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7,800 | Chaffetz Says Congress ‘Needs To See’ Comey Memos On Trump NOW: ‘I Have My Subpoena Pen Ready’ | The Trump administration is in a tailspin after fired FBI Director James Comey revealed that Donald Trump had pressured him to drop the investigation into his campaign s collusion with Russia and he has the paper trail to prove it. Not surprisingly, even Republican lawmakers want to see Comey s memos. Now.GOP senator Jason Chaffetz told NBC on Tuesday that if the memo exists, I need to see it and I need to see it right away. He added that he is already drafting the necessary paperwork to get the memo. When asked if he would consider issuing a subpoena to get the memos, Chaffetz said that if this memo exists, he will use every tool we have to get it.The Republican senator then took to Twitter to erase any doubt about his seriousness regarding this matter, writing that he has his subpoena pen ready. .@GOPoversight is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready. Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) May 16, 2017Chaffetz, who is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, followed up by sending a letter to Andrew McCabe, acting Director of the FBI, on Tuesday night. He requested that all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the President be turned over to the committee by May 24.Shit is getting deep for Trump. Not a single Republican congressman or senator has been willing to publicly defend Trump since he was busted blabbing top-secret info to Russia and he is quickly losing what little support he had in Washington. At this point, I know not to hold my breath, but maybe, just maybe, Trump s time in the White House is finally coming to an end.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
7,801 | Trump 'committed' to U.S. renewable fuels: Iowa governor | (This story corrects ninth paragraph to say that refiners want exported ethanol to qualify for renewable credits, not exported fuel blended with ethanol.) By David Shepardson and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump sought to ease concerns on Wednesday that his administration would make major alterations to biofuels policy, telling Iowa’s governor he was committed to a decade-old biofuels program even as a top official considers changing it. U.S. law requires fuel companies to add biofuels like ethanol to the country’s fuel supply through the ‘renewable fuel standard,’ adopted in 2005. The Trump administration is considering lowering the mandatory level, a worry for corn-growing states like Iowa. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said she held separate calls with Trump and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt on Wednesday, in which she urged them not to make that change. “Both of them personally committed to me their continued commitment to the renewable fuel standard,” Reynolds said, adding that the call with Trump was “positive.” However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration “didn’t make any assurances” on renewable fuel standard (RFS) levels. “No definitive decision was made on RFS,” she said. The biofuels industry has been ratcheting up pressure in Washington in response to actions from the EPA it sees as threatening the program, which was designed to reduce carbon emissions. Independent oil refiners, meanwhile, have pushed the Trump administration to soften requirements for ethanol use, which costs them hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Some refiners want another change that would ease their cost burden: they want exported ethanol to qualify for credits under the renewable fuel program. The chief executives at four such companies - Valero, PBF Energy, Monroe Energy and HollyFrontier - delivered a letter to the White House on Wednesday urging the change. Two industry sources told Reuters they had received assurances from White House officials that Trump was directing the EPA to allow credits on exports, but to end its efforts to reduce renewable fuel requirements overall. Last month, the EPA said it was looking to cut 2018 biodiesel blending requirements, roiling markets and drawing criticism from the country’s farm belt. In July, it proposed cutting total volumes of all renewable fuels use for next year. Elected officials from the corn-growing Midwest have said they will not be satisfied with White House reassurances until the EPA publicly agrees not to reduce renewable fuel standards. Several senators met with Pruitt on Tuesday to discuss the issue. In a statement after the meeting, Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst said she had expressed “significant concerns” over the agency’s recent moves to potentially set biodiesel requirements for 2018 and 2019 at “substantially lower volumes.” Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said he told Pruitt during the hour-long meeting “that supporting biofuels isn’t just good policy. It’s also what President Trump promised.” Reynolds, meanwhile, urged Iowans to contact lawmakers and administration officials and said she is meeting next week with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Pruitt in Washington. A group of 33 senators wrote to Trump this week urging the EPA to maintain levels for 2018 and increase its proposed 2019 biodiesel requirements. Pruitt would not want “to take any steps to undermine the objectives in the statute of the RFS,” said EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman. Late on Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works postponed a planned hearing for Wednesday to consider the nominations of four EPA officials. Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, said she was placing a hold on two EPA nominees over the ethanol issue. Ernst said on Wednesday she was declining to support one of the nominees over concerns about the EPA’s plans for renewable fuels. | 1 |
7,802 | Friday’s New York Daily News Cover Perfectly Illustrates What The Trump ‘Presidency’ Has Done To America | Ever since Donald Trump took his ride down the escalator with his wife Melania, we ve all known he was not fit to be president. The nation watched in helpless horror as he coarsened our political discourse, encouraged violence at his rallies, attacked a Gold Star family, kicked off the whole campaign with anti-immigrant, white nationalist rhetoric that painted all Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, and much more. Then, with childish pet names and taunts, he decimated the traditional GOP candidates one by one and clinched the Republican nomination.As Trump carried the mantle of the GOP, the party brass desperately hoped that he would no longer be the crude, crass, racist, misogynist, xenophobic, disgusting man they had seen in the primary campaign. They hoped that he we would pivot, to no avail. Then, in a shocking political upset, Trump actually won the presidency via America s draconian Electoral College system, which was actually created to appease southern slave owners, and should have been dismantled long ago. