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6,300 | Biden, Poroshenko discuss reforms needed in Ukraine: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke by phone for the second consecutive day on Friday to discuss the need for Kiev to quickly pass reforms needed for a $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. “The two leaders agreed on the importance of unity among Ukrainian political forces to quickly pass reforms in line with the commitments in its IMF program, including measures focused on rooting out corruption,” the White House said. | 1 |
6,301 | Kerry says raised Democrat email hack with Russia's Lavrov | VIENTIANE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he raised the issue of the hacking of Democratic Party emails in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov brushed off accusations that Moscow was behind the hacking ahead of the meeting. Kerry also said he would encourage the Philippines to engage in bilateral negotiations with China to resolve their dispute over rival claims in the South China Sea. Kerry is due to travel to the Philippines later on Wednesday, after a two-day visit to Laos, and he will meet President Rodrigo Duterte while there. | 1 |
6,302 | China considers punishing those who slander heroes and martyrs | BEIJING (Reuters) - China is considering a law punishing those who slander heroes and martyrs or cause physical damage to their memorials, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, the latest piece of legislation to protect the country s symbols of state. Xi Jinping has ushered in new legislation aimed at securing China from threats both within and outside its borders since taking over as president in 2013, as well as presiding over a sweeping crackdown on dissent and free speech. China s largely rubber stamp parliament amended its criminal law last month to extend punishments for publicly desecrating the national flag and emblem to include disrespecting the national anthem. Punishments include jail terms of up to three years. The latest proposed legislation is aimed at protecting the reputation of martyrs - those who have given their lives for China or the Communist Party - and who are already publicly lauded in the country. Memorials to those who fought against the Japanese during World War Two, or in the Chinese civil war against the Nationalists, and others are scattered across the country. School children learn about the feats of the most famous. Xinhua said the new law would offer unspecified punishments to those who insult or slander heroes and martyrs or damage their memorials. The law would also give a responsibility to the media and internet users to report any insults to the honor of martyrs, it said. It is unclear when the proposal could be put into law, but Chinese laws normally go through at least two rounds of drafting before they are passed, meaning it could be some months away. Party history is a sensitive subject in China because so much of the party s legitimacy rests on its position as claiming great historical achievements, such as leading China to victory over Japan during World War Two. Disputes about party history already occasionally make it to Chinese courts. A court ordered a former magazine editor to publicly apologize last year for two articles written in 2013 questioning the details of a well-known story about Communist soldiers fighting the Japanese in World War Two. In the story, the five soldiers jumped off a cliff so the Japanese could not take them alive, although two of them survived. The editor had expressed doubt about how many Japanese the Chinese soldiers killed, how the two survived and the location of the cliff. | 1 |
6,303 | Neo-Nazi Sues Trump For Making Him Punch A Black Lady At A Rally (VIDEO) | Apparently, if you are unqualified enough for a job, you will develop mind control powers at least, that s what neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach thinks. During his campaign, Donald Trump regularly encouraged his supporters to beat up African-Americans in the crowd, even offering to pay their legal fees if they did as he told them to (a promise that, like most of his promises, has yet to manifest).In March Heimbach, leader of the white nationalist Traditionalist Youth Network and a loyal Donald Trump soldier took it to heart when The Donald screamed Get em out of here as African-American protesters attempted to inform him and his supporters that their lives have just as much value as white lives (and infinitely more value than those of the crackers who would vote for the ideological reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, though protesters generally leave that detail out). Heimbach, wearing his MAGAMAGAMAGA hat, can be seen in a video captured at the time shoving and punching an African-American woman as Trump sicced his posse on her.Kashiya Nwanguma, the woman from the video and other protesters who were attacked recently filed suit against Heimbach, two other Trump supporters, and the Trump campaign and Heimbach, who is representing himself, responded with a countersuit not against the women but against the man for whom he voted.Heimbach claims he acted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President and that if he s found liable for damages, any liability must be shifted to one or both of them. In other words, he knows he s fucked and hoping the I was just following orders defense works out for him even if he does have to throw Trump under the bus. Heimbach says he denies physically assaulting protesters, adding that they provoked a response by attempting to disrupt a free assembly and campaign event and to infringe rights of the defendants and other attendees to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to vote and other constitutional rights. One again, he can be seen on video attacking Nwanguma. Since he will almost assuredly be using Google a lot in preparing his defense, he should probably look up perjury while he is at it. Mr. Nazi adds that he acted, if at all, in self defense as well as in reasonable defense of others even when he was shoving his victim from behind.Heimbach says that The Donald is a world famous businessman who relies on various professionals including attorneys and other professional advisors, so he relied on Trump s reputation and expertise in doing the things alleged. This accidental admission of fault will, of course, come back to bite him in his posterior.This filing comes alongside one filed by one of the other attackers, Alvin Bamberger, who also attacked Nwanguma. Bamberger says that he had no prior intention to act as he did and would not have acted as he did without Trump and/or the Trump Campaign s specific urging and inspiration. He admits only that he touched a woman and, like Mr. Nazi, denies that he assaulted that woman video be damned!Speaking of video, you can watch it below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
6,304 | BOOM! PRESIDENT TRUMP’S National Park Service CANCELS Taxpayer Funding For Project Honoring Violent Black Panther’s Group That Killed Park Ranger | Beyonce made an attempt to glorify the violent Black Panther s group during her NFL Superbowl halftime show in 2015. Former President Barack Obama once marched with the New Black Panthers while campaigning for president in Selma, AL in March, 2007. The photographs, captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before it was scrubbed, are the latest evidence of the mainstream media s failure to examine Obama s extremist ties and radical roots.The National Park Service told the Washington Free Beacon it is no longer providing funding for a controversial project honoring the legacy of the Black Panther Party after outrage that the agency would spend taxpayer dollars to memorialize a group that murdered a park ranger in the 1970s.The Free Beacon revealed last month that the Park Service gave roughly $100,000 to the University of California, Berkeley for a research project on the Marxist extremist group to memorialize a history that brought meaning to lives far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. A captain in the Black Panther Party murdered National Park Service ranger Kenneth Patrick while he was on patrol near San Francisco in 1973. Patrick was shot three times by Veronza Leon Curtis Bowers Jr., who is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Patrick left behind a widow and three children.The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers with over 330,000 members, sent a letter to President Donald Trump last week expressing outrage and shock that the National Park Service would fund a project honoring the legacy of the Black Panther Party. Mr. President, as far as we are concerned the only meaning they brought to any lives was grief to the families of their victims, wrote Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. According to our research, members of this militant anti-American group murdered 16 law enforcement officers over the course of their history. Among their victims was U.S. Park Ranger Kenneth C. Patrick. He was murdered in cold blood by three members of the Black Panther Party on 5 August 1973. His killer, who remains behind bars, still considers himself a Black Panther and a political prisoner.' It is appalling that the National Park Service, Ranger Patrick s own agency, now proposes to partner with [Berkeley] and two active members of this violent and repugnant organization, Canterbury said.The FBI labels the Black Panther Party as advocates for the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government. At a time when many in our nation feel strongly that memorials to aspects of the darker times in our history be removed from public lands, why would the NPS seek to commemorate the activities of an extremist separatist group that advocated the use of violence against our country a country they perceived as their enemy? Canterbury asked. This is a despicable irony and we hope you can bring it to an end by halting [the grant] immediately. | 0 |
6,305 | Senate intel panel's top Democrat: Lawmakers will want talk to Kushner again | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate intelligence panel’s top Democrat on Friday said lawmakers will want to again interview U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law turned White House adviser Jared Kushner in the wake of former adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea as part of the U.S. special counsel’s investigation. “There are a number, like Mr. Kushner and others, that we’re going to want to invite back,” Senator Mark Warner told reporters. He declined to say whether that would include U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. He added that he remained confident in the panel’s Republican chairman, Richard Burr. Burr, in a New York Times report on Thursday, said Trump had told him that he was eager to see the committee’s probe end. | 1 |
6,306 | Trump touts urban policy following detour to open new hotel | CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in an appeal on Wednesday to African-Americans and working-class voters, promised “21st century” banking industry reforms and tax changes to spur job creation and investment in blighted communities. Delivering an urban policy speech two weeks before the Nov. 8 election, Trump highlighted his plan to ease access to bank credit for young blacks trying to start businesses and create jobs in their communities. The New York businessman, who trails Democrat Hillary Clinton in national opinion polls and is struggling to appeal to African-Americans and Latinos, also called for broader tax incentives to spur inner-city investment. The steps, coupled with efforts to reduce U.S. trade deficits and the outsourcing of jobs abroad, Trump said, would “raise wages at home, meaning rent and bills become instantly more affordable” for the poor. Trump flew to Charlotte, a major commercial hub in the U.S. South, after attending the formal opening in Washington of a Trump International Hotel just blocks from the White House. Trump’s detour from the campaign trail to plug his business drew criticism from some fellow Republicans, but the former reality TV star said the project, completed “under budget and ahead of schedule,” showed what he could accomplish if elected president. His Democratic rival, Clinton, said: “Donald Trump is actually paying more attention to his business than to the campaign. That’s his choice, but we’re going to keep working really hard to reach as many voters as possible.” Speaking to reporters during a flight to New York after campaigning in Florida, Clinton also said the proposed merger of AT&T Inc and Time Warner Inc “raises questions and concerns and they should be looked into.” In Charlotte, Trump provided few details of “21st century Glass-Steagall,” which would build on the 1933 Depression-era law requiring the separation of commercial and investment banking. Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999 under then-President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband. The 2008 financial crisis prompted an overhaul of banking rules with the passage in 2010 of “Dodd-Frank” Wall Street reforms that many Republicans have criticized. “Dodd-Frank has been a disaster, making it harder for small businesses to get the credit they need,” Trump said. Trump, speaking to a mostly white audience after meeting with black religious leaders, said he would step up the police presence in U.S. cities so that “every poor African-American child” can walk on the streets in safety. “Safety is a civil right. The problem is not the presence of police but the absence of police,” he said. Last month, hundreds of demonstrators protested in Charlotte after the release of videos showing the fatal shooting of a black man by police officers. While Trump’s speech stuck mainly to policy initiatives, he also got in a jab at Clinton. “Honestly, she has less energy than Jeb Bush,” Trump said, criticizing Clinton’s stamina and harking back to his charges that Bush, a former rival for the Republican nomination, was “low energy.” Clinton told reporters that “there was not an ounce of complacency” in her campaign and said that if elected, she would reach out to Republicans and independents, including congressional leaders, “both before the inauguration and to continue afterwards.” Before Trump’s Charlotte speech, much of Wednesday’s media attention focused on Trump’s appearance at his new, 263-room luxury hotel. Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who led 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s unsuccessful campaign, said the hotel stop was the latest inexplicable act from Trump and atypical behavior for someone trying to win the White House. “The walls are collapsing,” Schmidt told MSNBC in an interview. “He is not doing any of the normal activities that you’d be doing 13 days out in a presidential race for somebody who’s competitive. You don’t take a time-out to tend to your business interests.” Trump, making his first run for elected office, often highlights his business accomplishments and has held numerous events at his properties since launching his White House bid last year, including a trip to Scotland to open a refurbished golf resort in June. Asked after the event why he was in Washington instead of campaigning in a battleground state, Trump told CNN it was “a very rude question” and said he worked hard on the trail every day. “I can’t take one hour off to cut a ribbon at one of the great hotels of the world? I mean, I think I’m entitled to it,” Trump told ABC News. He said there was a double standard, noting that Clinton was not criticized for taking time to see the singer Adele in concert on Tuesday night. Clinton campaigned on Wednesday in Florida, where many opinion polls show a tight race. An average of Florida polls compiled by RealClearPolitics showed Clinton at 46.4 percent compared with 44.8 percent for Trump in a race including third-party candidates. Clinton has a strong lead in the race to secure the 270 Electoral College votes - or tally of wins from the states - needed to capture the White House, according to results from Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project released on Saturday. | 1 |
6,307 | Merkel's Bavarian allies insist on conservative unity before coalition talks | BERLIN (Reuters) - The Bavarian sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said her conservative bloc must agree policies on immigration, pensions and healthcare before opening coalition negotiations with two other parties. Leaders of Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) - stung by a drop in support of more than 10 percent in the Sept. 24 election - have redoubled their push for a 200,000 per year cap on immigration, a demand that Merkel has rejected, complicating her efforts to form a new government. Merkel s bloc of the CDU and CSU, which have worked as partners for decades, hung onto their position as the largest group in parliament after a Sept. 24 vote, despite seeing their combined support fall to its lowest since 1949. They must find coalition partners to build a government, with the most likely path toward a majority being an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. CSU leader Horst Seehofer said the conservative allies could not begin negotiating with the other parties until they resolved their own position on major issues, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Monday. It quoted the Bavarian premier, who is fending off calls for his own resignation, as saying the two parties faced their biggest challenge since 1976 - when his predecessor Franz-Josef Strauss threatened for weeks to break up the alliance. Seehofer, whose biggest challenger is Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder, a hardliner on immigration, will meet Merkel and other top officials on Sunday, with top officials in Merkel s CDU split on the need for a rightward shift. The conflict inside the conservative camp is straining Merkel s already difficult task of bringing together parties with big differences on energy, Europe, migration and taxes. Armin Laschet, premier of Germany s most populous region, North Rhine-Westphalia, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that the migrant cap sought by CSU leaders was unacceptable. But he suggested a compromise could be found that included some ballpark figures. Laschet also said the Greens would have to step back from some of their hardline environmentalist demands. The CDU s leader in the eastern state of Thuringia on Monday argued against the rightward shift demanded by the CSU and the conservative premiers of two states - Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt - where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made big gains in Sunday s national elections. Our job is to fence ourselves off against the left and the right, Mike Mohring told Reuters. Manfred Weber, deputy leader of the CSU and head of the center-right group in the EU Parliament, told Deutschlandfunk radio it was important to avoid setting red lines before the coalition talks, given the urgent need to win back AfD voters. Weber said he expected all mainstream parties to focus on preventing the anti-immigrant AfD from gaining a permanent foothold in the German parliament. He said a three-way coalition among conservatives, Greens and the FDP, dubbed a Jamaica coalition since the parties colors match those of the Black, Green and Yellow Jamaican flag, offered a chance to build consensus on other issues such as energy and agriculture. Jamaica offers us a chance ... to embark on a new start, he said. The CSU is ready to do that. Merkel has sought to keep the door open for a renewal of her grand coalition with the Social Democrats that has ruled for the past four years, but the SPD is determined to stay in opposition after suffering its worst result since 1933. We got 20.5 percent of the vote. That is not a mandate to govern, SPD Secretary General Hubertus Heil told broadcaster ARD on Monday. He accused the other parties of stalling coalition talks until after a state election due on Oct. 15 in Lower Saxony. They want to govern, now they should govern, he said. A new poll by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper showed the CDU and SPD nearly tied in Lower Saxony, with 33.1 percent and 32.8 percent, respectively. | 1 |
6,308 | WATCH: Trump Supporter Accuses Hillary Of Sexual Assault And CNN Panel Demolishes Them | Donald Trump s new strategy to spin away from the sexual assault avalanche that is burying him apparently includes accusing Hillary Clinton of sexual assault.Because that s exactly what Trump minion Gina Loudon did during an appearance on CNN with Don Lemon on Monday night.Loudon and fellow Trump minion Betsey McCaughey tried to steer the discussion from Trump s sexual assault comments to claims of mass election fraud, which Trump has repeatedly tried to convince everyone is a thing that actually happens even though it is incredibly rare in our country.At that point, panelist Bakari Sellers had had enough and shut both women down to return the discussion to the topic at hand. This is absurd, Sellers said. Bless your heart, both of you, this is patently absurd. You talked about the fact that Donald Trump somehow had allegations that were unproven. No. Melania Trump was on camera today, trying to deal with his own comments coming out of his mouth. We weren t even at the allegations. We were at the point that he said he likes to sexually abuse people. You cannot be serious, Loudon exclaimed. But Sellers refused to back down. That s sexual assault, is it not? he asked.Indeed, Trump bragged about groping women against their will back in 2005 while on a hot mic while on Access Hollywood. Groping women against their will is the exact definition of sexual assault. But Loudon has a totally different definition and she openly stated it on national television when she openly accused Hillary Clinton of sexually assaulting Bill Clinton s accusers. Words are not sexual assault, she claimed. What is sexual assault is what Hillary Clinton did to the women her husband absolutely, factually assaulted. Wow. Donald Trump s supporters literally just sunk to a new low in their desperate effort to paint Hillary as worse than the Republican nominee.Lemon and Sellers were stunned by the ridiculous accusation and former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter told the two women that they are embarrassing themselves.Loudon insisted that Hillary paid $100,000 to a private investigator to dig up bad stuff on these women, but when Lemon and Nutter told her there was no evidence of her claims, the best Loudon could offer is that there is an alleged tape and that she has heard it. In other words, hearsay, which is not evidence.Nutter went on to slam Donald Trump as a liar and he actually listed off many of the things Trump has lied about, and unlike Loudon s claim, there is evidence to back him up.Here s the video via VidMe.Donald Trump has no business being a candidate for the presidency and his supporters should not be allowed on national media programs. All they have done is lie throughout this campaign and accusing Hillary of sexual assault should be the last time Gina Loudon is ever invited back on CNN or any other news outlet.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
6,309 | statistical tie latest breitbartgravis poll shows donald trump closes the gap with less than two weeks left | watch cnn called clinton news network on air by fiery british conservative the implosion that followed is something to see image credits wiki commons
cnn anchor hala gorani wasnt expecting her network to be called the clinton news network by british firebrand conservative columnist katie hopkins from the daily mail and watching the ensuing implosion is a mustsee
hopkins first offense was daring to believe donald trump is going to win the election never a good way to start on cnn
i think hes going to win i think you guys are in for a big surprise which im quite excited about i think weve seen a very similar think here in the uk with brexit we saw a lot of the liberal press kind of sneering at brexiteers we saw a lot of the sneering that we see from the clinton news network
thats cnn youre calling us the clinton news network gorani said in shock
youre exactly correct hopkins said
the two argued over how the media are obsessed with polls especially the ones showing hillary clinton in the lead hopkins destroyed gorani saying having sat in the republican national convention in cleveland and watched your news network it is entirely biased i think in coverage
gorani refused to believe and said over her year career at cnn shes only seen nothing but balance at the network
oddly enough as the sparring match continued gorani repeatedly cut hopkins off when she criticized the clintons
so there goes that theory newsletter sign up get the latest breaking news specials from alex jones and the infowars crew related articles | 0 |
6,310 | Christians Warned By Obama: Religious Freedom Takes A Backseat To Gay Rights | Obama spoke to a LGTB group a few days ago where he expressed his genuine concerns regarding religious institutions but that gay rights come before religious freedom. It s obvious Obama s taking a swipe at the Kim Davis case. The Pope met with Kim Davis and gave her encouragement but did the Pope discuss religious freedom and gay rights with Obama? As soon as the Pope took off for Rome, Obama lets it rip on gay rights. Demonizing those who are religious and those who choose not to support the gay community is typical Obama he ll forever be remembered as THE GREAT DIVIDER who really doesn t want to find common ground. I guess that s what old radicals are REALLY good at! We affirm that we cherish our religious freedom and are profoundly respectful of religious traditions, he insisted during a dramatic speech at a LGTB fundraiser in New York City on Sunday night, praising the progress made on gay rights under his administration. But we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn t grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights. The fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee was specifically billed as an LGBT gala held in New York City in coordination with Obama s trip to the United Nations Assembly.During his speech, Obama asserted that his administration was respecting what he described as genuine concerns of religious institutions but suggested that Republicans were using the issue just to earn more votes, as they did in 2004. America has left the leaders of the Republican Party behind, he declared proudly.He ridiculed Ben Carson for suggesting that prison turns you gay and added that another Republican candidate had boasted of his introduction of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, likely referring to Sen. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)96%.Alluding to Gov. Mike Huckabee, Obama mocked a candidate who said that Americans should just disobey the Supreme Court s ruling entirely. I m sure he loves the Constitution except for Article III, Obama said mockingly. And maybe the Equal Protection Amendment. And 14th Amendment, generally. Debbie Wasserman Shultz was in attendance at the fundraiser, and Star Trek s George Takei also was expected to attend.Obama proudly told the audience that he would not back down in his efforts to make progress for the LGBT community, and called for all of them to remain vigilant to hold the line on important legal gains in the country. What makes America special is, is that though sometimes we zig and zag, eventually hope wins out, he said. But it only wins out because folks like you put your shoulder behind the wheel and push it in that direction. Via: Breitbart | 0 |
6,311 | In Nairobi slum, rock-throwers, police keep voters at bay | NAIROBI (Reuters) - It had all the trappings of a proper polling station - ballot-boxes, pots of indelible ink, registration lists and a dozen election officials dutifully seated behind school desks. The only things missing were the voters. In Nairobi s Kibera slum, a hot-bed of support for veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, many young men failed to heed his call for a peaceful stay-away from Thursday s election, a re-run of an August presidential vote annulled by the courts. After opening six hours late because of a lack of security, the polling station at Kibera s Olympic Primary School came under attack from stone-throwing youths determined to ward off any voters. Police at the gates responded with volleys of tear gas followed by live rounds, sending gangs of youths chanting slogans against President Uhuru Kenyatta scurrying for cover in the warren of streets and tin-shacks next to the school walls. Riot officers then sealed off the area, making it impossible for even residents to get through, let alone would-be voters prepared to run the gauntlet of pro-Odinga peer pressure. I don t want to vote. I just want to go to my home, said 24-year-old Kevin Ouma-Sigiria, after being turned back by armed riot police blocking the rubble-strewn road 500 metres (1500 feet) from the school. As he spoke, another man tried to talk his way through the road-block, only to receive a prod in the chest from a wooden club, followed by a nonchalant whack around the ankles. There is a crisis up there, one of the riot officers, who idenitified himself only as Kevin, said. If they come one-by-one, that s OK. But if they gather again, the crisis will get bigger. Moments later, 35-year-old Said Mohammed scurried down the street in the opposite direction with his wife and three small children to pack them off to relatives living up-country. It s not good for their health, he said, clutching his children s hands as the pop of exloding tear-gas grenades echoed across the tin roof-tops. Other opposition strongholds in western Kenya saw similar unrest, causing the election commission to postpone voting there until the weekend - although there is little prospect of a 48-hour delay yielding a different outcome. In Kibera, polling station staff should have slept overnight at the Olympic school but were unable to do so because of fear of being attacked. As it was, they arrived under armed escort at 10am - four hours after voting was meant to start. The ballot boxes, also escorted by a heavily armed police contingent, arrived an hour after that - not that there was any chance of them being used. Nobody is going to vote here today, said Olympic deputy presiding officer Jaqueline Onuko, blithely tucking into a sandwich as rocks clanged against the metal roof of the classroom-cum-polling station. The first time around was very busy...They were here queueing at 3 in the morning. Now nobody is going to come. They are scared of both the police and their neighbors. | 1 |
6,312 | Factbox: Republican Obamacare plan would repeal Medicaid expansion, taxes | (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have unveiled a plan to replace Obamacare, known formally as the Affordable Care Act, stripping away much of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement that insured 20 million Americans. President Donald Trump and his Republicans had vowed for years to dismantle the law. It was a central campaign issue in 2016. The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee approved the bill along party lines early Thursday after nearly 18 hours of debate. The House Energy and Commerce Committee was still debating the bill Thursday, after an all-night session where Democrats fought the measure and used numerous tactics to delay a vote. The bill could still change substantially as it makes its way through committees. Here are its main provisions: The Republicans want to eliminate next year Obamacare’s income-based tax credits that help low-income people purchase individual insurance. These would be replaced with tax credits ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per year that would be capped at upper income levels. While Obamacare’s credits provided more assistance to those with lower incomes, those in the Republican plan would be largely based on age. The Republican bill would abolish most Obamacare taxes, including taxes on medical devices, health insurance premiums, tanning salons and prescription medications. It would also delay a tax on high-cost employer-provided insurance known as “Cadillac” plans until 2025. Those taxes paid for Obamacare. Republicans have not said how they would pay for the parts of the law they want to keep. The bill also repeals the Obamacare financial penalty for the 2016 tax year for not purchasing insurance, as well as a surtax on investment income earned by upper-income Americans. And it repeals the mandate that larger employers must offer insurance to their employees. Under Obamacare, more than 30 states, including several Republican states, made the Medicaid government health insurance more accessible to the poor. About half of Obamacare enrollees obtained insurance through the expansion. The bill would allow the Medicaid expansion to continue until January 1, 2020, providing states that chose not to expand under Obamacare a window to enroll more people. After that date, the expansion would end and Medicaid funding would be capped on a per-person basis. States that did not expand Medicaid would receive additional funds through a number of changes, including the reinstatement of disproportionate share hospital payments, money that is provided to hospitals that serve a large number of Medicaid and uninsured people. State Medicaid plans would no longer have to cover the same essential health benefits that health insurers on Obamacare’s exchanges must provide. That fulfills a Republican promise to return more control to the states, as they can decide what their Medicaid plans must cover. The Republican plan would maintain some of Obamacare’s most popular provisions. It would allow young people to stay on their parents’ health plan until age 26, ban insurers from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions and bans insurers from setting a lifetime dollar limit on coverage. But the bill would allow insurers to mark up premiums by 30 percent for those who have a lapse in insurance coverage of about two months or more. Insurers won another provision they had long sought: The ability to charge older Americans up to five times more than young people. Under Obamacare, they could only charge up to three times more. It would also allow states to set their own ratio. The measure also provides states with $100 billion to create programs for patient populations, including high-risk pools to provide insurance to the sickest patients. The bill would also revoke federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year. | 1 |
6,313 | EU's Tusk proposes opening internal preparations of next phase of Brexit talks | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday noted promising progress in Brexit talks and said he would propose to 27 EU leaders to open internal preparations for the second phase of negotiations about ties between London and the bloc after Britain leaves in March, 2019. | 1 |
