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5,500 | South Carolina Gov. Haley says 'not interested' in being vice president | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick, said on Wednesday she is not interested in the post but will support the party’s eventual nominee. “While I am flattered to be mentioned and proud of what that says about the great things going on in South Carolina, my plate is full and I am not interested in serving as vice president,” Haley, a popular Indian-American governor, said in a statement. | 1 |
5,501 | Israeli ambassador backs Trump pledge to move U.S. embassy to Jerusalem | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel’s ambassador to the United States issued an impassioned endorsement on Tuesday of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a move that would mark a break with longstanding U.S. foreign policy. Ron Dermer, the Israeli envoy to Washington, made the statement less than a week after Trump announced his decision to nominate as ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a pro-Israel hardliner who supports continued building of Jewish settlements and the shifting of the embassy from Tel Aviv. Speaking at an Israeli embassy Hanukkah party, Dermer insisted that moving the U.S. diplomatic mission would be a “great step forward to peace,” rather than inflaming the Arab world, as critics of the idea have warned. Israel and the Palestinians, who are seeking a state of their own, both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Successive U.S. administrations have said the city’s status must be negotiated. If Trump makes good on his campaign promise, it would upend decades of U.S. policy and draw international condemnation. Jerusalem is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official warned on Friday that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would mean the “destruction of the peace process as a whole.” The last U.S.-backed talks on Palestinian statehood collapsed in 2014. Dermer, without mentioning Trump or his ambassador-designate by name, said the embassy move “should have happened a long time ago.” Among the main reasons, he told a crowd that included foreign diplomats and American Jewish community leaders: “It would send a strong message against the de-legitimization of Israel.” Dermer said he hoped that next year when the new U.S. ambassador lights the traditional Hanukkah candles in his embassy, he will do so in Jerusalem. Dermer’s comments appeared more forceful than recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long vowed to keep Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital. Netanyahu, who has had a fractious relationship with President Barack Obama, has welcomed Trump’s election but seems to be waiting to see what policies he implements. The conservative premier is reported to have been pleased with Trump’s appointment of Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and close friend of Trump who has no diplomatic experience, and members of his right-wing government have welcomed the choice. Friedman has served as president of a U.S. group that raised money for one settlement and has advocated that Israel annex the West Bank, as it did with Arab East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move not recognized internationally. Liberal Jewish-American activists have sharply opposed Friedman’s appointment and are urging the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate not to confirm his nomination. | 1 |
5,502 | FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: FBI’s Comey Considered To Be “Dirty Cop” And Here’s Why [Video] | Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova slammed FBI director James Comey s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton s private email server. DiGenova says people both currently in the FBI and with the FBI consider Comey to be a dirty cop. | 0 |
5,503 | HILLARY’S “WORKING CLASS” Upbringing Isn’t So Working Class…Another Lie From Lyin’ Hillary! | Within Hillary Clinton s stump speeches, she describes a working class upbringing where her dad toiled away making draperies You d think it was a true working class environment for little Hillary Rodham but it wasn t. Her upbringing was actually more upper middle class than working class . This is really what we ve come to expect from Hillary Clinton. Many of her other recollections have been proven false. In fact, it s been so many that we can t begin to name them all! This makes you wonder if she even realizes that people in this day and age can fact check pretty easily. Check out the video at the bottom of this article where she describes her struggles In speeches on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton has portrayed her upbringing as working class. She talks about how her father eked out a living making drapery to support his family. A nice story, but a check of the facts proves otherwise. Hillary Clinton s childhood home is proof she is misleading her supporters about her beginnings. In truth, her family was upper-middle class (at worst), and their wealth gave Hillary a good life, and an opportunity to attend Yale University.Located at 235 N. Wisner St. in the affluent Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, the Clinton childhood home is a beautiful two-story house that her father paid for in full, in cash. He was the owner of a successful drapery business and did quite well.Clinton was able to attend Wellesley College, a private women s college in Massachusetts. She then went on to Yale, which, of course, all kids from working class families do. It was at Yale that Hillary met Bill Clinton. Hillary was raised a conservative Republican, but was radicalized in college and became a Democrat.It should be noted that a childhood friend that went to high school with Clinton recalls that she ran for Student Council President once. She wanted to be the first female Student Council President in her school s history She lost.LISTEN TO HILLARY TELL OF HER STRUGGLES : Via: Silence is Consent | 0 |
5,504 | Factbox: What are the U.S. budget, debt limit issues spooking markets? | (Reuters) - Financial markets are fretting about the fiscal situation in Washington, with deadlines looming in late September and early October on the U.S. budget and the federal debt ceiling. Republican President Donald Trump stoked anxieties by threatening on Aug. 22 to shut down the government if Congress does not fund his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Here is what you need to know about the budget and the debt ceiling, separate issues but ones that are politically connected: Congress is supposed to pass annual spending bills around the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 to fund most of the U.S. government, but disagreements often prevent this. When that happens, lawmakers usually pass a temporary bill extending current spending levels with no changes for days, weeks or months, while they work on a long-term agreement. When even a short-term budget patch cannot be agreed in Congress, or if the president decides to veto either a long-term or short-term budget measure, the government shuts down. This year, when Congress returns on Sept. 5 from its long summer recess, lawmakers will have only about 12 working days to pass a budget measure, probably a short-term patch, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the government open. If a budget measure is not passed before Oct. 1, or if Trump vetoes a budget deal over his Mexican border wall demand, portions of the government will begin to shut down and non-essential employees will go without pay until an agreement is reached. The last time the government shut down, in October 2013 for about two weeks, was because of a dispute over funding for former Democratic President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. There were three shutdowns in the 1990s, the longest lasting 21 days. In the 1970s and 1980s there were 14 shutdowns, most brief and some only partial. Shutdowns hurt federal workers, rattle financial markets and shake confidence in the U.S. government abroad, but to date they have done little lasting economic damage, according to analysts. The “debt ceiling” is a legal cap on how much money the U.S. government can borrow through bonds and other debt issued by the U.S. Treasury. It now stands at about $19.8 trillion, very close to the actual national debt. Since March, the Treasury has been using financial “extraordinary measures” to stave off hitting the ceiling. Once the ceiling is hit, Congress must raise it. If it does not, the government cannot keep borrowing. This matters because the government spends more than it collects in taxes. That accounts for the federal budget deficit. So Washington continually borrows money to cover its bills. The Treasury has said that Congress must increase the debt ceiling by Sept. 29. However, default likely could be staved off a few more weeks by extraordinary measures, analysts said. In any case, legislation to raise the debt limit will need to be adopted, at the very latest, by mid-October, they said. If the debt ceiling is not raised and the government can no longer pay its bills, default results, along with a likely downgrade in the U.S. credit rating. Political gridlock has never led to the United States’ reaching its debt ceiling and its bills going unpaid, but there have been some close calls. A standoff in August 2011 cost the country its top-notch bond rating from the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s and caused the most jarring two weeks in financial markets since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The two move on separate tracks, but are likely to get tangled, with Republican opponents of increasing the debt ceiling probably demanding federal spending cuts. Some analysts said Congress may try to tackle both issues at the same time, perhaps in a single piece of legislation. Both the spending and debt ceiling bills can pass the Republican-led House of Representatives by a simple majority vote. But in the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 of 100 seats, 60 votes are needed to pass, meaning the bills will need some Democratic support. Trump made his U.S.-Mexico border wall a central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign. He also promised that Mexico would pay for it, but Mexico has steadfastly refused to do so and Trump has largely stopped talking about that pledge. Conservative House Republicans agree with the president on the need for a wall and say border-wall funding should be a priority in any spending legislation. Some have already indicated they are willing to shut down the government to get it. Moderate Republicans have called a shutdown unwise, and Republican leaders are determined to prevent one, fearing it would worsen doubts about the party’s ability to govern. Democrats are uniformly opposed to Trump’s wall and say any blame for a shutdown would rest solely with Republicans. The Trump administration reversed course earlier this month and said it would back a “clean” raising of the debt ceiling, meaning it would not be tied to other policy measures. Democrats and moderate Republicans also support a clean debt-ceiling increase. But conservative Republicans, especially in the House, often use debt-ceiling legislation to insist on changes to spending, making them opposed to a clean bill. | 1 |
5,505 | Hillary Clinton’s Anti-Israel E-mails Raise Questions About Influence On Foreign Policy | Hillary Clinton s new e-mail release exposes her relationship to some very anti-Israel people. Sydney Blumenthal is a very close friend of the Clintons and exchanges quite a few e-mails with Clinton that are disturbing. Did he have much influence of foreign policy and the inner workings of the State Department. While Clinton claims Blumenthal was a minor character, the e-mails reveal a different story entirely:As Hillary Clinton s email scandals goes nuclear with more and more classified material coming to light (including some described as explosive ), one disturbing trend is coming to light: Hillary s deep contempt for the state of Israel in general, and Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular.When the State Department released more than 5000 pages of Clinton s emails from her private server on New Year s Eve, it included correspondence with her one-time advisor Sidney Blumenthal. The communications revealed an exchange regarding Israel, and Blumenthal cited the work of his son, journalist Max Blumenthal, a self-described anti-Zionist known for his radical anti-Israel views.According to the Times of Israel, In March 2010, Blumenthal plugged his son s work this time, playing up links between evangelical Pastor John Hagee and Netanyahu in the context of an article (written by a different writer) discussing a controversial Pentagon briefing on U.S. relations with Israel and the Arab world. The briefing had dealt with the lack of progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and American concerns over a growing perception among Arab leaders that the US was incapable of standing up to Israel. The senior Blumenthal sent several articles written by his son and referenced the younger man s plans to move to Israel for several months to write a book. He tracks a lot of things that do not appear in the mainstream press, he wrote to Hillary.Just in time for the 2016 election, hear Hillary Clinton say she would NOT run for president, in Hillary Unhinged by Thomas KuiperHillary then took the articles in question and instructed a staffer to print five copies without the heading from Sid. She noted the articles came from Max Blumenthal s book Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, a widely criticized and rabidly anti-Semitic volume that castigated Israeli policies. The Nation s media editor Eric Alterman referred to it as the I Hate Israel handbook and wrote Blumenthal s case against the Jewish state is so carelessly constructed, it will likely alienate anyone but the most fanatical anti-Zionist extremists, and hence do nothing to advance the interests of the occupation s victims. According to the Times of Israel, Blumenthal also sent Clinton a piece by leftist Israeli Uri Avnery, who also analyzed the Pentagon briefing by leveling a damning critique against Netanyahu. Clinton asked Blumenthal, in response, how she should use this material in an upcoming talk she was supposed to have with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Blumenthal speculated on Netanyahu s psychological makeup by suggesting his actions were motivated by a desperate attempt to live up to his father s expectations.In an email sent immediately after the May 2010 Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Maramara in which nine activists were killed, Blumenthal referred to the operation as Bibi s Entebbe in reverse. Noting that Netanyahu s brother Yoni was heroically killed in the 1976 hostage rescue mission, he said the brothers father Benzion adored Yoni, while the younger Benjamin has always lived in his brother s shadow. Bibi desperately seeks his father s approbation and can never equal his dead brother (he) has never measured up, Blumenthal suggested.The senior Blumenthal continued to push his son s anti-Israel views on Hillary. As noted by the Times of Israel, In 2012, Blumenthal sent his son s article in al-Akhbar, The Bibi Connection, to Clinton, who then relayed it onward. The article emphasized Netanyahu s intent to campaign against Obama s reelection in 2012, arguing that Netanyahu s shadow campaign is intended to be a factor in defeating Obama and electing a Republican in his place. The article reflected upon Netanyahu s ties to prominent Republicans such as Newt Gingrich, as well as the prime minister s right-wing pedigree. It noted that when his father, Benzion Netanyahu, returned to Israel to launch a political career, the elder Netanyahu was rejected by Menachem Begin, the (then-)Likud Party leader, who, as right wing as he was, considered him dangerously extreme. Hillary offered a terse response on some of Sidney Blumenthal s policy suggestions regarding Israel, upon which he backed off. However, Blumenthal could not keep Netanyahu out of his semi-retraction, hinting at missed peace opportunities by the Israeli leader: Of course, if Bibi were to have engaged Syria in negotiations taking its previous gestures seriously he wrote, before changing the subject without concluding the hypothetical. The email dump revealed Blumenthal was not the only one commenting on Middle East policy. Foreign-policy analyst Anne-Marie Slaughter, formerly the State Department s director of policy planning, wrote to Clinton the time was right for the U.S. to recognize Palestine during the emerging of the Arab Spring. It would allow you and POTUS to have accomplished the goal POTUS laid out at UNGA last year and would make it much harder for Syrians, Iranians, even Saudis to use this issue to divert domestic opposition, strengthening the seismic shift across the region to create fault-lines around reform/no reform instead of Arabs/US-Israel, wrote Slaughter.The Times of Israel notes, The emails also indicate the existence of a lengthy correspondence over attempts to reconcile Israel and Turkey following the events of the 2010 Gaza flotilla, but the emails are so heavily redacted as to expunge any clue as to what was actually discussed. Another series details attempts in 2010 to broker direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with significant input from the parties involved in the Arab Peace Initiative. Learn more about the Hillary Clinton Investigative Justice Project, conceived by two veteran investigative journalists who plan to take their findings to state attorneys general in jurisdictions in which the nonprofit, tax-exempt Clinton Family Foundation does businessClinton s hostility toward Israel is well documented.Read more: wnd | 0 |
5,506 | Congress should weigh U.S. regulation of gun 'bump stocks': Republican Senator | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress should consider legislation that would regulate “bump stocks,” the attachments that allowed the Las Vegas gunman to fire his semi-automatic rifles more rapidly, U.S. Senator John Cornyn said on Wednesday. Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, told reporters that if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) does not have the authority to regulate bump stocks, “maybe that’s something we ought to consider giving them.” Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was urging panel Chairman Charles Grassley to call a hearing on bump stocks. “I’d like to hear from the ATF who previously during the Obama administration said they didn’t feel like they had the authority to regulate those. I’m not sure I agree with that,” the Texas senator said. On Oct. 1, a gunman in Las Vegas opened fire at an outdoor music festival killing 58 people and injuring nearly 500 others before killing himself, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The attachments are legal and allow semiautomatic rifles to operate as if they were fully automatic machine guns, which are heavily restricted in the United States. Slide Fire Solutions, the maker of bump stocks, has announced that it is restarting sales of the product after a pause following the Las Vegas shooting. | 1 |
5,507 | Hezbollah says bulk of IS convoy has left Syrian government area | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Most of an Islamic State evacuation convoy stuck in east Syria has crossed out of government territory and is no longer the responsibility of the Syrian government or its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi ite group said on Saturday. A U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State has been using warplanes to prevent the convoy from entering territory held by the jihadists in east Syria. Hezbollah and the Syrian army had escorted it from west Syria as part of a truce deal. The Syrian state and Hezbollah have fulfilled their obligations to transfer buses out of the area of Syrian government control without exposing them, the statement said. Hezbollah said in a statement that the U.S.-led jets were still blocking the convoy of fighters and their families, which was stuck in the desert, and were also stopping any aid from reaching it. Six buses remain in government-held territory under the protection and care of the Syrian state and Hezbollah, the statement said. There were originally 17 buses in the convoy. Hezbollah said there were old people, casualties and pregnant women in the buses stranded outside Syrian government control in the desert and called on the international community to step in to prevent them coming to harm. About 300 lightly armed fighters were traveling on the buses, having surrendered their enclave straddling Syria s border with Lebanon on Monday under a deal which allowed them to join their jihadist comrades on the other side of the country. It angered both the U.S.-led coalition, which does not want more battle-hardened militants in an area where it is operating, and Iraq, which sees them as a threat because the convoy s proposed destination of Al-Bukamal is close to its own border. The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Russia and Iran-backed militias including Hezbollah, is fighting Islamic State as it pushes eastwards across the desert. A commander in the pro-Assad military alliance said earlier on Saturday that Hezbollah and the Syrian army were seeking an alternative way for the convoy to cross into Islamic State territory, having already tried two other routes. Work is under way to change the course of the convoy for a second time, the commander said. The coalition has vowed to continue monitoring the convoy and disrupting any effort it makes to cross into jihadist territory but said it would not bomb it directly because it contains about 300 civilian family members of the fighters. It has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east towards the Iraqi border, according to a statement issued late on Friday. On Wednesday, the coalition said its jets had cratered a road and destroyed a bridge to stop the convoy progressing, and had bombed some of the jihadists comrades coming the other way to meet it. Hezbollah and the Syrian army on Thursday changed the route of the convoy from Humeima, a hamlet deep in the southeast desert, to a location further north, but coalition jets again struck near that route, the commander said. It was considered a threat, meaning there was no passage that way, the commander said. On Friday coalition jets made mock air raids over the convoy, the commander added. It caused panic among the Daeshis. The militants are scared the convoy will be bombarded as soon as it enters Deir al-Zor, the commander said, using a plural form of the Arabic acronym for Islamic state to refer to its fighters. | 1 |
5,508 | U.S. states sue to block Trump Obamacare subsidies cut | WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Eighteen U.S. states sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday to stop him from scrapping a key component of Obamacare, subsidies to insurers that help millions of low-income people pay medical expenses, even as Trump invited Democratic leaders to negotiate a deal. One day after his administration announced plans to end the payments next week, Trump said he would dismantle Obamacare “step by step.” His latest action raised concerns about chaos in insurance markets. The subsidies cost $7 billion this year and were estimated at $10 billion for 2018, according to congressional analysts. “As far as the subsidies are concerned, I don’t want to make the insurance companies rich,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “They’re making a fortune by getting that kind of money.” Trump’s action took aim at a critical element of the 2010 law, his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Frustrated by the failure of his fellow Republicans who control both houses of Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump has taken several steps to chip away at it. Democrats accused Trump of sabotaging the law. Democratic attorneys general from the 18 states as well as Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit in federal court in California later on Friday. The states include: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state. The states will ask the court to force Trump to make the next payment. Legal experts said the states were likely to face an uphill battle in court. “His effort to gut these subsidies with no warning or even a plan to contain the fallout is breathtakingly reckless,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. “This is an effort simply to blow up the system.” The new lawsuit would be separate from a case pending before an appeals court in the District of Columbia in which 16 Democratic state attorneys general are defending the legality of the payments. If the subsidies vanish, low-income Americans who obtain insurance through Obamacare online marketplaces where insurers can sell policies would face higher insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical costs. It would particularly hurt lower-middle-class families whose incomes are still too high to qualify for certain government assistance. About 10 million people are enrolled in Obamacare through its online marketplaces, and most receive subsidies. Trump’s action came just weeks before the period starting on Nov. 1 when individuals have to begin enrolling for 2018 insurance coverage through the law’s marketplaces. The administration will not make the next payment to insurers, scheduled for Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer expressed optimism about chances for a deal with Republicans to continue the subsidy payments. “We’re going to have a very good opportunity to get this done in a bipartisan way” during negotiations in December on broad federal spending legislation, “if we can’t get it done sooner,” Schumer told reporters. Trump offered an invitation for Democratic leaders to come to the White House, while also lashing out at them. “We’ll negotiate some deal that’s good for everybody. But they’re always a bloc vote against everything. They’re like obstructionists,” Trump told reporters. The Senate failed in both July and September to pass legislation backed by Trump to repeal Obamacare due to opposition by a handful of Republican senators. One of them, Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who had been contemplating running for governor next year, on Friday said she planned to remain in the Senate and would use her voice in reforming the healthcare system. Hospitals, doctors, health insurers, state insurance commissioners and patient advocates decried Trump’s move, saying consumers will ultimately pay the price. They called on Congress to appropriate the funds needed to keep up the subsidy payments. Shares of U.S. hospital companies and health insurers closed down on Friday after the subsidies announcement. Centene Corp (CNC.N) closed down 3.3 percent and Molina Healthcare (MOH.N) closed down 3.4 percent. Among hospital shares, Tenet Healthcare (THC.N) finished 5.1 percent lower and Community Health Systems (CYH.N) declined 4.0 percent. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that erasing the subsidies would increase the federal deficit by $194 billion over the next decade because the government still would be obligated under other parts of Obamacare to help lower-income people pay for insurance premiums. Trump, who as a candidate last year promised to roll back the law formally called the Affordable Care Act, received applause for his latest action during an appearance on Friday before a group of conservative voters. “It’s step by step by step, and that was a very big step yesterday,” Trump said. “And one by one, it’s going to come down, and we’re going to have great healthcare in our country.” Earlier on Twitter he called Obamacare “a broken mess” that is “imploding,” and referred to the “pet insurance companies” of Democrats. Republicans for seven years had vowed to get rid of Obamacare, but deep intra-party divisions have scuttled their efforts to get legislation through the Senate, where they hold a slim majority. Since taking office in January, Trump threatened many times to cut the subsidies. Health insurers that planned to stay in the Obamacare market prepared for the move in many states by submitting two sets of premium rates to regulators: with and without the subsidies. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the change would drive up premium costs for consumers by at least 12 to 15 percent in 2018 and cut more than $1 billion in payments to insurers for 2017. The White House announced the cut-off just hours after Trump signed an order intended to allow insurers to sell lower-cost, bare-bones policies with limited benefits and consumer protections. Republicans have called Obamacare an unnecessary government intrusion into the American healthcare system. Democrats have said the law needs some fixes but noted that it had brought insurance to 20 million people. | 1 |
5,509 | Supreme Court Smacks Down Religious Nuts, Makes Them Put Same-Sex Parents’ Names On Birth Certificates | Ever since same-sex marriage became the law of the land, Bible Belt states have been pushing back on it. Of course, we all remember the Kim Davis fiasco, where the Rowan County, Kentucky County Clerk went to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Now, we have something similar happening in Arkansas, where the state was refusing to put the names of same-sex parents on their children s birth certificates. However, the Supreme Court handed down a decision forcing the state of Arkansas to treat same-sex couples just like they treat opposite-sex couples.The decision that was handed down was 6-3, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissenting. This comes as no surprise, since those are the three most conservative justices on the court. Further, it gives us just a taste of what we are in for with Trump s new justice, and it isn t good. The case reached the highest court in the land as the result of two women who filed a suit against the state when they insisted that it was not a right to have both parents listed on their infant s certificate of birth. First, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state, so the case went to the Supreme Court, where it was struck down.Luckily, this is a 6-3 ruling, so it s not on a razor s edge, like some rulings in favor of equality have been including Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized marriage equality nationwide. With talk of the potential retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is usually the swing vote on the Court, there could be a lot of anti-equality rulings if Trump puts another right-wing asshole up for consideration. The last great hope is that the Democrats are able to take the Senate back in 2018, and Justice Kennedy will wait until then to retire. For now, we can be happy that the Court did the right thing in this case.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
5,510 | Cheesy puns abound as White House hosts online chat | (Reuters) - The White House attracted pungent waggery on Wednesday after using the arcane theme of a big block of cheese to lure people into a post-State of the Union online conversation with administration officials. The social media event was inspired by President Andrew Jackson’s 1837 open house featuring a 1,400-pound block of cheese, with a meta allusion to fictional White House chief of staff, Leo McGarry, who told his staffers about the cheese draw in an early episode of “The West Wing” TV series. Following President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, the administration invited Cabinet officials, members of Congress and Senior White House officials to answer questions submitted by the public on social media such as Twitter and Facebook, with the hashtag #BigBlockOfCheeseDay. It was the third year the White House has staged the event and it was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter on Wednesday as people asked questions on topics ranging from climate change to the economy. Others jumped in to deliver a gouda deal of cheese puns. Margarey Gach (@mgachby) tweeted: “Seeing the White House accounts inundated w/ cheesy puns is really grate. They feta keep this up all day #BigBlockOfCheeseDay.” “#BigBlockofCheeseDay you cheddar believe it,” wrote Darren Bown (Dazzb84). “Pure bliss with a slice of swiss #BigBlockOfCheeseDay,” tweeted Carol Layne (@keddle01). Chuck Badger (@CharlesBadger) tweeted: “I think you have to be a “West Wing” fan to truly appreciate the glory that is #BigBlockOfCheeseDay today.” Big Block of Cheese Day was intended as a nod both to President Jackson and “The West Wing,” and to make the administration more accessible, the White House said in its blog. The event drew serious responses from administration officials such as Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. Asked about plans for the minimum wage, Perez (@LaborSec) tweeted: “Americans shouldn’t have to win the geographic lottery for fair paycheck. Need to #RaiseTheWage #BigBlockOfCheeseDay.” Other officials such as first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough were also expected to take part. Twitter users were invited to use the hashtag #AskTheWH along with #BigBlockOfCheeseDay to get their questions answered. | 1 |
5,511 | Germany's FDP does not rule out renewed coalition talks: Beer | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) on Wednesday said they would not rule out renewed talks on a three-way coalition government if Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives and the Greens offered a completely new package of proposals. If it really was possible to build a modern republic in the coming years, then we are the last ones who would refuse to talk, FDP Secretary General Nicola Beer told ntv German television. But she added: I can t imagine that this will work. | 1 |
