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5,900 | Anderson Cooper Just Smacked Kellyanne Conway Around For A Half Hour Straight (VIDEO) | Wednesday evening, Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway showed up on CNN to do her favorite thing in the world: spew utter nonsense.Accusing CNN of peddling fake news and covering unsubstantiated claims about her lord and master and Russian hooker pee (unlike Buzzfeed, CNN withheld information that was not 100% definitively proven), Conway went on the attack but Anderson Cooper just wasn t going to tolerate any of her bullshit. Cooper asked Conway if she would be willing to state here and now that the Trump camp s press secretary Sean Spicer had lied when he falsely claimed that CNN had also reported the hooker pee story. Our press secretary Sean Spicer was absolutely correct and so was our president-elect, Conway said. Trump himself had refused a question from CNN earlier in the evening, childishly calling them fake news. You can t say you re not reporting it if it s on your website! Conway screeched at Cooper, who demanded to know what was inaccurate about CNN s report. Conway, of course, responded by attacking President Obama for allegedly failing to do enough to stop hacking. I know you like to pivot, Cooper said as Conway melted down. That s actually real news! That actually happened! Conway sputtered. I guess what you still have not answered, Cooper said, trying get a word in edgewise as Trump s bleached moron continued babbling that if CNN links to the Buzzfeed report which did happen and is news, contrary to her belief they are reporting it 100% as fact, something Buzzfeed did not even do, as is evidenced by their multiple statements that not everything in the report CNN chose to withhold parts of is verified yet.Cooper asks again: What is inaccurate in our reporting? Because you said, you weren t in the briefing. You don t know if what we re reporting is true or not. You weren t in the briefing and I guess you haven t heard anything about what was in the briefing from anyone who was there How can you say it s not true? Conway spent the rest of the interview screaming that the media especially CNN, is completely unfair to Trump because they won t ignore everything else that is going on to do fluff pieces about what is going to be in Trump s inaugural address and generally going the one thing she does best (looking like an imbecile). All the while, Cooper was clearly doing his best not to inform her that she needs to check her battery levels because she appears to be malfunctioning.Watching Cooper somehow make it through this interview without screaming a string of profanities at a person who is clearly too stupid to be around bubble wrap unsupervised Anderson Cooper, you re a true hero. Watch the interview below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
5,901 | Czechs vote for new parliament, wealthy businessman seen as likely next PM | PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czechs voted on Friday in an election expected to hand power to businessman Andrej Babis who has won popular support by pledging to sweep aside traditional parties, boost investment and keep out refugees, but faces a criminal probe for suspected fraud. The central European country has enjoyed rapid economic growth, a balanced budget and the lowest unemployment in the European Union, but opinion polls nevertheless show strong voter support for Babis's ANO movement and other protest parties. (Graphic: Czech legislative election - tmsnrt.rs/2vO4hPW) Founded and tightly controlled by the 63-year-old billionaire, ANO - which means yes in Czech - has won support from both right and left with promises to cut taxes, turf out corrupt politicians and bring business-style efficiency to government. We want to form a government and show people that government can work differently to what they are used to. We would be (more) in touch with them, Babis said after voting in the Prague suburb where he lives. Babis s support has weathered investigation into tax strategies at his empire of food, chemicals, farming and media worth an estimated $4 billion that he owned until moving it to a trust fund this year. He has also been charged by police with fraud on suspicion that he hid ownership of a farm and a conference center so it could receive a 2 million euro subsidy in 2008. He denies any wrongdoing. ANO has maintained its rhetoric of opposition to the ruling system despite serving as a junior partner in the outgoing government along with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka s center-left Social Democrats and the centrist Christian Democrats. Final surveys before a polling blackout began on Tuesday gave ANO about 25-27 percent support, at least twice that of the Social Democrats. Previous governments kept saying what needs to be changed but did nothing, said Jarmila, a 66-year old former teacher in Prague who refused to give her last name. He is rational and can explain things. Czech elections are spread over two days. Voting began on Friday at 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) and will end at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Although immigration to the Czech Republic is virtually non-existent, fear of it has played a big part in the election campaign, with most parties pledging to fight any attempts by the European Union to force the Czechs to accept refugees distributed across the bloc. The anti-immigrant mood mirrors similar trends in neighbouring countries. Parties opposed to immigration did well in Germany s election in September and in Austria s last week, and have fed scepticism toward the EU across the 28-nation bloc. Babis s swipes at Brussels have raised concern that he might lead the country into a more confrontational relationship with the EU, emulating the right-wing governments in Poland and Hungary. Babis opposes more EU integration and euro adoption, but has also spoken of the benefits of EU membership and says the Czech Republic should play a bigger role in reforming the bloc. Analysts say the election may lead to a similar coalition to the outgoing government but led by ANO, which would mean no big change in a foreign policy. A deal with ANO s current partners, or with center-right parties, may run up against their demands that Babis personally stays out of the cabinet because of the police charges. A number of voters in Prague expressed distrust of Babis, who has been fighting allegations he had cooperated with communist-era secret police. For me this election is about our stance on the European Union, refugees and is mainly (a chance to vote) against Mr. Babis, said Gabriela Kijova, 23, after voting for the small Pirate Party in central Prague. President Milos Zeman said on Friday he would ask the leader of the biggest party to lead talks on a new government. He said he would allow a month for negotiations before he calls a session of the new parliament, which is the trigger for the departure of the outgoing administration. There is an outside chance that Babis may form a minority government supported by the Communists and the far-right, anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD), which saw its support jump in the final opinion polls. Such a tie-up would be negative for investors and pose questions over policies toward the EU. | 1 |
5,902 | Bernie Is Too Far Left To Get Anything Done? This ONE FACT Puts That Lie To Bed | There s a myth running afoul within Democratic and Republican circles (but mostly among Democrats) that Bernie Sanders is too progressive to actually get anything accomplished in Washington if elected president. To drive this point home, some on the campaign trail are pointing to his record of accomplishments on Capital Hill, noting that he has only had three (yes 3) bills passed into law that he s sponsored over 25 years in Congress. Doesn t sound like that great of a record, does it? Yet what they fail to mention is that his record of successes is almost IDENTICAL to Hillary Clinton s. In fact, Sanders has a higher success rate.We back this up with proven numbers. Go to Congress.gov. You can look up every single bill that present (and past) members of Congress have ever sponsored/co-sponsored during their entire time as elected representatives of the people.Bernie Sanders sponsored 780 bills. He also co-sponsored 5,430 bills. Out of his sponsored bills, only three became law, meaning his success rate = .38 percent. Once you factor in his sponsored bills with his co-sponsored bills, his success rate isn t all that much improved. Out of 6,210 bills, only 206 became law.That brings his total success rate to 3.3 percent.Hillary sponsored 703 laws and guess what, only 3 became law (the same as Bernie). That gives her a success rate of .42 percent. That s barely above Sanders. But take a look at what happens when you factor in her co-sponsored bills. Out of the 3,379 bills she supported, only 77 became law.That gives her a total success rate of 2.2 percent.That s below Sanders, but, we ll just go ahead and say they re nearly identical.So, as we were saying, there s a myth going around that Sanders can t get anything done because he s too far left, but as you can see, his record of accomplishments in Congress isn t that far off from Hillary s (at least according to the official Congressional record). If this isn t absolute proof, then we don t know what is.The truth is, it s not that far-left progressives can t get anything done in Washington, it s that Congress is set up in a way that makes it virtually impossible for anyone to get anything passed. That s the way it s supposed to be (by design). That s why Bernie has continuously said on the campaign trail that it s absolutely imperative that people become more involved (and vote), otherwise, they won t see the change they re hoping for, no matter if he (or anyone else for that matter) is elected president. This nonsense about him being too progressive to get anything passed needs to stop, no matter who you support for the nomination.Featured image via Bernie Sanders | 0 |
5,903 | Trump recognizes 'urgency' of North Korea nuclear threat: South Korea | SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s “clear warning” to North Korea shows he is aware of the urgency of the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program and will not waver from a policy of sanctions against the isolated country, South Korea said on Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), raising the prospect of putting parts of the United States in range. Trump dismissed the claim, saying on Twitter: “It won’t happen.” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Trump’s comment, his first mention of the North Korean nuclear issue since the U.S. election in November, could be interpreted as a “clear warning” to the North. “Because of our active outreach, President-elect Trump and U.S. officials are clearly aware of the gravity and urgency of the North Korean nuclear threat,” ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said at a briefing. “They are maintaining an unwavering stance on the need for sanctions on North Korea and for close cooperation between South Korea and the U.S.” The U.S. State Department said it recognized that North Korea continued to pursue nuclear and ballistic missile technologies. “We do not believe that at this point in time he has the capability to tip one of these (missiles) with a nuclear warhead ... but we do know that he continues to want to have those capabilities and the programs continue to march in that direction,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Trump has not outlined a policy on North Korea, but during the U.S. election campaign indicated he would be willing to talk to its leader, Kim, given the opportunity. Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program that the president-elect was “putting North Korea on notice through this tweet and through other statements that this won’t happen.” “He as president of the United States wants to stand between them and their missile capabilities, which experts say could be deployed to reach Seattle almost immediately,” Conway said. She said Trump had not publicly stated how he might respond to North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs and “won’t before he’s inaugurated.” “We do know that there are sanctions that are possible,” Conway said. “They haven’t always worked. I think that China would have to have a significant role here as well.”Trump has been critical of China over the issue. On Monday, he said China had benefited from its economic ties with the United States but would not use its influence to help control North Korea. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had been pushing for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. “China’s efforts in this regard are perfectly obvious,” Geng told a news briefing. “As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council we have proactively participated in relevant discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue and have jointly passed several resolutions with other parties. “This shows China’s responsible attitude.” Asked about Trump’s view that China was not helping to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the State Department’s Kirby said: “We would not agree with that assessment.” The United States has for years dismissed North Korean calls for talks, insisting it must disarm first. The United States and ally South Korea have responded to two North Korean nuclear tests and various missile tests last year with ever-more-severe sanctions. The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea at the end of November after Pyongyang carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test so far in September. A North Korean ICBM, once fully developed, could threaten the continental United States, which is about 9,000 km (5,500 miles) from the North. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500 km (3,400 miles), but some are designed to travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles) or further. North Korea worked last year on developing components for an ICBM, saying it was close to a test-launch plausible, international weapons experts said on Monday. | 1 |
5,904 | House Democratic leaders urging 'no' vote on spending bill: CNN reporter | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Tuesday that House Democratic leaders are asking their rank-and-file members to vote against a stopgap government funding bill, according to a CNN reporter on Twitter. A House Republican aide said earlier on Tuesday that the spending bill would fund the government until Jan. 19, and include funding for disaster aid and a five-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. | 1 |
5,905 | PRESIDENT TRUMP Explains New “America First” RAISE Act…No More Welfare For New Immigrants, Migrants…Favors English Speaking Immigrants…Protects Jobs For Minorities, US Workers From Being Replaced And MORE! [VIDEO] | That s what we re talking about! Another campaign promise kept. No wonder the Democrats and their media allies fear President Trump. When is the last time a politician actually followed through on a promise they made to the American voters that helped them to get elected?President Trump joined two Republican senators on Wednesday to champion legislation overhauling legal immigration in America, calling for a merit-based system that would significantly cut admissions over the next decade.Speaking at the White House, the president called it the most significant reform to our immigration system in a half century. As a candidate, I campaigned on creating a merit-based immigration system that protects U.S. workers and taxpayers, and that is why we are here today, Trump said.He was joined by Georgia Sen. David Perdue and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republicans who first introduced the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy, or the RAISE Act, in February. They have said the legislation aims to reduce the number of green cards issued in half from 1 million to 500,000 a year.Trump, Perdue and Cotton argued on Tuesday that low-skilled and unskilled immigration into the United States has depressed wages.According to a fact sheet released to reporters, the new system would favor immigrants who are educated, speak English and have high-paying job offers. It would also reduce low-skilled and unskilled labor immigration.Trump said new immigrants must be able to financially support themselves and their families. The RAISE Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting welfare and protects U.S. workers from being displaced, the president said. And that s a very big thing, they re not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare. The bill would prioritize immediate family members of United States residents, including spouses and young children. But it would end prioritization for extended family members and adult children of residents.The legislation also eliminates the Diversity Visa lottery system and limits permanent resident status for refugees to 50,000 a year.Trump lamented how the country has record numbers of green cards to low-wage immigrants. The White House said most of the 1 million immigrants who are accepted into the United States for legal permanent residency every year are low or unskilled workers.Among the hardest hit by this, the president said, are minority workers, who he said are competing for jobs against brand new arrivals. It has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our workers, he said.The administration also said 50 percent of immigrant households receive welfare benefits, as opposed to 30 percent of native households in the country. For entire story: Fox News | 0 |
5,906 | China's Xi demands 'strong hands' to maintain stability ahead of Congress | BEIJING (Reuters) - Stability is an absolute principle that needs to be dealt with using strong hands , Chinese President Xi Jinping has told security officials ahead of next month s key Congress of the ruling Communist Party. The stability-obsessed party brooks no challenge to its rule and always steps up security ahead of important meetings. Those working in the public security sector should improve their political awareness and maintain the authority and unified leadership of the party, Xi said, in comments reported by the official Xinhua news agency late on Tuesday. Xi noted that development and stability were the absolute principles, so both should be dealt with by strong hands, Xinhua said. It is important to prevent and control major risks through the party s leadership, Xi added. More effort needs to be exerted to improve social governance by socialism with Chinese characteristics to ensure the country enjoys long-term peace and stability, he was cited as saying. Xi has overseen a broad crackdown on civil society since he assumed office almost five years ago, locking up rights lawyers and dissidents who the government has accused of breaking the law and in some cases of seeking to subvert party rule. The party also remains wary of what it terms mass incidents , a euphemism for protests, of which there are thousands every year in China, over everything from illegal land seizures and pollution to corruption. The party opens its once-every-five years Congress on Oct. 18, where Xi will seek to consolidate his already tight grip on power. | 1 |
5,907 | 19 retired U.S. generals, admirals back Clinton's stance on Guantanamo | (Reuters) - A group of 19 retired U.S. generals and admirals on Thursday backed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s position on the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo and torture and called for an end to the “dangerous rhetoric” from her Republican opponents. “The Republican candidates have turned this into a game to see who can seem toughest. Yet, how we combat our enemies and defeat ISIS is not a game, and these proposals would only make us weaker,” the retired officers said in a statement, using an acronym for Islamic State, the militant group active in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Republican candidates have opposed an Obama administration plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Republican front-runner and real estate mogul Donald Trump said this month he would bring back waterboarding, widely condemned as a form of torture, and would be open to even tougher measures in the fight against Islamic State. Clinton was secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term, when he banned the use of torture. She has supported the closing of the Guantanamo prison for terrorism suspects, which Obama says has become a recruiting tool for militant groups fighting the United States and its allies around the globe. The retired officers said expanding the use of Guantanamo “is dangerous and has real negative consequences for our national security.” Expanding the use of torture, they said, would compromise global U.S. leadership and put American troops and civilians at risk. “We applaud Hillary Clinton’s leadership on these issues and call on the immediate end to the dangerous rhetoric coming from the right,” the retired officers said. (Reporting by Washington newsroom) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
5,908 | TRUMP EXPOSES TRUTH ABOUT WHY U.S. STATE DEPT CHOOSES MUSLIM SYRIAN REFUGEES OVER CHRISTIANS [Video] | It s not just Trump who s exposing the truth about the hundreds of thousands of muslims being sent to our country where they have no intention of assimilating. Expert Ann Corcoran tells us the truth about why our State Dept. is bringing mostly muslims over here in video below. Over the past several years Syrian Christians have been desperately trying to smuggle themselves out of Syria as ISIS tells them to convert or die.The Obama White House sa far has ignored their desperate plight.It is also widely known that Barack Obama has been absent as thousands of Iraqi and Syria minority populations have been persecuted and slaughtered by ISIS.Today in Las Vegas Donald Trump attacked the Obama administration s policies that have allowed thousands of Syrian Muslims in the country while Christians from Syria suffer.https://youtu.be/KdmTpHE7ZoUIf you re worried Donald may not have his facts straight on this issue, listen to our friend and expert on the US State Department s Refugee Resettlement Program, Ann Corcoran explain how it works. You will be SHOCKED: | 0 |
5,909 | U.S.-UK partnership on security remains strong: U.S. intelligence | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States’ cooperation with Britain on security issues will remain strong, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Friday after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. “The partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom on counterterrorism and other national security issues remains strong and will continue unabated,” ODNI Spokesman Timothy Barrett said in a statement. | 1 |
5,910 | Israel signals free hand in Syria as U.S., Russia expand truce | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel signaled on Sunday that it would keep up military strikes across its frontier with Syria to prevent any encroachment by Iranian-allied forces, even as the United States and Russia try to build up a ceasefire in the area. U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday affirmed joint efforts to stabilize Syria as its civil war wanes, including with the expansion of a July 7 truce in the southwestern triangle bordering Israel and Jordan. A U.S. State Department official said Russia had agreed to work with the Syrian regime to remove Iranian-backed forces a defined distance from the Golan Heights frontier with Israel, which captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war. The move, according to one Israeli official briefed on the arrangement, is meant to keep rival factions inside Syria away from each other, but it would effectively keep Iranian-linked forces at various distances from the Israel-held Golan as well. Those distances would range from as little as 5-7 kms and up to around 30 kms, depending on current rebel positions on the Syrian Golan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Moscow did not immediately provide details on the deal. Israel has been lobbying both big powers to deny Iran, Lebanon s Hezbollah and other Shi ite militias any permanent bases in Syria, and to keep them away from the Golan, as they gain ground while helping Damascus beat back Sunni-led rebels. In televised remarks opening Israel s weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak about the new U.S.-Russian arrangement for Syria. His regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, sounded circumspect about the deal, telling reporters that it does not meet Israel s unequivocal demand the there will not be developments that bring the forces of Hezbollah or Iran to the Israel-Syria border in the north . There s reflection here of the understanding that Israel has set red lines, and will stand firm on this, Hanegbi said. That was an allusion to Israeli military strikes in Syria, carried out against suspected Hezbollah or Iranian arms depots or in retaliation for attacks from the Syrian-held Golan. In the latest incident, the Israeli military said it shot down a spy drone on Saturday as it overflew the Golan. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman blamed the drone on the Syrian government. Damascus did not immediately respond. Repeating Israel s warnings to Iran and Hezbollah, Lieberman said: We will not allow the Shi ite axis to establish Syria as its forefront base . Russia, which has a long-term military garrison in Syria, has said it wants foreign forces to quit the country eventually. The U.S. State Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Saturday, said that goal could be served by Russia s pledge to remove Iranian-linked fighters from the truce zone in southwestern Syria. If this works, this is an auspicious signal, would be an auspicious signal, that our policy objective - the objective that I think so many of us share, of getting these guys out of Syria ultimately - that there s a path in that direction, the official said. | 1 |
5,911 | Paris mayor says Trump climate withdrawal 'a mistake with fatal consequences' | PARIS (Reuters) - The mayor of Paris, where a landmark global climate agreement was agreed in December 2015, said the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal was “a mistake that would have dramatic consequences.” “That incredible diplomatic achievement could not have been secured without the decisive role of the United States of America. That is why President Trump is committing a mistake with dramatic and fatal consequences,” she said. “Regardless of President Trump’s decision, the great cities of the world, in particular the twelve American C40 cities, remain resolutely committed to doing what needs to be done to implement the Paris agreement,” she said referring to 91 global cities that are have vowed to fight global warming. | 1 |
5,912 | Hiscox sees higher U.S. property insurance rates after Harvey, Irma | (Reuters) - Lloyd s of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd said the price of insuring property in the United States would rise after the states of Texas and Florida suffered billions of dollars of losses from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. This will definitely have the impact of eliminating price reductions. I think that loss-affected areas will see price rises. The bigger ticket property area will see price rises because that was a very under-priced area beforehand, Chief Executive Bronek Masojada told Reuters. People buy programs covering all of their property wherever they are in America. So, it (price rises) will be broader than just Texas and Florida, Masojada added. Like many Lloyd s of London insurers, Hiscox offers U.S. property insurance. AIR Worldwide forecast on Monday total insured losses in the United States for Irma of between $20 billion and $40 billion. That was down from initial estimates over the weekend of as much as $65 billion. Rival risk modeling firm RMS estimates insured losses from Harvey of $25-$35 billion. Masojada said Hiscox would be announcing loss estimates in due course . | 1 |
5,913 | U.S. Holocaust museum alarmed over 'hateful speech' by white nationalists | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum expressed alarm on Monday over “hateful speech” at a white nationalist meeting over the weekend, and a restaurant apologized for hosting the group after a woman tweeted a picture of herself making a Nazi salute. The National Policy Institute, a think tank that is part of the alt-right movement that includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites, held a gathering at the federally owned Ronald Reagan Building on Saturday. The alt-right movement came to the fore during the U.S. presidential election. President-elect Donald Trump has drawn criticism for naming Steve Bannon, former head of a website linked to the alt-right, as his chief White House strategist. Trump’s transition team issued a statement on Monday saying Trump has continued to denounce racism, CNN reported. “President-elect Trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he was elected because he will be a leader for every American,” Trump-Pence Transition spokesman Bryan Lanza said in a statement. The gathering on Saturday drew scores of protesters who blocked traffic around the building to express their outrage over the meeting. A video by The Atlantic taken inside the conference showed Richard Spencer, leader of the National Policy Institute, shouting, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” as some of the people in attendance lifted their hands in a Nazi salute. “The Holocaust did not begin with killings: it began with words,” the Holocaust Memorial Museum said in a statement. “The museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hateful speech.” Some of those who attended the nationalist meeting later gathered for a banquet at Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant in northwest Washington. Protesters converged on the site and prompted the restaurant to close to protect the safety of staff and guests, the management said in an apology on Facebook. The restaurant said the booking was a last-minute affair made under a different name, so staff were unaware that the National Policy Institute was dining there and did not know what the group represented. “After the event, an attendee sent a tweet in which she made a ‘Seig Heil salute’ in support of Hitler and white supremacy. This expression of support of Hitler is extremely offensive to us, as our restaurant is home to teammates and guests of every race, religion and cultural background,” the Facebook post said. The restaurant apologized to the surrounding neighborhood and said it was donating the profits from its sales on Friday, $10,000, to the Washington office of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group. The Ronald Reagan Building, the biggest structure in the U.S. capital city, is federally owned, but run by Trade Center Management Associates, a unit of Drew Co., a Boston real estate development company. The firm defended allowing the nationalist group to use the venue. It said in a statement that its contract mandates that unless there is a security threat by an organization or person who asks for meeting space, the building is available for rental. The agenda of the National Policy Institute’s Saturday meeting included a breakdown of the 2016 election and plans for the growth of the alt-right. The nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, described Spencer as an “academic racist” who backs creation of an Aryan homeland. Twitter Inc suspended several accounts linked to the alt-right last week, including Spencer’s. The move followed the microblogging service’s announcement that it would upgrade some features to better combat cyber-bullying. | 1 |