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million, yet she did not get to take the White House. The nation has suffered both at home and on the world stage for this.In Trump s latest outrage, just shy of six months into his presidency, Trump has again sunk to another low, and launched an incredibly misogynistic, disgusting attack on his one-time friend, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski. Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, has finally gotten his wish, but likely not in the way he imagined. One of his city s biggest papers, the New York Daily News, devoted a cover to him, to display what his so-called presidency has actually done to America and its citizens: He has humiliated us. In a dramatic cover, the Daily News tweeted Trump s effect, with a photo that said it all, an American Bald Eagle with its head bowed, with just the world HUMILIATION and a sub-header declaring that Trump has set a new low. Here is their profound tweet:How did we get here?A sneak peek at Friday's front page: https://t.co/zGR78o9N9L pic.twitter.com/qrzLJfhj2t New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) June 29, 2017The New York Daily News is correct. No matter what Trump s ignorant, mouth-breathing base thinks, his very candidacy damaged America s standing on the world stage, and his so-called presidency has destroyed it. The damage Trump has done and continues to do will take a generation to repair. The fact that this man got anywhere near the presidency and that s saying nothing of actually being elected concerns and alarms our allies regarding the judgment of the citizens of this nation, and rightly so. They have every reason to worry.That bowed bald eagle says it all. Shame on us, America, for doing this to our great nation.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
7,803 | White House budget envisions massive savings from Dodd-Frank rollback | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget estimates that the federal government could save $35 billion over the next decade by rolling back regulations governing Wall Street. The White House does not detail how those savings, which are equivalent to the annual economic output of the Democratic Republic of Congo, would be realized. But the administration said an ongoing review of existing financial rules “will likely result in proposals that will provide significant savings to the federal government.” While it is not expected to be passed by Congress, the fiscal 2018 budget unveiled by the White House on Tuesday hews closely to Trump’s view that slashing financial regulations would boost the economy. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the impact of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. An initial report recommending policy changes is expected to come at the beginning of June. The White House’s projected savings from easing financial rules exceed estimates offered by the Congressional Budget Office. That policy scorekeeper calculated that $24 billion would be saved over a decade if a broad Dodd-Frank rollback bill currently in the House of Representatives were passed. Most of those savings identified by CBO come from eliminating a Dodd-Frank provision allowing the government to step in and wind down failing financial institutions, and by placing tighter control over the funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was set up to protect consumers from predatory lending. Trump’s budget would give control of funding that agency to Congress, a policy change sought by Republicans eager to rein it in. Currently, the CFPB gets its funding from the Federal Reserve. The White House estimates that moving oversight of the CFPB to Congress would save the federal government $6.8 billion over a decade. However, the budget proposal does not account for any funds appropriated to the CFPB beyond fiscal 2018. The Office of Financial Research, also created by Dodd-Frank to gather data on financial markets, is facing a 28 percent budget cut under the new plan. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would see their budgets hold steady at $250 million and $1.6 billion, respectively, under the new budget. The CFTC is pushing for an additional $31 million in funding in its own budget request. | 1 |
7,804 | SHERIFF CLARKE BLASTS Liberal Crybaby Lawyer: “There Are Dead Cops Because Of Fake News Story [‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’] Out Of Ferguson, Missouri” [VIDEO] | "Fake news" was born in August 2014 in Ferguson MO. when @MSNBC @nytimes @washingtonpost @CNN all propagated the Hands up, Don't shoot lie. pic.twitter.com/O2cjpm63GQ David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) December 6, 2016On Thursday Sheriff Clarke went off on liberal lawyer Eric Guster on Hannity over the Hands up, Don t Shoot lie. Clarke slammed the lawyer for pushing lies that have resulted in the deaths of police officers across the country.After Guster defended the Hands Up, Don t Shoot movement Sheriff Clarke went off. GP | 0 |
7,805 | SPD leader says voters must reassess German political situation | BERLIN (Reuters) - German voters should be given the opportunity to reevaluate the political situation after talks to form a government collapsed, Social Democrats (SPD) leader Martin Schulz said on Monday, adding that his party was not afraid of new elections. Schulz said his party was still not available to join Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) in a continuation of their grand coalition government after her talks with other parties failed. In such a situation, the sovereign, that is the voters, must reassess what is going on, Schulz told reporters, adding that Merkel had yet to contact him and that he would meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday. | 1 |
7,806 | FRANCE: “Topless Trump” And “Topless Marine Le Pen” Dragged Away From Polling Place, As Country Under Siege By Islamic Radicals Votes | Earlier this evening, Le Pen had security authorities on high alert, with rioting expected across the country in protest due to her election success.Topless protesters wearing Donald Trump and Marine LePen masks were seen being dragged away from a polling place in France by police. Because nothing says I want a candidate who is willing to keep our nation safe from the massive invasion of Muslim immigrants which include an untold number of Islamic extremists who want to destroy our nation, like throwing on a mask and protesting topless at your local polling place. More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations for Sunday s election, which comes after Thursday s deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a police officer and a gunman were slain.French intelligence have warned of there would be public disturbances in the case of the presence of parties in the second round that are extremist, according to Le Parisien newspaper.Le Pen has vowed to offer French voters a referendum