5,512 | Tillerson gets first briefings at State Department: spokesman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson visited the State Department on Tuesday for briefings, a spokesman said, a day after the former oil executive narrowly won approval from a Senate committee. “Secretary-designate Tillerson visited the State Department today for briefings,” the State Department spokesman said without elaborating. It was Tillerson’s first meetings at the State Department since U.S. President Donald Trump named him as his choice for secretary of state. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 11-10 on Monday to approve Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil Corp chairman. | 1 |
5,513 | REPORT: Trump Illegally Used Charity Money To Jumpstart Presidential Campaign | A new report from RealClearPolitics is detailing what might be another illegal endeavor of Donald Trump at the behest of his charitable foundation (which has already been caught illegally using funds to pay off lawsuits).From 2011 to 2014, leading up to his presidential announcement (and speculation in 2012), the Trump Foundation donated nearly $300,000 to various conservative groups and organizations.IRS laws clearly state that charity executives may not use a foundation funds to finance personal endeavors that benefit said executives.In 2011, Trump met with South Carolina conservative activist Oran Smith with the intent for, as Smith puts it, laying the foundation for a campaign. After the meeting between the two, Trump, using foundation money, donated $10,000 to Smith s organization, the Palmetto Family Council.According to RealClearPolitics:In many cases, this flow of money corresponded to prime speaking slots or endorsements that aided Trump as he sought to recast himself as a plausible Republican candidate for president. Although sources familiar with the thinking behind the donations cautioned that Trump did not explicitly ask for favors in return for the money, they said the contributions were part of a deliberate effort by Trump to ingratiate himself with influential conservatives and brighten his political prospects.Talk about real pay-for-play.Using Foundation money to monetarily influence, even slightly, those who could (and would) catapult his political career (a personal endeavor) is still illegal under IRS laws no matter how many technicalities Trump and his lawyers want to argue.In almost all instances, these conservative organizations, with considerable political influence, invited the billionaire mogul and provided endorsements after he donated thousands of dollars to their cause.Another high profile donation was made to The Family Leader organization, a socially conservative think tank that featured Trump as a keynote speaker at one of their most prestigious events in 2013. Trump was featured as the keynote speaker after giving $10,000 like he did with the Palmetto Family Council. RealClearPolitics points out that Trump may have broken IRS rules by giving directly to the organization and not its affiliated nonprofit branch, thus pitting Trump in a double whammy on unethical, illegal political meanderings.After Trump donated $100,000 to Citizens United, a Koch-backed political entity:In April 2014, when Citizens United hosted a cattle call of would-be Republican candidates for president in New Hampshire, Trump was there. In January 2015, at Citizens United s Freedom Summit in Iowa, Trump was again on the program.This won t bode well, especially for a guy who s under audit from the IRS. We now know why, apparently.While Republicans try to find something, anything, to pit Clinton against her foundation, the GOP is ignoring the obvious abuses of Trump and his. This double standard from the right should not surprise anyone their candidate is failing and they need to divert any negative attention away from him. This is the party of Christian values at work.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
5,514 | About 30 killed when train derails, catches fire in Congo | KINSHASA (Reuters) - About 30 people were killed and more than two dozen injured when a train derailed then caught fire in Democratic Republic of Congo, a provincial governor said on Monday. The freight train was traveling from the southern copper and cobalt mining hub of Lubumbashi to Luena, in Lualaba province, on Sunday when it left the tracks and tumbled into a ravine near the town of Buyofwe. There s major damage because the tanker cars caught fire, Lualaba s governor Richard Muyej told Reuters. Around 30 dead and 26 wounded were transferred to the hospital in Lubudi, 25 km (16 miles) from the scene of the accident. The train had taken on a number of passengers before the accident, and Muyej said the death toll could rise further. Eleven of the train s 13 cars caught fire following the derailment. Officials from Congo s national railway company, the SNCC, were investigating the cause of the crash, which was not immediately known. Rail accidents are relatively common in Congo due to aging, poorly maintained infrastructure and lax enforcement of safety standards. (This version of the story corrects spelling of governor s name in paragraphs 3 and 4) | 1 |
5,515 | Republican candidate Kasich passed over by 'Time 100' | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time magazine’s annual “100 most influential people” list had a notable omission this year: John Kasich, the only member of the current presidential field who did not to make the cut. The list included Kasich’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, front-runner Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, along with Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, in its “leaders” category, but not the Ohio governor. Kasich has trailed Trump and Cruz throughout the campaign and his organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his omission from the Time list. The “Time 100” bills itself as a collection of “world leaders,” “great minds” and “other icons of the moment,” according to a statement released to the media. Trump was depicted in the list as a “rule breaker,” Cruz a “conservative crusader,” Clinton a “Democratic fighter” and Sanders a “populist provocateur.” Other U.S. political figures who made the cut included Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Time Deputy Editor Radhika Jones, who oversees the list, told Reuters they chose to include the candidates who are “most changing the game.” “There was never going to be a way to get all the candidates,” on the list Jones explained, citing the list’s global scope. International leaders on the Time 100 included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese President Xi Jinping. | 1 |
5,516 | Senate panel rejects Trump's 'doctrine of retreat' on foreign policy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A powerful Senate committee blasted the Trump administration on Friday in a report accompanying its spending plan for the State Department, saying its approach to foreign policy weakens U.S. standing in the world. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 for legislation allocating more than $51 billion for the State Department and foreign operations, nearly $11 billion more than requested by President Donald Trump’s administration. In the report released on Friday accompanying the legislation, the committee criticized the administration’s request to cut spending on such operations by 30 percent from the year ending on Sept. 30, 2017. “The lessons learned since September 11, 2001, include the reality that defense alone does not provide for American strength and resolve abroad. Battlefield technology and firepower cannot replace diplomacy and development,” it read. “The administration’s apparent doctrine of retreat, which also includes distancing the United States from collective and multilateral dispute resolution frameworks, serves only to weaken America’s standing in the world,” it said. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, which wrote the bill, said on Thursday that he had asked for more details from the White House about its spending plans. “We’ve got nothing back,” he said. Senator Patrick Leahy, the top subcommittee Democrat, called the “soft power” work of the State Department “absolutely essential.” Democrats and many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have blasted his budget request since it was released earlier this year. Congress, not the administration, controls spending. The administration says the State Department would be more effective if it were run more efficiently, arguing that the country needs to cut in other areas to fund a large increase in military spending. The bill passed by the Appropriations Committee is still several steps from becoming law. It must pass the Senate, and be reconciled with legislation passed by the House of Representatives, and then signed by Trump - or garner enough votes to override a Trump veto. The bill passed by the Senate committee on Thursday departed from Trump policy in other ways, including approving funding for the U.N. climate body and rejecting prohibitions on funding for international organizations that perform or provide counseling on abortions. Those measures, however, stand little chance in the House. Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, conservative Republicans most skeptical about climate change and opposed to abortion exert more control in the House than in the Senate. | 1 |
5,517 | Severe criminal justice policies hurt U.S. economy: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Longer prison sentences for non-violent criminals and crowded prisons are hurting the American economy more than they are helping it, economists in U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration said in a report released on Saturday. The prison population in the United States is 4.5 times larger than it was in 1980, primarily driven by longer sentences and higher conviction rates for nearly all offenses, according to the Council’s report. Economists are “of one mind” that packed prisons, excessively long sentences, and insufficient reentry programs “are counter-productive to our economy as a whole in addition to hurting the people involved,” Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters in a call on Friday. On Monday, administration officials, economists, business leaders, and scholars will discuss the Council’s findings at an event hosted by the White House, the American Enterprise Institute think tank, and New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. The United States can reap greater economic benefit through investments in police, prisoner education, and job opportunities for ex-prisoners than it can from putting additional funding toward prisons, the Council’s report said. The Council’s report was based on a review of existing economics research, and does not estimate the indirect costs borne by the U.S. economy as a result of its current criminal justice policies. Later this year, the Brennan Center will unveil a study quantifying how much the U.S. criminal justice system costs Americans in terms of employment, wages, and gross domestic product, said the center’s director of justice programs, Inimai Chettiar. Previous administrations have not brought the same focus to how criminal justice policies affect the U.S. workforce, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who led the Congressional Budget Office from 2003-05 and is now president of the American Action Forum think tank. Since the recession of the late 2000s, “every aspect of the workforce has been scrutinized more closely, and this sort of popped out,” he told Reuters. | 1 |
5,518 | Chinese general kills himself amid corruption probe | BEIJING (Reuters) - A prominent Chinese general under investigation for corruption has committed suicide, state media said on Tuesday, the latest development in a sweeping anti-graft campaign that has shaken the armed forces. Zhang Yang, a former member of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), was being investigated over links to disgraced generals Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the official Xinhua news agency said. The investigation into Zhang, 66, had verified that he gravely violated discipline , was suspected of giving and taking bribes and the origin of a huge amount of assets was unclear, Xinhua said, citing the commission. On the afternoon of Nov. 23, Zhang Yang hanged himself at home, the agency said. A suicide by an officer who held such a senior post is rare, though experts have said the frequency of officials from various levels of government taking their own lives may have increased as a result of the intensity of the corruption crackdown since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago. A commentary carried on both the Defense Ministry and military s official websites said the CMC decided on Aug. 28 to investigate Zhang, who had lost his moral bottom line and used suicide as a means to escape punishment from the party and country , an extremely abominable act . This former general of high position and great power used this shameful way to end his own life, the commentary said. He would exhort loyalty but be corrupt behind others backs, a typical two-faced person , it said. Sources had told Reuters that Zhang, who had served as director of the military s Political Work Department, had been subject to an investigation, but the government had not announced it. Zhang s downfall was foreshadowed in September when he failed to make a list of 303 military delegates to the ruling Communist Party s key five-yearly congress, along with fellow CMC member Fang Fenghui. Both men were replaced at the congress, held last month, as part of a sweeping military leadership reshuffle in which Xi install trusted allies in key positions. China s military, the world s largest and undergoing an ambitious modernization campaign, has been an important focus of Xi s deep-seated fight against corruption. Serving and retired officers have said graft in the armed forces is so pervasive it could undermine China s ability to wage war. Dozens of officers have been investigated and jailed, including Xu and Guo, both former vice chairmen of the commission, which Xi heads. Xu once ran the Political Work Department, which is in charge of imbuing political thought and makes military personnel decisions, and along with Guo was accused of taking bribes in exchange for promotions. Guo was jailed for life last year. Xu died of cancer in 2015 before he could face trial. | 1 |
5,519 | Kenya opposition leader Odinga says he will not share power | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Sunday that his coalition will not share power, two days after the Supreme Court annulled last month s presidential election and ordered a new poll within 60 days. The court ruled on Friday that the election board had committed irregularities that rendered the Aug. 8 vote invalid, and overturned incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta s victory. The ruling set up a new race between Kenyatta, 55, and veteran opponent Odinga, 72, and tension between the two camps has since been rising. We will not share power, Odinga said, speaking in Kiswahili outside a church in Nairobi. We will not divide the loaf, he said, a local reference to power. Odinga, who also contested the presidential election in 2007 and 2013, repeated his statement after Friday s court ruling that the opposition would not participate in the re-run of the poll without changes to the election commission. On Friday he had called for the commission to resign and face criminal prosecution. Speaking at a rally in Nairobi attended by thousands of his supporters, he said: We have said that you cannot force Kenyans to go to the polls that (are) being supervised by thieves. We will not accept (this), he said. We will only go to the elections when we are sure that the ones organizing the elections are people who will not side with one side or the other. Kenyatta insists the poll should be re-run with the current electoral board. Though Kenyatta pledged to respect the court s ruling he has, since Friday, referred to justices as crooks . | 1 |
5,520 | U.S. policy on Iran won't harm its oil industry: minister | LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump s revised hardline policy towards Iran will have little impact on Tehran s ambition to develop its vital oil industry and attract foreign investment, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. The Islamic Republic hopes to signs 10 new deals with foreign companies to develop oil and gas fields by March 2018, Amir Zamaninia, Iran s deputy oil minister for trade and international affairs, told the Oil & Money conference in London. Trump s decision last Friday not to certify that Iran was complying with last year s international deal on its nuclear power development program will not detract from Tehran s plans, he said. I don t think any of us, or any of our partners have been surprised by this statement. Our expectations of policy formulation from Washington have been very measured, he said. The (U.S.) statement and policy ... has little or no effect and implication on our future plan in the oil industry, Zamaninia said. Iran is negotiating 28 contracts with foreign companies, including many of Europe s top oil companies, under a new development contract, he added. France s Total (TOTF.PA) became in July the first Western oil major to re-enter Iran following the lifting of international sanctions with an agreement to develop the giant South Pars offshore gas field. Total s chief executive officer said in an interview with International Oil Daily the company will wait to see the impact of Trump s decision and that it will try to continue with it if the United States imposes unilateral sanctions. We have signed a contract in Iran. If we can move forward, we ll move forward. If we cannot, we will have to stop, Patrick Pouyanne said. Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has also signed an agreement with Iran for the possible development of oil and gas fields. Iran, which holds the world s largest gas reserves, plans to boost its gas production to 1.1 billion cubic meters per day by 2021 from the current 800 million bcm per day, Zamaninia said. The OPEC member also aims to raise its oil production capacity to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2021 from the current 3.8 million bpd, he said. He said that the major oilfields - Azadegan, Yadavaran, Abteymour and Mansouri - have potential to increase output by 2 million bpd combined. | 1 |
5,521 | Leading Democrat says Equifax gave consumers 'confusing and misleading information' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Tuesday that Equifax was sloppy in allowing itself to be hacked, losing sensitive data on up to 143 million people. “People are outraged, and rightfully so,” she said on the Senate floor, attacking Equifax’s decision to delay disclosing the breach for more than a month. “Equifax gave criminals a 40-day head start to use the information they had stolen while the rest of us were left in the dark,” she said. She also said that Equifax “provided confusing and misleading information about” whether consumers’ sensitive data had been stolen. | 1 |
5,522 | U.S. defense chief to meet Turkish counterpart in Europe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will again meet his Turkish counterpart next week in Europe, the top U.S. general said on Monday, describing regular U.S. efforts to address Turkish concerns over a U.S. decision to arm Kurdish fighters in Syria. U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Mattis also wrote a detailed letter to Turkey last week to provide a “routine update” on U.S. efforts in Syria. | 1 |
5,523 | U.S. officials working to restore public trust in police: attorney general | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday strongly condemned the weekend slaying of three Louisiana police officers and said federal authorities were working to help restore public trust in police following a series of violent incidents. Lynch, in remarks prepared for a conference of black law enforcement officers, condemned the Baton Rouge attack “in the strongest terms possible” and said agents from the FBI and other federal agencies were in the city to help local authorities. “At the Department of Justice, we are determined to do everything we can to bridge divides, to heal rifts, to restore trust, and to ensure that every American feels respected, supported, and safe,” Lynch said in remarks prepared for the event. | 1 |
5,524 | from the beginning of this year zionist regime has destroyed houses belonging to palestinians | email
during a meeting with governors syrian president bashar alassad emphasized that the job of a governor is not limited to the governmental representation in the province but it is also important that the citizens feel that the governor is their representative in the government this is an opportunity for deeper and greater cooperation between governors citizens and local councils
he also noted the importance of law enforcement for all justly and similar it is an issue that requires more research to uncover corruption in the offices first and then to fight with it it also requires exclusion for personal usage of public funds in governmental institutions creating a cooperation system between public and private institutions and protection of customer rights by removing price fluctuations
the president also stated the need for a great attention to the affairs of the families of martyrs and war veterans is to repay at least a small part of the sacrifices that they made for syria he also announced that syria will continue the fight against terrorism | 0 |
5,525 | Trump uses policy speech to attack media, promises to sue accusers | GETTSYBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump promised on Saturday to foil a proposed deal for AT&T to buy Time Warner if he wins the Nov. 8 election, arguing it was an example of a “power structure” rigged against both him and voters. Trump, whose candidacy has caused ruptures in his party, listed his policy plans for the first 100 days of his presidency in a campaign speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near the site of a Civil War battlefield and a celebrated address by President Abraham Lincoln. But he also defiantly raised personal grievances, describing how, if elected, he would address them from the White House in a way he said would benefit Americans. The speech was billed by his campaign as a major outlining of his policies and principles. Many of the policy ideas Trump listed on Saturday were familiar, not least his promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico to deter illegal immigration and to renegotiate trade deals and to scrap the Obamacare health policy. Moments after promising Americans that he represented a hopeful break from the status quo, he promised to sue nearly a dozen women who have come forward in the last two weeks to accuse him of sexual assault, calling them liars. And he added a new threat to his repeated castigation of U.S. media corporations, which he says cover his campaign unfairly to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “They’re trying desperately to suppress my vote and the voice of the American people,” Trump, who often rails against media outlets and journalists covering his events, told supporters in his speech. Trump has not provided evidence for his assertion that the election would be rigged. “As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said. Telecommunications company AT&T Inc (T.N) has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), one of the country’s largest film and television companies, for about $85 billion and an announcement could be made as early as Saturday. Trump also said he would look at “breaking” up the acquisition by Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) of the media company NBC Universal in 2013. “Deals like this destroy democracy,” he said in explaining his apparent deviation from the traditional Republican position that seeks to minimize the taxation and regulation of American companies. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), the online retailer, should also be paying “massive taxes”, Trump said, reminding voters that Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post, a newspaper whose coverage Trump dislikes. Trump, a wealthy New York building developer and television star, acknowledged in a debate with Clinton on Oct. 9 that he had used investment losses to avoid paying taxes. The New York Times reported on Oct. 1 that Trump’s declared loss of $916 million in 1995 was so large that he could legally have avoided paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years. At a campaign event later on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clinton criticized Trump’s stance on news outlets, noting that she receives negative coverage too. “When he blows up at a journalist or criticizes the press and goes on and on and on – you know, I get criticized by the press,” she said. “I believe that’s part of our democratic system.” In a statement, Clinton spokeswoman Christina Reynolds described the speech as “rambling, unfocused, full of conspiracy theories and attacks on the media, and lacking in any real answers for American families.” Although Trump on Saturday described his plans at least in part as a response to his belief media organizations had treated him unfairly, he argued that less wealthy voters had even greater cause to worry. “When a simple phone call placed with the biggest newspapers or television networks gets them wall-to-wall coverage with virtually no fact-checking whatsoever, here is why this is relevant to you,” he said. “If they can fight somebody like me who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they could do to you, your jobs, your security, your education, your health care.” Trump, who has said he may not accept the election’s outcome if he loses, is trailing Clinton in most polls - although he has narrowed the gap according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Clinton maintained her commanding lead in the race to win the Electoral College, however, and claim the U.S. presidency, a Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project poll released on Saturday showed. Trump has bluntly said that Mexico will pay for the wall, an idea the Mexican government has scoffed at. He tweaked his language on Saturday, saying the United States would fully fund the wall with the understanding that Mexico would reimburse the cost. Trump’s campaign was thrown into crisis two weeks ago when a 2005 video was released showing him bragging about groping and kissing women, prompting several prominent Republicans to announce they would not vote for him. Since then, at least 10 women have said Trump made unwanted sexual advances, including groping or kissing, in incidents from the early 1980s to 2007, all of which Trump has denied. On Saturday, Jessica Drake, an adult film actor, accused Trump of pressuring her to have sex with him 10 years ago when they met at a golf tournament. After that, she said a man, possibly Trump, called her to offer her $10,000 if she would have sex with him, which she declined. Trump’s campaign said the accusations were false. Trump, 70, said he was being attacked because he was an outsider who had never previously run for office, which he argues is a virtue. “The fact that Washington and the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime,” he said. | 1 |
5,526 | FBI Turns Up No Evidence, Says Hillary Clinton Committed No Criminal Wrongdoing | Sorry Republicans, but your newest vast right-wing conspiracy against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has officially fallen flat. The newest rounds of interrogations began in the fruitless Email Gate against the former Secretary of State, and as expected, she has not been found to have engaged in any criminal wrongdoing or willful violation of the law.According to CNN:The interviews, we re told, are focused on whether classified information was mishandled, and the security of the server. So far officials tell us, no, there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point in the investigation, but, again, the investigation is not over.Yes, the investigation is not over, but it certainly isn t going anywhere. After poring though thousands of documents, countless interviews with aides including Clinton s personal assistant Huma Abedin, and immunity offers on the table:CNN has previously reported that another former Clinton employee, Bryan Pagliano, who helped set up the server has provided documents and other materials as well as interviews to the FBI, under an immunity agreement. FBI officials overseeing the probe now expect to complete their work in the next few weeks and then turn over the findings to the Justice Department, which will make a final decision on whether to bring charges against anyone.There still has not been a smoking gun. And like every other scandal in Clinton s life, there won t be. And considering that the Justice Department has been aiding the FBI in the investigation, and the FBI has turned up nothing, it s highly improbable the DOJ will.Even though it isn t over, CNN s Pamela Brown has word that it will be wrapping up soon, once a date to interview Hillary Clinton is scheduled and done in secret, as to not attract any unnecessary media scrutiny. However, due to Clinton s crunched campaign schedule, the FBI is having a hard time sitting the frontrunner down for said interview.Donald Trump and other Republicans (and even some left wing voters) are anxious to see Clinton go down for something as silly as emails. However, it isn t going t0 happen. Time to focus on the issues.Featured image Joe Readle/Getty Images | 0 |
5,527 | U.S. steps up pressure on Hezbollah, offers reward for two operatives | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday offered multimillion-dollar rewards for two officials of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah as the Trump administration prepared to unveil a strategy to counter Tehran s growing regional influence. Washington will pay up to $7 million for information leading to the arrest of Talal Hamiyah, head of Hezbollah s foreign operations, and up to $5 million for Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military operative, the State Department said. The rewards are the first offered by the United States for Hezbollah operatives in a decade, Nathan Sales, the U.S. counterterrorism coordinator, told reporters. Today s rewards are another step to increase the pressure on them and their organization, said Sales. Other extremists for whom the United States is offering rewards include Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of Islamic State, and Mohammad Jolani, the commander of al Qaeda s Syrian branch. Hamiyah has been on the department s foreign terrorist list since 2015 and Shukr was added in 2013. The United States named Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Nicholas Rasmussen, the head of the National CounterTerrorism Center, blamed the group for a litany of attacks around the world, and said it maintains a presence in nearly every corner of the globe. Pointing to the arrests of two men in the United States in June for alleged activities on Hezbollah s behalf, Rasmussen said that U.S. intelligence agencies assess that the group is seeking an ability to strike inside the homeland. Sales signaled that as part of U.S. President Donald Trump s soon-to-be unveiled Iran strategy, Washington would press countries that have yet to designate Hezbollah as an international terrorist group to do so. Additionally, some countries have chosen to designate only Hezbollah s military wing, leaving its so-called political wing untouched, he said, apparently referring to the 28-member European Union. But that is a false distinction. Make no mistake. Hezbollah has no political wing. It is a single organization, a terrorist organization, and it is rotten to its core. Designating the group as a terrorist organization is not merely symbolic, he continued. By not doing so, he said, countries limit other governments ability to freeze Hezbollah s assets, to shut down its front companies, to eliminate its fund-raising and recruiting capabilities and to prosecute Hezbolah associated networks. The United States will need allies in this fight. But winning support for an intensified campaign against Hezbollah could prove difficult for the administration. The powerful Iran-backed organization is part of Lebanon s fragile coalition government and commands enormous support for the social services it provides. | 1 |
5,528 | Kremlin says hopes Comey firing will not hurt Russia-U.S. ties | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped that the firing of FBI Director James Comey would not affect Moscow’s ties with Washington, saying it believed his dismissal had nothing to do with Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Comey, who had been leading an investigation into the Republican 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped that Trump’s move would not affect ties with the United States. “This is an absolutely internal affair of the United States, this is a sovereign decision by the U.S. president, which has absolutely nothing to do, or should have nothing to do with the Russian Federation,” Peskov told a conference call with reporters. | 1 |