5,914 | FAKE NEWS WEEK: Mainstream Media – All the Fake News That’s Fit to Print | In response to the establishment media s contrived fake news crisis designed to marginalise independent and alternative media sources of news and analysis, 21WIRE is running its own #FakeNewsWeek awareness campaign, where each day our editorial team at 21st Century Wire will feature media critiques and analysis of mainstream corporate media coverage of current events exposing the government and the mainstream media as the real purveyors of fake news throughout modern history SARTRE 21st Century WireUnderstanding the complex relationships that make up human endeavors permeates every aspect of society and politics. The ability to be informed about events is a basic motivation to search out news about what is exactly happening in the world we all live in. Journalism purports to report the first draft of history. In practice, the press and media coverage is systemically bereft of relevant facts and completely void of objectivity. The currency of the realm is trust for all journalists. Their collective credibility is bankrupt for a very simple reason; their newscasts are based upon lies, newspeak and intentional deception.Carlin Romano in We Need Philosophy of Journalism , asks an essential question that is not at all addressed by the Fourth Estate: How can it be that journalism and philosophy, the two humanistic intellectual activities that most boldly (and some think obnoxiously) vaunt their primary devotion to truth, are barely on speaking terms? Essentially, every component of the mainstream media multiplex is foremost a business. The business model is to operate under the aegis of monopolies. Even a casual observation of the interlocking ownership of big media must acknowledge that the concentration of likeminded Oligopolists are in unison to construct a consortium of predisposed narratives that has nothing to do with seeking the truth.When the term Pressitude is used to characterize the profession, the uninformed or limited literate news consumers often find comfort in turning on their network disinformation program. Those who take pride in obtaining their news from papers of record like the New York Times and the Washington Post rely upon a different motivation. Their aversion to any source that contradicts the establishment worldview is so painful to consider that they adopt a feeble rationalization for self-preservation, which demands rejection of any argument, verifiable facts or documented evidence that challenges their scripted storyline of reality.The example of Sharyl Attkisson, and Judith Miller, have been treated differently by their own employers. The first demonstrating courageous investigative reporting; whereas the second produced a fabricated account that deceived the public about nonexistent WMDs in Iraq. Attkisson was ostracized, while Miller is now a FOX News contributor.Miller s Pulitzer Prize, awarded while employed by the NYT is no badge of honor. The term Yellow Journalism is most closely associated with Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Their sensational duelling newspapers and extra editions shared the Fake News prototype during the late 19th century and early 20th century. What once was conveyed by a cartoon image is now a 24/7 cable news cycle. Granted, the 21st century is different, but the spin and outright lies follow the same pattern of misinformation. Deception, falsification and distortion are absorbed as nonchalantly as a My Pillow advertisement that inundates the propaganda that masquerades as news.The orthodox version of American media journalism was crafted under the guidance of William S. Paley of CBS, setting the highest standard for news reporting at that time. Names like Edward R. Murrow, Elmer Davis, William L. Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid are icons in the industry. For those who contend that this era invented The most trusted man in America Walter Cronkite, one must not forget that the broadcast news division ran budget deficits, while the parent network was most profitable. Yet for all the celebrated accolades that CBS News coveted, the underlying message behind the script was Edward Bernays propaganda. Fast forward to the internet age and you find that these one-time news bureaus no longer control their monopoly over the news cycle.Immediacy in information dissemination no longer guarantees accuracy in the report anymore than corporatist editing ensures the believability of the popularly accepted viewpoint. Nevertheless, the predominant originator of Fake News comes from a far more sinister source; government brainwashing. Indeed, at the very core of vast news media apparatus are state-sponsored operatives and embeds. Any pretense that there is any independence within establishment media outlets is a symptom of the chronic idiocy within the popular culture. Inserting the government fake news version, using unreliable sources to shape an echo chamber of official fiction is the paradigm for mass indoctrination. Controlling gatekeepers to filter out any conflicting accounts uses both covert and overt censorship. The flagship news purveyors devote their resources to discredit genuine freelance reporting from any ideological perspectives. Mainstream Media (MSM) has the mission to smear any alternative news source and label them as disrepute journalists.The American Press Institute states that Journalism s first obligation is to the truth. Then refines this criterion by adding conditionality to the standard: Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but in a capacity that is more down to earth. By inserting a subjective value element, any reasonable expectation that the work product is trustworthy is suspect. It becomes the task of the reader or viewer to critically analyze the underlying bias and intention to inculcate the culture. When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, The medium is the message, he was foreseeing the extent of the newspeak affixed within the medium was not fully appreciated.Corporations select journalists for their adherence to nihilism in reporting. The MSM s denial of objective facts and practicing deception by generating actual fake news has produced generations of na ve, ill-informed and confused souls placing a purdah veil over the heads of trendy clones, fostering the shearing of the sheeple society.Escaping this planet of press corps apes requires a withdrawal from the sophism. The coordinated accusations of Fake News attacks by the dinosaur media upon autonomous internet reporting is a sure sign that suppressing truth to power is the only storyline that matters to these secular relativists and muckraking crusaders to maintain their stranglehold on headline sound bites.The selection agenda which determines what constitutes news is an editorial function that bears witness to the parameters for public conditioning. All other reporting is declared as conspiracy theory. Even a casual assessment of the foreign press provides a contrast to the perception spin machine from K Street or Madison Avenue. As the monopoly media manipulation resorts to their faux news narrative, astute observers understand that their broadcast lies are the real Fake News.*** Author SARTRE is a special contributor to 21st Century Wire. Learn more about his writing and join-in on more forum discussions at BATR.READ MORE ABOUT MSM FAKE NEWS AT: FAKE NEWS WEEKSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
5,915 | WATCH: Trump Really Does Think He’s On A West Wing Edition Of ‘The Apprentice’ | Was it just a slip of the tongue or a sign that Donald Trump is mentally unfit to be president?Because it certainly appears to be the latter after Trump referred to the Cabinet Room as his boardroom on Monday morning.Days after firing Reince Priebus and leaving him all by himself on the tarmac after landing at Andrews Air Force Base, Trump introduced General John Kelly to reporters as his new chief of staff.After the formal introduction, Trump had a Cabinet meeting to attend and told reporters We ll see you in the boardroom. Anyone who has seen The Apprentice, which Trump formerly hosted, knows that the boardroom is the main set of that reality show where Trump grades contestants and fires them.Seriously.So, it really does look like Trump actually thinks he is still on The Apprentice and that he thinks of the presidency as nothing more than reality television.Here s the video via Twitter. We ll see you in the boardroom, President Trump tells reporters ahead of Cabinet meeting https://t.co/GB6xsijuGK NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) July 31, 2017And if this boardroom meeting is anything like a previous one, you can bet that Trump is going to go around the room calling on each and every one of his lackeys to publicly kiss his ass.Twitter users weren t impressed.Not surprised! He runs W.H like the fake show he was a part of! He still lives in his T.V. fantasy boardroom! Melissa Chandler (@kealohalanichun) July 31, 2017This just in: Trump has no idea who or where he is. wordlass (@wordlass1) July 31, 2017Um, are we watching The Apprentice WH Edition, @realDonaldTrump? Ann Laabs (@AnnLaabs) July 31, 2017Donald Trump disrespects the office of the presidency and the White House by calling the Cabinet Room the boardroom. America is not a business, it s a nation. The government is also not a business. Running the country and government like a business is not a good idea.It s also a bad idea to run the country and government like a reality show. But Trump clearly thinks he is on the set of The Apprentice, which demonstrates that he has mental problems that justify invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Because if he really wants to be on reality TV again, leaving office is the only way to do it.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
5,916 | The Court Case Against the ‘Travel Ban’ Executive Order | 21st Century Wire says The legal battle is waging on over President Trump s Executive Order Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the US when on Saturday the Department of Justice requested a lift of the stay placed on enforcement of the Executive Order. The federal appeal court denied the DoJ s request, noting the the plaintiffs should first be given an opportunity to respond. Contrary to what many media outlets are saying, this was not a case of the courts saying that the order is unconstitutional as the ACLU and a number of Attorney Generals are claiming, but is standard practice in appeals cases.The Duran provides some further legal analysis on this developing case below Alexander Mercouris The DuranThe legal moves and counter-moves in the court case concerning Donald Trump s travel ban Executive Order may appear complicated, but in reality they follow standard practice. Since there are some misunderstandings in reporting them I will provide a brief explanation.The federal judge in Seattle on Friday did not rule that the Executive Order is unconstitutional or illegal. Rather he ordered a temporary two week stay on the enforcement of the Executive Order until this question of its legality is decided in further argument before him in two weeks time.In doing so the judge acted fully within his powers, though as I understand it he took a different view from a different federal judge in Massachusetts who apparently refused to grant a similar stay when he was asked to do so at roughly the same time that the judge in Seattle was making his decision.The Department of Justice is appealing the stay. It is doing so on the grounds that the Executive Order is fully legal and constitutional and needs to be brought back into force immediately in order to protect the US from potential terrorists, who might take advantage of the stay to enter the US during the two week period when it is in effect.On Saturday the Department of Justice asked the federal appeal court in San Francisco (which will hear the appeal) to lift the stay. The federal appeal court however refused to do so, saying that the plaintiffs who applied for the stay should be given an opportunity to respond. It gave the plaintiffs until Sunday (ie. today) to file their objections to the Department of Justice s application to lift the stay, with the Department of Justice instructed to file its counter-objections on Monday (ie. tomorrow).Contrary to some media claims, this is completely standard practice during appeals. It would be very unusual for an appeal court to set aside a judge s order even a temporary order without a full hearing, and the Department of Justice will undoubtedly have known this when it applied to the appeal court to have the stay lifted on Saturday.The reason the Department of Justice made the application on Saturday is because it wants to emphasise to the appeal court the urgency of the situation. This is important, not just because of the danger of terrorists entering the US during the period of the stay, but because unless the appeal court is convinced of the urgency of the situation it will simply say that the Department of Justice should wait until the hearing ordered by the federal judge in Seattle in two weeks time.In other words by insisting that the stay be lifted immediately the Department of Justice is providing reasons to the appeal court to take the case out of the federal judge s hands, so that it can decide the case itself. That was the true purpose of the application on Saturday, and it succeeded.I expect the appeal court in San Francisco to decide the appeal this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.As I am not an expert in US constitutional law I do not know what the outcome of the appeal will be. I should say that it would be completely wrong to try to guess the outcome from the decision the appeal court took on Saturday.The appeal will be purely on the question of the rightness or otherwise of the stay. If the appeal decision goes against the President it will be for the Department of Justice to put his case to the federal judge at the full hearing in two weeks time. If that decision also goes against the President, he can appeal again to the federal appeal court in San Francisco, and beyond that to the Supreme Court.By contrast if the Department of Justice wins the appeal this week then I would expect the plaintiffs to drop the case in Seattle and try to go directly to the Supreme Court. Since the appeal court would have effectively affirmed the legality of the Executive Order, there would be little point in the plaintiffs continuing to contest the Executive Order before the federal judge in Seattle Continue this report at The DuranREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
5,917 | Trump, Puerto Rico governor to discuss hurricane aid at White House | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello are due to meet at the White House on Thursday to discuss rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Maria devastated the island a month ago, the White House said. The Trump administration and Congress are considering further assistance for the bankrupt U.S. territory as it seeks to recover from its worst natural disaster in 90 years. The catastrophic storm struck on Sept. 20, causing widespread flooding and damaging homes, roads and other infrastructure. Less than 20 percent of the 3.4 million Americans who live on the island have electricity, after the power grid was wrecked, and 35 percent still lack drinking water. Disaster costs are expected to run into the tens of billions of dollars. The U.S. Congress is currently working on boosting funding for emergency relief as well as a $4.9 billion loan to help Rossello’s cash-strapped government, which is poised to run out of money for payroll and essential services at the end of the month. “The meeting is related to the current recovery and response in Puerto Rico, and the long-term recovery process and what it’s going to take to recover in all aspects,” said Carlos Mercader, a spokesman for the territory’s government. “We need to think about rebuilding Puerto Rico in a holistic way. All the crops are all dead, agriculture is dead, housing is destroyed,” he said, noting more than 50,000 homes were destroyed and more than 660,000 individuals have so far filed claims with the federal government. Rossello asked Trump on Oct. 2 to expand the disaster declaration that provides for federal emergency services to allow federal funds to be spent on fixing damaged schools, buildings, and power plants. The governor has also asked the White House and Congress for at least $4.6 billion in block grants and other types of funding. The White House budget office asked departments and agencies to provide estimates of funding needs by Oct. 24. Trump visited the Caribbean island earlier this month to view the damage and meet with Rossello. But he and White House aides have suggested there would be a limit to how much help Puerto Rico could expect from Washington to solve its long-term issues. | 1 |
5,918 | Head Of The KKK Loves Trump For Stirring Up Racial Anger | Sweet cheese! Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. I ve said repeatedly that I love Trump because he s making it impossible for people to pretend that the conservative movement is not motivated by hate and rage. And like in the case of Thomas Robb, the head of the KKK, some people are not even trying to keep up the charade:According to Robb, Trump has tapped into an underlying anger among white people, adding that white people in America no longer identify with what America has become. This is fueling the anger in this country, and I think this is what we re seeing in this election, he said.YES! THANK YOU! That s exactly it! Mr. Robb is letting the cat out of the bag that fear and hate is the core of conservatism, a core that Trump is exploiting to great effect. This, as I keep saying, is why the Republican establishment is so mad at Trump. They don t mind the racism, they mind of the overt nature of it. Without the veneer of respectability, Republicans will not be able to pretend they re not the party of old white racists. The corporate media is still working extra hard to avoid using the word racism when talking about Trump s inflammatory rhetoric but no one s buying even that little bit of pretense.Why else is Trump so popular with white supremacists? He s feeding into all of their fears and that helps their cause.America is no longer the sole property of white people and it s driving whites, particularly conservative whites, into a frenzy of fear and rage. Partly because they expect blacks and Latinos to treat them the same way they treated blacks and Latinos. But, more importantly, with minorities having equal or greater political power, white people are going to be forced to compete on a level economic, legal and social playing field. For people who are utterly convinced that they succeeded 100% due to their own awesomeness, this is a terrifying prospect. America s ENTIRE history has been influenced by the idea that white people are inherently superior. It will be quite the cultural shock to find out that without the system rigged in their favor, whites are just like everyone else.There are a lot of white people who will grasp at any hope of stopping this awful future from coming to pass and Trump is just the man to (make believe he can) do it! White power, indeed.Feature image via Heavy.com | 0 |
5,919 | Five Times Five-Time Draft Dodger Donald Trump Insulted Those Who Actually Served | Instead of honoring Purple Heart Day, Trump began his morning by launching a vicious attack against Richard Blumenthal.Interesting to watch Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut talking about hoax Russian collusion when he was a phony Vietnam con artist! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Never in U.S.history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal. He told stories about his Vietnam battles and . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017 conquests, how brave he was, and it was all a lie. He cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness like a child. Now he judges collusion? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Trump later followed that up by posting an image of himself with a Purple Heart recipient.On #PurpleHeartDay?I thank all the brave men and women who have sacrificed in battle for this GREAT NATION! #USA?? pic.twitter.com/QmfdLSLp6p Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017And then he attacked Blumenthal again.I think Senator Blumenthal should take a nice long vacation in Vietnam, where he lied about his service, so he can at least say he was there Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017This despicable attack against a man who actually wore the uniform of his country for six years as a United States Marine is just the latest example of Trump insulting members of our armed forces.Here s are five more.Early on in his campaign, Trump insulted Senator John McCain, who spent years as a prisoner of war during Vietnam suffering gruesome torture that affects him to this day. He chose to undergo that torture rather than be released before other soldiers, because he had connections they did not. He s not a war hero, Trump said. He s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren t captured. McCain is a recipient of the Purple Heart and a Silver Star among many other decorations in recognition of his service and sacrifice.In the final months of the campaign, Trump attacked a Gold Star family for simply challenging him to read the Constitution.Khizr and Ghazala Khan spoke to the Democratic National Convention in opposition to Trump and his racism against Muslims. Trump responded by smearing the Khans, suggesting that Ghazala was forbidden from speaking.Their son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq while saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his sacrifice.A month prior to the election, Trump appeared to suggest that veterans with PTSD are weak. When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can t handle it. In August 2016, Trump once again belittled the service of wounded veterans by taking a Purple Heart as a gift from a veteran, remarking that getting one this way was much easier than getting one the hard way. I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier. The worst insult to veterans is the fact that Trump repeatedly dodged the draft during Vietnam. He received five deferments during the war despite being physically fit and having gone to military school.Trump was finally declared medically unfit because of a supposed bone spur in his foot, a condition that even seasoned professional athletes play through.It should also be noted that Trump has failed to produce any evidence proving that his bone spur was real.Trump would later remark that his personal Vietnam was sleeping around and not getting a sexually transmitted disease. Trump s personal Vietnam was taking place at the same time John McCain was still working to recover from his injuries during the real Vietnam War.And those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Since taking office, Trump insulted World War II veterans by ranting on Twitter instead of honoring the anniversary of D-Day and insulted veterans across the nation by attacking transgender service members.Donald Trump can say he loves the troops all he wants. His past words and actions make it clear that he is lying every time he makes such a declaration. Trump only cares about himself.Read more:Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
5,920 | Congress probes NY Fed's handling of Bangladesh Bank heist: letter | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee has launched a probe into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s handling of the cyber theft of $81 million from one of its accounts held by the central bank of Bangladesh, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The letter, addressed to New York Fed President William Dudley and sent Tuesday from the House of Representatives’ Science Committee, requests “all documents and communications” connected to the February heist, the bank’s oversight of the global financial network SWIFT and the status of any reviews related to the Fed’s information technology conducted since the attack occurred. The letter follows similar probes launched last month by Tom Carper, the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s top Democrat, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat. The latest inquiry comes as policymakers, regulators and financial institutions around the world increase scrutiny into the heist and related attacks on banks in Vietnam and Ecuador, in which hackers sent fraudulent transaction messages across the SWIFT. “In light of the recent cyber attacks on our global financial systems, the Committee believes it is imperative to receive information from the NY Fed about its response, its oversight of SWIFT, the status of the investigation, and any remedial steps taken to address vulnerabilities,” states the letter, signed by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. A New York Fed spokeswoman said it intended to respond to the new request for information. The bank has so far denied responsibility for the Bangladesh Bank intrusion. The letter said it was “deeply troubling” that cyber security experts believe more attacks will be uncovered as banks review their security systems, and that Bangladesh Bank’s systems appeared to be the “weak link” in the February attack. SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, last week urged banks to bolster their security, saying it was aware of multiple attacks. Banks around the world rely on SWIFT to issue payment instructions to each other. The committee requested a response from the New York Fed by June 14. | 1 |
5,921 | In India's Punjab, Haley relatives cheer appointment as UN envoy | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nikki Haley may have been born in the United States but her extended family back in India is thrilled that the South Carolina governor has been named by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as ambassador to the United Nations. Haley’s parents hail from rural Punjab, in northwestern India. They moved to Amritsar - home to the Golden Temple that is the most holy place of the Sikh religion - before emigrating to North America in the early 1960s. Haley, 44, was born Nimrata Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina - she was called “Nikki” as a child and took the family name of husband Michael when they married in Sikh and Methodist ceremonies in 1996. Kanwaljit Singh Randhawa, a 70-year-old cousin, told Reuters family and friends were delighted by Haley’s appointment and said it could help improve relations between the United States and India. “It is a great achievement for Punjab and India. We are proud of the fact that (Nikki) has achieved this success,” Randhawa told Reuters by telephone. Randhawa, a retired lecturer, said he was in regular touch with Nikki’s father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, who grew up in the village of Pandori Ran Singh, south of Amritsar. India’s foreign ministry said it was happy to hear news of Haley’s appointment, describing her as a supporter of closer U.S.-India ties who had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Washington in June. “We know Governor Haley very well,” said spokesman Vikas Swarup. India’s foreign secretary visited the United States earlier this month and interacted with “very senior levels” of the Trump transition team, he also said. Haley came only once to India as a four-year-old child, doesn’t speak Punjabi and has converted to Christianity. But she has visited India more recently in an official capacity, going to Amritsar in November 2014 on what she called “an emotional and very personal day”. “I always yearned to see Punjab - my motherland - and now I am so proud to be here after almost 40 years,” she told TV reporters at the time, her voice choking with emotion as she steadied herself with nips from a water bottle. Her biography is similar to that of Richard Verma, the first U.S. ambassador to New Delhi of Indian origin. He was born in the United States into a Punjabi family but visited often as a child. Verma was mobbed by relatives and locals when he visited his ancestral home in early 2015. Haley has little foreign policy experience, while Trump has expressed favorable views toward India, where he has real estate interests. The tycoon-turned-TV reality star told one cultural event put on by diaspora Republicans during the presidential campaign that he loved the country and its people. Trump’s stated intention of banning immigration by Muslims from countries that are a source of Islamist militancy has played well with many in India, a majority Hindu nation that has long been at odds with Muslim-majority Pakistan. Much of the diplomacy over the rivalry between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed powers, plays out in the corridors of UN headquarters in New York and Haley’s appointment is likely to be seen positively in New Delhi in that light. India, the world’s largest democracy, is also lobbying to be made a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council, although it’s doubtful this would be a priority for Trump. Back in Punjab, relatives and old family friends are planning a major celebration to mark the elevation of Haley to the top diplomatic post. “We are going to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to pray for her success,” said Randhawa. “And we will speak to our friends and villagers to have a function in the next few days.” | 1 |