6,314 | THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY HILLARY Is The Only Candidate Who Travels With A Full-Time Physician | This news should be enough to end Hillary s obsession with becoming our next President. The Democrats may be willing to ignore all of her criminal and immoral activities, but are they willing to accept Hillary and Bill turning our White House into an assisted living facility? Is Hillary Clinton fit to be president?Putting aside her various scandals and shoddy record as secretary of state, what about her health? Is she physically up to the job?In my new book, Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary, I devote five pages to Hillary s health. As far as I can tell, however, I am the only journalist who is interested in this important subject.Given the immense stress and strain of being president, Hillary s health is an issue that demands a thorough exploration.Last July, Hillary s longtime personal physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, released a short, two-page letter that appeared to give Hillary a clean bill of health. She does not smoke and drinks alcohol occasionally, Bardack wrote. She does not use illicit drugs or tobacco products. She eats a diet rich in lean protein, vegetables and fruits. She exercises regularly, including yoga, swimming, walking and weight training. According to Dr. Bardack, Hillary had completely recovered from the fainting spell, concussion and blood clot in her brain that she suffered while she was secretary of state.But Dr. Bardack s letter was hardly a detailed medical history. According to sources close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, the letter wasn t the full story then and it s not the full story now.To this day, Hillary still suffers from many of the troubling symptoms that I wrote about in Unlikeable: blinding headaches, exhaustion, insomnia, and a tremor in her hands. As a precaution against the spectacle of fainting in public, which could easily doom her candidacy, Hillary now travels with a personal physician on all her major campaign trips.There have been several incidents in which she has nearly collapsed. For example, after her 11-hour testimony before the Trey Gowdy Benghazi committee, Hillary swooned as she walked to a waiting car. She had to be supported in the arms of her aides and helped into the back seat.Tension headaches continue to plague her and often make it hard for her to maintain her grueling schedule. Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff and her closest adviser, frequently orders campaign aides to alter Hillary s schedule at the last moment so the candidate can catch her breath and take out time for naps. This may explain why Hillary is often as much as two hours late for a campaign appearance. She no longer has the stamina for 18-hour campaign days that she was once capable of doing, said a source close to Hillary.Via: NewsMax We all know that getting Hillary to release her full medical records to the public is about as likely as Hillary telling the truth about what happened in Benghazi | 0 |
6,315 | Toned-down White House press dinner carries on without Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House press corps gathered on Saturday for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to bow out in 36 years. Without Trump, who scheduled a rally instead to mark his 100th day in office, the usually celebrity-filled soiree hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association took a more sober turn, even as it pulled in top journalists and Washington insiders. Most of Trump’s administration also skipped the event in solidarity with the president, who has repeatedly accused the press of mistreatment. The president used his campaign-style gathering to again lambaste the media. “I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away,” he told a crowd in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, calling out The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC by name. In Washington, WHCA President Jeff Mason defended press freedom even as he acknowledged this year’s dinner had a different feel, saying attempts to undermine the media was dangerous for democracy. “We are not fake news, we are not failing news organizations and we are not the enemy of the American people,” said Mason, a Reuters correspondent. Instead of the typical roasts - presidents of both parties have delivered their own zingers for years - the event returned to its traditional roots of recognizing reporters’ work and handing out student scholarships as famed journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein presented awards. “That’s not Donald Trump’s style,” NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell told MSNBC, referring to the self-deprecating jokes presidents in the past have made despite tensions with the press. Instead, the humor fell to headline comedian Hasan Minhaj. “Welcome to the series finale of the White House correspondents’ dinner,” Minhaj, who plays a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” program, told the crowd. He also joked about Trump, despite organizers’ wishes, saying he did so to honor U.S. constitutional protection of free speech: “Only in America can a first-generation, Indian-American Muslim kid get on this stage and make fun of the president.” In a video message, actor Alec Baldwin, who has raised Trump’s ire playing him on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” program also encouraged attendees. Few other celebrities graced the red carpet, although some well-known Washingtonians, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, appeared. Trump attended in 2011, when then-President Barack Obama made jokes at the expense of the New York real estate developer and reality television show host. In an interview with Reuters this week, Trump said he decided against attending as president because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media, adding: “I would come next year, absolutely.” In Pennsylvania, Trump told supporters the media dinner would be boring but was noncommittal on whether he would go in 2018 or hold another rally. Late night television show host Samantha Bee also hosted a competing event - “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” - that she said would honor journalists, rather than skewer Trump. | 1 |
6,316 | Washington Post Deceives Public & Profits From Fake News | 21st Century Wire says The Washington Post has been caught lying and deceiving the public twice in the last few weeks pushing the unfounded mainstream media meme that Russia invaded the U.S. electric grid and another claiming that Russia is behind the explosion of so-called fake news. Considering that the power grid story was proven to be a fake news story that WashPost had to later retract We have to consider the legitimacy of any further claims the outlet has against Russia as particularly dubious.The Intercept has some interesting analysis on how outlets such as WashPost not only deceive the public, push false state sponsored talking points but also how they profit financially from this collusion. Glenn Greenwald The InterceptIn the past six weeks, the Washington Post published two blockbuster stories about the Russian threat that went viral: one on how Russia is behind a massive explosion of fake news, the other on how it invaded the U.S. electric grid. Both articles were fundamentally false. Each now bears a humiliating editor s note grudgingly acknowledging that the core claims of the story were fiction: The first note was posted a full two weeks later to the top of the original article; the other was buried the following day at the bottom.The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no penetration of the U.S. electricity grid as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor s note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.But while these debacles are embarrassing for the paper, they are also richly rewarding. That s because journalists including those at the Post aggressively hype and promote the original, sensationalistic false stories, ensuring that they go viral, generating massive traffic for the Post (the paper s executive editor, Marty Baron, recently boasted about how profitable the paper has become).After spreading the falsehoods far and wide, raising fear levels and manipulating U.S. political discourse in the process (both Russia stories were widely hyped on cable news), journalists who spread the false claims subsequently note the retraction or corrections only in the most muted way possible, and often not at all. As a result, only a tiny fraction of people who were exposed to the original false story end up learning of the retractions.Baron himself, editorial leader of the Post, is a perfect case study in this irresponsible tactic. It was Baron who went to Twitter on the evening of November 24 to announce the Post s expos of the enormous reach of Russia s fake news operation, based on what he heralded as the findings of independent researchers. Baron s tweet went all over the place; to date, it has been re-tweeted more than 3,000 times, including by many journalists with their own large followings:Russian propaganda effort helped spread fake news during election, say independent researchers https://t.co/3ETVXWw16Q Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 25, 2016But after that story faced a barrage of intense criticism from Adrian Chen in the New Yorker ( propaganda about Russia propaganda ), Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone ( shameful, disgusting ), my own article, and many others including legal threats from the sites smeared as Russian propaganda outlets by the Post s independent researchers the Post finally added its lengthy editor s note distancing itself from the anonymous group that provided the key claims of its story ( The Post does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot s findings and since publication of the Post s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list ).What did Baron tell his followers about this editor s note that gutted the key claims of the story he hyped? Nothing. Not a word. To date, he has been publicly silent about these revisions. Having spread the original claims to tens of thousands of people, if not more, he took no steps to ensure that any of them heard about the major walk back on the article s most significant, inflammatory claims. He did, however, ironically find the time to promote a different Post story about how terrible and damaging Fake News is: Pizzagate shows how fake news hurts real people https://t.co/cOh7RZ4RqK Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 26, 2016WHETHER THE POST S false stories here can be distinguished from what is commonly called Fake News is, at this point, a semantic dispute, particularly since Fake News has no cogent definition. Defenders of Fake News as a distinct category typically emphasize intent in order to differentiate it from bad journalism. That s really just a way of defining Fake News so as to make it definitionally impossible for mainstream media outlets like the Post ever to be guilty of it (much the way terrorism is defined to ensure that the U.S. government and its allies cannot, by definition, ever commit it).But what was the Post s motive in publishing two false stories about Russia that, very predictably, generated massive attention, traffic, and political impact? Was it ideological and political namely, devotion to the D.C. agenda of elevating Russia into a grave threat to U.S. security? Was it to please its audience knowing that its readers, in the wake of Trump s victory, want to be fed stories about Russian treachery? Was it access and source servitude proving it will serve as a loyal and uncritical repository for any propaganda intelligence officials want disseminated? Was it profit to generate revenue through sensationalistic click-bait headlines with a reckless disregard to whether its stories are true? In an institution as large as the Post, with numerous reporters and editors participating in these stories, it s impossible to identify any one motive as definitive.Whatever the motives, the effects of these false stories are exactly the same as those of whatever one regards as Fake News. The false claims travel all over the internet, deceiving huge numbers into believing them. The propagators of the falsehoods receive ample profit from their false, viral news. And there is no accountability of the kind that would disincentivize a repeat of the behavior. (That the Post ultimately corrects its false story does not distinguish it from classic Fake News sites, which also sometimes do the same.)And while it s true that all media outlets make mistakes, and that even the most careful journalism sometimes errs, those facts do not remotely mitigate the Post s behavior here. In these cases, they did not make good faith mistakes after engaging in careful journalism. With both stories, they were reckless (at best) from the start, and the glaring deficiencies in the reporting were immediately self-evident (which is why both stories were widely attacked upon publication).As this excellent timeline by Kalev Leetaru documents, the Post did not even bother to contact the utility companies in question the most elementary step of journalistic responsibility until after the story was published. Intelligence officials insisting on anonymity so as to ensure no accountability whispered to them that this happened, and despite how significant the consequences would be, they rushed to print it with no verification at all. This is not a case of good journalism producing inaccurate reporting; it is the case of a media outlet publishing a story that it knew would produce massive benefits and consequences without the slightest due diligence or care.THE MOST IRONIC aspect of all this is that it is mainstream journalists the very people who have become obsessed with the crusade against Fake News who play the key role in enabling and fueling this dissemination of false stories. They do so not only by uncritically spreading them, but also by taking little or no steps to notify the public of their falsity.The Post s epic debacle this weekend regarding its electric grid fiction vividly illustrates this dynamic. As I noted on Saturday, many journalists reacted to this story the same way they do every story about Russia: They instantly click and re-tweet and share the story without the slightest critical scrutiny. That these claims are constantly based on the whispers of anonymous officials and accompanied by no evidence whatsoever gives those journalists no pause at all; any official claim that Russia and Putin are behind some global evil is instantly treated as Truth. That s a significant reason papers like the Post are incentivized to recklessly publish stories of this kind. They know they will be praised and rewarded no matter the accuracy or reliability because their Cause the agenda is the right one.On Friday night, immediately after the Post s story was published, one of the most dramatic pronouncements came from the New York Times s editorial writer Brent Staples, who said this:Now that this story has collapsed and been fully retracted, what has Staples done to note that this tweet was false? Just like Baron, absolutely nothing Continue this article at The InterceptREAD MORE RUSSIAN HACK NEWS AT: 21WIRE Russian Hack Files | 0 |
6,317 | Terrorist Group Openly Lauds Trump For Being An Idiot And Bragging About His Stupidity | Trump keeps saying that bad people, a.k.a radical Islamic terrorist groups, are happy that he s been unable to keep immigrants, refugees and travelers from seven Middle Eastern countries from coming into the U.S. But that s not what makes them happy. What makes them happy is actually that Trump is in the White House. He s a bumbling idiot who s going to piss off so many Muslims that these groups feel they won t have any trouble recruiting and growing, and throwing off the shackles of the oppressive West. Al Qaeda s leader in Yemen has already expressed his sheer joy at Trump s bungled raid there. Hezbollah has joined the fray, too, saying something that should be offensive as all hell to Trump: We are very optimistic that when an idiot settles in the White House and boasts about his idiocy, this is the beginning of relief for the oppressed around the world. One of the reasons they feel optimistic is likely the fact that Trump is busy pissing off the entire world, which will galvanize various groups into working together assuming enough of the world gets angry.There are squillions of theories out about why these groups hate us so much, such as the anti-Muslim propaganda that s been circulating here with growing frequency over the last 15 years. Many people the world over view that kind of propaganda as coming from our government, and now, with Trump, that view has been vindicated.Trump is a master of anti-brown people propaganda to the point where terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS have used him in recruiting videos. He s said Islam hates us, and claimed we would wipe out Islamic terrorist groups. Four Islamic non-profit organizations have rejected federal funding intended to help them fight radicalization because of Trump. They feel that both the funds and Trump himself merely promote hatred, fear and intolerance, and that he s declared war on Muslims.There s much more, too. Trump is pigeonholing Muslims as a naturally violent group that must be exterminated. It alienates Muslims of every stripe. So really, is it any wonder that Hezbollah or anyone else is happy that Trump was elected? He s helping their cause. Trump is making things more dangerous for us. He will never do anything that will make us safer.Featured image by Chris Kleponis via Getty Images | 0 |
6,318 | Spain reluctantly forced to act in Catalan vote, official says | BARCELONA (Reuters) - The Spanish government was reluctantly forced to send in national police to stop a referendum on Catalan independence that had descended into farce, the top Spanish official in the northeastern region said on Sunday. The aim of the National Police and Civil Guard police who descended on polling stations in Catalonia was to seize election materials and they were not targeting people wanting to vote, Enric Millo, the Madrid government s representative in Catalonia, told a news conference. We have been made to do something we didn t want to do, he said. Referring to the Catalan government s announcement on Sunday that people would be allowed to vote at any polling station they found open in the region, Millo said: It s all a sham, a farce. It is the first time in history that the rules of the game are changed 45 minutes before the start of voting. | 1 |
6,319 | Suspect in shooting of Idaho pastor arrested | (Reuters) - A man suspected of shooting an Idaho pastor who led a prayer at a rally for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was arrested on Tuesday and was facing attempted murder charges, police said. Kyle Odom, 30, was taken into custody in Washington D.C. in connection with the Sunday afternoon shooting of Pastor Tim Remington outside the Altar Church, Coeur d’Alene Police Department Chief Lee White said in a late Tuesday news conference. Odom was apprehended by Secret Service officers after he tossed several items, including flash drives, over the fence of the White House, White said. The items thrown by Odom were deemed non-hazardous, the U.S. Secret Service said in a statement. The attack on the pastor is the latest in a spate of highly publicized shootings in the United States that have made gun control an issue in the presidential race. Remington had led a prayer at a Cruz rally on Saturday and was shot by Odom, an ex-marine, the next day in the church parking lot in a preplanned attack, police said. The senior pastor was shot six times, including in the skull, after Sunday morning service, John Padula, outreach pastor at the church told Reuters. Remington regained consciousness on Monday evening as a candlelight vigil for his recovery was underway, Padula said. “He opened one eye and gave me a thumbs up,” Padula said, adding that Remington does not have feeling in his right arm but appears to be improving. “Without God, there is no way he’d be here.” There is no apparent connection between the shooting and Remington’s appearance at the Cruz rally, Padula noted. Cruz, an outspoken supporter of gun rights, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but a campaign spokeswoman told NBC News on Monday that they were praying for Remington’s recovery. Odom flew from Boise, Idaho to Washington D.C., on March 7, White said. An investigation into his plans was ongoing. The police chief, who previously said Odom had a history of mental illness, read a statement from Odom’s family saying they were thankful for his “safe apprehension.” Local broadcaster KXLY reported that a Facebook page linked with Odom, who police said suffered from mental illness, was updated on Tuesday with a statement claiming that Remington was part of an ancient Martian civilization that ruled Earth. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner and Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Sara Catania, G Crosse, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry) 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 |
6,320 | Russia to U.S., Trump: Sort out your own pre-election hacking scandal | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia told the United States on Thursday to get to the bottom of a hacking scandal involving Democratic Party emails itself and rejected what Donald Trump said was a sarcastic suggestion that Moscow should dig up Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails. Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, angered Democrats on Wednesday by inviting Russia to unearth tens of thousands of emails from rival Clinton’s tenure as U.S. secretary of state. He spoke out after President Barack Obama said it was possible Russia might try to influence the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts blamed on Russian hackers. Suggestions of Russian involvement have riled the Kremlin, which has categorically denied this and accused U.S. politicians of seeking to play on Cold War-style American fears of Moscow by fabricating stories for electoral purposes. President Vladimir Putin has tried to avoid giving the impression of favoring any U.S. candidate, while hailing the populist Trump as being “very talented”. Russian state TV coverage has tended to tilt towards Trump over Clinton. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said accusations of a Russian hand in hacking Democratic Party emails bordered on “total stupidity” and were motivated by anti-Russian sentiment. He rejected Trump’s apparently sarcastic suggestion for Russia to dig up Clinton’s emails point-blank. “As regards these (email) batches, that is not our headache. We never poke our noses into others’ affairs and we really don’t like it when people try to poke their nose into ours,” he said. “The Americans need to get to the bottom of what these emails are themselves and find out what it’s all about.” Trump, who has repeatedly said he would strive for better U.S. relations with Russia if he won the presidency, also raised eyebrows by saying he would consider recognizing Ukraine’s Crimea as part of Russia, which annexed the region in 2014. Peskov said the Kremlin was unmoved by that comment, and it would not change what he says has been its neutral stance on U.S. presidential candidates. “We know perfectly well that candidates in the heat of a pre-election struggle say one thing, but that later, when under the weight of responsibility, their rhetoric becomes more balanced.” In response to Trump’s remarks on Crimea, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko said on Thursday: “Mr. Trump is not the president of the United States, at least not yet.” “Secondly, there are the well-known decisions of the United Nations. ... I’m pretty sure that any U.S. government will pay full respect to those decisions,” he told reporters. In March 2014, the 193-member United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring invalid Crimea’s Moscow-backed referendum seceding from Ukraine. Analysts say the Kremlin would welcome a Trump victory in November because the wealthy New York businessman has repeatedly praised Putin, spoken of wanting to get along with Russia, and has said he would consider an alliance with Moscow against Islamic State. Trump’s suggestion that he might abandon NATO’s pledge to automatically defend all member states is also likely to have gone down well in Moscow, where the Western military alliance is cast as an outdated Cold War relic. | 1 |
6,321 | Trump DESPERATE For Celebrities To Perform At His Inauguration, So He’s Doing This | While his major qualification to be President of the United States was his status as a celebrity after hosting his reality TV show, The Apprentice, Donald Trump does not actually have a lot of contacts among real A-list celebrities. We first saw that on display during the Republican National Convention this summer, when the celebrities in attendance were a mix of the D-list, never were and is he still alive variety.Trump s inability to attract the big names now apparently extends to his upcoming inauguration, where the Trump team is now reportedly trying to bribe big names into coming on board out of sheer desperation.One talent manager described being offered access to the administration if he could lure major talent. They said they were in the process of figuring out posts, ambassadorships, and commissions if that was of any interest, he said.Another source also described receiving a serious ambassadorship offer, and that he was so shocked at the proposal that he almost dropped the phone. Never in a million years have I heard something so crazy, he said. Both declined the offers.Trump s team is denying the story, but the whiff of desperation echoes many of the strange things they ve been involved in already.Trump is going to have to try very hard to have even half of the star power in attendance at President Obama s two inaugurations. At his first, in 2009, Aretha Franklin sang a version of My Country Tis Of Thee which will go down in history, then in 2013 Beyonc sang the national anthem and brought down the house.For years people mocked the contestant on Trump s Celebrity Apprentice, pointing out that NBC often seemed to hire the people most likely to be sitting next to their telephone, but Trump may need to go back to the tape to pad out his inauguration guest list.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Flickr | 0 |
6,322 | WATCH: Nicolle Wallace Takes Trump To The Woodshed For Backing Pedophile Moore | Donald Trump just got his ass handed to him by Nicolle Wallace for endorsing an accused child molester.Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused of sexual assault by several women, most of whom were teens at the time. One woman was 14-years-old.Age of consent laws apparently did not matter to Moore, who was the district attorney during the time period in which most of the assaults allegedly occurred. Moore own former colleagues have confirmed that Moore preyed upon teenage girls and he was even banned from a shopping mall because he kept creeping on teen girls.On Tuesday, Trump finally spoke out about Moore and the allegations. And what he said was sickening.Trump accused Moore s opponent Doug Jones of being soft on crime before saying he d rather have an accused child molester in the Senate instead of a Democrat. Then he defended Moore the same way he defended Vladimir Putin during his trip to Asia. Well, he denies it, Trump said. Look, he denies it. I mean, if you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. He says it didn t happen and you know, you have to listen to him also. Trump s words were so disgusting that MSNBC s Nicolle Wallace took him to the woodshed. I have this physical feeling of just being repulsed listening to be it a figure head, he is the head of the Republican Party and I have described myself as a nonpracticing member, but I don t know what other word to use other than repulsed, that the head of the Republican Party said essentially threw his weight behind someone accused of stalking and engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old. There s nothing normal about throwing your weight behind a child molester. So when he says, this president says he denies it, he denies it I almost heard in him, I denied it too. He s almost projecting on to Roy Moore his own circumstance. Here s the video via YouTube.Indeed, Trump was accused of sexual assault by over a dozen women during the campaign. He called all of them liars at the time. And it looks like that s coming back to bite Trump on the ass.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
6,323 | RAPPER KANYE WEST Reveals His Choice For President During Concert…Crowd Goes Nuts! [Video] | I would have voted for Trump. Kanye West pic.twitter.com/g9qxaT7aRc billy (@billycrossover) November 18, 2016DONALD TRUMP HAD THIS FUNNY BIT TO SAY ABOUT KANYE EARLIER IN THE 2016 CAMPAIGN:Kanye and Trump are my heroes. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/xhgzNPdnP7 CHAR (@TrueCharLen) November 18, 2016 | 0 |
6,324 | Tim Tebow Reveals Trump LIED About Him Speaking At GOP Convention (VIDEO) | Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow is denying a story circulated by the Donald Trump presidential campaign that he will be a speaker at the Republican Convention.In a video posted to Facebook, Tebow said he just returned from the Phillipines and woke up this morning to find out I m speaking at the Republican national convention, it s amazing how fast rumors fly and that s exactly what that is, a rumor. https://www.facebook.com/TimTebow/videos/500296036836329/Tebow points out that while one day it might be in the cards for him to be involved in politics, right now he s more interested in his work in the world of conservative Christianity.Tebow gained national notoriety as the quarterback for the University of Florida Gators where he won two national championships and the Heisman trophy. He was less successful in the NFL where he played for four teams but never found a permanent place on a roster. He is very popular with the religious right and has been part of the anti-choice movement.Earlier in the day, a spokesperson from Trump s campaign had confirmed to outlets that Tebow would be a speaker at the convention according to a reporter from NBC News.The denial again raises the question of how much can ever be believed from the Trump campaign. They have constantly throughout the campaign told reporters and the public one thing while it turns out to be very different or not at all.How many other of the speakers rolled out by the Republican Party as speakers for the Convention will actually show up? It is unclear.The list of speakers has also been criticized for being heavy on Trump family members, C and D list celebrities and Republican lawmakers (though many senators are skipping the convention, including high profile leaders like Senator John McCain).The convention has also been plagued by a push by a small faction of delegates to vote against Trump at the roll call. Party chairman Reince Priebus has tried to tamp down on the rebellious faction, and even conducted secret meetings to undermine the effort.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
6,325 | Turkey says Kurdish militant banner in Raqqa shows U.S. sided with terrorists | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday that a huge banner of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan unfurled in central Raqqa by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces would further harm already fraught relations between Ankara and Washington. The banner of Ocalan was raised on Thursday at a ceremony to mark Raqqa s capture from Islamic State in a campaign spearheaded by Kurdish Syrian YPG fighters, with military support from the United States. Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of Ocalan s Kurdistan Worker s Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s southeast and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Turkey. Ankara says that weapons supplied to fighters in Syria have ended up in PKK hands, threatening Turkish security. I wonder what more evidence the U.S. needs to accept that the ... YPG is a terrorist organization, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters as he left a mosque in Istanbul. Displaying a photograph of the PKK terrorist leader damages U.S.-Turkey relations very seriously. With this move, the U.S. is not only cooperating with terrorists, but they are endangering the future of Syria. The banner of Ocalan was raised on Thursday by an all-female Kurdish militia. Kurdish YPG commanders and fighters were also shown chanting Long Live Apo! , as Ocalan is known by his followers, in a video of celebrations distributed by the YPG press office. President Tayyip Erdogan echoed Yildirim s condemnation. How can the U.S. explain the poster of Ocalan in Raqqa? Is this the way they are cooperating with us in the struggle against terror? he said. You are not standing by us against terrorism. You wouldn t allow this if you were. Ocalan has been in jail in Turkey since 1999 on a treason conviction. He negotiated a truce from his prison cell, but the ceasefire broke down two years ago and thousands have died in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey in renewed violence since then. The banner incident comes amid a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Washington over the detention of a Turkish employee of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul that has seen the two countries suspend visa services for each other s citizens. | 1 |
6,326 | Trump Campaign Accidentally Reveals How Donald Trump Isn’t Even Qualified To Be Vice President (VIDEO) | Oops. While the media is still talking about the fact that Donald Trump refuses to release his tax returns, his campaign has revealed that his vice presidential pick will be much better vetted than the man wanting the top of the ticket. His VP candidates will have to show their tax returns.Here s the video:Trump defenders will make the point that showing tax returns is not a legal requirement to run for president, but most do and there are good reasons for it, especially with a candidate like Trump.Trump s entire campaign, and his following, has been built upon the idea that he s a magician with money. He s such a money maven he can force unwilling governments to build a wall against their own people. Trump talks a lot, but without seeing his tax returns, we have no idea how much money he has and how he is spending that money. This, while he s demanding complete transparency from Hillary Clinton, and now, from his VP candidates.The MSNBC report went on to say that Trump doesn t particularly care about his VP pick s views on any given issue that there won t be a litmus test on abortion, LGBT rights or any of the other hot-button issues, but based on all around views.It is pretty normal that Trump would require the tax returns of any candidate, but face it, the odds of his Vice President having the nuclear codes or the keys to the treasury are pretty slim. It s Trump that people are being asked to support, not some, as of now, vague idea of a VP candidate. This is a bit like the twice divorced candidate demanding that his VP pick be married to his or her (probably his) first spouse. It s like Trump demanding that they have a great haircut or like him demanding decorum from his picks. Trump is asking his VP picks to jump through more hoops than he will. This is just more proof that Trump is running for dictator, not president.Featured image via Andrew Burton at Getty Images | 0 |