5,529 | WATCH: Marco Rubio Says Trump Will ‘Have To Answer’ For Wiretapping Lies | Donald Trump s list of allies is getting shorter because of his outrageous accusation against President Obama.During the campaign, Marco Rubio fiercely opposed Trump but soon chose to kiss his ass and endorse him.Rubio has been reluctant to say anything against Trump ever since, but that changed over the weekend after Trump openly accused President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in a Saturday morning Twitter rant.Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017Trump offered zero evidence to back up his claims and both former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and current FBI Director James Comey have forcefully refuted Trump s accusation.And now Rubio, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says that Trump will have to answer for his lies. I have no evidence and no one has presented anything to me that indicates anything like that, Rubio told Meet The Press on Sunday. Suffice it to say I don t have any basis, I ve never heard that allegation made before by anybody. I ve never seen anything about that anywhere before. But again, the president put that out there, and now the White House will have to answer as to exactly what he was referring to. Chuck Todd went on t ask Rubio if he would concede that if Trump is lying that it would be a huge political scandal and Rubio agreed.Here s the video via YouTube:Trump is desperate to distract everyone from focusing on his ever-growing Russia scandal, so he made up this lie based on a conspiracy theory he read on Breitbart in the hopes that Congress and the media will shift their focus.This is a serious accusation against a former president and Trump should be severely punished for it. He has offered no evidence to prove his claim and that means he is slandering President Obama, which should result in a lawsuit and impeachment. But we all know that Republicans in Congress have zero credibility so they will more than likely shield Trump and pursue a witch hunt against Obama, who was a more honorable and respected president than Trump will ever be.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
5,530 | CULT CRIMES, MASS SHOOTINGS & MEDIA MIND CONTROL: Natural Born Killers (1994) | Shawn Helton 21st Century WireThe 1994 cult film Natural Born Killers, is an examination of media manipulation, archetypal psychology and the violence embedded within American pop culture.Although it s been more than two decades since Natural Born Killers (NBK) first shocked viewers with its adrenaline fueled brutality, biting satire and darkly ironic media montages, the enigmatic picture s overall depiction of the American media complex is just as effective today. CHAOS ROAD Mickey and Mallory Knox are depraved icons in the twisted world of NBK. (Photo illustration: Shawn Helton)On the film s jarring surface, we see Micky (portrayed by Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliet Lewis) metaphorically reborn (from their violent past) as outlaw-lovers embarking on a psychopathic cross country murder spree but as well come to find out, there s much more to this psychologically challenging piece of cinema.Over the years, NBK has seen comparisons to Hollywood crime classics such as the Badlands (1973), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), the serial killer mockumentary , Man Bites Dog (1992), as well as the dystopian mind-bender, A Clockwork Orange (1971). NBK has also been thematically linked to Network (1976), another motion picture with a scathing appraisal of mass media, as well as the 1960 s road-film Easy Rider (1969), and the strikingly similar dark thriller Kalifornia (1993), which also starred Juliet Lewis playing a near identical role.In many ways, much of the media driven subtext of NBK has never seemed more relevant than now, as the film recognized mass media s growing obsession with violence and trashy entertainment all at once. The film also acknowledged the public s fixation with reality TV in all of its incarnations, perhaps envisaging the multi platform information craze in the age of social media.To this day, the Oliver Stone directed controversial feature Natural Born Killers (Based on a story by Quentin Tarantino) remains a harsh critique of American media and pop culture, as it casts a spotlight on the lurid agitprop used to steer public perception through various forms of infotainment.Over the course of this analysis, we ll explore some of the underlying aspects of Natural Born Killers, as well as contextualize its relation to real-life violence seen in the modern era CULT OF PERSONALITY Natural Born Killers reflects the heartless transformation of mass media.On The Road: Tragedy & SatireFrom the outset, sight, sound and mood take precedence over a traditional narrative structure throughout NBK. The film begins with a roadside montage of predatory animals (coyote, eagle rattlesnake) struggling to survive while Leonard Cohen s classic song Waiting for the Miracle slowly fades in creeping along to the foreboding imagery. The sequence subliminally conjures the all too familiar eugenics based survival of the fittest axiom something which reflects the ruinous and fractured socio-political environment that has become so pervasive in modern America.All the while, the action shifts dramatically from grainy black-and-white footage of America s Southwest, to a red filtered glow, then back to full color, as elliptical-style editing (as well as cross-cutting and parallel) sets the tone for the illusory motion picture magnified by its tension inducing dutch-style camera angles.18 different film formats were used to create NBK in addition to many unusual lighting techniques everything from black-and-white to dusty old 8mm, to 16mm, to 35mm stock, to CCTV video and animation. DINE & DASH NBK sees Mickey Knox on a quest to become Nietzsche s Overman. When the establishing sequence of NBK finally settles inside the 5 to 2 Cafe, we see a television rapidly changing channel to channel going from the all-american series Leave It to Beaver, to 77 Sunset Strip, a late 1950 s secret agent crime drama, to the resignation speech of President Richard Nixon, which is juxtaposed against an old horror film relic featuring Boris Karloff.The short panning shot is emblematic of America s dark evolution during the 20th century and serves as a stark bell weather for the rest the high paced surreal picture. In fact, strategically placed images, products and objects are seen throughout the entirety of NBK, evoking a strong emotional response in the viewer bringing to mind the psychology behind propaganda. DAEMON Subliminal dissolves bring a mystical depth to NBK.In the movie s first scene, the camera slips across the cafe, sliding past a character later revealed to be Owen Traft (Arliss Howard), who is a guardian angel or daemon, linked to the Knox pair. Traft vanishes before our eyes (Traft is later seen in the film s prison break sequence) while reading a newspaper about the highway 666 murders, prefiguring the dark media frenzy soon to envelop the Knox outlaws.Celebrating after a fresh deer kill, a pack of foul-mouthed cowboys file into the 5 to 2 Cafe. We then see Mickey order a key lime pie, as his partner in crime Mallory, looking part prostitute, part Pocahontas, seductively dances to the jukebox. Mickey surveys the room and a bright toxic green is contrasted against some of the action within the scene. While some green tones traditionally have a calming restorative quality, the kind used in NBK denotes a sickness inside the mind. SPIRIT ANIMAL NBK s cafe cowboys run over a scorpion on the road, impacting their fate when facing Mallory and her quasi-totem.Shortly thereafter, Mallory challenges one of the boozed-up misogynistic buckaroos to hand to hand combat just as L7 s Shit List kicks in on the jukebox. The cafe scene erupts into chaos as the soon-to-be famous fugitives dispatch all but one person (the pinball cowboy) in the roadside cafe. The pinball cowboy is kept alive to tell the tale of Mickey and Mallory, in a twisted version of the counting game Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.Following the murderous cafe ruckus, the Knoxes ride out into the desert as wild dissolves intertwine with projected news clippings, images of past crimes and the Hydra myth in the form of a monster flick clip. Additionally, there s a musical schizophrenia to NBK, with a collection of modern and classic songs intermixed with fragmented and atmospheric snippets, signifying a faded, yet stitched together memory in the Trent Reznor/Jane Hamsher selected soundtrack.Later on during a roadside pit stop, Mallory invokes the Book of Revelations and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as she describes seeing a vision of Mickey riding a red (war) horse, while suggesting the star-crossed lovers might be fallen angels. At that same moment, a floating image of a multi-armed Mallory is seen in the sky, bringing to mind the devouring Hindu goddess Kali. CUPID S REVENGE NBK s dingy satire of TV sitcoms of old in I Love Mallory serves as a dysfunctional backdrop to Mickey and Mallory s hard-edged romance.Oedipal, Electra & the Hidden OrderContinuing by the roadside, the scene drifts into a dream sequence/flashback in the form of a 1950 s style sitcom parody entitled I Love Mallory. Here we see Mallory s dysfunctional family completely controlled by her abusive and incestuous father Ed Wilson (Rodney Dangerfield). The scene is an inversion of the soft TV sitcoms dominating the airwaves in real-life, as the lecherous Wilson unleashes a disturbing diatribe amid a background laugh-track.During the same scene, a deliveryman named Mickey enters the frame, falling in love with Mallory at first sight. Mickey leaves with Mallory and in the process steals Ed s car. Later, Mickey is arrested and imprisoned, managing to escape from a prison work farm during a tornado. NBK s tornado prison break, may be seen as a reference to the classic film The Wizard of Oz a storm system which forever alters Mickey s future world.Mickey and Mallory return to the Wilson residence, seeking revenge on Mallory s father and mother, in what could be seen as a loose interpretation of the dark lyrical finish to the enigmatic song The End by The Doors. The Wilson s are murdered in a shocking home invasion scene and the house is set ablaze, while Mallory s brother Kevin (Sean Stone) is set free during the inferno.With each new set of kills, Mickey and Mallory grow closer and after their demented Oedipal/Electra complex resolution at the Wilson residence, the two get hitched in a blood ritual ceremony filmed on the scenic Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, New Mexico. Here Mickey proclaims the couple s marriage is sanctified because he is the god of his world, conjuring Friedrich Nietzsche s Overman concept, as well as a Apollonian/Dionysian influence within the killer s process.In an analysis entitled, The Dionysian and the Apollonian in Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, by Alexander Gatherer of Cardiff University, we are provided a more detailed look at both the Apollonian and Dionysian philosophical concepts: The opposing concepts of the Dionysian (hereon DI) and Apollonian (hereon AP) are central themes within Nietzsche s first major work, The Birth of Tragedy (hereon BT). His contemplation of such opposing forces of nature are primarily used to analyse Greek culture in general, and Greek art in particular, stating that its role in Greek attic tragedy places these plays at Greece s cultural pinnacle. Continuing, Gatherer s essay analyzes critical aspects of AP and DI: Nietzsche s concepts of the AP and DI, along with the entirety of BT, were not well received initially: the author himself called the book badly written, ponderous, embarrassing, image-mad and image-confused (Sweet, 1999, p.49). However, the ideas have left a notable legacy and are still discussed in matters of ethics, politics and art. Indeed, Michael Motta (1991) likens the opposing forces to mental illness, stating how stages of mania in bipolar artists can be likened to that of the DI ( The urge to create is great, but the ability to step back, to control the process is reduced ), with depressive phases linked to the AP ( Critique and reflection take precedence over impulsivity, inhibition holds sway over exhibitionism ). With this in mind, we can interpret Mickey and Mallory s unresolved tension between AP and DI, as a philosophical reason for their dissent into madness.Although in Stone s view, Mickey and Mallory are tragically flawed because of a failed system, which frames the prison system, the police system and mass media, as the true American criminals. However, this ideological stance of the film is itself a false paradigm stuck in a social justice vortex, while masked in Carl Jung s rebel archetype pointing to Stone s sometimes radical political perspective.Returning to NBK, we see Mickey and Mallory make a blood pact and exchange snake rings presented by Mickey, who is connected to the reptilian realm via his Caduceus chest tattoo. At significant points during NBK, snake imagery is observed, recalling the occult and mythological associations of the serpent. Additionally, there seems to be a Shiva/serpent attachment linked to Mickey as a counterpart to Mallory s Kali connection, with an underlying current of the symbol of immortality, Ouroboros. Other distorted biblical themes are also echoed during NBK, such as the Book of Genesis and the Garden of Eden exemplified by Mickey s assisted escape from prison by a rattlesnake.Many associations are often seen throughout NBK, which reflect a deeper archetypal presence contained within the film.In Anton Ehrenzweig s The Hidden Order of Art, we can explore a deeper analysis of the unconscious mind many elements that relate to the main characters in NBK: Some evidence of creative work and poemagogic phantasy points to incomplete superego maturation as an important source of mental illness. The ego has not absorbed the death instinct into the mute workings of the creative process so that self-destruction goes rampant to destroy entire itself. In other words, Mickey and Mallory lack any mature ethical component, which leads to their shared self-destructive psychosis, which in turn, is acted out in their murderous rage. Ehrenzweig, coined the phrase poemagogic, which is interpreted as an aspect emblematic of inducing the ego s creativity in a layered dream state. The nightmare/dream state of Mickey and Mallory visually comes to life in the strewn together time-worn scenes of NBK, like fragmented vitriolic memories. BLOOD BOND A ritualistic roadside marriage filmed on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.Media Made Political AgitatorsWhen NBK continues, all of the berserker-like chaos is captured by Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.), a ratings consumed tabloid host on the fictitious television series American Maniacs. A show which obsessively covers the violent action of Mickey and Mallory at any cost. Gale is an amalgam of Australian TV s investigative host Steve Dunleavy and the long time reporter and talk show host Geraldo Rivera.American Maniacs uses the image of cult leader Charles Manson, University of Texas shooter Charles Whitman, and the sadistic killer Richard Ramirez during its credits, setting the tone for a sordid crime show reminiscent of The Current Affair and Hard Copy. NBK s representation of popular true crime programming, gives the film another disturbing art imitates life layer. In one scene, Gale describes the targeted killing of several law enforcement officers at the hands of the Knoxes which ironically, reflects many real-life crimes we see plastered across today s headlines in America.All in all, American Maniacs very well could have been a template for the seedy video-stringer film Night Crawler, while packaged in the marketing gloss of American Gladiators. In a world of news makers, Gale says repetition works, and when questioned over reusing reenacted death scenes by producers, he callously exclaims do you think those nitwits out there in zombieland remember anything. This is where we see Gale s mind warping programming taking shape for maximum psychological impact.This is what Stone s film is truly about, showcasing the often cold-hearted and calculating nature of mass media s carefully engineered narrative.With media analysis in mind, we might also consider this passage from Cult of Distraction in The Mass Ornament by film theorist, sociologist and writer, Siegfried Kracauer: Here, in pure externality, the audience encounters itself; its own reality is revealed in the fragmented sequence of splendid sense impressions. Were this reality to remain hidden from the viewers, they could neither attack nor change it; its disclosure in distraction is therefore of moral significance. Whether its banal programming intermixed with mass media s terror lens, the viewer has a choice to accept the media manipulated distractions at wholesale or attempt to unpack them through critical thinking, questioning the very nature of reportage. AMERICAN MANIAC Gale s American Maniacs glorifies tragedy for ratings.As NBK moves forward, we see the media trail and trial of Mickey and Mallory after the duo has been taken into custody. In a mockumentary style scene centered around super-fans and tacit supporters of the Knoxes, there s a decidedly social justice flair to a series of fictitious man on the street interviews.The whole segment relates to various political agitator groups that we see today like Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the controversial identity focused activism of Black Lives Matter (BLM), as well as the FBI and the CIA s various counter-intelligence programs from the 1960 s and 1970 s. Both OWS and BLM alliances, are neo-liberal think-tank/NGO designed gatherings, meant to divide and control participants over class, identity and other socio-political concerns.NBK s court house scene featuring fervid group-think supporters, could be seen as another signal of social strife in America at the turn of the century marked pointedly by the polarizing corruption of the 1992 L.A. riots, the gross federal negligence of both the Ruby Ridge incident and the Waco siege, as well as the heavily publicized Menendez murder case (the strange and salacious trials of Lorena Bobbit and Tonya Harding) and the show trial of O.J. Simpson, an all-time ratings bonanza not counting the 95 million who watched Simpson s car chase on live TV.Interestingly though, the choreographed bombing of the World Trade Center (1993) carried out by FBI handlers and federal informants, was a curiously under reported event at the time. Which could be a reason for its absence from the media montages seen throughout NBK.The volatility of the 1990 s, proved to be an ideal backdrop for NBK, a picture made during a wave of high-profile sensationalized crime. MOTEL MAYHEM The murderous bride and groom conjuring the death of Mickey s innocence at the Lodge. Later on in NBK, with symbols fully on display, we see close camera shots of the pair s tattoos Mickey s light and dark Yin and Yang symbol and crudely drawn Christ-like tattoo are contrasted against Mallory s scorpion ink, as they ride along to abduct a hostage. As they make their way to the neon-lit Log Cabin Lodge, there very well could be a subtle reference to Freemasonary, when we witness the ritualistic behaviour shown at the Lodge. Stylistically, the motel resembles something out of the macabre cinematic world of David Lynch.In the background while Mickey and Mallory are on the motel bed, projected images on a window pane range from clips of raging dictatorships, to a young Mickey haunted by his father s suicide and a pale horse recalling the book of revelations once again. All of this takes place while a violent torture scene from the Hollywood film Scarface (written by Oliver Stone) plays out on the TV in front of their hostage.When love turns dark, Mickey and Mallory argue as time-lapse imagery of a Pray Mantis is seen symbolizing the need for contemplation during their chaos. The two separate briefly, as shamanic chanting cascades over their turbulent night crimes with visions of terror projected onto the sides of buildings.Whether its quick cut edits of opposing and often disturbing montages mixing vitriolic live action, clever special effects, absurdly horror filled projections or startling animated graphics reminiscent of Pink Floyd s The Wall NBK is a conceptual master work.As the hallucinogenic and often kinetic film progresses, a massive manhunt for the deranged Knoxes is launched by Detective Jack Super Cop Scagnetti, a masochistic vigilante law-man (Tom Sizemore) who has his own repressed demons to contend with, which manifest in his psychotic behavior towards prostitutes.We later learn that Scagnetti s mother was gunned down by the infamous shooter Charles Whitman at the University of Texas in 1966. ROADSIDE SHAMAN The Knoxes come face to face with themselves during Red Cloud s vision.Shifting mood once again, we hear the haunting piano-driven History Repeats Itself by A.O.S, (named after the 60 s counterculture chemist and sound engineer, Augustus Owsley Stanley III) which atmospherically plays in the background as Mickey and Mallory high on hallucinogens, are lost, out of gas and at odds with one another. This is the first time Mallory questions Mickey and nature of events that led to her becoming a spree killer.While looking for gas, the Knoxes approach Red Cloud and his grandson, first passing by Jacob (four-horned) sheep, revealing another biblical reference with the presence of the rare breed of sheep guardians. This is another significant scene in NBK, as the sovereign Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means, adds unique depth to the sequence playing the Navajo, Warren Red Cloud (perhaps a reference to US Marine Mitchell Red Cloud).Once inside Red Cloud s hut, the inner turmoil of the Knoxes is exposed. We then learn that Red Cloud served in the Vietnam War, reminding one of the staged Gulf of Tonkin false flag that led to the war. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the ability to militarily engage in a full-scale conflict with North Vietnam, was made possible due to the fabrication of a crime.During the latter half of the Vietnam War, the development of controversial counter-terrorism techniques was at the utmost importance for then Director of the CIA, William Colby. One such program materialized named The Phoenix Program (Operation Phoenix), which employed various terror tactics to destabilize the North Vietnamese leadership, claiming to have eradicated the Vietcong through the use of psy-ops, extortion, the release of criminals and random targeting of civilians to achieve its aims. Some geopolitical critics believe that this template for destabilization has been used in Afganistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria in recent years.Given that Stone himself was a Vietnam veteran in the US Army, we can view that the deliberate inclusion of Red Cloud s service record was a significant aspect to the story, perhaps reflecting the false premise that the Vietnam War was based upon. SKIN-WALKER Mickey s inner demons come to the surface prior to killing Red Cloud.The pivotal scene with Red Cloud dramatically altered the emotionally unhinged killers, who were taken on a shamanic journey and forced to face their own reality during a cleansing ritual involving chanting, fire and snakes. Here Mickey s torment and abuse comes to the surface with vivid drug induced flashbacks and after being haunted by his past, he awakens and shoots Red Cloud. The tragic death of Red Cloud, is the first time both Mickey and Mallory feel the weight of their actions.With an axe to grind against mass murders Mickey and Mallory, Scagnetti, manages to apprehend the pair in a dramatic shootout at the Drug Zone pharmacy after they were bitten by rattlesnakes following their quasi-spiritual pilgrimage conducted by Red Cloud. While observing the Drug Zone s logo we see the Caduceus image (winged staff wrapped with two snakes) often inappropriately used in medicine, as it is said to be the conductor of the dead. DRUG ZONE subconscious slogans envelop Mickey in the Drug Zone shootout with police. This neon green filtered scene also represents the poisonous consumer culture, as Mickey and Mallory, drugged and snake bitten, stalk to store for anti-venom like the walking dead. Mike Smith s energetic cartoon animation is also featured, as the pharmacist ID s the pair while watching Gale s American Maniacs. Mickey revels in his newfound celebrity catching himself on TV, before he and Mallory are taken in by Scagnetti. WATCHTOWER Charles Whitman opened fire on the 27th story of the University of Texas clock tower on August 1st, 1966 in one of the most well-known mass shootings in American history. (Image Source: hartford courant)Scagnetti later hatches a scheme to kill Mickey and Mallory with the fast-talking neurotic Warden Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones), who plans his own twisted brand of justice inside the riotous Batonga Penitentiary. When Scagnetti s plot fails during NBK s prison riot scene, Mallory executes him in her cell.Scagnetti s fictitious link to a well-known true crime, merges the illusory world of NBK with the UT shooting, subconsciously grafting fantasy onto a traumatic event. In effect, the concept mimics the way news stories sometimes strangely and unexpectedly overlap within a blended hyper-reality of fact and fiction.In recent years, there has been a series of surreal and unreal news stories since the Smith-Mundt Act was effectively rendered obsolete by US lawmakers on July 2nd 2013, as confirmed by RT below: Until earlier this month, a longstanding federal law made it illegal for the US Department of State to share domestically the internally-authored news stories sent to American-operated outlets broadcasting around the globe. All of that changed effective July 2, when the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was given permission to let US households tune-in to hear the type of programming that has previously only been allowed in outside nations. The Smith-Mundt Act has ensured for decades that government-made media intended for foreign audiences doesn t end up on radio networks broadcast within the US. An amendment tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act removed that prohibition this year. There has been an unprecedented increase in propaganda over the years, despite claims that the NDAA provision offered more transparency to the American public.On another note, there are other uncanny historical elements associated with NBK Fresh off his fame from the hit sitcom Cheers, Woody Harrelson was an intriguing choice to play the character Mickey Knox, as it emerged that his father Charles Harrelson, was a contract killer linked to organized crime. Charles was convicted in the murder of a grain dealer named Sam Degelia Jr in 1968. Later in 1981, he received two life sentences for the murder of US District Judge John H Wood. THREE TRAMPS Charles Harrelson (ID d by forensic experts on the left) is believed to be one of three arrested in Dealey Plaza after JFK s assassination in 1963. (Image Source: jfkmurdersolved)It has been stated that after a six-hour suicidal standoff with police in 1980, Charles, apparently high on cocaine admitted to killing Judge Wood, while also claiming to be involved in President John F. Kennedy s assassination.When considering the Harrelson-Kennedy connection, the 1989 book Crossfire comes to mind.Crossfire, written by the well-known researcher Jim Marrs, was also adapted for the highly controversial and successful Oliver Stone film JFK. Below is a passage from Crossfire, as it relates to the apparent Harrelson-Kennedy link: Aside from being twice convicted of murder for hire, Harrelson the father of actor Woody Harrelson had a long history of involvement with Dallas underworld characters linked directly to Jack Ruby. Continuing, the Crossfire also stated: The late Fort Worth graphics expert Jack White, who testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, already had noticed the resemblance of Harrelson to the youngest tramp. In a 1981 interview with Chuck Cook, Harrelson claimed to have the biggest story the reporter would ever have, when questioned about Kennedy s death. Additionally, Jo Ann Harrelson noted the similarities between the tramp photos and her husband. All this coupled with the fact Diane Lou Oswald (the mother of Woody), who had also been married to Charles Harrelson in Midland, Texas, made for a strange background concerning the JFK saga.Throughout 1981, more questions materialized regarding the assassination of Judge Wood in a UPI article, as Defense lawyers maintained [Charles] Harrelson was framed by police and the informant. Charles an ex-felon, said a friend, Hampton Robinson III, who failed to show up to testify, had driven the car. He suggested someone, possibly federal agents, had planted the guns so he could be arrested. He denied telling [Department of Public Safety agent] Pagel he carried a gun. Below, in a KDFW-TV interview in 1982, Charles Harrelson back tracks somewhat on his claims of killing Kennedy but does point directly to a larger conspiracy concerning the US government s involvement in the death of Kennedy as well as their alleged link to drug trade in America.The interview is a startling revelation, adding to the enigmatic JFK mystery and in the process provides another strange backdrop to NBK Do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy alone We ll get back to that alone, without any aid from a rogue agency of the US government or at least a portion of that agency? I believe your very naive if you do. Charles HarrelsonOn Independence Day in 1995, Charles along with two other inmates, Gary Settle and Michael Rivers, tried to escape from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary later surrendering after warning shots were fired by guards. ENTROPY & ECSTASY - NBK s mass murder mayhem hits prime time TV.Fragmented Psyche, the Death Drive & Mind ControlWhen exploring the concept of Sigmund Freud s Death Drive and its relation to NBK, we should consider a thoughtful essay by Jon Mills entitled Reflections on the Death Drive. Here we can gain a better understanding of the tension at play within the psyche of Mickey and Mallory: Freud did not argue that death [thantos] was the only aim of life, only that it maintained a dialectical tension in juxtaposition to a life principle under the ancient command of Eros, yet the two forces of mind remained ontologically inseparable. In this relational age, the death drive appears to be a drowning man. Through this analysis, we can see the tug of war within the main characters of NBK caught within a life and death cycle.Also observed throughout the nonlinear narrative of NBK, are the media mobs and throngs of onlookers mesmerized by the murderous duo s violent deeds during the course of the film, arguably revealing a Schadenfreude (joy derived from the misfortune of others).In essence, the abused become the abusers within the fragmented framework of NBK. This twist to the story pushes the observer into accepting and perhaps identifying with the malevolent turn of the Knoxes because of their own flawed and tragic upbringing. This reality is recognized in the rise against perceived corruption (particularly law enforcement) in the form of social justice group think.However, this is where the film purposely presents a false paradigm to those subconsciously seeking their own radical retribution something which further fractures the viewer s perception by utilizing stereotypical patterns or in this case violent molds to excuse the rampage carried out by Mickey and Mallory Knox.This type of false paradigm forms a preconditioned response in favor of vigilantism; preventing the viewer s ability to see things in an unbiased way, which induces a type of cognitive dissonance in passive audiences, blocking one from considering a rational outlook in the aftermath of trauma.These concepts are central to understanding the nature of NBK, as it stirs questions about morality, societal behavior and the role played by both media and the public in an ongoing celebration of violence. In this sense, we can view NBK s excessive use of trauma-based imagery as statement about the modern age, a culture perpetually inundated by destructive media programming.In many ways, mind control abuse is heavily present within the topsy-turvy world of NBK. However, its presence in the film should be seen not necessarily as an indoctrination of the viewer but perhaps as a warning to those unaware of the psychic assault on their senses from all kinds of media.The film is laced with references to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), conjuring the CIA s mind-warping military backed program, MK-Ultra, an illegal project that used hypnosis, sensory deprivation and other forms of torture to coerce an individual psychologically. This is represented in the film s main characters, as they vacillate between periods of ultra-violent behaviour and delusional wishful daydreaming, something which reflects a complex background of abuse.Here s an in-depth ABC news documentary examining Project MK-Ultra and the role played by Scottish-American psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron The heart of MK-Ultra is also seen in the controversial paper entitled From PSYOP to MindWar: The Psychology of Victory , written in part by the avowed satanist Michael Aquino, a high ranking security official, who was stated to have been inspired by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander s article on pyschotronics, the employment of extrasensory perception, the transmission and reception of information via the mind.NBK s use of disturbing content might be best understood through its critique of mass media and the larger role that media has played in forcing trauma-based imagery on the public in a manner similar to that of covert military projects. In other words, NBK s volatile imagery is meant to be a savage attack on media itself and should be observed as a critique on media abuse as a whole not something that overtly supports cruelty.Other aspects of abuse are also present in NBK, whether it s Mallory s unseen abuse by her father Ed, the hostage held captive by the psychotic pair at the Lodge motel or Scagnetti s deranged and vile coping mechanism for his own tragic upbringing.Towards the end of the film, under a Stockholm Syndrome spell, crack reporter Gale, attempts to transform himself for the sake of Mickey and Mallory. This later leads to his demise, when he discovers he s not truly a natural born killer. We see the camera capture the action to tell the tale of Mickey and Mallory one more time. In the film s final surreal sequence, we see Mickey and Mallory driving in an RV as parents. The idea here is