5,922 | Wisconsin Newspaper SHREDS ‘Un-American’ Donald Trump, Declares Him Unfit For Presidency | A scathing editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Tuesday laid waste to Donald Trump s presidential ambitions.Armed with a brutal headline declaring Trump unfit for the office by any measure, the paper began by repeatedly telling the Republican front-runner a word he hates to hear and called for Wisconsin voters to do something to stop him:No to Donald Trump.No to his bigotry.No to his contempt for women and minorities. No to his vague, clueless bluster about the problems facing the nation.No to Trumpism, which runs counter to the ideals of this nation of immigrants, to the notion that by working together under the rule of law, we can protect freedom and promote inclusion and fair play.Wisconsin Republicans: Reject this un-American candidate on April 5.Though it may be too little, too late, the editorial goes on to explain that Trump s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stance is divisive and has provided propaganda for ISIS to use as a recruitment tool.The Journal Sentinel also pointed out Trump s degradation of women, the violence displayed at his racist rallies, and his hatred of the the free press as facts that should have sunk his campaign already.The the paper dropped the hammer.Trump s crudity and spinning moral compass are merely the most obvious problems with his candidacy. His policy ideas, such as they can be divined, show a man with no political center who has given the hardest problems facing the nation no more than a passing glance. Any other Republican would be immolated by the hail of fire and brimstone called down upon Trump by movement conservatives over his apostasies, the paper continued, noting how Trump is somehow bulletproof despite his economic and foreign policies that would light the world and America on fire as chaos reigns.Indeed, Trump s intention to immediately stop buying Saudi Arabian oil would weaken our longtime ally and make gas prices skyrocket here at home. Trump has also proven his ignorance when it comes to Iran and North Korea as explained by Andrea Mitchell on Meet The Press this past Sunday. Trump would also torpedo our economy by reneging on trade deals and instituting tariffs that would cost Americans millions of jobs. A Trump presidency would float down a river polluted by hyperbole and misstatement, tacking left to right, right to left, claiming up is down, white is black, night is day, the paper declared. A reality TV Wonderland. Only we live in the real world, where the words and choices of presidents can have momentous consequences war and peace, feast or famine, freedom or tyranny, life or death. The paper concluded that Trump s presidential campaign is about himself, not the citizens or the country, and urged voters to reject Trump at the ballot in order to end of all this reality television nonsense and do the nation a huge service. Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
5,923 | China lodges stern protest with South Korea over THAAD deployment | BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had lodged stern representations with South Korea for installing the four remaining launchers of the U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comment at a regular press briefing. | 1 |
5,924 | Conservative Commentator Uses Nancy Reagan’s Death To Launch Racist Attack On Michelle Obama (TWEETS) | When news of the death of former First Lady Nancy Reagan came through on Sunday, the majority of liberals and conservatives put aside their differences to send condolences to the family and reflect on her contribution to the nation. But for one conservative commentator, it was the perfect opportunity to attack First Lady Michelle Obama.Conservative blogger and trollumnist Debbie Schlussel struck out on Twitter on Sunday with this pathetic assault on the First Lady.Nancy Reagan brought style & glamour back to the White House & Then Michelle Hussein Obama Took It Away. RIP #tcot #gop #NancyReagan Debbie Schlussel (@DebbieSchlussel) March 6, 2016Schlussel is a what one might refer to as an ultra-Zionist, a hardliner on Israel who sees no issue with the collective imprisonment and punishment of non-Jews in Israel-Palestine in order to create Jewish Supremacist Apartheid state. To argue on behalf of human rights, democracy and pluralism of race and faith in Israel, is to Schlussel, an anti-Semitic attack.As an example of just how far Schlussel is willing to go to pursue that agenda, check out her response to the murder of American hostage Kayla Mueller by ISIS last year. In a blog post entitled Dead ISIS Hostage Was Jew-Hating, Anti-Israel Bitch, she wrote that Mueller was:a Jew-hating, anti-Israel piece of crap So, it s poetic justice that Mueller spent her last months as a hostage of the Islamic terrorists with whom she thought she had some sort of kinship and sisterhood. And that she died in their hands.She concludes her piece with the sentence:Buh-bye, Kayla. Have fun with your 72 Yasser Arafats.What evidence was there that Mueller was jew-hating ? The aid worker s list of previous humanitarian efforts included escorting Palestinian children to school in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, to protect them from violent Jewish-Israeli settlers. The video below is an example of the sort of violence from which the school children need protecting. Schlussel s attacks on the First Lady and the President are based not on the fact that they are black, but on the presumption that they are Muslim, and that by virtue of being Muslim, they are evil, anti-Semitic and dangerous.Unfortunately for Schlussel, Twitter users were not up for drinking her particular brand of Kool Aid. One person summed it up quite neatly @DebbieSchlussel I bet Mrs. Reagan is spitting on your head from Heaven. AAmom (@AVD911) March 6, 2016And another @DebbieSchlussel you're actually racist scum dmbrandon!! (@juiceDiem) March 6, 2016While this person made a rather helpful suggestion.@DebbieSchlussel let some light into your hateful heart Chuck Daly (@ChuckDaly) March 6, 2016Former Will and Grace star Debra Messing drew attention to Schlussel s tweet, condemning it openly.Shame on you https://t.co/GPNI7EbqBs Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 6, 2016So Schlussel spent the rest of Sunday hate-tweeting Messing (getting no response) for the crime of speaking out against racism. Stay classy Schlussel. Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
5,925 | Cyprus says it agrees with Spain to postpone southern EU summit | NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus said on Thursday it had postponed a summit of leaders of southern EU states after discussions with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, embroiled in a crisis over Catalan secession efforts. The meeting had been due to take place in the Cypriot capital Nicosia from Oct. 9 to 10. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades spoke extensively with Rajoy on Thursday, and it was agreed it would be postponed, a statement from the Cypriot Presidency said. President Anastasiades expressed his absolute support and solidarity of Cyprus to the Spanish Prime Minister and his Government towards the efforts he is exerting for a united Spain, and against the secessionist attempts by Catalonia, it said. | 1 |
5,926 | WOW! HUNGARY and ISRAEL Just Labeled Hungarian Born-Jew George Soros An ENEMY OF THE STATE…Will The U.S. Follow? | Hillary would never have labeled one of her largest donors, longtime friend, and the financier of violent anti-American protesters around the world an enemy of the state. But fortunately for America, Hillary s not our president. Fortunately for America, both the Senate and the House are controlled by Republicans who understand we have a lot to lose if they continue to sit back and let this radical billionaire throw hundreds of millions of dollars at these violent, anti-American groups. Soros goals are not consistent with those of our Founding Fathers. His agenda is counter to protecting our freedoms and defending our national security. It s time our legislators consider taking the same steps as Israel and Hungary to send George Soros a message that we consider him an enemy of the state, and that we re not going to just sit by and watch him force his radical agenda on America. Israel s foreign ministry has issued a statement denouncing U.S. billionaire George Soros, a move that appeared designed to align Israel more closely with Hungary ahead of a visit to Budapest next week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who has spent a large part of his fortune funding pro-democracy and human rights groups, has repeatedly been targeted by Hungary s right-wing government, in particular over his support for more open immigration.In the latest case, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has backed a campaign in which Soros is singled out as an enemy of the state. Let s not allow Soros to have the last laugh say billboards next to a picture of the 86-year-old investor, a campaign that Jewish groups and others say foments anti-Semitism.Soros, who rarely addresses personal attacks against him, has not commented on the billboards. But Hungarian Jewish groups and Human Rights Watch, an organization partly funded by Soros, have condemned the campaign, saying it evokes memories of the Nazi posters during the Second World War . ReutersThere s one big problem with the statement by Soros Human Rights Watch group, Soros admitted he was no friend to the Jews during the Holocaust in a 1990 interview with Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes . The interview was suspiciously scrubbed from the internet for some time, but has just recently resurfaced. Knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, Soros father, who was a successful lawyer, bribed a government official to take 14 year old George Soros in and say he was his Christian godson. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his appointed godfather around confiscating property from Jews. George admitted it wasn t difficult at all to take part in taking property from the Jews. Kroft asked Soros if it bothered him?Soros: It created no problem at all.Kroft: No feeling of guilt?Soros: No.Why should Israel tread lightly when it comes to this monster who had no feelings of guilt about taking property from fellow Jews during the Holocaust?Watch:Soros was born in Hungary, they are interestingly, the second nation to consider George Soros to be an enemy of the state. Fox News When Soros talks of chaos, it s a subject he knows well. The only question is his involvement.Most everywhere Soros, his foundations or his investment money has gone, trouble has followed.He s helped start revolutions, undermined national currencies and funded radicals around the world.Soros has been convicted of insider dealing in France and fined $3 million, fined another $2 million in his native Hungary.His foundations have been accused of shielding spies and breaking currency laws and his investing strategy has been targeted for harming several national currencies.That s not the story the broadcast networks have been telling about Soros for the past five years.There were 29 mentions of Soros during that time but only one gave any hint at trouble, and that was merely to mention he was still known as the man who broke the Bank of England. But ABC followed that description up with: That was all legal. Only a sex scandal with a 28-year-old Brazilian actress gave Soros any negative publicity at all.But there have been lots of negatives in Soros s past as he s spread his influence around the world. Soros wears criticism like a badge of honor. I have now come under attack in several countries: in Hungary from Hungarian nationalists; in Romania from the Vatra Romanesca; in Slovakia from the communist party newspaper Pravda; in the Soviet Union by the organ of the hard-liners Sovietskaia Russiya, he claims in Underwriting Democracy. Soros s Open Society Fund was created in 1979 as a charitable lead trust. Even its creator admitted his motives were basically selfish and he wanted a tax gimmick. He did it as a trust for his children While Soros has been known worldwide for his investment skills, he hasn t always managed to stay clear of the authorities.He was found guilty in France of an insider trading case about 20 years ago and has repeatedly failed at having that news pulled from his record.According to The New York Times, in September 2011, a French panel upheld his conviction because he had bought and sold shares of Soci t G n rale in 1988 with the knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. He was fined $3 million.His fund ran into problems in Hungary, where Soros was born and lived till his late teen years. At issue was how he handled an investment into the the country s largest bank : OTP. His fund was fined $2 million by Hungarian regulators last week for having manipulated OTP s stock price, wrote The New York Times in 2009. | 0 |
5,927 | CATHERINE HERRIDGE: ‘Verifiable Proof’ Comey Drafted Hillary’s Exoneration Letter TWO MONTHS Prior To Interviewing Key Witnesses [Video] | It had been reported (see our previous report below) but not verified that FBI Director James Comey drafted his exoneration letter months before his public statement on Hillary clinton s email investigation. We now have verifiable proof that it is true.Well, well, well.. now verifiable proof has surfaced that Comey drafted Hillary's exoneration letter 2 months prior to his public statement. pic.twitter.com/z0JJYWo8Hh HailToTheCovfefe (@MichelleRMed) October 17, 2017OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE COMEY EXONERATION LETTER: Senator Chuck Grassley is disturbed by the discovery that the former FBI Director James Comey drafted his conclusion on Hillary Clinton prior to interviewing key witnesses! Disturbing indeed!Grassley and the Senate Judiciary sent a letter of concern after reviewing transcripts that were heavily redacted. This stinks to high heaven! More lawlessness from the Obama administration and the Clinton grifters COMEY CONCLUDED EARLYThe Judiciary Committee reviewed transcripts, which were heavily redacted, indicating Comey began drafting the exoneration statement in April or May 2016, before the FBI interviewed up to 17 key witnesses, including Clinton and some of her close aides.PART OF THE STATEMENT (SEE BELOW) FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE:Comey s work on the statement also came before the Justice Department entered into immunity agreements with Cheryl Mills, Clinton s chief of staff while she was Secretary of State, and Heather Samuelson, who served as the State Department s White House liaison.Comey announced in July 2016 the FBI wouldn t recommend criminal charges against Clinton.Democrats in Congress alleged last fall that Comey s actions in the FBI s investigation into Clinton s email use violated the Hatch Act, which caused the Office of Special Counsel to launch an investigation. Read more: WEHOW BAD IS THIS? COMEY HADN T EVEN INTERVIEWED CLINTON WHEN HE STARTED HIS RECOMMENDATION! THE LETTER FROM SENATOR GRASSLEY: PLEASE GO HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE LETTER. | 0 |
5,928 | Trump’s Pick To Head CIA Is A Tea Party Loon Who Supports Torture, Wants Conflict With Iran | What could possibly go wrong?Rep. Mike Pompeo is a right-wing extremist who has no problem violating human and civil rights.But Donald Trump just picked the Kansas Republican to be the next director of the CIA, which should deeply disturb every American.In fact, it should worry everyone around the world because the Tea Party is now in charge of America s top intelligence agency. I am honored to have been given this opportunity to serve and to work alongside President-elect Donald J. Trump to keep America safe, Pompeo said in a statement. I also look forward to working with America s intelligence warriors, who do so much to protect Americans each and every day. But Pompeo isn t a reasonable man who will guide the CIA to success. He s going to lead them down a path that will erode the rights of American citizens and inflame the Muslim world.First, Pompeo supports the massive wire-tapping and information collecting being performed by the National Security Agency. I am convinced that intelligence collection actions are not only lawful and constitutional, but also consistent with the critical mission of defeating radical Islamic terrorism, Pompeo has said.Of course, these collection actions are totally unconstitutional because the NSA doesn t have warrants to spy on millions of Americans every day via phone, Internet, and surveillance.Second, Pompeo hates Iran and opposed the nuclear deal achieved by President Obama that has reduced Iran s capability to build nuclear weapons. If Pompeo had his way, the whole deal would be ripped up, which would give Iran another reason to hate us and resume their quest to obtain a nuclear weapon.And finally, Pompeo is a big fan of using torture against enemy combatants even though it s a crime against humanity that is banned under United States and international law. The information we learned from the enhanced interrogation program was important, and led directly to the capture of Osama bin Laden, Pompeo claimed in 2014. But that s a lie. Torture did not help us find Osama bin Laden.According to Mother Jones,CIA records indicate that: (1) the CIA had extensive reporting on [bin Laden courier] Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti (variant Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti), the UBL facilitator whose identification and tracking led to the identification of UBL s compound and the operation that resulted in UBL s death, prior to and independent of information from CIA detainees; (2) the most accurate information on Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti obtained from a CIA detainee was provided by a CIA detainee who had not yet been subjected to the CIA s enhanced interrogation techniques; and (3) CIA detainees who were subjected to the CIA s enhanced interrogation techniques withheld and fabricated information about Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti.In short, torture had nothing to do with finding bin Laden.If Pompeo and Trump authorize the CIA to use torture again it will only inflame the Middle East and give ISIS a recruiting message that will draw more fighters to their group. We want to weaken ISIS, not make them stronger. Using torture will only weaken our moral high ground and cause more terrorist attacks around the world and in the United States. Now more than ever we need a responsible CIA director who will gather intelligence the right way. Because if not, we could end up being led into more wars and a darker more dangerous world.Featured Image: Flickr | 0 |
5,929 | Lindsey Graham Sends A Final ‘F*** You’ To Trump As He Announces Who He Voted For (TWEETS) | This election has been hard for South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. After fighting his little Republican heart out in the primaries only to see a reality TV star defeat him and every other more qualified GOPer, Graham continued to be devastated long after Trump became the Republican nominee.Graham s journey through Trump s campaign has been nothing short of an emotional roller coaster, starting with him trashing The Donald and refusing to keep his promise to support the party s nominee regardless of who it was. Then, Graham eventually decided to support Trump after much hesitance, only to completely disown him in the end after one too many offensive statements and erratic stunts. Needless to say, Graham is probably one of the most relieved people in the GOP that this election has finally come to an end.On Tuesday, Graham decided to celebrate Election Day with one more final F*ck You to Trump, someone that Graham clearly doesn t think deserves to be anywhere near the White House. Using his hatred for Trump as the inspiration behind his voting choice, Graham announced who he actually voted for on Twitter, and it s going to break Trump s little black heart:TwitterTwitterTwitterGraham decided that since he can t stand the thought of voting for Trump but didn t want to vote for Hillary Clinton, either, that he would just vote for the next best thing in his mind Evan McMullin, who came into the election late with the simple goal of being an alternative to Trump.Graham is the very first senator to publicly say that he s voting for the conservative independent candidate, and it s a huge slap in the face to Trump. We expect that many more disgruntled Republicans will be making similar choices, although many may not have the courage to actually admit it.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla and Alex Wong / Getty Images | 0 |
5,930 | Australia, NZ officials discuss screening for Manus refugees - NZ PM | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand and Australia have begun talks about screening procedures for asylum seekers holding out in a Papua New Guinea detention center, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, amid reports of worsening health conditions there. Australia has been refusing New Zealand s offer to take up to 150 of the detainees from the Australian-run camp on Manus Island, but Ardern s comments have raised speculation that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is ready to accept. The center was closed almost three weeks ago after PNG s High Court ruled it was illegal, but more than 400 detainees have refused to leave, citing concerns for their security if they were moved to transit centers as planned. More than 150 men at the center were seriously ill without access to basic first aid or medicine, said advocacy group Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), which is calling for safe resettlement of the men. A team from the group, which is based in Australia, visited the center last Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. The deteriorating state of the men s bodies was obvious to me as I was shown around, said Jana Favero, the group s campaigns director. This is a medical emergency festering inside a humanitarian crisis. Medical conditions requiring urgent care ranged from chest pain and undiagnosed episodes of unconsciousness to infections and chronic diarrhea among others, the group added. Turnbull has been refusing New Zealand s offer as he worries asylum seekers could view it as a back door to Australia, undermining the country s tough immigration policies. Ardern said the conversations were about establishing the screening processes. To be clear, we have not started that process, she told Radio New Zealand. But I think that certainly we re a bit further along than we have been before - we haven t even had officials having those discussions in the past. The United Nations, which has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis , last week urged Australia to accept New Zealand s offer to take the men. Turnbull has insisted the priority was an existing refugee swap deal negotiated last year with former U.S. president Barack Obama. The men holed up in the camp depend on erratic food supplies smuggled in by supporters. They lack power and running water. Australia s sovereign borders immigration policy that refuses to let asylum seekers arriving by boat reach its shores has been heavily criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups, but has bipartisan domestic political support. | 1 |
5,931 | Defense disputes nerve agent used to kill North Korean leader's half-brother | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Lawyers for two women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Tuesday low enzyme levels in his blood may have been caused by liver disease or hormone pills rather than a lethal nerve agent. Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical poison banned by the United Nations, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13. The women have pleaded not guilty, saying they thought they were involved in some sort of prank for a reality TV show. They face the death penalty if convicted. Nor ashikin Othman, a chemical pathologist with Kuala Lumpur Hospital, told the court outside Kuala Lumpur blood samples taken from the victim showed low levels of cholinesterase - an enzyme needed in muscle control - which could be caused by exposure to poison such as insecticide or a nerve agent such as VX or Sarin. But she agreed with the defense that low enzyme levels could also have been due to other causes such as liver disease or the taking of female hormones by a man. Yes, the enzyme levels could be slightly lower by the taking of hormone pills by a man, she said. In response to a question, Nor ashikin also said it was possible the accused had had no contact with VX whatsoever as their blood samples yielded normal levels of cholinesterase. But they could have also been exposed to a low dose of the poison, washed their hands with soap and water or ingested an antidote, she said. Siti and Huong are accused of smearing the deadly nerve agent on the victim s face and eyes. The trial has so far referred to the victim as Kim Chol, the name on the passport used by Kim Jong Nam. The post mortem report, made available to the media, said that VX was detected on swabs of Kim Jong Nam s eyes and face, in the blood, plasma and urine. The report described the victim s body as covered with tattoos. These include a large black tattoo on the chest of a man with two fish-like fingers, and one of abstract-like motifs on his upper right arm that extends to his upper back. Police have also named four North Koreans as suspects in the case and an Interpol red notice, an international alert just short of an arrest warrant, has been issued for the four, who remain at large. The trial continues on Wednesday. | 1 |
5,932 | U.S. wants stronger India economic, defense ties given China's rise: Tillerson | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said before a visit to India next week that the Trump administration wanted to “dramatically deepen” cooperation with New Delhi, seeing it as a key partner in the face of negative Chinese influence in Asia. Speaking on Wednesday, less than a month before President Donald Trump is due to make his first state visit to China, Tillerson said the United States had begun to discuss creating alternatives to Chinese infrastructure financing in Asia. In another comment likely to upset Beijing, he said Washington saw room to invite others, including Australia, to join U.S.-India-Japan security cooperation, something Beijing has opposed as an attempt by democracies to gang up on it. The remarks coincide with the start of a week-long Chinese Communist Party congress at which President Xi Jinping is seeking to further consolidate his power. “The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the U.S. and our friends,” Tillerson told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “India and the United States should be in the business of equipping other countries to defend their sovereignty, build greater connectivity, and have a louder voice in a regional architecture that promotes their interests and develops their economies,” Tillerson added. The U.S. decision to expand relations with India almost certainly will upset India’s rival, Pakistan, where Tillerson also will stop next week, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Pakistan was the main U.S. ally in South Asia for decades, but U.S. officials are frustrated with what they charge has been Pakistan’s failure to cut support for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, where the administration wants India to play a bigger role in economic development. As part of a South Asia strategy unveiled by Trump in August, Tillerson is expected to press Islamabad, which denies aiding the Taliban, to take stronger steps against extremists and allied groups and intensify efforts to pressure them to agree to peace talks with Kabul. “We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based there that threaten its own people and the broader region,” Tillerson said. Trump has threatened further cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan if it fails to cooperate. China, a strategic rival to the United States and India, is also vital to Trump’s efforts to roll back North Korea’s efforts to create nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States, an issue expected to top the agenda in Trump’s Nov. 8-10 Beijing visit. A senior State Department official defended the timing of the speech, saying Tillerson also said he wanted a constructive relationship with China. “For many decades the United States has supported China’s rise,” said the official. “We’ve also supported India’s rise. But those two countries have risen very differently.” In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hoped the United States could abandon bias when viewing its actions overseas. “China will never develop itself at the expense of other countries,” Lu told a regular briefing on Thursday. “At the same time we will never give up our justly deserved rights and interests.” Healthy relations between China and the United States are good for the people of both countries and are expected by the Asia-Pacific region, he added. Tillerson did not say what he meant by creating an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing, but said the Trump administration had begun a “quiet conversation” with some emerging East Asian democracies at a summit in August. He said Chinese financing was saddling countries with “enormous” debts and failing to create jobs. “We think it’s important that we begin to develop some means of countering that with alternative financing measures.” “We will not be able to compete with the kind of terms that China offers, but countries have to decide what are they willing to pay to secure their sovereignty and their future control of their economies and we’ve had those discussions with them as well,” he said. | 1 |