6,327 | BRUCE JENNER CASHING IN BIG TIME WITH NEW IDENTITY: “I’m the new ‘normal'” [VIDEO] | Timing is everything, and no one knows how to seize the moment better than members of the Kardashian family. The progressive left is determined to bully Americans into submission when it comes to accepting the LGBT lifestyle as mainstream. After spending years in the reality TV business, Bruce Jenner just happens to know a thing or two about marketing himself and has a chosen much kinder and more palatable approach. And now, in true Kardashian style, it s time to sit back and cash in and his contribution to the decay of our society big time.Watch new promo for Bruce s new show I am Cait here: How many people go through life and just waste their entire life because they never deal with themselves, with who they are? Jenner says at the start of the 60-second spot. According to a press release, the eight-part, one-hour series I Am Cait will tell the story of Jenner as he lives his new normal. Living for the first time as the person he feels he was born to be, the docuseries will also explore what Bruce s transition means for the people in his life and how those relationships are affected, while offering a better understanding of many of life s challenges, E! said in the statement.The promo follows Jenner as he applies makeup in a mirror and drives out into the world. It s so bright out there, look at that, Jenner says from the backseat of a car. Isn t it great that maybe someday you ll be normal? Just blend into society? You are normal, a woman interjects. Put it this way: I m the new normal, Jenner replies.Bruce Jenner, who appeared for the first time as a transgender woman on an infamous Vanity Fair magazine cover earlier this week, could parlay his transition into a half-billion dollar fortune within a decade, experts predict.Jenner s net worth is already estimated to be $100 million. But experts familiar with the earning potential of media figures told the New York Daily News that the former gold medal Olympian and Keeping Up with the Kardashians star could be worth as much as $500 million in the next five to ten years. She could become the wealthiest of them all, VH1 s The Gossip Table host Rob Shuter told the paper, referring to the rest of the Kardashian family. If Bruce Jenner made $100 million in 65 years, if all the stars align, she could be worth over $500 million in the next five to 10 years. Caitlyn is going to be a pioneer. Jenner is set to star in an eight-part, one-hour reality television series called I Am Cait, airing this summer on E! And he was already earning between $20,000-$40,000 in speaking fees prior to his transition, according to fee tracking website BigSpeak.com. But that figure could shoot up sharply in the wake of Jenner s transformation and subsequent magazine cover. A book deal could hit seven figures, Brian Balthazar, editor of culture website Pop Goes the Week, told the Daily News. Speeches could garner six figures each. There is no denying the transgender movement s recent ascendancy in the national culture. In addition to Jenner s record-breaking magazine cover and upcoming reality show, popular television shows like Amazon s Transparent have catapulted the issue to the forefront of American consciousness, and some companies are already jumping on the chance to get involved.Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
6,328 | Catalonia or Neverland? Humor relieves tension in Spain | MADRID (Reuters) - Shortly after the Catalan government defied Madrid and held a referendum on independence, Jaume Vives held his own vote on whether to separate his central Barcelona balcony from this Catalonia of madmen . Using a megaphone, the 25-year-old journalist declared the nine votes cast by his assembled friends and family were really 2.4 million - a slightly inaccurate reference to the 2.3 million who voted for a break with Spain. Then he suspended the decision just as Catalan president Carles Puigdemont had done with his Oct. 10 decision to pursue independence in the Catalan parliament. A video of the stunt has been watched 890,000 times on YouTube as people on both sides of the independence divide turn to satire to break the tension of a real-life drama that is both dividing and maddening the nation. The drama s two main actors - Puigdemont and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy - are the butt of most jibes. The anti-independence camp has aimed its jokes at Puigdemont and what they see as his reluctance to be decisive and his flip-flop statements on the independence question. In recent weeks, he has declared independence then suspended his declaration, accepted an invitation to address the Senate then declined it, and called for an independence vote in Catalan parliament and then deferred it. One bar in Barcelona recently put up a sign that declared free beer for all - but then, tongue-in-cheek, said the measure was immediately suspended pending talks with the beer company. One mock TV game show presented a puzzled Puigdemont considering his answer to the final question of an episode of Who wants to be a millionaire? What is Catalonia right now?, the question read on the screen, with the four possible answers listed as: A - a region ? B - Neverland ? C - a Republic ?, or D - a circus ? On the other side, satirists have homed in on Prime Minister Rajoy and his insistence that Puigdemont renounce independence as a condition of negotiations. In one online parody, Rajoy is shown with U.S. President Donald Trump s hair and a caption saying: I will build a wall, - and Catalonia will pay for it. At a recent pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona he appeared on a poster kissing Spanish dictator Francisco Franco - historically a hate figure in Catalonia - on the lips amid a burst of pink heart shapes. Another, shared hundreds of thousands of times on Whatsapp, shows Rajoy embracing Puigdemont and saying, He stays , in a parody of a famous tweet from FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique announcing that Brazilian star Neymar would not leave the club. Neymar signed for Paris Saint Germain days later. The satire highlights the fatigue that both sides feel. Barcelona has buzzed for the past two months with repeated, large-scale protests, mostly for independence but also including one rally of more than 300,000 against secession. Humor has become a means of escape from the seemingly endless tension. From his balcony in the upmarket residential neighborhood of Sarria-Sant Gervasi, Vives described his lone anti-independence as a Smiling Counter-Revolution . We are reducing to absurdity the absurd reality we are living, and the lies they tell us, Vives said. Doing this reduces the tension in the atmosphere. Jokes don t feed hatred. | 1 |
6,329 | HOW PAUL RYAN JUST Made A Mockery Of Trump’s Promise To Protect Blue-Collar Jobs From Foreign Workers | The bipartisan congressional language creates a headache for Trump and his deputies because it flips the politically difficult problem from Congress to the Department of Homeland Security of deciding whether to provide extra wage-cutting H-2B contract workers to companies or else to improve job opportunities for Trump s blue-collar voters.The new rule helps business groups offset rising pressure for wage increases, just 18 months before the mid-term elections when voters will vet the success or not of Trump s Buy American, Hire American policies.The H-2B language was hidden deep in the draft 2017 supplemental budget which is to face House and Senate votes this week and it surprised opponents of the legislation. In December 2016, Ryan had agreed to trim the program when the partial 2017 budget deal was announced just one month after blue-collar voters backed Donald Trump s campaign promise of a low-immigration, high-wage national economic policy.Apparently nothing is going to change, as long as Speaker Ryan remains at the helm. Watch: Immigration expert Mark Krikorian tweeted aboutHere's the text of the #H2B "returning workers" loophole that makes a mockery of the law's numerical "limits". https://t.co/G7dc1Qpmaz pic.twitter.com/Hf4UPjwJB4 Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) May 1, 2017The language in the 2017 budget says the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to exceed the supposed 66,000 annual cap on H-2B outsourcing visas by a number equal to the maximum number of workers who benefited from an earlier exemption, dubbed the returning worker exemption. Via: Breitbart | 0 |
6,330 | Lufthansa changes flight routes after latest North Korea missile testing | FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Airline Lufthansa said on Friday it had changed its flight routes to Japan because of North Korean missile tests. Lufthansa Group, which owns Swiss, Lufthansa, and Lufthansa Cargo, had already been avoiding direct overflights of North Korean airspace for more than a year, the company said. “As a result of the latest North Korean missile tests, Lufthansa Group has decided for now to change routings to and from Japan, purely as a precautionary measure,” the airline said, adding that changes to the flight time were negligible. Air France-KLM said on Thursday it had expanded its no-fly zone over North Korea after one of its jets flew past the location where an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) splashed down 10 minutes later. Air France’s flight 293, a Boeing 777 carrying 323 people from Tokyo to Paris, missed North Korea’s latest ICBM as it fell to earth on July 28 by about 100 km (60 miles), a spokesman for Air France-KLM said, citing flight data provided by Japan. North Korea said a week ago that its latest ICBM test proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a sharp warning from President Donald Trump and a rebuke from China. | 1 |
6,331 | U.S. plan to move Israel embassy sign of 'failure', Iran's leader says | BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. plans to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem are a sign of incompetence and failure, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy there, breaking with longtime U.S. policy and potentially stirring unrest. That they claim they want to announce Quds as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure, Khamenei said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem, according to his official website. He made the remarks to a group of top Iranian officials, regional officials and religious figures attending a conference in Tehran. Iran has long supported a number of Palestinian militant groups opposed to Israel. The issue of Palestine today is at the top of the political issues for Muslims and everyone is obligated to work and struggle for the freedom and salvation of the people of Palestine, Khamenei said. At the same gathering, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, Quds belongs to Islam, Muslims and the Palestinians, and there is no place for new adventurism by global oppressors, according to Mizan, the news site for the Iranian judiciary. Iran wants peace and stability in the region but will not tolerate the violation of Islamic holy sites, Rouhani said. No Muslim population, including Iran, will tolerate the violation of oppressors and Zionists against Islamic holy sites, Rouhani said, according to Mizan. The United States has not been able to reach its goals and seeks to destabilize the region, Khamenei said. On the issue of Palestine, (U.S.) hands are tied and they cannot advance their goals, Khamenei said, saying the Palestinian people would be victorious. American government officials have said themselves that we have to start a war in the region to protect the security of the Zionist regime (Israel), Khamenei said. Certain rulers in the region are dancing to America s tune Khamenei said, an indirect reference to Iran s main regional rival Saudi Arabia. Whatever America wants, they ll work against Islam to accomplish it, he said. | 1 |
6,332 | After Mugabe, African leaders ponder own fate | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Hours after Zimbabwe s Robert Mugabe was forced out after 37 years in power, Uganda s president, another former guerrilla in office for more than three decades, was tweeting about pay rises for civil servants and bright prospects for his army tank crews. Supporters of long-serving African leaders dismiss parallels with Zimbabwe, where Mugabe s former deputy - sacked during a power struggle with Mugabe s wife - is about to take power with military and public backing. [nL8N1NS0IR] But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni s tweets, which come amid rising anger at the 73-year-old s attempts to prolong his rule, suggest he is looking south and wondering about his own fate. Now that the economic situation in Uganda is improving, the government will be able to look into raising of salaries of soldiers, public servants, health workers and teachers and also deal with institutional housing, Museveni tweeted on Wednesday. It was unclear what improvement he meant. Uganda s faltering economy is growing too slowly to absorb a booming population of 37 million. The number of citizens spending less than a dollar a day has surged to 27 percent, the statistics office reported in September, up from 20 percent five years ago. Museveni s office was not immediately available for comment on the tweets, but John Baptist Nambeshe, a ruling party lawmaker who opposes the president s attempts to have an age limit on his post lifted, said there was no coincidence. The timing couldn t have been coincidental. It was to underscore his might, that probably the military is still solidly behind him, unlike in Zimbabwe, Nambeshe told Reuters. Museveni may not be alone. Several African leaders have faced popular opposition in recent years, from Togo, where thousands protested this autumn, to Gabon, where riots broke out last year after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a disputed vote. Mugabe s fall has raised hopes among opposition politicians that other long-serving leaders will fall, but also stoked fears that those who replace them may be no better. President since 1986, Museveni is among Africa s longest-serving leaders. They include Equatorial Guinea s Teodoro Obiang, president for 38 years; Cameroon s Paul Biya, president for 35 years; Congo s Denis Sassou Nguesso, president for two stints totaling 33 years. The Gnassingb family have ruled Togo and the Bongo family have ruled Gabon for half a century, while the Kabila family have run the Democratic Republic of Congo for 20 years. Some countries allow only two presidential terms, but several have rolled back such legislation. In Cameroon, Biya scrapped term limits and cracked down on the opposition. In Congo, Nguesso jailed an opposition leader this year for protesting against removal of term limits. Franck Essi, secretary-general of the opposition Cameroon Peoples Party, said opposition movements were closely watching events in Zimbabwe. Leaders must put in place mechanisms for a democratic and peaceful transition that will allow new leadership. If not, sooner or later, the people who are suffocating will wake up, he said. Some places have already seen change. Burkina Faso s Blaise Compaore was ousted by protests in 2014 as he tried to change the constitution and extend his decades-long rule. In January, Gambia s erratic ruler Yahya Jammeh fled after regional pressure ended his 22-year reign. Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down this year after four decades in power; his handpicked successor has pushed out some key dos Santos allies. For many nations, a Zimbabwe-style switch in the loyalties of the armed forces or a rift in the inner circle represents one of the few ways that rulers might be forced from power. Despite Zimbabwe s well-established opposition, change didn t come until Mugabe s inner circle fell out over his succession plans, and the military put him under house arrest. Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, a top Togolese opposition official, said they had hoped for a Zimbabwean-type change of power where the military came over to their side. We d wanted the Togolese army to fight alongside us. We were moved seeing that Zimbabwe s army and civilian population were all in the streets dancing. That s what we want in Togo, she said. There will be change in Zimbabwe this year and there will be in Togo too. A slump in commodities prices has deprived some nations of the resources they have traditionally used to muffle protests. In some cases, corruption has also emptied state coffers. In central Africa, Congo s Kabila has repeatedly postponed elections after refusing to step down at the end of his term last year, sparking deadly protests. Jean-Pierre Kambila, Kabila s deputy chief of staff, tweeted that Zimbabwe s protests were a colonial fantasy. A fabricated demonstration dreamed up by those who do not accept the liberation of Africa. Other Mugabes will be born. Nothing to worry about, he wrote. Uganda, a key Western ally set to begin exporting its substantial oil reserves, removed term limits in 2005 to extend Museveni s rule. The east African nation has seen far less violence under Museveni than the two dictators who preceded him. But now tensions are rising as social services crumble and parliamentarians attempt to remove a constitutional age cap that would bar Museveni from standing in the next election. Police have used deadly force against protesters, and repeatedly arrested the main opposition leader. Security forces dragged parliamentarians opposing the bill out of the legislature. On Wednesday, police raided a popular newspaper, detaining eight staff. [nL8N1NS3M0] [nL8N1MV20F] Okello Oryem, Uganda s state minister for foreign affairs, dismissed any parallels with Zimbabwe, saying Mugabe s overthrow was the result of Western interference. The intelligence services of the West have worked day and night to bring down Zimbabwe, he told Reuters. Citizen pressure in Zimbabwe can only work if and when the army allows it. But another Ugandan opposition leader, Asuman Basalirwa, warned that national leaders who refused to step down risked plunging their countries into conflict. Military intervention to end dictatorships ultimately leads to more repression, he said, something that many feared might be in store for Zimbabwe. It is time for the continent to democratize, he said. Those who have not yet experienced what happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Zimbabwe should just wait for their turn because it will surely come. | 1 |
6,333 | House Republicans to take up disaster funding Thursday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday the House will take up supplemental disaster funding to help areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires on Thursday. “We think it’s critical that we pass this legislation this week to give the people in California the support that they need to fight these fires, to help the victims, and also to help the communities still recovering and dealing with humanitarian problems with the hurricanes,” Ryan said at a news briefing on Wednesday, citing Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. | 1 |
6,334 | Trump Fan Openly Admits To Planning ‘Assassination On’ Hillary ‘If She’s Elected’ (IMAGES) | Donald Trump supporters casually talk to reporters while threatening to murder Hillary Clinton if she s elected. With Donald s rigged election rhetoric, threats have increased. His cult-like supporters follow his lead, believing the insane remarks the billionaire candidate makes. Even the Republican Governor of Kentucky warned in October that there could be bloodshed if Hillary Clinton is elected.DeRay Mckesson shared a video on Twitter of a Trump supporter telling CNN, Hillary needs to be taken out. If she gets into power, I ll do everything in my power to take her out of power, which, if I have to be a patriot, I will. The reporter asked the man to clarify what he meant. Take it any way you wanna take it, he said.Tyler Holmes, 25, of Mississippi, made an assassination threat on Facebook in which he calls another person an idiot for supporting Hillary Clinton. He continues to say, I m only 25 but I do know how crooked the bitch is and I will plan an assassination on her if she s elected. He casually adds, Thanks have a great day with the rest of the idiots. #Trump. Tyler thinks he s a real patriot, too.Tyler blocked me on Facebook and locked his page down so I can t read his page. What I do know is that he listed his employer, and then changed that. Apparently, Tyler is no longer employed at the company he initially stated he was working for. He does have a girlfriend or a wife. We wonder if she realizes the can of worms he just opened. The Secret Service takes threats such as his very seriously. It doesn t matter who the candidate is. It s their job to protect candidates from the left and the right. This isn t a game. This is supposed to be a democracy.Homeland Security and the Secret Service have been tagged on Twitter about the latest threat to assassinate Hillary Clinton.A Trump supporter says he's going to assassinate Hillary Clinton. Plz pay him a visit @DHSgov @SecretService #ImWithHer #GoHillary pic.twitter.com/7SZI2Z552U Commander Nasty (@Anomaly100) November 2, 2016Trump supporters are finally realizing that their candidate will likely lose the election, so threats are pouring in because they re afraid of a girl. Deal with it, Deplorables.Featured image via Facebook | 0 |
6,335 | Another debate brawl? Fox News, Kelly set for Trump rematch | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Thursday’s Republican debate on Fox News Channel could be Round 2 of Megyn Kelly versus Donald Trump. But the journalist and fellow moderators say they are not preparing to stoke the fire with questions about his headline-grabbing battles with the network. Trump accused Kelly of lobbing him tougher questions than those directed at his rivals in an August debate that was the Republican candidates’ first televised encounter. Kelly asked about Trump’s remarks about women, prompting a stream of attacks from the candidate, who skipped a Fox debate in January. “Frankly, I have been ready for seven months to move beyond what happened after that August debate,” Kelly said in a recent interview. “I feel like it’s getting boring. Trump has bigger things to worry about, and so do I.” The brash billionaire’s unfiltered style has helped generate unprecedented ratings for news networks including Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O). The cable channel’s August debate attracted 24 million viewers, a record for a presidential primary debate on any network, according to Nielsen. The January forum without Trump drew 12.5 million, still the second-largest audience in the network’s history. Trump is set to appear at Thursday’s rematch with Fox News anchors Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. “Mr. Trump will be at the debate tomorrow and looks forward to participating,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks said on Wednesday. The moderators said they do not plan to mention Trump’s comments about Kelly, his complaints about unfair treatment by the cable news network or his absence from Fox’s January debate. Kelly said she has not prepared a comeback if Trump gets personal. “I have my questions,” she said. “That’s all I need.” Last week’s debate on Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) CNN turned into a raucous match where rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio ganged up on Trump, who fired back. Wallace called it an “embarrassment” to Republicans. The three “seemed hell-bent on taking out each other on a lot of fairly minor points,” he said, “rather than discussing issues that affect people’s lives.” On Tuesday, Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton took big steps toward securing their parties’ nominations with a series of state-by-state victories. After 10 Republican debates, there remains plenty to explore because the remaining candidates - Trump, Cruz, Rubio and John Kasich - have now staked out positions, Kelly said. “They will have to own those positions or try to wiggle out,” she said. “But there is not that much wiggle room left on some of these things.” A fifth candidate, Ben Carson, appeared set to end his campaign and said he would skip Thursday’s debate. Cruz has clashed with Wallace on air and accused him of being too soft on Trump. The contenders “try to work the refs and complain and hope they will get it a little easier next time,” Wallace said. All three moderators said they ask tough questions of each candidate. “I think Fox has been fair across the board,” Baier said. He said he hopes for a discussion that is “fiery” but “the most substantive debate so far” as rivals try to score points. “We will let the contrasts and the conversations between candidates go,” Baier said. “But there will be some balance. That’s what it’s always about, not letting it get off the rails.” (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Peter Henderson and Jonathan Oatis) 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 |
6,336 | Factbox: What's in tax bill from Trump, House Republicans? | (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday released details of a 429-page tax bill that calls for slashing taxes on corporations, along with many other changes affecting individuals, families and businesses. Based on publicly released documents and comments from Republican lawmakers, here are the bill’s main features, which are expected to change as the tax debate unfolds in weeks ahead. * Permanently reduces the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from a current statutory rate of 35 percent, a change that is in line with initial Republican proposals. * Dramatically reshapes the tax system for U.S. multinational corporations. Worldwide taxation of their foreign profits would end. A territorial tax system exempting those foreign profits from the corporate tax would be imposed. * Gives multinationals a tax break on $2.6 trillion in profits they have stashed offshore on a tax-exempt basis. The measure would require those profits to be brought into the United States, or repatriated, but not at the full 35-percent corporate tax rate that would normally be due. Instead, those profits would be taxed at only 12 percent for cash assets and 5 percent for illiquid assets. Repatriation tax due under the proposal would be payable over eight years. * Imposes a new 10-percent minimum tax on U.S. companies’ high-profit foreign units, calculated on a global basis, to discourage shifting profits abroad. * Proposes a tax on foreign companies operating in the United States of up to 20 percent on payments made abroad from U.S. operations. Companies could lower those taxes by putting more operations in the U.S. tax system. * Repeals the 20 percent corporate alternative minimum tax. ‘PASS-THROUGH’ BUSINESSES * Caps the maximum tax rate on small businesses and other non-corporate enterprises to 25 percent, down from the present maximum rate on “pass-through” income of 39.6 percent. * Sets standards for distinguishing between individual wage income and actual pass-through business income to prevent tax-avoidance abuse of the new, lower tax level. * Allows immediate and full expensing of capital investments by businesses. * Allows businesses to deduct interest costs up to 30 percent of taxable income. Exempts from this rule businesses with average gross receipts of $25 million or less. Certain public utilities and “real property trades” are also exempted. * Preserves the research and development tax credit. * Phases out tax credits for solar, geothermal and wind power. * Consolidates three higher education tax credits into a single credit. * Ends tax-exempt bonds for professional sports stadiums. * Ends deductions for employee entertainment and recreation activities, as well as other fringe benefits. * Consolidates the number of tax brackets from seven to the following: zero tax on income up to $24,000; 12 percent up to $90,000; 25 percent up to $260,000; 35 percent up to $1 million; and 39.6 percent over $1 million. That top bracket is the same as the present level and was added to the bill after critics hammered Republicans’ original proposal to cut the top rate. * Increases the standard deduction for taxpayers to $12,000 from $6,350 for individuals, and to $24,000 from $12,700 for married couples. * Repeals the $4,050 individual personal exemption. * Preserves the home mortgage interest deduction for existing mortgages, but reduces the amount of interest that taxpayers can deduct from their taxes on new mortgages, capping it at $500,000. The cap is now $1 million. * Caps the deduction for state and local property taxes at $10,000. Repeals the deduction for state and local income and sales taxes, a measure that hurts high-income tax states, such as New York, New Jersey and California. * Retains popular retirement savings programs including the 401(k) and IRA pension plans. * Expands the child tax credit to $1,600 from $1,000, and establishes a new $300 credit for each parent and non-child dependent. Also preserves the child and dependent care tax credit. * Preserves the earned income tax credit. * Preserves the deduction for charitable giving. * Changes higher education benefits, such as college tuition, with further details not immediately available. * Repeals the individual alternative minimum tax on high-income taxpayers. * Doubles the exemption from the estate tax on inherited assets and repeals the tax over six years. * Adds $1.51 trillion to the federal budget deficit over a decade. The deficit is now about $700 billion a year. The national debt now exceeds $20 trillion. | 1 |
6,337 | New York Pride marchers target Trump as San Francisco parties | NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Large crowds turned out for Pride marches on Sunday in New York City and San Francisco, the two U.S. places most associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement, with the East Coast city bringing a more political flavor to the event sparked by events there almost 50 years ago. Participants included Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified data before former President Barack Obama granted her clemency. “Honored to represent the ACLU at this years NYC Pride March,” Manning said on Twitter, posting a photo of her riding in a red convertible. “Started to lose my voice from screaming so much,” Manning, who was released from a military prison in May, added. A group of marchers heading down New York’s Fifth Avenue carried photographs of U.S. President Donald Trump and his press secretary, Sean Spicer, as others waved banners bearing the word ‘RESIST’ and the rainbow flag of the Pride movement. In contrast, a smattering of anti-Trump signs in San Francisco was drowned out by a desire to let loose. “It’s too good a day to be upset about Trump,” said Richard Babb, 66, of San Francisco. In New York, Brad Hoylman, a Democratic lawmaker in the New York State Senate, said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were “under assault” by the Trump administration. “He already rolled back rights for transgender students, for example, and the list is on and on,” he said. “So we have a lot more work to do, that’s why we are here today.” As a candidate, Trump promised to protect gay people. But his move in February to revoke the Obama administration’s guidance letting transgender students choose which gender bathroom they use, and his executive order last month to promote religious liberty have been seen by some as discriminatory. The New York march’s grand marshals this year include the American Civil Liberties Union, which was chosen for its history of litigation defending gay rights; Brooke Guinan, a transgender woman who works as a firefighter in the city; and Geng Le, a gay rights activist in China. “Pride this year is showing that we are here, we are queer, and we are not going to sit down for anything less than full rights, full equality,” said Austin Anderson, a 28-year-old advertising worker at the New York event. The march route ends on Christopher Street in Manhattan’s West Village to commemorate the riots that broke out there in 1969 after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in an event seen as a turning point in the gay rights movement. New York’s first Pride march started close by a year later. In San Francisco, revelers had to pass through one of dozens of metal security detectors to get into the main plaza. “Happy Pride everyone!” a security monitor yelled to the crowd, as people cheered and saluted. “Have fun today.” Two gay cousins attended the parade dressed in tutus and unicorn headbands. “We see this as a party, not a political protest,” Qiaira McPeters, 18, said. Despite that, McPeters said that she feels things for gay people have been getting worse. “Gay people are getting beat up all the time,” she said. In Seattle, hundreds of people marched downtown in unusually hot weather, many in skimpy outfits and carrying pink balloons. A rainbow flag was hoisted to the top of the city’s iconic Space Needle. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, the first openly gay person to hold that job, joined the parade with his husband, Michael Shiosaki. “Today we celebrate our unity,” he said in a video posted on Twitter. The Seattle Police Department, which put rainbow-colored decals on their patrol cars, said a group of people blocked the parade route for about 30 minutes to hold a sit-in in honor of Charleena Lyles, the black mother slain by city police a week ago. There were no arrests, police said. [L1N1JG04T] | 1 |
6,338 | Phoenix mayor calls on Trump to postpone rally planned for next week | (Reuters) - The mayor of Phoenix on Wednesday called on President Donald Trump to postpone a rally he was scheduled to hold on Tuesday in the city, saying it was too soon after a violent white supremacist rally in Virginia. “I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville,” Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement posted on Twitter. “It is my hope that more sound judgment prevails and that he delays his visit,” Stanton said. | 1 |
6,339 | Texas ‘Responsible Gun Owner’ Shoots 6-Year-Old In Spine After Family Makes Wrong Turn (VIDEO) | When Texas governor Greg Abbott said that Texans should be tolerant of anyone they see with a handgun in light of the state s recent decision to allow concealed carry permit holders to openly display their sidearms, one thing he didn t think about is that every single person carrying a gun isn t necessarily licensed to do so but he effectively told residents to accept that every single handgun they see is legal because reasons.Unfortunately, this simply empowers the criminal element after all, according to the NRA, everyone with a gun is a good guy who will save the world. That is, until the good guy rips off his mask and reveals that he was a bad guy all along.On Tuesday, a bad guy with a gun (who looks exactly like a good guy until he actually begins shooting) fired numerous rounds at a vehicle containing a family that had done nothing worse than make a wrong turn, severely injuring a child. The family was in the area looking for a tire shop when they became lost and pulled into the parking lot of some townhouses to reroute their GPS.According to investigators, the car s lights were shining on another car. The occupant became annoyed, walked toward the family s vehicle and fired nine shots, one of them piercing through the vehicle s taillight and striking a 6-year-old girl, the bullet lodging itself into her spine. Panicked, the driver attempted to escape as the shooter fired four more rounds at the vehicle as it exited the property. The family drove down the street to a motel and flagged down an officer. The little girl was rushed to the hospital for treatment.A SWAT team detained a person of interest who was arrested on unrelated charges, but he has still not been charged in the child s shooting according to police.Watch a report on the shooting below:Featured image via Examiner | 0 |
6,340 | White House says Trump not eying corporate tax rate phase-in | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday it was not backing any proposal to phase-in a planned reduction to the U.S. corporate tax rate. Asked about a report the House of Representatives was considering a five-year phase-in for the corporate tax cut, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: “The president has laid out his principles and it doesn’t include the phasing in.” “I don’t have reason to believe we have changes on that front at this point,” she added | 1 |