that the Knoxes represent a future society, a future nuclear family, one without traditional moral values, transformed by the death of American culture. This is something which is echoed by Leonard Cohen s song The Future at the end of the film. PRISON BREAK Mickey waxes poetic until a prison riot is sparked after talking to Gale. During the prison scene, Stone enlisted some 200 hardened criminals for the realistic riot scene.Cult Crimes & The Daily ShooterWhen concerning America s cult crimes, investigative journalist Maury Terry, and his book The Ultimate Evil, comes to mind. Winding down a dark and treacherous path, Terry s research uncovered the dark details about the so-called Helter Skelter killings, also known as the Tate-LaBianca murders, the Son of Sam shootings and other bizarre ritually crafted murders cascading across America from the 1960 s throughout the 1980 s.In an article published by Los Angeles Magazine, writer Michael Bendrix, discussed Terry s controversial book and the web of terror surrounding the apparent satanic ritual abuse (SRA) cult cases connected from coast to coast: Although Manson and David Berkowitz never knew each other, they both belonged at different times and on different coasts to the same umbrella satanic-cult organization, called the Process. The Process Church s dark history (splintered off from Scientology), also recalls the Temple of Set church, a reboot of Anton Levay s Church of Satan, as well as Jim Jones and the People s Temple. Interestingly, Jones friend Dan Mitrione, was an operative trained in advanced counterinsurgency techniques, working with both the FBI and CIA, adding to the prevailing mystery of the Brian Jonestown massacre.According to the researcher John Judge, Jones, once a poor preacher, started People s Temple after meeting Mitrione. Judge uncovered much of the media manipulation in the aftermath of the Brian Jonestown massacre. Much of which, was used to besiege the American public through a distortion of facts something that we see reflected in many high profile cases today.In the arresting book Programmed to Kill by writer and researcher David McGowan, we see an examination of the American media and government agency propelled serial killer saga in a chapter entitled The Myth of the Serial Killer. Here is a passage that directly relates to the narrative of NBK and in some cases, crimes occurring in America today: Most Americans are probably familiar with what is considered the classic serial killer profile. This was a notion first put forth by the venerable FBI, which coined the term serial killer, and pioneered the concept of profiling, in an alleged attempt to understand the phenomenon of mass murder. It appears to be the case though the concept of the serial killer profile was put forth largely to misinform the public. In the case of Henry Lee Lucas, few if any of the elements of the serial killer profile apply. For instance, serial killers are said to act alone, driven to do so only by their own private demons. So far removed from ordinary behavior are their actions that they would not, indeed could not, share their private passions with others. In Henry s case, this is a patently false notion. It has been officially acknowledged that Lucas worked with not just one, but at times as many as three accomplices Later, McGowan links the CIA s politically motivated counter-insurgency campaign within Vietnam (Operation Phoenix) to a domestic version (Operation CHAOS) of terror, featuring serial killings throughout the 1960 s, in order to create a climate of fear to push for a police state crackdown.The CIA s Operation CHAOS collected substantial amounts of information on domestic dissidents from 1967 to 1973, as admitted by the CIA.Over 40 years ago, a horrific crime spree took place sometime between 1972 -1974 that was dubbed the Zebra Murders. It was a shocking crime spree that shook the San Francisco area to the core.The murders were supposedly refered to as Zebra , because the radio communications channel that police talked over was channel Z. Reportedly, four Black Muslim men calling themselves the Death Angels were spawned from a known cointelpro hangout, Nation of Islam.The Death Angels were said to have shot future Mayor of San Francisco Art Angos. Some researchers on the subject have suggested that the Death Angels were trained counter-intelligence assassins tasked with fomenting a race war in America.In the 1990 s the idea of the lone serial killer phenomena faded into the background, exploding with the revamped media-driven image of the mass murder around every tabloid corner. When the decade came to a close, tabloid news produced the ratings that networks like ABC, CBS and NBC were starving for. The news world changed after the O. J. Simpson trial, opening the door for larger outlets to run the type of sensational TV programming previously reserved for popular shows like A Current Affair, Hard Copy and Inside Edition everything from salacious soft feature celebrity pieces, to murder stories and courtroom dramas such as Divorce Court and Judge Judy seeped into regular television fair.Similarly in the world today, the public has become reprogrammed by the fear-based odyssey of the War On Terror era and in more recent happenings such as the barrage of Daily Shooter mass casualty incidents rippling across America and Europe in the form of Gladio-style operations, we see another phase in the assault on reality. These cases have risen to the forefront in media as there is only a passing footnote concerned about serial killings, largely due to the public s desensitization.This new kind of crimescape injects the collective hive mind with a host of socio-political concerns over race, religion, reform and security, while obscuring the forensic synopsis of a crime itself.The notion that serial killers have in fact not acted alone under the lone wolf banner, coincides with findings about many of today s mass-shooters, who in a number of cases covered here at 21WIRE, have involved multiple suspects, actors and drills. Most recently in America, the events surrounding the Orlando Pulse night club were called into question, as eye-witness accounts suggested multiple suspects in the alleged lone wolf attack and that the authorities themselves may be to blame for some of the apparent deaths.Additionally, back in 2013, the alleged Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, was placed under a terror watch list for 10 months (interviewed three times by the FBI between 2013-14) having worked for one of the largest security firms (G4S Secure Solutions, headquartered in Jupiter, Florida) in the US and around the world since 2007. The firm was formerly part of a CIA-linked government contractor and security firm, Wackenhut Corporation. Mateen s extensive background with G4S, reveals another yet another curious connection between security and terror.When discussing the mass shooter phenomena as it relates to terror and security, writer and researcher Jay Dyer of Jay s Analysis, stated the following: The purpose of organized black op events is the psychological warfare effect of mass shootings. All warfare is psychological warfare, as the intent of the attacking party or army desires to bring about the acquiescence of the enemy. Warfare itself is merely a tool to bring about the psychological submission of the other side, while the intention of wiping out the enemy forces are secondary. Why deplete one s own forces and resources if the enemy can be molded to think accordingly? In this sense, terrorism is the purposeful display of chaos and fear that arises from the radical disturbance of the normal, daily patterns and social routines of the enemy with the intent of achieving an alteration in the psyche of the target populace. Indeed, as critical pieces of Daily Shooter events come together evidence often suggests a highly organized and coordinated event involving many players. Those players then craft the three dimensions of how we are to view the event carrying out the event are as follows: members of the police and security services, and most crucially, members of the global media. The last and most important group provides the fourth dimension of this reality, and that is you the public.How you view any questionable event is the pinnacle for the architects of any impressive psy-op.A fifth dimension is based on the fourth, which is how the architects and social engineers observe your reactions to the event. From this, data is collected, social media is monitored, then metered, opinions are analyzed, and public reactions are measured. The conclusions will be used to form the baseline and design of future shock and awe operations reacting directly to the public s response. CASTING CRISIS Media fed madness hits the front page.Reality RebornIn an exploratory essay entitled Critical Theories of Mass Media: Then and Now, written by Paul A. Taylor and Jan Ll. Harris, we can see clearer role of NBK and how it relates to the modern era: The shock of the modern urban environment is figured in terms of a welter of new micro-perceptions, disorientating cuts and contingent images a realm of experience that also characterizes the cinematic experience. Cinema thus trains the sensorium and helps the subject adapt to this new technological social reality. While NBK covers some dark and sometimes philosophical territory, it often hints at something much darker than our imaginations can comprehend. In this sense, the viewer feels like a guilty voyeur in a culture of violence, reliving trauma gratuitously through the callous and obsessive lens of mass media.In the past critics and media have accused NBK itself of giving rise to copycat crimes as well as the Columbine High School massacre, and the Dunblane massacre. But interestingly, these two high profile shootings from the 1990 s have a number of questionable elements forensically, such as conflicting eyewitness testimony and how they were apparently carried out.NBK can be thought of as an ultra or hyper-reality, an unreality more real than reality. While critics of the film cite NBK s dangerous content and presentation, it employs a heavy dose of artificial reality in order to inject certain universal truths about the nature of man and media. In an article for Ceasefire magazine, Andrew Robinson deconstructs Jean Baudrillard s hyper-reality. A concept prominently observed while watching NBK: Hyperreality is a special kind of social reality in which a reality is created or simulated from models, or defined by reference to models a reality generated from ideas. The term has implications of too much reality everything being on the surface, without mystery; more real than reality too perfect and schematic to be true, like special effects; and para-reality , an extra layer laid over, or instead of, reality. It is experienced as more real than the real, because of its effect of breaking down the boundary between real and imaginary. It is a real without origin or reality , a reality to which we cannot connect. In an informative piece by Randy Laist, Ph. D., entitled, Murder and Montage: Oliver Stone s Hyperreal Period, we see a complex blended reality at play during NBK: Mickey and Mallory are the icons of the new reality: the image ripped out of its context, the innocent killer, the fictional character roaming free across the video prairies of the new manmade nature. Natural Born Killers elicits our own complicity with the cultural tendency it satirizes, blending critique with enactment in a way that collapses the border between character and audience as well as between moralistic valuations of guilt and innocence. In this perpetual age of terror, highly sophisticated methods are used to alter, distort and reform the public mind. NBK was able to pull back the curtain on mass media s scripted reign READ MORE ALTERNATIVE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood Files | 0 |
5,531 | WATCH: GEORGE W. BUSH Offers Somber Memorial Honoring Lives Of Murdered Dallas Police Officers…OBAMA Gives Speech About URGENT Need For GUN CONTROL [VIDEO] | These two Presidents could not be more different. George W. Bush is a natural born leader. He inspires others to consider someone other than themselves, to come together and to unite. He proves through his actions that we shouldn t be afraid to act as a humble servant of the Lord. Barack Obama s speech on the other hand, proves he is nothing more than a narcissistic, arrogant and condescending community agitator. As George W. Bush appeals to the better side of America and implores them to come together and heal in the face of heightened racial tensions, Obama remains laser focused on himself, and on his insatiable desire to take away our Second Amendment Right. Obama s speech was not geared towards healing a torn and divided community. His speech was about promoting his radical gun-control agenda. It was about sound bites, as he waited on cue for applause from a group of people who were there to mourn the loss of their father, their brother, their son or their trusted co-worker.Watch George W. Bush s eloquent unity speech, honoring the lives of the brave Dallas law enforcement officers who were killed at the hands of a racist inspired by the Obama-Holder-Sharpton war on cops and war on White Americans:Compare G.W. Bush s speech to the divisive, angry and condescending speech from a petulant Barack Hussein Obama who just can t seem to get Americans to buy into his final act: | 0 |
5,532 | John Kasich Decides To Say EVEN WORSE Things About Rape Victims (VIDEO) | There was once a time that John Kasich seemed like the only sane, somewhat reasonable Republican candidate in the presidential race, but those days are long gone. Kasich is starting to sound more and more like Trump and Cruz as time goes on.It was just a few days ago that Kasich said that if women wanted to avoid being raped, they should just not go to parties where there is alcohol. He of course experienced tons of backlash for that comment, but instead of apologizing and admitting that it was a victim-blaming, insensitive remark, he s doubled down instead.In a Sunday morning interview on CNN s State of the Union, Kasich made an attempt to rectify his controversial comments, and ended up making it much worse. In trying to explain his misogynistic reasoning, Kasich said that having alcohol at a party makes it more difficult for justice to be rendered for a whole variety of reasons. Host Dana Bash tried to give Kasich another chance and pressed him further, but the Ohio governor just simply couldn t grasp why his comments would be so controversial or problematic. Bash was generous and even explained to the presidential hopeful that his comments would discourage women from reporting their assaults if they re told that the presence of alcohol makes their story less valid or believable. But Kasich once again failed to understand and continued to dig himself into a deeper hole. He said: Actually, I don t know how anybody would take it that way. Bash answered, Because it s taken a while to change the stigma of getting people to come out. Kasich, apparently forgetting that the infamous, tragic Steubenville rape case took place in Ohio, shot back: Dana, I have led the way in the country to fight this and to get justice served in these conditions. I think even if, in fact, there is alcohol involved, you still have you still can find the perpetrator. I just don t want justice to be denied because something comes up that a prosecutor looks at it and says, well, I can t figure this thing out. And no matter what Bash countered back with, Kasich had an equally offensive answer.Certainly, Kasich s speech would be much more effective in preventing sexual assaults if he told potential rapists to avoid alcohol at parties instead of victims. But, you know, that s just not the GOP s style. You can watch the baffling interview below: Featured image via Getty Images / Andrew Burton | 0 |
5,533 | WATCH EPIC VIDEO Of Truth Teller Colonel Ralph Peters, Suspended By FOX News For Using Tough Language To Describe Obama | Yesterday, we announced that FOX News would be suspending FOX News host, Stacy Dash and FOX commentator, Colonel Ralph Peters, after the Left inundated the station with calls for their dismissal. Media Matters headed up the effort and it appears that FOX has caved to the Left.From the FOX News website: We want YOUR input! Tell us what you love, tell us what you hate just don t keep it to yourself! As a FOX Fan, you ll have a unique opportunity to make your voice heard and affect change at FNC. Below, you ll find a few ways to contact us. BUT, if you re more of a phone person, you can call us at 1-888-369-4762.So if FOX News wants to hear how you feel about their show, we say you should LET THEM KNOW! Tell them how you feel about their decision to suspend conservative host, Stacy Dash and truth teller, Colonel Ralph Peters!The Free Beacon has put together a great video featuring some of Colonel Ralph Peters best hits on Obama and other incompetents on the Left who are leaving our nation vulnerable to terror:Retired Lt. Col. and belletrist Ralph Peters lives in a constant state of Beastmode, the Washington Free Beacon has found.Peters, who specializes in bold truths that others are too afraid to tell, has appeared in more Beastmode videos than any human being on Earth except The Hammer and chain smoker John Boehner. That s some good company.Peters was suspended from Fox News for two weeks on Monday after a particularly high-voltage blast of truth-telling, for fear his commentary would fry the electric grid of the United States like an EMP attack. | 0 |
5,534 | Trump to host Jordan's King Abdullah on April 5: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will Host Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House next week to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants, the Syria crisis and advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House said in a statement. The April 5 meeting between the two leaders comes after Trump’s Middle East envoy met with Abdullah earlier this month. | 1 |
5,535 | Reforms aimed at making Pentagon acquisition more agile: House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry introduced a second batch of legislative proposals on Tuesday aimed at speeding up how the Pentagon buys weapons and making it easier for firms to retain their intellectual property. Thornberry’s legislation follows an initial batch of reforms enacted last year with the 2016 annual defense policy bill, and continues efforts to make weapons programs more transparent. The proposals are aimed at simplifying the convoluted U.S. Defense Department acquisition process, with a big push to fund more experimentation and prototyping of new weapons, while driving to get new technologies into the hands of troops faster. Many big weapons programs are over budget and behind schedule, although Pentagon officials say changes undertaken since 2009 are starting to have a positive impact. The new legislation aims to shorten the time it takes from the start of the design phase of a new program until a military service can start using a new weapon in combat to five-to-six years from around nine year currently, the staff said. The bill requires all weapons systems to have “open systems architectures” that will allow the services to hold competitions for more components, and carry out quicker upgrades as new technologies are developed. It authorizes the Air Force, Army and other military services to use certain funding to pay for prototype upgrades of components and to develop technology faster. The bill also seeks to end a controversy about how the Pentagon treats private companies’ intellectual property that has made non-traditional suppliers reluctant to do business with the U.S. military and its complex defense acquisition rules. Instead of automatically giving the government broad rights to control intellectual property rights that are jointly funded by industry and government, the bill would mandate that such arrangements would have to be negotiated between the parties. The legislation would also continue a push to make the military services more responsible and accountable for weapons programs, requiring them to begin overseeing milestone decisions for joint programs after Oct. 1, 2019. The bill also requires the secretary of defense, or his staff, to fix the costs and expected fielding date for new weapons programs, and then hold the services accountable for meeting those targets. To ensure more transparency, the bill also calls for creation of an acquisition scorecard that would compare program cost estimates with those submitted by independent estimators. | 1 |
5,536 | Feeling left out, under threat, east Germans rebel with far-right vote | DIPPOLDISWALDE, Germany (Reuters) - Like a third of his neighbors in the east German town of Dippoldiswalde, Rene Rothe voted for the far right in last Sunday s election. The biggest concern for the 57-year-old milk farmer was migrants - especially if they drain government funds. There s loads of refugees here in the town and I m wondering what will happen to my pension, he said as he emerged from one of the renovated pastel-colored shops that line Dippoldiswalde s clean cobbled streets. The town of 14,500 people has taken in 132 asylum seekers, according to the town s official website. I have to pay for what the refugees need, and then when their families follow I ll have to pay again won t I? he said. Campaigning on a platform to take your country back , the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 12.6 percent of the national vote, propelling it into parliament as the third largest party and making it the first far-right group to win seats in the lower house since the 1950s. In the state of Saxony, where Dippoldiswalde lies, the AfD was the overall winner, beating even Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU), who won at the national level. While the former Communist east has taken in far fewer than the west of the more than a million migrants that have arrived in Germany in the past several years, the AfD won around one fifth of votes there compared to around one in ten in the west. The AfD spokesman in Dippoldiswalde, Rolf Suessmann, said voters turned to his party because they were angry about the government s liberal migrant policy and some felt left behind. Problems in the town ranged from a patchy mobile network and small firms facing problems with digitalization to low pay, with some people earning less than 10 euros an hour, he said. Here especially most people don t agree with the idea of a multicultural society, Suessmann, a bailiff, told Reuters. Cultural differences between east and west, reunited less than 30 years ago, persist. In the west a multicultural society of immigration is seen as a cultural achievement whereas in the east it s seen as a threat, said Werner Patzelt, political scientist at Dresden s Technical University. Protest groups find more fertile ground in east Germany where party preferences are not set in stone and people tend to trust institutions less than in the west, he added. The concern over pensions was an example of that. Germany s population is aging fast and people worry that there will not be enough young workers to fill the pension pots when they hit retirement age. Some are concerned that because many migrants are claiming benefits, it will detract from their own welfare. Germany s finance minister has insisted that the migrant issue had not left anyone in Germany with even a euro less for their family or children. The AfD has said it has not finalised its position on pensions. Many rural areas in eastern Germany suffered a brain drain after reunification as young, educated people moved to the west, said Thomas Krueger, head of the German government s bpb agency for civic education. While some eastern industrial zones and university towns have flourished since - Saxony itself has become known as Silicon Saxony due to its success as a high-tech hub - many people in rural areas, some of whom have to travel 40 km (25 miles) to get to a local authority, feel forgotten, he said. In many regions there was emigration, no businesses settled, there were no prospects for jobs and on top of that there was new competition for jobs even in small and medium-sized businesses, with workers from central and eastern Europe suddenly there, Krueger said. Polling institute infratest dimap said its exit polls on election day showed that while almost three-quarters of AfD voters thought their personal economic situation was good, some 42 percent felt disadvantaged compared to others. Those who voted for the party were concerned about losing their German culture, refugees changing the country and Islam getting too much influence, the survey of thousands of voters showed. Almost two-thirds voted for the AfD in protest, it said. The party fared better among men than women and most of its voters were of working age. Around one fifth were unemployed while another fifth were laborers. White-collar workers and self-employed people also make up a sizeable part of their voters. Manfred Guellner, head of Forsa polling institute, said some of the AfD s voters in the east saw themselves as the losers in reunification. They feel left behind and they re looking for a scapegoat and now they ve found one in the refugees, who they think are getting all the money that they lack, he said. The jobless rate in Dippoldiswalde is only four percent, labor office data showed. But Gisela, 66, lost her job at a restaurant shortly after reunification and was unemployed for 26 years before reaching pension age. The foreigners are given everything and when we want something the answer is no, she said, sitting on a bench overlooking the spot where the restaurant once stood. She said she could not remember who she voted for and asked that her surname not be used. The foreigners need to go back home quickly and the young people need to get work, she said. | 1 |
5,537 | Cleveland Bills Tamir Rice’s Family $500 For An UNBELIEVABLE Reason | On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was gunned down by Cleveland police as he played with a toy gun in a park. The officers involved in the shooting were cleared of any wrongdoing, even though they shot the child within seconds of arriving at the park. Now, a year and a half later, the city is doing something so outrageous that even the president of the police union is disgusted: billing his mother for his final ambulance ride.On Wednesday, his family s attorney Subodh Chandra spoke to the press about the $500 bill from the city: The callousness, insensitivity and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill is breathtaking. This adds insult to homicide. Not only is Chandra horrified by the city s decision to send Tamir s mom, Samaria Rice, a statement for the cost of the ride, so is police union President Steve Loomis, who said: Subodh Chandra and I have never agreed on anything until now. It is unconscionable that the city of Cleveland would send that bill to the Rice family Truly disappointing, but not at all surprising. It s hard to imagine what the city was thinking when they sent his mother that invoice. Ms.Rice said that she believes the city is harassing her because of the civil suit she has against them, and it sure sounds like that.This isn t the first time Cleveland has responded to the little boy s family with such callousness. When Rice filed the lawsuit against the city they blamed Tamir s death on himself, claiming he failed to exercise due care to avoid injury. Because apparently it is a child s responsibility to not be shot by a trigger-happy police officer who had a history of mental health problems. This 12-year-old was supposed to know that a cop, someone who was supposed to protect him, was going to shoot him without even speaking to him because he looked scary. The Department of Justice is still investigating the department and we can only hope that this child finally gets the justice he deserves; we also hope that Samaria Rice prevails in her civil suit and teaches this disgusting city a lesson. Featured image via Addicting Info archives | 0 |
5,538 | HILLARY APPROVED? BILL CLINTON Ditched Secret Service On Several Trips To Exotic Locations On PEDOPHILE PLANE | We all know Bill Clinton is a sexual predator. The big question now is, how much Hillary knew about his disgusting sexual trysts with his good buddy, Jeffrey Epstein who apparently had a thing for underage girls? Bill Clinton spent enough time aboard disgraced Wall Street mogul Jeffrey Epstein s Lolita Express airplane that he should be eligible for frequent flyer miles, according to a shocking new report that reveals how often the former U.S. president road along with with the convicted sex offender.Flight logs reviewed by Fox News show Clinton took 26 trips aboard Epstein s Boeing 727 jet, more than double the 11 flights previously known. Epstein s jet was reportedly set up with a bed where guests had group sex with young girls. One of them, Virginia Giuffre, has claimed she was lured into joining Epstein s harem when she was just 15 years old and was then known as Virginia Roberts. The former teen prostitute has said she was used as a sex slave. Roberts, 32, has claimed she saw Clinton in 2002 on an Epstein junket to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.But according to Fox, flight logs don t show the former president aboard a flight headed there. St. Thomas has a landing strip long enough to accommodate the jet. The logs do show the former president jetting to such exotic locales as Brunei, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the Azores, Africa, Belgium, China, New York, and Belgium all on Epstein s plane. Traveling with Epstein was New York socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, whom Roberts has accused of pimping her out. If nothing else, Clinton brought protection. Flight logs filed with the Federal Aviation Administration show Clinton brought as many as 10 U.S. Secret Service agents along with him on some trips. But a journey to Asia in 2002 didn t list any Secret Service protection. As a former president, Clinton still gets a taxpayer-funded security detail for life. The cable network reported that Clinton would have been required to file an official form to leave his protective forces behind, although the Secret Service hasn t responded to formal document requests. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008, and served just 18 months in jail for the offense despite outrage from victims advocates.The Palm Beach, Florida police and the FBI both investigated charges that Epstein consorted with underage girls used for prostitution. Court documents show that police found a clear indication that Epstein s staff was frequently working to schedule multiple young girls between the ages of 12 and 16 years old literally every day, often two or three times per day. One victim said under oath that Epstein molested her at least 50 times, beginning when she was 13. She said she and other girls were lured to Epstein s home with promises of hundreds of dollars for modeling or for massaging him.Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
5,539 | White House aims to be forthright in Congress probes on Russia: spokesman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration aims to be forthright with Congressional investigations into Russian involvement with the 2016 U.S. election, a White House spokesman said on Thursday. Spokesman Sean Spicer also declined comment on a New York Times report that said two White House officials helped provide intelligence reports to House of Representatives intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican who was on President Donald Trump’s transition team. | 1 |
5,540 | Oklahoma GOP Just Took Their War On Women To A Whole New Level Of Crazy | Republicans in Oklahoma just took their war on women and placed it on the doorsteps on doctors in the state.Late Thursday evening, the House of Representatives in the state, overwhelmingly approved a Senate bill that could revoke the licenses of doctors if they perform an abortion. Yahoo News reported:In the Republican-dominated legislature, the state s House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a Senate bill late on Thursday. Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, has not yet indicated whether she will sign it.Under the bill, doctors who perform abortions would risk losing their medical licenses. Exemptions would be given for those who perform the procedure for reasons including protecting the mother or removing a miscarried fetus.According to the author of the bill, Senator Nathan Dahm, the bill was necessary because, This is our proper function, to protect life. Republicans often say that they are protecting life when they interfere with a woman s right to choose, but the reality is that they are just pandering to the religious nuts in their voting base.As I have said a million times before, if the GOP was even a little bit pro-life they would do absolutely everything they could to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This means they would make sure that children were given a comprehensive education about sex; they oppose that. Republicans would also make sure that birth control (all forms) were easily available to women and men; they oppose that. If these imbeciles were pro-life, they would want to make sure all children were fed; they oppose foodstamps. Pro-lifers would also make sure that kids had medical care, even if their parents can t afford to pay for it; they oppose Medicaid expansion. Finally, if the right were actually pro-life, they would never send our kids off to die in their wars, bomb families in the Middle East, and they certainly would not support the death penalty; and yet, they do all of those things.This bill in Oklahoma bans abortion, make no mistake about that. And it doesn t ban it because the right loves babies and respects human life. It bans abortion because the right hates women and they especially hate when women have sex. It bans abortion because the GOP wants to punish whores who open their legs and it lets men off without any ramifications.This is just another way for men to exert their power over women. Fortunately, for the women in Oklahoma, if the female governor of the state decides to side with the right-wing jackasses in her party and sign the bill into law, it is completely unconstitutional and will never hold up in court.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
