali Muslim population in America will also become a hotbed for terror.On November 19, 2016 U.S. District Judge Michael Davis sent a clear message to America: There is a terrorist cell in Minneapolis and it is still alive today. In sentencing nine young Somali-Minnesotans on terror conspiracy charges this week, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis closed a chapter in the federal government s long, extraordinary investigation of ISIL recruitment in Minnesota.But the full story is far from over.Each day, Davis sought to extract acknowledgment from the young men that they were terrorists, and left no doubt as to his thoughts on whether they were simply misguided youths. Everyone talks about Brussels or Paris having cells, Davis said one day, then, raising his voice: We have a cell here in Minneapolis. Saying the Minnesota public had danced around the issue, Davis described the cell s size as being between nine to 20, including those sentenced last week and others killed abroad. Star TribuneRefugee expert Ann Corcoran who owns the amazing Refugee Resettlement Watch website explores why Somali refugees are fleeing states like Arizona where they are being delivered by our government and heading for Minnesota? Corcoran asks: Why would they leave a climate more like home to move to the frigid north in droves? All sorts of reasons are given in this article from the Phoenix New Times -supposedly for jobs, to be with family members, Somali community, better welfare, but not mentioned is to build political power through numbers. Minnesota will be the first state to push for aspects of Shariah Law to be put in place, in my opinion.Bilad Yusuf and her seven kids were on their way to Minnesota, less than two months after they arrived in Phoenix. We didn t know how to get jobs here, and even if we did, we didn t know how we d get to them, she explained through an interpreter who translated from Somali to English.After waiting for six years in a refugee camp, Yusuf and her family arrived in the United States this winter amidst the chaos surrounding the Trump administration s attempt to block Somali immigrants like them from entering the country.Following a brief stop in Houston, they were transferred to Phoenix. There, stranded in the urban sprawl without a car, they found themselves lost: Where were they supposed to get groceries? How did they go about setting up long-overdue doctor s appointments? How would they pay rent after their initial stipend from the U.S. government ran out?The Somali Association of Arizona stepped in, providing groceries and setting up doctor s appointments for the refugees. But they couldn t do anything about the fact that the fact that with limited English and no training, Yusuf and her older children weren t qualified for many jobs.So, worried that her rent would be cut off soon, Yusuf ultimately decided they should move to Minnesota, where she, like virtually all Somalis, has family.Mukhtar Sheikh, the program coordinator for the Somali Association of Arizona, says that Yusuf s story is a common one.Between 1981 and 2017, Arizona took in 7,351 Somali refugees, according to Department of Economic Security statistics. But how many of those refugees actually stay in the state is another question.Sheikh estimates that as many as half the Somali refugees resettled in Arizona end up leaving typically for Minnesota, or other parts of the country where there s a large Somali community because they re unable to find jobs here. I think Arizona is able to do more for refugees, to be honest, he says. If Arizona invested in these families, it would actually benefit the state, because they re really hardworking. Contrary to popular belief, refugees who are resettled in Arizona receive relatively little financial assistance from the state. In fact, their main source of cash assistance is the federal government.But the biggest challenge is finding a job, he says. When he first arrived in Phoenix, he was able to find a job at Sky Harbor International Airport and work his way through ASU. Other Somalis have followed a similar path and found jobs at the airport. But many others have found that even jobs cleaning hotel rooms or washing dishes in a restaurant come with a requirement that applicants speak English or, unofficially, Spanish. The people that struggle the most are people who have no educational background, Sheikh says. They re the people most in need, and they face the biggest hardships when coming here and trying to find opportunities here. Recently, he s gotten calls from recruiters working on behalf of Amazon warehouses in Minnesota and Kentucky, looking to hire managers who speak Somali in addition to English.Should American companies be actively recruiting non-English speaking, uneducated refugees for jobs in America? Why are the airports one of the first places newly transplanted refugees coming from terror hotbed nations are finding employment? Shouldn t we fix our broken welfare system instead of recruiting workers from overseas to do the jobs Americans won t do? That tells him that they re hiring a lot of Somali refugees who don t speak English yet, he says. He d like to see the same thing happen in Arizona, where, to his knowledge, only a handful of refugees have been able to get jobs at Amazon distribution centers.But, he acknowledges, There s only only so much that one company can do. There has to be support from the state. The Department of Economic Security, which administers the Arizona Refugee Resettlement program, doesn t track where refugees end up once they stop receiving services from the state, director of communications Tasya Peterson says.So it s impossible to get an exact count of how many refugees have left for other states in search of better opportunities.But, Peterson adds: We do know that Somali refugees resettled in many states have relocated to live in cities in which the largest numbers of Somalis reside, including cities in Minnesota and Ohio, due to mutual assistance and other affinity relationships. Phoenix New TimesFor residents of Minneapolis however, many are facing a new reality with the exploding Somali refugee population. In July 2015, we reported on a mob of 30 young Somali men who raged through an upscale neighborhood, yelling disparaging comments and threats against homeowners.A female resident of the neighborhood, obviously shaken in a TV interview, related how she was screamed at by a Somali man who threatened to kidnap and rape her. They were screaming at the house that they were going to kidnap you and they were going to rape you, one Minneapolis resident told KSTP TV. It was a very traumatizing experience. Somalis living in Minneapolis are almost all Sunni Muslims, and residents of the Lake Calhoun area say this isn t the first time a group of Somali men has made an intimidating march through their neighborhood, which is filled with million-dollar homes.Here is the shocking and disturbing video taken by the homeowner who reported the incident. For the entire story, click HERE: | 0 |
4,760 | Kremlin says feels 'cautious optimism' after Trump meeting with Lavrov | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin feels cautious optimism about the prospects for an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, a Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday. “The conversation itself is extremely positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters, referring to Lavrov’s meeting with Trump on Wednesday. Peskov said the Kremlin viewed the prospects of a thaw “with cautious optimism.” “We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. | 1 |
4,761 | Trump's call for military buildup hits bump in Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a major military buildup suffered a setback on Thursday when the House of Representatives put plans on hold to fully fund the federal government through next Sept. 30 and instead resorted to temporary measures freezing spending at current levels. With a Dec. 8 deadline rapidly approaching for either extending federal funding in some way or triggering a partial government shutdown, the House next week will advance a temporary patch, according to a senior aide, and try to provide money through Dec. 22. That will give Congress more time to craft a second patch, the aide said, to operate the government through January. While the moves, if successful, would keep the Pentagon running at last year’s levels, they are far from Republican hopes of handing Trump about $634 billion in fiscal 2018 funding for the military’s regular operations, $85 billion above last year. For months, Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have been working behind the scenes to broker a deal on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year, which already is two months old. Democrats are demanding increases in non-defense spending if military budgets are pumped up as Trump has demanded. It is unclear whether Republicans in Congress and Trump will allow unrelated controversial measures to be attached to either of the temporary spending bills. Democrats, whose votes normally are needed in the Republican-controlled Congress to pass spending bills, have been hoping to use their political leverage to win passage of an immigration measure by attaching it to an end-of-year appropriations bill. That bill would provide legal protections to “Dreamers,” the hundreds of thousands of undocumented people who came to the United States as children and have established roots. House Speaker Paul Ryan, asked about the possibility of attaching the immigration provision to a spending bill, said he wanted to resolve the issue. But he noted that Congress is under a March deadline to pass the Dreamers measure, saying “We’ve got other deadlines in front of that,” referring to the spending bills. | 1 |
4,762 | Nader Talebzadeh: They Planned and He Plans | Photo illustration by Patrick Henningsen@21WIRE Nader Talebzadeh 21st Century WireThe American enlightenment has started. The dormancy of over three decades, and the miseries that the United States has put dozens of nations through, have begun to cease. The torment that the Vietnamese went through and the innocent lives that perished under US drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan are beginning to find their answers. But not in international tribunals or world system of justice. No. In people s conscious, the great divide in the American population is the first sure sign of a change to come.Ever since the unwelcome appearance of Donald Trump on the US governmental scene, the first president not to be placed into position by the deep state, the inquisition over what is going on has begun.Americans, more than ever are perplexed about their future. Their past is vague, and no matter how hard they peer into the rear view mirror for those Americans, it doesn t make sense.9/11 doesn t make sense.The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan doesn t make sense.The admittance to not finding any WMDs in Iraq and yet occupying it, doesn t make sense.To cause the deaths of 500, 000 children, and say it was worth the kill by the administrators doesn t make sense.The cover-up for 9/11 doesn t make sense. To start a global war on terror and not explain how 9/11 occurred, or how a third building collapsed nine hours later, doesn t make sense.Obama s sudden appearance on the scene, doesn t make sense.The hundreds of books and articles that question the mechanism of the selection of Obama and never discussing them on the mainstream media, doesn t make sense.Obama placed in that position by the establishment, by the deep state, doesn t make sense.The blanked out middle-class of America, still pondering what happened, doesn t make sense.The fact that they lost their jobs beginning three decades ago, and having had to let go of their comfortable insured life working in an American factory, doesn t make sense.The abandoned factories and grand industries that once made America great, lying obsolete and deserted, doesn t make sense.Half of Detroit abandoned and deserted, doesn t make sense.The media cheering on its hallucinatory concussions all throughout these disasters, doesn t make sense.The PTSD ed war veterans and the official suicide rates of US soldiers on and off duty, go undetected and barely seen in the rear view mirror of the media, never make sense.All the common man sees today is one man attacked by the same mass media that pushed them into the illegal wars and illegitimate debts from zero to $20 trillion, between 1979-2017, by some estimates.But the buck stops here as President Eisenhower once famously said. The heavy train loaded with old rusted debris is coming to a screeching halt. Meanwhile the curious are looking wide-eyed. NATO doesn t know where it really stands. The think tanks of Washington the hub of all mesmerizing strategies are vacant, or their curtains half drawn. The Neocons are contemplating plan B. The Israeli firsters are caught off guard. They are planning ahead of time desperately. But whose ears do they have this time?! A man who calls the weapons of the think tanks, the mainstream media, liars , fake news !?Once the invisible sword, the likes of New York Times and CNN are today exposed and blunted. Who dared call CNN liars ?! CNN engaged America meticulously into two fake wars which indebted the United States, and still avoided any blame. It was almost scripted and storyboarded like a Hollywood movie. Now, it is still loose, with acrobatic skills evading all detection like a skilled serial killer breathing in our civilized world.Now the eye-opening process has begun. Watch out for the six-packers and their evaporated illusions! You have finally awaken the slumbering slave of America, and awakened they are Alas! All empires go through these stages. The awkward moments must be tolerated i.e. the president without a cabinet, the supporters with semi-automatic weapons guarding his speeches in Georgia and Florida. The anti-Semitic accusations that are being discussed in the morning regular sessions on CNN. The angry obliterated Alan Dershowitz who is nervously accusing CNN s moderator Don Lemon, of giving the anti-Semites their fifteen minutes of fame. They fear that it will catch fire on the colleges and universities.The masquerade however is over. The Paul Wolfowitzs, the Richard Perles, the Daniel Pipes have to face the masses. The not-so-innocent masses that succumbed to the beast s demands also wait. The confrontation lingers silently. No one even knows these people as Thomas Friedman of the New York Times once famously said in his interviews with the Haaretz. Twenty Five Neocons have planned and executed what has happened in the past two and a half decades.The wakeup call has rung, the moment of illusion has disappeared. The apparent, sudden sun is beginning to shine gloriously, one ray at a time. Wash your face and watch the unfolding.21WIRE contributor Nader Talebzadeh is an Iranian filmmaker, producer, writer, cultural and historical commentator and New Horizon Conference Chair, Channel One TV program host A sr (The Time ). READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,763 | WATCH BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: Unmasking of Trump Contacts Was For Political Purposes…Not National Security [Video] | FOX News Adam Housley just came out with a great report (video below) that totally vindicates Intel Chair Devin Nunes in the investigation into spying and unmasking names of Trump and Trump staff. Watch the video below but here are a few highlights with tweets from Housley included:Here are a few of the highlights:1. The surveillance that led to the unmasking started way BEFORE Trump was the GOP nominee2. The person who did the unmasking is very high up in the intelligence world and is not in the FBI 3. The people reported by the NY Times were not Nunes sources. They only helped him navigate the intelligence4. Nunes was told about the unmasking of Trump s team back in January BEFORE Trump s tweet about Obama s spying. 5. It took a while to coordinate Nunes seeing the intelligence reports in order to protect his source. They chose the White House because it was the only other location they could view the reporting without outing the source. 6. None of this has anything to do with Russia. Via: The Right Scoop | 0 |