6,341 | Green groups fund-raise against Trump’s climate stance | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s promise to gut U.S. environmental regulations and revive the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline if elected president is a nightmare for green groups, but it may be a dream come true for their fund-raisers. The country’s biggest environmental groups say the Republican White House hopeful’s pro-drilling and anti-global warming positions have sparked a record wave of donations and volunteer recruitment that could revitalize U.S. green advocacy. Trump has said he would revive the coal industry, pull the United States out of a global climate pact and expand oil drilling. “We couldn’t have asked for a more powerful motivator than Donald Trump,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said. Brune said a spring email blast about the New York businessman to the San Francisco-based group’s members yielded $25,000 in donations, more than twice as much as projected, along with 15,000 new volunteers. The club’s Political Committee, which works directly on projects to engage voters during the election, has raised more than $62,000 this year, compared with just $22,000 at this point in the 2012 election, according to the filings with the Federal Election Commission. The Washington-based League of Conservation Voters has also gotten a boost. Officials said its annual fund-raising dinner this week pulled in a record haul, which they would not disclose, after the group also used Trump as a focal point of its donor outreach. “It’s been a long time since there has been someone that our movement has so universally wanted to stop,” said spokesman David Willett. The league’s Voters Action Fund, meanwhile, has raised more than $610,000 in donations so far this year for election-related work, more than triple what it pulled in during the same period of 2012, and more than double that of 2008, according to federal filings. Trump has long signaled his belief that global warming is a hoax. Last month he outlined plans to sweep away environmental regulations ushered in by the Obama administration, scrap the Paris Climate Accord, and revive the Keystone XL - moves that would reverse years of gains by the green movement. A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NextGen Climate, a San Francisco-based environmental advocacy organization founded by billionaire activist Tom Steyer, has called Trump’s agenda “frightening.” But its efforts were also getting some traction from the candidate’s rhetoric. The group, which has featured Trump in its TV ads to drive voter turnout, said it had seen a 127 percent increase in clicks on its social media postings that mention the candidate compared with those that do not. “There is no question that voters are very engaged when it comes to fighting back against Trump,” said NextGen spokeswoman Suzanne Henkels. Ben Avery, associate fund-raising director of the Sierra Club’s Northwest chapter, said he was happy about the increase in donor support this year but was vexed by the reason behind it. “Bad news is good news for fund-raising,” he said. | 1 |
6,342 | Russian lawmakers approve "foreign agents" media law | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s lower house of parliament on Wednesday approved a law that would give Moscow the power to force foreign media to brand the news they provide to Russians as the work of foreign agents and also to disclose where they get their funding. The legislation needs approval from the upper house of parliament, which is likely to happen next week, and the signature of President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law. In a sign that the authorities intend to enforce the law soon, a source in the Russian Justice Ministry said on Wednesday it had notified three U.S. news outlets they might be affected. The source told Russian news agencies that Voice of America (VoA), a Russian unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) called Idel.Realias, and Current Time, produced by RFE/RL in cooperation with VoA, had all been notified. Joanna Levison, a Prague-based spokeswoman for RFE/RL, said she was not aware of any such notification. VoA and the Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Russia s broadside against U.S. media is part of the fallout from allegations that the Kremlin interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year in favor of Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence officials accuse the Kremlin of using Russian media organizations it finances to influence U.S. voters, and this week Washington required Russian state broadcaster RT to register a U.S.-based affiliate company as a foreign agent . The Kremlin denies meddling in the election and has said the restrictions on Russian broadcasters in the United States are an attack on free speech. It has vowed to retaliate by imposing restrictions on some foreign media operating in Russia. In the 450-seat State Duma, 414 lawmakers voted on Wednesday for the new bill in a third and final reading, with none against, Russian news agencies reported. If the upper chamber and Putin also back the draft, it will become law, but implementation of its provisions would be left to the discretion of the Russian government. Putin has been fiercely critical of U.S. measures towards Russian media, but he has not given wholehearted support to the draft legislation, saying at the weekend it might be a little too harsh . The draft legislation states that Russian authorities can designate foreign media as foreign agents , making them subject to the same requirements that are applied to foreign-funded non-governmental organizations under a 2012 law. That law, heavily criticized by Western governments, was an attempt by Moscow to insulate itself from a wave of popular revolutions in eastern Europe and the Middle East. Moscow said they were fomented by Western governments using civil society groups as proxies. Under the 2012 law, foreign agents have to include in any information they publish or broadcast to Russian audiences a mention of their foreign agent designation. They also have to apply for inclusion in a government register, submit regular reports on their sources of funding, on their objectives, on how they spend their money, and who their managers are. They can be subject to spot checks by the authorities to make sure they comply with the rules, according to the 2012 law. RFE/RL s Levison said she did not want to speculate what steps Russia might take against her organization next and said RFE/RL looked forward to continuing its journalistic work. She said it was inappropriate to view the new Russian measures as being reciprocal since Russian-funded news outlets in the United States were still able to distribute freely. ... RFE/RL has lost its broadcast affiliates in Russia due to administrative pressures, and has no access to cable. RFE/RL reporters are (also) subject to harassment and physical attack in Russia, Levison added. | 1 |
6,343 | BREAKING: 28 YR OLD PALESTINIAN MUSLIM Feras Mohamed Freitekh Crashes Plane Near Pratt Whitney HQ’s…Instructor Pilot Said “It Was Intentional”…Media Says Motive Is Still Mystery…LOL! | 28 year old Abdullah Faris Freatekh, aka Feras Mohamed Freitekh was a Muslim with a Palestinian backgroundThe National Transportation Safety Board s initial investigation of a Tuesday s aircraft crash in East Hartford, Connecticut should be a serious concern as it was a possible attempt to destroy one major US military defense contractor. As it seems, Muslims are possibly attempting to carry out an attack by using airplanes again.The investigation by The National Transportation Safety Board also indicates the crash is the result of an intentional act, which means the likelihood this involves an act of terrorism. FBI and police have also raided the pilot s apartment and are questioning three of the associates of Feras M. Freitekh, the pilot. The Jordanian students were also studying to become pilots.Freitekh who was killed on impact is a 28-year-old Jordanian national from a Palestinian background who was studying to become a pilot died after crashing a small plane Tuesday afternoon in Connecticut, and the instructor pilot who survived the crash said it was intentional. Family and friends of Freitekh are already writing about him on Facebook with oodles of praises from good man hero to Allah be with him in Arabic. Click and check it out for yourself. Rafeek Zabian comments Our old friend, Feras Freitekh, is with Allah, after he fulfilled his dream to fly, he died as a pilot, yes, and he accomplished his dream, may Allah be with you .Here are pictures from the Facebook page of in what appears to be Mecca. The pictures appear to be very recent, as they are dated June 3, 2016. People see him kissing the tip of the propeller and they do not think. The kiss is a kiss for the tip of his missile he is using. He and the Muslims and relatives commenting know why he came to the U.S. The argument with the co-pilot that he does not want to fly anymore is an excuse to land early because his intention is likely to swerve at the US defense contractor facility. It would take hours to include all the other praises from folks who would seem normal to the naked eye, yet they harbor ill for the United States.What is alarming about this crash is that the crash occurred near Pratt & Whitney, a defense contractor that makes jet engines for the military. Pratt & Whitney is a major defense contractor which manufactures military and commercial jet engines. East Hartford Police Chief called the company s plant critical infrastructure, the Hartford Courant reports. Police said the FBI was contacted because of the proximity to Pratt & Whitney.A high-ranking law enforcement source told the Hartford Courant there was an argument between the student pilot and the instructor prior to the crash. Terrorism is a criminal act, East Hartford Police spokesman Lieutenant Joshua Litwin said at a press conference. There is a lot of criminal investigators on scene. Nothing has been ruled out. The surviving flight instructor, identified by the Courant as Arian Prevalla, was able to get out of the plane after the crash and is expected to survive. Freitekh came to the United States from Jordan in 2012 on a temporary M-1 visa for flight school. The FBI and local police raided an apartment on Annawan Street as part of the investigation, WVIT-TV reports. Neighbors told WTIC-TV that four men lived together in the apartment targeted by police. Sources told the Hartford Courant the three other men who lived there were also foreign nationals studying to become pilots. And don t be fooled, the pilot, Feras M. Freitekh also has another Facebook as Rafael Majdi Freitekh and he is gay with all the rainbow flags. He was not a peaceful Muslim and neither was he a peaceful gay after all, as society tries to arm-twist us to believe about Muslims and gays. He stops writing anything on his timeline for a year is perhaps the man decided to go dark becoming a lone-wolf.The instructor pilot who survived the crash was hospitalized with serious burns, CBS News reports. He was identified as Adrian Prevalla by the Hartford Courant. Officials say he is cooperating with the investigation. He runs the Hartford Jet Center, according to his Linkedin profile. The flight school is based at Hartford-Brainard Airport, where the plane took off from on Tuesday.Via: Shoebat | 0 |
6,344 | Varadkar bounce gives Ireland's Fine Gael eight-point poll lead | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland s ruling Fine Gael party has opened up an eight-point lead over its nearest rival, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, suggesting the minority government was seeing a bounce under new prime minister Leo Varadkar. Varadkar, the 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant and the first gay premier of the once-staunchly Catholic country, succeeded Enda Kenny in May as members of his center-right Fine Gael hoped a young, straight-talking leader would propel the party ahead of main rival Fianna Fail. Fine Gael secured the support of 33 percent of respondents to the Sunday Times/Behaviour & Attitudes poll, up from 29 percent in July, while the opposition Fianna Fail fell five points to 25 percent. All of this increase has come from those who were undecided about the Taoiseach (prime minister) in the previous poll, said Behaviour & Attitudes executive chairman Ian McShane. In opinion polls taken before the summer recess, Fine Gael had mostly held only a marginal lead over Fianna Fail. Varadkar s minority government relies on the backing of fellow center-right Fianna Fail in key votes, under a deal due to last under October 2018, although many analysts expect an election to be called before the agreement concludes. Fine Gael won 25.5 percent of the vote at last year s election, to Fianna Fail s 24.3 percent, leaving both well short of the support needed to form a coalition government. Support for Ireland s third largest party Sinn Fein rose one point to 19 percent in the poll. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail say they will not consider forming a coalition government with left-wing Sinn Fein after the next election. | 1 |
6,345 | WATCH: Reince Priebus Gives The Stupidest Reason EVER For Why It’s Totally Fine For Trump To Lie | Reince Priebus, the soon-to-be ex-chairman of the RNC and Trump s new chief of staff, went on television to justify one of Trump s biggest lies since getting elected. Last week, Trump alleged that millions had voted illegally in the presidential election after he heard that Jill Stein was seeking recounts in three states. That s a serious claim to make and he made it without basis whatsoever. Priebus, though, apparently doesn t care that s a lie, and went on national television to hold it up as some kind of bizarre example.CBS Face the Nation host, John Dickerson, asked Priebus about that claim and even pointed out that there s no evidence that millions voted illegally. Priebus played all innocent in his support of Trump at first: Well I don t know if that s not true, John. I mean, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal the other day and it had a certain percentage of people voting that shouldn t be voting. There are estimates all over the map on that, and here s the problem no one really knows. But Dickerson wasn t done. He also asked this: When you re president, can you just offer a theory that has no evidence behind it, or does he have to tighten up his standards of proof? He should have to tighten up his standards of proof, but Priebus may well be afraid he ll lose his new job as one of Trump s lap dogs if he criticizes him at all. So here s Priebus vigorously defending Trump s lies: I think he s done a great job. I think the president-elect is someone who has pushed the envelope and caused people to think in this country. He s not taking conventional thought on every single issue and has caused people to look at things that maybe they have taken for granted. So basically, it s okay for Trump to lie or say things no president should say because it starts national conversations. It s okay for us to have a president who lies because it makes people think in ways they might not otherwise.Way to go, America. Watch Priebus full segment below:Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 0 |
6,346 | This Congressman Has Literally Created BRUTAL ‘Illegitimacy Clock’ For Trump, And It’s Magnificent | If you thought no one in Washington D.C. was feeling the same way about Donald Trump as you are, think again. Several people within the halls of Congress think he s as illegitimate as you do.In fact, one Congressman, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) has gone so far as to create a Cloud of Illegitimacy Clock in honor of Trump.If you visit Lieu s Media Center portion of his official Congressional website, this is what you ll see:lieu.house.govHere s Lieu s statement regarding Trump s violation of Article 1, Section 9 of the United States Constitution: The second after Donald Trump took the oath of office, he violated the Constitution and continues to do so. The Framers wrote Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution to prevent foreign influence over our elected officials. It mandates that no person holding office shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign State. While holding office, Mr. Trump will receive by virtue of his continued interest in the vast and global Trump Organization and his stake in hundreds of other entities a steady stream of monetary and other benefits from foreign powers and their agents. This is illegal.Trump can stop his illegal behavior by divesting his global business interests or putting them into blind trusts. He refuses to do so. Not only is he violating the law, he is explicitly putting his financial interests and those of his family above the interests of America. Trump is not making America First, he is making America Second.As a Member of the House Judiciary Committee, I will do everything I can to hold Trump accountable. My first action is the creation of a Cloud of Illegitimacy Clock that keeps track of the seconds, minutes, hours, and days that Trump is operating outside of the law. At some point, the Clock is going to catch up to Trump. For now, Trump appears to be taking the position of former President Richard Nixon that when the president does it, that means it is not illegal. How did that work out? What Trump is doing is illegal and action must be taken to stop it. Either he needs to cut all financial ties completely or he should be forced to resign or impeached and brought to justice as the crook that he so apparently seems to be.Good on Rep. Lieu for taking the first steps in holding Trump accountable. You can t do anything without calling him out on his illegal activity first. Well done.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
6,347 | THE LEFT Freaks Out at Trump’s Water Drinking Skills…”A sure sign of dementia” [Video] | The media has become unhinged again at the sight of President Trump drinking water. They re even saying his technique proves he s suffering from dementia. Nope, they can t focus on what a great speech he delivered about our national security. They only want to point out that he drank his water with two hands .Oh Lordy!The Cut reports: President Trump delivered a speech in which he outlined a new America First national security strategy a daunting task which clearly left him parched, because a few minutes in, the president paused to lift a small glass to his mouth with both hands, and sip from it like a tiny, woodland creature lapping from a stream:just an extremely normal way to drink out of a small glass of water pic.twitter.com/GmBbpubBkj Matt Binder (@MattBinder) December 18, 2017Despite having mocked Senator Marco Rubio for the water break he took during his 2013 response to the State of the Union, this is not the first time Trump has become overwhelmed by thirst during a speech. In November, while discussing the U.S. trade deficit, he paused to take an extremely natural swig of Fiji water:pic.twitter.com/0L44F0EFB5 Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) November 15, 2017JUST A SAMPLING OF THE RIDICULOUS TWEETS FROM THE LEFT: | 0 |
6,348 | NEW YORK TIMES Publishes FAKE Story About Donald Trump Jr…Makes Small Retraction At Bottom Of Page | Here s how fake news works In an effort to cast President Trump s eldest son, Donald Jr. as a liar, The New York Times boldly accused him of giving two different accounts of his meeting with a Russian lawyers. On July 9, 2017, The New York Times headline read: Donald Trump Jr. s Two Different Explanations for Russian MeetingThe NYT s article attempts to paint Donald Trump Jr. as a liar. Ironically, it was The New York Times who was lying: In less than 24 hours, President Trump s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has given two different explanations for a meeting he held during the 2016 campaign with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who promised to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton.Mr. Trump s meeting with that lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was first reported by The New York Times on Saturday. In response, Mr. Trump said the meeting was brief and focused mostly on the issue of adoption.This was Mr. Trump s statement to the news media on Saturday:It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.The New York Times then offered what they said was a different account of Trump Jr. s original story:Mr. Trump s version of the meeting changed Sunday, when three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it told The Times that Mr. Trump met Ms. Veselnitskaya after she promised to provide damaging information on Mrs. Clinton.Mr. Trump acknowledged on Sunday that Ms. Veselnitskaya offered him information on Mrs. Clinton but that her statements made no sense and the information was not meaningful. Finally, at the BOTTOM of the story in small italic print, the NYT s printed a tiny retraction, stating that they misled their readers:Correction: July 9, 2017 An earlier version of this article misquoted a statement by Donald Trump Jr. about a meeting with a Russian lawyer. He said the meeting mostly focused on the topic of adoption, which was not a campaign issue. He did not say it was a campaign issue. | 0 |
6,349 | Trump considers Fed's Powell, economist Taylor to lead central bank | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering nominating Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor for the central bank’s top two jobs, in an apparent bid to reassure markets and appease conservatives hungry for change. Under that scenario, either Powell or Taylor would take the reins from Fed Chair Janet Yellen when her term expires in early February, and the other would fill the vice chair position left vacant when Stanley Fischer retired this month. “That is something that is under consideration, but he hasn’t ruled out a number of options. He’ll have an announcement on that soon, in the coming days,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Friday. Making Powell, a soft-spoken centrist who has supported Yellen’s gradual approach to raising interest rates, the next Fed chief would provide the continuity in monetary policy that investors crave. The addition of Taylor, who has backed an overhaul of the Fed and embraced a more rigid rule-oriented monetary policy, would be a feather in the cap of conservative Republicans who feel that monetary policy has been too loose under Yellen, who was named as Fed chair by Democratic President Barack Obama and has led the central bank since February 2014. “I think Powell might be the safer pick insofar as we know what we’re getting,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan Chase. “He’s a guy who obviously knows the Fed culture, how the (policy-setting) committee operates, so for some of those soft skills we know he would be effective.” Powell has embraced the Yellen Fed’s monetary policy, keeping the faith that a tighter job market will eventually push wages higher and end a lengthy period of worryingly low inflation. Taylor has spent the last two decades refining and advocating wider use of a rule that lays out where interest rates ought to be, given certain conditions of inflation and the broader economy. His rule implies that rates should be higher than they are now. Yellen, speaking at an economic conference in Washington on Friday evening, mounted a strong defense of the tools the Fed has used to fight the sharp economic downturn triggered by the financial crisis and said there was a risk of another crisis in which those “unconventional policies” may be needed again. Yellen, who Trump has indicated could still be named to another term as Fed chair, was not asked about the Fed job and did not offer any comment on the selection process. Although Taylor is highly regarded within the Fed, his rule-based rate-setting position has spurred criticism that he would handcuff U.S. monetary policy. Taylor pushed back at a meeting at the Boston Fed on Saturday, saying he favored a flexible implementation of policy rules and did not want to tie the Fed’s hands or suggest that he was motivated by a distrust of policymakers. “I think that’s completely incorrect,” he said. “I trust policymakers; (rules) are an effort to make policy better.” Some analysts suggest that fears that Taylor would bring an inflexible monetary policy with him to the Fed, as some Republicans in Congress hope, are likely exaggerated. “There is some scope for disappointment if people think putting Taylor in will just lead to mechanical-based policy,” Feroli said. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, speaking with reporters on Friday, seemed to agree. “Even if you pick a rule, the rule itself would need to be modified given the structure of the economy,” she said. “But I do think being systematic, looking at the kinds of information we look at systematically over time, articulating our strategy for policy and being less discretionary is a good idea.” At the same time, there are concerns that the combination of Powell and Taylor atop the world’s most powerful central bank could send a confusing signal to markets. It is unclear whether Trump, who has criticized Yellen’s stewardship but also said on several occasions that he preferred rates to stay low, wants to dramatically alter the Fed’s direction. Although he appears to be tilting to Powell and Taylor, in addition to Yellen the Republican president has interviewed his top economic adviser Gary Cohn and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh for the Fed chief position. | 1 |
6,350 | Senate rejects new U.S. retirement rule; Obama ready to veto | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted along party lines on Tuesday to repeal a new Labor Department rule on retirement advice after a debate that stretched over the course of the day. The resolution, approved by a vote of 56 to 41, is a largely symbolic move that President Barack Obama has already threatened to veto. The House of Representatives passed a similar version last month. Obama’s administration in April released the rule setting a fiduciary standard for financial brokers who sell retirement products, requiring them to put clients’ best interests ahead of their own bottom lines. Tuesday’s arguments revolved around what is best for middle- and lower-income workers. Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, say the rule will be expensive for brokers and force them to get rid of Main Street clients and small businesses that offer 401(k) plans. They also say the rule does not take into account existing regulations on financial advice. Democrats say profit-hungry advisers have exploited middle- and lower-class workers by recommending retirement products that mostly serve to line their own pockets. Kicking off the debate, the most powerful Republican in the Senate, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, said blocking the rule would help “smaller savers.” “I have sincere concerns about what this could mean for the ability of investment advisers to provide quality financial advice, but also for the ability of consumers to seek affordable retirement options,” he said. Nevada’s Harry Reid, the most powerful Democrat in the chamber, countered that there was nothing wrong with “a rule that would require investment advisers to act in the best interest of their investors.” One Republican, Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson, described the rule as “a solution in search of a problem,” while fellow party member Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said “we should call this the ‘Only the Rich Retire’ rule.” Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey said the rule would allow people to “retire with dignity” and without worries that an “adviser will exploit you.” Fellow Democrat Patty Murray of Washington said: “Some financial advisers have lined their own pockets by steering clients toward complicated investments. Some have recommended that retirees make transactions that come with hidden fees. And some get commission when they sell a financial product, even if it doesn’t make sense for a client,” she said. “We finally have a new protection that would right that wrong.” | 1 |
6,351 | U.S. Senator Flake concerned about tax plan impact on debt | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Jeff Flake on Thursday expressed concern about the Senate Republican tax proposal’s impact on the national debt. In a statement, Flake did not say how he might vote on the proposal unveiled earlier Thursday. “I remain concerned over how the current tax reform proposals will grow the already staggering national debt by opting for short-term fixes while ignoring long-term problems for taxpayers and the economy,” he said. Both the Senate and House tax cut plans would add about $1.5 trillion to the U.S. national debt over 10 years. Lawmakers should achieve tax reform in a fiscally responsible manner, Flake said, adding that he looked forward to working with his colleagues “to deliver on that goal.” | 1 |
6,352 | Sean Hannity Barely Spends 6 Seconds On Last Night’s Drubbing – Revisits Trump ‘Victory’ Instead | Fox News host Sean Hannity spent a whopping 6 seconds covering Tuesday night s election results in which Democrats gained seats across the country in a referendum to Donald Trump and his policies. Hannity, an ardent defender of Trump s, explained the Democratic electoral victories in three of the states by saying, Those results in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York not states Donald Trump won. Hannity devoted 14 words to cover the election results in which Democrats trounced Republicans. In fact, as Shareblue notes, Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates the largest Democratic gain in a single election in the state since 1899. Hannity just shrugged it off.Watch:Sean Hannity's election coverage pic.twitter.com/l8DNJbfVRq John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) November 8, 2017After the hate-march in Charlottesville, Virginia in which tiki-torch carrying bigots terrorized the city while marching in Trump s name, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer, the Commonwealth rejected hate and bigotry at the polls yesterday.Newly elected Virginia state delegate Danica Roem, an openly transgender woman, defeated Bob Marshall, a Republican incumbent who billed himself as the commonwealth s chief homophobe. Instead of covering the big news, Hannity, a man who can be spotted usually humping on Trump s leg, decided to cover the former reality show star s speech in South Korea and his 2016 victory. Tonight on #Hannity we will cover President Trump s speech in South Korea and election results with @SebGorka, @AmbJohnBolton, @peterschweizer, @MonicaCrowley, @GreggJarrett and more Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 8, 2017And Trump is the reason Republicans lost so many seats last night, but Hannity wants to sing his praises and ignore the massive beating the GOP took.The Internet decided to rub it in his face.What's your take on the election results, Sean? Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 8, 2017Will you discuss the look on their faces? pic.twitter.com/U63kUEeZ4s Eric McAlister (@stankfunkmusic) November 8, 2017Did the election results come in yet? pic.twitter.com/fzFjxjeZMA ?BlueTexan?? (@lkjtexas) November 8, 2017How about the election in VA big guy? Thoughts? johnny foosball (@funkmnm) November 8, 2017Let me save you a broadcast: Election results LOL pic.twitter.com/AKX5j2JSeG Jazzie (@baddogs4343) November 8, 2017Feeling a little BLUE tonight? IAmTaniaNow! (@IAmTaniaNow) November 8, 2017What about the election landslide results in Virginia and New Jersey? Sara Burns (@VelvetBarracuda) November 8, 2017Will you be covering the crushing election defeat of the Republican Party? Or do your viewers not need to hear about that? Jason (@berg0887) November 8, 2017That s some real in-depth reporting there, Sean. The Fox News host likes to routinely call liberals snowflakes but he s the snowflakiest snowflake on TV. It s probably better for Hannity that he didn t report the actual news, though. It looks like he was about to cry. Although, drinking Hannity s salty conservative tears is kind of satisfying after Trump stumped so hard for Ed Gillespie s campaign on Twitter.Image via screen capture. | 0 |
6,353 | Iran still trying to buy items for missile development: Germany | BERLIN (Reuters) - German intelligence agencies have warned German companies that Iran is still trying to circumvent restrictions on the sale of dual-use items for its rocket and missile technology program, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The BfV domestic intelligence agency reminded German firms in the document that sales of certain technologies remained illegal despite sanctions relief triggered by the landmark Iran nuclear deal of 2015. It is important to note that Iran continues to pursue an ambitious rocket and missile technology program which is not affected by the sanctions relief, the document said. It said the reminder was triggered by current events but gave no details. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Monday told reporters that Berlin remains concerned about Iran s behavior in the Middle East and its missile development program, but stressed that Tehran was sticking to the nuclear agreement. European countries are scrambling to pull together a package of measures to keep the nuclear deal on track if U.S. President Donald Trump decertifies the nuclear pact. Under that pact, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program for 15 years in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump is expected to declare this week that Iran is not complying with the pact and to unveil a tough new strategy toward Iran. The BfV document said German intelligence agencies were continuing to investigate intensively whether Iran was attempting to circumvent existing regulations to acquire products or know-how in Germany. It had reported in June that Iran had sharply scaled back efforts to buy items for its nuclear program, but said attempts to buy items for its development program remained unchanged. It gave no details about the number of such attempts. Germany s most populous state and its industrial heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia, provided details in its own intelligence report for 2016 that was released on Tuesday. It said it had detected 32 attempts to buy equipment that were probably or definitely proliferation-related in 2016, down from a record 141 attempts seen a year earlier. Most of those attempts were related to Iran s missile program, although some were also linked to Pakistan, it said. The lion s share of the cases did not result in delivery of any equipment because state intelligence officials were able to warn companies in time, or companies recognized suspicious inquiries. It said Iran used a variety of front companies to acquire items, often sending goods through Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and China. | 1 |
6,354 | Obama likely to meet Japan PM after North Korea missile test: White House | VIENTIANE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will likely hold talks with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a leaders’ summit in Laos following a missile test by North Korea, the White House said on Tuesday. The firing of three ballistic missiles by North Korea on Monday highlighted the need for the United States to maintain a sense of urgency within the international community regarding sanctions on North Korea, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters. | 1 |
6,355 | UAE's Gargash says Trump's decision on Jerusalem is 'gift to radicalism' | MANAMA (Reuters) - A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a boon to extremists. These issues are a gift to radicalism. Radicals and extremists will use that to fan the language of hate, said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, speaking at the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain. | 1 |
6,356 | Irish PM cautious over two-year Brexit transition period | DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Brexit transition period of around two years envisaged in EU draft guidelines on Friday is a decent amount of time but a longer period could be needed to ratify a future trade deal, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Two years is a decent amount of time, we would be happy for it to be longer but we re also comfortable with two years, Varadkar told a news conference after hailing Friday s agreement on the Irish border as a very significant day for the whole of the island. I would add one word of caution to having a transition phase of two years, obviously what we re going to want to do is negotiate new treaties between the UK and EU. It can take many years to negotiate treaties and how long the transition phase should be, in my view, must be linked to how long it will take us to secure ratification of those treaties. | 1 |