5,933 | HEATED! TUCKER CARLSON Totally Shuts Down Radical Liberal FOX News Analyst Who’s Running For DNC Chair [Video] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRPSCqkAJgk | 0 |
5,934 | The Amazing White Right-Wing Entitlement Of The Oregon Militants | As of this writing, there are 4 heavily armed morons still in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney county, Oregon. The FBI has the place surrounded and it s finally occurred to the patriots inside that the only way they re leaving is in handcuffs or body bags. Listening to the livestream ravings of the group, this is a shocking revelation:Surrounded by FBI, ISIS supporter David Fry yelled at an FBI negotiator: You re going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with. We re innocent people camping at a public facility, and you re going to murder us. The only way we re leaving here is dead or without charges, Fry said during the night s ravings.Just so we re all on the same page, these people seized a government building, threatened to kill anyone that entered, and did a great deal of property damage, all while being allowed to hold press conferences. PRESS CONFERENCES! But to them, they were just camping. With guns. And death threats. And no snacks.They sound exactly like a kid that s locked himself in the bathroom and refuses to come out until mommy and daddy promise not to punish him for setting the curtains on fire.Now that their playtime is coming to an end, they truly, honestly, deep down, don t understand why they can t just pack up and go home. Ask a black person, a Latino or a Muslim if they would be allowed to leave unharmed much less not under arrest and they would quite possibly die from laughter.But these are white right wingers and this is their country! How DARE someone hold them accountable to the law?! Those laws exist to keep Those People in line! They re not supposed to keep white right wingers from doing whatever the hell they want! This. Is. TYRANNY!For frak s sake! Cliven Bundy, head moron, was arrested trying to join up with the 4 morons at the refuge. I guarantee he was outraged at the very idea of not being allowed to join an armed standoff.If the FBI is lucky, the militants fear will outweigh their indignation and they ll surrender peacefully. If not, they re all going to die under the false belief that they re being unjustly murdered for exercising their rights. Rights that they don t seem to understand only exist for white conservatives and for absolutely no one else.I hope for the sake of law enforcement all over the country that no one dies. The militia movement is already trying to turn LaVoy Finicum into a martyr even though he was clearly seen reaching for his gun. How many cops will be assassinated in the name of 4 more dead morons at the hands of the FBI? How many federal buildings will be blown up this time?And finally: How long will we keep pretending that America doesn t have a serious domestic terrorism problem and that it s not coming almost exclusively from the overly-entitled right wing?Featured image via AI archives. | 0 |
5,935 | WHY DID TEXAS SHOOTER Shave His Beard Only Days Before He Massacred 26 in Local Baptist Church? | At least 26 people have been killed inside a Texas church including a two-year-old child after a gunman dressed in full combat gear opened fire during the morning service before cops shot him dead.Confirmed reports are beginning to circulate that the shooter is a left-wing Antifa member, Devin Patrick Kelley (26), with military experience, acting out on behalf of the previously promoted November 4th Resistance via Antifa. Kelley is a former U.S. Air Force member who served from 2010 to 2014. He was dishonorably discharged and court-martialed in May 2014, CBS News has learned. (Via CBS) [ ] Kelley is a former U.S. Air Force member who served from 2010 to 2014. Records confirm Kelley previously served in logistics readiness in New Mexico until his discharge in 2014, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a statement.Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts of assault on his spouse and assault on their child, Stefanek said. He received a bad conduct discharge and confinement for 12 months. He has a residence in New Braunfels, Texas, which is about a 35-mile drive from where the attack took place in Sutherland Springs. Conservative TreehouseKelley showed off an image of a rifle on his Facebook page, calling it a bad bitch :Although gun-control advocates will use Kelley as an example of why no American should be able to legally own a gun, it s worth pointing out that, given Kelley s dishonorable discharge from the Air Force, which is a felony, he would be banned from possessing a firearm in the U.S.:If Devin Kelley was dishonorably discharged from military it would mean he couldn t have legally bought a gun. It s same as a felony pic.twitter.com/nZITFHhdzn Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) November 6, 2017Kelley s Facebook page has now been deleted, but you can see a screenshot of the weapon he posted above. His profile picture showed two small children, which was a chilling juxtaposition next to the semi-automatic rifle that was his cover photo. According to The Daily Beast, Kelley was married and Kelley s mother-in-law listed a P.O. box in Sutherland Springs as a mailing address. San Antonio police reportedly raided Kelley s home on Sunday evening he briefly taught at a summer Bible school. He lived about 35 miles from the shooting scene.The shooter was described as a white male in his 20s from outside San Antonio by Mike Levine, a journalist for ABC News, who reported that law enforcement had uncovered a weapon photo on Kelley s Facebook page. Authorities are now scrubbing his social media; on Facebook in recent days, he showed off an AR-15 style-looking gun, Levine wrote. Authorities said the rifle used in the massacre was similar to the one Kelley posted on Facebook, but they could not confirm it was the same weapon. HeavyKelley s Facebook page revealed that had recently shaved his beard. It s Kelley s response to a friend who asked him, Don t you have a beard? that s curious. Kelley s responded, Not anymore. Long story. Although there is no evidence so far that indicates Kelley was radicalized by Islam, it s common knowledge, that before a Muslim commits jihad, they are to be cleanly shaven.Slate magazine explains why a terrorist shaves before blowing himself up:So he s clean when he enters heaven. Traditionally, Muslims purify corpses by washing the skin and nails and sometimes by shaving the pubic hair. But suicide attackers are deprived of a proper burial since there are usually no remains. To compensate, the attackers shear themselves ahead of time, both to guarantee some level of cleanliness at the time of instant incineration and to prove extreme devotion to personal purity. Some scholars offer an alternative explanation: They believe that suicide terrorists adopted the no-hair practice from the Pashtun tribesmen of Afghanistan, who shave their bodies before going into battle.Hair removal is mentioned in Islamic law as a method of maintaining personal hygiene. In addition to nail clipping, the sunnah instructs Muslim men and women to shave or trim pubic hair regularly and to remove underarm hair. Men must also clip their mustaches. In some circumstances, Muslims are encouraged to shave their heads. For example, Al-Bukhari, a ninth-century Muslim scholar who spent years collecting hadith, quotes the prophet as saying May Allah bless those who shaved during the Hajj (pilgrimage); and the Quran states that ye shall enter the Sacred Mosque, if Allah wills, with minds secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear. Here are the FACTS we know from Texas LEO and FBI Press Conference: Largest mass shooting in state history ~ Gov. Greg Abbott [Texas] 26 dead + Shooter = Total 27 [23 inside church, 2 outside, 1 hospital death] 11:20 am Suspect was seen dressed in all black. Tactical Gear and Ballistic Vest Weapon: Ruger AR-type Rifle. Eyewitness neighbor engaged shooter with his own rifle [possibly hit the shooter in neck]. Shooter dropped a weapon and fled in the vehicle. Citizen pursued the suspect in a vehicle. Police arrived at the vehicle, shooter dead. Ages of 26 victims: 5-years old to 72-years-old.Paul Joseph Watson posted a screenshot of some of the pages and issues that Kelley was interested in:These are the Facebook likes of the shooter, as being reported by Heavy and other outlets. pic.twitter.com/Lqw1ECwnLA Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 5, 2017While Kelley was clearly interested in atheism, he also appeared to be a liberal as it relates to social issues.Interests of shooter Devin Patrick Kelley, according to his LinkedIn page. https://t.co/ZXexIM4IRm pic.twitter.com/mSZwNAmE4j Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 6, 2017Hopefully, we ll get more details about the motive behind the worst shooting massacre in Texas history, faster and more accurately, than the misinformation campaign we ve been fed by local Las Vegas and federal authorities about the worst mass shooting in US history only one month ago | 0 |
5,936 | Thousands Of Doctors Agree: Single-Payer Is The Way To Go | Despite recent assertions from certain Democratic presidential candidates, the dream of a single-payer national healthcare system in the United States is alive and worth fighting for even if it may not be implemented tomorrow. Thousands of physicians have recently endorsed a proposal to make that dream a reality.On Thursday, the Physicians for a National Health Program released their final proposal for creating a single-payer or as it is commonly referred to a Medicare-for-all national health care plan. The proposal was crafted by 39 top physicians and released in an editorial titled Moving Forward from the Affordable Care Act to a Single-Payer System, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The proposal also came with a political punch. At the time of the proposal s release 2,280 physicians and 168 medical students endorsed the plan. If you are a physician or work in the healthcare industry, you can endorse the proposal on PNHP s website. Our nation is at a crossroads, said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a Boston-based pulmonary disease and critical care specialist, lead author of the editorial and co-chair of the Working Group that produced the proposal. Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act six years ago, 30 million Americans remain uninsured, an even greater number are underinsured, financial barriers to care like co-pays and deductibles are rising, bureaucracy is growing, provider networks are narrowing, and medical costs are continuing to climb. PNHP notes that their proposal would save about $500 billion annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of insurance firms, and the massive paperwork they inflict on hospitals and doctors. Furthermore, since there is only one health insurance plan, there would be no bars in place from insurers that prevent individuals from seeing whichever doctor they choose. That has been a major talking point for conservatives over the past few years that would be immediately invalidated. Going back to the cost savings benefits of the program, since there would only be one major healthcare provider, the cost of medications and other medical devices would almost instantly decline, due to strengthened negotiating power.It almost understandable why some progressives might think that a serious push for a single-payer healthcare system might be a waste of resources, and instead advocate for small reforms. However, I don t think that there has ever been a better time to go all in for a single-payer healthcare system.Republicans have been fighting the Affordable Care Act tooth and nail since its implementation. During this time, they have not been able to come out with any real alternative proposals or ways to improve the system. Instead, right-wing politicians and pundits have programmed their supporters to hate the ACA, or Obamacare, without question. Despite having an outright hatred for the concept as a whole, conservatives actually tend to have fairly high favorable attitudes towards specific elements of the plan.This gives progressives an incredible talking point to make that they, too, want to end Obamacare. That may sound like a heretical statement to make considering the all-out rhetorical war that has raged over keeping the healthcare reforms in place for over half a decade. However, progressives shouldn t shy away from such a statement. The ACA was meant to end one day. It was created with the intention of being a stepping stone towards a single-payer system. That doesn t mean that the successful aspects of the law would need to be done away with if we switched to a single-payer system; if anything, the last few years have taught us much about how such a system would need to work in order to be successful. Featured image from Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis WPA Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
5,937 | retired star general blasts trump for not supporting us troops | by rmuse on sun oct th at pm the fbi has a solemn obligation to remain neutral in political matters the faintest appearance of using the agency to influence our election is deeply troubling share on twitter print this post the following is an opinion column by r muse
as a nation of laws the american people should and most likely do demand that law enforcement officials hew as closely to the law as humanly possible and that goes double for the countrys largest investigative agency one thing every american who has ever watched a law enforcement press conference after a crime has occurred understands is that the public never really knows the details of an investigation regardless the severity of the crime or who the suspect is as an occasional print journalist this author can attest that asking a police spokesman for details during a press conference about what the police are doing or who they are investigating never fails to get a stern scolding about expecting law enforcement to reveal any facts during an investigation for glaringly obvious reasons the scold always includes referral to the agency responsible for charging and prosecuting a crime after the investigation is complete and the results are handed over to the local district attorney
apparently the federal bureau of investigation fbi director james comey never got the memo that discussing an investigation publicly is verboten if for no other reason than to maintain the integrity of said investigation and not hamper a possible prosecution however as it turns out mr comey did get a memo from the department of justice in the form of a warning but because he is a law unto himself and his allegiance is to house republicans and not the department of justice he ignored the doj counsel to do a solid for the gop less than two weeks before a presidential election
since mr comey cant keep it investigations in his pants or follow longstanding law enforcement and investigative rules or take heed to justice department warnings it is incumbent on president barack obama to summarily fire fbi director james comey on the morning of wednesday november th why should president obama wait until the day after a general election to fire the partisan director of the fbi so as not to give the appearance of any impropriety or partisanship during a campaign or just prior a presidential election something fbi director james comey is apparently incapable of comprehending
this incident just like the one in july when comey broke precedent and convened a press conference in july and then publicly testified before congress to discuss the bureaus ongoing investigation is more than just a breach of precedent it smacks of partisanship for more than one reason first as mentioned above not only did the department of justice warn mr comey that it was inappropriate to discuss an ongoing investigation at all much less so close to an election that warning came after the fbi contacted the doj about going public with information the bureau admitted it had not yet even reviewed that was precisely what comey told his republican buddies in a letter to congress
in the letter comey told congressional republicans that the fbi really had no clue whether any of the emails were related to hillary clintons private email server but what he did know for sure was that they appeared to be pertinent even though his agency the fbi had not yet examined them so the real pertinent question is why did mr comey publicly inform congress about emails the agency had not yet examined if he wasnt attempting to inject some partisan drama into the election that might have deleterious impact on the outcome
it is just as pertinent a question as demanding to know from mr comey precisely what his motivation was in holding a press conference back in july to discuss the agencys finding on an investigation before the doj weighed in or discuss that investigation in public and before a viciously partisan republican committee in congress and no it was not to defend the bureaus decision not to bring criminal charges against clinton only a braindead moronic imbecile or partisan republican hack would begin to think that the fbi cia local sheriff or any police investigative agency has the ability to bring charges to prosecute a violation for dogs sake even the s fictional sheriff andy griffiths hapless deputy barney fife was competent enough to comprehend that a district attorneys office or department of justice is tasked with prosecution any violation of the law
according to mr comey who was stung by criticism from both democrats and republicans as well as former prosecutors and appeared to be on the defensive he felt obligated to inform republicans in congress even though the bureau really didnt know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails likely because he knew they did not come from hillary clinton as an aside sarah jones has a nifty summary of the email caper the fbi uncovered while investigating serial sexter anthony weiners laptop computer ipad and cellphone and no anthony weiner was not sexting nasty pictures to presidential candidate hillary clinton
it doesnt matter what kind of pathetic excuse comey gave for publicly commenting on an ongoing investigation it is virtually impossible to believe he didnt have partisan intents and purposes in publicly alerting house republicans as interim chairwoman of the democratic national committee donna brazile said the fbi has a solemn obligation to remain neutral in political matters even the faintest appearance of using the agencys power to influence our election is deeply troubling ms brazile demanded more information from comey and didnt conceal her concern over comey interfering with the election
mr comey claimed very conveniently one might add that as a diedinthewool republican he contributed to john mccain and willard romneys presidential campaigns in and respectively that he is not a republican now that was his remark back in july when he first began breaking precedent and revealing information about an investigation that was the proper purview of the department of justice not the federal bureau of investigation it was a suspicious confession in july and it is nearly impossible to believe in late october after he ignored department of justice warnings and revealed information about an ongoing investigation into a disgraced former congressman and serial sexter just days before an election and before the bureau had even reviewed anything
comey cannot possibly remain as head of the federal bureau of investigation after twice revealing information about an ongoing investigation if comey hadnt taken heat for his reveal in july and a warning from the justice department this week then one might just regard him as an inept law enforcement official pulling a publicity stunt for attention but since he was warned and is not an inept law enforcement official it is more than reasonable to believe that comeys most recent act was a partisan political ploy that should earn him a summary termination on november because firing his partisan personage just prior to the general election would break a longstanding precedent and look like a highly partisan move something a sap like james comey might try but not president obama | 1 |
5,938 | This Will Make You Think Twice Before Donating To The Wounded Warrior Project (VIDEO) | When you think about the sacrifice our men and women in uniform have undertaken for our country, one honestly can t put into words how grateful we are. They literally offer up their lives for service. When they come home, they should be treated with the utmost respect and grace, and most certainly should not be taken advantage of. However, one group that has been very vocal and outgoing in their supposed help of wounded veterans coming home seems to be using them to make money for themselves.The Wounded Warrior Project is one of the most visible groups out there raising money for veterans. They have commercials, big events, and publicity. On the surface, they look like a very reputable organization. However, as CBS News investigated, it looks as though they are, quite literally, wasting donation money, and they re not really hiding it either.According to CharityNavigator.org, Wounded Warrior Project only spends 60% of the money they take in on the actual services that help veterans. That may sound pretty great until you realize that other groups like Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust (DAV) utilizes nearly 97% of their funds towards going directly to veterans.According to Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who actually worked as a public speaker for Wounded Warrior project back in 2013: Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn t see is how they spend their money. Also telling CBS News: You re using our injuries, our darkest days, our hardships, to make money. So you can have these big parties Let s get a Mexican mariachi band in there, let s get maracas made with [the] WWP logo, put them on every staff member s desk. Let s get it catered and have a big old party Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building. A four-day conference for 500 staff members in Colorado for team building had a price tag of around $3 million. That s money that should be going to veterans. They are literally using the money to throw themselves lavish events instead of honor the veterans they are supposedly serving. The entire thing is almost obscene.Wounded Warrior Project s chief executive Steve Nardizzi even admits he runs the charity like a for profit company. And while they are still raising money for veterans and using that money towards the needs and services of those who need them, please think twice before donating and perhaps donate to another group instead. If they are pulling in over $300 million, but only 60% is going towards veterans, that s nearly $120 million not going to veterans that should be.Wounded Warriors Project s mission is To honor and empower Wounded Warriors. However, where s the honor in skimming off the top of all their much-needed money to throw themselves parties all over the country?Watch here to see the CBS News investigation:Featured image: Jacksonville.com | 0 |
5,939 | Trump draws even with Clinton in national White House poll | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump pulled even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday, in a dramatic early sign that the Nov. 8 presidential election might be more hotly contested than first thought. While much can change in the six months until the election, the results of the online survey are a red flag for the Clinton campaign that the billionaire’s unorthodox bid for the White House cannot be brushed aside. Trump’s numbers surged after he effectively won the Republican nomination last week by knocking out his two remaining rivals, according to the poll. The national survey found 41 percent of likely voters supporting Clinton and 40 percent backing Trump, with 19 percent undecided. The survey of 1,289 people was conducted over five days and has a credibility interval of 3 percentage points. “Very happy to see these numbers,” Trump said in a written comment to Reuters. “Good direction.” A spokesman for Clinton’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the poll. A Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in the five days to May 4 had the former secretary of state at 48 percent and the New York magnate at 35 percent. Republican strategist Dave Carney said the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed the vulnerability of Clinton, who is still battling U.S. Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. “She has been in the public eye for decades, served in high office, and now she’s in a dead heat with Trump, in a race that everyone thought she would win easily,” said Carney, who has been critical of Trump. “Everyone thought it would be a romp.” Trump has his own problems, though. He is struggling to bring some senior Republicans behind his campaign after primary election battles in which his fiery rhetoric rankled party elites. Several Republican leaders — including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan — are withholding their support. “After a tough primary, that’s going to take some effort,” Ryan said about unifying the party. “We are committed to putting that effort in.” The former reality TV star will face pressure to tone down his rhetoric and clarify his policy positions when he visits Republican lawmakers, including Ryan, on Thursday. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticized Trump on Wednesday for not releasing his tax returns, saying the only explanation was that the documents contained a “bombshell.” Trump has said that he will make public his tax returns on the completion of an audit. Clinton and Trump both poll well with voters of their respective parties, but independent voters continue to express uncertainty about who they will support, with 38 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll saying they are unsure or would vote for someone else. With the party’s primary season winding down, the two likely nominees have turned their attention to attacking each other, both on policy and personality. Clinton took aim at Trump’s tax reform plan at a rally in New Jersey on Wednesday. With a typical American family earning $54,000 per year, Clinton said, “It would take that family 24 years of work to earn what Donald Trump’s tax plan will hand out to people like him in just one year. That is no way to create good job with rising incomes for the vast majority of Americans, is it?” Trump has taunted Clinton in recent days for failing to “close the deal” against Sanders. University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said Trump - who has promised to force Mexico to pay for a border wall to halt illegal immigration and called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country - could also face a wall of opposition among minority voters. “This is an election that will be determined as much by the demographic composition of the American electorate as anything else - and that didn’t change in a week,” he said. Clinton’s loss in the Democratic primary election in West Virginia on Tuesday also signaled possible trouble for her in industrial states in November, underscoring how she still needs to court working-class voters in the Rust Belt. Roughly six in 10 voters in West Virginia, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in country, said they were very worried about the direction of the U.S. economy in the next few years, according to a preliminary ABC News exit poll. The same proportion cited the economy and jobs as the most important issue in the election. | 1 |
5,940 | Russia criticizes U.S. for 'anti-Cuban' approach, says it sides with Cuba | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that “anti-Cuban” actions recently announced by Washington were regrettable and that Moscow confirmed its solidarity with Havana. The ministry also said that the new approach toward Cuba by the U.S. administration resembles a “Cold war rhetoric”. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and a clampdown on U.S. business dealings with the Caribbean island’s military, saying he was cancelling former President Barack Obama’s “terrible and misguided deal” liberalizing ties with Havana. | 1 |
5,941 | Trump economic adviser Powell to be named deputy national security adviser | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s senior counselor for economic initiatives, Dina Powell, will be named deputy national security adviser for strategy, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday. Powell, who worked in the administration of President George W. Bush, will also continue to work with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner on economic initiatives, Politico reported earlier. | 1 |
5,942 | power grid vulnerability dreams music | robotic advancements mars ancient aliens robotic advancements mars ancient aliens date tuesday november