4,764 | BREAKING: US SUPREME COURT Upholds U. Of TX-Austin Admissions Ability To Choose Black, Hispanic Students Before White, Asian Students | Obama and the Leftist Supreme Court activists are working overtime to push white students to the back of the line The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the University of Texas at Austin s ability to give a slight boost in the admissions process to black and Hispanic applicants, a decision that once again preserved the use of affirmative action at American universities.By a 4-3 vote, the court rejected Sugar Land native Abigail Fisher s claim that she was unfairly discriminated against because she was white. She was denied admission into UT-Austin in 2008, but argued in a lawsuit that black and Hispanic students who were less qualified got in over her.UT-Austin fought the suit, saying it had a right to take race into consideration in a specific, limited way.The ruling almost certainly brings an end to a years-long legal fight over UT-Austin s use of race in admissions a fight that reached the Supreme Court twice. It will also likely have national implications that will become clearer in the near future. Colleges have been allowed to use affirmative action for decades, and the Supreme Court has upheld the practice each time, though it has limited how it can be used. Via: Texas Tribune | 0 |
4,765 | JUST IN: Anti-Putin Banker Claims Firm Tied To Clinton Campaign Assisted Russians In Effort ‘To Have Me Imprisoned And Killed’ | One of the many targets of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS is accusing them of assisting the Kremlin in its effort to have him imprisoned and killed. The strong allegation comes from Bill Browder, a London-based banker who spearheaded the Magnitsky Act, a sanctions law vehemently opposed by the Russian government.Browder made the allegation in response to the recent revelation that Fusion GPS and its founder Glenn Simpson compiled what he says is false information about him that was given to Yuri Chaika, Russia s prosecutor general, and to Donald Trump Jr. during the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. If it is true that Glenn Simpson was supplying information about me to the Russian government, it s far more serious than smear campaigning or Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, said Browder, the head of Hermitage Capital. It would mean that Simpson was assisting the Putin regime in their plot to get me back to Russia to have me imprisoned and killed.It was previously known that the Washington, D.C-based Fusion GPS s investigation of Browder was beneficial to the Russian government and its effort to reverse the Magnitsky Act. But it was revealed only last week that information Fusion collected on Browder was shared directly with Chaika, whose position is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. attorney general.Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney who attended the Trump Tower meeting, is who provided both Chaika and Trump Jr. with the Fusion-generated information on Browder. She took a four-page report into the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, which was attended by Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.Veselnitskaya worked with Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, on the anti-Browder project. Reuters reported on Thursday that Simpson compiled the research for the Trump Tower memo. And NBC News reported on Friday that similar research put together by Simpson was given by Veselnitskaya to Chaika in Oct. 2015.Browder, who was born in Chicago but is a British citizen, is a target of the Kremlin s ire because of his role in pushing through the Magnitsky Act, which passed Congress in 2012. The Russian government recently issued an Interpol arrest in an attempt to apprehend Browder. Vladimir Putin reportedly approved the move against the 53-year-old money manager, who wrote a book about his travails called Red Notice, a reference to the term used for Interpol warrants.Fusion GPS, which is based in Washington, D.C., became involved in the Browder matter after being hired by BakerHostetler, a law firm representing Denis Katsyv, a Russian businessman who faced penalties because of the Magnitsky Act.Simpson worked closely on the investigation with the Moscow-based Veselnitskaya, who represents Katsyv and his firm, Prevezon Holdings.Veselnitskaya s affiliation with Simpson is one of the stranger story lines arising from both the Trump Tower meeting and the dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC.Theories have circulated that Fusion GPS arranged the Trump Tower meeting in order to compromise the Trump campaign or that Simpson relayed details of the meeting provided by Veselnitskaya to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier.Fusion was being paid for its dossier work at the same time it was being paid by BakerHostetler to investigate Browder.Adding even more fuel to those theories was a report this week that Simpson and Veselnitskaya met just before and just after she attended the Trump Tower session:BUSTED! MEETING BETWEEN FUSION GPS AND RUSSIAN LAWYER BEFORE AND AFTER:The co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, met with a Russian lawyer before and after a key meeting she had last year with Trump Jr. The contacts shed new light on how closely tied the firm was to Russian interests, at a time when it was financing research to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump.The opposition research firm has faced renewed scrutiny after litigation revealed that the DNC and Hillary Clinton s campaign paid for that research. Congressional Republicans have since questioned whether that politically financed research contributed to the FBI s investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign making Fusion s 2016 contacts with Russian interests all the more relevant.DNC MONEY FUNNELED THROUGH LAW FIRM TO FUSION GPS?The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya occurred during a critical period. Bank records show Fusion GPS was paid by a law firm for work on behalf of a Kremlin-linked oligarch while paying a former British spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Trump through his Russian contacts.But hours before the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, Fusion co-founder and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson was with Veselnitskaya in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Court records show email correspondence and published reports corroborate the pair s presence together. They also were together after the Trump Tower meeting.Read more: Fox NewsRead more: Daily Caller | 0 |
4,766 | Trump Reveals The ONE THING To Stop Him From Debating Hillary And It’s RIDICULOUS (VIDEO) | On Monday, Donald Trump gave interviews to reporters on his plane, and naturally the subject of the presidential debates against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton came up. As expected, Trump s responses were nothing short of moronic and unbelievable, and show just how unprepared Trump is to be president.As reporters threw different questions at Trump about his strategy to beat Clinton, Trump gave responses that should have his supporters worried sick about how he s going to win. Trump told reporters that he is barely doing any debate prep in stark contrast to most presidential candidates. With a dismissive attitude, the ignorant business mogul revealed that he has not planned on mock debates, saying he d pretty much rather wing it: I ve seen people do so much prep work when they get out there, they can t speak. I ve seen that. Then when Trump was asked if he d actually follow through with the debates, Trump gave an even more surprising answer.Trump said, As of this moment, yeah a strange response for sure. And then he said that only hurricanes and natural disasters would stop him from debating the former Secretary of State. He said: I expect to do all three. I look forward to the debates. You can watch this bizarre interview below:Hilariously, Trump also said that it was his obligation to debate Clinton and that presidential debates are an important element of what we re doing. He said: I did them with the other, you know, the other cases. We had, I guess 11 debates. Obviously, I did well in the debates. Obviously, according to the polls, the online polls they did right after the debates. And I think I m doing the same thing. Trump must have forgotten that he actually skipped one of the GOP debates, and also backed out of the debate that he challenged Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to. And there are ongoing rumors that Trump is going to somehow find an excuse to back out of his debates with Clinton as well. Judging from this interview alone, we would not be surprised.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
4,767 | Iran ‘Will Respond’ if US Moves to Designate Revolutionary Guard as ‘Terrorist Group’ | Fresh off its humiliating six-year-long debacle in Syria, and with very few viable wars within its grasp, the Pentagon, along with the Israeli Lobby-led US Congress and Senate are now trying to tighten the noose on Iran.For the last 3 weeks, hawkish Republican Senators have been pressuring President Donald Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal in October, and to reimpose harsh sanctions despite the fact that Iran is in full compliance with the international P5+1 brokered nuclear containment agreement.According to the terms of the deal as recognized by Congress, the President must re-certify the deal every 90 days.LITTLE MARCO: It s clear that Marco Rubio is firmly in the pocket of the Israeli Lobby.Chief among the Israeli-led Senators is Florida Senator Marco Rubio. During the Presidential campaign, Rubio was humiliated by Trump who dubbed him Little Marco. Soon after, the slighted Senator was forced to drop out of the race due to a lack of support for his campaign.SEE ALSO: Retired US General Picks Apart Sen. Cotton s Scarlet Letter to IranOn its face, Trump and the Israel First hawks policy to crush the JCPOA Nuclear Agreement makes little sense. Business Insider explains:John Glaser and Emma Ashford respond to Trump s latest attack on the nuclear deal: Iran is clearly abiding by the deal s requirements, as President Trump himself has twice formally acknowledged. But the President appears determined to ignore U.S. allies, his own intelligence community and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has affirmed eight separate times in detailed reports that Iran is in compliance with the deal.As is usually the case, the US hawks (also supported by Iran s economic and geopolitical regional rival Saudi Arabia) are hoping to trigger retaliatory rhetoric from the Iranian hawks and use those words to justify a call for escalation of tension, and a full range of new sanctions against Iran:This desire to withdraw from the JCPOA is difficult to explain. Whatever Trump s reasoning, this much is clear: All of America s options outside the JCPOA carry unacceptably high risks and threaten to exacerbate the very behavior Iran hawks hope to forestall.Desperate to fabricate their case against Iran, the US (instructed by the Israeli Lobby) are now trying to brand Iran s military as an international terrorist organisation.RT International reports Iran has vowed a firm and crushing reaction should Washington decide to include the elite wing of its army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on its list of terrorist organizations, according to the country s foreign ministry.The comments came from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Monday as cited by Tasnim news agency. We are hopeful that the United States does not make this strategic mistake, Qasemi stated during a news conference. If they do, Iran s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing, he said, adding that the US would have to accept the consequences.Earlier it was reported that Washington is preparing tougher sanctions on Tehran, including the possible designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group.US President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance on the Islamic Republic, criticizing it for supporting terrorism and vowing to put an end to Iran s continued aggression and nuclear ambitions. On Sunday, IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if the reports are confirmed, the military wing will treat US troops, especially in the Middle East, as they would Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists. If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American Army to be like Islamic State all around the world, particularly in the Middle East, Jafari stated.Washington s reported threats have prompted France to speak against actions that could exacerbate the current crises in the face of regional instability. With this in mind, regional states have a specific role to play and must show restraint and a sense of responsibility, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne stressed, when asked whether Paris would endorse such a step.The landmark Iranian nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed by the P5+1 group (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the US) and the European Union in 2015. According to the deal, Iran is to limit its nuclear program for 15 years in exchange for easing the pre-existing sanctions.READ MORE: World will change : Trump likely to pull out of Iran nuclear deal next week German FMDuring his election campaign Trump repeatedly vowed to scrap the agreement, and during his presidency he has continued to accuse Iran of violating the spirit of the deal. This week the US leader is expected to re-certify the agreement, but there are concerns that he may decide to stick to his campaign promises.Other parties to the agreement, including Germany and the EU, have voiced concerns over the possible scuppering of the deal.READ MORE IRAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Iran FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,768 | Stung by criticism, Trump vows to work for ethnic harmony | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered a message of ethnic harmony on Friday at a Christian evangelical conference as he sought to calm concern about his criticism of a Mexican-American judge. In a departure from his usual freewheeling style, Trump read a carefully scripted speech from a teleprompter as part of a new push by his campaign to tone down the outspoken New Yorker’s harsh rhetoric. Trump’s remarks included a wide-ranging attack on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and he said money aimed at resettling Syrian refugees in the United States should instead be spent on tackling poverty in U.S. cities. Speaking to the annual conference of the conservative Faith & Freedom Coalition, Trump did not mention the controversy over his charge that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot treat him fairly because of his Mexican heritage. But Trump did make a point of saying he would represent all Americans if elected president on Nov. 8. “Freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color and the tone of his hue,” Trump said. “Right now, we have a very divided nation. We’re going to bring our nation together.” Paul Ryan, the top elected U.S. Republican, had criticized Trump for what he called a “textbook definition of a racist comment” for his remarks about the judge. Other Republican leaders warned Trump to change his tone or risk losing their support. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who led a movement to derail Trump’s nomination, told CNN he would not consider running for the White House. Romney blasted Trump for comments that he said denigrated Mexicans, women and religion. “Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry and trickle-down misogyny - all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America,” he said. Romney said he expects Trump to get the Republican nomination, but said that he will not vote for either Trump or Clinton. He left open the possibility of casting a ballot for the Libertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. As Trump sought to rally more Republicans behind him, Clinton met with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to try and shore up support from the left wing of the Democratic Party. Clinton later addressed the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the nonpartisan arm of the women’s health group, and had Trump trained in her sights. “This is a man who has called women pigs, dogs and disgusting animals, it’s kind of hard to imagine counting on him to respect our fundamental rights,” said Clinton, the first woman to become the presumptive presidential nominee of a major party. Clinton leads Trump by 11 percentage points, nearly the same as a week ago, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Trump on Friday criticized Clinton’s willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States and challenged her to “replace her support for increased refugee admission” in favor of a new jobs program for inner cities. He stopped short of repeating his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, a proposal that has drawn heavy fire from Republicans and Democrats. “We have to temporarily stop this whole thing with what’s going on with refugees where we don’t know where they’re coming from,” Trump said. “We have to use the money to take care of our poorest Americans so they can come out of this horrible situation that they’re in.” At the funeral on Friday of boxing champion Muhammad Ali, a convert to Islam, one speaker, a rabbi, inveighed against politicians promoting intolerance of Muslims. “We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for a few people,” said Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, who said he attended the ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, as a representative of American Jews. Trump said Clinton’s refusal to use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” - favored by Republicans to describe violent Islamist militants - makes her unfit to be president. The real estate mogul’s struggle to unify Republicans behind his insurgent candidacy was apparent at the evangelical Faith & Freedom conference, where several speakers studiously avoided speaking his name. Former campaign rival Carly Fiorina steered clear of Trump, speaking instead of the need to prevent liberal policies taking hold. U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said a Republican president is needed, without mentioning Trump. “We don’t want this contest this fall to just be a contest of personalities,” she said. But conference organizer Ralph Reed was adamant in his support for Trump, saying the New Yorker has energized the evangelical vote in a way that past Republican presidential nominees failed to do. “We understand that perfection is not the measure that should be applied,” Reed told the crowd. | 1 |
4,769 | Five Facts About The Obama Economy That Trump Does NOT Want You To Know | Trump likes to pretend he was handed a mess when he took office. Unfortunately, that s just not true. By the numbers, consumer confidence is the highest in a decade, unemployment is under five percent, and the country has been adding jobs for 80 straight months.Let s compare that to what President Obama inherited the November before he took office, 533,000 jobs were lost, and up to three quarters of a million jobs were being lost per month during the crisis. That s over half a million jobs lost in a single month. The United States was in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Obviously voters have short memories, or they d never have given control over the economy back to Republicans after the last fiasco. Hell, even Trump says the economy does better under Democrats.From Bloomberg:Obama took office during the worst recession since the Great Depression, when the economy was losing 750,000 jobs a month and already had lost a record 9 percent of GDP. He completed his two terms with the largest annual gain in the value of the dollar, the biggest annual decrease in household debt as a percentage of disposable income, and the largest annual increases in car sales and hourly wages. His presidency coincided with the second-highest annual gain in home equity and trailed only the Clinton period in deficit reduction as a percentage of GDP.Facts matter.For all their talk of balanced budgets, Republicans are really, really bad at balancing budgets. That s probably because they re more concerned with tax breaks for the rich and big business than they are with actually staying grounded in reality.It s well-known that President Clinton is the only modern president to ever balance the budget, and President Obama did the best after him as a percentage of GDP and that s including the massive stimulus he used to fix our broken economy. The last Republican president, President George W. Bush, increased the nation s debt over 100 percent and left us with the financial crisis.In Trump s world of alternative facts, half the country is unemployed and begging for a savior. That doesn t match up with reality, though. The latest jobs report from the Department of Labor shows the truth a 4.6 percent unemployment rate, and nearly sixteen million jobs added over the last eight years. I ll remind you again the economy was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs per month when President Obama assumed office. He saved us.The United States is poised to save $100 billion in healthcare spending over the next decade thanks to Obamacare, studies have shown. Meanwhile, Republicans want to repeal Obamacare for strictly political purposes (likely replacing it with a similar plan it was a conservative plan to start with, as most progressives favor Medicare-for-all or another form of universal healthcare), which is estimated to cost hundreds of billions not to mention leaving the American people high and dry when it comes to seeking medical care.You can also thank President Obama for the fact that the United States is still competitive in the automotive industry. His stimulus single-handedly saved American cars. In fact, hundreds of thousands of jobs were added thanks to him, and GM, Ford, and Chrysler all saw significant profit increases thanks to the Obama task force. The Bush administration gets a tiny bit of credit for short-term loans that prevented bankruptcy until Obama assumed office, but that s giving credit holding off slightly on a disaster Bush was initially responsible for. Then President Obama stepped in and fixed it.Featured image via Pool/Getty | 0 |
4,770 | Great! Vet Lives Matter To Trump Who Offered To Personally Help Wounded Warrior [Video] | Donald Trump took a question from a Wounded Warrior named Todd, who explained his frustration with the VA. Mr. Trump then took down his information and offered to personally put pressure on the VA: | 0 |
4,771 | episode sunday wire ticktock usa with guests dr marcus papadopoulos basil valentine | st century wire says
over the past months hillary clinton the obama white house and the mainstream media have been promoting the conspiracy theory that russia is hacking the us election blaming moscow for the wikileaks emails the dnc leaks and for allegedly hacking us voting systems despite the grand accusations no evidence or proof has been offered by the us government
it goes without saying how damaging the democratic partys crazed witch hunt has been to usrussian relations where clinton has led the antirussian crusade and demonizing president vladimir putin at every opportunity
todays stunning presidential victory by donald trump means that all eyes are now on putin to see how moscow and washington will be interfacing going forward
with such sensitive geopolitical issues like syria and the ukraine currently in play what happens between the two leaders over the coming months could set the tone going forward
in a message to donald trump russian president vladimir putin has expressed confidence that the dialogue between moscow and washington in keeping with each others views meets the interests of both russia and the us
putin also expressed hope over the joint efforts on bringing russianamerican relations out of their current crisis
the russian leader noted in the message that he hopes to address some burning issues that are currently on the international agenda and search for effective responses to the challenges of the global security ria novosti reported
on top of it putin has expressed confidence that building a constructive dialogue between moscow and washington based on principles of equality mutual respect and each others positions meets the interests of the peoples of our countries and of the entire international community
according to many observers usrussia relations are now at their lowest point since the cold war putin has repeatedly noted that the worsening of russias relations with the us was not our choice however
for things to improve between moscow and washington the us should first and foremost start acting like an equal partner and respect russias interests rather than try to dictate terms putin said last month
we are concerned with the deterioration of russianamerican relations but that was not our choice we never wanted that on the contrary we want to have friendly relations with the us a great country and a leading economy putin said at an economic forum in moscow
read more election news at st century wire files
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4,772 | Here Are Just A Few Things America Could Afford If The Wealthy Actually PAID Their Fair Share | It isn t much of a secret these days that rich people do not pay their fair share of taxes. I m not even talking about the small business owner who loves to complain about having a higher tax bill than some. I mean the offensively wealthy. Multi-millionaires and billionaires that draw a salary they don t need just so they can have a larger pile of money to sit on top of while throwing a middle finger at the middle class.Did you ever wonder, What could we do in this country if everyone actually paid their fair share of taxes on a progressive scale? The short answer is, we d have about $124 billion extra per year for the government to use.Thanks to a leak of the Panama Papers, which detail just how much money is being hidden by corporations, the wealthy and even world leaders, we can now start to answer that question. Here are a few examples of what we could do with the money:1: Help to reduce the deficitRepublicans always say the federal deficit is the great evil of our time. It prevents everything from your business succeeding to sunny days from happening. $124 billion dollars a year would be able to negate nearly one quarter of the federal deficit. Republicans are strangely silent on this obvious remedy.2: Help to protect the elderlyThanks to Republican shenanigans, Social Security has some budget problems. Currently, it s experiencing a shortfall of about $182 billion because people like Ronald Reagan couldn t keep their hands out of the Social Security lockbox. Rather than consigning our seniors to complete and total poverty for generations to come, $124 billion extra a year could help resolve the Social Security problem until another method can be used to patch the rest and protect 80-year-olds from having to work full-time jobs.3: Fund universal preschoolUniversal pre-k would cost about $90 billion a year. We would actually have money left over from this one. The Economic Policy Institute has already put forth a plan to establish preschool and childcare for parents of infants and toddlers up to 4 years old for just 10 percent of their income. The government would pick up the rest of the tab. The plan would end up paying for itself in the long-term because younger children educated earlier in life will earn more and avoid the need for social welfare programs and have fewer run-ins with our drastically expensive criminal justice system.4: Pay the full salaries of all of our troopsThe Pentagon s personnel costs in 2014 totaled $116 billion dollars. Here we are again with some absolutely huge and important thing being paid for with money to spare, yet Republicans are silent. Strangely enough, even the troops don t motivate them on this one. Republicans LOVE our troops. Right? Sadly no, they don t. They only love having flag draped coffins for photo ops.5: Make sure nobody in America goes hungryAt its recent peak, food stamps cost $80 billion dollars in 2013. It has since lowered as the economy has steadily improved and people have gotten off the program at a modest pace. However, instead of screaming cut! cut! cut! as Republicans are inclined to do, we could fully pay for it and have a little over $40 billion a year left to do other things with.Here is a chart showing the costs of a few things, and where the extra money falls in comparison. It s so embarrassing. We could do two of the cheapest ones at the same time and still have a little money left over. But, Republicans are bound and determined to make sure America can t have nice things.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
4,773 | Trump's son-in-law to oversee government revamp | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, already a White House senior adviser, will take on the additional task of overseeing an effort to overhaul the federal government, the White House said on Monday. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, will lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatize some government functions as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. “This office will bring together the best ideas from government, the private sector, and other thought leaders to ensure that America is ready to solve today’s most intractable problems,” Trump said in a memorandum creating the office that includes about a dozen White House officials. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to “drain the swamp,” has enacted a hiring freeze for most civilian federal jobs and proposed massive cuts in U.S. domestic agencies that could shrink the size of government by thousands of workers The Republican president has also proposed sweeping cuts in government regulations and plans to sign an order on Tuesday rolling back some energy regulations. “We have a lot more coming,” he said on Monday at a ceremony signing bills to repeal four regulations, vowing to eliminate every “job-killing regulation that we can find.” A number of recent presidents including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama had mixed success with their own initiatives to reinvent or streamline government using suggestions from the private sector. Kushner has been a regular presence at his father-in-law’s side and was earlier cleared by the Justice Department to serve as a White House senior adviser even as Democrats raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. He has been given a wide range of domestic and foreign policy responsibilities, including working on a Middle East peace deal. He will continue to serve in the other roles even as he takes up the new duties, the White House said. Last week, Ivanka Trump received her own office in the White House along with access to classified information and a government-issued phone. Aides had said earlier she would not take on a role in her father’s White House. The Washington Post quoted aides as saying she would collaborate with Kushner’s innovation office but would not have an official role. Among past efforts to overhaul the way Washington works, Clinton in 1993 called for “reinventing government.” His reforms led to a slower pace of federal hiring, reducing the federal workforce by 240,000 jobs and closing small offices. Congress did not agree to some of the more aggressive cuts. Bush proposed government management reforms, but ended up focusing largely on restructuring national security agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, folding many agencies into the new Department of Homeland Security. Obama in 2012 proposed closing the Commerce Department and creating a new export agency, saving $3 billion over 10 years and cutting 1,000 plus jobs. His plans failed to get congressional approval. | 1 |