to leave the EU and wants to leave the Euro, known as Frexit.Pro-EU Macron, is against Brexit, but despite being a former socialist finance minister is standing a centrist independent candidate, who counts former US President Barack Obama as a supporter.The truth about the French election and why it matters.SHARE: https://t.co/sDLAIZn7hG pic.twitter.com/SrGlZ0lcn0 Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 19, 2017In Besancon eastern France a stolen car was abandoned outside a polling station with the engine running.Police found a hunting rifle inside the vehicle which had been disguised with stolen number plates.In Rouen, Normandy, a gunman shot and wounded another man but the incident was classified as non-terror related .Two other polling station, in Saint Omer, northern France, were evacuated because of a suspicious vehicle with Dutch number plates.Ballots were cast in the wake of took place after a series of devastating terror attacks across France, but despite that armed police and soldiers are outlawed from protecting 67,000 French polling stations.There had been a serious concern that groups including Islamic State would target the election.However the 50,000 policemen and gendarmes that were only standby along with 7,000 soldiers were not required as the day went on.The top two candidates Macron and Le Pen face an election run off for the French presidency on Sunday 7 May. The presidential poll is the first to be held during a state of emergency, put in place since the Paris attacks of November 2015.For entire story Daily Mail | 0 |
7,807 | Anti-Semitism has no place in Germany, minister says after Israeli flags burned | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said there was no place for anti-Semitism in Germany after demonstrators angered by U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel burned Israeli flags in Berlin. On Sunday, about 2,500 people demonstrated in Berlin against Trump s decision and one Israeli flag was burned, police said, adding that investigations into 11 people had been launched, with one of those related to the flag burning. On Friday, hundreds of people gathered outside the U.S. embassy in the German capital for Day of Rage protests. Police said later on Twitter that they had detained 10 people during the protest and that 12 criminal charges had been brought - including for burning Israeli flags. Maas told Bild newspaper s Monday edition: Any kind of anti-Semitism is an attack on everyone. Anti-Semitism must never be allowed to have a place (in society) again. Anti-Semitism remains a very sensitive issue in Germany more than 70 years after the end of the Nazi-era Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed. Germany regards itself as one of Israel s closest allies. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Bild that while criticism of Trump s decision was understandable, people had no right or reason to burn the Israeli flag, stir up hatred against Jews or question Israel s right to exist. He said whoever did that was taking a stand not only against Israel but also against the German constitution and Germany would not tolerate that. Gabriel said Germany only permitted peaceful demonstrations and would not allow conflicts in which people were prepared to use violence to be brought to Germany from other countries. | 1 |
7,808 | Nigerian military labels Biafra separatist group a terrorist organization | ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria s armed forces said on Friday a group campaigning for the secession of a part of southeastern Nigeria formerly known as Biafra had been categorized as a terrorist organization . The move follows days of tension in which members of the group accused the army of laying siege to their leader s home, which the army denied. A curfew was imposed in Abia state where the residence is located. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has stepped up calls for secession since its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was released on bail in April after being detained nearly two years on charges of criminal conspiracy and belonging to an illegal society. Secessionist sentiment has simmered in the region since the Biafra separatist rebellion plunged Africa s most populous country into a civil war in 1967-70 that killed an estimated one million people. The military presence in southeastern Nigeria has increased in the last few weeks as part of an operation that the military said was part of efforts to crack down on crime. The Armed Forces of Nigeria wishes to confirm to the general public that IPOB from all intent, plan and purpose as analyzed, is a militant terrorist organization, said armed forces spokesman John Enenche in an emailed statement. The statement said IPOB had formed a Biafra secret service a paramilitary division, extorted money from people on public roads and attacked members of the armed forces. An IPOB spokesman was not immediately available for comment. The tension is another security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari in addition to the eight-year Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the northeast and attempts to maintain a fragile ceasefire in the southern Niger Delta energy hub. Militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta last year cut crude production by more than a third. Renewed calls for Biafran secession prompted Buhari to use his first speech after returning from three months of medical leave in Britain in August to say Nigeria s unity was not negotiable . Amid mounting tensions in the region, the army on Thursday said it was investigating video footage circulating on social media that purportedly showed troops at a checkpoint in Abia using sticks to flog men stripped to the waist and forcing them to drink muddy water. Amnesty International in 2016 accused Nigeria s security forces of killing at least 150 Biafra separatists at peaceful rallies. The military and police denied the allegations. (This version of the story corrects typo in headline) | 1 |
7,809 | NEW HANDGUN DESIGN Folds Up Like Smartphone…But Is This Really A Good Idea? | Tell us your thoughts about this new gun design in the comment section below. Is this compact, folding gun a great idea or will it make going through security a nightmare? While gun control remains one of the biggest debates in the country, one man wants to make concealing guns easier. He created a pistol that folds into what looks like a smartphone easy to carry and hard to detect.CNN Money spoke with the creator of the Ideal Conceal Pistol, Kirk Kjellberg of Minnesota, who said he got the inspiration for the handgun after a little kid saw his concealed pistol in a restaurant and told his mom, bringing unwanted attention to the fact that he was packing heat.The problem with his product is it may stoke fears rather than quell them.The pistol itself is a double-barreled .380-caliber derringer that only holds two bullets and can only be fired when it is folded out. It isn t available for sale yet and the patent is still pending, but it looks like Ideal Conceal has the intention of producing it.Because the gun is disguised even when it isn t concealed, it may require a concealed carry permit even if you aren t hiding it depending on your state s laws. In New York, weapons that are disguised to look like something other than a firearm are illegal.While this may seem like a great idea for gun owners who don t want to alarm people with the presence of their firearm, what about the people who have bad intentions? The Ideal Conceal Pistol can easily be brought anywhere, making it past metal detectors and security pat downs under the guise of being a phone. If anything, the existence of this weapon could make security even more of a pain to get through imagine if everybody s smartphones had to be inspected on top of everything else. Via: Mashable | 0 |