6,357 | BREAKING: Watered Down Endorsement From Gov Mike Pence For Ted Cruz “I particularly want to commend Donald Trump” | Governor Mike Pence just endorsed Ted Cruz but it was at best a lackluster endorsement that smells of back room deals in the Republican establishment. Pence endorsed Cruz but went on to say he would support the eventual nominee with all my heart .Indiana Gov. Mike Pence commends Donald Trump but endorses Ted Cruz https://t.co/y9exGSXSAk https://t.co/2Ju8tgbeg7 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 29, 2016 | 0 |
6,358 | Ship traffic could resume Tuesday at Port Arthur, Texas: U.S. Coast Guard | HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday allowed some barge traffic to enter Port Arthur, Texas, home of the country’s largest oil refinery, and is considering allowing ships to enter on Tuesday, a spokesman said. Ships are not yet allowed to enter the port along the Neches River because of extreme river currents from Hurricane Harvey, said Scott Whalen, director of the USCG’s Vessel Tracking Service at Port Arthur. The largest crude oil processor in the United States, Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur Refinery, sits along the port. The 603,000 barrel per day refinery is one of the largest producers of gasoline in the United States. Port Arthur, the Port of Beaumont and Port of Orange are deep water ports on the Sabine-Neches waterway near the Texas-Louisiana border and are the only three of 28 ports on the Texas coast still closed to ship traffic due to Harvey. Survey results of the port are due Monday evening, and following an assessment the Coast Guard will determine if the port can reopen on Tuesday, Whalen said. Any reopening would entail restrictions such as daylight operations and on vessel draft, or depth. “We are hoping to move it tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll try Port Arthur first and see how far we can get. Pilots do not feel it is safe to get ships into those areas.” The Coast Guard currently has a two loaded barge limit for the Neches River, Whalen said. | 1 |
6,359 | TERMINALLY ILL FORMER MISS WI: “Until my last breath, I will use this voice to tell who Mr. Trump really is” [VIDEO] | How is it that Sean Hannity is the only media personality who is able to find these amazing, strong women who have stories every American voter should hear about Trump, how he really treats women and his about his genuine concern for others?Former Miss WI, Mellissa Young s story is heartbreaking and her admiration and respect for Donald Trump is unmistakeable. Watch former VP of Trump International Senada Adzem, and former Miss USA Carrie Prajean Boller speak out on Hannity : | 0 |
6,360 | Merkel's conservatives warned not to close off coalition options | MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative alliance should avoid making big policy commitments before they start coalition negotiations, potential junior government partners said on Thursday. Germany is set for months of uncertainty after Merkel s CDU/CSU alliance won a fourth term in Sunday s election but bled support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The Christian Social Union (CSU), Merkel s party s Bavarian ally, has signaled it wants a rightward shift, to focus on security and setting a limit on immigration numbers to dampen the appeal of the AfD, a policy firmly opposed by the Greens. This could complicate Merkel s hopes of building a three-way coalition between the conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the pro-immigration, environmentalist Greens. Nobody should set out maximal demands that could already be seen as ruling it (such a coalition) out, Greens leader Cem Ozdemir told the Funke newspaper group. Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and will meet with the CSU on Oct. 8 to seek a common position ahead of negotiations with the other parties. The FDP also warned against making commitments that would undermine coalition prospects. Even if there s no guarantee of success, it would be wrong to pull down the shutters this early, party general secretary Nicola Beer told the RND newspaper alliance. Little movement on a coalition is expected before an Oct. 15 vote in the western state of Lower Saxony, currently ruled by the Social Democrats (SPD) - who have said they will go into opposition at the national level - and the Greens. Leading economic institutes said on Thursday that the next government can count on record budget surpluses over the next two years due to a solid upswing, potentially facilitating Merkel s task of building a coalition. | 1 |
6,361 | Republican holdout Rand Paul to vote opening debate on health bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Rand Paul said on Tuesday he would vote to open debate on a healthcare overhaul to supplant the Affordable Care Act after the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told him they planned to take up a clean repeal vote. “This morning, @SenateMajLdr informed me that the plan for today is to take up the 2015 clean repeal bill as I’ve urged,” Paul wrote in a series of Twitter posts. “If that is the plan, I will vote to proceed to have this vote. I also now believe we will be able to defeat the new spending and bailouts.” | 1 |
6,362 | Trump to attend G20 summit in July in Hamburg | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will attend a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7 and 8, the White House said on Tuesday after Trump spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A statement said Trump spoke to Merkel to congratulate her on the outcome of a closely watched German election in the western state of Saarland, which Merkel’s conservatives won in a boost to her prospects of winning a fourth term in September’s national election. “The two leaders also used the occasion to reflect on the chancellor’s March 17 visit to the White House. The president said he looked forward to visiting Hamburg, Germany for the G20 summit on July 7 and 8,” the White House statement said. | 1 |
6,363 | nationalism is a trap | i am a rock n roll nigger httpsyoutubegsovftvlrk daniel w mccullar
as a mix blood american any time i hear someone in the black community use the n word in any way or form i hear and see ignorance when i hear someone outside the black community use it i see nothing less than a disease spreading it is a term that should be nothing less than unacceptable no other racial group uses derogatory terminology to describe themselves using the excuse that you are taking control of it is a bullshit juvenile excuse jay
thanks for the comment my nigga guy
although i am not hispanic i understand the slang pretty well and have employed many over the years
you would be surprised at the what comes out of there mouths about blacks and whites including thouse who come from other countries in south america as well there feelings and attitudes of anyone they consider different in appearance
we as the white race dont have anywhere near the market cornered as to racial predigest and racism in general just ask the jews or palestinians about that
we just understand it more from our own little perspective of the world around us but it is prevalent all over no matter where you happen to be at or from mr
she said the in n word on facebook bet she dont have the guts to say it in person further more for every white racist that call blacks n word that dont offend us you wanna know y u dont have to be black to be call a n word we as black people use it to insult our ancestors then we think its cool for whites to say it truth be told white people are niggas also u wanna know why well look the word up and u will see we are not niggas we are negros nigga or niggas is jus another word for stupid dumb and ignorance so look at u now who the nigga now um damn shame for a fucked up world guy
so what do you consider a white honkey or cracker to be considering i was one who watched the original archie bunker and gladys shows and thought they were great i never liked gov wallace and thought what the cops did in selma alabama and little rock was just wrong i have always believed mr king was right while thinking that sharpton and jackson are in it just for the money and political opportunities and believe the the blm has done some good but has been hijacked by out side influence that sees political gain to be won on the behalf of hillary who i think will absolutely destroy the intercitys by keeping herself and her kind in power over the backs of african americans and others she deems deporables mr
im not racist im jus stating facts why whites get mad when they came out with black lives matters then they say they are thugs an terrorist how so when whites rally up and sit at the store and everywhere else with a bunch of bikers but they tell the blacks oh they in a bike club shitting me half of them kkk if not all police is the biggest gang of america they get mad cause we sale drugs truth be told the police the one putting drugs on the streets we dont own boats plans for that matter to go get drugs at the end of the day the world is jus fucked up period mr
further more fuck jessie jackson im from greenville to he aint did shit for that community beside rebuild his old apt complex and added his name on where was he when the police killed my friend in fountain inn sc an took him back to the jail after the fact he was dam near dead then tried to say he hung himself where the justice for that guy
mr just about every black man woman and child in n s carolina knows that justice lives in the bottom of every toilet in every jail in just about every southern state in the south that the white cracker shits in and calls it truth
now we as the whites have learned to refine the obvous racism that still exist to the point of having a black president to make it look legit for the world to see
what do you suppose president putin sees when he shakes hands with obama just a man or a black man
personally i belive that racism is part of the our genetic make up considering man has been making slaves for many thousands of years out of all races including white and black
i just dont act upon my inherited prejudice nor choose to pass it on to my children
i think that is what makes the difference realizing its there but choosing not to act on the difference is what separates me from the others who just make lip service to there ingrained predigest while knowing full well they dont believe a word that comes out of there mouths
when i see you i see a black man who is just as frail or strong as i am wanting the same as i do in life and just asking for the chance to work for it
if on the other hand if you are a white or black thug or punk gang banger it dosent matter you will be treated as such mr
you right i never said u was wrong one time we both are human we both have and opinion at the end u see things your way i see things my way i know u not racist u know im not racist but at the end of the day can u say u can live in a black community with u jus being the only white people in the neighborhood check this my home paid for own my land also tell me y a police sit by my yard asking me bout the white guy in my yard and then start to as random do u think its right with out the proper cause guy
no i dont think i want to live were you do considering i am too damn old and set in my ways to want to besides i dont think my wife is going to want to move quite yet my oldest son moved to alaska a few years ago with his wife and dogs and they enjoy it a lot both got good jobs and doing well even bought a house on a acre of land for about half of what you would pay for one around one here in the san francisco bay area
brentwood was once know as a red necked farming town of about people when i was a kid growing up here my family have been farming for generations the hispanics were our hired labors living in labor camps and the blacks were shown the city limit lines by the police
my mom was considered progressive and we had a black nanny named pearly live with us for many years durring the summers while mom ran the ranch i loved her much she was a good woman as wide as she was tall would read to me and my sister and made incredible apple pies i first meet her when i was living in richmond ca to when we moved here in the mid s into the house my mom built that i still live in today pearlys children came to my sisters wedding
now brentwood is a city of i dont recognise it any longer but its core is still farming there are black families living on my street in houses built where there were once orchards and going to the schools i did i have a family i would consider white trailer trash living in the house next door that once had garden tour buses come to see the yard and have tea parties
my attitude is people are people i really dont give a damn who you are be respectful of me and keep up your home and property to show your pride in ownership and you should expect the same from me we can be friends and neighbors sharing a beer at a barbecue i throw on july th and at christmas and go fishing once in a while in my bass boat
as to the other thing you mentioned i think about cops being randomly nosey asking about me because i was the white guy sitting in your yard in a all black neighborhood what fucking business is it of his if he asked me i would politely tell him to go f off and then shut the hell up f he pushed it there would be complaints filed against him the next day and perhaps speeking to his chief and maybe the city counsel as well depending on the situation its not a good idea to piss me off cause i not only get mad i get even too mr
get mad about what thats childish to get mad cause we voice our opinion my dad married to a white women my uncle married to a white women im white a women an u know what we bout to get married my neighbor are not bad i dont stay in a violent neighborhood everyone stay on my road is family members at the end of the day i ask do u think the police was right for asking me in my yard im i know right from wrong also guy
i am a little confused which is not hard to do
i think you are asking me if it was okay that the cops who had stopped outside of your yard ask you over and question you about some white guy who was in your yard visiting with you correct
if that is right then my answer is no hell no unless the guy is a known gangster with a rap sheet a mile long and even then there are ways and means for the cops to go about there business to conduct there investigations with out asking people about theres thats why the detectives make the big bucks to covertly investigate with out shooting off the alarm bells
for some local flat foot to come up to you on your own property and start pumping you for information with out any justifiable cause is against your constatutional rights illegal immoral and he can go take a flying leap off a short bridge
i know its done all the time and cops seem to have every excuse in the book to want to try it
but my point is simply to smile at him tell him to have a nice day and walk away you dont ow him a thing if he still wants to push it then tell him you dont have to talk to him unless your lawyer is present that will usually set them running
i see too many stories about people getting into all sorts of trouble because they start flapping there gums thinking they are cool and just digging an even deeper hole for themselves to fall in
cops know from training how to push our buttons and rely on our own stupidity to sink our boat as the results mr
yes he did i was asking u do u think he was in the right guy
damn dude i was afraid you were going to tell me that this actually happened to you
it totally freaks me that it could and would but dosent really surprise me anymore that it does considering that many citys had stop frisk on the books untill only recently but supposedly it has been done away with according to the courts recent rulings fat chance of that really happening cops will just come up with a new way of doing there thing of harassing people for there fishing for a crime scene
i am sorry that it has and wish i could do something to stop it knowing that because of the color of my skin is probably the only reason why it doesnt or hasnt to me except when i was a kid living in berkeley ca then i got hassled by the cops quite a bit because of the hair down to my butt they all thought i was a drugged out hippy which a lot of the time was true i got slammed around by them quite a bit shot at and gassed a few times then arrested and served time in jail and probation for things that now are not considered a crime anymore for some of the crap i use to do and the people i ran with i am lucky to be still breathing
unfortunately that is the times we all live in and certainly it is unfair to you to be victimised because of it i hope you filed a complant against this ass hole to seek retrabutin mr
i understand that ive did things in my life im not happy bout cant sleep at nite the nightmare i have i jus take it one day at a time and think god im still breathing truth be told i almost lost my life times before i was and the only thing slowed me down from the streets is my first son hes now my middle son and my baby boy is and i have a lil girl that jus turned so i thank god a lot cause i have something to live for havent been to a club in yrs it feels good to be out the streets and doing some good for a change only thing i have did to make my life complete is going back to church but ill go when im ready but i do read the bible so there for i dont forget where i come from i respect u and dont know u its actually good we had this chat everything u told me i took that inconsideration truly i thank u i dont know everything but i dont mind listen mr
i stop dealing drugs a few yrs ago actually until i find a job that pays a hr when my ma first found out she had cancer i use to make sure i would not go home unless i had a week in my pocket to help my ma with her medical bills and medicine she fought that cancer for yrs right before she died yrs ago i promise her i wouldnt sale anymore and that was a promise i keep at the end of the month i had to put in a lot of blood and tears for what i did and my ma was not proud of the blood money i was bringing into the home but when she seen what i was actually doing with my money i think she respect me to a certain degree and i accepted that sometimes she would accept nothing from me ive been locked up times and started dealing weedcokegunspills at the age of honestly my ma use to beat me when she found out but i never stopped i caught my first charge at by the time i was i had did everything i could possibly do i think i had a good run in life i never had my father after the fact he was a big time drug dealer and him and ma got a divorce and he got on his on product and lost everything he been sober for yrs he doing good but i never hated him for what he did in life actually it made me stronger i had a step dad but only he was good for is taking me fishing far talking to bout men things he did cause he didnt know how to cause he had girls but at the end of the day he raised me from the time i was until he passed he was good man in his own ways and till this day i thank god for each parent i had in my life with no regrets i jus wish the world become a better place guy
hey at least you are still alive and hopefully clean and sober with a family that loves you that is a lot more than some of the people you knew when you were running the streets ill bet consider yourself mr to be blessed
never a father figure in my life just a strong willed old fashioned no nonsense mom who drove her father into oakland from brentwood everyday at the age of in she introduced me to the ymca in oakland when i was took a lot of backpacking trips with them to the bottom of the grand canyon to visit the havasupai indians that lived there hiked all over california montana yellowstone yosemite and europe backpacking and hiking should be a mandatory class in hs especially to intercity kids who never get out and see the real world except concrete pavement and maybe a city park
i understand why you did what you did you will receive no condemnation from me for it some of the people i ran with were totally vicious animals to the point of wondering if they were at all human or not hells angels and there buds were some i knew and partied with in the late s while living on telegraph ave in berkeley even ran into some original black panthers along the way now thouse guys were freaky and strange always talking about revolution and wanting to blow white people up
what saved me was getting the hell out of there moving to a small town in the mountains finishing my college education there later meeting a good woman who put up with my bs and marrying her we have been together years produced two fine sons that are a joy to us i became a small business man as owner operator of a landscape contracting company for years first working for retail and wholesale nurseries and other landscape companies to gain experience never went into farming with the family my brother was the one who did that with my mom my sister has her life with her husband years but to say i was born with dirt under my fingernails and will probably die that way is close to the truth sometimes i rather talk to plants than people because its easer that way and they dont give me grief like people do
hey if you want to shoot me an email sometime i am not against it i can be reached at email protected after all this is a open and public forum and maybe you are not all that comfortable as the result suit yourself mr
im still alive cause god showed me awaywhere i didnt have to hold people for ransom or in a drug trade shoot out all the time he made me realize i was only making memories in the streetsbut ill never think ill live to tell a lot of people who didnt know me my life style jus feel like before some of the whites judge us blacks they should actually look at the community we lived in if we lived in a drug neighborhood it wasnt by choice thats for damn sure we adapted to the fine cars clothes and everything that came with it only thing about it a small price came with also guy
good to hear now what are you doing mr
doing father dutys guy
so what s that for you what line of work are you in how many rug rats you got running around your wife work or is she a stay at home mom whats the town or city like you live in got any hobbies or are you sports nuts
just curious is all sure its none of my busies and mean no offence or none taken if you dont want to talk guy
i hope your education dose not reflect the way you write but if it dose god help us all because you are the next generation and inheritors of what has been left to you so you can build onto it for the betterment of the future generations your children and there childrens children to come mr
as long as i graduated from high school im happy long as my job allow me to bring him to every two weeks im happy my education aint got nothing to with how i shorten my word like everyone else in life i be willing to bet i go to a interview and talk jus like the white people and come out with a job didnt know education had to do with the problems thats going on in the world all my kids straight a students what about your kids are they me speaking my thoughts and opinions dont have nothing do with how i write im not in school anymore i feel i shouldnt have to prove shit to no one but my self and my kids guy
of course you are a proud father and well you should be dont we all as parents want and expect our children to be better than we were i think that is only natural
my sons both graduated from collage and are set in there lives both in there early s one married and living in alaska working as a city planner and the other is still here at home finishing up his education cheaper that way
there mother and i dint get past a two year community collage degree with me going into business as a landscape contractor years
you are right your education has nothing to do with any of the crap that occurring you dont have anything to prove to me and your thoughts and opinions are just that yours alone and who the hell am i to criticise
mr you talk the way you want and feel comfortable in and i will just listen and offer commentary once in awhile if its okay with you mr
i like listening to older people it makes me more wiser an not dumb like some american u only have wisdom from being wise hugh culliton
call me premillennial but i find it baffling that anyone regardless of where they think itll go would lack the judgement to realize that creating a permanent record of such potentially personally damaging actions is a terribly stupid thing to do
in addition to unprofessional conduct she should also have been fired for such criminal idiocy guy
i dont agree at all or perhaps it comes from your firm belief that you have never done something dumb rash or saying something that would be considered even remotely offencive by someone else hmmm hugh culliton
on the contrary its precisely because i know that ive done and said dumb things and that the recording of such things makes them vulnerable to being hacked that i find it baffling that one would want such personal and completely normal incidents of lack of judgement permanently recorded online
we live in the world of total online or even onnetworkedcomputer collection of data as a high school teacher i deal with this every time i teach teens internet safety thats why i see it as being a generational trend by people whove grown up with their entire lives on line such an environment means that while on the upside we can out trolls racist leos and nasty pedophiles it also means that everyone need to be very very careful with all data and information they store online
however in this case we have someone not acting as a private citizen but as a uniformed representative of the state in a time of very tense relations between law enforcement and the public taking personal images of a highly offensive nature mistake or not its out there and this action still betrays a serious lack of the judgement expected from a law enforcement officer guy
she and everyone else who speaks in public
trump has been made keenly aware of that fact as the results of what he said yrs ago is now coming back to bite him as well clinton
thanks for taking the time to further explain your point and now that you have i tend to agree with you although i still believe that the treatment to this young and naive lady was harsh
but considering she works in a public tax supported office its to be expected to bad she dint have the common sense to see it hill billy | 1 |
6,364 | White House says will not announce FBI director nominee on Friday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There will be no planned announcement on Friday of U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, the White House said. Trump fired the former director James Comey on May 9 in a surprise announcement that sparked days of political turmoil. On Thursday, the president said he was close to choosing a replacement. | 1 |
6,365 | MEDIA LIES EXPOSED By Arab Speaking Woman Who Tells Truth About Muslim “Refugees” [VIDEO] | CNN, MSNBC, AlJazeera, NBC, ABC, CBS and the other mainstream media outlets would like you to believe these refugees are just good wholesome people looking for a better way of life. Who the heck is vetting these people? Does anyone even care that we have no idea who is gaining admittance into our countries with no background checks? Has anyone thought through what it will mean to flood all of Europe and America with Muslim refugees who have no intention of assimilating with our cultures and heritage? The propaganda and spin on this crisis is completely insane! Where were these bleeding heart nations when Christians were watching entire communities being burned to the ground in Pakistan by Muslims? Who was bringing boatloads of persecuted Kurds to Europe and America when ISIS came to town? How about we pay attention to the real story, as told by Aida Bolev r:Aida Bolev r, an Arabic-speaking European woman who traveled on a train departing Budapest alongside migrants reveals how the refugees robbed Hungarians, used children as human shields and threatened to take her hostage and rape her.Aida Bolev r lived in the Middle East for five years and is fluent in Arabic. At the start of the video, she stresses that she is not trying to make the migrants look bad by telling her story.Arriving at Keleti railway station in Budapest, Bolev r said she was shocked to see a mass of filthy people who refused to let her enter the building and tried to steal her luggage while hurling insults.After witnessing some of the migrants without shame, simply defecating where they stood, Bolev r said some of the women were being beaten by their own husbands. All they could think to do in the heat of the moment was to grab the luggage of passersby and shout obscenities (at) them, said Bolev r, adding that 90% of the migrants were men aged 18-45.Bolev r says the men grabbed random children and tried to use them as human shields in order to board the train, Bedlam then ensued, with windows cracking and fights breaking out as waves of people surged onto the train.Bolev r was sat near four other people who had purchased tickets for the train. They began talking to each other in a relaxed tone, considering whether or not they should rob us, since that would please Allah because we were infidels. As for me, it would really be worth raping me because I am not dressed like a proper woman, I haven t got a hijab on my head, that is, I m not Muslim, and so I am bad, said Bolev r.When Bolev r and the four other passengers attempted to get off the train, the migrants began discussing whether or not to take them as hostages and wouldn t let them leave.After Bolev r was finally able to walk back into the train station, she saw migrants carelessly throwing food onto the floor. They were all shouting one word repeatedly: Money! That is, give us money, said Bolev r. They were grabbing at people, trying to tear away some valuables, they were grabbing at luggage and wouldn t let people pass, they shoved and insulted. Those people are the same ones that Europe accepted in the name of tolerance, so before we protect these people I suggest we learn the Arabic language, she concluded.Bolev r s story provides yet more contradictions to the image of the migrants that has been portrayed by the mass media of humble people fleeing war who are polite and grateful. As the footage below illustrates, the reality is somewhat different.As we previously reported, the German media and police in some areas are covering up rapes committed by migrants to as not to offend the flood of new Muslim refugees entering the country.The Gatestone Institute has compiled a lengthy list of rapes committed by migrants in and around refugee camps in Germany, the victims of which are mainly teenagers and children (including other migrants and Germans living locally).Schools in Germany situated near migrant camps are also warning girls not to wear shorts or skirts so as not to offend migrants and provoke attacks .Meanwhile, in another video, refugees at a camp in the Netherlands complain about the facility having slow Internet, average food and not being given enough money to buy cigarettes.Via: InfoWars | 0 |
6,366 | Watergate Reporter Says Trump’s Russia Scandal Is Way WORSE Than Watergate (DETAILS) | James Fallows has been a journalist since 1972 and he covered the Watergate scandal so he knows what he s talking about.And when Fallows says that Donald Trump s ongoing and ever-growing Russia scandal is WORSE than Watergate, every American should take notice.That s exactly what Fallows did in a new article for The Atlantic published on Friday.Fallows remembers the Watergate scandal clearly despite the fact that it unfolded 45 years ago.The scandal is known as the Watergate scandal because some of President Richard Nixon s goons broke into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate hotel.Nixon tried to cover up the crime by repeatedly lying and refusing to cooperate with investigations. He went so far as to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor assigned to the investigation. Cox wanted Nixon to release White House recordings and Nixon refused. Nixon wanted Cox to back off but Cox refused. Nixon then fired him. After that, it was all downhill for Nixon. The Supreme Court ordered him to release the tapes and they were so damning that Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.But Trump s Russia scandal is worse. Based simply on what is known so far, this scandal looks worse than Watergate, Fallows wrote. Worse for and about the president. Worse for the overall national interest. Worse in what it suggests about the American democratic system s ability to defend itself. Fallows points out that Watergate was a mere burglary in an effort to find information on Nixon s political opponents. Trump s scandal, on the other hand, is:Nothing less than attacks by an authoritarian foreign government on the fundamentals of American democracy, by interfering with an election and doing so as part of a sustained effort that included parallel interference in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and elsewhere. At worst, such efforts might actually have changed the election results. At least, they were meant to destroy trust in democracy. Not much of this is fully understood or proven, but the potential stakes are incomparably greater than what happened during Watergate, crime and cover-up alike.Fallows then compared Nixon s firing of Cox to Trump s firing of FBI Director James Comey.While Nixon paid lip-service to the concept of due process and checks-and-balances and at least acted like he was sticking to some recognizable rules, Trump s has openly disdained and flouted the rules. Nothing Donald Trump has done, on the campaign trail or in office, has expressed awareness of, or respect for, established rules, Fallows continued. Nixon s private comments could be vile, but nothing he said in public is comparable to Trump s dismissing James Comey as a showboat, or the thuggishly menacing tweet that Trump sent out today. The tweet Fallows referenced is a clear threat from Trump aimed at Comey in an effort to keep him from speaking to the press.James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017And while Nixon was a dark and complex person who was deeply knowledgeable and publicly disciplined and possessed political and strategic intelligence, Trump has repeatedly proven that he is impulsive, and ignorant, and apparently beyond the reach of any control, even his own. And what s also worse about Trump s Russia scandal is the way Republicans have circled the wagons around Trump and have made attempt after attempt to bury any investigations into his misconduct.While Republicans like Jason Chaffetz, Mitch McConnell, and Devin Nunes have all tried to sabotage investigations on Trump s behalf, it was Republicans like Charles Wiggins, Barry Goldwater, and Howard Baker who put their country before party and sided against Nixon.The Republicans who turned against Nixon will be remembered for doing the right thing when their country needed them most. Today s Republicans will only be remembered for doing nothing while their country burned to the ground. Fallows even points out that all it would take is three brave Republicans in the Senate to join Democrats to get a truly independent investigation rolling.The question is whether they actually care about their country, the Constitution, and the integrity of the office of the presidency enough to do so.Our country needs heroes now more than ever. Republicans could be those heroes if they would just stop being cowards and stop being Trump s puppets.Featured Image: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
6,367 | Peru cancels copper project auction amid political crisis: sources | LIMA (Reuters) - The center-right government of Peru s embattled President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski canceled its scheduled auction of a $2 billion copper project, Michiquillay, on Wednesday amid a growing political crisis, two government sources said. The regional bloc Organization of American States said earlier on Wednesday that it was preparing to send a delegation to Peru, the world s second biggest copper producer, to observe the political situation at the request of Kuczynski ahead of a vote in Congress to oust him on Thursday. | 1 |