4,774 | JUST IN: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FIRST LADY Make Surprise Trip to Visit School Shooting Victims [Video] | President Trump visits Florida hospital, praises first responders following school shooting: It s very sad something like that could happen, but the job the doctors did, the nurses, the hospital, the first responders, law enforcement really incredible. A White House statement said that the Trumps were visiting to pay their respects and thank the medical professionals for their life-saving assistance in response to shooting.NEW: "The job they ve done is incredible," Pres. Trump says of doctors, first responders as he and first lady Melania Trump meet Parkland shooting victims at Broward Health North Hospital https://t.co/n6Ltn0H0nn pic.twitter.com/gKN8aHbRz4 CBS News (@CBSNews) February 17, 2018POTUS AND FLOTUS THEN MET WITH FLORIDA LAW ENFORCEMENT:After President Trump and First Lady Melania visited with victims, families and the incredible medical teams at Broward Health North they headed to thank the amazing law enforcement officers at the @BrowardSheriff s Department, where a roundtable is now underway. pic.twitter.com/JNYrVovGl6 Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) February 17, 2018THE PRESIDENT BRIEFLY SPOKE WITH REPORTERS AFTER THE MEETING WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT:Moments ago, @POTUS and @FLOTUS met with Florida law enforcement officials at the @browardsheriff's Office. pic.twitter.com/jbMU6aIkUA Fox News (@FoxNews) February 17, 2018At Broward Health North Hospital, Pres and Mrs Trump visited with school shooting patients and medical personnel. Pres said students making incredible recovery. And says doctors and first responders had done an incredible job.At Broward Health North Hospital, Pres and Mrs Trump visited with school shooting patients and medical personnel. Pres said students making "incredible recovery." And says doctors and first responders had done an incredible job. pic.twitter.com/iLomsQXknf Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 17, 2018The president briefly spoke with reporters:"It's very sad something like that could happen," Pres Trump said of the Parkland school shooting after visiting wounded students in the hospital. Hails work of medical staff and first responders. Declines to respond to question about gun control. pic.twitter.com/hlvMPwhK1M Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 17, 2018PRESIDENT TRUMP POSTED PHOTOS FROM HIS VISIT:Our entire Nation, w/one heavy heart, continues to pray for the victims & their families in Parkland, FL. To teachers, law enforcement, first responders & medical professionals who responded so bravely in the face of danger: We THANK YOU for your courage! https://t.co/3yJsrebZMG pic.twitter.com/ti791dENTy Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018 | 0 |
4,775 | Trump Gets HUMILIATED After His Latest Stupid-As-F*ck Attack On Obama (TWEETS) | At this point, we have to wonder if the pressure of finding himself outside his bubble and confronted with the overwhelming realization that everyone hates him has gotten to Donald Trump. On Wednesday, The Donald woke up, ironed his Klan robes, gave Ivanka a deep, creepy good morning kiss, and sat down on his couch in yellow-stained underwear to whine about Obama on Twitter (at least, this seems how a typical Trump morning would go), and tweeted his latest, dumbest attack on the President.Trump s new daily ritual of childishly attacking President Obama on Twitter hasn t gone well for him, with his delusion rapidly progressing from I could have beaten Obama to I did beat Obama while the world mocked him at levels no normal human being could withstand. But this is Trump. He s special. Somehow he remains not immune but oblivious to the fact that outside his little fan club, he s just an orange-faced bigot with tiny hands who got absolutely trounced in the popular vote. Somehow, he is able to find the strength to keep his little thumbs moving faster than his brain to produce award-winningly ignorant, misinformed, and utterly idiotic tweets at an astounding rate. Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks, The Donald tweeted. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition NOT! Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks.Thought it was going to be a smooth transition NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016President Obama has done nothing to impede the transition. In fact, he has been downright helpful, even giving The Donald advice the many times Trump came crawling and begging for it. I must tell you, you know, I never met him before this. I never spoke to him before this. I really I do like him, Trump said after finally meeting the man he had been attacking for years, even questioning his citizenship. I love getting his ideas. And I may differ in many cases. I differ very greatly. But apparently, The Donald is done playing nice with the man who had been devoting overtime to ensuring that the President-elect doesn t f*ck things up too badly. As is becoming almost a daily ritual, the Internet came down hard on Trump for his latest nonsensical attack on the guy who has been going out of his way to ensure a smooth transition.@realDonaldTrump fixed that Consumer Sentiment thing for you. pic.twitter.com/TB2M6czKww Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) December 28, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Can we quickly run down the list of other black people you think you're better than? Thx! Ben Berkon (@BenBerkon) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump #TheResistanceEvery time Donald Trump tweets pic.twitter.com/mgOhur4LUQ Lil' Kim Ms. G.O.A.T (@killerbee805) December 28, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Oh honey, he's really going to be a valuable resource for you. And this whole "not" business isn't very Presidenty! Bess Kalb (@bessbell) December 28, 2016.@realDonaldTrump No one says "NOT" anymore. Also avoid "Just sayin", "My bad," and "Where's the beef." Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump If "doing my best to disregard" means "whining like a child on Twitter" you're doing great! pic.twitter.com/sENPmuoUE1 jeremy cabo ? (@jeremycabo) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump he literally spent more time than usual meeting with you because you didn't understand what the job entails. Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) December 28, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Do you mean inflammatory statements like your own tweets? pic.twitter.com/K1NAbyQeXn Simon Hedlin (@simonhedlin) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump This tweet has aged well! pic.twitter.com/3ZcXhoEJJF Lil' Kim Ms. G.O.A.T (@killerbee805) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump really? I just thought it was unprecedented conflicts of interest and incompetence that was causing you problems Zack Kopplin (@ZackKopplin) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump oh cool, borat is our new president Matt Barnette (@MattBarnette) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump it's not Obama's fault you're too lazy to have an intelligence briefing Zack Kopplin (@ZackKopplin) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump Doing my best to disregard the years you were the leading birther in the United States of America. https://t.co/12YDTSU2Vq Cristian ? (@cristianafarias) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump By "doing your best" does that mean tweet about it every day? Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump Literally something a teenager would tweet, God you're sad. Does the need a hug? Jeremy M (@thismyshow) December 28, 2016@realDonaldTrump TRANSLATION: Our transition team & process is riddled with dysfunction, controversy, and failures need someone to blame! Horus Gilgamesh (@AwkwardBible) December 28, 2016President Obama has been nothing but helpful, offering only reasonable criticisms for little things like teaming up with Putin to hack and pervert out electoral process. But the ease with which President Obama takes up space in Trump s head is impressive. Obama doesn t need to attack. He just needs to exist and Trump goes insane.Featured image via Getty Images (Matthew Cavanaugh)/screengrab | 0 |
4,776 | TWO HIGH SCHOOL JROTC Members Tell INCREDIBLE Story Of How They Led Students Into Classroom…Used Tevlar Mats To Block Bullets From Florida Shooter [VIDEO] | ABC News When two Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students and Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) captains heard gunshots after training with cadets, they used classroom materials to barricade and protect students.Company commander Capt. Zackary Walls, 17, and Capt. Colton Haab, 17, told ABC News that they ended formations early to head back to their classrooms shortly before a fire alarm went off and the shooting began. Around 2:30 I hear the bell ring for the fire alarm and we start heading out, Walls said. I m leading the line and we re heading out and it just so happens our fire zone was exactly where the shooter was, but, Walls added, he did not see the shooter. I heard the first two or three shots, I knew it was gunshots and I look back at all the kids behind me, there s 60 kids looking at me [asking], What do I do, where do I go I just yell, get back in the classroom,' Walls said.He went on to explain that students were sprinting through the hallways trampling over each other and he began ushering them inside a classroom to shield them from the gunfire. I start trying to just herd kids in there, get them to where they re not pushing and trampling each other and just get them into the room safely. I pulled in teachers, I pulled in kids that weren t in my class, Walls recalled of the chaotic scene.Haab said his first sergeant told him not to lead his class outside after hearing seven gunshots, so he turned back to safety. I shut my door, pulled a student in and I brought him into the other room [where Walls was located] and I started getting people in, Haab said.A student, who told ABC News that he participated in Junior ROTC with Cruz, described him as a psycho. Cruz was a well-known weapons enthusiast, the student said, who once tried to sell knives to a classmate. | 0 |
4,777 | breaking fbi reopens investigation into clinton emails | the email that got john podesta hacked latest wikileaks dump reveals phishing email that compromised podesta mikael thalen october comments
the email that lead to the hack of clinton campaign chairman john podestas gmail account was published online friday by wikileaks
the malicious march email which claims to be from google asked podesta to change his password due to unauthorized access from an ip address in the ukraine
clinton campaign staff members who viewed the email were convinced it was genuine clinton insider sara latham argued the gmail one is real while even clinton campaign it specialist charles delavan said this is a legitimate email
the first suspicious aspect of the email unnoticed by the clinton camp was the bitly password reset link bitly a website that shortens long web addresses would not be found in an official email from google
as first reported by motherboard earlier this month examination of the bitly link that redirected podesta to a fake google webpage also contained several red flags
the bitly link helped hide not only the fact that the landing page ended in tk instead of com but that the web page itself failed to use https encryption such links were also likely used to fool googles spam filters
prior analysis of the phishing link by cybersecurity group secureworks revealed the hackers also made a significant operation security mistake they failed to make their two bitly accounts private
the public accounts revealed the hackers had created similar links to use against gmail accounts between october and may
secureworks notes that the targets included individuals in russia and the former soviet states current and former military and government personnel in the us and europe individuals working in the defense and government supply chain and authors and journalists
accounts linked to the election were also in the hackers sights
specific targets include staff working for or associated with hillary clintons presidential campaign and the democratic national committee dnc including individuals managing clintons communications travel campaign finances and advising her on policy
thomas rid a professor at kings college displayed on twitter how decoding the phishing links could reveal the specific emails being targeted
click to enlarge interestingly former secretary of state colin powell whose emails were released by the website dcleaks in september was also targeted by the same hackers
click to enlarge this connection suggests the hackers who provided wikileaks with the podesta emails and dcleaks with the powell emails are likely one in the same the bitly accounts are also behind the malicious email sent to retired fourstar general philip mark breedlove whose emails appeared on dcleaks in april
numerous cybersecurity groups have accused the russian government of being responsible not only for the above election season hacks but for creating dcleaks and guccifer to disseminate the data the us government also publicly blamed russia on october just one week before the cia was tasked with preparing a possible retaliatory cyber strike
russian president vladimir putin has denied involvement arguing that the contents of the hacks are far more important than who is responsible
listen does it even matter who hacked this data putin said on september the important thing is the content that was given to the public
putin again dismissed us hysteria concerning the hacks on thursday during an annual speech at the valdai discussion club in sochi
hysteria has been whipped up in the united states about the influence of russia over the us presidential election he said its much simpler to distract people with socalled russian hackers spies and agents of influence does anyone really think that russia could influence the american peoples choice in any way is america a banana republic or what america is a great power newsletter sign up get the latest breaking news specials from alex jones and the infowars crew related articles | 0 |
4,778 | Prof. At Trump’s Fmr. College: He’s ‘A True Threat To Our American Democracy’ | Donald Trump likes to brag about the fact that he attended the University of Pennsylvania s prestigious Wharton School. However, the folks there are scared as hell as the prospect of their former student becoming president of the United States. One of the professors at the Wharton School, Eric Schoenberg, has one project between here and November: Stop Trump.According to the Huffington Post, Schoenberg says of Trump: This man, Donald Trump, represents a true threat to our democracy and our system of government. This was a statement he made to the University s student publication, the Daily Pennsylvanian. Schoenberg continued: I think Donald Trump is a potential disaster, and I m going to do everything I can to make sure he isn t president. The Democrats are the only game in town to that regard. The professor is also talking with his wallet on this one, having given the maximum allowable amount $2700 to Hillary Clinton s bid for the presidency. Further, he gave $75,000 to help bankroll the Democratic National Convention. In addition, Schoenberg has bankrolled various unnamed efforts championed by Democrats to the tune of roughly $30,000.Schoenberg isn t the only one at Trump s old school who can t stand the thought of his being president. In fact, the students at Wharton penned a blistering missive to Trump, berating his offensive remarks, saying that discriminatory statements are incompatible with the values that we are taught and we teach at Wharton. That letter gathered more than 3700 signatures from both present students at the school and those who have already graduated.The people at Wharton are right. Trump is unfit to be president. From his obvious ignorance of the Constitution, to his love affair with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, to his flirtation with the idea of abandoning America s allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and so much more, we must understand that Trump is not just a buffoon or a clown or even a bigot or an embarrassment. He is dangerous, a literal fascist and a demagogue who has risen to a position of power through his uncanny ability to tap into and manipulate the basest, darkest instincts of America s ignorant masses. Godspeed, Professor Schoenberg. Educated, sane Americans everywhere are with you. We must stop Trump.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