in the first half aerospace and defense systems developer sir charles shults discussed the rapid advances in robotics artificial intelligence and drones the availability and affordability of drones is creating all new applications from agriculture to outerspace construction on a consumerlevel there is a type of drone in which you put a chip in your pocket and the drone follows you around from the air recording live video of your movements he reported in many circumstances you have to register your drone with the faa he cautioned drones are a real growth industry with sales of million this past year in the us alone
regarding robotics we can expect a huge drop in the cost of humanlike robots over the next five years because china is moving to get into the industry in a big way he detailed china is developing robots to take the place of waiters and hotel staff and we will see a huge increase of companion robots to converse with people over the next five years shults envisions we are on the verge of combining biological and mechanical elements and eventually people will be able to buy hybrid cyborg devices he marveled shults also updated his research of martian anomalies view related images and suggested that mars had a decent biosphere as recent as a few thousand years ago that may have sustained primitive life forms | 0 |
5,943 | Sweet home Chicago: Obama re-emerges in city where it all began | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday makes his first major appearance since leaving office, having chosen Chicago, the city where his political career started, to emerge from a three-month hiatus from the public eye. Obama will meet youth leaders and promote community organizing near the same South Side neighborhoods where his own activism blossomed and propelled him to two terms in the White House that ended with Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as Obama’s first White House chief of staff, said that he was proud that Obama picked Chicago to make his last speech as president and the first in his post-presidency. “I think it reflects his emotional, as well as his intellectual, commitment to this city and seeing this city as his home,” he said. Obama’s continued connection to Chicago is important to the city, which has global aspirations as well as a palpable insecurity about its place in the world. During the last year of Obama’s second term, Chicago laid claim to its share of his legacy by beating out Hawaii and New York as the site of his presidential library. Obama, who still owns a home in Chicago, was raised in Hawaii. The former president and his wife Michelle are expected to move from Washington to New York once their younger daughter, Sasha, graduates from high school. David Axelrod, a former top political adviser to Obama, said the decision to house the library in Chicago should have eased any concerns that its residents may have had about the former Democratic president’s commitment to the city. But Monday’s event, he said, is another important sign of the former president’s strong links to Chicago. “He’s going to be more visible moving forward,” he said. “I think this is clearly a coming-out.” Reverend Michael Pfleger, a social justice activist who heads a large South Side Roman Catholic church, said a prominent Obama presence could help the nation’s third-largest city confront some of the thorny problems it faces. Chief among them is a spike in gun violence, an issue that Trump has highlighted as a sign of lawlessness and the failure of the Democratic politicians who have long run Chicago. “It’s his life, and he’s not in elected office right now, so he can do what he wants,” Pfleger said. “But I’d love to see him engage in his home of Chicago. He could make a huge difference.” Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson said Obama could use his powerful platform to address stark inequalities in Chicago schools, housing and employment, and to advocate for reinvestment in blighted neighborhoods. Monday’s event takes place on the South Side campus of the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught constitutional law. It is intended “to encourage and support the next generation of leaders driven by strengthening communities,” according to a statement. Since leaving office, Obama has kept a relatively low public profile, taking vacations in Palm Springs, California and the British Virgin Islands, where he indulged in the sport of kite-boarding while vacationing with British billionaire Sir Richard Branson. Together with his wife, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, the former president recently struck a two-book, $65 million memoir deal. He is expected to travel to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next month. | 1 |
5,944 | Trump says will discuss military issues, Qatar with Kuwait's emir | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he would discuss trade and military issues with the emir of Kuwait at the White House on Thursday, as well as tensions over Qatar. Trump, welcoming Kuwait s Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah to the White House, said Kuwait was helping the United States in the Gulf and things were coming along nicely. Kuwait has been trying to heal a bitter dispute between Qatar and four Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, which say Doha supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, charges Qatar s leaders deny. | 1 |
5,945 | Merkel tries to build coalition after vote that puts far right in parliament | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s Angela Merkel began the tough task of trying to build a government on Monday after securing a fourth term as chancellor, urging the center-left Social Democrats not the shut the door on a re-run of their grand coalition . Damaged by her decision two years ago to allow more than one million migrants into Germany, Merkel s conservative bloc secured 33 percent of the vote, losing 8.5 points its lowest level since 1949. Her coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats, also slumped and said they would go into opposition. Voters flocked to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), the first far-right party to enter the German parliament in more than half a century. However, the AfD hardly had time to savor its third-place showing before it fell into internal bickering. Many Germans see the rise of the AfD as a similar rejection of the status quo as votes for Brexit and Donald Trump last year. But Germany s political center held up better than in Britain and the United States as more voters have benefited from globalization and most shun the country s extremist past. Merkel s party remained the biggest parliamentary bloc and Europe s most powerful leader sought to keep her coalition options open on Monday, saying she would start talks with the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens as well as the SPD. SPD leader Martin Schulz said earlier his party had no choice but to go into opposition to defend democracy against those who question it and attack it, after dropping to a post-war low of 20.5 percent. I heard the SPD s words, nevertheless we should remain in contact, Merkel told a news conference. I think all parties have a responsibility to ensure that there will be a stable government. Merkel made clear she still intended to serve a full four years as chancellor. But her next coalition could be her toughest yet with her only remaining potential partners, the business-friendly FDP and the pro-regulation Greens, at odds on issues from migrants to tax, the environment and Europe. The FDP s leader Christian Lindner set the stage for tricky talks, saying his party would not agree to a coalition with the conservatives and the Greens, dubbed Jamaica because the parties colors mirror the country s flag, at any price. He said changes were needed in Germany s energy policy and its stance on euro zone fiscal policy. But he struck a more conciliatory tone on Europe, saying Germany had an interest in a strong France. [B4N1JX00B] The Greens set out climate change, Europe and social justice as their priorities in any coalition talks. The emergence of the Greens as powerbrokers in any coalition weighed on markets. Shares in carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE) were down 0.2 percent, while those in automotive supplier Continental (CONG.DE) dropped 0.4 percent. RWE (RWEG.DE) which operates 15.25 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired plants in Germany, 38 percent of its total European capacity fell 4.6 percent to a six-week low. The party campaigned to ban the sale of new combustion-engine cars from 2030 and are calling for a quick phase-out of coal power plants. Many Germans were alarmed by the rise of AfD who the foreign minister likened to Nazis. Protesters threw stones and bottles at police outside its campaign party in Berlin on Sunday. But just a day after the election, the AfD showed signs of fracturing as co-leader Frauke Petry, one of its most prominent faces, said she would not sit in parliament with AfD members. It was not immediately clear why she was making such a move. The election also exposed rifts in Merkel s conservatives, with her allies the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), who face a regional election next year, demanding a shift to the right to win back voters lost to the AfD. They will try their best to recover lost ground on the right side of the political spectrum. Going into a coalition in Berlin with the Greens and the FDP will make this more difficult, said Janis Emmanouilidis from the European Policy Centre. Investors were unsettled by the prospect of a weaker Merkel at the head of a potentially unstable Jamaica coalition and also worried that months of coalition talks could distract from talks with Britain over its divorce from the European Union. The euro EUR=D4 and European stocks slipped, while concerns about the emergence of a more hardline stance toward the euro zone in the bloc's largest economy weighed on Southern European government bonds. The weak result could make Angela Merkel a lame duck much faster than international observers and financial markets think, ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. Klaus Wohlrabe, economist at the Munich-based Ifo economic institute, said new elections could not be excluded and the result could stoke uncertainty as German business confidence deteriorated unexpectedly in the weeks before the election. German business also expressed concern. Matthias Mueller, chief executive of Volkswagen, said he was shocked by the AfD s double-digit showing and said the success of Europe s largest economy hinged on its tolerance and openness to the world. For Germany s biggest industrial company I say: In the globalized economy, national egoism and protectionism lead to a dead - and in the end a loss of jobs. | 1 |
5,946 | Medicaid, pension costs create budget complications for U.S. states: report | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sluggish forecast for U.S. economic growth as well as an increase in U.S. states’ Medicaid and pension contribution costs is creating a budgetary squeeze in many state capitols, according to a research report issued by S&P Global Ratings on Monday. While the risk of a recession within the next 12 months has fallen into a 15-20 percent range from 20-25 percent, the rate of economic expansion “is expected to remain fairly anemic at 1.8 percent over the longer term (roughly 10 years), well below the 3.0 percent average growth rate that prevailed from 1980 to 2000,” the report said. “And while the risk that federal policy could trigger a recession has eased, the potential for a dramatic scaling-back of federal aid for Medicaid has never been greater,” the report said. The slow-growth economy is producing sluggish revenue trends for the states, said Gabriel Petek, an analyst at S&P, in a telephone interview. S&P does not expect Washington will enact a federally funded public infrastructure package in the next two years, which will put further stresses on state budget management. Addressing deferred maintenance and inadequate capacity in public infrastructure will depend heavily on state and local government solutions, the report said. Without a possible bump in growth from a federal infrastructure package, projected GDP growth for 2017 was lowered to 2.2 percent from 2.3 percent, the report said. “Anything that is done at the federal level would imply that more of the burden has to be picked up by the state and local government level in the area of infrastructure investment,” Petek said. The report added that the U.S. mid-Atlantic region (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) will have the slowest growing economy compared to other regions. Real GDP growth for the region is projected at 1.25 percent for 2017, the report said. The best performing region forecast for the current year, with an economic growth forecast of 2.88 percent is the Mountain region (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming). Overall, regional economies growth rates are expected to peak in 2018 before some of those gains ebb, the report’s data showed. The best performing region forecast for 2018 are the states in the West South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) with a combined growth rate of 3.36 percent, followed closely by the Mountain region at 3.29 percent and Pacific region at 2.93 percent. | 1 |
5,947 | DEMOCRAT THUGS VANDALIZE REPUBLICAN Offices Across Several States…Now Who’s “Deplorable”? | NC REPUBLICAN HEADQUARTERS Firebombed By The Terrorists On The LeftINDIANA REPUBLICAN OFFICE VANDALIZED:DELAWARE COUNTY, Ind. The Delaware County Republican Party said vandals struck at their office last week.Someone threw two landscaping bricks through a window on Oct. 8. Signs for Donald Trump and Todd Young were hanging on the window at the time, according to the group s Facebook page.Officials said it would cost about $1,200 to replace the broken window and said anyone interested in helping cover the cost could donate online.This week, Delaware County Sheriff Ray Dudley said his office has received reports of campaign signs being taken from yards in the Yorktown and Mount Pleasant Township area.Dudley said the reports were being taken seriously and that removing signs without the authority to do so may be criminal conversion under Indiana s criminal code. Via: FOX59 | 0 |
5,948 | In the battle for Hollywood endorsements - and cash - Clinton rules | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ positions on fracking, free tuition and breaking up big banks wouldn’t sound out of place in an Oscar winning-actor’s acceptance speech. But in famously liberal Hollywood, long used as an ATM by Democratic campaigns, Sanders’ message is not resonating as loudly as in other progressive bastions. The more moderate Hillary Clinton has far outpaced the Vermont senator in fundraising and has a deep line-up of A-list stars and top executives among her backers. Celebrities don’t sway votes, but they can persuade people to listen to a candidate’s message, said historian Steven Ross, author of “Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics.” “It puts a candidate on their radar,” he said. Hollywood actors, studio executives and other employees of the film, TV and music industries have donated at least $8.4 million to Clinton’s campaign and the independent Super PAC that supports her bid, Priorities USA Action, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance data through March 31. A pair of Clinton fundraisers held by actor George Clooney this month, at which tickets went for as much as $353,000 per couple, is not included in that total, but were reported by Deadline Hollywood to have raised an additional $15 million. By contrast, Sanders' campaign had raised about $1 million from entertainment industry donors through March 31, according to the campaign finance data. The Vermont senator, who called the price of the Clooney event "obscene," is not associated with a Super PAC and says he does not court wealthy donors. (Graphic on Hollywood flows to Sanders and Clinton: tmsnrt.rs/1U98K4g) All Republican presidential candidates combined collected $460,000, roughly 5 percent of entertainment industry donations, the data showed. Clinton’s support in Hollywood can be traced back to strong ties her husband built during his first presidential campaign in 1992, said Donna Bojarsky, a Democratic public policy consultant who worked as national entertainment coordinator for Bill Clinton’s campaign. Bill Clinton connected deeply with Hollywood, she said, in part because “he showed a real respect for and appreciation of pop culture. He followed it, and he enjoyed it.” Another reason for Hillary Clinton’s success in Hollywood is the backing of executives. While business people in Hollywood may be liberals, they are less likely to embrace a candidate who attacks corporations, said Ross, the historian. Sanders describes himself as a democratic socialist who wants higher taxes on wealthy people and corporations to help pay for college, healthcare, and other programs. “Corporate Hollywood is about business and the bottom line,” Ross said. The biggest Hollywood contributors to date are behind-the-scenes figures rather than stars, with about two-thirds of Clinton’s industry support through March coming from just three donors. Haim Saban, CEO of Saban Capital Group, contributed $3.5 million, while DreamWorks Animation DWA.O CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and director Steven Spielberg donated $1 million each to Clinton and funds supporting her. But it is the celebrity backers who make headlines for a candidate, even if they’re not making hefty contributions. Pop singer Demi Lovato performed at a Clinton campaign rally, and “Scandal” star Kerry Washington recorded radio and TV ads for the former secretary of state. “I really believe in her capacity to deliver on her messages,” Washington said in an interview. Sanders welcomed the band Vampire Weekend onto a stage in Iowa, where they joined the candidate to sing “This Land Is Your Land.” The Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at a Sanders fundraiser in Los Angeles. Clinton’s celebrity support skews toward older men and women, and she attracts more minorities, while younger personalities gravitate to Sanders, said Dan Schnur, director of University of Southern California’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and a former Republican political strategist. These leanings reflect those of voters in general, Schnur said, though there are plenty of exceptions. Ninety-year-old actor Dick Van Dyke, a Sanders supporter, is happy to buck the trend. “People in my generation are set in their ways,” Van Dyke said in an interview. “Some people are afraid he might get a little too drastic, that he might do something to upset the apple cart.” Sanders, not known for his sense of humor, has also attracted a number of comedians as supporters, including Danny DeVito, Bill Maher and Sarah Silverman. “Bernie is not for sale,” says Silverman, a one-time Clinton backer, in a pro-Sanders video viewed more than 32 million times on Facebook. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who genuinely represents the people.” Schnur finds Sanders’ support among some comedians understandable. “If you decide to perform comedy for a living, you’ve probably got a little bit of an anarchist streak,” he said, and Sanders “challenges the establishment.” THE BERNIE-HILLARY SPLIT At times the Sanders-Clinton divide in Hollywood has grown heated. When actor Susan Sarandon, a Sanders supporter, said in an MSNBC interview last month that she wasn’t sure she could vote for Clinton if she was the Democratic nominee, the reaction in Hollywood was intense. Her comments were seen as lending support to Trump. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis, a Clinton supporter, tweeted that she respected but disagreed with Sarandon, calling her position “dangerous 2 women, minorities & migrants.” Debra Messing, one of the stars of NBC sitcom “Will and Grace,” also joined the Twitter fray, criticizing Sarandon for representing “the Bernie or BUST position which is so dangerous for our country.” Sarandon, who has donated $2,700 to Sanders, said her comments were reported incorrectly. “Of course I wouldn’t vote for Trump,” she said in an interview with Reuters. She is unrepentant in her support for Sanders. “We have to do something more than incremental change,” Sarandon said. Sanders is “about real change, progressive change,” she said. She said she worries about an industry backlash against Sanders supporters, given the reaction to her statements, as well as negative comments from feminist Gloria Steinem and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about women supporting Sanders. “It’s a much easier thing to be supporting Hillary than to be supporting Bernie if you are a woman in the industry.” In the end, Hollywood’s Democrats will unite behind Clinton if she wins the nomination, predicted USC’s Schnur. “A Sanders-nista is not going to flip over and vote Republican,” he said. | 1 |
5,949 | Germany's FDP sees common ground with Greens on education, digitization | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s liberal Free Democrats (FDP) see some common ground with the Greens on areas including education and digitization, party leader Christian Lindner said on Monday. There are commonalities with the Greens on the question of education reform, on questions of civil rights and certainly also on the question of the expansion of fiber optic networks, for which we need to provide more funding, he told journalists the day after Germany s national election. The FDP has set the stage for tough coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives and the Greens, saying they would not agree to a deal that did not promise a change in the German government s direction. | 1 |
5,950 | U.S. to decide soon on future of Taliban office in Qatar | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will soon decide whether to keep open a Taliban office in Qatar as America steps up its Afghan war effort, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday, adding he was looking at who represents the increasingly fractious insurgency. Secretary (of State Rex) Tillerson and I have been in contact on this issue three times in the past 10 days, Mattis told a Senate hearing. He is looking to make certain we have the right (Taliban representatives), so it s just not an office in existence. | 1 |
5,951 | Melissa McCarthy Just Took On Sean Spicer’s ‘Hitler Moment’ And It’s F*cking Perfect (VIDEO) | In case you were unaware, Sean Spicer has spent much of the week attempting to justify his claim that Adolf Hitler wasn t as bad of a guy as everyone says because he drove people to concentration camps sorry, Holocaust centers rather than just gas them in town like Assad does. We didn t use chemical weapons in World War II, Spicer, apparently under the impression that Passover needed a little bit of Holocaust denial from the White House press secretary, said Tuesday. You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn t even sink to using chemical weapons. I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing, Spicer later said in an attempt to clarify his remarks, forgetting about all those gas chambers in what he calls Holocaust centers (or, of course, the mobile execution vans). Spicer continued to apologize throughout the week, but for some inexplicable reason found himself unable to undo the damage he did when he decided that Hitler wasn t such a bad guy after all.Spicer s Hitler week had all the makings of a perfect Saturday Night Live sketch, and Melissa McCarthy did not disappoint. Dressed as Spicer in his Easter Bunny costume (if you didn t know, he played the role of the egg-delivering Easter hero during the Bush years)McCarthy s Spicer admitted that he finally made a mistake with the Hitler gaffe. Everybody was like boo hoo, well what about the Holocaust centers?' Yeah, I know they re not really called Holocaust centers Duh, I know that. I m aware, Spicer added. I clearly meant to say, concentration clubs, ok? Let it drop. It would be really great if the nitpickers could try and see the big picture and didn t focus on every little slur and lie I say, Spicey said. That d be nice. We won t ruin any more of it for you. Watch it below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
5,952 | Organizers of white nationalist rally in Virginia, driver sued for $3 million | CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - Two people who say they were injured in a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia sued the man charged with killing a woman by driving his car through the crowd as well as the event’s organizers on Tuesday for $3 million. Tadrint Washington and Micah Washington said in papers filed in Charlottesville circuit court that they had been among the people hurt when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one. They had been driving home and their car was struck by Fields car, and some of his pedestrian victims were also hurled onto their vehicle, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit names Fields, “Unite the Right” rally organizer Jason Kessler and about two dozen alt-right leaders and organizations as defendants. “There was no doubt that violence was intended at this rally,” the pair said in the lawsuit, noting that participants came bearing shields and weapons. Kessler has denied that the event was intended to provoke violence, contending that the counter-protesters sparked the fighting and blaming police for failing to protect his group. He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Fields has been charged with second-degree murder for killing Heather Heyer with his car, and additional charges for the other 19 people injured. He was denied bail at a Monday court hearing. | 1 |
5,953 | Trump Ally Curt Schilling Blasts ‘Horrifying’ Recovery Efforts In Puerto Rico (VIDEO) | Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, the host of a daily show on Breitbart, and a strong Trump supporter, just bashed the former reality show star over recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Maria. Schilling traveled to Puerto Rico to assist with relief efforts, and said the destruction looks like looks like an atom bomb that didn t take the bodies. These are Americans, Schilling said on Fox & Friends Sunday. If this were Houston, Texas there d be 55,000 soldiers on this island right now. All have said that the president did everything in a pace that they ve never seen before as far as him releasing money and releasing assets into these theaters, Schilling said. The execution on the ground has been horrifying in some cases. I m a student of military history. I ve never seen anything like this, he said, adding that the southeast side of the island is totally destroyed. There are towns that are gone. I ve seen the best and the worst of humanity in the last 48 to 72 hours, and it s terrifying, Schilling continued.Watch: If this was Texas there d be 55,000 soldiers in PR the execution has been horrifying. Curt Schilling, on Fox pic.twitter.com/8rKOWeWH1Z justin kanew (@Kanew) October 1, 2017Trump and the First Lady will travel to Puerto Rico on Tuesday, two weeks after the U.S. territory was destroyed, leaving American citizens without food, water, medical care, and electricity. Trump is on his second golfing vacation since disaster struck the island.The former MLB pitcher was such a strong supporter of Trump s that in 2016 during the campaign, he held a Trump rally but hardly anyone showed up. To be on the generous side, maybe about 12 people attended his event.Still yet, somehow Trump got into power as America elected its abusive boyfriend to lead the most powerful country on Earth, so here we are with the biggest bully on the Internet holding the highest seat in the land as he lashes out at the devastated island, and the mayor of San Juan, all while he s playing golf at his luxury golf club.Image via screen capture. | 0 |
5,954 | WATCH: Dr. Ben Carson Explains Why He’s Endorsing Trump | There are two different Donald Trump s Here s why the politically incorrect Dr. Ben Carson is throwing his support behind Donald Trump:https://youtu.be/4agB5ATMzbE | 0 |
5,955 | Conservative Christians Think Girls Are A Crop, Should Be Married Off As Children (IMAGE) | Likening girls to common crops that should be rushed off to the market as soon as possible is a growing belief among conservative Christians. If you have heard of the Duggar family you ve likely heard of the Quiverfull movement they belong to, which requires Christians to have as many kids as possible, which is why the Duggars have 19 children.But there is another part of the Quiverfull movement that is even creepier.One Quiverfull ministry not only pushes couples to pop out kids like rabbits, they preach that fathers should farm the girls like crops such as apples and give them over to men as early as possible .In other words, this Christian fundamentalist movement believe in child marriage like the ones Americans often are horrified by when we hear stories of little girls being married off to middle-aged men in the Middle East.Their website is called Let Them Marry, and one of the first things you would see is a tree shaped missive comparing little girls to apples that must be picked early by the farmer/father and provided to men who are in need. Girls are like apples on trees. Their fathers are the farmers, whose job is to care for them. He must protect his apples from pests and disease. He must guard them against thieves who may pick his apples prematurely. Neither those at the top nor those at the bottom can help their location. But, when each reaches peak ripeness, it is the farmer s job to harvest that fruit and give it to whom he will, to those in need. So there is nothing wrong with the apples still on the tree and nothing wrong with the boys who seek them. But it is the farmer s duty to provide for both, in due season. Here s the image via Raw Story.A quote from the group leader, Vaughn Ohlman, makes it clear that this pedophilia comes not from the legalization of same-sex marriage like conservatives constantly claim, but directly from religious fanaticism, which former Quiverfull member Vyckie Garrison describes as a gross ideology combined with the Christian purity movement in which the value of a young woman is in her virginity a consumable commodity owned by her future husband, kept in trust by Daddy. We believe that not only should most people marry, they should marry in their youth. The Bible speaks of the wife of thy youth (Prov. 5:18; Is. 54:6; Mal. 2:14-15) and children of the youth (Ps. 127:4). Scripture also speaks of not letting children pass the flower of their age (1 Cor. 7:36) Leaving the physically mature young man struggling with fornication and leaving the physically mature young woman wallowing in fruitless, barren celibacy these are both unscriptural and ungodly actions.In short, this conservative Christian group is a haven for pedophiles who are trying to use religious liberty to justify their sickening desire to marry and rape little girls.Just another example of the Christian Sharia law conservatives are trying to force down our throats. Featured image from Pixabay | 0 |