7,810 | Ted Cruz Gets Booed At CPAC With Many Walking Out, And It’s Pretty Damn Funny (VIDEO) | Try as he might to appeal to a broad base of conservatives across the country, Ted Cruz is just remarkably unappealing. He uses a booming preacher type approach to his speeches that are reminiscent of televangelists selling miracle water at 3am or a megapreacher asking for donations so they can purchase another jet. His overwhelming smarmy nature may appeal to some who find comfort in being swindled, but to most, he is reprehensible.Trying to win over the crowd at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Cruz takes to bashing Trump, because why not, right? However, even though Trump decided to ditch out on the conference himself, many of his supporters were still in attendance. And as we all know, as bad and awful as Trump is, many of his most fervent supporters are even worse. So, when Cruz started in on Trump, many booed, got up, and walked out as the Texas junior senator was still speaking.Hears video from CSPAN via Crooks and Liars: Fox News had a wider shot of the event. Here, you can actually seeing people getting up and walking out. https://youtu.be/qd10-h-BwecBoth Cruz and Trump are despicable. They re both terrible choices for Commander-in-Chief. One wants to turn the nation into a giant megachurch, the other wants to turn the nation into a modern-day Nazi Germany. The infighting within the Republican party is going to tear the GOP apart. They are leaving this election wide open for a Democratic win, so no matter who, vote blue, and in the mean time, if you re a liberal, this is likely you watching the GOP right now:Featured image via image screen capture | 0 |
7,811 | Italy presents low-key budget ahead of 2018 elections | ROME (Reuters) - Italy s government approved on Monday a low-key 2018 budget which includes measures to raise youth employment, tackle poverty and encourage investments ahead of an election in the spring. The financial package aims to lower the budget deficit to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from a targeted 2.1 percent this year, while avoiding painful pre-election belt-tightening measures. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni s task has been made easier by stronger-than-expected economic growth and low interest rates which reduce the cost of servicing Italy s huge public debt the highest in the euro zone after Greece s. The budget certifies that the Italian economy is at a turning point and it contains resources aimed to reinforce the turnaround, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters. The package will now be sent to the European Commission for review and at the same time begin its passage through parliament, where it must be approved by the end of the year. It is likely to be one of the last pieces of legislation passed by parliament before the president dissolves the upper and lower houses and calls the election. Last month the government increased its GDP growth forecast for this year to 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent, and hiked next year s outlook to 1.5 percent from 1.0 percent. The debt-to-GDP ratio is targeted to edge down in 2018 to 130.0 percent from a targeted 131.6 percent this year. Overall, the budget is expansionary because, according to the Treasury s estimates, if current policies had been left unchanged the deficit would have fallen to 1.0 percent of GDP next year rather than 1.6 percent. However, Italy is constrained by its massive debt which precluded a give-away pre-election package. Most of the resources available were used to avoid increases in sales tax which had been previously pencilled in for next year. Padoan said the measures might seem modest, but were well targeted, while Gentiloni, in typically understated tones, called it a slim budget that will be useful for our economy. The European Commission is expected to sign off on the package even though Italy hiked the deficit target previously agreed with Brussels, as it has done repeatedly in recent years. Public finance disputes with Brussels may intensify after next year s election. All the main parties say they will raise the budget deficit rather than reduce it as the European Union s fiscal rules prescribe. In an effort to tackle a youth unemployment rate of almost 40 percent, the budget offers a 3-year reduction in the pension contributions of companies that hire people under the age of 35 on regular, open-ended contracts. It also offers tax breaks for firms that invest in new machinery, increases income support for the poor, and sets aside funds to raise public salaries for the first time in almost a decade and hire 1,500 university researchers, Padoan said. Extra revenue for the state will come from a partial amnesty for people who settle tax disputes with the authorities by paying a discounted sum. Gentiloni appealed to parliament to show a sense of responsibility in approving the budget, after a leftist group last week said he could no longer count on its support following a political row over a new electoral law. However, a majority is likely to be found to back the budget to clear the way for elections now widely expected in March. | 1 |
7,812 | HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS BRAGS About Her “Best Abortion”…”If I Could Yelp Review it, I Totally Would!” | Plimpton, 46, who starred in The Goonies when she was 15, was speaking at a #ShoutYourAbortion event in June in Seattle, but the recent release of online footage of her remarks in which she boasted about her abortion are causing a firestorm on Twitter.Plimpton told the cheering crowd:Seattle has some particular significance for me for lots of reasons. I ve got a lot of family here, some of whom are here in the audience tonight. I also had my first abortion here at the Seattle Planned Parenthood! Yay!Notice I said first and I don t want Seattle I don t want you guys to feel insecure, it was my best one. Heads and tails above the rest. If I could Yelp review it, I totally would. And if that doctor s here tonight, I don t remember you at all, I was 19, she continued as the crowd applauded. I was 19, but I thank you nonetheless. You probably won t remember because I wasn t that famous then. Breitbart NewsWATCH this sub-human brag about killing her children: | 0 |