4,779 | Will ‘Trumponomics’ Bankrupt America? | 21st Century Wire says F. William Engdahl is a strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics. Engdahl was a guest alongside Adam Garrie of The Duran on a power packed edition of The Sunday Wire with Patrick Henningsen entitled War And Peace . If you didn t get the chance to catch it, you can find that podcast here.More on this report from GlobalResearch (Image TIME)F. William Engdahl GlobalResearch The campaign promises were grandiose just like the candidate. Donald Trump wooed millions of American voters with his pledge to make America great again. He promised a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to revitalize the de facto depressed national economy. He promised to bring jobs back from China, Mexico and elsewhere by renegotiating major trade deals or scotching them entirely as with the Trans-Pacific Partnership of the Obama era, a scheme which Trump rightly said would take even more American jobs. After 100 days in office what are the prospects that his economic program will bring positive changes to Americans?Dismal to put it mildly. Of course that should come as no shock to anyone taking a closer look at who is Trump, or more correctly his transition team brought in to run White House economic policy.That Dubious Wall Street Economics TeamThe top economic and financial position in the Trump Cabinet is held by of Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, a veteran Wall Street banker for 17 years at Goldman Sachs. As an undergraduate at Yale University, for those interested in occult matters, Mnuchin was inducted into the bizarre Skull & Bones secret society in 1985, the same secret society where George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were initiates.After leaving Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin was several times a business partner with notorious convicted hedge fund insider trader, George Soros, the putative Daddy Warbucks today of CIA and USAID regime change NGOs around the world. Both Mnuchin and Soros, with other investors, made a literal killing on the ravages of the US sub-prime real estate collapse. They bought bankrupt California mortgage lender IndyMac from the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis at a bargain price. Mnuchin was severely criticized as owner and CEO of IndyMac for making money by foreclosing aggressively on homes at a rate double the norms of the banking industry. He was sued over questionable foreclosures, and settled several cases for millions of dollars. He violated the Fair Housing Act by not lending money to African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. If we are to believe him, he told the financial TV CNBC last November it would be the Trump administration s job to make sure that the average American has wage increases and good jobs. A second key member of Donald Trump s economic team is Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce. Ross, a billionaire, was for 24 years head of N.M. Rothschild & Sons New York office for bankruptcy-restructuring, a euphemism for what is called asset-stripping, where he earned the title, King of Bankruptcy. Ross ties to Trump go back to the 1980 s when Ross helped Trump avoid foreclosure on The Donald s three Atlantic City gambling casinos. Ross International Coal Group owned a West Virginia coal mine where an explosion in 2006 killed 12 miners. It was later revealed by his former associates that Ross knew well that the mine was sub-standard in safety but did nothing to correct it. In 2014 Ross was named head or Grand Swipe of a secret Wall Street fraternity, Kappa Beta Phi, founded in 1929 just before the stock market crash, whose stated purpose is to keep alive the spirit of the good old days of 1928 29. Michael Bloomberg, former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, Laurence Fink CEO of the $4.5 trillion financial firm BlackRock, are some of the very select members of Ross Wall Street fraternity.The Trump Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), responsible for drafting the President s annual Budget, is former US Congressman Mike Mulvaney. In his first Trump Budget proposal Mulvaney cut funds for a program Meals on Wheels which brings food to disabled, claiming the program showed no results. The program delivers meals to individual homes and senior citizen centers, feeding more than 2.4 million Americans 60 and older, more than half a million of them veterans according to their website. The government says that most recipients live alone, take more than six medications, and rely on these meals for at least half the food they consume.Gary Cohn is the White House Director of the National Economic Council. He came to the job directly from Goldman Sachs where he was President and Chief Operating Officer. Cohn led a Goldman Sachs delegation to Greece in 2009 to try to convince the Greek government to use derivatives to push debt due dates into the distant future. Goldman Sachs in fact, while Cohn held a top position in 2001, devised the exotic derivatives scheme to hide billions in state debt from Brussels that enabled Greece to illegally qualify to join the Eurozone.This is the gang that we are supposed to believe will make America great again, and to make sure that the average American has wage increases and good jobs. In fact, based on what they have released to date, they will destroy much of what little remains of a functioning national economy and a stable middle-class. Continue this article at GlobalResearchThe above article was originally posted at F. William Engdahl s New Eastern OutlookREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire TRUMP FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
4,780 | California Democrats propose series of infrastructure bills | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Democrats in California’s state Senate announced on Tuesday a series of infrastructure funding bills that would invest billions in roads, bridges, housing and water projects. Infrastructure investment has been at the forefront of political agendas this year, from President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to unveil a massive national infrastructure spending plan to voters’ support of billions of dollars of infrastructure bonds in November’s election. Both Trump and his rival, Hillary Clinton, campaigned promising infrastructure investment. Trump called for $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over 10 years, but it remains unclear how much would come from the federal budget. Democrats in the California Senate proposed five bills on Tuesday, including one that would use $6 billion a year over the next decade to repair roads and bridges and improve transit systems across the state. According to the proposal, the bulk of the money is to be raised through a phased-in 12 cent per gallon gas tax increase, along with increases to the diesel excise tax and vehicle registration fees. California’s freeway system faces a $59 billion maintenance shortfall over the next decade and local governments face another $78 billion shortfall for local highways and bridges. The need for infrastructure funding is echoed across the country. “Our transportation infrastructure is in dire condition. The longer we wait to fix it, the more it will cost us,” State Senator Jim Beall of San Jose and sponsor of the transportation bill, said in a statement. Two housing bills raise money for affordable housing, one of them through a $75 fee on real estate transaction documents. California is home to 21 of the 30 most expensive rental housing markets in the country, and many parts of the state face serious housing shortages. Another bill proposes to issue a $3 billion general obligation bond aimed at addressing the housing stock shortage. Senator Toni Atkins of San Diego, sponsor of one of the housing bills, said infrastructure was “at the top of the list” of challenges facing California, and Tuesday’s package of bills would “go a long way toward improving quality of life for Californians and grow our state’s economy.” Another bill would fund state and local parks and water infrastructure through a $3 billion general obligation bond. Despite recent rains, California is in the fifth year of drought. In 2014, state voters passed a $7.5 billion bond to fund water infrastructure projects throughout California. Senate leader Kevin de León of Los Angeles, sponsor of Tuesday’s bill, noted that there is still “a high unmet demand for new water and natural resource investment.” | 1 |
4,781 | Bob Geldof calls Aung San Suu Kyi 'handmaiden to genocide' | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof called Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi a hand maiden to genocide on Monday as he returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest over his fellow recipient s response to the repression of Rohingya Muslims. I don t want to be on a very select roll of wonderful people with a killer, Geldof told state broadcaster RTE. Someone who is at best a handmaiden to genocide and an accomplice to murder. More than 600,000 Muslims from Myanmar s Rakhine state have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh after military operations described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing. Their plight has drawn outrage around the world. But Suu Kyi, long seen as a champion of human rights, has been criticized for failing to speak out against violence. There have been calls for her to be stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991. Suu Kyi was given the Freedom of Dublin in 1999 while she was held under house arrest by Mayanmar s then military government. She received her award at a reception in Ireland in 2012, two years after her release. Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honored her, now she appals and shames us, Geldof said in a statement. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha, said the city council had discussed taking away the honor and the matter was still under review. Last month she was stripped of a similar honor by the British university city of Oxford, where she was an undergraduate. But Mac Donncha, a councillor for the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, also criticized Geldof s gesture, saying it was ironic as Geldof held a British knighthood despite the shameful record of British imperialism across the globe . The former Boomtown Rats singer was given an honorary knighted in 1986 in recognition of his charity work, including organizing the 1985 Live Aid concert to help those suffering from starvation and disease in Ethiopia. Other foreign recipients of the Freedom of Dublin include John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev. Irish rockers U2, who had campaigned for Suu Kyi s release while she was a political prisoner, also voiced disappointment and said her silence was starting to look a lot like assent . Who could have predicted that if more than 600,000 people were fleeing from a brutal army for fear of their lives, the woman who many of us believed would have the clearest and loudest voice on the crisis would go quiet, the band said in a statement. For these atrocities against the Rohingya people to be happening on her watch blows our minds and breaks our hearts. The Myanmar military says it launched the crackdown in response to attacks by Rohingya militants. | 1 |
4,782 | CUBA STILL A COMMIE HELLHOLE AFTER OBAMA’S “NORMALIZATION”: 4 YEARS IN THE SLAMMER FOR “SOCIAL DANGEROUSNESS” | Don t you know Obama would love to just throw those who disagree with him in jail. Well, the Cuban government has only increased their detention of political dissenters since the normalization of relations with the Communist country. Basically, we ve just given Cuba more money to oppress its people it ll all a big fat NOTHING-BURGER The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission, or CCDHRN, said Thursday that Cuba s government detained 610 people for political reasons in March, the highest number in the past seven months. There is a noticeable trend toward increasing repressive activities of this kind, the CCDHRN said in its monthly report. At the same time, we also identify 95 cases of people who suffered other forms of political repression including physical attacks, police harassment and vandalism and hostile demonstrations. The exercise of all civil and political rights is still a crime, the group said, noting that the Cuban penal code still includes an offense called pre-criminal social dangerousness, which is punishable by up to four years in prison.The country is unlikely to see an improvement in respect for fundamental, civil and political rights as a result of the government s inflexible posture and its opposition to any effort or proposal leading to the urgent judicial, economic and political reforms that the Cuban people need and deserve, the commission said. Read more: Latin American Herald | 0 |
4,783 | Trump Has Been Financing The ‘Crown Jewel’ Of His Empire With Money From His Worst Enemy | Trump bashes China so much and blames them for American problems so often, that if he wasn t such a racist you could arguably say it s the central theme of his presidential campaign. With that in mind, you have to wonder if Trump has some kind of multiple personality disorder. On one hand, he completely savages them with rhetoric every chance he gets. On the other, practically every aspect of his business is dependent on them to survive.As if it wasn t embarrassing enough for him to be busted on live TV for producing his overpriced and gaudy clothing in China, now it turns out that the crown jewel of his empire that being real estate development is also dependent on Chinese money to survive.A Trump-branded luxury apartment building called Trump Bay Street is being built in New Jersey. The project is receiving substantial funds from Chinese investors. Bloomberg reported that the investors were sold on the idea via a Sopranos style video campaign filmed from a moving car with the Work Up This Morning theme song from the show playing in the background. I didn t know the Sopranos were so big in China.If the fact he pandered out to Chinese investors wasn t hypocritical enough, this next part really takes the cake.The project was also funded to the tune of $50 million by a controversial visa program that essentially sells legal US residency for immigrants who can front a huge wad of cash. The program is called EB-5, and it allows foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in an American project that will create at least 10 jobs to receive a 2-year visa.The program is intensely popular as a capital source for real estate developers and has ballooned from 5 visas in 2005 to 10,692 in 2014. Approximately 1,200 Chinese millionaires essentially bought a visa while millions of regular immigrants wait patiently to come here legally.The EB-5 program has come under a lot of fire as well, for its ability to be easily exploited by unsavory individuals.In addition to reaching wealthy foreign investors, the program has become a magnet for those seeking to sidestep the scrutiny of the traditional immigration process. In one case, immigration officials pushed through a visa application from Chinese investor in a Las Vegas hotel project despite an internal review that found the investor had previously been turned back at the border, and much of his visa application had likely been fabricated, immigration records show.A Feb. 1, 2013 Homeland Security internal review obtained by ABC News also lays out in stark detail the breadth of the troubles afflicting some of the roughly 600 so-called regional centers private sector entities certified by Homeland Security to recruit foreign investors for specific business ventures that will qualify for EB-5 visas. The document summarizes 41 investigations, some open and some now closed, into allegations ranging from espionage to fraud to drug trafficking involving investors in various EB-5 investment projects.Source: GawkerTrump has been pissing and moaning about China for literally years now and explained how he will mercilessly beat them up in the name of America if elected president. Meanwhile, he s literally receiving a government handout from them, via a shady visa program that sells a spot in the U.S. for an obscene amount of money.I guess the question is, can he even afford to be tough on China, or will it bankrupt him?Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