6,368 | What is The Deep State? | One of the ancillary benefits of Donald Trump s insurgence into the US political scene has been a forceful injection of realism into the national political discourse. One of those points of discussion is centered around the concept of a state within a state, commonly referred to as the Deep State. It s suddenly become an acceptable mainstream idea, but prior to the 2016 election cycle, that conversation was strictly a fringe affair, mostly relegated to the realms of conspiracy forums and alternative media. but now it s written and spoken about as a mainstream talking point. One of the most coherent articulations of this idea originated from a former US Congressional staffer turned best-selling author, Mike Lofgren. In his book, The Deep State, he outlines the shape and structure of this seemingly invisible state within a state, but unlike the establishment media s innocuous commentary, Lofgren also delivers a incisive moral verdict on this power transition and explains how it s not only eviscerating the fabric of democracy and the foundations of the Constitutional Republic, but more importantly how it s destroying society.More than ever, it s important to understand just how we arrived at this crucial point in history and more importantly what can be done to derail this silent coup in the United States, and internationally too.The following essay was written by Lofgren in 2014, and still stands firm as a critical deconstruction of the current shadow state set-up in America . Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. That was their return cargo. The Martyrdom of Man, by Winwood Reade (1871) . By Mike LofgrenThere is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power. [1]During the last five years, the news media have been flooded with pundits decrying the broken politics of Washington. The conventional wisdom has it that partisan gridlock and dysfunction have become the new normal. That is certainly the case, and I have been among the harshest critics of this development. But it is also imperative to acknowledge the limits of this critique as it applies to the American governmental system. On one level, the critique is self-evident: In the domain that the public can see, Congress is hopelessly deadlocked in the worst manner since the 1850s, the violently rancorous decade preceding the Civil War.Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country As I wrote in The Party is Over, the present objective of congressional Republicans is to render the executive branch powerless, at least until a Republican president is elected (a goal that voter suppression laws in GOP-controlled states are clearly intended to accomplish). President Obama cannot enact his domestic policies and budgets: Because of incessant GOP filibustering, not only could he not fill the large number of vacancies in the federal judiciary, he could not even get his most innocuous presidential appointees into office. Democrats controlling the Senate have responded by weakening the filibuster of nominations, but Republicans are sure to react with other parliamentary delaying tactics. This strategy amounts to congressional nullification of executive branch powers by a party that controls a majority in only one house of Congress. Despite this apparent impotence, President Obama can liquidate American citizens without due processes, detain prisoners indefinitely without charge, conduct dragnet surveillance on the American people without judicial warrant and engage in unprecedented at least since the McCarthy era witch hunts against federal employees (the so-called Insider Threat Program ). Within the United States, this power is characterized by massive displays of intimidating force by militarized federal, state and local law enforcement. Abroad, President Obama can start wars at will and engage in virtually any other activity whatsoever without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress, such as arranging the forced landing of a plane carrying a sovereign head of state over foreign territory. Despite the habitual cant of congressional Republicans about executive overreach by Obama, the would-be dictator, we have until recently heard very little from them about these actions with the minor exception of comments from gadfly Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democrats, save a few mavericks such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, are not unduly troubled, either even to the extent of permitting seemingly perjured congressional testimony under oath by executive branch officials on the subject of illegal surveillance.These are not isolated instances of a contradiction; they have been so pervasive that they tend to be disregarded as background noise. During the time in 2011 when political warfare over the debt ceiling was beginning to paralyze the business of governance in Washington, the United States government somehow summoned the resources to overthrow Muammar Ghaddafi s regime in Libya, and, when the instability created by that coup spilled over into Mali, provide overt and covert assistance to French intervention there. At a time when there was heated debate about continuing meat inspections and civilian air traffic control because of the budget crisis, our government was somehow able to commit $115 million to keeping a civil war going in Syria and to pay at least 100m to the United Kingdom s Government Communications Headquarters to buy influence over and access to that country s intelligence. Since 2007, two bridges carrying interstate highways have collapsed due to inadequate maintenance of infrastructure, one killing 13 people. During that same period of time, the government spent $1.7 billion constructing a building in Utah that is the size of 17 football fields. This mammoth structure is intended to allow the National Security Agency to store a yottabyte of information, the largest numerical designator computer scientists have coined. A yottabyte is equal to 500 quintillion pages of text. They need that much storage to archive every single trace of your electronic life.Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an expos of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an establishment. All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude. [2]How did I come to write an analysis of the Deep State, and why am I equipped to write it? As a congressional staff member for 28 years specializing in national security and possessing a top secret security clearance, I was at least on the fringes of the world I am describing, if neither totally in it by virtue of full membership nor of it by psychological disposition. But, like virtually every employed person, I became, to some extent, assimilated into the culture of the institution I worked for, and only by slow degrees, starting before the invasion of Iraq, did I begin fundamentally to question the reasons of state that motivate the people who are, to quote George W. Bush, the deciders. Cultural assimilation is partly a matter of what psychologist Irving L. Janis called groupthink, the chameleon-like ability of people to adopt the views of their superiors and peers. This syndrome is endemic to Washington: The town is characterized by sudden fads, be it negotiating biennial budgeting, making grand bargains or invading countries. Then, after a while, all the town s cool kids drop those ideas as if they were radioactive. As in the military, everybody has to get on board with the mission, and questioning it is not a career-enhancing move. The universe of people who will critically examine the goings-on at the institutions they work for is always going to be a small one. As Upton Sinclair said, It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. A more elusive aspect of cultural assimilation is the sheer dead weight of the ordinariness of it all once you have planted yourself in your office chair for the 10,000th time. Government life is typically not some vignette from an Allen Drury novel about intrigue under the Capitol dome. Sitting and staring at the clock on the off-white office wall when it s 11:00 in the evening and you are vowing never, ever to eat another piece of takeout pizza in your life is not an experience that summons the higher literary instincts of a would-be memoirist. After a while, a functionary of the state begins to hear things that, in another context, would be quite remarkable, or at least noteworthy, and yet that simply bounce off one s consciousness like pebbles off steel plate: You mean the number of terrorist groups we are fighting is classified? No wonder so few people are whistle-blowers, quite apart from the vicious retaliation whistle-blowing often provokes: Unless one is blessed with imagination and a fine sense of irony, growing immune to the curiousness of one s surroundings is easy. To paraphrase the inimitable Donald Rumsfeld, I didn t know all that I knew, at least until I had had a couple of years away from the government to reflect upon it.The Deep State does not consist of the entire government. It is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department. I also include the Department of the Treasury because of its jurisdiction over financial flows, its enforcement of international sanctions and its organic symbiosis with Wall Street. All these agencies are coordinated by the Executive Office of the President via the National Security Council. Certain key areas of the judiciary belong to the Deep State, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose actions are mysterious even to most members of Congress. Also included are a handful of vital federal trial courts, such as the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Manhattan, where sensitive proceedings in national security cases are conducted. The final government component (and possibly last in precedence among the formal branches of government established by the Constitution) is a kind of rump Congress consisting of the congressional leadership and some (but not all) of the members of the defense and intelligence committees. The rest of Congress, normally so fractious and partisan, is mostly only intermittently aware of the Deep State and when required usually submits to a few well-chosen words from the State s emissaries.I saw this submissiveness on many occasions. One memorable incident was passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008. This legislation retroactively legalized the Bush administration s illegal and unconstitutional surveillance first revealed by The New York Times in 2005 and indemnified the telecommunications companies for their cooperation in these acts. The bill passed easily: All that was required was the invocation of the word terrorism and most members of Congress responded like iron filings obeying a magnet. One who responded in that fashion was Senator Barack Obama, soon to be coronated as the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He had already won the most delegates by campaigning to the left of his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, on the excesses of the global war on terror and the erosion of constitutional liberties.As the indemnification vote showed, the Deep State does not consist only of government agencies. What is euphemistically called private enterprise is an integral part of its operations. In a special series in The Washington Post called Top Secret America, Dana Priest and William K. Arkin described the scope of the privatized Deep State and the degree to which it has metastasized after the September 11 attacks. There are now 854,000 contract personnel with top-secret clearances a number greater than that of top-secret-cleared civilian employees of the government. While they work throughout the country and the world, their heavy concentration in and around the Washington suburbs is unmistakable: Since 9/11, 33 facilities for top-secret intelligence have been built or are under construction. Combined, they occupy the floor space of almost three Pentagons about 17 million square feet. Seventy percent of the intelligence community s budget goes to paying contracts. And the membrane between government and industry is highly permeable: The Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, is a former executive of Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the government s largest intelligence contractors. His predecessor as director, Admiral Mike McConnell, is the current vice chairman of the same company; Booz Allen is 99 percent dependent on government business. These contractors now set the political and social tone of Washington, just as they are increasingly setting the direction of the country, but they are doing it quietly, their doings unrecorded in the Congressional Record or the Federal Register, and are rarely subject to congressional hearings.Washington is the most important node of the Deep State that has taken over America, but it is not the only one. Invisible threads of money and ambition connect the town to other nodes. One is Wall Street, which supplies the cash that keeps the political machine quiescent and operating as a diversionary marionette theater. Should the politicians forget their lines and threaten the status quo, Wall Street floods the town with cash and lawyers to help the hired hands remember their own best interests. The executives of the financial giants even have de facto criminal immunity. On March 6, 2013, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder stated the following: I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. This, from the chief law enforcement officer of a justice system that has practically abolished the constitutional right to trial for poorer defendants charged with certain crimes. It is not too much to say that Wall Street may be the ultimate owner of the Deep State and its strategies, if for no other reason than that it has the money to reward government operatives with a second career that is lucrative beyond the dreams of avarice certainly beyond the dreams of a salaried government employee. [3]The corridor between Manhattan and Washington is a well trodden highway for the personalities we have all gotten to know in the period since the massive deregulation of Wall Street: Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner and many others. Not all the traffic involves persons connected with the purely financial operations of the government: In 2013, General David Petraeus joined KKR (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) of 9 West 57th Street, New York, a private equity firm with $62.3 billion in assets. KKR specializes in management buyouts and leveraged finance. General Petraeus expertise in these areas is unclear. His ability to peddle influence, however, is a known and valued commodity. Unlike Cincinnatus, the military commanders of the Deep State do not take up the plow once they lay down the sword. Petraeus also obtained a sinecure as a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. The Ivy League is, of course, the preferred bleaching tub and charm school of the American oligarchy. [4]Petraeus and most of the avatars of the Deep State the White House advisers who urged Obama not to impose compensation limits on Wall Street CEOs, the contractor-connected think tank experts who besought us to stay the course in Iraq, the economic gurus who perpetually demonstrate that globalization and deregulation are a blessing that makes us all better off in the long run are careful to pretend that they have no ideology. Their preferred pose is that of the politically neutral technocrat offering well considered advice based on profound expertise. That is nonsense. They are deeply dyed in the hue of the official ideology of the governing class, an ideology that is neither specifically Democrat nor Republican. Domestically, whatever they might privately believe about essentially diversionary social issues such as abortion or gay marriage, they almost invariably believe in the Washington Consensus : financialization, outsourcing, privatization, deregulation and the commodifying of labor. Internationally, they espouse 21st-century American Exceptionalism : the right and duty of the United States to meddle in every region of the world with coercive diplomacy and boots on the ground and to ignore painfully won international norms of civilized behavior. To paraphrase what Sir John Harrington said more than 400 years ago about treason, now that the ideology of the Deep State has prospered, none dare call it ideology. [5] That is why describing torture with the word torture on broadcast television is treated less as political heresy than as an inexcusable lapse of Washington etiquette: Like smoking a cigarette on camera, these days it is simply not done. After Edward Snowden s revelations about the extent and depth of surveillance by the National Security Agency, it has become publicly evident that Silicon Valley is a vital node of the Deep State as well. Unlike military and intelligence contractors, Silicon Valley overwhelmingly sells to the private market, but its business is so important to the government that a strange relationship has emerged. While the government could simply dragoon the high technology companies to do the NSA s bidding, it would prefer cooperation with so important an engine of the nation s economy, perhaps with an implied quid pro quo. Perhaps this explains the extraordinary indulgence the government shows the Valley in intellectual property matters. If an American jailbreaks his smartphone (i.e., modifies it so that it can use a service provider other than the one dictated by the manufacturer), he could receive a fine of up to $500,000 and several years in prison; so much for a citizen s vaunted property rights to what he purchases. The libertarian pose of the Silicon Valley moguls, so carefully cultivated in their public relations, has always been a sham. Silicon Valley has long been tracking for commercial purposes the activities of every person who uses an electronic device, so it is hardly surprising that the Deep State should emulate the Valley and do the same for its own purposes. Nor is it surprising that it should conscript the Valley s assistance.Still, despite the essential roles of lower Manhattan and Silicon Valley, the center of gravity of the Deep State is firmly situated in and around the Beltway. The Deep State s physical expansion and consolidation around the Beltway would seem to make a mockery of the frequent pronouncement that governance in Washington is dysfunctional and broken. That the secret and unaccountable Deep State floats freely above the gridlock between both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is the paradox of American government in the 21st century: drone strikes, data mining, secret prisons and Panopticon-like control on the one hand; and on the other, the ordinary, visible parliamentary institutions of self-government declining to the status of a banana republic amid the gradual collapse of public infrastructure.The results of this contradiction are not abstract, as a tour of the rotting, decaying, bankrupt cities of the American Midwest will attest. It is not even confined to those parts of the country left behind by a Washington Consensus that decreed the financialization and deindustrialization of the economy in the interests of efficiency and shareholder value. This paradox is evident even within the Beltway itself, the richest metropolitan area in the nation. Although demographers and urban researchers invariably count Washington as a world city, that is not always evident to those who live there. Virtually every time there is a severe summer thunderstorm, tens or even hundreds of thousands of residents lose power, often for many days. There are occasional water restrictions over wide areas because water mains, poorly constructed and inadequately maintained, have burst. [6] The Washington metropolitan area considers it a Herculean task just to build a rail link to its international airport with luck it may be completed by 2018.It is as if Hadrian s Wall was still fully manned and the fortifications along the border with Germania were never stronger, even as the city of Rome disintegrates from within and the life-sustaining aqueducts leading down from the hills begin to crumble. The governing classes of the Deep State may continue to deceive themselves with their dreams of Zeus-like omnipotence, but others do not. A 2013 Pew Poll that interviewed 38,000 people around the world found that in 23 of 39 countries surveyed, a plurality of respondents said they believed China already had or would in the future replace the United States as the world s top economic power.The Deep State is the big story of our time. It is the red thread that runs through the war on terrorism, the financialization and deindustrialization of the American economy, the rise of a plutocratic social structure and political dysfunction. Washington is the headquarters of the Deep State, and its time in the sun as a rival to Rome, Constantinople or London may be term-limited by its overweening sense of self-importance and its habit, as Winwood Reade said of Rome, to live upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Living upon its principal, in this case, means that the Deep State has been extracting value from the American people in vampire-like fashion.We are faced with two disagreeable implications. First, that the Deep State is so heavily entrenched, so well protected by surveillance, firepower, money and its ability to co-opt resistance that it is almost impervious to change. Second, that just as in so many previous empires, the Deep State is populated with those whose instinctive reaction to the failure of their policies is to double down on those very policies in the future. Iraq was a failure briefly camouflaged by the wholly propagandistic success of the so-called surge; this legerdemain allowed for the surge in Afghanistan, which equally came to naught. Undeterred by that failure, the functionaries of the Deep State plunged into Libya; the smoking rubble of the Benghazi consulate, rather than discouraging further misadventure, seemed merely to incite the itch to bomb Syria. Will the Deep State ride on the back of the American people from failure to failure until the country itself, despite its huge reserves of human and material capital, is slowly exhausted? The dusty road of empire is strewn with the bones of former great powers that exhausted themselves in like manner.But, there are signs of resistance to the Deep State and its demands. In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, the House narrowly failed to pass an amendment that would have defunded the NSA s warrantless collection of data from US persons. Shortly thereafter, the president, advocating yet another military intervention in the Middle East, this time in Syria, met with such overwhelming congressional skepticism that he changed the subject by grasping at a diplomatic lifeline thrown to him by Vladimir Putin. [7]Has the visible, constitutional state, the one envisaged by Madison and the other Founders, finally begun to reassert itself against the claims and usurpations of the Deep State? To some extent, perhaps. The unfolding revelations of the scope of the NSA s warrantless surveillance have become so egregious that even institutional apologists such as Senator Dianne Feinstein have begun to backpedal if only rhetorically from their knee-jerk defense of the agency. As more people begin to waken from the fearful and suggestible state that 9/11 created in their minds, it is possible that the Deep State s decade-old tactic of crying terrorism! every time it faces resistance is no longer eliciting the same Pavlovian response of meek obedience. And the American people, possibly even their legislators, are growing tired of endless quagmires in the Middle East.But there is another more structural reason the Deep State may have peaked in the extent of its dominance. While it seems to float above the constitutional state, its essentially parasitic, extractive nature means that it is still tethered to the formal proceedings of governance. The Deep State thrives when there is tolerable functionality in the day-to-day operations of the federal government. As long as appropriations bills get passed on time, promotion lists get confirmed, black (i.e., secret) budgets get rubber-stamped, special tax subsidies for certain corporations are approved without controversy, as long as too many awkward questions are not asked, the gears of the hybrid state will mesh noiselessly. But when one house of Congress is taken over by tea party Wahhabites, life for the ruling class becomes more trying.If there is anything the Deep State requires it is silent, uninterrupted cash flow and the confidence that things will go on as they have in the past. It is even willing to tolerate a degree of gridlock: Partisan mud wrestling over cultural issues may be a useful distraction from its agenda. But recent congressional antics involving sequestration, the government shutdown and the threat of default over the debt ceiling extension have been disrupting that equilibrium. And an extreme gridlock dynamic has developed between the two parties such that continuing some level of sequestration is politically the least bad option for both parties, albeit for different reasons. As much as many Republicans might want to give budget relief to the organs of national security, they cannot fully reverse sequestration without the Democrats demanding revenue increases. And Democrats wanting to spend more on domestic discretionary programs cannot void sequestration on either domestic or defense programs without Republicans insisting on entitlement cuts.So, for the foreseeable future, the Deep State must restrain its appetite for taxpayer dollars. Limited deals may soften sequestration, but agency requests will not likely be fully funded anytime soon. Even Wall Street s rentier operations have been affected: After helping finance the tea party to advance its own plutocratic ambitions, America s Big Money is now regretting the Frankenstein s monster it has created. Like children playing with dynamite, the tea party and its compulsion to drive the nation into credit default has alarmed the grown-ups commanding the heights of capital; the latter are now telling the politicians they thought they had hired to knock it off.The House vote to defund the NSA s illegal surveillance programs was equally illustrative of the disruptive nature of the tea party insurgency. Civil liberties Democrats alone would never have come so close to victory; tea party stalwart Justin Amash (R-MI), who has also upset the business community for his debt-limit fundamentalism, was the lead Republican sponsor of the NSA amendment, and most of the Republicans who voted with him were aligned with the tea party.The final factor is Silicon Valley. Owing to secrecy and obfuscation, it is hard to know how much of the NSA s relationship with the Valley is based on voluntary cooperation, how much is legal compulsion through FISA warrants and how much is a matter of the NSA surreptitiously breaking into technology companies systems. Given the Valley s public relations requirement to mollify its customers who have privacy concerns, it is difficult to take the tech firms libertarian protestations about government compromise of their systems at face value, especially since they engage in similar activity against their own customers for commercial purposes. That said, evidence is accumulating that Silicon Valley is losing billions in overseas business from companies, individuals and governments that want to maintain privacy. For high tech entrepreneurs, the cash nexus is ultimately more compelling than the Deep State s demand for patriotic cooperation. Even legal compulsion can be combatted: Unlike the individual citizen, tech firms have deep pockets and batteries of lawyers with which to fight government diktat.This pushback has gone so far that on January 17, President Obama announced revisions to the NSA s data collection programs, including withdrawing the agency s custody of a domestic telephone record database, expanding requirements for judicial warrants and ceasing to spy on (undefined) friendly foreign leaders. Critics have denounced the changes as a cosmetic public relations move, but they are still significant in that the clamor has gotten so loud that the president feels the political need to address it.When the contradictions within a ruling ideology are pushed too far, factionalism appears and that ideology begins slowly to crumble. Corporate oligarchs such as the Koch brothers are no longer entirely happy with the faux-populist political front group they helped fund and groom. Silicon Valley, for all the Ayn Rand-like tendencies of its major players, its offshoring strategies and its further exacerbation of income inequality, is now lobbying Congress to restrain the NSA, a core component of the Deep State. Some tech firms are moving to encrypt their data. High tech corporations and governments alike seek dominance over people though collection of personal data, but the corporations are jumping ship now that adverse public reaction to the NSA scandals threatens their profits.The outcome of all these developments is uncertain. The Deep State, based on the twin pillars of national security imperative and corporate hegemony, has until recently seemed unshakable and the latest events may only be a temporary perturbation in its trajectory. But history has a way of toppling the altars of the mighty. While the two great materialist and determinist ideologies of the twentieth century, Marxism and the Washington Consensus, successively decreed that the dictatorship of the proletariat and the dictatorship of the market were inevitable, the future is actually indeterminate. It may be that deep economic and social currents create the framework of history, but those currents can be channeled, eddied, or even reversed by circumstance, chance and human agency. We have only to reflect upon defunct glacial despotisms such as the USSR or East Germany to realize that nothing is forever.Throughout history, state systems with outsized pretensions to power have reacted to their environments in two ways. The first strategy, reflecting the ossification of its ruling elites, consists of repeating that nothing is wrong, that the status quo reflects the nation s unique good fortune in being favored by God and that those calling for change are merely subversive troublemakers. As the French ancien r gime, the Romanov dynasty and the Habsburg emperors discovered, the strategy works splendidly for a while, particularly if one has a talent for dismissing unpleasant facts. The final results, however, are likely to be thoroughly disappointing.The second strategy is one embraced to varying degrees and with differing goals, by figures of such contrasting personalities as Mustafa Kemal Atat rk, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Deng Xiaoping. They were certainly not revolutionaries by temperament; if anything, their natures were conservative. But they understood that the political cultures in which they lived were fossilized and incapable of adapting to the times. In their drive to reform and modernize the political systems they inherited, their first obstacles to overcome were the outworn myths that encrusted the thinking of the elites of their time.As the United States confronts its future after experiencing two failed wars, a precarious economy and $17 trillion in accumulated debt, the national punditry has split into two camps. The first, the declinists, sees a broken, dysfunctional political system incapable of reform and an economy soon to be overtaken by China. The second, the reformers, offers a profusion of nostrums to turn the nation around: public financing of elections to sever the artery of money between the corporate components of the Deep State and financially dependent elected officials, government insourcing to reverse the tide of outsourcing of government functions and the conflicts of interest that it creates, a tax policy that values human labor over financial manipulation and a trade policy that favors exporting manufactured goods over exporting investment capital.All of that is necessary, but not sufficient. The Snowden revelations (the impact of which have been surprisingly strong), the derailed drive for military intervention in Syria and a fractious Congress, whose dysfunction has begun to be a serious inconvenience to the Deep State, show that there is now a deep but as yet inchoate hunger for change. What America lacks is a figure with the serene self-confidence to tell us that the twin idols of national security and corporate power are outworn dogmas that have nothing more to offer us. Thus disenthralled, the people themselves will unravel the Deep State with surprising speed. [1] The term Deep State was coined in Turkey and is said to be a system composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services, military, security, judiciary and organized crime. In British author John le Carr s latest novel, A Delicate Truth, a character describes the Deep State as the ever-expanding circle of non-governmental insiders from banking, industry and commerce who were cleared for highly classified information denied to large swathes of Whitehall and Westminster. I use the term to mean a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process. [2] Twenty-five years ago, the sociologist Robert Nisbet described this phenomenon as the attribute of No Fault . Presidents, secretaries and generals and admirals in America seemingly subscribe to the doctrine that no fault ever attaches to policy and operations. This No Fault conviction prevents them from taking too seriously such notorious foul-ups as Desert One, Grenada, Lebanon and now the Persian Gulf. To his list we might add 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. [3] The attitude of many members of Congress towards Wall Street was memorably expressed by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in 2010: In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks. [4] Beginning in 1988, every US president has been a graduate of Harvard or Yale. Beginning in 2000, every losing presidential candidate has been a Harvard or Yale graduate, with the exception of John McCain in 2008. [5] In recent months, the American public has seen a vivid example of a Deep State operative marketing his ideology under the banner of pragmatism. Former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates a one-time career CIA officer and deeply political Bush family retainer has camouflaged his retrospective defense of military escalations that have brought us nothing but casualties and fiscal grief as the straight-from-the-shoulder memoir from a plain-spoken son of Kansas who disdains Washington and its politicians. [6] Meanwhile, the US government took the lead in restoring Baghdad s sewer system at a cost of $7 billion. [7] Obama s abrupt about-face suggests he may have been skeptical of military intervention in Syria all along, but only dropped that policy once Congress and Putin gave him the running room to do so. In 2009, he went ahead with the Afghanistan surge partly because General Petraeus public relations campaign and back-channel lobbying on the Hill for implementation of his pet military strategy pre-empted other options. These incidents raise the disturbing question of how much the democratically elected president or any president sets the policy of the national security state and how much the policy is set for him by the professional operatives of that state who engineer faits accomplis that force his hand.*** Author Mike Lofgren is a former career congressional staff member who served on the House and Senate budget committees. His latest book is The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government. He appeared several times as a guest on Moyers & Company. Learn more on his website: mikelofgren.net.This essay was originally published on Feb. 21, 2014, written by best selling author Mike Lofgren and published at BillMoyers.comREAD MORE DEEP STATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Deep State FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