7,813 | JUST IN: TRUMP ENDS FREE MONEY TRAIN After Pakistan Refuses To Stop Housing Terrorists…Cuts STUNNING About Of Military Aid | The Trump administration on Friday announced the United States will deny Pakistan military aid amounting to $255 million as it expects Islamabad to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil . The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 in Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time, said a spokesperson of the President s National Security Council in a statement to Hindustan Times. The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan s actions in support of the South Asia Strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance. The Administration continues to review Pakistan s level of cooperation. The statement reflected and sealed the administration s complete disillusionment with Pakistan, which had sought to brazenly disregard the explicit warnings issued by President Donald Trump personally and leading members of his cabinet, such as secretaries James Mattis and Rex Tillerson.Financial Times reported last week that the Trump administration is considering dropping Pakistan as an ally as it examines tough measures to quell more than 20 terrorist groups it says are based in the country. Here again, the President who is daily derided and ridiculed by foreign policy experts is right, and they are wrong: Pakistan is no ally, and has not been for years. This is a rupture that is much needed and long overdue.President Trump has accused the Pakistani government of housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. And it s true, with the most notorious of these being Osama bin Laden himself. Journalist Carlotta Gall, who reported from Afghanistan for the New York Times for twelve years, reported in March 2014 that:Soon after the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden s house, a Pakistani official told me that the United States had direct evidence that the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, knew of Bin Laden s presence in Abbottabad. The information came from a senior United States official, and I guessed that the Americans had intercepted a phone call of Pasha s or one about him in the days after the raid. He knew of Osama s whereabouts, yes, the Pakistani official told me. The official was surprised to learn this and said the Americans were even more so.He shouldn t have been. It had been obvious for years at that point, and remains obvious, that the Pakistanis had been aiding the same jihadists that the U.S. government has been giving them billions of dollars to fight. This could be the severest blow dealt to Islamabad by this administration if it indeed decided to withhold it, said a leading US expert on Pakistan, who did not want to be identified. There is more coming, the expert added. IOTWReportThe amount, $255 million, is left over from $1.1 billion aid earmarked for Pakistan in 2016, and which included non-military aid as well. It was cleared for handing over in August, just days before it would lapse as unspent money.First reported by The New York Times, the move to withhold the money, which may not be large but would have signaled US backing, is reported to have come shortly after Pakistan refused to hand over to the Americans an operative of the Haqqani Network apprehended during the rescue of an American-Canadian family in October.The Haqqani Network is an affiliate of Afghan Taliban and works out of Pakistan, inflicting massive casualties on the US-led international coalition in Afghanistan. Frustrated by Islamabad s reluctance to give them, the United States has tied large portions of military aid payments to Pakistan for its actions aimed at debilitating the network.Pakistan, however, has chosen to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in such payments over 2015 and 2016, instead of kicking out the terrorists. And it has lost equity.The Trump administration was clear from the start it wouldn t countenance continuity in ties and aid without real changes. We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting, President Donald Trump had said unveiling his new South Asia strategy in August. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately. Hindustan Times | 0 |
7,814 | Sicilian election holds mirror up to national trends | ROME (Reuters) - A regional ballot in Sicily this weekend will serve as a dress rehearsal for a forthcoming general election, with the political dynamics on the Mediterranean island matching those being played out on the national stage. Bolstered by the return of four-times prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to the campaign trail, a resurgent centre-right is looking to reclaim its supremacy over Sicily and show that after years of scandals it is once again a force to be reckoned with. It faces a fierce opponent in the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which has never won control of a Italian region and hopes victory on Sunday might propel it to success in next year s parliamentary election. Meanwhile, the centre-left, which now heads both the Sicilian and national governments, has succumbed to feuding with leftist rivals - a fratricidal struggle that looks likely to wreck its chances of regaining power. Sicily is one of the poorest regions in Europe, ranking 237 out of 263 in European Union competitiveness rankings, and has become a byword for bloated public payrolls, wasteful administration and the ever-present scourge of corruption and organized crime. It is also seen as a bellwether of national politics. The centre-right won all 61 seats on offer here in a 2001 national election when Berlusconi was at the zenith of his power. By 2012, with the mood in the country changing, Sicily shifted towards the centre-left, foreshadowing the bloc s subsequent victory five months later at a national level. The 5-Star hopes the political winds are now blowing in its favor and that voters are ready to embrace its manifesto, which focuses on fighting graft, promoting green energy and offering universal income support for the poor. The vote on November 5 is like a referendum ... You are choosing between the future and the past, between legality and corruption, said Luigi Di Maio, the 5-Star s new national leader, who has campaigned relentlessly in Sicily for weeks. Final opinion polls published before a blackout was imposed on Oct. 23 put the centre-right candidate Nello Musumeci on some 33 percent against 31.5 percent for the 5-Star s Giancarlo Cancelleri. The centre-left s Fabrizio Micari was seen taking some 16 percent, just ahead of the leftist Claudio Fava. Since the release of the last surveys, Musumeci has come under pressure over candidates on his list, some of whom have criminal records or are awaiting trial for graft. The 5-Star says the scandal has given it a major