4,784 | Teary-Eyed 15-Year-Old Girl BEGS Y’all Qaeda To Leave: ‘I Shouldn’t Have to Be Scared In My Own Hometown’ (VIDEO) | It s no secret that the Bundy militia s presence at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon is unpopular. Even those who agree with the sentiments behind the right-wing armed occupation of the federal property feel that it s best for the wannabe cowboys to skedaddle. Despite being offered a free pass out of the area, the ammosexual clan has made it very clear that they intend to stay for years even putting out calls for snacks, tampons, and clean underwear (mommy forgot to pack for them and isn t there to do their laundry) to help them on their mission to get even more free stuff.On Monday, Harney County residents put their differences aside and, whether or not they agree with the professed sentiments of the Bundy clan, rallied behind one thing: getting the armed madmen the f*ck out of there. While many made some excellent points about the grown men playing Army, one 15-year-old-girl s emotional plea stole the stage. I am 15 and I m a freshman in high school, Ashlie Presley said, barely able to get her words out through the tears. Being here with all this honestly has scared me. And it shouldn t. She continued, fighting through the sadness of what the Bundys and their buddies have done to her town: I should not have to be scared in my own hometown. I know that all of my friends have been scared and have come to me to know what to do and I have to be the one to tell them that it s going to be OK, that everything s going to be OK. I shouldn t have to be scared, and none of us in Harney County should have to be scared in our hometown, she concluded.While law enforcement refuses to take action and, for some reason, criminal prosecution seems unlikely, a local judge has vowed to bill Ammon Bundy up to $70,000 per day for security costs to the county so, at least it will become more expensive for Bundy s pretend army to continue its armed occupation of a bird sanctuary.Watch this teen beg Bundy and friends to stop terrorizing everyone below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
4,785 | China says will investigate if U.N. resolutions on North Korea contravened | BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said that China fully and strictly implements U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea and will investigate if there are activities that contravene resolutions. China upholds resolving the North Korean nuclear issue via talks, ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying added, speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing. U.S. President Donald Trump will ask China to cut its financial links with North Korea and to abide by U.N. sanctions when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon from South Korea for a two-night stop in the Chinese capital as part of his marathon Asia tour. | 1 |
4,786 | Obama toasts Nordic nations after Russia-focused summit | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama toasted Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland at a star-studded state dinner on Friday, lauding the nations for their global influence on civil rights, humanitarian issues and curbing climate change. The red carpet glamor followed a White House summit where Obama and the leaders of the five nations presented a united front against Moscow’s recent military aggression in Ukraine and the Baltic region. But the meeting was more about soft diplomacy than launching ambitious foreign policy endeavors, given that Obama’s second and final term ends in January. Americans will vote in presidential elections on Nov. 8. “I thought this was a very useful and important conversation, although there was probably too much agreement to make for as exciting a multilateral meeting as I sometimes participate in,” Obama said. More than 300 guests including rapper Common, comedian Will Farrell and actress Tracee Ellis Ross mingled with diplomats, tech and Fortune 500 CEOs, White House officials, and political donors in a glass-ceiling tent built around a tree on the South Lawn. Hand-rolled beeswax candles and strings of lights reflected off ten-foot pillars of ice, an homage to the northern lights. Pop star Demi Lovato, known for her support of liberal causes, was set to perform after a Nordic-inspired meal of ahi tuna, tomato tartare and red wine-braised beef short ribs. “It’s a great opportunity to drink wine and make progress on the most serious issues of our time,” Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters on her way into the dinner. The summit was aimed in part at sending a message to a nation not on the guest list: Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and has stepped up its military posture. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is planning its biggest build-up in eastern Europe since the Cold War to try to deter further Russian aggression, and Denmark and Norway said on Friday they would contribute to the “enhanced allied forward presence” with NATO. “We will be maintaining ongoing dialogue and seek cooperation with Russia, but we also want to make sure that we are prepared and strong, and we want to encourage Russia to keep its military activities in full compliance with international obligations,” Obama said after the summit. Obama has long expressed admiration for the pragmatic and liberal-leaning politics of the Nordic nations. “There have been times where I’ve said, why don’t we just put all these small countries in charge for a while? And they could clean things up,” Obama said. (This version of the story corrects the title of Samantha Power in the eighth paragraph) | 1 |
4,787 | WHY FORD’S DARK SECRET May Come Back To Haunt Them Over Owner’s Support of NFL Protests | Founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, made no secret of the fact that he disliked Jewish people. More precisely, he disliked the Jew an abstract impression of what Ford imagined to be a sinister people bent on controlling the world.Not only did he make no secret of his contempt, but he launched a weekly newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, in 1919 to promote his paranoid views. He pressed Ford retailers to sell subscriptions.In the end, historians say, Ford assisted some of the greatest evil and genocide in history by fueling the anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in the 1920s. According to press reports, Hitler had a portrait of Henry Ford on his office wall and a copy of The International Jew, published by Ford, on his desk. Crains Business Detroit Should anyone be shocked by a Sheriff s decision to not want to support a car brand, after their decision to openly support a movement started to create hate and distrust for our law enforcement? The Bossier Parish (La.) Sheriff s Office is boycotting its local Ford dealership because of Ford Motor Company s support for protests of the National Anthem by National Football League (NFL) players at games, Sheriff Julian Whittington announced Wednesday.Sheriff Whittington sent a letter to Hixson Ford of Alexandria notifying the dealership that his office would no longer purchase Ford vehicles for as long as Ford sides with those who have no regard for the men and women who protect and serve this great nation : Yes, the NFL players have a right to protest as they deem necessary, but we, the Bossier Sheriff s Office and the taxpayers of Bossier Parish have a right to spend our money elsewhere, Whittington says in his letter posted on the office s Facebook page. It is my hope that this letter will cause you to encourage Ford Motor Co. to change their advertising choice and cease to support the NFL with advertising dollars until the NFL leadership demands its players show proper respect for our nation s colors. After the letter to Hixson Automotive was received by Dallas L. Hixson, the Sheriff discussed the issue with Mr. Hixson, the Sheriff s office told CNSNews.com. Mr. Hixson informed Sheriff Whittington that he was not aware of Ford Motor Company s support for NFL players who wish to protest during the National Anthem or during the game.Hixson told Sheriff Whittington that such a stance concerns him as well, and he will be taking the Sheriff s letter with him to Detroit to present to Ford Motor Co. leadership in the near future.Sheriff Whittington says he is sending copies of the letter to each of the state s 63 other sheriffs, as well as both the national and Louisiana sheriffs associations.National Sheriffs Association (NSA) Executive Director Jonathan Thompson tells CNSNews.com that NSA has received the letter and that sheriffs have both the authority and obligation to authorize, or decline, purchases based on the best interests of law enforcement and their communities: Sheriffs have the obligation to decide which products they authorize for bids, procurements and purchases. They choose, based upon a variety of requirements and capabilities, but also whom they believe is best able to support the broad needs of law enforcement and the communities they protect Since 2016, the Bossier Sheriff s Office has spent $747,132 and purchased 29 vehicles patronizing Hixon Autoplex. The Sheriff s Office provided the following breakdown to CNSNews.com:In 2016, BSO purchased 14 vehicles from Hixson Autoplex, costing $346,519.50. They included:One 2015 Ford F-150 Two 2015 Ford F-250 Six 2017 Ford Police Interceptor One 2017 Ford Explorer Three 2016 Ford Taurus One 2017 Ford Taurus In 2017, BSO purchased 15 vehicles from Hixson Autoplex, costing $400,612.50. They included:Fifteen 2017 Ford Police Interceptor Ford Motor Company issued a statement in late September supporting the right of the players to protest the National Anthem at NFL games, Bloomberg reports: Ford, for example, said the automaker would respect individuals rights to express their views, even if they are not ones we share. That s part of what makes America great. CNS News | 0 |
4,788 | Exclusive: European envoys take fight for Iran nuclear deal to U.S. Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress faces a possible fight over the future of the Iran nuclear agreement, European ambassadors and officials from President Barack Obama s administration are making their case for preserving the pact directly to U.S. lawmakers. The British, French, German and European Union ambassadors to the United States will participate later on Wednesday in a meeting on Capitol Hill with Democratic senators organized by the Senate s number two Democrat, Richard Durbin, congressional aides and embassy officials told Reuters. Former Undersecretary of State and lead Iran negotiator Wendy Sherman will also attend and former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will participate via videolink, an aide to Durbin and another congressional aide said. The meeting is part of an ongoing effort by Democrats in Congress and other officials who support the nuclear pact to bolster support for the deal by spelling out the consequences of its collapse as Republican President Donald Trump faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying the agreement or placing its fate in the hands of Congress. A British embassy official said Ambassador Kim Darroch was in Congress on Wednesday with his French, German and EU counterparts meeting with both Democrats and Republicans to provide information on the European position on the JCPOA, using an acronym for the nuclear agreement. An EU embassy spokesman confirmed that EU Ambassador David O Sullivan and others would attend, to explain that the deal is a multilateral agreement that is working and that the European Union will do everything it can to ensure it stays in place. Trump has long criticized the nuclear pact, a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Obama, and signed in 2015 by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran. Senior White House officials have said that Trump is leaning toward a course of action that could lead to the United States abandoning the pact, despite apparent disagreement within his administration over whether that is the best way forward. A senior administration official said the administration was considering Oct. 12 for Trump to give a speech on Iran but no final decisions have been made. Supporters of the deal say its collapse could trigger a regional arms race and worsen Middle East tensions. Opponents say it went too far in easing sanctions without requiring that Iran end its nuclear program permanently. The ambassadors have said the deal s demise would be a major loss that could lead to increased enrichment by Iran and weaken international proliferation efforts as the world grapples with a growing nuclear threat from North Korea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States should consider staying in the deal unless it were proven that Tehran was not abiding by the agreement. Mattis said Iran was fundamentally in compliance with the agreement. Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump would be presented with multiple options regarding the future of the nuclear pact. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the suspension of international sanctions that were choking its economy. If Trump declines to certify, it could pave the way for Congress to vote to resume those sanctions, killing the deal. Some Republicans argue that Trump can decertify because he does not believe the agreement is in the national security interest. That, they said, would increase pressure on Tehran because Congress could threaten to re-impose sanctions if Iran does not agree to a more restrictive deal. Iran has said it may abandon the nuclear deal it reached with the major world powers if the United States decides to withdraw from it. | 1 |