5,956 | China's ruling Communist Party expels former Gansu party boss for graft | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s ruling Communist Party has expelled a former party boss of northwestern Gansu province, the country s anti-graft agency said on Friday, after an investigation showed he received bribes and was involved in superstitious activities . In a statement on its website, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Wang Sanyun, who was appointed as Gansu s party secretary in late 2011, had been passive in implementing the party s key policies, seriously derelict in his duties and accepted bribes and gifts in exchange for offering promotions. The case has been referred to prosecutors, it said. Wang, 64, had violated disciplinary regulations by frequenting private clubs , the statement said, adding that he had also been involved in superstitious activities over a prolonged period of time, without elaborating. It was not possible to reach Wang or a representative for comment and it was unclear whether he had been allowed to retain a lawyer. Wang was demoted from his post in Gansu in April to serve on a less prominent special committee of the national legislature, before being detained and placed under investigation in July. Separately, the commission said that the former president of the country s second-largest coal producer China Coal Energy Company Ltd, Gao Jianjun, would also be prosecuted for suspected graft after a party investigation found he took bribes and abused his power. It was not possible to reach Gao or a representative for comment. The company did not answer calls out of business hours early on Friday evening. Gao was put under investigation in May. President Xi Jinping has presided over a far-reaching anti-corruption drive since coming to power in 2012, punishing more than a million party members, jailing top military figures and retired security tsar Zhou Yongkang, the most senior official toppled for corruption since 1949. | 1 |
5,957 | Nigerian oil union PENGASSAN suspends strike: union president | ABUJA (Reuters) - A major Nigerian oil union suspended a nationwide strike on Monday, the same day it began, after a dispute resolution ended with a domestic oil and gas company recalling laid off staff, the union s president said. | 1 |
5,958 | Racist Donald Trump Actually Has The NERVE To Speak About March On Washington Anniversary (TWEET) | Monday, August 29, happens to be the 53rd anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington, in which civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. made his iconic I Have a Dream speech. It is a landmark point in the history of Black Americans gaining legal civil rights. Therefore, the last person who should be speaking out on this event is the racist Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. But, speak out he did, and he actually had the unabashed gall to try and pretend he cares about equality. Here is the tweet:Today is the 53rd anniversary of the March on Washington today we honor the enduring fight for justice, equality and opportunity. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2016Now, you must understand, Donald Trump has a long and well-documented history of racism. Here are just a few of those instances:I could go on, but you get the picture. This guy is a dyed in the wool, bona fide racist. He DARES to try and say he cares about equality and justice for minorities, but clearly, he doesn t just look at his actions, the bigoted nature of his campaign, as well as the people he surrounds himself with. Further, his so-called outreach is only Trump s attempt to be a white whisperer to those white people who are too uncomfortable to vote for him if they sincerely believe him to be a racist. Newsflash, folks: Donald Trump IS a racist. His history and the nature of his campaign shows it. He s only pandering for votes because he knows he cannot win in November with only white people. Do not be fooled Trump is a racist demagogue, and no amount of attempting to pander and change his language changes that.Featured image via Ralph Freso/Getty Images | 0 |
5,959 | BREAKING: Trump Is Now Directly Threatening Electors Who Don’t Vote For Him | If you want to know what kind of President Donald Trump will be, if he will execute the powers of his office in a manner that is fitting for an American President. look no further than his team s recent threats against electors who might be considering voting against our first Russian-installed President-elect.The Electoral college votes on December 19 so while Donald Trump may have kinda-sorta won the election by losing the popular vote by a historic margin, there is still a chance that he will not be our next President. Unfortunately for Trump, they seem to be taking the Russian hacking thing seriously, demanding a full briefing before they vote. We intend to discharge our duties as Electors by ensuring that we select a candidate for president who, as our Founding Fathers envisioned, would be endowed with the requisite qualifications, the open letter from electors to U.S. Director Of National Intelligence. [T]he Constitution envisions the Electoral College as a deliberative body that plays a critical role in our system of government ensuring that the American people elect a president who is constitutionally qualified and fit to serve. According to reports in the Washington Post, New York Times, and other outlets, the United States intelligence community has now concluded definitively that the Russian interference was performed to help Donald Trump get elected, yet even today Mr. Trump is refusing to accept that finding, the letter continues. Separate from Mr. Trump s own denials of Russian involvement in the election, the confirmed communication between Trump s aides and those associated with the Russian election interference activity raise serious concerns that must be addressed before we cast our votes. This may present a problem for a guy whom the CIA confirmed had a lot of help from a foreign power via hacking and propaganda, but Trump s solution is simple (terrifyingly simple): threaten them into compliance. We have gotten reports from multiple people, an elector told Salon under condition of anonymity, that the Donald Trump campaign is putting pressure on Republican electors to vote for him based on . . . future political outcomes based on whether they vote for Donald Trump or not. These reports, the elector says, come from Republican electors who say that violence was not threatened instead, the Trump camp threatened to ruin careers and livelihoods. It s all political, basically, the elector said. If Trump becomes the president, he s going to be able to put pressure on the state parties and they won t be involved anymore. Let s think about this for a moment: the expected incoming President of the United States was revealed to have been effectively installed by a foreign power after asking them to hack his political opponents. The intelligence community has confirmed that Russia heard his plea for help and stepped up to get him into office. Now, instead of even feigning surprise, Trump is attacking and threatening anyone and everyone who says anything negative about it the media, electors, even those same intelligence agencies whose investigations proved inconvenient for him.Keith Olbermann recently pointed out that if Trump assumes office, the chances of us ever having a free election again diminish severely. With Trump now threatening those whose job it is to ensure that a tyrant like him doesn t get into office, he seems to be right.Featured image via Getty Images/Steve Pope | 0 |
5,960 | BOMBSHELL: Trump Lied – His ‘Armada’ Was NOT Headed Toward North Korea At All | Last week, Trump was bellowing up one side and down the other about a possible nuclear test that North Korea was set to conduct over the weekend. He claimed we might launch a pre-emptive strike against them, and that we had two ships in the region already From an NBC News story dated April 13: The intelligence officials told NBC News that the U.S. has positioned two destroyers capable of shooting Tomahawk cruise missiles in the region, one just 300 miles from the North Korean nuclear test site and earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group was being diverted to the area. [emphasis mine]Turns out, that wasn t true.The armada Trump was speaking of was, at the time, headed the opposite way toward Australia, and had not been turned around. It wasn t until the Navy posted a photo of the Carl Vinson and its strike group in the sea between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra that the story came out. The photo was taken on Saturday, Apr. 15, a few days after we heard that the Carl Vinson had been diverted and was heading toward the Sea of Japan.Now it s headed that way and should arrive sometime next week. Two weeks after we told the world it was already heading there.So what happened?The White House says they were going off of what the Defense Department said. The Defense Department said there was a glitch-ridden sequence of events, including a premature announcement courtesy of the Pacific Command, and a false explanation from Defense Secretary James Mattis.All of that, they say, contributed to the false narrative that we had an armada speeding towards North Korea in a grandiose show of force.Really? That makes all the sense in the world.Truthfully, officials don t understand why the Defense Department didn t issue a correction on its timeline of events regarding the movements of those ships. With Spicer and others actually answering questions about it, and the extreme tension of the situation, one would think they d be as careful as possible about this.Instead, it sounds like the White House is putting all the blame for this clusterfuck onto the Pentagon, which is par for the course when they re either caught in a lie or something goes massively wrong.Of course, some Trumpkins will believe that Trump was deliberately misleading all of Asia (sending them into a panic), as well as Russia and us, to trick North Korea into trying something or to surprise them later on. No doubt someone will say that s brilliant.And anyone who does say that s brilliant (up to and including Trump himself, which isn t far-fetched at all) has no idea what the consequences of that kind of a bluff could be. Regardless, we caused a panic both here and among our allies that didn t need to happen, and risked a war over something very false.The Trump administration had better get its act together where hostile foreign powers are concerned.Featured image by Ron Sachs Pool via Getty Images | 0 |
5,961 | New York girds itself for Trump's first visit as president | NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York is bracing for President Donald Trump’s first trip back to his hometown since taking office in January in a Thursday visit that is expected to draw protests and snarl traffic in the United States’ most populous city. The trip could mark a repeat of the chaotic 2-1/2 months between the real estate developer’s Nov. 8 election and Jan. 20 swearing-in, when crowds of protesters and admirers flocked outside his home in the gold-metal-clad Fifth Avenue Trump Tower. The early days of the Trump administration have brought aggressive rhetoric and moves to crack down on immigration as well as roll back environmental regulations, much of which has ruffled feathers in the liberal northeast city. Anti-Trump activists, some of whom have organized marches across the country since Trump’s stunning election victory, are planning loud protests to mark the native son’s return. “A very hot welcome is being planned for Mr. Trump,” said Alexis Danzig, a member of Rise and Resist, an informal group of activists which formed as Trump came to power. “We’ll be out in full force to voice our grievances.” Trump’s business dealings and romantic fallouts were constant city tabloid fodder in the 1980s and 1990s. His television show, “The Apprentice,” broadcast Trump to the world as the ultimate Big Apple dealmaker during the 2000s. While the Trump brand is internationally associated with New York, fewer than one in five city residents voted for him. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, have said his stance on immigrants has put him at odds with a city where nearly a third of residents are foreign-born. Protesters plan to gather Thursday near the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a decommissioned aircraft carrier where Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are to have their first in-person meeting. One of the pair’s last exchanges was an acrimonious phone call in January. New York police declined to provide details of their preparations for Trump’s tour and the protests planned around it. One lingering issue from the transition period, that of the costs of protecting the president-elect’s building was resolved earlier this week in a proposed federal budget including $61 million to reimburse New York and other local governments for providing Trump-related security. “That’s good news for our city and the hardworking police officers faced with this unprecedented security challenge,” de Blasio said in a statement. | 1 |
5,962 | Four dead in ambush of World Food Programme convoy in Nigeria | BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Four people were killed when a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) aid convoy was ambushed in northeast Nigeria, a WFP spokeswoman said on Sunday, in the latest attack in the region as the conflict with Boko Haram nears its ninth year. Attacks on aid workers are relatively rare in the conflict with the Islamist insurgency, compared with assaults on the military and civilians in Nigeria s northeast. The years of fighting have spawned what the United Nations calls one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 8.5 million people in need of life-saving assistance. WFP can confirm that a convoy escorted by the Nigerian military including WFP-hired trucks was the subject of an attack by armed groups 35 km southwest of Ngala in Borno State on Saturday, she said in an emailed statement. Four people, including the driver of a WFP-hired truck and a driver s assistant, were killed in the incident, the statement said, adding that WFP is working with the authorities to determine the whereabouts of the trucks. The spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the driver and assistant were WFP staff, or give details about the other two people killed. A military spokesman declined to comment. Last year, the United Nations suspended aid deliveries in Nigeria s northeastern state of Borno, the epicenter of the conflict, after a humanitarian convoy was attacked, leaving two aid workers injured. Last week, the Nigerian government approved the release of $1 billion from the country s excess oil account to the government to help fight the Boko Haram insurgency, despite a two-year narrative that Boko Haram has been all but defeated. There are other signs the government and military may be abandoning that narrative. Nigeria s long-term plan is now to corral civilians inside fortified garrison towns - effectively ceding the countryside to Boko Haram. Earlier this month, Nigeria replaced the military commander of the campaign against Boko Haram after half a year in the post. Military sources told Reuters that came after a series of embarrassing attacks by the Islamists. | 1 |
5,963 | Trump wants to help U.S. businesses by lifting slew of regulations: CNBC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined economic policy initiatives on Thursday that he would pursue if elected to the White House in November, including refinancing longer-term U.S. debt, lowering taxes and scrapping a slew of federal regulations. The Manhattan real estate mogul said his aim would be to clear the way for U.S. businesses to succeed. “We’re lowering taxes very substantially and we’re going to be getting rid of a tremendous amount of regulations,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with CNBC. “The business people they talk about regulation more than they talk about taxes,” he said. Trump’s path to the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election became clear after a decisive primary victory in Indiana on Tuesday forced his two remaining rivals, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, to drop out of the race. The candidate, who has never held elective office, has been pressed to provide more details on policy proposals. On Wednesday, he said he was “open to doing something” with the country’s minimum wage, but that any increase would have to be weighed against a potential loss of competitiveness. In the CNBC interview, the billionaire said he supported low interest rates for now and believed the United States should try to refinance some of its debt to help pay for infrastructure repairs. “I would refinance debt. I think we should refinance longer-term debt,” Trump said. Trump has experience in restructuring his business debt, including two of his Atlantic City casino companies, and said he has been successful on that front. Trump told CNBC he would not renegotiate U.S. bonds but would buy back at discounts, depending where interest rates are. “Part of the problem is when a lot of this debt comes due, what happens if the rates are high and we have no budget that can even conceivably take care of this,” Trump said. If interest rates go up just 1 percent, Trump said, it would be devastating for the economy. “I think there are times for us to refinance, refinance debt with longer term,” he said. “Because you know we owe so much money. Nobody talks about it - nobody talks about it until the bubble pops. And the bubble could pop, and it could pop and it could be ugly.” Trump also warned about the downside of a strong U.S. dollar. “I love the concept of a strong dollar, in many respects obviously I like a strong dollar. But when you look at the havoc that a strong dollar causes,” he said on CNBC. “While there are certain benefits, it sounds better to have a strong dollar than in actuality it is.” | 1 |
5,964 | Trump: China's North Korea diplomacy appears to have 'no impact on Little Rocket Man' | WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed a Chinese diplomatic effort to rein in North Korea s weapons program as a failure on Thursday, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Beijing was doing a lot, but could do more to limit oil supplies to Pyongyang. In a tweet, Trump delivered another insulting barb against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he called Little Rocket Man and a sick puppy after North Korea test-fired its most advanced missile to date on Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington s approach was dangerously provocative. Trump s tweets further inflamed tensions reignited this week after North Korea said it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile in a breakthrough that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth s atmosphere. The Chinese envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man, Trump said on Twitter, a day after speaking with Chinese President Chinese President Xi Jinping and reiterating his call for Beijing to use its leverage against North Korea. Tillerson on Thursday welcomed Chinese efforts on North Korea, but said Beijing could do more to limit its oil exports to the country. The Chinese are doing a lot. We do think they could do more with the oil. We re really asking them to please restrain more of the oil, not cut it off completely, Tillerson said at the State Department. China is North Korea s neighbor and its sole major trading partner. While Trump has been bellicose at times in rhetoric toward North Korea, Tillerson has persistently held out hopes for a return to dialogue if North Korea shows it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons program. However, Tillerson may not remain in his job long, with disagreements with Trump over North Korea being one factor. On Thursday, senior Trump administration officials said the White House was considering a plan to replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he still had confidence in diplomatic efforts on North Korea and that the United States would be unrelenting in working through the United Nations. In spite of Trump s rhetoric and warnings that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea, his administration has stressed it favors a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Trump has pledged more sanctions in response to the latest test and, at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting late Wednesday, the United States warned North Korea s leadership would be utterly destroyed if war were to break out. This administration is focused on one big thing when it comes to North Korea, and that s denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a regular White House briefing. Anything beyond that is not the priority at this point, she said, responding to a question on whether regime change was on the administration s agenda after Trump s recent tweets and a speech by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Lavrov pointed to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for December and accused the United States of trying to provoke Kim into flying off the handle over his missile program to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country. He also flatly rejected a U.S. call for Russia to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program, calling U.S. policy toward North Korea deeply flawed. In a call with Trump on Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the missile launched this week was North Korea s most advanced so far, but it was unclear whether Pyongyang had the technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and it still needed to prove other things, such as its re-entry technology. A White House statement said Trump and Moon reiterated their strong commitment to enhancing the deterrence and defense capabilities of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and added: Both leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to compelling North Korea to return to the path of denuclearization at any cost. North Korea has tested dozens of ballistic missiles under Kim s leadership and conducted its sixth and largest nuclear bomb test in September. It has said its weapons programs are a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, denies any such intention. Previous U.S. administrations have failed to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and a sophisticated missile program. Trump, who has previously said the United States would totally destroy North Korea if necessary to protect itself and its allies from the nuclear threat, has also struggled to contain Pyongyang since taking office in January. | 1 |
5,965 | (Video) Obama Supporters Sign Petition to NUKE CHINA in Response to Hacking of U.S. Computers!!! | These people will support just about anything Obama says scary stuff! | 0 |
5,966 | WATCH: ANTI-GUN CRUSADER KATIE COURIC Intentionally Edits “Under The Gun” Documentary To Make Gun Rights Supporters Look Stupid | We ve said it before, Katie Couric is a wolf in sheep s clothing. Katie has been practicing the promotion of deceitful, leftist propaganda for decades. Don t let the Little Miss Sunshine act fool you. This woman is especially dangerous, because so many people think of her as a sweet little benign morning talk show host, and that her anti-gun crusade must be for the good of the country. 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 bills itself as a documentary that examines the events and people who have kept the gun debate fierce and the progress slow, even as gun deaths and mass shootings continue to increase. It follows a number of gun violence victims and those who have lost family members to gun violence as they advocate for stricter gun control laws. The 1 hour and 45 minute film was executive produced and narrated by Katie Couric.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 |
5,967 | New York governor calls for amending state constitution for abortion rights | NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday he would seek to ensure that women have access to late-term abortions in the state even if conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court remove federal legal guarantees in place since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Cuomo, a Democrat who is considered a potential candidate for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination, proposed an amendment to the New York Constitution that he said would preserve the status quo regardless of future Supreme Court rulings. President Donald Trump, the Republican who took office on Jan. 20, plans to announce a nominee to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. That person, if confirmed, is expected to restore the court’s conservative majority after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. The high court ruled four decades ago that the U.S. Constitution protects the right of a woman to have an abortion until the point of viability. The court defined that as when the fetus “has the capability of meaningful life outside the mother’s womb,” generally at about 24 weeks into pregnancy. The court also recognized a right to abortion after viability if necessary to protect the woman’s life or health. If the Supreme Court were to overrule Roe v. Wade, as abortion opponents have long hoped, the procedure would remain legal only where state laws allow it. In New York, a state law that dates to 1970 legalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and afterward only if the woman’s life is at stake, with no exception for health. The law is not enforced but could be if Roe v. Wade were overruled, abortion advocates say. The state’s law was “revolutionary back in the day because it legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade, but is now unchanged,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview this month. “The state law is not as protective as Roe,” she said. Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, which opposes abortion, predicted that Cuomo’s proposal would fail. “How many abortions are enough?” he said in a statement, noting New York’s high rate of abortions. “No one can credibly claim that access to abortion is under any threat in New York.” There were 29.6 abortions per 1,000 women in New York in 2014, compared to 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women nationally, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that supports abortion rights. Cuomo told a Planned Parenthood rally in Albany, New York, on Monday that women’s rights were under attack in Washington. “As they threaten this nation with a possible Supreme Court nominee who will reverse Roe v. Wade,” Cuomo said, according to a transcript provided by his office. “We’re going to protect Roe v. Wade in the State of New York.” New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a legal opinion in September making clear that federal court rulings supersede the state’s 1970 law. For a constitutional amendment to succeed in New York, majorities in the legislature must approve it twice, in successive terms, and voters must approve it. Republicans control the New York Senate, although it is possible some Republicans might support such an amendment if pressured by constituents who favor abortion rights, said Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at New York’s Fordham University. Opposition to Trump may galvanize liberals into being aggressive, Panagopoulos said. “People are scared, and that might compel them to action in a way that different circumstances might have them sitting on the sidelines,” he said. For years, states have planned for a day when the Supreme Court might overrule Roe v. Wade. Some 19 states have laws that could restrict abortion in that event, while seven have laws that would still guarantee the right to an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. | 1 |
5,968 | Turkish PM says Trump victory a chance to advance relations with U.S | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the U.S. presidential election, saying it was an opportunity to further bilateral relations. In a speech in the capital Ankara, Yildirim said a “new page” would be opened in U.S.-Turkey relations if Washington extradited the U.S.-based cleric Turkey blames for orchestrating the July 15 failed coup. “An area of opportunity has been created for the new president to advance relations with policies taking into account Turkey’s fight against terror,” Yildirim said. | 1 |