5,541 | YIKES! Hillary Still Needs Help Walking On Stage…Walks Gingerly To Microphone [VIDEO] | A producer at the Women in the World event had an awkward moment on Thursday night when he was caught in the spotlight while leading Hillary Clinton onto the stage.The backstage producer could be seen with his hand on Clinton s back leading her onto the stage and pointing her in which direction to walk to get to her position.Hillary gingerly walking across the stage to greet Samantha Bee, who introduced her, letting out a hearty cackle while successfully negotiating the riser.Moments later, Clinton conquered a single step like a pro before taking a seat.Ummm Sorry Samantha Bee, but we re not seeing the Beyonc connection. American Mirror | 0 |
5,542 | Taiwan the most important issue in Sino-U.S. ties, China's Xi tells Trump | BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. ties, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Trump taking a precedent-breaking call from Taiwan s president. China considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province and integral part of its territory, ineligible for state-to-state relations, and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island s main source of arms. Trump upset China last December by taking a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, shortly after he won election, the first call between U.S. and Taiwan leaders since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979. While there was no public mention of Taiwan in comments Xi and Trump made in front of reporters, the official Chinese foreign ministry statement about their talks did not mince its words. The Taiwan issue is the most important, most sensitive core issue in China-U.S. relations, and concerns the political basis of the China-U.S. relationship, the ministry paraphrased Xi as telling Trump. China hopes that the U.S. side continues to scrupulously abide by the one China principle, and prevents disturbances to the broader picture of China-U.S. ties , Xi added. Trump told Xi that the United States government upheld and stuck to the one China policy, China s official Xinhua news agency reported. In Taipei, Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister of Taiwan s China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council, said China should respect Taiwan s people. We think China should deeply understand and respect Taiwan people s opinions on the growth of relations across the Taiwan Strait, Chiu told reporters. We are also willing to work with the other side to find a new, positive model in cross-straits ties that would use dialogue to resolve differences, and to create a proper path for harmonious relations. China suspects Tsai wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s democracy and security. China has pressured Taiwan since Tsai took office last year, suspending a regular dialogue mechanism and slowly peeling away its few remaining diplomatic allies. China is deeply suspicious of U.S. intentions toward Taiwan, and was upset when the United States recently allowed Tsai to transit through Hawaii and Guam on her way to and from diplomatic allies of Taiwan s in the Pacific. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists. | 1 |
5,543 | Justice Department weighs changes to Obama-era financial task force | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is weighing whether a financial enforcement task force created during the Obama administration in the wake of the housing crisis is still relevant, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Wednesday. The department’s scrutiny of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is part of a broader review by a new working group, which Rosenstein said will be offering up suggestions “on promoting individual accountability and corporate cooperation.” “We are also reviewing the mandate of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to evaluate whether it continues to meet current needs,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, without giving specific reasons for the review. The financial task force was launched in November 2009 by former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro and other top government officials. The group was tasked with unearthing fraud following the 2007-2009 financial crisis, including fraud related to toxic mortgage securities that were sold to investors and soured as homeowners defaulted on their mortgages. The Justice Department was heavily criticized during the Obama administration for its lackluster record on bringing criminal cases against big banks and their executives following the crisis. The five-year statute of limitations to bring criminal charges has long since lapsed. However, the department in recent years has brought a number of high-profile civil cases against big banks using the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, which has a 10-year statute of limitations. The task force was credited by the department in helping bring a number of those crisis-era cases, as well as other cases unrelated to the crisis, such as criminal charges against a former Valeant executive in connection with an alleged kickback scheme. Rosenstein has previously said the department is reviewing its corporate prosecution policy outlined under the so-called Yates Memo, penned by his predecessor Sally Yates during the Obama administration. That memo emphasized holding individuals accountable and called on companies to cooperate by providing the department details about people who may have been involved in wrongdoing. Rosenstein did not announce any changes on Wednesday, though he said the department will carefully weigh whether companies cooperate and if their compliance programs are “applied faithfully.” Without mentioning any company by name, he warned about the risks of delaying in disclosing cyber attacks, saying it “may prevent other innocent parties from taking steps to protect themselves.” Equifax Inc has recently come under heavy criticism for delays in reporting a massive breach that may have exposed more than 145 million U.S. customers. | 1 |
5,544 | zu unseriös auch lothar matthäus sagt hsv als sportdirektor ab | samstag november bremen ersetzt als erstes bundesland schulnoten durch emojis bremen archiv deutsch sport mathe so oder so ähnlich könnte schon ab nächstem schuljahr ein typisches zeugnis eines bremer schülers aussehen denn der senat der hansestadt hat angekündigt das benotungssystem ab dem nächsten schuljahr vollständig auf emojis umzustellen die neuen zensuren sollen es schülern erleichtern ihre leistungen in den verschiedenen unterrichtsfächern richtig einzuschätzen bildungssenatorin claudia bodegan die jugendlichen von heute können mit komplexen bewertungssystemen wie dem zahlenraum von bis nichts mehr anfangen kennen aber jedes einzelne emoji in und auswendig ich habe schüler gesehen die bei einer verständnislos mit den schultern zucken dieselben schüler brechen in tränen aus wenn sie ein bekommen und geloben feierlich besserung hat gerade ein in mathe bekommen und traut sich nicht nach hause timmy im neuen notensystem soll allerdings nicht jede note durch ein vorab festgelegtes emoji ersetzt werden stattdessen können lehrer aus hunderten der kleinen bilder das für die leistung des jeweiligen schülers passendste symbol aussuchen die nötige kompetenz wird den pädagogen in einem zweiwöchigen lehrgang mit dem titel setzen vermittelt sitzenbleiben ist nach dem neuen notensystem nach wie vor ab der klasse möglich wer mehr als vier oder zwei oder zwei und ein hat fällt durch es sei denn der schüler kann seine schlechten zensuren mit oder ausgleichen dan ssi foto rechts shutterstock hinweis erstmals erschienen am artikel teilen | 0 |
5,545 | Russia Hack Bigger Than We Thought; Electrical Grid Threatened | As President Obama is threatening and acting out on retaliation for Russia s hack of the United States election, it s becoming evident that the hack was even bigger. According to a report in the Washington Post, the Vermont electric utility was also hacked.While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a security matter, the discovery underlines the vulnerabilities of the nation s electrical grid. Officials in government and the utility industry regularly monitor the grid because it is highly computerized and any disruptions can have disastrous implications for the country s medical and emergency services.No one is sure at this point why the Russians hacked the small utility, but it s possible that they did it just to show us they can. It could also have been a test, similar to the way credit card thieves start with small charges to test the card.This is also far from out of character for Russia. Earlier in 2016, Russia allegedly hacked the power grid in the Ukraine.The hackers who struck the power centers in Ukraine the first confirmed hack to take down a power grid weren t opportunists who just happened upon the networks and launched an attack to test their abilities; according to new details from an extensive investigation into the hack, they were skilled and stealthy strategists who carefully planned their assault over many months, first doing reconnaissance to study the networks and siphon operator credentials, then launching a synchronized assault in a well-choreographed dance. It was brilliant, says Robert M. Lee, who assisted in the investigation. Lee is a former cyber warfare operations officer for the US Air Force and is co-founder of Dragos Security, a critical infrastructure security company. In terms of sophistication, most people always [focus on the] malware [that s used in an attack], he says. To me what makes sophistication is logistics and planning and operations and what s going on during the length of it. And this was highly sophisticated. Source: WiredWhile Lee couldn t say for sure it was Russia, the Ukraine is convinced it was. Nonetheless, Lee said, it was a very well-funded operation and it could have been from a nation-state.As Wired notes, the electrical infrastructure in the Ukraine is more secure than it is overall in the United States. Beyond that, many of our electrical grids don t have backup, which means that it could be hours, days, or even longer before we get power back.Even more frightening, the entire nation could be without power indefinitely if just nine of its 55,000 substations were hit by terrorists or by hackers.A coordinated attack on just nine of the United States 55,000 electric-transmission substations on the right day could cause a blackout from Los Angeles to New York City, according to the study conducted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The study s results have been known for months to select people in federal agencies, Congress and the White House, but were reported publicly for the first time Wednesday. The WSJ did not publish a list of the 30 most critical substations identified by the FERC study.One particularly troubling memo reviewed by the Journal described a scenario in which a highly-coordinated but relatively small scale attack could send the country into a long-term literal dark age. Destroy nine interconnection substations and a transformer manufacturer and the entire United States grid would be down for at least 18 months, probably longer, the memo said.Source: TimeOne of Donald Trump s campaign promises has been to improve the infrastructure. Obama has been trying to do that for most of his time in office, but Congress has blocked that. Still, even if Trump does get an infrastructure bill signed, his relationship with Russia is troubling. Will his loyalty be with the United States or is he indebted enough to Russia that he will leave the doors open for them to attack us where we are the most vulnerable? It s a disconcerting question, to say the least, and it s why the hacking of the election, along with Trump s praise of Putin, is a big f*cking deal.UPDATE: The Washington Post has issued a correction. The utility was hacked, but that Vermont utility is not corrected to the grid. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid, an editor s note attached to the original article said.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
5,546 | House oversight panel chair: Sessions should 'clarify his testimony' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on Thursday that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should “clarify his testimony” about his contacts with Russian officials during the Trump presidential campaign. Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said in a Twitter post, “AG Sessions should clarify his testimony and recuse himself.” Democrats have called for an independent investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Sessions to resign on Wednesday after the Washington Post reported he failed to disclose two meetings he had with Russia’s ambassador before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. | 1 |
5,547 | Strong economic report welcome boost for Clinton, Trump calls it 'dismal' | MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - A stronger-than-expected U.S. economic report on Friday came at a good time for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, although Republican contender Donald Trump’s campaign blasted the numbers as “dismal.” The Commerce Department reported that the economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years and higher than the expected 2.6 percent, thanks to a surge in exports and a rebound in investment. With just 11 days to go before the Nov. 8 election, the report bolstered Clinton, who has positioned herself as the best candidate to continue years of economic expansion under President Barack Obama. More Americans say jobs and the economy are their No.1 priority when they decide who to vote for than any other issue. Trump argues that as a successful businessman and political outsider, he is the best person to take a new approach to rebuilding an economy that has sent too many jobs overseas and left many Americans struggling to find decent jobs. His campaign said the figures are still not good enough. “America can do better than the modest growth of 2.9 percent recorded for the 3rd quarter and the dismal growth of 1.5 percent for the past year,” Dan Kowalski, Trump’s deputy policy director, said in a statement. “Growth hasn’t risen above 3 percent for a full year in any year of the Obama presidency,” he said. While many voters do not follow economic indicators closely, outside experts said the release was still a good one for Clinton. She is seeking to solidify her lead in opinion polls as the Democratic Party works to win as many seats as possible in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, where Republicans now control majorities. “Today’s release will likely improve the perception of economic conditions in the U.S. and slightly increase the odds of a Democratic president remaining in the White House,” said Brian Schaitkin, senior economist at the Conference Board. Clinton’s camp said Friday’s report showed “real progress” since Obama took office in 2009, when the country was struggling to emerge from economic recession. “With more than 15 million jobs created since early 2010 and real median incomes growing more than 5 percent last year, it’s clear we’ve made real progress coming back from the crisis,” Clinton senior policy advisor Jacob Leibenluft said in a statement. But he added that there is still more that can be done. Clinton was campaigning on Friday in Iowa, where polls show she and Trump running neck-and-neck, and in Michigan, a traditionally Democratic state hit hard by the movement offshore of many formerly well-paying American manufacturing jobs. Trump was holding rallies in Iowa as well as in another closely contested swing state, New Hampshire, and in Maine, where his campaign sees a chance to grab one of four electoral votes. In the last weeks of the campaign, Clinton has dramatically widened her advantage over Trump in ad spending, amid questions over the celebrity businessman’s pledge to contribute more than $100 million of his own money. He spent $56 million through the end of September, and only $31,000 since, according to filings. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News reports that the candidate has stopped putting his own money into his campaign are not true. “He has said publicly many times he is in for $100 million and he is happy to invest in his campaign,” she said. | 1 |
5,548 | Balinese offer prayers as rumbling volcano threatens tourism lifeblood | JAKARTA/CANDI DASA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Bali s rumbling Mount Agung is starting to impact the economy of the holiday island and, if the eruptions and volcanic ash clouds persist, could spark a bigger wave of cancellations by visitors to Indonesia s main tourism destination as peak season beckons. The relatively small island has an outsized importance for Indonesian tourism. In January-September, Bali received 4.5 million foreign tourist arrivals, nearly half of the 10.5 million arrivals in Indonesia. Foreign tourist arrivals to the majority-Hindu island rose 26 percent in the nine-month period on an annual basis, though dropped on a monthly basis in September, when Indonesian authorities first raised the warning alert on Agung. Bali is about tourism, nothing else. If it (the eruption) is prolonged for around 1-3 months, it will impact our tourism significantly, said I Ketut Ardana, chairman of the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA). We can feel a small impact now, the price of staple goods is increasing, he said. Indonesia closed Bali s airport on Tuesday for a second day, stranding thousands of visitors due to the ash cloud. On Monday alone, it disrupted 445 flights that would have carried 59,000 passengers. Chinese tourists have overtaken Australians to become the top visitors to Bali, representing around a quarter of arrivals in January-September. Australian and Japanese tourists are the second- and third-largest groups. Foreign tourists spent about $1,100 on average during Indonesia holidays in 2016, according to tourism ministry data. President Joko Widodo has been trying to promote creation of 10 new Balis in other parts of the scenic Indonesian archipelago. But for many so far, holidaying in Indonesia means going to Bali. As Agung spewed tall columns of ash, life continued largely as normal on Tuesday for villagers near the volcano who set up traditional markets and offered Hindu prayers. Matthew Smyth from Ireland, a restaurant owner in Amed, around 15 km (9 miles) from the volcano, said many businesses using rented land would be threatened if the eruption dragged on. Half of the businesses here are built on credit... if the situation continues many people will lose their land, said Smyth, who is also setting up a yoga retreat and freediving center. The problems facing Bali tourism come as Indonesian policymakers have been trying to fire up an economy stuck at around 5 percent growth, held back by largely flat consumption. Bali has been growing more quickly. The tourism sector was the biggest contributor to its 6.24 percent regional GDP growth last year. But Agung has already put a dent in Bali s growth this year. If it (the eruption) is prolonged to a month, especially in Bali, it could have an impact on tourism revenue. I think this is a short-term shock, but it needs to be watched, said Myrdal Gunarto, an economist at Maybank Indonesia in Jakarta. Wayan Wirjana, 31, the manager of a restaurant in Candi Dasa, a popular beach town in Bali, said he was only getting five visitors a day, down from 15-20 in the summer, and expects the usually busy Christmas and New Year period to be slow. If things continue in the long term, like through the Christmas period, we ll have to lay off staff even if temporarily. We all have families so there is a very real impact on us, he said. | 1 |
5,549 | BOMBSHELL: RNC Rules Committee Member Says Trump ONLY Needs 1,100 Delegates To Win [VIDEO] | With only 357 delegates to go for Trump to cinch the nomination, does this news present a public relations nightmare for the Republican establishment? Republican National Committee member Randy Evans said Wednesday that Donald Trump would likely be able to secure the Republican nomination if he captures anything more than 1,100 delegates, short of the 1,237 delegates needed for a simple majority. If Donald Trump exceeds 1,100 votes, he will become the nominee even though he may not have 1,237, Evans said on MSNBC s Morning Joe. RNC Rules Cmte. Member Randy Evans: If @realDonaldTrump exceeds 1100 votes, he will become the nominee https://t.co/NmEwHF5FFt Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) April 13, 2016Evans comment is good news for Trump if it s a sentiment shared by other RNC members, since Trump is at risk of falling short of a majority of delegates by the time of the convention in July. But Evans also warned that if Trump slips much more, the nomination would likely fall to someone else. If he gets less than 1,000 delegates, then I think we re looking at a contested convention that could go on for many, many days, Evans said.As of this week, Trump leads Cruz in the delegate race 743-545, but he s expected to pick up most of New York s delegates next week, and has polled well in other states whose primaries are approaching. Via: Washington Examiner | 0 |
5,550 | MASS NYE SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN EUROPE EXPLAINED: [Video] Just An Innocent Rape Game Played By Muslims In Arab Nations | This is possibly the most disturbing video we have ever posted on our website. This is an example of the rape game called Taharrush German authorities now admit the Muslim migrants brought the Taharrush rape game to Europe and showcased it New Year s Eve. Sexual attacks on Western women were reported in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, D sseldorf and Stuttgart, Germany. Taharrush attacks were also reported in Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland on New Year s Eve.Welcome to the New Europe. Speisa reported:After the NYE mass assaults against women in several European cities, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, BKA, now say that the Arab rape game Taharrush has established itself in Europe.In addition to the events in Cologne, police in Berlin, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, D sseldorf and Stuttgart have reported of similar incidents. In addition, police in Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and Zurich in Switzerland have raised the alarm about similar mass assaults against women by newly arrived Arab migrants. Also Sweden and Finland experienced the same on New Year s Eve. The attacks range from sexual molestation to rape, says head of BKA, Holger M nch.The rape game Taharrush is about a large group of Arab men surrounding their victim, usually a Western woman or a woman wearing Western-style clothing, and then the women are subjected to sexual abuse.They surround the victim in circles. The men in the inner circle are the ones who physically abuse the woman, the next circle are the spectators, while the mission of the third circle is to distract and divert attention to what s going on.If there is enough men, the woman is dragged along by the mob, while the men take turns ripping her clothes off, grope her, and inserting fingers in her various body orifices.In December a Muslim migrant in Germany bragged on video about participating in a gangrape of a virgin in Germany:https://youtu.be/-3MvinY66r0Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
5,551 | Trump could easily erase much of Obama's foreign policy legacy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy rests in part on a foundation of unilateral actions that his successor Donald Trump could reverse with the stroke of a pen. Due to take office on Jan. 20, Trump, the winner in Tuesday’s election, campaigned at times to dismantle Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and to reimpose sanctions Obama eased on Cuba. Trump also disagreed with foreign policy decisions that included the way Obama has deployed troops abroad to combat Islamist militant groups. In his most notable foreign policy achievements, Obama, a Democrat, used executive authorities that offered a convenient legal path around a Republican-controlled Congress committed to blocking his agenda. The U.S. Constitution gives a president broad executive powers to enact foreign policy. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have sought to exercise those powers by issuing executive orders, presidential memoranda and what are called findings. “He (Obama) relied on executive authority to build a foreign policy legacy,” said Thomas Wright, director of the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. “That is all vulnerable to countervailing executive authority by a Trump administration,” Wright said. Obama had hoped to pass his legacy on to Democrat Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state, but she lost the presidential election to Trump, a Republican businessman who has never held public office or served in the military. Often contradicting himself during the campaign, Trump made it difficult to know for sure what policies he would pursue. Major constraints include budget caps, laws he cannot reverse without Congress, and the pressure that will emerge to replace policies he chooses to abandon. Trump said in an October speech that he would “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama” on his first day in office, without saying who would determine their constitutionality. A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday on his latest plans. Perhaps nowhere has Obama faced more congressional opposition than in his pursuit of the 2015 deal with Iran, which Republicans and some Democrats said put too few restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in return for too much sanctions relief. Trump has vowed to dismantle it, although his statements on the deal have been contradictory. A president may tighten and relax economic sanctions by executive order. “Anything enacted by executive order can be rescinded by executive order,” said Zachary Goldman, a former U.S. Treasury official now at New York University. Obama drew enough support from Democrats to block a Republican-led resolution rejecting the Iran deal, achieving a political victory but falling short of a consensus. Trump will have the added advantage of working with a U.S. Senate and a House of Representatives controlled by fellow Republicans. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he hoped Trump would “see how much he can undo the unilateral actions the president took all by himself, which would not require us.” Breaking with longstanding U.S. policy on another issue, Obama restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015. But facing opposition in Congress to lifting a broad economic embargo, especially from Republicans, he used executive actions to ease some U.S. sanctions. Obama capped his Cuba efforts last month with a sweeping “presidential policy directive,” which also is reversible and sets forth mandates for government engagement, people-to-people exchanges, and greater U.S. business ties. Trump has taken contradictory positions on whether he supports the embargo or not. Obama’s aides said the easing of restrictions was aimed at securing enough benefits for U.S. businesses and travelers that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any Republican president to reverse the opening to Cuba. Trump could roll back Obama’s efforts to create greater transparency about drone strikes. Obama issued an executive order in July requiring annual disclosures about such strikes. As commander-in-chief, Trump will wield the power to mobilize the U.S. military on short notice and without first seeking approval from Congress. Obama deployed U.S. troops to Iraq, Syria and Libya to help fight the Islamic State militant group by relying on the authority Congress granted President George W. Bush to battle al Qaeda. That same authority would allow Trump to ramp up U.S. deployments in fights against Islamist militants if he chose to do so. One former U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the president can approve covert action and needs only to brief relevant leaders in Congress once the operation is under way. Trump’s powers, however, are limited. He pledged to expand the Army, grow the Marine Corps, boost the Navy from 276 to 350 ships and submarines, and raise the number of Air Force tactical aircraft from 1,100 to 1,200. For starters, that would require that Congress scrap government spending caps under the Budget Control Act. Trump’s support for water-boarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, also would meet opposition. Congress last year passed legislation barring the use of waterboarding and other “extreme interrogation techniques” widely considered torture. Obama signed the measure into law last November. | 1 |
5,552 | Obama’s Legacy: Washington is Lying About ISIS, and Lying About Syria | 21st Century Wire says ISIS inspired. Assad s barrel bombs. We are at war with ISIS. We are only arming the moderate rebels. The Russians are bombing hospitals. ISIS claims responsibility for stabbing in Minnesota. We must save 100,000 children in Aleppo from Assad and the Russians! Lies, lies, and more lies. All paid for by the US taxpayer. Watch: | 0 |
5,553 | POLL: NEGATIVE VIEW OF SUPREME COURT HITS NINE-YEAR HIGH | Is it any wonder that the left leaning Supreme Court is looked at in a negative way? Negative views of the U.S. Supreme Court are at their highest level in nearly nine years of regular surveying. But positive opinions are also up to a less dramatic three-year high.Reflecting the strong reaction to two major decisions by the court last week, 33% of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the performance of the Supreme Court as poor, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That s up from 22% in late May and only the second time poor marks for the court have crept into the 30s in surveys since November 2006.Via: Rasmussen | 0 |
5,554 | Restoring legality in Catalonia is Spanish government priority: PM Rajoy | MADRID (Reuters) - One of the priorities for Spain s government is restoring normality and legality in the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament on Wednesday. Catalonia is facing direct rule from Madrid from Friday, due to an independence bid which Spanish courts have ruled contravenes the country s 1978 constitution. | 1 |
5,555 | Republican lawmakers propose more conservative Obamacare fix | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two prominent Republican lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday proposed short-term measures to stabilize Obamacare health insurance markets that would compete with bipartisan legislation under discussion in the Senate. The proposal outlined by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Republican Representative Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, includes provisions to suspend requirements for individuals and employers to buy health coverage under former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. The recommendations appear to address many of the Trump administration’s objections to a short-term fix drafted by senators Lamar Alexander, a Republican, and Patty Murray, a Democrat. Democrats are likely to oppose such changes as undermining the viability of Obamacare’s subsidized insurance market for individuals. Like the bipartisan proposal, the Hatch-Brady fix would reinstate billions of dollars in subsidy payments to insurers that Trump jettisoned earlier this month. Insurers say they had to raise monthly premium rates by 20 percent on average for 2018 to account for the lost subsidies, but could reduce consumers costs if they are restored. “It is encouraging to see a growing consensus that Congress should fund the cost-sharing reduction payments for two more years,” Alexander said in response. But the Hatch-Brady legislation would also repeal the individual mandate, or requirement that everyone purchase health insurance or else pay a fine, from 2017 to 2021. It would retroactively repeal the employer mandate from 2015 to 2017 and introduce restrictions on abortion that have yet to be detailed. Health industry experts and Democrats say the individual and employer mandates are critical to making Obamacare work. Murray called on the Senate to move forward with the deal she has worked on with Alexander “and move away from partisan dysfunction on healthcare,” which she said could take health coverage away from millions of people. The Alexander-Murray bill is expected to have the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, but it is not clear whether it could find enough support in the House. President Donald Trump initially expressed support for the deal, but has since insisted it include more far-reaching provisions toward repealing Obamacare. | 1 |