lift ahead of Sunday. While 5-Star and centre-right leaders have criss-crossed Sicily this autumn, the head of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party, former prime minister Matteo Renzi, has kept a low profile, insisting the vote is just about regional issues. Sicily certainly has its share of problems. The island s economic output fell more than 13 percentage points between 2008 and 2015 and it will take many years before it recovers the lost ground. Unemployment stands at over 22 percent, twice the national average, and youth unemployment is at 57.2 percent, compared with some 36 percent nationally. But should the Democratic Party candidate suffer a drubbing, it will undermine Renzi s standing within the party and underscore the cost it is paying for civil war on the left before the national vote, which is due by May 2018. Although the centre-right is running united, it too has internal divisions. Berlusconi has resisted campaigning alongside Matteo Salvini, the leader of his main ally, the Northern League, whom he has dismissed as a populist. But unlike Renzi, 81-year-old Berlusconi has papered over the differences and kept his focus on his main rival. The Sicilian elections resemble the national vote in one way. In Palermo, as in Rome, the fight is between us and the (5-Star), between our experience and competence ... and their utter poverty and incompetence, he said in Palermo on Wednesday. | 1 |
7,815 | Mississippi lawmaker 'sorry' he urged lynching for statue removal | (Reuters) - A Mississippi state lawmaker who called for the lynching of Louisiana officials for removing pro-slavery era monuments apologized on Monday after his comments sparked a firestorm of criticism. Republican Representative Karl Oliver had taken to Facebook on Saturday to criticize the removal of monuments in New Orleans that city leaders deemed racially offensive. The last of the four statues, of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was taken down on Friday. The Confederacy was made up of states that attempted to preserve slavery in the South and secede from the United States in the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. Oliver, a first-term lawmaker, said the monuments had been erected in the “memory of our family and fellow Southern Americans” and compared those taking them down them to Nazis. If those behind the removals want to “burn books or destroy historical monuments of OUR HISTORY, they should be LYNCHED!” Oliver wrote in a Facebook post, which has since been removed. Oliver, a funeral home director from Winona, said on Monday that he had embarrassed fellow legislators and the state and that his choice of words was inappropriate. “In an effort to express my passion for preserving all historical monuments, I acknowledge the word ‘lynched’ was wrong. I am very sorry,” he said in an emailed statement. Oliver did not respond to requests for an interview. Removal of the monuments provoked clashes between opponents and supporters, and workers wore body armor and face coverings to shield their identities. Both Republicans and Democrats in Mississippi issued statements condemning Oliver, with Republican Governor Phil Bryant saying his “language is unacceptable and has no place in civil discourse.” The state Democratic Party called it “inflammatory.” House of Representatives Speaker Philip Gunn had called on Oliver to apologize, saying his views did not reflect those of the Republican Party or the House and its leadership. Gunn has supported removal of the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag, but has said he cannot get enough support from the Republican House lawmakers. | 1 |
7,816 | historischer erfolg donald trump zieht als erster clown ins weiße haus ein | mittwoch november donald willst du mich heiraten clinton hat kampf ums weiße haus noch nicht aufgegeben new york dpo schafft sie es doch noch ins weiße haus nachdem donald trump zum nächsten präsidenten der vereinigten staaten von amerika gewählt wurde hat ihm seine unterlegene kontrahentin hillary clinton nicht nur gratuliert sondern ihm auch völlig überraschend einen heiratsantrag gemacht donald wir hatten in den letzten monaten viele meinungsverschiedenheiten aber du hast sicher auch gemerkt dass da immer diese besondere spannung zwischen uns beiden in der luft lag so clinton in einer öffentlichen videobotschaft an trump nach reiflicher überlegung habe ich mich dazu entschlossen auf mein herz zu hören und heute um deine hand anzuhalten wo du hingehst will ich auch sein nichts ist mir wichtiger als eine zukunft im weißen haus mit dir im weißen haus anschließend lobte sie den designierten präsidenten als brillanten mann mit wundervollem haar und großen starken händen und forderte ihn auf sich von seiner ehefrau melania zu trennen donald ich habe acht jahre als first lady mit einem mann verbracht der seine finger nicht von frauen lassen kann und dabei exzellente prarbeit geleistet ich glaube es ist keine frage mit wem von uns beiden ein so äh freiheitsliebender mann wie du eine glücklichere zukunft hätte sie selbst habe bereits in den frühen morgenstunden die scheidung von ihrem ehemann bill eingereicht der weg in unser glück ist frei mein lieber donny bald bin ich deine hillary rodham trump eine antwort von donald trump steht derzeit noch aus pfg dan ssi foto oben zachary moskow cc bysa artikel teilen | 0 |
7,817 | Russia designates Radio Free Europe and Voice of America as 'foreign agents' | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia designated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) as foreign agents on Tuesday, a move aimed at complicating their work in retaliation for what Moscow says is unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media. Russia s broadside is likely to further sour battered U.S.-Russia relations and is part of the fallout from allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the U.S. presidential election last year in Donald Trump s favor, something Moscow denies. U.S. intelligence officials accused the Kremlin of using Russian media it finances to influence U.S. voters, and Russian state broadcaster RT last month reluctantly complied with a U.S. request to register a U.S.-based affiliate as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The Kremlin called the move an attack on free speech and says the new media law in Russia, which Western critics have called a disproportionate response, is retaliation. Moscow s response was widely trailed. Russian lawmakers rushed through the necessary legislation last month and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it on Nov. 25. Russia s justice ministry said in a statement on its website on Tuesday it had now formally designated U.S. government-sponsored VOA and RFE/RL, along with seven separate Russian or local-language news outlets run by RFE/RL, as fulfilling the role of foreign agents . RFE/RL President Thomas Kent said in a video statement his organization was committed to continuing its journalistic work in Russia, but was expecting even more limitations on the work of our company . So far the full nature of these limitations is unknown, said Kent. We will study carefully all communications from the ministry and other Russian official organizations. VOA Director Amanda Bennett told Reuters her organization also thought it was unclear what new curbs it would face. The new designation subjects affected U.S.