5,969 | BREAKING: FED JUDGE TERMINATES MI Recount…Asks Stein Attorney In Court : “Why are you coming to court now when you knew about the deficiencies beforehand?” | Start Counting. Keep Counting. Stop Counting? Michigan's election recount hearing set to start in Detroit. Will judge change course? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Hallroom chatter in Michigan recount: Some think the judge has been cornered & he ll have to end the recount; some say he ll keep pushing.U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith is ready to take the bench in #Michiganrecount. And we are OFF! Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Michigan recount Schuette s lawyer John Bursch up first: 6th circuit couldn t have been more clear, this is case about michigan election lawSchuette lawyer talking about Bush v Gore case; says US Supreme Ct. clear on this: federal courts must defer to state in election matters.Judge just asked AG atty John Bursch: has the Mich. Supreme Court ruled on this? his answer: not yet. state high court hasn t heard case.AG atty Bursch: This is the law of Michigan, there is no dispute about that. Unless, of course, Stein appeals to MI Supreme Ct.AG atty Bursch shifts to Jill Stein, and whether she s an aggrieved party. Appeals ct. says no, so do Republicans & Trump.AG atty Bursch: purpose of recount law is to change the outcome of the election. Judge: how do we know that? AG atty Bursch: state's top election official says goal of recount law is to change outcome, not to see if there's a problem; Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016AG atty Bursch: court has already held that it's not right to make taxpayers pay millions for a recount that's not justified Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016AG atty Bursch: Stein s entire purpose is to audit the Michigan system. That s not what our recount law is for.Michigan recount hearing: Judge: how do we know that Stein only got 1%; what if she got more but fraud took place?Judge to AG atty: what if Stein got 20% of the vote; is that enough for her to say she was aggrieved?MI Rep Party atty now up: the michigan courts have ruled, he says, urges judge to end the recount.MI Rep Party Atty: State court has concluded: "it's very unlikely that 2 million mistakes have been made" Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge continues to press: is there any court case that says recounts must produce a change in the outcome in order for them to be allowed?Michigan Rep. Atty: recounts should be used to figure out who should have won the election. Aggrieved means someone who has been harmed Mich. Rep. Atty: Aggrieved does not apply to someone who came in 4th place. #Michiganrecount law is being misused by Jill Stein. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016 This candidate is not aggrieved in any sense of the word Mich. Rep Atty says of Jill Stein; urged judge to dissolve ruling & end recount.Pro-recount atty up: It s quite possible that a recount (in Michigan) would reveal a winner. Not Stein. she doesn t expect that.Pro-recount atty: Michigan recount law isn t just about changing outcome; can also be used to show fraud in election system.Judge Goldsmith discusses cost of recount to taxpayers. Asks Stein atty what she thinks of that? Answer:the law explicitly allows for that.Stein atty notes #Michiganrecount battle not over. the state court decision is not final. going back to appeals court.Judge asks Stein atty: What do you want now? I ordered immediate recount. What s your issue now ? notes there s no federal right to recount.Stein atty: There is no way of knowing whether fraud occurred without conducting the recount. Judge Goldsmith to Stein atty: Why are you coming to court now w hen you knew about the deficiencies beforehand? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge Goldsmith to Stein atty: you could have addressed Michigan's vulnerable voting machines months ago. Why didn't you? why now? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge to Stein atty: is there anything about the recount that will tell us whether there was cyber attack or if machinery malfunctioned?Stein atty: the recount can raise clear flags about whether something went wrong, triggering a forensic audit.Stein atty just ended. says Michigan law allows for recounts, and that it should be continued. AG atty is now up, in a rebuttal.Judge Goldsmith asks about voting machine problems in Detroit; says he s read about problems. AG atty says not as many as being reported.AG atty: the court of appeals has spoken. there is no right for stein to have a recount. that s the end of the story.AG atty to Judge Goldsmith: you might be the 1st judge in history to order recount for a candidate who took 1% of the vote. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Recount shows so far: 10 counties have been recounting; 66 total vote change between Clinton & Trump so far. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Election lawyer: I have not known of anyone to come in and say i believe the system has been compromised or hacked Stein atty: It is way to early to say whether any fraud can be ruled out.Stein atty: Until the Michigan State Supreme Court weighs in, the recount must continue as ordered by the federal court.MI AG atty: "dont' become the first federal court in the country to order a recount for a candidate who lost by 2 million votes." Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016MI AG atty seeks bond: it's costing $500,000 a day for recount. it's not right to impose that kind of "irreparable harm" on the citizens. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Stein atty: Sec of state doesn t want recount, so don t trust $5 million cost or other numbers being thrown by folks who just don t want it.Stein atty: No bond should be set.Judge Goldsmith orders recess for 20 minutes. he will issue a written order or rule from the bench: I understand the time sensitivity Judge Goldsmith will issue a written opinion on whether to let Michigan presidential election recount continue, or end. Stay tuned. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016 | 0 |
5,970 | Trump will 'do everything' to avoid nuclear war with North Korea: Mnuchin | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said President Donald Trump wants to avoid nuclear war with North Korea and will do everything we can to avoid conflict. I can assure you the president s number one priority is the safety of the American people and our allies, Mnuchin said on ABC News. The president doesn t want to be in a nuclear war, and we will do everything we can to make sure that doesn t occur. Trump has dialed up the rhetoric against North Korea over the weekend, warning the country s foreign minister that he and leader Kim Jong Un won t be around much longer, as Pyongyang staged a major anti-U.S. rally. | 1 |
5,971 | WHY TRUMP SUPPORTERS ARE LAUGHING After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Announces What He Has On Trump | Fans of #CrookedHillary are not going to like this WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that the information they have on Donald Trump is not more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump s mouth every second day. We do have some information about the Republican campaign, Assange said. I mean, it s from a point of view of an investigative journalist organization like WikiLeaks, the problem with the Trump campaign is it s actually hard for us to publish much more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump s mouth every second day, I mean, that s a very strange reality for most of the media to be in. Assange has also claimed he has further information relating to Hillary Clinton that he plans to release closer to the November election.Assange alluded to what information the October surprise as it is now being called may contain saying, I don t want to give the game away, but it s a variety of documents from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining. Assange isn t focusing entirely on Clinton however, urging anyone with information on Trump to come forward, If anyone has any information that is from inside the Trump campaign, which is authentic, it s not like some claimed witness statement but actually internal documentation, we d be very happy to receive and publish it, he said on NPR s Morning Edition in August. Breitbart News | 0 |
5,972 | WATCH The Simpsons TEAR APART The GOP’s Delusions Of President Trump | Ah, The Simpsons, the hilarious animated show that s been on television for nearly 30 years now, and is a staple of American comedy. They ve never been afraid to tackle controversial and volatile issues within the context of the show, and that includes the 2016 presidential election. And why not? We have Donald Trump this year. He s walking cannon fodder.This video deals with the importance of the 3 a.m. phone call at the White House that means the world s about to end, and looks at how both Hillary and Trump would handle it. They lampoon Hillary here, too, but that s all they do. However, they tear into, and destroy, any and all illusions that anybody may have that Trump would actually make, well, any kind of a president at all.The spoof asks the viewer to consider who they want to vote for based on how each candidate reacts to that crucial 3 a.m. phone call. Watch it below, and remember that guffawing at Trump is perfectly okay.Trump likes to pawn an awful lot off onto other people. Who would he pawn that 3 a.m. phone call off onto while he went back to sleep in the gold-plated bed he ll no doubt have brought into the Lincoln Bedroom following his triumph over Hillary? In the end, though, what this spoof does is put Trump s (ahem) leadership capabilities under a very uncomfortable microscope, as well it should.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
5,973 | U.S. Treasury sees business taxes as fruitful ground for bipartisan deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is particularly hopeful it can reach a bipartisan tax deal when it comes overhauling laws for business taxes, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday. “We are hopeful that we can find common ground, particularly on the issue of making our business taxes competitive,” Mnuchin told a Senate panel. | 1 |
5,974 | UNREAL! Obama Administration Paying Some Illegals To Stay In Their Home Country [Video] | Some illegal immigrants receive money from Uncle Sam even after they are deported back to their home country, a new report said Thursday.According to Sen. Rand Paul s annual airing of grievances, a report that documents the most extreme cases of government waste from the previous year, the Obama administration is using a taxpayer-funded program to provide business support to undocumented immigrants from El Salvador that were deported from the U.S.The Republican from Kentucky also chairs a Senate subcommittee on federal spending oversight.The annual document cites a report first published on Jan. 4, which found that the Obama administration has given $50,000 in taxpayer money to illegal immigrants who were deported from the U.S. back to their home country of El Salvador. | 0 |
5,975 | Russia's Putin tells Palestinians' Abbas he supports talks on Jerusalem - Kremlin | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to tell him Moscow backs a resumption of talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities, including on the status of Jerusalem, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. No other details on the issue were provided. Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump told Abbas that he intends to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem amid a growing outcry across the Middle East against any unilateral U.S. decision on the ancient city. | 1 |
5,976 | THE “OBAMA BOUNCE”: UKIP Leader Claims Obama’s Insulting Threat To UK Voters BACKFIRED…Actually Drove Voters To Support “Leave EU” Movement | Barack Hussein Obama has been in over his head since he first stepped foot in the White House. Our Community Organizer In Chief just found out how unwelcome his Chicago style politics are in the UK UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage told Breitbart that the visit by President Obama, where he threatened to send Britain to the back of the queue if the public voted to leave the European Union (EU), backfired and caused a Brexit Bounce , swaying Britons to vote for Brexit.Comparing the outcome to the American Independence Day, Mr. Farage said: You [Americans] have your Independence Day where in July you celebrate being your own country, governing yourself, having your own courts, controlling your own borders and that s what happened to us yesterday. We have broken away from a political union where our power was being overruled, our courts were being overruled, and we had a complete open border for anybody from southern and eastern Europe, so this is a major historic step. On the EU post-Brexit, he said: We ve not just changed British history. I m sure that the EU project itself will now come tumbling down. I would like to think and hope that right across the globe what we ve done is to prove that people power can beat the establishment. The European Union project has failed. It is dying before your very eyes. It is unwanted, it is unloved, and people across the country are saying what UKIP has been saying for years: We want our country back, we want our democracy back, we want the closest possible relationship with our neighbours. We re happy to have a NAFTA kind of agreement with free trade, but we don t want political union . Asked of any lessons drawn from his own experiences that could be applied during the American presidential elections, Mr. Farage advised: Threatening people insults their intelligence. Don t threaten people repeatedly because if you do in the end they think you re crying wolf and they won t believe you. It s Project Fear, or in the end when Obama came it was Project Threat.Citing Mr. Obama s visit to the UK at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron:The lessons learnt from the Obama visit are fascinating. Here is the most powerful man in the world coming from a country that we have always had huge regard for. And people in Britain listening to Obama said: how dare the American president come here and tell us what to do and it backfired.And I think we got an Obama Brexit Bounce, because people do not want to be told how to think and how to vote. BreitbartWatch here to see how citizens reacted to Obama s threat:https://youtu.be/w-DSGtfWgegRepublican lawmakers warned US President Barack Obama his controversial intervention into the British EU referendum debate threatens to harm the special relationship. During a visit timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II s 90th birthday earlier this year, Obama warned that the United States would be in no hurry to agree a bilateral trade deal with a Britain outside the EU. I think it s fair to say that maybe at some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be at the back of the queue, he said.Obama s comments caused furore among Leave campaigners, with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage accusing Obama of talking Britain down. Former Defense Minister Liam Fox dismissed the president s intervention, calling his views largely irrelevant, as he will soon be leaving the White House. Via: RT | 0 |
5,977 | WHICH OF THESE TWO ITEMS WILL KILL MORE PEOPLE THIS YEAR IN THE U.S.? | Many on the left are calling for gun control in the U.S. The people who are so concerned about saving the lives of victims of gun violence, are usually the same single issue voters who are driven to the polls for every election to ensure that women retain the right to extinguish the lives of the most vulnerable among us in the most violent way imaginable. Over 2,555 babies have been aborted so far today in the United States.Total number of all firearm deaths in US in 2013: 33,636Number of firearm homicides in US 2013: 11,208Number of suicides by firearms: 21,175Firearms account for 53.7% of all suicides in the U.S.Ratio of babies killed by abortion to people killed by handguns: 107.1 to 1Manual Vaccum Aspiration What is MVA? MVA is used to abort a child from 3 weeks to 12 weeks of age. This handheld syringe works by creating its own vacuum/suction. MVAs are used and reused millions of times a year around the world. The major problem with the MVA is that it has a very weak vacuum. This means that the child is ripped apart slowly.Number of Americans of all ages and races murdered daily by handguns 28Number of American babies of all races killed every day by abortion 3,000Uterine Currette One side of the loop is sharp for cutting the child apart. The other side scrapes the uterus to remove the placenta.Syringe with Spinal Needle This abortion instrument s uses include injecting saltwater into the uterus. The baby swallows and breathes the poison. The cause of the death is congestion, hemorrhage and shock. The mother goes into premature labor about a day later and delivers a dead child. The other use is to inject the chemicals (digoxin, potassium chloride, etc.) into the heart of the baby. In both uses, these harsh chemicals soften the child s corpse, making it easier to rip apart and remove.489,850 babies have been aborted in the US so far this year.In 2011, 730,322 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. The abortion rate was 13.9 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 44 years and the abortion ratio was 219 abortions per 1,000 live births.Since 1980, 1,337,965,400+ babies have been killed by abortion.Highest abortion/birth ratio in the United States: Washington, D.C. (265 abortions for every 100 live births, and declining)The suicide rate for women following an abortion is astronomical:Suicide rate for women following a live birth: 5.9 per 100,000.Suicide rate for women following an abortion: 34.7 per 100,000. Increased risk: 488%A few important facts for the fiscal conservative:Typical cost for an abortion in the United States today $400 Estimated cost of preventing an abortion through early education of young people $25 (Early education is the most cost effective way to prevent abortion)Estimated future GDP gain of a baby saved from abortion: $25,000,000 Ratio to cost of an average abortion: 71,430 to 1Est. total U.S. GDP loss to date for 57,517,326 abortions: $55.4 trillion (2014) Estimated future U.S. GDP loss by 2040 if abortion continues: $400 trillionYour share of this future loss: $1,290,325Photos and captions via: Grantham Collection | 0 |
5,978 | UK PM May says Trump dossier author has not worked for Britain for years | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said the person who wrote reports containing details of compromising material Russia allegedly collected on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has not worked for the British government for years. “It is absolutely clear that the individual who produced this dossier has not worked for the UK government for years,” May said at a news conference on Friday. The author of the dossier has been named as Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer who once worked under diplomatic cover in Russia. Steele has so far not commented. | 1 |
5,979 | Trump to nominate Juster to be ambassador to India: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate Kenneth Juster to be ambassador to India, the White House said on Friday. Juster was a deputy assistant to Trump for international economic affairs and the deputy director of the National Economic Council until June. From 2001 to 2005 he was under secretary of Commerce under former president George W. Bush. | 1 |
5,980 | U.S. senators set bipartisan bill to tighten sanctions on Iran | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran would face tighter U.S. sanctions over ballistic missile launches and other non-nuclear activities under a bill announced on Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators, echoing a harder line on Tehran espoused by Republican President Donald Trump. The bill has seven Republican and seven Democratic sponsors, and aides said it has a good chance of eventually becoming law. It would set mandatory sanctions for anyone involved with Iran’s ballistic missile program. And it would apply sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), putting into law sanctions imposed via executive order on individuals tied to what the bill’s sponsors describe as Iranian support for terrorism. The IRGC, an elite military body, is powerful in Iranian politics and the economy. The legislation would also require the U.S. president to block the property of any person or entity involved in specific activities that violate the U.N. arms embargo on Iran. Iran has suggested about past proposed sanctions bills that they would violate the international nuclear agreement reached during the administration of former President Barack Obama. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, a co-author of the measure, told Reuters the new bill had been written not to interfere with that accord. “We assiduously worked to make sure that no provisions actually affect the agreement as it is,” he said in an interview. Aides said the bill is expected to pass the Senate because of the breadth of its support. Its lead sponsors include Republican Senator Bob Corker, the foreign relations committee chairman, and Ben Cardin, the panel’s ranking Democrat. While the legislation would be expected to have strong Republican support, it would also need Democrats’ backing to advance in the Senate. To become law, the measure would also have to get through the House of Representatives and be signed by Trump. Trump has made clear he wants to take a tough stance against Iran. A spokeswoman for Corker said he had been consulting with the Trump administration. In February, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and entities in Iran, which it said were just “initial steps” in its effort to counteract what it sees as provocations. Tehran has angered Washington by supporting Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s six-year-long civil war. It has also conducted repeated tests of ballistic missile technology in violation of a U.N. resolution. Menendez said the bill was intended to take a “regional” strategy because of the breadth of Iran’s activities. “It calls for a regional strategy because Iran is obviously involved in the region in various ways, whether it be in Yemen or Syria and beyond,” he told Reuters. The bill was announced just before Sunday’s start of the annual conference in Washington of the influential pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. | 1 |
5,981 | Turkey will take two steps if Germany takes one to normalize relations - foreign minister | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey, whose relations with Germany have soured in recent months, will take two steps to normalize bilateral relations if Germany takes one step, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a television interview on Monday. He was speaking after Germany s Angela Merkel secured a fourth term as chancellor in an election which saw her support slide and the far right making significant gains. Germany should learn from its mistakes, Cavusoglu told broadcaster A Haber when asked about ties between the two countries, which have been hit by disagreements on a range of political and security issues. | 1 |
5,982 | These 10 Seconds Of Sarah Palin’s INSANE Trump Endorsement Perfectly Capture The Crazy (VIDEO) | Pretty much all of Sarah Palin s endorsement of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was definitely off the wall. You weren t sure if you were watching a circus performance by a lady dressed in wind chimes, a piece of visual art that you might find at the Museum of Modern Art, or a person just before they get a psych evaluation.Nonetheless, there Palin was in all her glory. Watching her speak, you really couldn t tell if she was just really excited or maybe just really drunk. However, her enthusiasm for Trump was most definitely spirited and could be felt through television sets across the nation by people who were dumbfounded at what they were actually witnessing.However, if there was one moment of all the crazy moments that could perfectly sum up the embodiment of Palin s long-winded endorsement of a man who shouldn t even be allowed on a tour of the White House, let alone be president, this was it:Sarah Palin s poetry to describe Trump supporters pic.twitter.com/Hl2OmGIxZT Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) January 20, 2016If you need a translator to figure out what the hell she just said, it went something like: How bout the rest of us? Right wingin , bitter clingin , proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions, and our Constitution. In all honesty, that s really all she needed to say. That pretty much wraps up the modern-day Republican party full of extreme right-wing, bitter people clinging to their guns and religion and pretending to follow the Constitution. It s also the perfect summary of her entire speech. Everything else, along with that jumbled sentence, sounded like drunken jibber jabber to the point Donald Trump looked extremely uncomfortable standing next to her with a look of oh sh*t, what did I just do? However, now he s stuck with her and all her unhinged glory. Hopefully she ll bring the same luck to Trump s campaign that she brought to John McCain s.Featured image: Twitter | 0 |
5,983 | BOOM! Planned Parenthood Activist Tries To Embarrass Carly Fiorina With Propaganda…Carly Eviscerates Her With Facts [VIDEO] | WOW! This is the kind of woman the Republican Party has needed on their team for a long time. No more Mrs. Nice Guy Carly takes off the gloves and hits back hard against this liberal dummy who doesn t even realize she s about to enter an unfair fight | 0 |
5,984 | Indonesian court recognizes native religions in landmark ruling | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia s Constitutional Court on Tuesday affirmed the rights of devotees of faiths outside the country s officially recognized religions, in a move activists welcomed as a new chapter for religious freedom .Against a backdrop of rising intolerance toward minorities in the world s largest Muslim-majority nation, the court said Indonesians would not be required to identify as either Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist or Confucian on their national identification cards.The ruling reviewed by Reuters followed a legal challenge by followers of some of Indonesia s indigenous faiths. Bonar Tigor Naipospos from the Setara Institute, a group that advocates for religious harmony, said Indonesians who refused to embrace one of the regulated religions on their identity cards had limited access to education, restricted employment opportunities and were denied legal marriage. The Court recommended that a seventh, catch-all category be created - Believers of the Faith - for ID cards. This is a new chapter for religious freedom in Indonesia for both government and followers of indigenous religions, Naipospos said. This is a door for the government to recognize their rights. A spokesman for Indonesia s president Joko Widodo could not immediately be reached for comment.Indonesia s founding constitution says the state is based on the belief in the One and Only God but guarantees each and every citizen the freedom of religion and worship .However, blasphemy laws passed in 1965 stipulated only six religions would be protected. Subsequent regulations and laws effectively enshrined those as the only religions recognized by the state. The ruling (on Tuesday) means the end of Indonesia recognizing only six religions, said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch.In the 2000 census, about 400,000 people identified as holding beliefs outside the six main religions, although Harsono said this probably underestimated the extent of believers in non-recognized faiths.Across Indonesia s vast chain of islands, more than 200 distinctive native faiths, such as the Sundanese people s Wiwitan, the Dayak s Kaharingan and the Torajan s Aluk To Dolo survived even as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam dominated during different eras.Its people also blended elements of the major religions over time and infused them with animist and mystical beliefs. The court ruling should also apply to followers of non-indigenous religions such as Baha i and Judaism that are not formally recognized in Indonesia, said Nia Sjarifudin of the Unity in Diversity Alliance. In recent decades, Indonesia s reputation for tolerance has been tarnished as its unique syncretic form of Islam has been challenged by more fundamentalist interpretations imported from the Middle East.In the past year, an alliance of Islamist hardliners pushed successfully for the imprisonment of then Governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, for insulting Islam under the 1965 blasphemy laws.Atheism is not legal in Indonesia, and non-believers have also been charged with blasphemy. | 1 |
5,985 | WTO chief won't debate Trump, but rallies support for trade | GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday he would not get into an argument with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has described the global trade body as a “disaster” and threatened to quit it. But WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told a news conference he thought the arguments in favor of global trade needed to be put more forcefully. He said he had warned before Britain’s referendum last month of the risks of leaving the European Union, saying it would require years of complex trade talks to complete, but “sometimes people don’t want to hear the arguments”. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on July 24, Trump said U.S. companies that move production to Mexico should be taxed and shrugged off suggestions this would break WTO rules. “We’re going to renegotiate or we’re going to pull out,” he said. “We think trade is so obviously positive for every economy that it’s like trying to argue with a friend that he needs to breathe,” Azevedo said, adding: “I don’t think we do enough in making the case for trade.” Azevedo, who said earlier on Wednesday that he would seek a second four-year term as the head of the WTO, said he was impressed by the number of people who had responded to Trump by speaking up for trade, “sometimes from unexpected quarters”. He declined to comment on what would happen if the United States did withdraw from the 21-year-old trading club, which now boasts 163 members and governs the vast majority of global commerce through a system of mutually agreed rules. Under President Barack Obama, the WTO has been an important arena for the United States to defend its commercial interests against China, India and other major trading powers. A debate over trade also raged before Britain’s June 23 referendum on leaving the European Union. Britain voted in favor of Brexit despite warnings from Azevedo and others about the risks, and the country now faces years of protracted and complex trade talks to try to extricate itself from the EU. Asked how to improve the quality of debate and help voters understand the issues, Azevedo said people sometimes make decisions “on a basis of things that is completely foreign to the rationale of the issue that you are discussing. It has nothing to do with how trade helps or does not help”. | 1 |