6,369 | Trump Announces Transgender Ban for US Military, Caitlyn Jenner Slighted | 21st Century Wire says On Twitter today, President Donald Trump announced that he will ban transgender people from serving in the US military in any capacity.The move reverses Barack Obama s previous decision to allow transgender personnel from serving.Trump explained the practical dillemas in being forced to cater to the progressive gender agenda: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 .Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 .victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017Former US Olympic Decathalon gold medal winner Bruce Jenner recently began a sex change and has since renamed himself Caitlyn Jenner.After Trump s announcement, Jenner then tweeted: There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017EDITOR S NOTE: No doubt, the Russians, the Chinese, ISIS and North Korea must be shaking in their boots at the mere thought of Jenner s military proposition.Star Trek actor and LGBT activist, George Takei, lashed-out against Trump s tweets on Wednesday:Donald: With your ban on trans people from the military, you are on notice that you just pissed off the wrong community. You will regret it. George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 26, 2017See other liberal celebrities Twitter reactions as well as Chelsea Manning here.Watch this interview on liberal daytime TV talk show, The View, as Jenner explains his/her politics and what it s like to be a transgender registered Republican: READ MORE POLITICALLY CORRECT NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire PC FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
6,370 | Islamic State shores up last stronghold on Syria-Iraq border | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State is building up its defenses in a pocket of territory on the Syrian-Iraqi frontier, the U.S.-led coalition said on Friday, in an anticipation of assaults by Syrian and Iraqi forces aiming to snuff out the jihadists last stronghold. Iraq launched an offensive on Thursday to capture the last Iraqi territory held by Islamic State, the areas of Rawa and al-Qaim, a town just over the border from the Syrian town of Albu Kamal, which is also held by the jihadists. Right now, we are seeing the buildup of (IS) defenses in both al-Qaim and in Albu Kamal, Colonel Ryan Dillon told Reuters by phone, adding that Islamic State s leadership had shifted to Albu Kamal from towns deeper into Syria. Albu Kamal is in the crosshairs of both the U.S.-led coalition and the Syrian government and its Iranian-backed militia allies. Pro-Damascus forces, who are also backed by the Russian air force, said on Thursday they would march on the town having driven IS out of a base some 70 km (40 miles) away. Dillon said Albu Kamal was definitely a target for the coalition but said it would be up to the leadership of the coalition s Syrian allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to take the decision on a ground assault. The SDF s priority for now was to shore up its control over the al-Omar oil field, Syria s largest, which was captured from IS on Sunday, he said. Right now, we have to consolidate that area in and around Omar oilfield and the area that led up to it to make sure that that area is secure, and then it ll be the SDF leadership decision if they can allocate the right resource to adequately push into Albu Kamal, he said. Assisted by the coalition, the SDF is fighting IS on the eastern banks of the Euphrates, whereas the Syrian army and its allies, supported by Russian air power, is largely fighting on the western banks of the river. Dillon said IS fighters were now much different fighters from the ones the U.S.-led coalition fought leading up to the battle for Mosul, the Iraqi city recaptured from IS in June. We have not seen this fight to the death that we saw in Mosul, and I think it is attributed much to their morale, he said. | 1 |
6,371 | HOLLYWOOD LIBS Raise Big Money For #CrookedHillary…Poor LA Flood Victims Ignored | The Democratic presidential nominee is in the midst of a multiday, high-dollar fundraising blitz across the country.After a weekend packed with five fundraisers in Martha s Vineyard and Cape Cod in Massachusetts (including one with an appearance by Cher), Clinton is traveling today to California, where she will attend seven fundraisers over the next three days.Pop icon and prolific tweeter Cher hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on Cape Cod Sunday that reportedly raised more than $1.5 million for the Democratic presidential nominee s campaign. Approximately 1,000 people attended the summer celebration event at the Pilgrim Monument & Museum in Provincetown, including the 70-year-old Believe singer, who did not perform, according to the Cape Cod Times.She then travels to the Hamptons in New York this weekend for even more fundraising events.The Clinton campaign s decision to prioritize private fundraisers over public campaign events appears to be twofold.Hollywood A-lister Jennifer Garner hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic nominee for president Hillary R. Clinton campaign Thursday, Aug. 18th at the home of Benjamin and Penelope Pierce from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.Jennifer Garner, the star of Dude, Where s My Car? is a active supporter of Democratic candidates. In the 2016 cycle, she donated $5,940 to Act Blue, a left-wing Political Action Committee, as well as 5,400 to the aborted congressional campaign of Democract Melissa Gilbert, who starred in the 1970s TV series Little House On The Prairie. Garner, who no longer uses the surname Affleck in legal filings since beginning the process of divorcing actor Ben Affleck, also gave $2,700 to California Democrat Kamala Harris s Senate campaign. Breitbart | 0 |
6,372 | Democrat cites drafting error in proposed capital rule amendment | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Democratic U.S. senator is backing away from a proposed legislative tweak that would have helped big banks lessen their capital burden, according to a statement provided to Reuters on Monday. Senator Christopher Van Hollen, of Maryland, had submitted an amendment to a financial regulatory reform bill that would give banks a partial reprieve from a rule known as the supplemental leverage ratio, according to the document Reuters reported on earlier on Monday. However, Van Hollen is against the changes and is not offering the amendment to the Senate Banking Committee as written, his spokeswoman Bridgett Frey told Reuters. She attributed the difference to an error in drafting the amendment, whose changes consisted of two paragraphs. “This is a drafting error,” said Frey. “To be clear, Senator Van Hollen opposes changing capital requirements for non-custodial banks, and he is fighting to ensure that the Federal Reserve writes a strong rule that governs the supplementary leverage ratio rules for custodial banks.” “To avoid any misinterpretation of his intent, he will not be offering the amendment as written,” she added. Wall Street bankers have complained about the supplemental leverage ratio for years, and changes to the rule are high on big lenders’ wish list as the financial reform bill works its way through Congress. The rule requires big banks that are subject to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s annual stress test to hold additional capital to reflect risks they pose to the broader system. Van Hollen’s abandoned amendment would have changed a part of the rule that requires lenders to hold capital against certain assets held at central banks. The change was one of more than 100 sought by banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co(JPM.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), lobbyists said. The bill being drafted by the Senate Banking Committee was proposed by Republican Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo and is due to be formally discussed by lawmakers this week. Van Hollen is one of 11 lawmakers in the Democratic minority who sit on the committee. The stated intention of the bill is to reduce regulatory burdens on small- and mid-sized financial companies. However, that has not stopped large institutions from lobbying hard to secure regulatory relief they have been hoping for since Republican Donald Trump was elected president last year. | 1 |
6,373 | France's Le Pen seeks to bill herself as Macron's main opponent | BRACHAY, France (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has been largely out of the spotlight since stinging electoral defeats, on Saturday sought to reclaim the mantle of main opponent to President Emmanuel Macron, which polls now attribute to the far-left. Surveys show that while Le Pen gathered more votes in the presidential election this spring than her National Front (FN) ever did before, lower-than-expected scores, a damaging TV debate against Macron, infighting within the FN and unpopular anti-euro policies have seriously dented her image. Instead, far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon and his France Unbowed party, whose 17 lawmakers have been vocal opponents to Macron since their election in June, in particular on labor reform, are seen as the new president s strongest foes. Lashing out at Macron over his labor reform, immigration and security policies and what she said was the government s inadequate response to Hurricane Irma, Le Pen said in her first public speech in months: Don t be mistaken, Mr Macron s dismantling efforts target not only the essence of our institutions but also society as a whole and each and every one of us, including on labor rules. Calling France Unbowed Islamo-Trotskysts, saying they backed foreigners over French citizens and put up a show rather than properly opposing Macron, Le Pen said the hardline Laurent Wauquiez, favorite to lead the conservative The Republicans, would become more mainstream as soon as he was elected. Our political family is the only one capable of being a proper alternative, Le Pen told supporters in her traditional early September speech in the small, pro-FN eastern France village of Brachay. But in recognition of the difficulties her party faces and disappointment with the presidential and legislative election scores - the FN has only eight lawmakers in the lower house of parliament - Le Pen said she would tour France to meet supporters and discuss what should change within the FN. She confirmed the party would change its name at a congress early next year. And her speech struck a note that was different from her election campaign rallies. Le Pen on Saturday did not mention the euro at all and barely touched upon globalization, while both those themes were at the heart of her campaign strategy. Instead, Le Pen devoted the first chunk of her speech to a harsh criticism of immigration and Islamism, signaling a return to the far-right party s fundamentals as opinion polls show her anti-euro stance is unpopular. | 1 |
6,374 | Trump says he, Mexican leader discussed border wall but not who pays | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday he and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto discussed Trump’s proposal for a border wall between the countries but not the New York businessman’s demand that Mexico pay for it. Trump and Pena Nieto emerged from about an hour of talks at the presidential palace in Mexico City to deliver statements to the news media and take questions. “We did discuss the wall, we didn’t discuss payment of the wall, that will be at a later date, this was a very preliminary meeting, it was an excellent meeting,” Trump said. Pena Nieto, in his statement, said the border must be seen as an asset for the region. He said undocumented immigration from Mexico to the United States had dropped considerably since reaching a peak a decade ago. | 1 |
6,375 | Petition filed in Kenya court challenging Kenyatta's election victory | NAIROBI (Reuters) - A former lawmaker filed a petition at Kenya s Supreme Court on Monday challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta s victory in last month s presidential election in a last minute move that opens the door to legal scrutiny of the vote. Harun Mwau filed the petition hours before a Monday deadline set by the constitution expired. Earlier in the day, a coalition of civil society groups said they were being targeted by the government in an effort to head off potential legal cases. The Supreme Court has until Nov. 14 to rule on election petitions. If it upholds the result, Kenyatta will be sworn in on Nov. 28. Kenyatta came to power in 2013 and won a second and final term in August, defeating opposition leader Raila Odinga by 1.4 million votes. The Supreme Court nullified the vote citing procedural irregularities and ordered a second election. Odinga did not contest the repeat vote on Oct. 26 saying it would be unfair because the election commission had failed to implement reforms. Kenyatta won with 98 percent of the vote, though opposition supporters staged a boycott and prevented polls from opening in the west of the country. Kenya is a regional hub for trade, diplomacy and security and its prolonged election season has disrupted its economy. Rights groups said on Monday the government was trying to prevent them from lodging cases challenging the Oct. 26 result. The government s NGO Board, which monitors civil society organizations, summoned three groups for an audit on Monday, they said. It is not a coincidence that the NGO Board has decided to come after these organizations. All three have been instrumental in calling for free, fair, and credible elections, said a statement from Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu, a coalition of civil society groups that monitored the election. The name means My Vote My Voice in Kiswahili. The three organizations, Katiba Institute, Muslims for Human Rights and Inuka Trust, belong to the coalition. The head of Muslims for Human Rights said he had planned to file a court challenge. Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu deployed 2,000 monitors for last month s vote and said it found multiple cases where results from polling stations differed from results on the forms posted on the election portal. They are trying to attack everywhere to see who is preparing to go to court so that they stop it, Tom Oketch, secretary general for the Coalition for Constitutional Implementation, told a news conference. Calls to Fazul Mohamed, the NGO Board s executive director, went unanswered. Mwenda Njoka, a spokesman for the interior ministry, under which the board falls, said only Mohamed could comment. In a separate case, another organization filed a case against the opposition, seeking to hold them liable for losses incurred because of their demonstrations. | 1 |
6,376 | limbaugh perfectly sums up why the lefts unwilling to face why trump really won | poll sexism was not a factor in hillarys loss by aaron bandler november
some leftists still reeling from hillary clintons stunning defeat on tuesday are blaming her defeat on supposed sexism against a woman president however a new poll suggests that sexism did not play a role at all in clintons loss
the poll conducted by conquest communications group and published on just facts featured a question specifically geared toward gauging potential sexism if you were faced with a choice between a male and a female presidential candidate who would you vote for
here were the results emphasis added
overall of voters said it does not matter preferred a female preferred a male were unsure and refused to answer
male voters and trump voters were more likely than any other groups to say it does not matter at and respectively the other groups were not far behind and within the margins of error with rates of for clinton voters for undecided voters for females
naturally supporters of trump were more likely to support a male president than a female president percent to percent respectivelyand clinton supporters were more likely to support female president than a male president percent to percent respectively
the survey was conducted from october so it was taken a couple of weeks before the election but its hard to imagine a majority of voters all of a sudden turned into a bunch of sexists
there is a little bias towards a male president among trump voters and a little bias towards a female president among clinton voters but the results of the survey suggest that overall the genitalia of a candidate is not a significant factor involved in most voters when it comes to choosing the next president of the united states
democrats will have to find a different strategy for identity politics since the gender card doesnt work speaking of identity politics it looks like the race card seems to be in trouble as well tags | 1 |
6,377 | Separatists and unionists tied for support ahead of Catalan elections: poll | BARCELONA (Reuters) - Pro-independence parties may fail to retain an absolute majority of seats in the Catalan parliament in regional elections next month, a poll published on Sunday showed, with pro-unity parties poised to increase their vote share. Failure to win a majority in the regional parliament would be a blow for Catalan separatists who have billed the Dec. 21 election as a de-facto plebiscite on Madrid s decision to impose direct rule on the wealthy region last month. Following Spain s worst political crisis in decades, the sacking of the secessionist Catalan government in October has a eased tensions for the moment, although victory for the pro-independence camp in December would plunge the northeast region back into uncertainty. Catalan separatist parties are predicted to win 46 percent of the vote, down slightly from 47.7 percent in a previous election in 2015. Unionist parties combined would account for another 46 percent of votes, up from less than 40 percent last time, according to the poll by Metroscopia. The poll shows pro-independence parties winning 67 seats, one short of the absolute majority they would need to retain control of the regional parliament. Unionists forces would also fall short a majority in this scenario, although the poll suggests a high number of voters, around 23 percent, remain undecided. The staunchly unionist center-right party Citizens looks set to cement its position as the largest opposition force with 25.3 percent of votes, gaining from the Catalan wing of Prime Minister Rajoy s conservative Popular Party which drops to 5.8 percent and loses five of its 11 seats. Turnout for the election, which former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said on Saturday would be the most important in the region s history, is predicted to reach a record 80 percent. | 1 |
6,378 | Missouri lawmakers override gun, voter ID vetoes | KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Missouri lawmakers pushed through bills on Wednesday eliminating the need for permits to carry concealed weapons and requiring voters to show a photo identification before casting a ballot, overriding Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s vetoes of the bills. Both votes by the Republican-controlled state House and Senate reached the two-thirds majority required to enact legislation over the governor’s veto. The weapons bill abolished a state law requiring a permit, training and background checks for people who want to carry a concealed weapon in the state. The House voted 112-41 to override Nixon’s veto and the Senate voted 24-6. Supporters of the bill said it will make the state safer by allowing more residents to carry firearms in self-defense, while still banning certain criminals and mentally incompetent people from having a gun. In vetoing the bill in July, Nixon said the measure struck an extreme blow to sensible safeguards against gun violence. Earlier on Wednesday, the state Senate voted 24-7 and the House 115-41 to override Nixon’s veto of a bill requiring voters to produce a government-issued ID instead of less official identification such as a utility bill or bank check. The bill would not take effect until 2017, after this year’s presidential election, and only if voters in November pass a state constitutional amendment in support of the new law. That is necessary because the Missouri Supreme Court ruled 10 years ago that such a statute violated the existing state constitution. Courts in recent months have blocked voter ID laws passed in several states by Republican-led legislatures after civil rights groups argued the measures were discriminatory against poor and minority voters. In Missouri, voters without a photo ID can still vote if they sign an affidavit swearing that they lack any type of identification. However, election officials can take their picture, and steps must be taken to get a photo ID for later use, with the state covering the cost. Supporters of the bill said it will help prevent voter fraud. “Why not have more certainty in the election process?” Republican Representative Justin Alferman, the bill’s main sponsor, said in a statement before the vote. Opponents had argued that the ID requirement places an undue burden on young, minority and low-income voters who tend to support Democratic candidates. “Putting additional and unwanted barriers between citizens and their ability to vote is wrong and detrimental to our system of government as a whole,” Nixon said in explaining his veto. | 1 |
6,379 | Kremlin: U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem may further worsen Israel-Palestinian relations | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia was concerned that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian authorities could be aggravated further by U.S. President Donald Trump s plans to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. However, we would not discuss the decisions which have not been taken yet, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. Trump on Wednesday will deliver remarks about his decision on whether to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, White House Press Secretary Sarah Saders said on Tuesday. | 1 |
6,380 | Dominican Republic shuts most ports ahead of Hurricane Maria | SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican Republic closed most of its ports ahead of Hurricane Maria, but the country s 34,000-barrel-per-day refinery was still running, the government said on Wednesday. Ports that suspended operations under the red alert declared for extreme weather conditions are La Romana, Samana, Arroyo Barril, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo, the Dominican Port Authority said in a statement. Maria was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Puerto Rico earlier on Wednesday. The ports of San Souci and Haina, which serve the country s sole refinery, also halted operations on Wednesday, according to operators of those facilities. The port of Caucedo has not declared its status. State-run refining company Refidomsa last week lifted a force majeure declaration on its fuel deliveries due to Hurricane Harvey, which limited its imports of oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to be processed at the facility. The refinery s docks temporarily closed earlier in September due to Hurricane Irma, but they resumed operations days later. Refidomsa, owned by the island s government and Venezuela s state-run oil firm Petr leos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) [PDVSA.UL], this week issued a yellow alert to the industry ahead of Maria, which means it will monitor the storm to decide on further action, the Dominican firm said. Puerto Rico s Yabucoa terminal operated by Buckeye Partners suspended operations on Tuesday. The company is monitoring the storm to decide whether to close its Bahamas terminal, the largest in the Caribbean. NuStar Energy has not reopened its terminal on the island of St. Eustatius after Hurricane Irma damaged some tanks. | 1 |
6,381 | newsticker | dienstag november kilo richtig feines zeug polizei stellt exzellentes marihuana sicher augsburg archiv dicker fang der augsburger polizei gelang es am wochenende bei einer routinekontrolle über kilogramm marihuana sicherzustellen bei dem konfiszierten rauschgift handelt es sich laut polizeibericht um richtig feines zeug von höchster qualität mit dem man sich ordentlich wegballern könne muss ständig kichern wosniak das ist erstklassige ware sogenanntes shining silver haze so etwas sieht man in augsburg leider selten erklärt polizeisprecher mark wosniak der gerade von einer ausgedehnten raucherpause zurückkommt kurz nach dem konsum fühlt man sich auf entspannte weise berauscht und lässt sich von den einfachsten dingen wie zum beispiel einer hehe stubenfliege auf der schulter eines kollegen faszinieren rauche man noch mehr sei man einfach nur richtig gechillt der sichtlich übermüdete wosniak betonte abschließend dass erste meldungen es handle sich um über kilogramm an sichergestellter ware stark übertrieben seien man habe nur etwa halb soviel gefunden ssi foto oben david strange fotoliacom foto rechts kzenon fotoliacom hinweis erstmals erschienen am artikel teilen | 0 |
6,382 | Samsung leader Jay Y. Lee given five-year jail sentence for bribery | SEOUL (Reuters) - The billionaire head of South Korea s Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery on Friday in a watershed for the country s decades-long economic order dominated by powerful, family-run conglomerates. After a six-month trial over a scandal that brought down the then president, Park Geun-hye, a court ruled that Lee had paid bribes in anticipation of favours from Park. The court also found Lee guilty of hiding assets abroad, embezzlement and perjury. Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world s biggest corporate empires, has been held since February on charges that he bribed Park to help secure control of a conglomerate that owns Samsung Electronics, the world s leading smartphone and chip maker, and has interests ranging from drugs and home appliances to insurance and hotels. Lee, who emerged stony-faced from the Seoul courtroom in a dark suit, but without a tie, and holding a document envelope, was escorted by justice ministry officials back to his detention centre. This case is a matter of Lee Jae-yong and Samsung Group executives, who had been steadily preparing for Lee s succession ... bribing the president, Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jin-dong said, using Lee s Korean name. Kim said that as the group s heir apparent, Lee stood to benefit the most from any political favours for Samsung. Lee denied wrongdoing, and one of his lawyers, Song Wu-cheol, said he would appeal. The entire guilty verdict is unacceptable, Song said, adding he was confident his client s innocence would be affirmed by a higher court. The case is expected to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, likely next year. The five year-sentence - one of the longest given to a South Korean business leader - is a landmark for South Korea, where the family-run conglomerates - or chaebols - have long been revered for helping transform the once war-ravaged country into a global economic powerhouse. But they have more recently been criticized for holding back the economy and stifling small businesses and start-ups. Samsung, a symbol of the country s rise from poverty following the 1950-53 Korean War, has come to epitomize the cosy and sometimes corrupt ties between politicians and the chaebols. The ruling is a turning point for chaebols, said Chang Sea-jin, a business professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In the past, chaebols weren t afraid of laws because they were lenient. Now, Lee s ruling sets a precedent for strict enforcement of laws, and chaebols should be wary. Under South Korean law, sentences of more than three years cannot be suspended. The third-generation de facto head of the powerful Samsung Group, Lee has effectively directed operations since his father, Lee Kun-hee, was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014. Some investors worry a prolonged leadership vacuum could slow decision-making at the group, which has more than five dozen affiliate companies and assets of 363.2 trillion won ($322.13 billion). Its listed companies make up about 30 percent of the market value of South Korea s KOSPI stock index. Many tycoons, including Lee s father, were convicted of crimes in the past, ranging from bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion, only to get presidential pardons, as both the government and the public feared going too hard on them would hurt the economy. But South Korea s new liberal president, Moon Jae-in, who won a May election, has pledged to rein in the chaebols, empower minority shareholders and end the practice of pardoning tycoons convicted of white-collar crime. The presidential Blue House said in a statement that it hopes the ruling will serve as an opportunity to end the nexus of business and politics that has held back the country. In a June interview with Reuters, Moon said he did not believe Samsung s operations depended just on Lee. When Lee was taken into custody, the share prices of Samsung went up, Moon said. If we were to succeed in reforming the running of the chaebols and also increasing transparency, I believe this will not only help the economic power of Korea but also help to make the chaebols themselves more competitive. Investors say shares in chaebol companies trade at lower prices than they would otherwise because of their opaque corporate governance - the so-called Korea Discount. Shares of Samsung Electronics dropped more than 1 percent, and other group companies, including Samsung C&T and Samsung SDS, also turned lower after the verdict. The court said Samsung s financial support of entities backed by a friend of Park s, Choi Soon-sil, constituted bribery, including 7.2 billion won ($6.4 million) in sponsoring the equestrian career of Choi s daughter. In return, prosecutors say, Samsung sought government support for the 2015 merger of two of its affiliates, which helped Lee tighten control of the conglomerate. His lawyers had argued that the merger was done for business reasons. Some criminal lawyers had expected Lee to be found innocent of the major charges, as much of the evidence at the trial has been circumstantial. The appeals court and the Supreme Court might put a greater emphasis on prosecutors to provide direct proof of quid pro quo, the lawyers said. Park, who was forced from office in March, faces her own corruption trial, with a ruling expected later this year. Prosecutors have argued that Park and Lee took part in the same act of bribery - so Lee s conviction would appear ominous for the former president. Hundreds of Park s diehard supporters who rallied outside the court on Friday reacted with outrage to the ruling. Our ultimate goal is Park s acquittal and release, Kim Won-joon, a 62-year-old former construction worker said. We worry how today s guilty verdict for Lee would affect Park s ruling. Such supporters are a minority compared with the huge crowds that turned out in Seoul every week to call for Park s ouster after the bribery scandal surfaced late last year. Public approval of Lee s prosecution may underscore growing frustration in Asia s fourth-largest economy that the wealth amassed by conglomerates has not trickled down. I think it was difficult for a court to ignore public opinion, given that the scandal rocked the country, said Chung Sun-sup, chief executive of research firm Chaebul.com. The five-year sentence was low given that he was found guilty of all the charges. I think the court gave him a lighter sentence, taking into account Samsung s importance to the economy. | 1 |
6,383 | OBAMA’S LAST MOVE: Here’s How He’ll Force Suburbs To Become Less White And Less Wealthy | Obama and HUD want to give one last freebie to the Dem voters this Fall using YOUR tax dollars! This is a last big push to make the suburbs less white and less wealthy. Stanley Kurtz has written a book on this scheme and goes into great detail on the plan by Obama to force a fundamental change in how we live. This is evil and doesn t work. It was tried in Dallas with disastrous results! Once again, Obama s agenda comes before the American people. Although HUD s demonstration project may have improved the lives of some who moved, it s ended up harming the lives of many of their new neighbors. And now Castro wants to roll it out nationwide. Soon he will give Section 8 recipients money to afford rent wherever they choose and if they don t want to move, he ll make them an offer they can t refuse. Hillary s rumored running mate, Housing Secretary Julian Castro, is cooking up a scheme to reallocate funding for Section 8 housing to punish suburbs for being too white and too wealthy.The scheme involves super-sizing vouchers to help urban poor afford higher rents in pricey areas, such as Westchester County, while assigning them government real-estate agents called mobility counselors to secure housing in the exurbs.Castro plans to launch the Section 8 reboot this fall, even though a similar program tested a few years ago in Dallas has been blamed for shifting violent crime to affluent neighborhoods.It s all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs.Anticipating NIMBY resistance, Castro last month threatened to sue suburban landlords for discrimination if they refuse even Section 8 tenants with criminal records. And last year, he implemented a powerful new regulation Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing that pressures all suburban counties taking federal grant money to change local zoning laws to build more low-income housing (landlords of such properties are required to accept Section 8 vouchers).Castro is expected to finalize the new regulation, known as Small-Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMR), this October, in the last days of the Obama presidency.It will set voucher rent limits by ZIP code rather than metro area, the current formula, which makes payments relatively small. For example, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom in New York City is about $1,250, which wouldn t cover rentals in leafy areas of Westchester County, such as Mamaroneck, where Castro and his social engineers seek to aggressively resettle Section 8 tenants.[The Section 8 reboot] is all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs. In expensive ZIP codes, Castro s plan which requires no congressional approval would more than double the standard subsidy, while also covering utilities. At the same time, he intends to reduce subsidies for those who choose to stay in housing in poor urban areas, such as Brooklyn. So Section 8 tenants won t just be pulled to the suburbs, they ll be pushed there. We want to use our housing-choice vouchers to ensure that we don t have a concentration of poverty and the aggregation of racial minorities in one part of town, the poor part of town, the HUD chief said recently, adding that he s trying to undo the result of discriminatory policies and practices in the past, and sometimes even now. A draft of the new HUD rule anticipates more than 350,000 Section 8 voucher holders will initially be resettled under the SAFMR program. Under Obama, the total number of voucher households has grown to more than 2.2 million.The document argues that larger vouchers will allow poor urban families to move into areas that potentially have better access to jobs, transportation, services and educational opportunities. In other words, offering them more money to move to more expensive neighborhoods will improve their situation.But HUD s own studies show the theory doesn t match reality. President Bill Clinton started a similar program in 1994 called Moving to Opportunity Initiative, which moved thousands of mostly African-American families from government projects to higher quality homes in safer and less racially segregated neighborhoods in several counties across the country.The 15-year experiment bombed.A 2011 study sponsored by HUD found that adults using more generous Section 8 vouchers did not get better jobs or get off welfare. In fact, more went on food stamps. And their children did not do better in their new schools.Worse, crime simply followed them to their safer neighborhoods, ruining the quality of life for existing residents. Males were arrested more often than those in the control group, primarily for property crimes, the study found.Dubuque, Iowa, for example, received an influx of voucher holders from projects in Chicago and it s had a problem with crime ever since. A recent study linked Dubuque s crime wave directly to Section 8 housing.Of course, even when reality mugs leftists, they never scrap their social theories. They just double down.The problem, they rationalized, was that the relocation wasn t aggressive enough. They concluded they could get the desired results if they placed urban poor in even more affluent areas.HUD recently tested this new theory in Dallas with disastrous results.Read more: NYP | 0 |