5,556 | Reborn German liberals could spell trouble for Merkel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Later this year, Angela Merkel may form a new government with a party whose leader says Greece should leave the euro, Russia can keep Crimea and refugees will have to go home. The Free Democrats (FDP), a socially liberal, pro-business party, were long seen as the natural partners of Chancellor Merkel s conservatives. They ruled in coalition with her mentor, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, for 16 years and were junior partners in Merkel s second government, from 2009 to 2013. But after crashing out of the German parliament four years ago, the FDP also known as the Liberals were forced to reinvent themselves. And the new incarnation, led by an ambitious 38-year-old who preaches an ultra-hard line on Europe, has unsettled the German political establishment, including members of Merkel s party. Nevertheless, if her conservatives can form a government with the FDP after a Sept. 24 election, Merkel will have little choice but to link up with the party and its young leader Christian Lindner. (For a graphic on German federal elections click tmsnrt.rs/2h0NqCT) For her center-right CDU/CSU, the prospect of reviving an alliance with the party s historic partner will be hard to resist, especially after four years of a right-left coalition with their longtime rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD). Merkel s horror scenario is a narrow majority with the FDP, said Frank Decker, a political scientist who was Lindner s thesis adviser at Bonn University. She would have no choice. She would be condemned to govern with them. Polls give Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc and the FDP a combined score of roughly 45 percent, just shy of a majority. If they do fall short, the FDP could still enter the government as part of an unwieldy three-way coalition that also includes the Greens. In 2013, after its former leader Guido Westerwelle failed to deliver on his promise of tax cuts, the party scored just 4.8 percent, the first time in the post-war era it failed to make the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament. Later this month, it is expected to double its score of four years ago. Lindner, with his banker suits and designer stubble, has almost single-handedly hauled the FDP back from the political wilderness. German media have likened him to French President Emmanuel Macron: the two are just a year apart in age and share a healthy self-esteem. In the FDP s highly personalized campaign posters, a brooding Lindner is shown in black and white, staring off-camera, like a model from a 1990s Calvin Klein ad. Look beneath the surface however, and there are big differences between Lindner and Macron. The French leader is promising to work with the next German government on an overhaul of the euro zone, introducing a budget and finance minister for the currency bloc. Lindner has dismissed those ideas with an aggressiveness that has surprised even some of his closest allies. If one takes Lindner and the FDP s campaign manifesto at face value, the party would introduce automatic sanctions for countries that violate EU budget rules, do away with the euro zone s bailout fund and make it easier for countries to leave the currency. Greece is a favorite target. Two weeks ago, Lindner told a banking conference in Frankfurt that a reintroduction of the drachma would be a boon for the country. All those who vacation in Mallorca would go to the Greek islands instead, he said. Martin Lueck, an investment strategist at Blackrock, sees a risk that the euro crisis could return, with Italian borrowing costs spiraling higher, if the FDP makes it into government. FDP officials play down such risks, pointing to moderating influences in the party like members of the European parliament Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Michael Theurer. Our program is about direction. It shows what we would do if we were able to govern alone, which of course won t be possible, one senior official said. But aides to Merkel acknowledge that she would probably be more limited in what she could achieve with Macron if the FDP were a partner, particularly if Lindner became finance minister. He could make our European partners nostalgic for Wolfgang Schaeuble, one aide quipped, referring to Merkel s current finance minister, who is seen as a hardliner himself. If the FDP were to end up in a three-way coalition with the Greens, its more radical ideas would surely be blunted. That is why some members of Merkel s party say she would prefer a Jamaica coalition so named because the colors of the parties would match those of the green, yellow and black Jamaican flag to a two-way alliance with the FDP. In the final stretch, Lindner has floated an array of controversial ideas in an apparent attempt to lure voters from the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Last month, he recommended accepting Russia s 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine as a permanent provisional arrangement . Last week, he said refugees should be forced to go home as soon as peace returned to the Middle East countries from which they fled. Even FDP members say they have trouble discerning how much of this is mere pre-election posturing. As the party s identity has become intertwined with its leader Lindner, its core beliefs have become muddied. The picture may become clearer on Sunday, when the FDP is due to unveil a l0-point list of policy priorities. Expect a modern twist on classic FDP positions tax cuts, investments in broadband and a Canada-style immigration law making it easier to bring in skilled workers that are closer to those of other European liberals like Macron. Regardless, the FDP faces a steep learning curve if it makes the leap from outside parliament into government a feat no party has achieved since the 1950s. Two-thirds of the FDP candidates who could win Bundestag seats have never worked there before. Only one has cabinet-level experience in Berlin. We ll see whether they have learned the lessons of the past, said Decker. Westerwelle was a great opposition leader but struggled in government. Lindner must avoid the same fate. | 1 |
5,557 | WATCH: Paul Ryan Just Told Us He Doesn’t Care About Struggling Families Living In Blue States | Republicans are working overtime trying to sell their scam of a tax bill to the public as something that directly targets middle-class and working-class families with financial relief. Nothing could be further from the truth, and they re getting hammered on that repeatedly. Speaking on CNBC, Paul Ryan was going full throttle, trying to convince us that the paltry savings we re getting is actually wait for it big money.But he didn t just go with the usual talking points. With a smug look that only someone who grew up in a wealthy family can muster when talking about that which he does not know, Ryan claimed that the $2,059 more per year that families living paycheck-to-paycheck will see is extremely significant. Then he decided he had to amend that to say such savings might be nothing to a family earning $600,000 per year (true), or for people living in New York or California (false).Those are the same two states that Trump s loyal subjects insist on stripping from the 2016 vote totals to claim that Trump actually won the popular vote. Watch Ryan completely dismiss all the struggling families living in blue states below:If you re living paycheck-to-paycheck which is more than half of the people in this country and you got #2059more from a tax cut next year, that s not nothing. pic.twitter.com/8TKtrMqRa1 Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 21, 2017Someone needs to reach through their computer or television and wipe that smugness off his face. It is the height of arrogance and insult to imply that there are no struggling families in either of those two states.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
5,558 | BILL CLINTON GETS THE HOOK During Q & A With Music: “They want me to go” [Video] | At about the 7:30 mark you ll hear The Black Eyed Peas song playing to get Bill clinton off of the stage. What a boring speaker he s become. could someone explain what has happened to his voice? | 0 |
5,559 | Swiss woman abducted in Sudan by criminal gang for ransom: official | KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities believe a criminal gang is responsible for the abduction of a Swiss humanitarian worker who disappeared outside her home in Sudan s troubled Darfur region on Friday. Authorities have intensified the search in and around the city of al-Fashir and believe the gang is looking for a ransom, North Darfur s Deputy Governor Mohamed Birama told Reuters on Monday. We expect that she will be found very soon, he said. Switzerland on Sunday called for a rapid and unconditional release of the woman but did not give any other details about her. Sudan will extend a unilateral ceasefire with rebels until the end of December, state news agency SUNA reported on Sunday, days after the United States lifted 20-year-old sanctions tied to progress on resolving ongoing conflicts. The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against Sudan s Arab-led government. | 1 |
5,560 | Supreme Court has option to duck travel ban ruling | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration s announcement on Sunday that it is issuing new travel restrictions on people entering the United States from eight countries could lead to an upcoming Supreme Court case on its previous more controversial ban ending in a whimper rather than a bang. The new presidential proclamation set restrictions on citizens from eight countries and is set to go into effect on Oct. 18, eight days after the court is due to hear oral arguments over the legality of Trump s earlier ban. The Trump administration on Sunday night asked the high court to considering hearing new briefing on the case before the oral argument to address the effects of the proclamation on the issues currently pending before the court in these cases. Now the nine-justice court could skip deciding the case altogether, legal experts said. The March 6 order under Supreme Court review banned travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and limited refugee admissions. Challengers say the order discriminated against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution. A decision on that issue would be consequential not just for Trump but also future presidents who would be bound by it. But with the challenged policy no longer on the books, the court has various options to resolve the dispute without issuing a ruling. The 90-day travel ban, which covered Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, ran until Sunday. The 120-day refugee ban expires on Oct. 24. Even before Trump s latest announcement, experienced Supreme Court lawyers and immigration law experts had expressed doubts about whether the nine justices would want to issue a decisive ruling, in part because of a desire to stay out of such a contentious issue. If the court can avoid entering into the fray, that may be appealing to them, said Anil Kalhan, an immigration law professor at Drexel University School of Law. With the travel restrictions expiring, the court has an easy way out because it could simply say that the case is no longer a live issue and therefore, in legal parlance, moot. The Supreme Court has already intervened three times since March in limiting the scope of lower court rulings that struck down the March order. Its most significant act came in June when it allowed both bans to go into effect in a limited fashion. The unsigned decision suggested that the court s four liberals and two of its conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, were keen on a compromise. Three other conservatives, including Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, said both bans should have been allowed to go into effect in full. The Trump administration has yet to say what it would prefer the court to do, but former Justice Department lawyers say it is likely to request that if the court does dismiss the case, it also throws out the lower court rulings that struck the bans down. The benefit for the administration is that it would wipe out those precedents, including the broad decision by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the order discriminated against Muslims. The decision cited Trump s campaign statements in concluding that the order was motivated by anti-Muslim bias. The Trump administration says the order was needed for national security reasons. It s certainly in the government s interest to get the adverse ... opinions off the books because those decisions constrain executive authority, said Washington lawyer Pratik Shah, who previously worked at the Justice Department. The March order took effect on June 26, following a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of lower court rulings. Litigation continued over the summer on who exactly was covered by the bans, culminating in a Supreme Court decision on Sept. 12 that allowed Trump to enforce the refugee ban broadly but kept lower court restrictions that prevent close family members from being denied entry. The March 6 order was itself Trump s second attempt to impose a travel ban after his original, much broader Jan. 27 plan was blocked by lower court following turmoil at U.S. airports caused by its abrupt rollout. (THis version of the story has been refiled to change date in dateline) | 1 |
5,561 | Russia to the United States: Stay in Iran nuclear deal | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow s message to the United States during a likely meeting of the parties to the Iran nuclear deal next week on the sidelines to the United Nations General Assembly was to stay in the deal. That is not only our message, but the rest of the participants and those that are outside are trying to send this message across, Nebenzia told reporters on Friday. | 1 |
5,562 | Business euphoria over Trump gives way to caution, uncertainty | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Early optimism among business lobbyists and executives that Donald Trump’s election heralded better days has slowly given way to uncertainty as the president-elect fires off mixed and sometimes confusing messages on healthcare, taxes and trade. An initial euphoria in the business world fueled a powerful post-election stock rally. Some of that has frayed as questions arise over the nuts and bolts of Trump’s campaign promises, although many in the business community said they remained optimistic. Doubts deepened over the weekend as Trump declared he would replace President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare plan known as Obamacare with “insurance for everybody” - a goal far beyond Republican designs - and criticized a key component of a plan in Congress to overhaul corporate taxes. In a later interview, he appeared to adjust both stances, possibly adding to the confusion. “It is fair to say that since the election, there has been mounting uncertainty about exactly what the specific policies are likely to be with regard to tax reform and replacing Obamacare,” a financial industry official said. Expectations for faster growth, tax reform and a quick repeal of Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act, have “given way to ‘We are not really sure what he means by that,’” the official said. A veteran Republican financial lobbyist said she was under constant pressure from clients to predict what the new administration was planning but had no reliable answers. Trump appears to have thrown a wrench into Republican plans to repeal Obamacare with mixed signals on the details and timing of a replacement plan. Congressional Republicans have focused on limiting government involvement in the healthcare system and eliminating the law’s individual mandate that forces people to have insurance. But Trump told the Washington Post he was almost done with a plan to replace Obamacare with “insurance for everybody,” while forcing drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices for Medicare and Medicaid. Trump’s recent attack on the border adjustment tax was another sign of his unpredictability, the financial lobbyist said. That measure would tax imports and exempt exports in an effort to encourage companies to keep jobs and production in the United States. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Trump called the proposal “too complicated.” “Anytime I hear border adjustment, I don’t love it,” Trump told the Journal. “Because usually it means we’re going to get adjusted into a bad deal. That’s what happens.” Chris Krueger, an analyst at the investment firm Cowen and Co, said Trump’s comments to the newspaper about the border adjustment proposal were “breathtaking.” “Trump is like a policy bull who seems to bring his own china shop with him to destroy it with every interview,” Krueger wrote in a research note. In an interview with the news outlet Axios on Tuesday, Trump appeared to adjust both positions. He said the border adjustment idea was still “on the plate.” As for Obamacare, he said his comments were in response to proposals in which “people with no money aren’t covered,” which he said were unacceptable. Lobbyists said the Trump transition team’s lack of interest in their input was clear in the past two weeks as it summoned trade groups to daily “listening sessions” at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. The agriculture, financial, transportation and tech industries were among the sectors that got a one-hour session, according to participants. In the sessions, Wall Street lobbyists were encouraged to talk fast: a giant television screen overhead counted down two minutes of allotted time. “It was a goat rodeo. We all got a couple minutes to speak. What can you really say in that time?” said another financial services lobbyist. “They wanted to check the box - ‘We’re listening to Wall Street.’ But who even knows where these transition people will be in a few days?” Lobbyists also have been alarmed that the transition team has not included them in preparations for confirmation hearings for many nominated Cabinet officials, including potential Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “If you want someone to explain how Elizabeth Warren can hammer you 12 different ways, ask a lobbyist,” said the financial services lobbyist, referring to the Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts and frequent critic of Wall Street. Even Trump’s website sowed confusion about his intentions. A promise to dismantle the Dodd-Frank regulatory reforms was removed at the end of last year and has not been replaced. A Trump representative blamed a redesign, but bank lobbyists are not so sure - other content made it through the redesign. Some companies have been reassured by Trump’s Cabinet nominees, who are seen as more predictable and supportive of the business establishment than the impulsive president-elect. Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, has deep differences on values with the technology sector but is seen as an important Trump counterweight because he is a “deliberate decision-maker not prone to big dramatic mood swings,” a source at one major Silicon Valley firm said. Many lobbyists and business officials said they remained optimistic and cautioned against reading too deeply into tweets or comments that Trump makes on policy. “If Obama or Bush opined on a policy ... most of Washington assumed that raising that question was a well-vetted intentional decision to send a signal,” a senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said. Trump, by contrast, may simply be raising policy issues because he has questions on them, the chamber official said. The same financial industry official who acknowledged the uncertain climate also said he was still optimistic. “There were a lot of candidates who were interviewed. There were names floated out there and ... it was kind of a chaotic process,” the official said, referring to the process of picking candidates to fill Cabinet and other administration positions. “But overall, I think one can make the observation that in making the final selections, Trump has shown ... a very surprising even-handedness.” | 1 |
5,563 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (July 27) - NY Times, Republican Senators, Healthcare | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Wow, the Failing @nytimes said about @foxandfriends “....the most powerful T.V. show in America.” [0648 EDT] - Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Don’t let the American people down! [0724 EDT] - “One of the things that has been lost in the politics of this situation is that the Russians collected and spread negative information..... [0935 EDT] - ...about then candidate Trump.” Catherine Herridge @FoxNews. So why doesn’t Fake News report this? Witch Hunt! Purposely phony reporting. [0945 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
5,564 | Trump Has Now Banned NINE Media Outlets – A Likely Tenth Predicts Misery For Him Over It | When Donald Trump banned the Washington Post from his events, he no doubt thought it was the boldest move yet in his war against the dishonest media. The Post, however, is far from the first outlet to fall to Trump s wrath. To date, Trump has actually banned nine media outlets from covering his events. Nine. But he won t stop until he s sure the coverage he s getting fits his definition of honest and fair. The New York Times, whom Trump reviles but somehow hasn t totally banned yet, went to work compiling a list of blacklisted outlets after explaining why Trump banned the Post. They added: In reality, of course, no one would be more miserable than Mr. Trump if these bans actually resulted in less coverage of his campaign. That s a truth bomb if ever there was one. Trump s need for glowing praise, kowtowing and general ass-kissing means he absolutely must hog as much of the spotlight as possible. That includes all the favorable media coverage he can get. But if he thinks that coverage will become more favorable after he bans outlets in fits of rage appropriate to a toddler, he ll be sorely disappointed.The truly funny thing about this is that he hasn t thought it through at all. Reporters from blackballed outlets can still attend most of Trump s events as members of the general public. They can t get credentials, and they can t attend his official press conferences, but they can still go to and cover rallies and other events. That means that Trump is spiraling down into some serious delusions if he thinks these bans will solve his imagined problems with the media.So who, besides the Post, has he banned, and why?Besides banning entire outlets, he s barred reporters from Mother Jones, Fusion, and The New York Times, and claimed credit for getting The New Hampshire Union Leader dropped from a debate after they published a front-page op-ed denouncing him.In demonstration of his racism, The New Tri-State Defender, a traditionally black publication, can t even get responses to emails requesting credentials. Yet he ll issue credentials to Alex Jones InfoWars, which is quite possibly one of the most craftily dumb conspiracy sites on the internet.Trump claims he won t ban any media from the White House press room when he s elected, telling CNN, It s a different thing. He added: When I m representing the United States, I wouldn t do that. But I would let people know if somebody s untruthful. Oh, baloney. The people of the U.S. will believe that when they see it. However, that could go two ways. One is obvious he ll keep banning the outlets he hates until there are none left to cover him. The other is that he ll come to his senses, such as they are, and realize that a growing blacklist means less food for his narcissistic ego. Either way, he s out of hand with his. Featured image by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images | 0 |
5,565 | Ugandan MPs get $8,000 each for work on extending president's rule: spokesman | KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan legislators have each pocketed 29 million Ugandan shillings ($8,000) as a payout for consultations on legislation to extend the president s rule, a parliamentary spokesman said on Tuesday, a move opponents denounced as a bribe. The bill would scrap a constitutional age cap preventing President Yoweri Museveni, 73 and in power for 31 years, from standing in the next election. It is likely to pass, given the ruling party s majority, when it is voted on later this year. A staunch ally of Western powers, Museveni is widely seen as an anchor of stability in the often volatile Great Lakes region after decades of violent Ugandan dictators. Critics say he has evolved into just another African strongman using corrupt and ruthless tactics to retain power for life. Parliamentary spokesman Chris Obore said the one-off payment had been released to the legislators bank accounts this week. It s to help them to consult with their constituents on this bill, he told Reuters. MPs are among Uganda s best-paid public servants; their monthly remuneration of about $5,900 already includes expenses for regular travel to their constituencies to consult with voters. But low-paid public employees like teachers, police and health workers often do not see their salaries paid on time - typical delays can run to three months. Public hospitals are often missing important drugs. Public anger over waste and corruption is growing, and protests have erupted in different parts of Uganda gainst the bill. Security forces have responded by using tear gas and live bullets to suppress the demonstrations. Dozens of people have been arrested and two have died in the protests. At the moment, Museveni cannot run for re-election in 2021 because the existing constitution bars candidates aged above 75 years of age. He backs the private member s bill, introduced in parliament last month, that seeks to scrap the age cap. The amendment, which critics say will clear the way for Museveni to rule for the rest of his life, has met broad resistance from some ruling party supporters, opposition, religious leaders and rights activists. This is an outright bribe, John Baptist Nambeshe, one of the MPs opposed to the bill, told Reuters. To claim that it s a normal parliamentary facilitation - it defeats logic. In total, the East African country is spending about 13 billion shillings ($3.55 million) to facilitate consultations on the bill by 445 legislators, Obore said. In 2005, MPs were also offered a one-off payment of five million shillings to consult on a draft bill that removed a two-term cap on incumbency from the constitution, allowing Museveni to stand again. Each term is five years. That was the only other occasion MPs have been paid to consult on a specific bill, and it also attracted wide criticism as a thinly-disguised bribe. The bill was passed. | 1 |
5,566 | WATCH: Keith Olbermann SKEWERS Trump And GOP For Undermining Our Democracy | In a video that everyone should see, GQ special correspondent Keith Olbermann had strong words for Donald Trump in response to his refusal to accept defeat if Hillary Clinton wins on Election Day.During the debate in Las Vegas last night, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump point-blank if he will accept the results of the election. Trump replied by saying that he will have to look at it at the time and that I will keep you in suspense. In other words, Trump is leaving open the possibility that he will reject the results on Election Day and refuse to concede defeat because he thinks he will be cheated of victory, which gives his rabid supporters the opening to follow through on their threats of bloody violence if the election doesn t go their way.Trump s insistence that the election is rigged and his refusal to say that he will accept the results and bow out with dignity like every other losing presidential candidate has done throughout American history is a threat to our democracy and the public safety.And Keith Olbermann was so outraged by Trump s debate answer that he exploded in righteous condemnation.Olbermann said Trump s remarks make him ineligible to run for president and told Trump to burn in hell for undermining our sacred democratic tradition of peaceful transfer of power. It was the first time in American history, through dozens of venomous painful campaigns and a series of impossibly close elections, the first and only time that a candidate of a major party had violated the fundamental precept of our democracy. It shakes every one of our freedoms, it mocks every dead American soldier, it spits in every sacrifice made under our flag. It has no comparison, Olbermann continued, citing Al Gore, Andrew Jackson, and Samuel Tildon as examples of candidates who conceded defeats after close nasty elections. It foments revolution. It was and is the moral equivalent of treason. And this time it slipped passed no one. Not the moderator, not Fox News, not even Breitbart.com. No one. It was not a flash of anger from a man who gets angry once an hour. It was not another slab of red meat thrown to his crazed supporters. It was not another outrageous statement to throw up against the wall in this cheap reality game show version of a presidential campaign. He meant it! He means it! Olbermann made it clear that Trump is a danger to our values and Constitution and he only got angrier as he outed Trump as the unpatriotic sore loser that he is. Donald Trump is not invested in Democracy! Donald Trump is not invested in our Constitution! Donald Trump is not invested in America! Donald Trump is not invested in preventing people from being killed on the streets after an election like this were a Third World police state! Burn. In. Hell! In fact, Trump is so dangerous now that Olbermann called upon Republican leaders to to do everything within legal means to end Trump s candidacy because if they do not, they are responsible for whatever happens on Election Day and after. This is bigger than who is the next president of who is the next RNC chair or who is the next Speaker of the House, Olbermann declared. This is our democracy imperiled from within by a man you have permitted to speak for you. Compel him to withdraw! Now! Litigate against him, find enough doctors and have him declared psychiatrically incompetent. At minimum, cut off his funding completely and denounce him in the strongest possible terms because this nightmare, this fascist, this Trump is now your responsibility He must not be allowed the opportunity to keep us in suspense. Here s the video via Twitter.NEW: after he again subverts the sanctity of our elections, my message to @realDonaldTrump: Burn. In. Hell. pic.twitter.com/q2gvPAgq9P Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 20, 2016Donald Trump is insane and his supporters are insane enough that they may end up committing acts of bloody violence whether Trump concedes or not. That s how deranged they are because of Trump s rhetoric.The Republican Party needs to be severely punished at the polls for this on Election Day. They need to lose by a landslide to end this extremism and bloodthirstiness once and for all.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
5,567 | Ex-U.S. Rep. Weiner sentenced to 21 months in teen 'sexting' case | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Monday for sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl, setting off a scandal that played a role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Weiner, 53, started to cry as soon as the sentence was announced by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan. His wife Huma Abedin, an aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was not in the courtroom and has filed for divorce. He pleaded guilty in May to transferring obscene material to a minor, and agreed he would not appeal any sentence of 27 months or less. “I was a very sick man for a very long time, but I’m also responsible for the damage I have done,” Weiner read from a statement in court before he was sentenced. He said he was being treated, and asked Cote to spare him prison and sentence him to probation so he could continue treatment. Weiner’s lawyer, Arlo Devlin-Brown, said that while Weiner exchanged sexually explicit messages with many women, all of the others were adults. Cote said she believed Weiner was suffering from an addiction, and was serious about being treated. However, she said it was important to deter others from committing similar crimes. “There is the opportunity to make a statement that could protect other minors,” she said. “We are of course disappointed that Anthony was sentenced to prison, particularly so given that Judge Cote found that the treatment program Anthony had engaged in for the past year was showing great promise and should be continued,” Weiner’s lawyer, Devlin-Brown, said in a statement Monday afternoon. Weiner declined to speak to reporters as he left the courtroom. He was ordered to surrender by Nov. 6. The investigation into Weiner’s exchanges with a North Carolina high school student roiled the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign in its final days, when authorities found emails on Weiner’s laptop from his wife. Weiner, who wore his wedding band at the sentencing, and Abedin have a son, Jordan, who is 5 years old. The discovery of the emails prompted James Comey, then director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to announce in late October that the agency was reopening its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state. Clinton has said the announcement contributed to her upset loss to Republican Donald Trump, who had accused her of endangering national security by using the private server. President Trump fired Comey in May amid the FBI’s probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to defeat Clinton, a claim the president has denied. Weiner represented parts of New York City in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years before resigning in 2011, after it emerged that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with adult women. In 2013, Weiner ran for New York City mayor, but was defeated in the Democratic primary after more lewd messages became public. (This version of the story corrects paragraph 16 to say that Weiner did not drop out of the 2013 mayoral election, but instead was defeated). | 1 |
5,568 | VETERAN WHO GAVE TRUMP His Purple Heart Explains Why He Did It…SHUTS DOWN Critics [VIDEO] | He asked me if I wanted it back and I said, no!' The veteran who gave Donald Trump his Purple Heart medal during a campaign rally in Ashburn, Virginia, on Tuesday joined Jenna Lee on Happening Now to explain his gesture.Retired Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman said that he gave Trump his medal because he wants the Republican nominee to remember all the people who have fought and died for our country.Dorfman said that when he shook Trump s hand and gave him the medal, they had a very genuine moment.Lee asked Dorfman about Trump s controversial remark upon receiving the medal: I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier. He took it in the manner in which I gave is, Dorfman said, adding that Trump wasn t trying to be offensive with his comment.Why do you believe in him? Lee asked. I just think he d make a good commander-in-chief, Dorfman said. I like what he says. WATCH HERE:Via: FOX News | 0 |