4,789 | BREAKING: Mexico Stands Strong AGAINST Trump’s Wall; Delivers BRUTAL Remarks | It s not just Canada that Donald Trump seems to be starting unnecessary battles with today, Mexico has responded to his continued persistence of the border wall.In fact, Mexico is now considering Trump s insistence of the wall, and the lie that Mexico will pay for it, a hostile act.According to Reuters Politics: JUST IN: Mexican foreign minister says Mexico considers construction of border wall a hostile act, will not contribute in any way JUST IN: Mexican foreign minister says Mexico considers construction of border wall a 'hostile' act, will not contribute in any way Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) April 25, 2017This comes shortly after Trump recommitted his efforts to build the wall.According to the New York Times: President Trump insisted on Tuesday that he remained committed to his hotly disputed plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, despite backing off a demand that the project be funded in a short-term spending measure that must be passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Trump has also tweeted this over the past few days:Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)! If Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2017 .the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be!#BuildTheWall Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2017Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017With Trump clearly not backing down off his inflammatory rhetoric surrounding the border wall, it has left Mexico needing to respond. The fact that they are calling Trump hostile isn t only terrible, but dangerous. They seem to be seeing Trump as a foe rather than a trusted ally.Trump s isolationist actions aren t only harmful to the United States and our closest allies, but to geopolitics as a whole.Featured Photo via Getty Images | 0 |
4,790 | Gabby Giffords FLAYS Trump For Inciting ‘Bloodshed’ With Second Amendment Comments | Having lived through an assassination attempt herself, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) understands the seriousness of Trump s most recent remarks and his invitation to violence. In a statement released on Tuesday, Giffords flayed Trump for inciting bloodshed when he suggested that Second Amendment people could stop Clinton from reaching the White House and subsequently appointing Supreme Court justices that will take away everyone s guns.In the powerful statement, Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, told Americans that they must draw a bright red line in the sand between political rhetoric and inciting violence. Responsible, stable individuals won t take Trump s rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy, their statement read. They may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed. They continued, urging Trump supporters, the Republican nominee himself, and Americans in general to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate. You can read her full statement here:Donald Trump might astound Americans on a routine basis, but we must draw a bright red line between political speech and suggestions of violence. Responsible, stable individuals won t take Trump s rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy. They may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed. What political leaders say matters to their followers. When candidates descend into coarseness and insult, our politics follow suit. When they affirm violence, we should fear that violence will follow.It must be the responsibility of all Americans from Donald Trump himself, to his supporters, to those who remain silent or oppose him to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate. The integrity of our democracy and the decency of our nation is at stake.In 2011, Giffords was shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside of a grocery store in Tuscon, Arizona. Six people were killed in the tragic shooting and Giffords was critically wounded. Recovery has been long and hard, and is not yet done, but she has become a tireless advocate for gun control regulations to make America safer. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention and said that as president, Hillary Clinton would fight to enact gun control legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of people like the man who shot her.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
4,791 | TEXAS COLLEGE STUDENTS OUTRAGED: Traditional 9/11 Memorial Flag Display Moved…Could “Offend” Some Students | The shocker about this is that students on both sides of the political spectrum want the 9/11 flags to be displayed where they ve always been displayed. The inability of college campuses to stand up to people who are perpetually offended is a sad statement on where we are in American tolerance these days. It s so ironic that the left wants you to march to their drum beat or else they will destroy you. Note to SMU: You had a good thing going with your student body coming together to memorialize 9/11 so let it continue!DALLAS, Tex. In a time of extreme political divide, students both Republican and Democrat at one Texas college have found something they can agree on.For the past two years at Southern Methodist University, a campus group has planted thousands of American flags in front of Dallas Hall as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. That s simply contradictory to the very definition of free speech, said Grant Wolf, the Young Americans for Freedom Chairman.But in July, SMU changed its policy, saying student groups can no longer have displays there.The lawn has historically hosted tributes and protests from students of all political affiliations. The leaders of two prominent student groups say the policy violates their right to free speech. They re basically cornering us into a segment of campus and saying you re not allowed to have a display here because it s triggering, harmful or offensive to students over there, said Drew Wicker, the President of SMU College Republicans.SMU released a statement saying nearby Momac Park, where displays will be allowed, is larger than the lawn and is along one of the most prominent drives on campus.The university said it respects the rights of all campus community members to express their opinions, as well as their right to be free from coercion or harassment. Via: Fox 5 Atlanta | 0 |
4,792 | Well It Happened, Trump Gets Desperate And Goes Full BENGHAZI On Hillary (TWEET) | It would appear that Donald Trump knows his base of voters don t pay attention to facts and reality, so he s going to keep perpetuating myths and propaganda to anger these people into voting for him even though his claims hold no basis in reality. And in the world of politics and mudslinging, it doesn t much matter as long as your message sticks and you get votes. However, these lies will get debunked, and there s nothing to stop that either.It s become very clear at this point that the presumptive Republican nominee has switched into attack mode against Democratic front-funner Hillary Clinton. If he s not going after her for what her husband did, he s going after her for literally being a woman.Now, knowing how much many conservatives can t wrap their heads around the fact that the Obama administration, including then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did no wrongdoing in regards to the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, he s going to keep pushing the issue anyway. Never mind the fact that there has been probe after probe after probe.Trump tweeted this out to stir the pot, yet again:Hillary has bad judgment! https://t.co/LhcIU6kmxs Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2016Which then leads you to this: Hillary has bad judgment!A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on May 10, 2016 at 10:25am PDTLet s be clear on this. There is a very strong likelihood that before all this happened, Trump thought Libya was a female body part, so he s clearly just using this as an attack plan and may not even understand all the details of the event in question. He s a bully though, and being a bully he s going to keep ripping at old scabs even though they re all dried up.When every poll shows Hillary Clinton wiping the floor with Trump among women, minorities and the youth vote, he s got to do something. He s desperate, and this is likely just one of many desperate moves to come out of the Trump campaign.Bringing up Benghazi again after Clinton has been cleared again and again and again. C mon now, Donald. That s just pathetic, and clearly a distraction tactic away from the fact that you are most certainly not prepared to be the leader of the free world.Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
4,793 | [VIDEO] DOES SEEING TWO NAKED LESBIANS IN BED TOGETHER MAKE YOU WANT TO EAT YOGURT? Chobani Apparently Thinks It Does | It s a shame really when a company who produces a really great product is more driven by their desire to promote a perverted social message than to actually promote their product. My husband thanks you Chobani, because of your decision to shove your brand of diversity down our throats, he ll have 20 less cartons of Chobani yogurt to shift around in our refrigerator every week. Greek yogurt brand Chobani debuted the latest television spot for its Simply 100 yogurt on Monday, with a surprise twist at the end in the closing seconds of the ad, the couple eating yogurt in bed are revealed to be lesbians.Created by ad agency Opperman Weiss, the 30-second spot, part of the brand s new seven-part Love This Life campaign, features a naked woman eating Chobani yogurt in bed next to her partner. The woman leans over and tickles her partner s foot, then seductively slides off the bed as the brand s new slogan appears onscreen.Chobani CMO Peter McGuiness told ad industry magazine AdWeek that using a lesbian couple in the spot was a natural progression for the new campaign. The campaign hopes to highlight a series of modern American stories that connect the brand s values to its fans values. For us, it s why not [feature a same-sex couple] not why, McGuiness told AdWeek. There s nothing new here, per say. Inclusion and equality has been and is foundational and fundamental to the company. Chobani is the latest brand to include same-sex couples in its advertising. In January, luxury jewelry outlet Tiffany & Co. introduced its first-ever spot featuring a gay couple getting engaged. Other brands featuring same-sex couples in its ads include Wells Fargo and clothing retailer Gap.Television advertising represents something of a new frontier for the LGBT movement. Of course, television itself has exploded with critically-acclaimed programming featuring gay and transgender characters.Bruce Jenner, who came out as a woman last month on a now-infamous Vanity Fair magazine cover, is set to star in I Am Cait, a new eight-part docu-series about living as a transgender woman premiering this summer on the E! network. Fourteen-year-old transgender high-schooler Jazz Jennings will also get her own reality show, All That Jazz, on TLC this summer. Those shows are just the first in an expected bump in transgender-themed reality television programming.Transgender actor Laverne Cox earned an Emmy nomination for the Netflix prison series Orange is the New Black, while Jeffrey Tambor picked up a Golden Globe for his role as transitioning father Maura Pfefferman in Amazon s Transparent, which itself won Best Television Series honors at this year s Globes.Over on network television, Jussie Smollet portrays Jamal Lyon, the gay son of a hip-hop mogul on Empire, the biggest show on TV last season. And in March, ABC Family s The Fosters made history by airing the youngest-ever same-sex kiss between two 13-year-old boys.Via: Breitbart NewsBelow, you will find the message I sent to Chobani. Please feel free to send your own message to this address: www.care.chobani.comHave you lost your mind? What were you thinking when you produced a commercial for your high quality yogurt featuring two naked lesbian women in bed? I have a few large social media sites, and as I sit writing about your choice to place your social messaging above your product, I realize that the 20-25 cartons of Chobani I buy for myself and my three athletic daughters will be the last Chobani yogurt I buy. When my girls ask me why? I will have to explain to them that you have chosen to push a minority lifestyle on everyday Americans with no regard for how it may affect the young children and traditional families who purchase your product. I have nothing against gay relationships, I do however, have something against a company who I have been so loyal to for so long, choosing to push a lifestyle on America that we simply don t want pushed on us. My husband will be happy, as he ll have more room in the fridge to keep his beer cold, because I will now be buying the large containers of Fage yogurt and adding my own fruit. So long Chobani! I hope your message was worth the backlash you will certainly receive. You ve pushed the envelope too far this time Here is their emailed response(inlcuding the name of the respondent as well as his phone number: Hey, Patty.Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us about our newest Love This Life commercial.We launched our Love This Life campaign in May to reflect our fans and celebrate the role that natural food plays in their lives.As part of our founding mission to make better food for more people, inclusiveness is at the heart of our company. We re proud that our products are enjoyed by all and celebrate that diversity.Since our founding, we ve always believed in honesty and authenticity in everything we do. This campaign is part of that mission, and we hope you understand that we re staying true to our founding mission.We take your feedback very seriously and will of course share it, and we want to personally thank you for reaching out to us.Regards, Shawn Shawn Hess Customer Loyalty Team Lead 147 State Highway 320 Norwich, New York 13815 877-847-6181 www.chobani.com | 0 |
4,794 | Russia jails Crimean dissident for speaking out against Moscow's rule | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A court on Wednesday found a Crimean dissident opposed to Russia s annexation of Ukraine s Crimea guilty of separatism and sentenced him to two years in a prison colony, a punishment supporters said amounted to a death penalty for such an ill man. Ilmi Umerov was deputy head of the Crimean Tatars semi-official Mejlis legislature before it was suspended by Moscow after it took control of the peninsula in 2014, a move condemned by the West and Ukraine. State prosecutors had accused the 60-year-old of making statements that undermined Russia s territorial integrity by calling in an interview for an end to Russian control of Crimea. Umerov, who suffers from Parkinson s disease and attacks of high blood pressure, said he did oppose Russia s annexation but that the interview which prosecutors objected to had been badly translated and his words distorted. The Ukrainian government called the verdict an illegal and politically-motivated sentence which it said violated Umerov s human rights. Russia continues its shameful policy of pressure on the independent leaders of occupied Crimea, Ukraine s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the verdict as embarrassing, saying on social media that he hoped the West would now increase pressure on the Russian authorities. Umerov s lawyer, Mark Feygin, said he would appeal Wednesday s verdict which was delivered by a court in Simferopol, the Crimean capital. Feygin said his client s life was on the line. His dispatch to a prison colony would mean his death, he wrote on social media, alluding to Umerov s frail state of health. The Tatars, a mainly Muslim community that makes up about 15 percent of Crimea s population, have largely opposed Russian rule in the peninsula and say the 2014 annexation was illegal, a view supported by the West. Moscow says the overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to join Russia in a proper and fair referendum. Ahtem Chiygoz, another Crimean Tatar leader, was found guilty of stirring up anti-Russian protests earlier this month and jailed for eight years, a move Ukraine s president called an act of Russian repression. A U.N. human rights report said on Monday that Russia had committed grave human rights violations in Crimea, including its imposition of citizenship and by deporting prisoners. Moscow said it deemed those allegations groundless . | 1 |