-backed news outlets to the same requirements that are applied to foreign-funded non-governmental organizations under a 2012 law. Under that law, foreign agents must include in any information they publish or broadcast to Russian audiences a mention of their foreign agent designation. They also must 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, which has forced some NGOs to close. One of the seven outlets on the justice ministry list provides news on Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, one on Siberia, and one on the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region. Another covers provincial Russia, one is an online TV station, another covers the mostly Muslim region of Tatarstan, and the other is a news portal that fact-checks the statements of Russian officials. | 1 |
7,818 | Iran, Saudi Arabia to exchange diplomatic visits: Iranian foreign minister | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia will exchange diplomatic visits soon, Tehran said on Wednesday, indicating a possible thaw in relations between the regional rivals since they severed diplomatic ties last year. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the visits could take place after the haj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September. The visas have been issued for both sides to make this trip, Zarif said, according to ISNA. We are waiting for the final steps to be completed so diplomats from the two countries can inspect their embassies and consulates. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in Jan. 2016 after a prominent Saudi Shi ite cleric was executed, prompting Riyadh to close the embassy. Saudi Arabia and several other Arab governments have severed ties with Qatar, citing its support of Iran as one of the main reasons. Iran has blamed Saudi Arabia for being behind deadly twin attacks on June 7 in Tehran claimed by Islamic State. At least 18 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in the attacks, in which Riyadh has denied any involvement. Thousands of Iranian pilgrims are currently undertaking the haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. | 1 |
7,819 | Kenya opposition chief: people should stay home, not protest during polls | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s opposition leader Raila Odinga told a BBC interviewer that he was not calling for protests during repeat presidential elections scheduled for Thursday, but that he wanted supporters to stay at home and boycott the vote. We have not told people to protest on polling day. We have not said that at all. We have told people to stay away, he said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday. Odinga s comments contradict repeated his previous public calls for protests on voting day. | 1 |
7,820 | Spain sacks Catalan government after independence declaration | BARCELONA/MADRID (Reuters) - The Madrid government sacked Catalonia s president and dismissed its parliament on Friday, hours after the region declared itself an independent nation in Spain s gravest political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago. A new regional election will be held in Catalonia on Dec. 21, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said in a televised address on a day of high drama. As well as removing Carles Puigdemont as head of the autonomous region, he also fired its police chief and said central government ministries would take over the Catalan administration. Spain is living through a sad day, Rajoy said. We believe it is urgent to listen to Catalan citizens, to all of them, so that they can decide their future and nobody can act outside the law on their behalf. As he spoke, thousands of independence supporters packed the Sant Jaume Square in front of the Catalan regional headquarters in Barcelona, their earlier joyful mood somewhat dampened by Rajoy s actions. In a stunning show of defiance of Madrid, the Catalan parliament had voted in the afternoon to make a unilateral declaration of independence. Despite the emotions and celebrations inside and outside the building, it was a futile gesture as shortly afterwards the Spanish Senate in Madrid approved the imposition of direct rule. Several European countries, including France and Germany, and the United States also rejected the independence declaration and said they supported Rajoy s efforts to preserve Spain s unity. The crisis has now reached a new and possibly dangerous level as independence supporters have called for a campaign of disobedience. Immediately after news of the vote, Spanish shares and bonds were sold off, reflecting business concern over the turmoil. Catalonia held an independence referendum on Oct. 1 which was declared illegal by Madrid and marred by heavy-handed national police tactics to stop it. Although the referendum endorsed independence, it drew only a 43 percent turnout as Catalans who oppose independence largely boycotted it. The independence push has caused deep resentment around Spain. The chaos has also prompted a flight of business from Catalonia and alarmed European leaders who fear the crisis could fan separatist sentiment around the continent. Catalonia is one of Spain s most prosperous regions and already has a high degree of autonomy. But it has a litany of historic grievances, exacerbated during the 1939-1975 Franco dictatorship, when its culture and politics were suppressed. In Barcelona, Jordi Mercade, a 32-year-old engineer celebrating with friends, said he had mixed feelings about the day s events. It s a day for history but many of us here also know we are not independent. They have the force. We are proud to having declared independence but we know this is not something definitive. It is not certain whether the new election can resolve the crisis, as it could increase the numbers of independence supporters in parliament. Also unclear is how Rajoy s other measures will work on the ground, because of the reactions of civil servants and the regional police, know as the Mossos d Esquadra, who are reported to be divided in their loyalties. The main secessionist group, the Catalan National Assembly, called on civil servants not to follow orders from the Spanish government and urged them to follow peaceful resistance . Tensions are likely to rise significantly over the coming days, Antonio Barroso of Teneo Intelligence said in a note. Demonstrators might try to prevent the police from removing Catalan ministers from their offices if the central government decides to do so. This increases the risk of violent clashes with the police. SHORT-LIVED LIBERTY A big crowd of independence supporters