5,569 | NATO's Stoltenberg says EU and NATO stronger together | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg welcomed greater cooperation between the Western military alliance and European Union on Thursday, saying the two were stronger together. Forces and capabilities developed under EU initiatives have to be available also for NATO because we only have one set of forces, NATO s secretary general told reporters on arrival at a summit of European leaders. Together we are stronger. With Brexit also on the summit s agenda, he said that Britain s withdrawal from the EU would not change its relationship with the military alliance. | 1 |
5,570 | Trump Supporter Aims Loaded Gun At Black Lives Matter Protesters | If he had been black and the protesters had been white police would have killed him in a second.Tragedy unfolded in Dallas, Texas on Thursday night as snipers killed 5 police officers during a Black Lives Matter rally organized in protest of unwarranted killings of two black men by police in Minnesota and Louisiana.Even more people could have been murdered if Donald Trump fan Michael Strickland had fired his weapon and emptied the extended clip he loaded into it during a Black Lives Matter march earlier that day in Portland, Oregon.As protesters marched, Strickland stood directly in front of them so he could somehow excuse his next action as just being out of fear for his life. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the protesters at the head of the march and they quickly took cover. The other protesters farther away, however, didn t know this was going on so they continued marching toward Strickland. Back off! Strickland screamed. Hit the ground! the front protesters warned.Ben Kerensa witnessed Strickland s actions and continued marching. We just wanted him to leave, he said.Kerensa watched as Strickland waved his gun back and forth and even saw him switch his normal capacity magazine for an extended clip. He swept the crowd a few times with the gun. I saw him take out the regular clip and slot in an extra-capacity magazine. I saw him chamber a round. I feared for my life, that s why I pulled out my gun, Strickland claimed. But Kerensa says that at no point was Strickland threatened. The fact is, he put himself directly in front of the protesters with the intent to claim that the protesters continuing to march toward him instead of altering their route constituted a threat to his life.Only after Strickland had lowered his weapon and walked away did police finally bother to show up and arrest him.Here s the video of Strickland being arrested via Twitter:Police came in numbers and just arrested man with gun pic.twitter.com/mT6SuQjnSr Andrew Dymburt (@DymburtNews) July 8, 2016The protesters in Portland were incredibly lucky, but this is the atmosphere Donald Trump has created around the country. Trump has openly encouraged violence against black people at his rallies and conservatives across the nation hate the Black Lives Matter movement that has only grown in response to police officers killing unarmed black men, many of whom did nothing wrong to justify killing them.Meanwhile, white gunmen like Strickland are able to actually pull out their guns and fire at will without fear of being shot and killed by police. In fact, it seems like police will go above and beyond the call of duty and display extraordinary patience to make sure a white person is taken alive even if they are killing people and threatening the lives of others, including the police themselves. That kind of patience is not even remotely shown towards an unarmed black person when police show up. They re just shot and killed for no reason and that is precisely why there are protests in our streets, and sadly, why five Dallas police officers are dead this morning. Those officers should not be dead. And all the unarmed black people who have been unjustly murdered by police should not be dead either. All of this could have been prevented had police simply treated black people the same way they treat white people. Just doing that alone would mean more people would be alive today.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
5,571 | Police release London museum crash driver as enquiries continue | LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Sunday a man arrested after a car collided with pedestrians in London, injuring 11, had been released under investigation while enquires continued. A 47-year-old was arrested at the scene near London s Natural History Museum on Saturday on suspicion of dangerous driving. He was treated in hospital before being taken to a north London police station, the Metropolitan Police said. This morning he was released under investigation while enquiries continue, the police said. People released under investigation are not required to attend again at a police station but can be contacted, and in some incidences arrested again, after further police enquiries. A vehicle mounted the pavement and collided with pedestrians in one of the capital s busiest tourist areas on Saturday afternoon, but police doused concerns it was a terrorist attack. Because of where this collision occurred and the number of pedestrians involved, I fully appreciate the concern and alarm this incident caused, DC Darren Case from the Roads and Transport Policing Command said on Sunday. Enquiries have established that this incident is not terrorist related ...Thankfully there are no serious injuries with the majority now discharged from hospital. | 1 |
5,572 | Syria: US Peace Council Addresses United Nations in NYC | Photo: Henry Lowendorf21st Century Wire says In case you ve missed it, the following is the video of a UN session featuring the US Peace Council who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Syria, including an audience with President Bashar al Assad. What they discovered when they arrived surprised the American visitors as they realized the the entire depiction and narrative of Syria in the US and Europe was completely contrived and patently false. Introduction by H.E. Bashar Ja afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic. US Peace Council panel includes:Alfred Marder, President of the US Peace Council Mary Compton, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council Henry Lowendorf, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council Joe Jamison, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action Donna Nassor, Professor and Lawyer also part of US Peace CouncilWatch: | 0 |
5,573 | Mattis says U.S. working to ensure situation around Kirkuk does not escalate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that tensions between Kurdish and Iraqi forces in and around Kirkuk had the full attention of the United States, which was working to ensure it does not escalate. Kurdish authorities said they have sent thousands more troops to Kirkuk to confront threats of Iraqi military attack, but also pulled back defense lines around the disputed oil-producing area slightly to ease tensions. We have got to work on this, the secretary of state has the lead, but my forces are integrated among these forces and they are working too, to make certain we keep any potential for conflict off the table, Mattis told reporters. The Baghdad central government has taken a series of steps to isolate the autonomous Kurdish region since its overwhelming vote for independence in a Sept. 25 referendum, including banning international flights from going there. Mattis said while he was aware of troop movements, he had not heard of any fighting and called on both sides to focus on fighting Islamic State militants. We can t turn on each other right now. We don t want this to go to a shooting situation, Mattis added. Kirkuk, a city of more than 1 million people, lies just outside Kurdish territory, but Peshmerga forces deployed there in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk s oil fields from falling into jihadist hands. As the territory controlled by Islamic State has shrunk, ethnic and sectarian fractures that have plagued Iraq for more than a decade have once again started to resurface. The group s last territory in Iraq is now a stretch skirting the western border with Syria following the fall of the town of Hawija and surrounding areas on Oct. 5 in an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. Mattis said the differences would have to be worked out politically and not on the battlefield. These are issues that are longstanding in some cases. ... We re going to have to recalibrate and move these back to a way (where) we solve them politically and work them out with compromised solutions, he said. | 1 |
5,574 | Twitter F*cks Trump Up After He Says Senators Who Oppose Muslim Ban Are Trying To ‘Start World War III’ (TWEETS) | Trump has signed a stream of executive orders stripping federal funding from international, non-governmental health organizations that so much as mention abortion, authorizing a gigantic wall to keep brown people out of our country to create a gigantic safe space for his racist followers and authorizing concentration camps in which to keep the millions of immigrants he rounds up, and in a move that literally mobilized the world against him enacting a partial ban on Muslims entering the United States, including dual citizens, legal permanent residents, students, people with jobs, and others he considers dangerous.Even the most casual observer can see that Donald Trump s horrific policies are doing nothing but creating a destabilized environment not only in the United States, but worldwide. On Sunday, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham released a joint statement warning that Trump s Muslim ban is a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism. Our most important allies in the fight against ISIL are the vast majority of Muslims who reject its apocalyptic ideology of hatred, the senators said [Trump s] executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country. That is why we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security. We should not stop green-card holders from returning to the country they call home. We should not stop those who have served as interpreters for our military and diplomats from seeking refuge in the country they risked their lives to help, the senators, added. And we should not turn our backs on those refugees who have been shown through extensive vetting to pose no demonstrable threat to our nation, and who have suffered unspeakable horrors, most of them women and children. Trump could take this message to heart, pausing for a glorious moment of self-reflection, and apologize to the world for his actions. He could fire the white supremacists, Kremlin cronies, and imbeciles with which he has stacked his cabinet and replace them with people who will work for the good of the country, once and for all cementing himself as a true legend among world leaders. Trump could apologize to the Muslim community but that s just not the guy he is.In a statement on Twitter, which is apparently where the President releases important information now, Trump responded to the senators condemnation of his bigoted executive order, which was literally written by a white supremacist, by informing the world that McCain and Graham are trying to start World War III by saying that we shouldn t ban Muslims from our country.The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong they are sadly weak on immigration. The two Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017 Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017 The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong they are sadly weak on immigration, Trump said, apparently not having read a single one of the senators words. The two Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III. Naturally, the irony of that whole World War III thing was not lost on the Internet.@realDonaldTrump They should focus on removing you from office. Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump World War Three? I think you might be 'projecting' as the psychologists say. Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump seems kind of odd pic.twitter.com/62Y0uSbO3p Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump I'm sure someone supports this stance pic.twitter.com/wWX92mDld9 Brandon Keating (@BrandonTalks) January 29, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Blanket Muslim bans is a pretty effective way to start World War III. Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump You are The one about to get us involved in World War III. Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) January 29, 2017@AynRandPaulRyan @realDonaldTrump Did you even *know* what you were signing? #FakeWallFacts #LAXProtest pic.twitter.com/fKcIEHoHFY #TheResistance (@AynRandPaulRyan) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump When "World War III" is mentioned, most people think of you. The Socialist Party (@OfficialSPGB) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump Please, please, don't even mention World War III. We're tense enough already. Matt Peterson (@mattbpete) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump Presidents shouldn't tweet about World War 3. #UnfitToLead Benjamin Byron Davis (@Tooda) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump plot twist. you might be the reason WWIII happens. ????? Ramaj Eroc (@RamajEroc) January 29, 2017@realDonaldTrump literally no one is looking to start World War III except Steve Bannon. Molly Knight (@molly_knight) January 29, 2017Trump s chief strategist and newest member of the National Security Council described himself as a Leninist whose goal is to destroy the state and bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today s establishment, during his time running white supremacist hate rag Breitbart. He s also the guy who has been in charge of writing The Donald s executive orders.Trump can accuse others of attempting to start World War III all he wants, but if anyone is going to kick that world-ending disaster off, it will be his team.Featured image by Christopher Furlong/Win McNamera via Getty Images/screengrab | 0 |
5,575 | Trump says 'We're going to Florida very soon' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called Hurricane Irma a big monster and said the storm would cost a lot of money but that the federal government was focused on saving lives. The bad news is that this is some big monster, Trump said on arriving at the White House after a weekend at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. He praised federal agencies handling of the storm and said: We re going to Florida very soon. | 1 |
5,576 | Trump tells lawmakers he expects deal 'very quickly' on healthcare | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told a group of senators on Tuesday that he expected lawmakers would be able to reach a deal on healthcare, without offering specifics on how they would do it or what had changed since a healthcare reform bill was pulled last week for insufficient support. “I have no doubt that that’s going to happen very quickly,” Trump said at a bipartisan reception held for senators and their spouses at the White House. “I think it’s going to happen because we’ve all been promising - Democrat, Republican - we’ve all been promising that to the American people,” he said. A Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system was pulled on Friday after it failed to garner enough support to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Trump, a Republican, did not mention that failure at the reception nor did he offer specifics on how he planned for lawmakers to reach a consensus on a healthcare bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare. Trump told lawmakers at the reception that he would be talking about infrastructure and investing in the military, without offering a time frame or details. “Hopefully, it will start being bipartisan, because everybody really wants the same thing. We want greatness for this country that we love,” he said. | 1 |
5,577 | Recovering from severe malnutrition in Yemen | HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) - Smiling and sitting down to bread and milk with her family, Yemeni teenager Saida Ahmed Baghili is barely recognizable a year on from the photo of her emaciated frame that came to symbolize the country s humanitarian crisis. Baghili now weighs 36kg (80 lb), according to her father, more than triple the 11kg she weighed last October when Reuters first met her at the al-Thawra hospital in Sana a, where she was undergoing treatment for severe malnutrition. There the 19-year-old was unable to talk, let alone carry her ghostly, skeletal frame, which is now stronger after weeks of specialist care and time at home. Saida s body got better because she s eating better, but she s still having trouble swallowing, her father Ahmed Baghili said at their home in Hodeidah this month. She can only eat milk, biscuits and juice. Baghili s plight reflects that of many families in the Arabian Peninsula s poorest country, where a two-and-a-half-year war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement has claimed 10,000 lives. A quarter of the 28 million population are starving, according to the United Nations, with half a million children under the age of 5 severely malnourished and at least 2,135 people killed by cholera. Ahmed Baghili is only able to supply the basics for his family of 10, who live in a parched village on the Red Sea coast. Saida, whose illness began before the war, is able to help her father tend to a farmer s cattle in exchange for milk, with their income boosted by Ahmed making deliveries on his motorcycle and donations from humanitarian organizations. However, he says he doesn t have enough money to send Saida for further treatment and still fears for her health. Her last appointment with a doctor was in December. We re worried she might relapse and then we wouldn t be able to do anything because we have nothing. We don t have the transportation fee, we don t have the fee for anything, he said. Click on reut.rs/2gxeJkK to see a related photo essay | 1 |
5,578 | Donald Trump’s Son Bashes His Father’s Campaign: ‘So Ridiculous I Can’t Even Watch It’ (AUDIO) | If you ve never had to suffer through any of Trump s surrogates trying to participate in debates on CNN, consider yourself lucky. Even Donald Trump Jr. had something nasty to say about the surrogates incompetence, and he delivered some epic bashing that might even make his own father say You re fired! In an interview on Sean Hannity s radio show, Trump Jr. threw his father s surrogates under the bus for being absolutely awful at defending his father. Claiming that these people couldn t do their jobs correctly, Trump Jr. seemed to think that the media was conspiring and going out of its way to make Trump supporters look stupid (as if they need any help with that).In Trump Jr. s diss, the younger Trump was not only speaking about the professional, experienced Trump-loving pundits that CNN regularly has on its shows such as campaign spokeswomen Katrina Pierson, Kayleigh McEnany, and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (although he didn t call out any specific names). Trump Jr. also accused CNN of picking Trump fans from the street to go up against professional Democrats in debates. Trump Jr. said: The worst [segments] are when they have a panel of eight professional liberal, but professional people on a panel, and they find like one Trump supporter from the street, who has no real political knowledge, and they just happen to be a supporter. And they put that person up against 8 people who do this for a living and try to make it seem like that s a fair fight. Apparently, Trump Jr. was so upset about people not being able to defend his father properly that he said the campaign had gotten so ridiculous I can t even watch it anymore. Unfortunately, Trump Jr. is oblivious to the fact that he should probably include himself amongst the pundits that continue to fail miserably at saving Trump s image.You can listen to the interview below:Featured image via Alex Wong / Getty Images | 0 |
5,579 | TREASON! HOW OBAMA’S SHADOW GOVERNMENT Is Commanding An Army Of Anti-Trump Agitators To Sabotage President Trump #WAR [VIDEO] | PAUL SPERRY SPOKE WITH LOU DOBBS ON HIS REPORT ABOUT OBAMA S SHADOW GOVERNMENT:Obama has two things going for him: The judiciary is his lethal weapon. He stacked the courts during his 8 years with liberal judges who can make things really difficult for President Trump. We ve seen it in action with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Trump s Executive Order. President Trump should shake this court up ASAP! Yes, he can do it and he should! NEWT: JEFFERSON WOULD ABOLISH THE 9TH CIRCUIT COURT:The second thing that s troubling is the shadow government that Obama is setting up just blocks away from the White House. He s not going to let his legacy go down without a fight. He ll use the power of the evil doers like George Soros to pay for an army of destructive anarchists:PAUL SPERRY OF THE NYP: When former President Barack Obama said he was heartened by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators numbering more than 30,000 who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.In what s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn t just staying behind in Washington. He s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular America First agenda.He s doing it through a network of leftist nonprofits led by Organizing for Action. Normally you d expect an organization set up to support a politician and his agenda to close up shop after that candidate leaves office, but not Obama s OFA. Rather, it s gearing up for battle, with a growing war chest and more than 250 offices across the country.Since Donald Trump s election, this little-known but well-funded protesting arm has beefed up staff and ramped up recruitment of young liberal activists, declaring on its website, We re not backing down. Determined to salvage Obama s legacy, it s drawing battle lines on immigration, ObamaCare, race relations and climate change.Obama is intimately involved in OFA operations and even tweets from the group s account. In fact, he gave marching orders to OFA foot soldiers following Trump s upset victory. It is fine for everybody to feel stressed, sad, discouraged, he said in a conference call from the White House. But get over it. He demanded they move forward to protect what we ve accomplished. Now is the time for some organizing, he said. So don t mope. Far from sulking, OFA activists helped organize anti-Trump marches across US cities, some of which turned into riots. After Trump issued a temporary ban on immigration from seven terror-prone Muslim nations, the demonstrators jammed airports, chanting: No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all! Run by old Obama aides and campaign workers, federal tax records show nonpartisan OFA marshals 32,525 volunteers nationwide. Registered as a 501(c)(4), it doesn t have to disclose its donors, but they ve been generous. OFA has raised more than $40 million in contributions and grants since evolving from Obama s campaign organization Obama for America in 2013.OFA, in IRS filings, says it trains young activists to develop organizing skills. Armed with Obama s 2012 campaign database, OFA plans to get out the vote for Democratic candidates it s grooming to win back Congress and erect a wall of resistance to Trump at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.It will be aided in that effort by the Obama Foundation, run by Obama s former political director, and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, launched last month by Obama pal Eric Holder to end what he and Obama call GOP gerrymandering of congressional districts.Obama will be overseeing it all from a shadow White House located within two miles of Trump.DON T LET THE LEFT BE THE DEATH OF AMERICA! PLEASE DON T BE SILENT! SHOW UP AND SPEAK UP! | 0 |
5,580 | Kurdish leader departs, leaving nephew faced with reconciliation | ERBIL Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani departed office on Wednesday, leaving his nephew to reconcile with the central government in Baghdad, with regional neighbors and with rival Kurdish parties after a failed referendum on independence. Nechirvan Barzani, who has served alongside his uncle as prime minister, will now be the main authority figure in the executive of the Kurdish autonomous region, following Masoud Barzani s departure as president, Kurdish officials said. The prime minister will be the key person during this transitional period, said Hoshyar Zebari, a former Iraqi foreign minister, now advisor to the Kurdish government and senior member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The elder Barzani, a 71-year-old veteran guerrilla leader, had run the Kurdish autonomous region with a firm hand since 2005, during which it prospered while the rest of Iraq was mired in civil war. But he announced his resignation on Sunday, effective on Nov. 1, after a Sept. 25 referendum on independence backfired, prompting the central government to send troops to recapture territory held by the Kurds outside their autonomous region. The referendum and government backlash have also revealed deep divisions among the Kurds themselves. During his resignation speech, Masoud Barzani accused his political rivals of high treason for yielding territory without a fight. His nephew Nechirvan, 51, who has served as prime minister for all but three years since 2006, is seen in Kurdish politics as a less polarising figure, having warmer relations than his uncle with rival Kurdish parties. He also has a close working relationship with Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan, who has backed Baghdad in the central government s dispute with the Kurds since the referendum. The Kurdish regional parliament voted on Sunday to divide the president s powers among parliament, the judiciary and the cabinet, until parliamentary and presidential elections are next held. The elections were originally scheduled for Nov. 1 but postponed last month until next year. Before the referendum, Barzani s son Masrour was seen as his likely successor, but he has been damaged by his backing of the secession vote, which soured relationships with Baghdad and regional powers who opposed it. On Monday, the United States commended Masoud Barzani for stepping down and said it would actively engage with Nechirvan Barzani and his deputy, Qubad Talabani, a member of the rival political faction with whom he maintains a good relationship. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also spoke with Nechirvan Barzani on Monday to encourage dialogue with Baghdad. He also met with met with the French and Germany ambassadors to Iraq, Bruno Aubert and Cyrill Nunn, on Tuesday. As prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani has been central to brokering the semi-autonomous region s oil dealings, now in jeopardy following Iraq s recapture of disputed territories on Oct. 16, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Despite no longer being president, Masoud Barzani will not be retreating from public life, government officials said. In his televised address on Sunday announcing the end of his presidency, Barzani said that he would remain a Peshmerga, or Kurdish fighter, and will continue to battle for his people s lifelong dream of independence. He will also remain head of the ruling party and will still sit on the High Political Council, a non-governmental body which emerged after the referendum. Kurdish politics have been dominated for decades by the KDP, led by three generations of the Barzani family, and its main rivals the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by the family of Jalal Talabani, who died in October. The two parties fought a civil war against each other in the 1990s, but maintained an outward appearance of unity after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with Jalal Talabani serving as Iraq s ceremonial president in Baghdad from 2005-2014 while Masoud Barzani ran the Kurdish autonomous region. | 1 |
5,581 | HA-HA! RETIRED MARINE TROLLS LIBERAL NEW YORKERS…Says POTUS Is ‘Tough Love’ We Need [Video] | It s always a win-win when you can find a hobby you enjoy, especially when it allows you to get some exercise and enjoy the nice summer weather. This retired Marine hit the jackpot by finding a way to keep himself entertained and fit during retirement: trolling New York liberals by boat.Nearly every day, Dion Cini will row down the Hudson River while flying a Trump 2020 flag to incite the frustration of New Yorkers, a group who overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton this past election.This retired Marine can t get enough of the responses he gets from people who spot him rowing around Manhattan. Sometimes you hear I hope you get hit by a boat! I hope you drown! he said. From the top of their lungs as loud as they can. It can be from the edge of the river. It can be from cars driving by on the river. It can be from windows. I get it all the time and then I get it even on rooftop bars. Cini calls himself an ultra-conservative and thinks that Americans need a wake-up call. He said, I call it tough love. (President) Trump is tough love. Cini recalled being told to leave Washington Square Park with his flag because it was not conservative land but he vowed that no one would stop him.Luckily, these angry New Yorkers haven t swayed Cini one bit. He s considering getting a bigger flag spanning twenty feet. And a bigger boat. Despite his retirement, it s inspiring to see that this Marine s devotion to patriotism hasn t wavered.Read more: BizPac Review | 0 |
5,582 | Clinton leads Trump 47-44 percent in Washington Post-ABC poll | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 3 percentage points nationally in a Washington Post-ABC tracking poll released on Friday. Clinton drew 47 percent of the vote in the survey compared with Trump’s 44 percent four days before Tuesday’s presidential election, according to the telephone poll of 1,768 adults taken from Sunday to Wednesday. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points. In the Post-ABC poll released on Wednesday, the two candidates were tied with 46 percent each. | 1 |
5,583 | Top Senate Republican tells Supreme Court nominee: Senate will not act | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland by phone on Wednesday that Republicans will not act on his nomination or meet with him, a McConnell spokesman said.”Rather than put Judge Garland through more unnecessary political routines orchestrated by the White House, the leader decided it would be more considerate of the nominee’s time to speak with him today by phone,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in a statement. McConnell told the appellate court judge that “since the Senate will not be acting on this nomination, he would not be holding a perfunctory meeting, but he wished Judge Garland well,” Stewart added. | 1 |
5,584 | U.N. chief urges communication with North Korea to avoid escalation | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Friday it was time to immediately re-establish and strengthen communication channels with North Korea, including inter-Korean and military to military channels, to reduce the risk of a misunderstanding escalating into conflict. While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation leading to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by misplaced over-confidence, dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communication channels, Guterres told the U.N. Security Council. | 1 |
5,585 | Trump On The Verge Of Meltdown As FBI Clears Clinton Over Emails (VIDEO) | The FBI had just announced that it was clearing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the most recent email probe, and Donald Trump responded by having an epic meltdown in front of everyone at the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Michigan on Sunday.In speaking to the crowd, the Republican nominee whined and moaned once again that the election is rigged and made it clear that he still thinks she s guilty as ever. Trump shouted: Right now she s being protected by a rigged system. It s a totally rigged system. I ve been saying it for a long time. You can t review 650,000 emails in eight days. You can t do it folks. Hillary Clinton is guilty. Hillary Clinton is guilty, she knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it and now it s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on 8 November. You can watch Trump throw his temper tantrum below:Donald Trump responds to FBI letter: You can t review 650,000 new emails in 8 days. https://t.co/n3LYkBKlN7 https://t.co/F2ad7fs141 ABC News (@ABC) November 7, 2016For the record, the FBI actually CAN cover that kind of groundwork in eight days, but since when has The Donald ever been interested in thinking logically or sharing facts?! Completely missing the irony in what he would say next, Trump warned: The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. Trump was obviously projecting onto Clinton, because he currently has thousands of lawsuits against him, not including the high-profile sexual assault cases that have recently come to light after his lewd comments on an audio tape were uncovered, or the fact that he hasn t paid his taxes in decades. If anyone should be worried about being guilty of wrongdoing, it s definitely Trump and it s something we should keep in mind on Election Day tomorrow.Featured image via Joe Raedle / Getty Images | 0 |