5,986 | United States stops issuing some visas in Cambodia | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The United States embassy in Cambodia said on Wednesday it had stopped issuing some types of visas to Cambodians because Cambodia is not taking back citizens the United States wants to deport. The new policy comes at a time that U.S. President Donald Trump s administration is trying to crack down on immigrants who are in the United States illegally. The U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh said the visa restrictions were applied in accordance with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security rules applying to a country that refuses to accept or is unreasonably delaying the return of its nationals. The Secretary of State must order consular officers to suspend issuing visas until informed by the Secretary of Homeland Security that the country in question has accepted the individuals, an announcement from the embassy said. The embassy had discontinued issuing some visas for Cambodian foreign ministry employees above the rank of director general and their families, with limited exceptions, it said. The argument over the return of Cambodians deported from the United States is only one of many between the United States and Cambodia, which has accused detained opposition leader Kem Sokha of plotting treason with U.S. support. Earlier this year, Cambodia stopped accepting the deportation of Cambodian nationals who had been convicted of crimes in the United States, saying it wanted to renegotiate a settlement agreement on human rights grounds. Reacting to the visa announcement, government spokesman Phay Siphan said it showed the United States did not recognise human rights. Cambodia still cooperates with the U.S., he said. But while the U.S. tells the world that it respects human rights, in reality they don t. They just drop bombs to kill people. | 1 |
5,987 | Airlines Immune From Price Gouging Laws In Florida, Royally Screwing Evacuees | Imagine you just heard on the news that the strongest storm ever observed in the Atlantic was headed your way, and soon. You would, like anyone concerned for themselves and their family, want to get out as soon as possible. And the quickest way to evacuate from anywhere is the fastest method of travel on earth: Air. But you hit a small snag. You don t have the goddamn fortune that the airlines are now charging for flights that were less than half as much the day before. That has to be against the law, right?Wrong. In Florida, where Hurricane Irma is bearing down like a banshee, there are price-gouging laws like there are in every state. But airlines don t answer to specific states. They re regulated by the FAA and the Department of Transportation, which means no state or local statutes apply to them.So when Lisette Diaz tried to book a flight to get her family out of South Florida, she found that flights from the area during what is normally a lull in the travel season in Florida had skyrocketed from a few hundred dollars to over $3,000. Trying to get to New York, she finally settled on tickets out of Fort Lauderdale that cost upwards of $1,300 per traveler. According to the Miami Herald, there were four people traveling with her, including her mother, grandmother, adult cousin, and 11-year-old sister. $6,600 later, she had her tickets.Diaz was far from the only person to run into price gouging. Florida s Attorney General Pam Bondi activated the state s price-gouging hotline for travelers to report these egregious acts.The Herald reported that Antonio Mercurius actually got his tickets from Miami to D.C. on Monday, before the pricing spikes. Out of curiosity, he checked the price of the same ticket the next day and found it had gone up more than 800% per ticket. Said Mercurius,I understand supply and demand but the laws of capitalism should not operate in the times of catastrophic danger. What happens to the people that can t afford flights now?People trying to evacuate responsibly before the storm vented their frustration on Twitter:@AmericanAir really charging $2000 for a flight from Miami to DC. Scum I tell you. The Last DJ Bender! (@djpushplay21) September 5, 2017Searching for flight tickets for my sister, grandma and cousin and they are over 1k from Miami New York! Tu Deseo ? (@Lissette24twiny) September 5, 2017Totally unacceptable, a $358 flight from Miami to NYC went up to $3578. Why should expect anything decent from these airlines??? F ing RATS! https://t.co/rjdH6J0yOL Joseph Pep Nodarse (@joerileyhudson) September 6, 2017Looking for flights for the last hour-plus was one of the most stressful experiences I've had in quite a while. Finally got one. Alex Schwartz (@AlexJSchwartz) September 5, 2017Leave it to the industry that brought you fees for everything from blankets and pillows to a simple name change on a ticket to really kick evacuees while they re down. While we watch storms like Harvey and Irma bring out the best in neighbors and charities, the airline industry quietly profits for our misery.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
5,988 | Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg to endorse Hillary Clinton: NYT | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to endorse Hillary Clinton in a prime time address at the Democratic convention, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Citing Bloomberg’s adviser Howard Wolfson, the newspaper said that he plans to make the case for Clinton from the “perspective of a business leader and an independent.” Bloomberg, who was previously elected as a Republican and later became an independent, has been sharply critical of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. | 1 |
5,989 | Chris Christie Reportedly Told Trump To Take His Cabinet Positions And Shove ‘Em | Sources say that Chris Christie was offered several positions in Donald Trump s administration but turned them all down.On Sunday, NJ.com reported: The sources said those jobs included Cabinet-level posts like Homeland Security secretary and Veterans Affairs secretary, as well as other posts, like a White House advisory role and U.S. ambassador to Italy. However, the two sources who spoke to reporters said that the New Jersey governor was not offered the one position he had coveted and ass kissed for after his own bid for the presidency went down in flames: attorney general.The sources said that Christie just didn t think any of the positions he was offered were a good fit for him. So, at this point, it looks like Christie is going to finish out his second term as governor of New Jersey, which ends in January of 2018.Christie and Trump have been friends for more than a decade. When Christie s own White House dreams went up in smoke, he quickly fell in line behind Trump. Christie was put in charge of Trump s transition team in May and for a while, it looked as if he might be chosen as Trump s running mate.A few weeks ago, shortly after Trump won the election, Christie announced that he would be serving out his final term as New Jersey governor. For some reason, people think I m equivocal about this, the governor said on Nov. 29. And I m not. I m completing my term. But Christie then began lobbying to be appointed as chairman of the Republican National Committee, but he was apparently not offered that position either. In a report last week, NJ.com said, he and Trump decided mutually that he would not assume the job, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the scenario candidly. One source close to Christie said Trump s team is continuing to talk to the New Jersey governor, a longtime Trump friend and adviser, about various other positions in the incoming administration. According to one source, current RNC Chairman Reince Priebus would like to name his own successor. A source close to the NJ governor said that Christie is really at peace with how things have turned out.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
5,990 | Trump Jr. told Russian government behind effort to help father's campaign: NY Times | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump Jr. was told prior to meeting a Russian lawyer whom he believed had information damaging to Hillary Clinton that the material was part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s presidential campaign, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three people with knowledge of the email. Publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped broker the June 2016 meeting, sent the email to President Donald Trump’s eldest son, the Times said. Goldstone’s message indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information, according to the Times. | 1 |
5,991 | Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Explains Why He Keeps Saying, “I’m A Feminist” | During a United Nations Summit in New York City today focusing on women, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained why he is going to keep saying he is a feminist. I m going to keep saying loudly and clearly that I am a feminist, until it is met with a shrug, said Trudeau. Why does every time I say I m a feminist, the twitterverse explodes and news medias pick it up. It shouldn t be something that creates a reaction. It simply is saying, I believe in the equality of men and women and I believe that we still have an awful lot of work to do to get there. Trudeau added, It s just really, really obvious that we should be standing up for women s rights and trying to create more equal societies. Like, duh. Trudeau won election in October 2015 after a stunning comeback from third in the polls. He famously appointed an equal number of men and women in his cabinet, and cited his reasoning for doing so, because it s 2015. During the summit, he called on World leaders to follow Canada s lead when appointing their own cabinets. Any world leaders who tell me I d love to, I just can t do that with the current configuration of our parliament or of my party , I say: Well, what are you doing to change that configuration and draw out those extraordinary women who can be leaders that we need? , he told the crowd.His party, the Liberal Party, also recouped a majority in the Canadian Parliament. His election also inspired an increase of voter turnout by 7.4 percent to 68.5 percent. Trudeau won election on a campaign platform of progressive reforms, such as increasing taxes on the wealthy and dramatically improving infrastructure. Trudeau has also given warm welcomes to Syrian refugees arriving in Canada to seek asylum.Just last week, Trudeau met with President Barack Obama to promote ties between Canada and the United States, and to announce joint efforts to combat climate change. Trudeau s predecessor, Stephen Harper, as an aggressive proponent for the oil industry and did not share the same values in fighting climate change Trudeau and Obama do. Featured image courtesy of Flickr | 0 |
5,992 | Asked to explain 'calm before the storm' remark, Trump talks North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to confirm he had North Korea in mind last week when he described a gathering of military leaders as “the calm before the storm.” In an interview with U.S. network Fox News, Trump was asked what he meant with the cryptic phrase, which had fueled concerns the United States and North Korea were closer to war. “We can’t let this to go on. We just can’t,” Trump said in response to the question, adding that China has been very helpful in the situation. “They cut off banking to North Korea.” Trump made the “calm before the storm” comment during an Oct 5 photo opportunity before having dinner with U.S. military leaders and their wives. The dinner followed a meeting in which Trump and the military leaders discussed Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State. On Wednesday, Trump also characterized a diplomatic deal with North Korea brokered under former President Bill Clinton as a failure. “Before ... the ink was dry on the contract, they were already starting again with the missiles, and with the nuclear, frankly,” Trump said. “We cannot allow this to happen. This should have been taken care of long ago.” he said. | 1 |
5,993 | WE’VE GOT THE LIST Of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Speeches You Won’t Believe! | Bill and Hillary Clinton whored themselves out for over $25 million dollars from 2013 to 2015 the disturbing thing is that there is no video or transcript to be found of these speeches. The list of who they spoke to is a who s who of the banking and health industry. What on earth could they have said to garner such a huge fee? Hummmm Many things come to mind looking at this data: The median income for a family of 4 (two workers) is around $50,000 a year.Yet, we have a presidential candidate railing against the 1% and big businesses while fighting for the downtrodden who makes more in a 20-30 minute speech then a family can earn in 4 years??!!.An average 20 minute speech has 2500 words so she made about $100.00 a WORD for many of these speeches.What what so valuable in these short speeches to justify a quarter million dollars per pop??You notice we have not seen a single transcript or video of any of these??? Surprising in this day of technology where everything is recorded.How would Hillary s narrative of chastising the big banks actually hold up compared to what she actually said??? Especially, when participants only remember her talking to them in glowing terms??? Not that Hillary has ever stretched the truth before .How could all these companies justify these expenses to their board without showing some return in kind ??? The Clinton s paid speeches between 2013 and 2015Hillary Clinton s speeches:GE 1/6/2014 Boca Raton, Fl. $225,500 National Automobile Dealers Association 1/27/2014 New Orleans, La. $325,500 Premier Health Alliance 1/27/2014 Miami, Fl. $225,500 Salesforce.com 2/6/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,500 Novo Nordisk A/S 2/17/2014 Mexico City, Mexico 125,000 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2/26/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,500 A&E Television Networks 2/27/2014 New York, N.Y. 280,000 Association of Corporate Counsel Southern California 3/4/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $225,500 The Vancouver Board of Trade 3/5/2014 Vancouver, Canada $275,500 tinePublic Inc. 3/6/2014 Calgary, Canada $225,500 Pharmaceutical Care Management Association 3/13/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,500 Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies 3/13/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Xerox Corporation 3/18/2014 New York, N.Y. $225,000 Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal 3/18/2014 Montreal, Canada $275,000 Academic Partnerships 3/24/2014 Dallas, Tx. $225,500 Marketo Inc. 4/8/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 World Affairs Council 4/8/2014 Portland, Or. $250,500 Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. 4/10/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,500 Let s Talk Entertainment 4/10/2014 San Jose, Ca. $265,000 California Medical Association (via satellite) 4/11/2014 San Diego, Ca. $100,000 National Council for Behavioral Healthcare 5/6/2014 Washington D.C. $225,500 International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Association 6/2/2014 Denver, Co. $225,500 Let s Talk Entertainment 6/2/2014 Denver, Co. $265,000 United Fresh Produce Association 6/10/2014 Chicago, Il. $225,000 tinePublic Inc. 6/16/2014 Toronto, Canada $150,000 tinePublic Inc. 6/18/2014 Edmonton, Canada $100,000 Innovation Arts and Entertainment 6/20/2014 Austin, Tx. $150,000 Biotechnology Industry Organization 6/25/2014 San Diego, Ca. $335,000 Innovation Arts and Entertainment 6/25/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $150,000 GTCR 6/26/2014 Chicago, Il. $280,000 Knewton, Inc. 7/22/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 Ameriprise 7/26/2014 Boston, Ma. $225,500 Corning, Inc. 7/29/2014 Corning, N.Y. $225,500 Nexenta Systems, Inc. 8/28/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $300,000 Cisco 8/28/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $325,000 Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP 9/4/2014 San Diego, Ca. $225,500 Caridovascular Research Foundation 9/15/2014 Washington D.C. $275,000 Commercial Real Estate Women Network 10/2/2014 Miami Beach, Fl. $225,500 Canada 2020 10/6/2014 Ottawa, Canada $215,500 Deutsche Bank AG 10/7/2014 New York, N.Y. $280,000 Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) 10/8/2014 Chicago, Il. $265,000 Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers 10/13/2014 Colorado Springs, Co. $225,500 Salesforce.com 10/14/2014 San Francisco, Ca. $225,500 Qualcomm Incorporated 10/14/2014 San Diego, Ca. $335,000 Massachusetts Conference for Women 12/4/2014 Boston, Ma. $205,500 tinePublic Inc. 1/21/2015 Winnipeg, Canada $262,000 tinePublic Inc. 1/21/2015 Saskatoon, Canada $262,500 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 1/22/2015 Whistler, Canada $150,000 2/24/2015 Santa Clara, Ca. $225,500 eBay Inc. 3/11/2015 San Jose, Ca. $315,000 American Camping Association 3/19/2015 Atlantic City, N.J. $260,000 TOTAL $11,987,000 Bill Clinton s speeches:Patient Safety Movement Foundation 1/12/2014 Laguna Niguel, Ca. $315,000.00 National Multi Housing Council 1/23/2014 Boca Raton, Fl. $285,000 Thomas Lloyd Global Asset Management 1/24/2014 Frankfurt, Germany $200,000 The Fragrance Foundation 1/29/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 2/4/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $290,000 Centurion Jewelry By Invitation Only, LLC 2/4/2014 Scottsdale, Az. $225,000 Young s Presidents Organization 2/27/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $100,000 Bright Futures International 2/27/2014 Beverly Hills, Ca. $225,000 Microsoft Corporation 3/3/2014 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,000 Bank of America 3/6/2014 London, United Kingdom $500,000 Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP 3/7/2014 The Netherlands $500,000 Telefonica (via satellite) 4/1/2014 Miami, Fl. $175,000 CSP LLC 4/1/2014 Scottsdale, Az. $225,000 Oracle Americas, Inc. 4/2/2014 Rancho Mirage, Ca. $300,000 Experian 5/5/2014 Dallas, Tx. $225,000 Jefferies LLC 5/6/2014 Miami, Fl. $225,000 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies 5/12/2014 Toronto, Canada $275,000 Target Markets Program Administrators 5/13/2014 Baltimore, Md. $275,000 UBS Wealth Management Americas 5/19/2014 Washington D.C. $225,000 SCIP Capital Management, LLC 5/20/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 EAT The Stockholm Food Forum AB 5/26/2014 Stockholm, Sweeden $500,000 Entergy Corporation 6/5/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Insurance Accounting and Systems Association 6/10/2014 Indianapolis, In. $225,000 Castlight Health 6/10/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Hogan Lovelis US LLP 6/20/2014 Toronto, Canada $225,000 Skechers USA, Inc. 6/26/2014 Redondo Beach, Ca. $350,000 Deutsche Bank AG 8/27/2014 Boston, Ma. $270,000 Young s Presidents Organization 9/9/2014 New York, N.Y. $150,000 Association of Energy Engineers 10/1/2014 Washington D.C. $275,000 Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. 10/9/2014 Napa Valley, Ca. $225,000 Veritas Capital Fund Management LLC 10/14/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 UBS Wealth Management Americas 10/14/2014 Boston, Ma. $225,000 Citadel LLC 10/15/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 SAP America 10/23/2014 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Press Ganey Associates, Inc. 11/3/2014 Orlando, Fl. $225,000 World Affairs Council Los Angeles 11/10/2014 Los Angeles, Ca. $150,000 Centerview Partners LLC 11/13/2014 Carefree, Az. $225,000 AT&T Services, Inc. 11/20/2014 Tuscon, Az. $225,000 Williams Morris Endeavor 1/9/2015 Carlsbad, Ca. $225,000 MPSF, Inc. 2/2/2015 Marin, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/3/2015 Oakland, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/4/2015 San Mateo, Ca. $181,250 MPSF, Inc. 2/5/2015 Marin, Ca. $181,250 UBS Wealth Management Americas 2/19/2015 Nashville, Tn. $225,000 National Association of Manufacturers 3/2/2015 Scottsdale, Az. $325,000 HR.com Limited 3/31/2015 Irving, Tx. $275,000 Texas China Business Council, LLC 3/31/2015 Austin, Tx. $265,000 Wyndham Hotel Group 4/1/2015 Las Vegas, Nv. $225,000 ISN Software Inc. 4/9/2015 Grapevine, Tx. $275,000 Oracle Corporation 4/16/2015 Rancho Mirage, Ca. $360,000 Univision Management Company 5/12/2015 New York, N.Y. $250,000 Apollo Management Holdings, LP 5/12/2015 New York, N.Y. $250,000 American Institute of Architects 5/14/2015 Atlanta, Ga. $250,000 TOTAL $13,460,000.00 Read more: Politico | 0 |
5,994 | Don Lemon Is Fed Up, Yanks Guest Off The Air After Idiotic Fake News Claims (VIDEO) | CNN host Don Lemon has had it with conservatives who claim things are fake news just because they disagree. He got that point across loud and clear when he suddenly cut a segment short rather than let a guest continue to argue that the network is pushing fake news stories.Lemon was moderating a panel discussion regarding the expense of Trump s weekend trips to his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida. But when Paris Dennard, a political analyst and commentator, finally got a chance to give his opinion things went completely off the rails. Dennard declared that the entire topic they were discussing was fake news. The president is not breaking any laws, and he s not doing anything, Dennard said.But Lemon wasn t having it. The CNN host cut Dennard off and decided to educate him and the viewers at home about just what the term fake news actually means. Fake news is when you put out a story to intentionally deceive someone and you know that it is wrong, he said. This story that we re doing right now is not to intentionally deceive anyone. We are simply talking about the cost to keep a president safe, he continued. Please stop it with that stupid talking point, that it is a fake news story. If you don t want to participate in the news stories on this network, then don t come on and participate. But don t call them fake because you don t agree with them. Go on. Dennard was given another chance to speak, but he still insisted that this is a fake news story. And at that point, Lemon had had enough and yanked Dennard off the air, abruptly ending the segment rather than let Dennard continue to undermine the press with his bogus claims.Watch the segment below: Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
5,995 | Turkey to seize assets of gold trader testifying in U.S. court: Anadolu | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is to seize the assets of a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who is a key witness in the trial of a Turkish bank executive in the United States over violations of Iran sanctions, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday he hoped gold trader Reza Zarrab would turn back from his mistake in cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, reiterating Ankara s view that the criminal trial in New York was aimed at putting pressure on Turkey and its economy. The Istanbul prosecutor s office decided to seize the assets of Zarrab and those of his acquaintances as part of an investigation against him, Anadolu said. The prosecutor s office was not immediately available for comment. | 1 |
5,996 | NAVY SEALS “Forced To Spend Their Own Money On Combat Gear”…WHILE U.S. Marines Will Spend $50 MILLION To Save Desert Tortoises | The security of our nation has never been more threatened than it is today, under the incompetent leadership of Barack Hussein Obama. The idea that we have one of the most highly trained group of warriors in our US Military paying for their own combat gear is unconscionable. Meanwhile, we are about the spend $50 MILLION or $42,000 per tortoise, to transplant them from a desert in CA to a new environment, where they may or may not survive, is a perfect example of how upside down our nation s priorities are today Breitbart Congressman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a Marine with three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on his resume, says Navy SEALs have been telling him they are running short on combat rifles.The Associated Press reports Hunter describing a weapons carousel in which SEALs returning from deployment hand their weapons off to outgoing troops, a practice he described as undermining the train like you fight ideal, and disrupting the personal connection special operators develop with their finely-tuned weapons. Hunter stressed the importance of allowing special operators to train with the same weapons they bring into the field. As it currently stands, following a deployment, a SEAL will have his weapon taken from him, which has been fine-tuned to certain specifications, and given to a different operator to use. This means that SEALs standing by to deploy are waiting for different teams to come back stateside just so they can use their weapons, said Hunter. They want their rifles. It s their lifeline. So let them keep their guns until they re assigned desk jobs at the Pentagon, the Congressman urged.According to the Navy Times, some SEALs have been forced to spend their own money on combat gear. Former active-duty special operator Lt. Cmdr. Sean Matson, visiting Capitol Hill at Hunter s invitation, said he had to put up $900 of his own money to buy a high-quality ballistic helmet when the Navy dragged its heels on upgrading his kit. Hunter portrayed the SEAL rifle shortage as a consequence of wasteful spending, noting that abundant funds for purchasing rifles, which are far less expensive than most of the equipment the military buys, should be available, based on congressional spending authorizations for special ops forces.Hunter s chief of staff Joe Kasper told the Navy Times shortages of optics, night vision, and laser attachments have also been reported, even as the budget for Navy Special Warfare increased. So there are obviously some trade-offs being made, but they re occurring at the expense of operators and their firepower and those are the absolute worst trade-offs to make, said Kasper. Meanwhile Daily Caller The Marine Corps is getting ready to conduct a massive operation to move hundreds of desert tortoises living on combat training grounds so they won t be crushed to death by military vehicles.The operation s total cost: $50 million to move 1,185 tortoises, or about $42,000 per tortoise. | 0 |
5,997 | Nine dead, seven missing after Irma hits French islands: minister | PARIS (Reuters) - Nine people have been killed and at least seven are missing after hurricane Irma hit the France s Caribbean islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Friday. 112 were people were injured, Collomb said, adding that there could be more victims. | 1 |
5,998 | Carson calls slaves 'immigrants' in speech, drawing criticism | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ben Carson, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on Monday referred to slaves brought to the United States against their will as “immigrants,” drawing quick condemnation from civil rights groups who cast his remarks as offensive. It was Carson’s first address to the staff at HUD. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week. By way of introduction, Carson shared anecdotes from his past career as a neurosurgeon and praised immigrants who worked long hours to build a better life for their children. “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less,” said Carson, who is African-American. “But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land,” he said. Enslaved Africans did not voluntarily come to the United States and were denied freedom for hundreds of years. “This is as offensive a remark as it gets,” said Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. The remarks sparked outrage on Twitter, including from the actor Samuel L. Jackson. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also criticized Carson. A HUD spokesman later called the tempest “the most cynical interpretation of the secretary’s remarks to an army of welcoming HUD employees. No one honestly believes he equates voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude.” Carson was well received by the hundreds of HUD employees in the room and got a standing ovation at the close of his remarks. As housing secretary, Carson is in a position to play a leading role in reviving poor neighborhoods, as Republican President Donald Trump has promised. Carson occasionally stumbled as a Republican presidential candidate, such as when he said he did not believe a Muslim should be president. After dropping out of the race, Carson threw his support to Trump, who named him housing secretary after winning the November election. | 1 |
5,999 | EU again urges dialogue to end Catalan crisis | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission repeated its call for dialogue in Spain to end the crisis in Catalonia amid concerns that the Catalan regional authorities could declare independence on Tuesday. We called on all those concerned to get of this confrontation as quickly as possible and to start dialogue, a spokesman for the EU executive said in answer to a question on how the Commission might respond to such a declaration. Violence, as we said, can never be a political tool, he told reporters, recalling a statement made last week. And we expressed our confidence in the capacity of Prime Minister (Mariano) Rajoy to manage this delicate process in full respect of the Spanish constitution and the basic fundamental rights of the citizens. | 1 |
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