4,795 | WOW! OBAMA’S SWAN SONG: 6,051 Illegal Alien Kids Dumped In U.S. Communities In October | So that immigration crisis you never hear about on your evening news? It s not over. Not by a long shot.With only a few months left to go before a new president obtains the keys to the Oval Office, the Obama administration released another 6,051 unaccompanied alien children into American communities in the month of October, averaging about 195 kids per day.According to recent stats released by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, only about 45 percent of all immigration cases opened for unaccompanied minors since July of 2014 have been closed. EOIR data also shows that nearly 40 percent of all illegal alien children ordered to appear before an immigration judge won t show up for their final court hearing.Children who come across the border unlawfully and without a parent or guardian are being released at an alarming rate that corresponds with the increasing number of kids currently being apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border. In October alone, Customs and Border Protection reported they apprehended 46,197 illegal aliens crossing into the United States unlawfully via the Southwest U.S. border, including 13,124 members of family units and another 6,754 unaccompanied children. For entire story: MRCTVWhat has escaped all but a few conversations are the short and long term implications of this flood of children haphazardly being placed in detention or residential settings, or released to family members, and how it can precipitate a fertile recruiting opportunity for gangs such as MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang, who already have assimilation within this diaspora, putting not only domestic but regional security in question.Since 2009, the numbers of unaccompanied alien children up to 17 years old, as they are designated by Customs and Border Protection under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security, has grown exponentially, with children from Honduras representing the largest diaspora, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. HMSnetThis is an especially heartwarming story for the working American taxpayer who s trying to figure out how they re going to be able to scrape enough extra money together to buy their own children a gift for Christmas. People like Hillary and Barack, who ve made a fortune as career politicians, can t be bothered with the issues of everyday Americans, they ve got a country to fill with Democrat voters. The American citizens who actually support these illegal aliens with their tax dollars are not their concern. | 0 |
4,796 | Pence says his private email use was not the same as Clinton's | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said there was “no comparison whatsoever” between his use of a private email account for state business while he was governor of Indiana and the email woes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in government became a major point of criticism against her as the Democratic nominee during the 2016 presidential election by Pence, the running mate of President Donald Trump, and others involved in the Republican campaign. “There’s no comparison whatsoever between Hillary Clinton’s practice, having a private server that was handling classified information, destroying emails that were requested by the Congress and by officials,” Pence told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Wisconsin. Pence’s use of an AOL email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star on Thursday. The newspaper said Pence used the account at times to discuss sensitive matters and homeland security issues. The account was hacked last summer, the newspaper reported. Pence said he complied with Indiana laws in his use of the email account, and he had an outside attorney review his private email records and archive those related to state business. During the campaign, Trump and Pence said Clinton’s use of a private server broke the law and endangered national security - complaints that led their supporters to chant “Lock her up!” at rallies. The State Department’s internal watchdog said Clinton’s use of a private server broke department rules. The FBI reviewed her emails for classified material, but it found that no criminal charges were warranted. FBI Director James Comey, however, said Clinton and her colleagues were “careless” with classified information. Clinton’s staff turned over thousands of emails to the State Department in late 2014. Her team said emails that were not related to government work were deleted, although they said that direction was given before lawmakers issued a subpoena for them. A White House spokeswoman said Pence was not subject to federal laws as governor, unlike Clinton, and did not handle classified information. “There’s light years of difference” between the use of private email by Pence and Clinton, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. | 1 |
4,797 | Indonesian envoy to urge Myanmar to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo has sent his foreign minister to Myanmar to urge its government to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims, he said on Sunday after a petrol bomb was thrown at the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta. The embassy attack, which police said caused a small fire, came in the early hours of Sunday morning against the backdrop of mounting anger in Indonesia, home to the world s biggest Muslim population, over violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. A police officer patrolling a street behind the embassy spotted a fire on the second floor of the building at about 0235 Jakarta time (GMT+7) and alerted police officers guarding the front gate, a Jakarta police statement said. After the fire was extinguished, police found a shattered beer bottle with a wick attached to it, the statement said, adding that the unknown perpetrator is suspected to have driven away from the scene in an MPV car. Jakarta police are investigating the incident, said spokesman Argo Yuwono. A group of activists had held a protest at the embassy on Saturday, calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to withdraw the Nobel Peace Prize from Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, state news agency Antara wrote. (bit.ly/2eRowl0) Protests continued on Sunday in Jakarta s city center, with dozens of people calling for the Indonesian government to take an active involvement in efforts to end human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Indonesian President Widodo said he has sent Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to Myanmar to hold intensive communications with involved parties including the United Nations. Earlier this afternoon the Foreign Minister has departed to Myanmar to ask the Myanmar government to stop and prevent violence, to provide protection to all citizens, including Muslims in Myanmar, and to give access to humanitarian aid, Widodo said. Widodo added that concrete actions are needed and the Indonesian government is committed to helping to solve the humanitarian crisis and that Marsudi will also travel to Bangladesh to prepare additional aid for refugees there. The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution. Aid agencies estimate that about 73,000 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since violence in Myanmar erupted last week. | 1 |
4,798 | Obama to propose $200 million to battle Islamist militants in Africa | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is proposing about $200 million in new military spending to confront Islamist militants in north and west Africa, U.S. defense officials said ahead of Tuesday’s budget rollouts for the next fiscal year. U.S. officials declined to specify to which nations the funding would be directed. The disclosure comes as the United States and its allies discuss ways to halt the spread of Islamic State in Libya and elsewhere in Africa from its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The proposed increase in U.S. defense spending for north and west Africa is a component of a larger $7.5 billion Pentagon request for fiscal year 2017 to counter Islamic State. “The marginal increase is on the order of about $200 million associated with north Africa,” one U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to a small group of reporters. Another U.S. defense official told Reuters the funds would also be directed to west Africa. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Paul Selva said the new funding was aimed at addressing threats from militant groups across Africa, including al Shabaab in the east, Boko Haram in the west, and Islamic State in Libya. “The monies that we’ve put into the budget to address those threats in Africa are to be able to work with indigenous forces as well as partner forces to get at those three particular threats and others that might emerge,” Selva said. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter last week announced his intention to ramp up spending to counter Islamic State as he unveiled the broad details of Obama’s proposed $582.7 billion defense budget. A key part of the $7.5 billion would go to munitions. Carter said the United States has used so many smart bombs and laser-guided rockets in Iraq and Syria that it is running low and needs to invest $1.8 billion for 45,000 more. The Air Force budget includes about 4,500 small diameter bombs, doubling the previous year’s purchase. It also calls for more than 30,000 Boeing Co (BA.N) Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits, which turn unguided bombs into all-weather smart munitions using GPS guidance systems, compared to about 22,000 the previous year. The Navy is slated to buy 100 Hellfire missiles built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), with the Air Force planning to buy around 280. The U.S. officials also said some of the $7.5 billion would go toward training and equipping Iraqi forces and fighters in Syria to counter Islamic State. Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, warned on Monday of the group’s expansion to Libya, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Nigeria, Algeria and elsewhere. The United States has a limited permanent military presence in Africa, largely centered on a U.S. base in Djibouti. Islamic State forces have attacked Libya’s oil infrastructure and taken control of the city of Sirte, exploiting a power vacuum in which two rival governments have been battling for supremacy. The Pentagon has said planning is underway to confront the group in Libya, although significant political hurdles could slow any new campaign by the U.S. and its allies there. Carter will meet with allies in Brussels this week to discuss ways to accelerate the campaign against Islamic State. | 1 |
4,799 | Conservative ‘Christian’ Preacher Wants Government To Execute Adulterers | This guy just wants everyone dead.Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona just does not know how to shut his mouth.The day after the Orlando mass shooting, Anderson praised the 49 murders and called upon the government to execute all gay people across the nation.Just this past Sunday, Anderson repeated his call to execute gay people but added a call to purge any Christians who supports the LGBT community.And now Anderson is calling for reinstating the death penalty against anyone who is tried and convicted of committing adultery. Adultery is not a crime in the United States, but Anderson called for punishing those who commit it with death in a written manifesto on his blog last week. When someone says that homosexuality is worthy of death according to the Bible, people inevitably will bring up other sins that were also punishable by death in the Old Testament, he wrote. They think they are somehow catching us in hypocrisy, but the truth is, Bible believing Christians DO agree with those other Old Testament penalties as well we just need to realize that God s laws were the law of the land in those days. Today, adultery is not punishable by law in the United States, but it should be. Just as he did when he called for executing gay people, Anderson laid out his vision of a righteous government, presumably made up of conservative Christians who will shred the Constitution and replace it with the Bible, and said such a government would make adultery a capital crime worthy of arrest and death if convicted by what one can only imagine would be a kangaroo court. This, Anderson says, is the way he would prevent adultery and divorce.Yes, a righteous government would implement the death penalty for those tried and convicted of adultery. We all know normal people who have unfortunately committed this grievous sin, and of course we wouldn t want them to die for it. If we were to somehow vote in a law making adultery illegal, it would not be retroactive it would be the law going forward, and adultery rates would plummet and so would divorce rates. Think about it, though. Do you really think as many people commit adultery in societies where it is punishable by death? Of course not so you can relax about your Aunt Trudy who cheated on her husband thirty years ago. If Aunt Trudy had lived in a society that enforced the death penalty for adultery, chances are she would never have committed that sin in the first place.Indeed, other nations in the world do, in fact, punish adulterers with death. There s only one problem.As it turns out, punishing adultery by execution is something that occurs today mostly under Islamic law. Conservatives like Anderson would refer to this as Sharia law. And usually it overwhelmingly punishes women, especially women who have been raped.According to The Week,The UN has issued numerous calls to governments to repeal laws that criminalise adultery, arguing that they are predominantly used to discriminate against women. Provisions in penal codes often do not treat women and men equally and establish harsher rules and sanctions for women, writes human rights expert Frances Raday.Countries governed by Islamic law, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Somalia, all strictly prohibit zina , or fornication outside marriage . Prosecutions are common and punishment can include fines, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, flogging and in extreme cases, the death penalty. Women are overwhelmingly targeted.Human rights organisations argue that in several Muslim nations, adultery laws are often used against women who have been raped. Under such legislation, the burden of proof is on the woman to provide evidence that she was raped, or be prosecuted for adultery.In short, what Anderson is proposing is a barbaric practice that is mostly practiced in countries that are governed by some form of Sharia law and is used primarily to punish women.Basically, he is calling for the United States to be governed by Christian Sharia law. You know, the same Sharia law that conservatives freak out about and pass laws against.Anderson concluded his sermon by claiming that the death penalty deters crime and shrugged at the notion that people don t want their loved ones executed just because they had an extramarital affair.In countries where adultery is still a capital crime, it s not an everyday occurrence and usually ends up in the news. Just as capital punishment is a strong deterrent against murder, it has the same effect on other crimes.Telling us that we would not want people we know and care about to be put to death is a straw man argument. We don t want our friends and family to be convicted of murder either, but they probably won t kill anyone, so we don t worry about it. When the children of Israel committed adultery, they knew the risk going in.However, it s worth noting that multiple studies by researchers have been UNABLE to prove that the death penalty is a deterrent to crimeThe bottom line is that is that Anderson is a maniac who wants to bathe America in blood in order to create what he considers the perfect Christian utopia. Millions upon millions of Americans would be murdered in this endeavor if Anderson had his way, and that is precisely why conservative Christians can never be allowed to have power in our government.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
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