5,586 | The Internet Goes For Newt Gingrich’s Throat Over Old Tweet About Obama Golfing | Donald Trump repeatedly attacked former President Barack Obama each time he went golfing but the alleged billionaire has just taken his 13th golfing trip in the two months he s been on the job. Each one of Trump s defenders seems to have an old tweet blasting Obama for his golf trips, which pale in comparison to Trump s lavish vacations. Last week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to explain why golfing trips are OK for Trump but were not OK for Obama. And now we have Newt Gingrich s old tweet coming back to haunt him.The disgraced former House Speaker tweeted in 2013, Trump and president obsma both golf but trump doesn t charge the taxpayers $920,000 for a golf weekend in florida. Trump and president obsma both golf but trump doesn't charge the taxpayers $920,000 for a golf weekend in florida. Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 8, 2013We can only assume Gingrich meant Obama, not obsma. Well, he did inadvertently get that right. Each time Trump goes to his Mar-a-Lago resort, it costs taxpayers $3 million, not $920,000. The alleged president is on track to spend $1 billion in 4 years to house his wife in New York City and vacationing in Mar-a-Lago virtually every week.The Internet pounced on Gingrich s hypocritical tweet.@newtgingrich hey newt, it's so cool how you're not even embarrassed to shart in public. Victor Huckabee (@popesaintvictor) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich are you drunk? Paolo Bacigalupi (@paolobacigalupi) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich you're right. it costs $3million and a lot of that goes to his properties. so fuck him and fuck you too. cx (@cxcope) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich pic.twitter.com/FFTopYDeMU Elad Nehorai (@PopChassid) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich you're so lucky being a huge hypocrite piece of shit doesn't matter anymore. Joe Berkowitz (@JoeBerkowitz) March 26, 2017.@newtgingrich pic.twitter.com/iIhyRRF5Pf Ira Madison III (@ira) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich I'd blame your fat, leave-your-dying-wife fingers on the typo here but it's prob some WP way to be racist.Also, on the golf pic.twitter.com/QowQNlTz4O Dane Rauschenberg (@SeeDaneRun) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich Kushner/Trump ski trip reportedly "required" nearly 100 secret service agents. You think THAT wasn't on the taxpayer's dime? Bill Shapiro (@Bill_Shapiro) March 26, 2017@katiedolan look whose ski trip we just paid for! pic.twitter.com/MxSrRbW7jS Jeffrey Correa (@JCorreaNYC) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich You're right. It's closer to $3 million, I think. Maria Langer ? (@mlanger) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich How full of shit are you? The man is spending millions to golf, security, staff, AirForce1, Your lies are embarrassing. #HACK Christopher Titus (@TitusNation) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich u drunk? Brian Tower (@notryanpower) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich No He charges $3 million The Monster (@boris3324) March 26, 2017@susana_holzer @newtgingrich each of Trump's weekend trips to his own estate has cost 3 million. Do the math. Social Media Poison (@coreypierceart) March 26, 2017@Marbs84 @newtgingrich @slack2thefuture Today was golf outing # 12 in 9 wks in office. Newt, I think trump golfs more than he presidents. Connie (@ceejchris82) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich no, but the Secret Service does. Maybe shut the fuck up instead of always opening your giant, privileged white cakehole. The Duke Of Winjer (@jamesmielke) March 26, 2017@newtgingrich boy you're gonna be real mad when you find out how much his trips to Mar-A-Lego cost each weekend, huh Victoria McNally (@vqnerdballs) March 26, 2017Gingrich s hypocrisy is duly noted. The former House Speaker has been strangely quiet over Donald Trump s repeated trips to the golf course, and what s really disturbing is that he regularly goes golfing at Trump-owned golf clubs, meaning that there is another conflict of interest for us to deal with. Trump is literally profiting from his presidency. In 2011, the former reality show star tweeted, I play golf to relax. My company is in great shape. @BarackObama plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain. Meanwhile, Trump broke another campaign promise, this one to repeal and replace Obamacare. Instead, he offered tax breaks for the wealthy while throwing the elderly, veterans and lower-income Americans under the bus. Then he went golfing after his plan failed miserably.Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images with added tweet. | 0 |
5,587 | Defense Secretary Mattis Speaks Over Incompetent Trump’s Threats To North Korea (VIDEO) | Earlier today, Donald Trump once again disgraced the United States by demonstrating his incompetence with empty threats to North Korea via his Twitter account. Showcasing his inability to handle a crisis, Trump tweeted that he would meet with his military experts and could only say we ll see when he was asked about his plans to attack North Korea.Further proving that no one in his administration takes him seriously, Defense Secretary James Mattis was sent out to give a more powerful statement on North Korea, outshining his own boss threats. In a statement, Mattis warned North Korea that the United States military would certainly respond to any threat. Mattis said: Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming. Mattis also urged North Korea to listen to the UN Security Council: All members unanimously agreed on the threat North Korea poses and they remain unanimous in their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said we have many options to do so. Of course, the reason Mattis had to make this statement in the first place is because no one can believe a word that Trump says. Even eight months into his presidency, Trump has managed to destroy every ounce of credibility he might have had, and many of the tasks he should be doing are now falling on the shoulders of his more capable administration members. No one takes him seriously, so he needs to send others to make statements for him.You can watch Mattis cover for his boss in the video below:Defense Secretary James Mattis: Any threat to the United States will be met with a massive military response https://t.co/7WzbWvGoIK CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 3, 2017Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
5,588 | Fight over electoral district boundaries heads to Supreme Court | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is a political practice nearly as old as the United States - manipulating the boundaries of legislative districts to help one party tighten its grip on power in a move called partisan gerrymandering - and one the Supreme Court has never curbed. That could soon change, with the nine justices making the legal fight over Republican-drawn electoral maps in Wisconsin one of the first cases they hear during their 2017-2018 term that begins next month. Their ruling in the case could influence American politics for decades. Wisconsin officials point to the difficulty of having courts craft a workable standard for when partisan gerrymandering violates constitutional protections. Opponents of the practice said limits are urgently needed, noting that sophisticated technological tools now enable a dominant party to devise with new precision state electoral maps that marginalize large swathes of voters in legislative elections. “There is a sense that something has gone amiss with American democracy, that there is this effort to rig the rules of the game,” said Michael Li, an expert in redistricting at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. “Gerrymandering used to be a dark art, and now it’s a dark science.” The justices will hear arguments on Oct. 3 in Wisconsin’s appeal of a lower court ruling that found that the electoral map drawn by state Republicans ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution. The map, drawn after the 2010 U.S. census, enabled them to win a sizable majority of Wisconsin legislative seats despite losing the popular vote statewide to the Democrats. The party’s majority has widened since. The justices must decide whether courts should have a say in such matters. The Supreme Court for decades has been willing to invalidate state electoral maps on the grounds of racial discrimination but never those drawn simply to give one party an advantage. The justices have never settled on a standard by which partisan gerrymandering claims can be measured. In a 2004 case, Justice Anthony Kennedy left the door open for a “workable standard” to eventually be found. Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the liberal justices on a court with a 5-4 conservative majority, could cast the deciding vote in the Wisconsin case. A federal three-judge panel ruled 2-1 last November that Wisconsin’s redistricting plan violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law and First Amendment right to freedom of expression and association. Over the decades, both Republicans and Democrats have been accused of gerrymandering. Since 2010, Republicans’ control of redistricting has coincided with major seat advantages for them in state legislatures, the Brennan Center said. It is not just Republicans who are accused of abuses. Republican voters sued over districts drawn by Democratic lawmakers in Maryland and have appealed to the Supreme Court. State and federal legislative district boundaries are reconfigured after the U.S. government conducts a census every decade so that each one contains about same number of people, typically by the party that controls the state legislature. The Republican National Committee and several conservative groups have backed Wisconsin, but leading Republicans including Senator John McCain, 1996 presidential nominee Bob Dole and Ohio Governor John Kasich have joined critics who argue that partisan gerrymandering distorts the democratic process. ‘SOCIAL-SCIENCE HODGEPODGE’ Wisconsin Republicans argued that election results since their redistricting plan was passed in 2011 reflect the state’s political geography, with Democrats concentrated in cities like Milwaukee and Madison and Republicans more spread out around the state. The state also took issue with metrics that the lower court used to determine that there was a significant partisan bias in the redistricting plan. This “social-science hodgepodge,” the state told the justices, makes it impossible for judges to fairly determine when an electoral map is unlawful. “Plaintiffs’ social-science approach would sow chaos. Each legislatively drawn plan would be immediately challenged in federal court,” the state said in a legal brief to the justices. Nicholas Goedert, a Virginia Tech redistricting expert who testified in court for Wisconsin, said the metrics may be inappropriate because their results can change from one election to the next. Goedert noted that large shifts in the mood of voters can cause even highly biased electoral maps to flip. “Partisan maps have a tendency to backfire on the party that drew them,” Goedert said. The case began in 2015 when a dozen Wisconsin Democratic Party voters sued state election officials claiming the redistricting law intended to discriminate against them for their political beliefs and create enduring Republican majorities. They urged the justices to either greenlight the lower court’s method of deciding cases of partisan gerrymandering, or create their own. “Government should treat voters equally regardless of their viewpoint and we have ways to measure it,” said Danielle Lang, an attorney for the plaintiffs. If the justices rule that courts must stay out of this highly political process, voters will lose, Lang said. “There would be no way for voters to rein in partisan gerrymandering, no way for voters to take back control of their government.” (For a graphic on Wisconsin state electoral maps, click tmsnrt.rs/2haOPD5) | 1 |
5,589 | HILLARY SUPPORTER SAYS MURDERS WILL HAPPEN At Anti-Trump Riots: “There Will Be Casualties On Both Sides….People Have To Die To Make A Change…” [VIDEO] | Keep in mind, a group funded by one of Hillary and Barack Obama s largest campaign contributors globalist, George Soros is advertising to pay people to attend these violent rallies.https://youtu.be/Td4-UeLqikc | 0 |
5,590 | BUSTED! DNC CHAIR TOM PEREZ Flip Flops On Knowing Who Paid For Trump ‘Dirty’ Dossier [Video] | After he previously denied knowing about the dirty Trump dossier, DNC Chair Tom Perez now says no questions about how it was paid for You can t have it both ways Tom Perez and the Democrats claimed they didn t know who paid for the Trump Dirty Dossier but now they flip flopped and claim they were in-fact doing opposition research on President Trump. There is a big question mark here THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THE EXTREME AND VERY DIRTY LEFT HAS TAKEN OVER THE DNC:OUR LATEST REPORT ON PEREZ SHOWS WHAT A NASTY MAN HE IS:The DNC Chair Tom Perez took his delusional and very nasty attitude on Fox Business this morning Maria Bartiromo let him have it with a dose of brutal truth about the direction the Dems are going in Your party has been hijacked by the extreme left, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren. Things got off to a fairly normal start, with Bartiromo asking the DNC Chairman about his party s victories in Tuesday s elections .Then Bartiromo hit a nerve when she mentioned the accusations about Clinton fixing the primary.Perez shot back: Maria, I understand that when the Democrats win as they did across the board last night that you would like to focus on other things Then, after Perez touted Obamacare and Bartiromo said the health care system was imploding the two went back and forth, with Perez attempting to defend the Affordable Care Act and Bartiromo grilling him on whether he has spoken to Sanders since Brazile s revelations.BARTIROMO KEPT COMING BACK AT PEREZ WITH TRUTH BOMBS: Does somebody owe Bernie Sanders a phone call, since now we know what took place, and everything was rigged, and you were behind Hillary Clinton? she charged. Maria I don t know if this is a lecture or a Q&A, you tell me, Perez lamented. She then asked Perez about why the DNC did not turn their computers over to the FBI for an investigation, to which he replied: Maria, you re in a fictional wonderland right now. Perez tried to turn the conversation back to Tuesday s election results, claiming them as proof that voters embraced the Democrats vision.BEST LINE OF THE INTERVIEW: I haven t heard a vision! Bartiromo shouted back. Your party has been hijacked by the extreme left, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren. READ MORE: MEDIAITE | 0 |
5,591 | WATCH: Republican Lawmaker Has Finally Had Enough Of Trump’s Bullsh*t | Donald Trump s continuing effort to derail the investigation of his Russia scandal is finally causing his support among Republicans in Congress to crack.For months, Trump has been interfering with the investigation by firing FBI Director James Comey, accusing investigators of conducting a witch hunt, threatening Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and whining about it Twitter.Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have had to deal with all of this, and it has been one giant distraction that they are finally getting sick and tired of it.During an appearance on Morning Joe on Tuesday morning, GOP Rep. Charlie Dent informed the MSNBC hosts that he and many of his colleagues are exhausted by Trump s obsession with the investigation.I m very concerned about the continuing drama, chaos, instability, and dysfunction coming out of the White House, Dent said. I have come to expect a certain amount of dysfunction in government, but they ve taken the fun out of dysfunction. This is really tough, Dent continued. This is not easy for any of us. Talking about, the FBI director gets fired, now trying to push the attorney general out And there was discussion last week about pushing out or firing Mueller. I mean, you can t fire the FBI. The investigations are going to continue. I just don t I don t understand why all this interference. It s not helpful, and it s very distracting. We have a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill, but we deal with this daily drama, and it doesn t make your job easier. Here s the video via VidMe.If Donald Trump keeps it up, he s going to wake up one day and discover that he has no more support from Republicans in Congress. Clearly, Trump s antics are starting to take a toll on them. Usually, presidents do not try to interfere with the wheels of justice. But Trump has been doing that from day one and his obsession is only getting worse. At some point, Republicans are going to decide that ousting Trump would be better than continuing to defend his bullshit. Dent being fed up is just the beginning.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
5,592 | Britain backs Libyan plans to work towards elections next year | LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he believed that Libya s plans to work toward elections in 2018 were probably the right timescale . In July, rival leaders pledged in Paris to work towards elections in 2018 and a conditional ceasefire. U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame said constitutional and electoral laws would have to be written to ensure any vote brought lasting change. Would it be premature to hold the elections within a year? I happen to think that could be about the right timescale, Johnson told a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It is very important however, that you don t do it too fast and that you get the political groundwork done first, he added. There has to be a constitution, there has to be an accepted basis for those elections to take place. | 1 |
5,593 | Pakistani anti-corruption body arrests son-in-law of ousted PM Sharif | ISLAMABAD/KARACHI (Reuters) - The son-in-law of ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif was arrested at Islamabad airport on Monday by Pakistan s anti-corruption body on his return from London, officials said, a rare instance of a powerful Pakistani politician being detained. Muhammad Safdar, a lawmaker married to Sharif s daughter and heir-apparent Maryam, was arrested after he failed to appear at previous National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court hearings about corruption allegations stemming from a probe into the Sharif family wealth. The Sharifs have denied any wrongdoing and have labeled the corruption proceedings against them as politically motivated. Two of Nawaz s sons are also due to appear before the NAB court, along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Nawaz was disqualified by the Supreme Court in July for not declaring a source of income that he disputes receiving. Pakistan s top court also ordered a wide-ranging NAB investigation and trial into Sharif family members. The Supreme Court specified that the trial be concluded within six months by NAB, which has in the past been derided as toothless because rich and powerful politicians were seldom convicted. Safdar, who was arrested soon after midnight, was expected to be released after his NAB court appearance with Maryam this morning. Television footage showed some supporters from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) trying to stop the car from leaving the airport, including some who lay down in front of it. A senior PML-N official urged them to give way. Khawaja Saad Rafique, a minister in the PML-N Cabinet, said on Twitter no resistance was made to Safdar s arrest, even though the party had serious reservations about the judicial process. Sharif s disqualification stems from the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 that appeared to show that his daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy properties in London. The Supreme Court initially declined to dismiss Nawaz but ordered an investigation into his family s wealth. After the probe it disqualified him and ordered a NAB investigation and trial into the family. Some senior PML-N officials, including Maryam, have hinted that elements of Pakistan s powerful military had a hidden hand in the Supreme Court disqualification that forced Nawaz to resign. The army denied playing a role. The case against the Sharifs has gripped Pakistan, with analysts expecting the negative newsflow from the hearings to hurt PML-N in the run-up to the next general elections, likely in mid-2018. | 1 |
5,594 | LIBERAL HACK KATIE COURIC Says Fake News Is “Tearing [America] Apart”…Doesn’t Mention $12 MILLION Dollar Lawsuit Against Her For Producing Edited Story To Push Gun Control [VIDEO] | Katie Couric is a wolf in sheep s clothing. Dan Rather, Brian Williams and Katie Couric will forever be known as some of the worst liars at CBS and NBC, two of the three major news networks where most Americans used to go to get their news.Katie Couric, who still faces a $12 million defamation lawsuit stemming from a deceptive edit in a film she produced, decried the effect of fake news on America during an interview on Thursday.Couric told the New York Daily News she believes fake news is tearing [America] apart at the seams while discussing her latest effort cohosting a music and politics event in New York City. I remember I got sent a lot of stories from friends who were quite educated and were like, Did you see this?' Couric said. And I would say, Come on, you re kidding, right? This is BS.' She did not mention the controversy surrounding a deceptive edit included in her 2016 film Under the Gun. During one scene in the movie Couric is shown asking a group of gun rights activists from the Virginia Citizens Defense League a question about background checks. The group is then shown sitting in silence for nine seconds with nobody offering a response to the question. WFBListen to Rush Limbaugh explain why Katie Couric is not a good person and not a nice woman :The makers of a new Katie Couric documentary on gun violence deceptively edited an interview between Couric and a group of gun rights activists in an apparent attempt to embarrass the activists, an audio recording of the full interview shows.At the 21:48 mark of Under the Gun a scene of Katie Couric interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization, is shown.Couric can be heard in the interview asking activists from the group, If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun? The documentary then shows the activists sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer. It then cuts to the next scene. The moment can be watched here:However, raw audio of the interview between Katie Couric and the activists provided to the Washington Free Beacon shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. A back and forth between a number of the league s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.LISTEN HERE:John Lott, Jr. explains to The Blaze s Dana Loesch how this documentary was rigged from the outset:Under the Gun has been labeled dishonest politicking in the guise of media coverage, loose with the facts, and a full-length assault on guns and the Second Amendment by those in the gun community since its debut on May 15.The Virginia Citizens Defense League labeled the deceptively edited segment featured in the film unbelievable and extremely unprofessional. Philip Van Cleave, the organization s president, said the editing was done deliberately to make it appear that league members didn t have a response to Couric s question. Katie Couric asked a key question during an interview of some members of our organization, he said. She then intentionally removed their answers and spliced in nine seconds of some prior video of our members sitting quietly and not responding. Viewers are left with the misunderstanding that the members had no answer to her question. Nora Ryan, the chief of staff for EPIX, the cable channel that is airing the documentary, told the Free Beacon in an email, Under the Gun is a critically-acclaimed documentary that looks at the polarizing and politicized issue of gun violence, a subject that elicits strong reactions from people on both sides. EPIX stands behind Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig, and their creative and editorial judgment. We encourage people to watch the film and decide for themselves. Via: WFB | 0 |
5,595 | BOYCOTT TRUMP APP LIST BACKFIRES…Shoppers Using This List To BUY And Support Trump Companies And Supporters | Here s the link to the app: BOYCOTT TRUMP This app has been promoted by the Democratic Coalition Against Trump This app is a first step in our larger Boycott Trump campaign, which will feature a unified grassroots movement centered on holding companies and individuals that help Trump in any way accountable, Executive Director of Democratic Coalition Against Trump Nate Lemer told The Huffington Post. The campaign is all about empowerment By doing so we aim to give people a safe and productive way to voice their disapproval of Trump. We ve accepted Trump won the election but that doesn t mean we have to accept everything he stands for. We downloaded the app so you don t have to. We re asking that you use this list to do your shopping In other words, please shop at these 250 businesses to support Donald Trump and those who support him: | 0 |
5,596 | Germany not mulling sanctions against U.S. after climate pact withdrawal | BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government is not considering sanctions against the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump sparked outrage around the world by deciding to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, a spokesman said. Asked what the German government thought about the idea of economic sanctions, spokesman Steffen Seibert said: “I think we can say that’s not part of the German government’s policy.” | 1 |
5,597 | Trump to back Palestinian 'self-determination' on Mideast trip: aide | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will express support for Palestinian “self-determination” during a Middle East trip this month, a senior aide said on Friday, suggesting Trump is open to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite not having publicly embraced the idea so far. The comment by U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster came just nine days after a White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which Trump vowed to seek a historic peace deal but stopped short of explicitly recommitting to the eventual goal of Palestinian statehood, a longtime bedrock of U.S. policy. Previewing Trump’s first foreign trip, McMaster also said he would use a visit to Saudi Arabia, his first stop, to encourage Arab and Muslim partners to take “bold new steps” to confront those from Iran, Islamic State, al Qaeda and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government “who perpetuate chaos and violence.” Trump’s travels, which begin late next week and will also include stops in Israel and Rome, are intended to “broadcast a message of unity” by visiting holy sites of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, McMaster told reporters. Trump’s meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, currently due to be held separately, will be closely watched for whether he begins to articulate a cohesive strategy to revive long-stalled negotiations. Most experts are skeptical of Trump’s chances of brokering a peace accord that eluded his predecessors. Trump plans, in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to “reaffirm America’s unshakeable bond to the Jewish state” and in a meeting with Abbas to “express his desire for dignity and self-determination for the Palestinians,” said McMaster, a decorated Army general with extensive Middle East experience. Trump is expected to meet Abbas, the Western-backed head of the Palestinian Authority, in Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestinian sources say. Palestinians were disappointed when Trump failed to mention a two-state solution in a joint appearance with Abbas on May 3. Trump sparked international criticism in February when, during a news conference with Netanyahu, he appeared to back away from a longstanding U.S. commitment to Palestinian statehood, saying he would leave it up to the parties to decide. An independent state is not only the aspiration of the vast majority of Palestinians but has been the objective of successive U.S. administrations and the international community. Asked whether Trump would bring Netanyahu and Abbas together in the same room during the visit scheduled for May 22-23, McMaster said that would be up to the president and the other leaders. “The final plans aren’t set yet,” he said. | 1 |
5,598 | THIS PICTURE OF HARRIET TUBMAN Should Be Used On The $20 Bill…If For No Other Reason Than To Drive Anti-Gun Left Crazy | Obama has filled his cabinet with radical yes men and women who hold similar anti-American, leftist views. His radical Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew is no exception.Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced yesterday that Alexander Hamilton s face will remain on the front of the $10 bill and Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill.What the Left forgot in their haste to replace a racist white (Democrat) President on the front of the $20 bill was the fact that Harriet Tubman was more than just a black abolitionist, she also serves as an excellent example of why our Second Amendment is so important.Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; 1820 March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. She carried a revolver, and was not afraid to use it . . .Once a slave agreed to join her expedition, there was no turning back; she threatened to shoot anyone who tried to return. Tubman told the tale of one journey with a group of fugitive slaves, when morale sank and one man insisted he was going to go back to the plantation.She pointed the gun at his head and said, You go on or die. Several days later, he was with the group as they entered Canada. It is more than likely that Tubman carried the handgun as protection from ever-present slave catchers and their dogs.Via: The Truth About GunsBreaking: Treasury throws founder of the Democratic Party off $20 bill, replaces with gun-toting Republican pic.twitter.com/G9dVXpTaXv David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 20, 2016Tubman s reliance on her firearms to fulfill her mission of freeing slaves was essential. So it only seems fitting that the US Treasury would use this picture of Republican, Harriet Tubman to replace the first Democrat President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. | 0 |
5,599 | Puerto Rico votes in favor of U.S. statehood amid low turnout | SAN JUAN (Reuters) - The economically struggling U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly on Sunday in favor of becoming the 51st state, although turnout was low and adding another star to the U.S. flag likely faces an uphill battle in Congress. A government website for the non-binding referendum, Puerto Rico’s fifth such plebiscite since 1967, showed 97 percent supported statehood. Only 23 percent of the 2.2 million eligible voters participated in the vote. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello campaigned for statehood as the best avenue to boost future growth for the island, which has $70 billion in debt, a 45 percent poverty rate, woefully underperforming schools and near-insolvent pension and health systems. “From today going forward, the Federal government will no longer be able to ignore the voice of the majority of the American citizens in Puerto Rico,” Rossello said in a statement. “It would be highly contradictory for Washington to demand democracy in other parts of the world, and NOT respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico,” he added. Puerto Rico’s hazy political status, dating back to its 1898 acquisition by the United States from Spain, has contributed to the economic crisis that pushed it last month into the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. “I voted for statehood,” Armando Abreu, a 74-year-old retiree, said after voting. “Even if it’s still a long way off in the distance, it’s our only hope.” Those in favor of statehood for the mainly Spanish-speaking Caribbean island hope the new status would put the territory on equal standing with the 50 U.S. states, giving them more access to federal funds and the right to vote for U.S. president. Under the current system, Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million American citizens do not pay federal taxes, vote in presidential elections or receive proportionate federal funding on programs like the Medicaid health insurance system for the poor. The U.S. government oversees policy and financial areas such as infrastructure, defense and trade. Rossello will ask Congress to respect the result, but Puerto Rico is seen as a low priority in Washington. The island’s two main opposition parties boycotted the vote, which gave Puerto Ricans three options: becoming a U.S. state; remaining a territory; or becoming an independent nation, with or without some continuing political association with the United States. Puerto Rico’s former governor, Rafael Hernandez Colon, said in a statement: “A contrived plebiscite fabricated an artificial majority for statehood by disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Commonwealth supporters.” Rather than heading to the polls, some 500 Puerto Ricans marched on the streets of San Juan, waving Puerto Rico’s flag and burning the American flag while chanting in support of independence. “This is a bogus plebiscite. Our future is independence. We need to be able to decide our own fate,” said Liliana Laboy, one of the organizers of the protest. Boycotters were also angry about the costly referendum at a time when over 400 schools have closed and many Puerto Ricans are struggling to make ends meet. Schools where voting took place were in poor condition, with cracked paint and bare-bones playgrounds. Puerto Rico spent an estimated $8 million on the campaign and election process, according to a government spokesman. | 1 |
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