6,384 | CONVENIENT? ‘Active Shooter’ Kills 5 in Fort Lauderdale, CNN Claims Voices in His Head ‘Told Him to Join ISIS’ | 21st Century Wire says Incredibly, on the same day that US intelligence officials were due to meet President-Elect Donald Trump about the alleged Russian Hack report like clockwork, another Active Shooter event springs-up, this time at Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida. Very dramatic, great television drama on CNN and elsewhere. As a result, no US news channel covered the epic flop of the CIA s report debacle and Trump s reaction to it until the evening news cycle.Stay tuned to 21WIRE later on, for a full Daily Shooter report on today s Fort Lauderdale Airport attack.Thus far, we re told that the suspect got off a Delta Flight from Anchorage, Alaska, calmly collected his bags, went into a bathroom, loaded his gun (which we re told was stored legally in his check-on luggage) and stepped into the baggage claim area and began shooting and killing people.And just when you thought this story couldn t get any more ridiculous, we re meant to swallow this Just now, CNN reported that suspect Esteban Santiago was a member of the National Guard, served in Iraq, and was hearing ISIS voices in his head. Anchor Erin Burnett stated on air: The shooter went into FBI office in Anchorage (Alaska) and told officials he was hearing voices in his head telling him to join ISIS! Indeed, exactly as 21WIRE predicted yesterday:CIA #russianhacking report out Monday. Our guess: there's nothing in it. What will Obama do as distraction? New hack? #ISIS attack? 21st Century Wire (@21WIRE) January 6, 2017As expected, CNN is pushing the mental health angle, with panel experts talking-up the need for more gun control and mental health checks. Here s the official mainstream narrative (CNN) Five people were shot dead and eight wounded in a baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale s airport, and law enforcement sources tell CNN the suspect, identified as Esteban Santiago, had brought the firearm in his checked luggage.Authorities said it was too early to understand why the suspect, who was taken into custody without incident, opened fire at the Florida airport.Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Santiago had a military identification card, but he did not know whether it was current.Here s the latest on what we know: Thirteen people were shot and eight were taken to hospitals, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. Five others died from their wounds. The suspect joined the National Guard in Puerto Rico in 2007. In April 2010, he went to Iraq for 10 months. A spokeswoman for the Alaska Army National Guard said Santiago was in the Army Reserves before he joined the guard there in November 2014. Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead said Santiago was discharged in August for unsatisfactory performance. The suspect showed up several months ago at the FBI office in Anchorage, law enforcement officials told CNN. He was interviewed and said he was hearing voices in his head, including some telling him to join ISIS. He was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, voluntarily checked himself in, the officials explained. Law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspect flew to Florida on Friday from Alaska and had declared the firearm. When he arrived at the airport, the suspect retrieved a bag at baggage claim, took out the gun and started firing, the sources said. One source said he went to the bathroom to get the gun out of his luggage and emerged firing. Sheriff Israel said the gunman likely acted alone. The sheriff said it was too early to say whether terrorism was the motive. Gov. Rick Scott told reporters at the airport: The citizens of Florida will not tolerate senseless acts of evil. Whoever is responsible will held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The governor said that now was time to mourn the dead and pray for hospitalized victims, not talk about gun laws. Multiple reports on social media including tweets from former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described the shooting.Continue the mainstream story at CNNREAD MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21WIRE Daily Shooter FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
6,385 | Senate intel panel wants Trump ex-aides to testify in Russia probe: CNN | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate intelligence committee wants some former aides of President Donald Trump to testify in its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, CNN reported on Thursday, citing senators who sit on the panel. CNN said lawmakers wanted to hear directly from former Trump aides who have been named in news reports, including Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager; retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser; and Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign. | 1 |
6,386 | WATCH: House Dem Has Had ENOUGH, Formally Starts Impeachment Proceedings Against Trump | Donald Trump is a clear and present threat to the United States of America. That fact is indisputable at this point; after all, a Senator in his own party just said so in strikingly blunt terms. However, the GOP-controlled House has been silent on Trump s dangerous antics, because they fear his lighting them up on Twitter, and they also fear retaliation by his crazy base at the ballot box. But it seems that Rep. Al Green (D- TX) has had enough.On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Green took the floor of the House of Representatives and formally introduced Articles of Impeachment against Trump. Green began: I rise today on behalf of the many who have concluded that enough is enough. Green went on to say that Trump s being in the White House is is fueling an alt-right hate machine, which is currently causing immediate injury to American society. On top of that, Green introduced his Articles as privileged, meaning that the House needs to take them up within the next two days.Now, obviously this will go nowhere. Those craven Republicans don t care that Trump is destroying the country, just as long as they get every bigoted right-wing fever dream they ve had for the last eight years codified into law, with a few tax cuts for rich people thrown in, oh, just for fun.In short, these Republicans KNOW that Trump is unfit, and could even land us in a nuclear holocaust if he can t be kept away from the nuclear codes. In fact, at this point, any responsible person will do what was done to President Nixon in his final days, when he reportedly was drinking heavily and wandering the halls of the White House conversing with portraits of dead presidents. At that time, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and soon-to-be President Gerald Ford insisted that those responsible for launching nuclear weapons went through them rather than Nixon, because they knew Nixon to be dangerous.General John Kelly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and other adults in the room had better be doing the same with Trump, who is MUCH more dangerous than Nixon ever dreamed of being.Please, someone show some courage in the Republican House and go along with Rep. Green. It s time to impeach Trump.Watch Rep. Green s remarks below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty images | 0 |
6,387 | Seth MacFarlane Responds To Orlando Shooting, Smacks Down Gun Nuts (TWEETS) | The creator of Family Guy responded on Sunday to the Orlando mass shooting and humiliated a couple of gun nuts along the way.On Saturday, a gunman killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. It is now the worst mass shooting in American history and has reignited the calls for gun safety regulations.And comedian Seth MacFarlane added his voice to those making such calls by calling for a ban on automatic weapons in a post on Twitter. These shootings are a regular occurrence, MacFarlane wrote. You don t get to be shocked anymore unless you take action to stop them. Ban automatic weapons. These shootings are a regular occurrence. You don t get to be shocked anymore unless you take action to stop them. Ban automatic weapons. Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 12, 2016Of course, a couple gun nuts took issue with MacFarlane s call to action.One Twitter user claimed that MacFarlane s call to ban automatic weapons would be like banning planes after the 9/11 attacks. The voice of Peter Griffin responded that unlike guns, planes aren t designed to kill people. RT @JIMDETHOMAS: @SethMacFarlane should ve banned planes after 9/11. // A plane s primary function is not to kill. Get the difference? Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 12, 2016A second gun nut posted the dubious conservative claim that if a single person had been carrying a gun that night less people would have been killed. MacFarlane responded with the fact that there hasn t been a single example of a good guy with a gun preventing a mass shooting in progress.RT @xNathan30x: one person carrying a concealed handgun in that club could have ended that horror. // Often stated, never once happened. Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 12, 2016In the end, MacFarlane lamented that all the responses, presumably the negative ones, are enough to cause even him to be depressed. Man. Twitter responses to all this on my feed are enough to send the even cheeriest soul into a deep depression. Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 12, 2016Banning automatic weapons is not the only way to reduce gun violence. We need a better background check system and we need to ban people on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy guns. Plus, we desperately need better mental healthcare in this country. But Republicans in Congress refuse to do anything that will upset their NRA masters, and that s why we can expect more mass shootings unless we send people to Congress who will take action to prevent gun violence instead of simply offering useless thoughts and prayers.Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
6,388 | Australia MPs rush to disclose parentage amid citizenship crisis | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Several lawmakers filed family history documents in Australia s parliament to meet a government deadline on Tuesday to try to prove their citizenship and stem a crisis that has so far claimed nine MPs and cost the government its majority. Australia s 116-year-old constitution bans dual citizens from holding national office and the High Court adopted a strict interpretation of it in October in a country where half the population were either born overseas or have a parent who was. The crisis may yet plunge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s Liberal-National coalition into minority rule, should it lose another lawmaker, or a crucial by-election set for Dec. 19. The ruling center-right pairing lost its one-seat lower-house majority when the High Court found Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to be a New Zealander and therefore ineligible for office. He has since rescinded his New Zealand citizenship and regained his seat in parliament. But another member has since quit his place and now as many as a dozen more now face referral to the court after the deadline to disclose the birthplace of parents and grandparents passed on Tuesday. The disclosures show that nearly every lawmaker has at least one foreign parent or grandparent. While some provide citizenship records dating back to the 19th century, others give few details or documents, prompting calls for the High Court to consider their cases. There are a few grey areas, there s no doubt about that, MP Christopher Pyne said on Perth radio station 6PR, adding that parliament would decide on Thursday which cases to send to the court. One opposition Labor Party member has already told parliament it remains unclear whether he is British, after the Home Office could not find the paperwork to prove he renounced his citizenship a decade ago. Labor argues that seven government lawmakers filed unconvincing or incomplete disclosures, while the government raised doubts over four opposition MPs, and there is a cloud over another independent lawmaker. Although Joyce easily regained his seat at a by-election on Saturday, the crisis still has the government precariously clinging to power and has already dented its ability to pursue its political agenda. If it loses a by-election in Sydney on Dec. 19, or the court ousts another lower-house MP, it would be forced to depend on a handful of independent lawmakers to retain power and pass laws. | 1 |
6,389 | Netanyahu: hope Trump visit will be 'milestone' for peace | TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he hoped a visit to Israel by U.S. President Donald Trump would be a “historic milestone” in achieving regional peace. “May your first trip to our region prove to be a historic milestone on the path towards reconciliation and peace,” Netanyahu said in a welcome speech to Trump. He said Israel shared the United States’ commitment to peace and that, “Israel’s hand is extended in peace to all our neighbors, including the Palestinians.” | 1 |
6,390 | OAS may recommend new Honduras election unless irregularities fixed | (Reuters) - The Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday called for an immediate return of constitutional rights in Honduras and said it may call for new elections if irregularities mean it is impossible to be sure of the results of a disputed Nov. 26 vote. The Honduran government suspended some rights to free movement by imposing a curfew last week when protests erupted over irregularities in the way results were released from the presidential election. | 1 |
6,391 | Saudi trains first women air traffic controllers | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will train women to work as air traffic controllers, state media reported, as the conservative Islamic kingdom seeks to create more jobs for women as part of a reform push to wean the economy off oil. Its Vision 2030 plan aims to increase employment and diversify revenue sources as low oil prices have hit the finances of the world s top exporter. Some of the planned changes, like increasing the number of women in the overall workforce to 28 percent from 23 percent and quadrupling their presence in senior civil service roles to 5 percent, would transform a society where employment has traditionally been the preserve of men. State-owned Saudi Air Navigation Services (SANS) announced on Sunday that it was offering theoretical and practical training to 80 women per year to prepare them for work in the air traffic control sector. The applicants began taking admissions exams on Sunday for the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation and will undergo a number of editorial tests, state news agency SPA said in a report late on Sunday. Applicants must have a high school diploma with high marks and be between 18 and 25 years old, it said. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are forbidden to drive, making it harder for them to get to work. Most employed women work for the kingdom s vast public sector, primarily in health and education, but authorities say they seek to encourage more hiring by private firms as part of the 2030 plan. Regulations bar women from certain professions, while rules on gender mixing in shops and businesses further limit job opportunities. Until 2012, even lingerie shops were mostly staffed by men. Female employment has been a battleground for years between social conservatives and reformers, but the balance has tipped toward change since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took on wide-ranging powers role two years ago. Last year a senior cleric said women should be allowed to work as paramedics and opticians, and last month women staffed an emergency call center at the haj pilgrimage for the first time. | 1 |
6,392 | A**hole Of The Day – Michele Bachmann: Muslim ‘Rape Jihad’ Is Destroying ‘Western Christiandom’ | Michele Bachmann has been pretty quiet since leaving office under a cloud of scandal and that was a damn shame. She was one of the most perfect examples of how utterly hate-filled and detached from reality the right-wing has become. But apparently Bachmann has remembered that it was her GAWD!-given mission to warn America about all the threats the voices in her head have been making up for years.Last week, Michele warned us about Obama s status as the Anti-Christ and his plan to cancel the elections and crown himself King. This week, GAWD! has told her that the evil Muslims. I kid you not, made up the entire Syrian civil war: This clearly is an invasion, Bachmann said. This is a planned invasion, not only in Europe but also in the United States, I believe for the specific purpose of destroying Western Christendom. The solution, of course, is to close all the borders to people with brown skin immigrants just to be safe. And for those of you who are about to say I m race-baiting, during her rant, Bachmann insisted that we needed to pause immigration just like Calvin Coolidge did in 1924. That pause , incidentally, was targeted specifically to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity (AKA White Supremacy ) by allowing in good immigrants from Western Europe but keeping out the bad ones from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. That s what Michele Bachmann thinks is a solution. Why? Because she s a fucking racist like a great deal of the American right-wing.If this fact upsets you, too bad.But Bachmann wasn t done being a total asshole:Bachmann said that countries with large Muslim minorities like France now experience Islamic jihad 24/7, terrorist bloodbath attacks 24/7, warning that the same thing is coming to the U.S. unless we decide to have no more immigration into the United States. I m sure this will come as a surprise to France. They ll be wondering why they haven t heard about these 24/7 bloodbaths. Maybe they re only happening in the mythical no go zones? Bachmann continues: The more that come in, the more they act upon their religious convictions and their stated religious convictions, she said. The imams from the original countries that they come from, they recruit and send these guys to come in and to bring about this destruction. Right now in Europe it s called a rape culture that s coming into Sweden and Germany and all across Europe for the specific purpose of Islamizing these countries, and they are falling. I wish I could be surprised that a conservative like Bachmann will only acknowledge the existence of rape culture as long as she can blame it on Muslims. Islamists have a plan, Bachmann later added. They have a plan to destroy Western Christendom. It s called civilization jihad. By bringing Islamists into our country and destroying us from in, they don t need to just have a nuclear bomb. If they send their invading army into our countries and if young men are doing what they did on New Year s Eve in Cologne, Germany, and other places where they are literally sexually attacking and raping and groping women and causing them to fear, we are looking at a completely ramped-up level of invasion one like we have never seen before. There are days that I truly and profoundly wish I wasn t an atheist. Why? Because it would give me great comfort to believe that after she dies, Jesus Christ will personally walk up to Bachmann in the afterlife and, after explaining to her exactly how horrible of a human being she was in life, send her to Hell along with most of the Republican Party.Hey, a man can dream, right?Featured image courtesy of Newsweek | 0 |
6,393 | george w bushs ethics lawyer files complaint against fbi director james comey | syria this october photo provided by norwegian armed forces shows a plane taking off from russian aircraft carrier admiral kuznetsov r with helicopters escorting nuclearpowered battle cruiser pyotr veliky l southwest of the city of trondheim in international waters on its way to the mediterranean
a fleet of russian warships has entered the eastern mediterranean off the coast of syria amid speculations that moscow and damascus are about to launch a massive operation against terrorists in the northern syrian city of aleppo
the commander of russian aircraft carrier admiral kuznetsov told stateowned russia television network on saturday that the military vessels were positioned in the designated zone in the eastern mediterranean and are now jointly carrying out tasks maneuvering to the west of the syrian coast
captain st rank sergei artamonov added that fighter jets have already started taking off from the carriers deck to survey the conflict zone
flights are being carried out from the deck they are working on coordination with the shore port the flights have been going on practically every day for the last four days the highranking russian naval commander pointed out
the remarks came a day after russias interfax news agency reported that russian mig and sukhoi warplanes routinely fly from the kuznetsov aircraft carrier into the syrian airspace to determine combat missions
meanwhile the commander of the pyotr veliky nuclearpowered battle cruiser captain st rank vladislav malakhovsky said on saturday that no foreign aircraft dared to come closer than kilometers away from the russian fleet this file photo shows russian frigate admiral grigorovich on its way to the mediterranean photo by reuters
on november russian frigate admiral grigorovich passed through the bosphorus strait in northwestern turkey and arrived off the syrian coast
grigorovich is reportedly capable of launching landattack kalibr cruise missiles which are equivalent to us tomahawk ones and equipped with the latest high precision guidance systems
russia has been bombing daesh and jabhat fateh alsham formerly known as the alnusra front terror groups in syria since september at the official request of president bashar alassad
backed by russias aerial campaign the syrian troops have retaken several militantheld areas in the arab country
syria has been gripped by foreignbacked militancy since march united nations special envoy for syria staffan de mistura estimates that over people have been killed in the conflict loading | 1 |
6,394 | EU's Tusk: Africa, EU must cooperate to end 'horrifying' migrant abuses | ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Europe and Africa have joint responsibility for making migration more humane and orderly so they can end horrifying abuses being committed against African migrants by people smugglers, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday. He was speaking at a two-day Africa-European Union summit that was meant to focus on development and investment in youth, but had inevitably been overshadowed by the migrant crisis. Reports this month of white Libyan slave traders selling black African migrants at markets in Libya - a grim echo of the trans-Saharan slave trade in centuries past - have drawn worldwide horror. The outcry threatened to put migration to the top of the summit agenda and shine a light on a thorny issue for European leaders faced with a surge in far-right, anti-immigration parties at home. It is clear that migration is a joint responsibility. It is in all our interests to have orderly migration that is more controlled, more humane and sustainable, Tusk said in his opening remarks. The recent reports about the treatment of Africans - especially young people - by smugglers and traffickers are horrifying, he said, adding that 5,000 migrants had drowned in the Mediterranean last year. Soon after CNN aired grainy images from Libya this month appearing to show migrants being sold as slaves, African governments began recalling diplomats from Tripoli. Protests erupted in France, Senegal and Benin. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called for Libyan slave traders to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. Let s work together to bring more humane solutions to this migration crisis that taints relations between the North and the South, said Guinea s president, Alpha Conde, the chairman of the African Union. Libya has promised to investigate the reports, but many African citizens also blame European policies for abuses along the migrant trail. The worst we can do is to start the blame game. What we need now are common solutions and stronger cooperation to save lives, protect people, Tusk said. Our common duty is to step up the fight against these unscrupulous criminals. But European leaders - including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who head the Franco-German axis at the heart of the EU - are hamstrung by electorates that are increasingly anti-immigration. Despite pressure at home, Merkel on Wednesday highlighted the need to create legal avenues for migration. However, Gunter Nooke, her special envoy for Africa, later told Reuters that alone would not solve the problem. There we talk about thousands, tens of thousands. But with (illegal) migration we talk about millions. He added that no country is going to allow hundreds of thousands of students in from developing nations unless they can be sure most will go back within four years, which he said rarely happened. In a joint statement, the United Nations, African Union and European Union announced the creation of a joint task force to save and protect lives of migrants and refugees along the routes and in particular inside Libya, and to speed up returning migrants to countries of origin. European and African leaders met late on Wednesday to discuss the reports of slavery in Libya and the migrant crisis. We must not only denounce it, we must act, by collectively attacking these smuggling networks, Macron, who has called the abuses in Libya a crime against humanity, said at the meeting. We are going to ... to carry out targeted sanctions. | 1 |
6,395 | Trump Just Got Called Out As ‘Threat To Democracy’ By Admiral Who Oversaw Killing Of Bin Laden | Donald Trump just got his ass handed to him by the retired Admiral who oversaw the raid that finally took down Osama Bin Laden.Last week, Trump viciously accused the media of treason and called them the enemy of the American people in a tweet that has since been condemned across the country.The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017Well, one critic of Trump s tweet knows all about who our enemies really are and he called Trump out during remarks to a group of journalism students in Texas.Retired Admiral William McRaven is the Chancellor of the University of Texas System, but he is most notable for being the commander who oversaw the daring raid in Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden was killed by SEAL Team Six ten years after Al-Qaeda terrorists perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.Six years later, Trump is referring to the press as the enemy while ISIS and other terrorist organizations are benefiting from his rhetoric.That doesn t sit well with McRaven, who called Trump s attack on the media the greatest threat to democracy on Tuesday. The president said the news media is the enemy of the American people, McRaven said. This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.He then urged his audience to challenge Trump s statement. I will tell you as journalism majors, as Americans, you should challenge that sentiment and that statement every opportunity you can. We must challenge this statement, and this sentiment, that the news media is the enemy of the American people. By attacking the free press like he did, Trump is on the slippery slope toward arresting and jailing journalists for doing their jobs. Conservatives are praising Trump s assault on the media, but they would have cried bloody murder if President Obama has said the same about Fox News and right-wing media outlets. Trump and conservatives hate facts because facts weaken their arguments. Facts and evidence derail their agenda and they know it. That s why they are waging war on facts. Getting rid of facts makes it easier to fool the people and easier to force a destructive agenda upon them.As Admiral McRaven said, Trump is a threat to democracy and the media needs to continue revealing his incompetence and treachery to the American people. Because without a free press, our freedoms would be quickly taken from us a president who fancies himself a king.Featured image via Sean Rayford/Getty Images | 0 |
6,396 | Sanders endorsement of Clinton could come as early as next week: ABC News | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could receive her rival Bernie Sanders’ endorsement at a public event next week, ABC News reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources close to the Sanders campaign. The two campaigns are discussing the matter and “Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton could come sometime next week, possibly at an event in New Hampshire,” ABC News said. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, said last month he would vote for the former secretary of state in the Nov. 8 election to stop likely Republican nominee Donald Trump. But he has not quit the race and has said he will continue to push for a liberal agenda heading into the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25 to 28, when Clinton’s nomination is expected to become official. | 1 |
6,397 | THESE 11 GOP SENATORS Tweeted Support for McConnell…Primary Them! | Arrogant and smug is what we d call McConnell when he spoke to a group telling them Trump has excessive expectations of government Unbelievable!After 7 years of promises, the Senate leader can t do a thing McConnell should take the blame for the do-nothing Senate!Speaking at a Rotary Club gathering in Kentucky on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vented about how President Donald Trump s lack of political experience has led to him setting excessive expectations for legislative priorities.McConnell, R-Ky., told the group in Florence that he found it extremely irritating that Congress has earned the reputation of not accomplishing anything. Part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point, said McConnell, a Republican and the state s senior senator.Trump, a political newcomer, as McConnell noted, has a habit of declaring progress on major priorities that do not necessarily reflect the reality of lawmaking.For example, as the House was in the midst of negotiations about its Obamacare replacement bill in February, Trump announced that Congress was in the final stages of its bill and said it would be ready for submitting in March. While the House bill was unveiled in March, that chamber didn t vote on it until May, and health care votes continued until the end of July.That sort of disconnect has led to Trump s expressing disappointment when bills chief among them health care reform fail to end up on his desk, even though, as with health care, the political reality indicated all along how difficult it was going to be to pass legislation. Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. And I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process, McConnell told the group. So part of the reason I think people feel we re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating may not have been fully understood. President Trump tweeted back to McConnell: GET BACK TO WORK! Here s the list of Republican Senators who went against President Trump: PRIMARY THEM! Cornyn Corker Tillis Isakson Collins Hatch Gardner Heller Flake Young CapitoThe more these Senators push against Trump, the more the American people will turn on the Republican turncoats! | 0 |
6,398 | BOOM! FIRST ANTIFA Coward ARRESTED For Not Removing His Mask…Berkeley Cops NOT Standing Down At Free-Speech Rally [VIDEO] | The video below is an excellent summary of what was reported by citizen journalists who attended the rally. Gavin McGinnis made his announcement on Twitter with a Youtube video (language warning):The morons have arrived. #BerkeleyProtest #DeportAntifa pic.twitter.com/lI4pQA4zlG The Columbia Bugle (@ColumbiaBugle) April 27, 2017https://twitter.com/Forever_Lucid/status/857686377818968070Here s a video of the first protester coward arrested for refusing to remove his mask.https://twitter.com/TheSaintPepe/status/857680259549974528Here is a LIVE stream provided by citizen journalist Tim Pool:Citizen journalist extraordinaire Lauren Southern, who is one of the scheduled speakers at the event is also live-streaming from the event. Click below to watch LIVE stream:Free speech rally https://t.co/if28BnBmmw Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) April 27, 2017Southern explains why she won t back down from free-speech rally. Cancelling sends a message that violence works :Cancelling sends the message that violence works. This is why I'll be at MLK park tomorrow @ 2pm w/ @Gavin_McInnes & more. pic.twitter.com/zuiVV3AeH7 Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) April 27, 2017 | 0 |
6,399 | NC Civil Rights Museum Tells ‘Disrespectful’ Trump To Go F*ck Himself | Lately, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been making a show of reaching out to black voters. Of course, it hasn t been actual black people he is speaking to; after all, other than Uncle Tom types like Omarosa and Don King, that s a voting bloc he s never going to win. No, he s trying to send a signal to white voters who can t stomach voting for an overt racist that he s not, well, racist. He s trying to make them forget all the racist garbage he s spewed throughout this campaign and throughout his life.Perhaps the most despicable part of this so-called outreach is the fact that he is using the black community to try and score political points. He is going to black churches and troubled communities to try and convince people that he cares. Well, one place that Trump tried to use on his crazy outreach tour has completely rebuffed him: The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina.According t0 Earl Jones, co-founder of the museum, Trump s team made a list of exploitative demands that disrespected the museum staff and insisted upon special treatment for Trump including closing the place down for hours on end so that Trump could come. Well, that wasn t happening for sure, Jones said. The co-founder went on to say of the Trump camp s request: We did not honor the request of the Donald Trump team because we thought they demonstrated, in their approach was disrespectful, so therefore we did not grant that request.The approach, the type of disrespect, pretty much a demand and bullying us to use the museum in their manner and their way in their time, it was inappropriate and I think it s probably reflective of the type of insensitivity of civil rights and human rights that s reflective from Trump over the years. Who wouldn t want to be a fly on the wall when Trump got THIS news? That was probably a temper tantrum for the ages. Kellyanne Conway probably had to take his phone for hours on end so that he wouldn t attack these people on Twitter for daring to stand up to his blatant and aggressive attempts to use them to score political points.Anyone who isn t completely tone deaf here knows that Trump doesn t give a damn about black people or anyone else, for that matter and it s about time that some of these places stop allowing Trump to use them to engage in his disgusting brand of dog whistle racist politics.Well done, International Civil Rights Center and Museum, and Earl Jones. It s about time someone called Trump on his shit.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
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