gathered outside the regional parliament in Barcelona, shouting Liberty in Catalan and singing traditional songs as the independence vote went through. Among them was Monica Sanz, 44, a university lecturer who wore a Catalan flag around her neck. We tried all peaceful means. Moderate people have reached this point because it was impossible to make an agreement with Spain, she said. The motion, passed after a passionate debate from advocates and opponents of independence, said Catalonia constituted an independent, sovereign and social democratic state. Lawmakers from members of three national parties - the People s Party, the Socialists and Ciudadanos - walked out before the vote. Members of the pro-independence parties and the far-left Podemos then voted 70-10 in favour, in a secret ballot aimed at hindering any attempt by Madrid to lay criminal charges on them. The soon-to-be-sacked Puigdemont left the chamber to shouts of President! and mayors who had come from outlying areas brandished their ceremonial batons and sang the Catalan anthem Els Segadors (The Reapers). Catalonia is and will be a land of freedom. In times of difficulty and in times of celebration. Now more than ever , Puigdemont said on Twitter. But within an hour, the upper house of Spain s parliament in Madrid authorized Rajoy s government to rule Catalonia directly. Spain s constitutional court started a review of the vote for prosecutors to decide if its constituted rebellion. In Brussels, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said the independence vote changed nothing and the EU would only deal with the central government. Spain s IBEX fell as much 2.1 percent to a four-day low during the day, 10-year government bond yields hit a day high, and the euro dipped against the dollar on Friday after the Catalan independence declaration. The region contributes about a fifth of Spain s economy, the fourth-largest in the eurozone. JP Morgan said that due to the uncertainty, it was lowering its forecast for Spain s GDP for the last quarter of 2017 and first of 2018 to below the 3.5 per cent seen so far this year. | 1 |
7,821 | German prosecutor demands life for neo-Nazi suspect Zschaepe | MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - A German prosecutor urged judges on Tuesday to give a sentence of life imprisonment to Beate Zschaepe, the main surviving member of a neo-Nazi gang accused of murdering 10 people, most of them immigrants, over seven years from the year 2000. Prosecutors say Zschaepe was part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) group which killed eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman. Zschaepe, 42, has denied taking part in the murders with two friends who killed themselves in 2011 when police discovered the gang by chance. But she has, through her lawyer, said she felt morally guilty for not stopping them. Judges have yet to give a verdict. The accused is criminally fully responsible for her behavior, said federal prosecutor Herbert Diemer, calling for Zschaepe to be given a life sentence for 10 murders. He described Zschaepe as an ice-cold, calculating person , adding that there were no mitigating circumstances. Zschaepe, 42, listened impassively, resting her chin on her hands. Prosecutors said in July that four years of hearing evidence had shown that Zschaepe was a co-founder, member and accomplice of a terrorist organization. The group had carried out the most violent and infamous terror attacks including two bombings and 15 bank robberies since the end of the Red Army Faction s two-decade spree in 1991, in which 34 people are estimated to have been killed. Although the NSU murders were carried out by Zschaepe s two friends, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, both now dead in what is believed to have been a murder-suicide, she played a major role behind the scenes, according to prosecutors. | 1 |
7,822 | WATCH: Stephen King Tells The Absolute Truth About Why Mass Shootings Will Continue In America | Author Stephen King has been a longtime advocate for gun control and he knows exactly why we can expect to see more mass shootings in the future.During a chat with Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, King briefly talked about about gun violence in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting in which 49 people were killed and over 50 were wounded.King suggested that shooters like Omar Mateen and Dylann Roof are at least partially driven to commit their heinous crimes by the media because they are looking for fame and the media always talks about the body count as if they are keeping score. In addition, the shooters end up getting their very own Wikipedia page and their photos are plastered on the news for days or even weeks after their crimes.King said that these shooters start out as nobodies and that they see committing a mass shooting as a way to gain notoriety. A lot of these guys are nobodies who see their way to some kind of stardom by creating an act of mass terror. And, of course, the sad thing about this is that we remember the killers long after their victims are forgotten, and that s one of the things that makes this a self-perpetuating act. I would argue that someone like the man who shot all these people in Orlando, he may have pledged allegiance to ISIS but before that he was a spouse abuser and somebody with a lot of anger. And I think that in a lot of cases these acts are perpetrated by people who may put some political icing on the cake, but basically they re just f*cking crazy. Indeed, and those f*cking crazy people are able to legally buy assault weapons, which King pointed out will continue to lead to more mass shootings as long as we allow people access to them. If that guy had gone in there with a knife he would have been overpowered before he had stabbed more than four people. As long as anybody who s got only two wheels on the road can walk into a store and buy a f*cking killing machine like an AR-15 or something, this is just going to go on. It s really up to us. Here s the video via YouTube. King s remarks on gun violence begin at the 40 minute mark.Stephen King is absolutely right and his point is illustrated perfectly by Australia. After five mass shootings between 1987 and 1996, the people there demanded action and banned assault weapons. There hasn t been a mass shooting since.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
7,823 | New Trump travel order will aim to short circuit legal challenges | (Reuters) - In formulating a new executive order limiting travel to the United States, President Donald Trump has promised to make the directive harder to fight successfully in court than the one he issued in January. One way the administration will likely try to do that, legal experts say, is to shape the order more narrowly to undercut the opportunity for states and other opponents to sue by showing courts they have “standing,” or the ability to argue the president’s order causes them harm. But legal experts said a new order, which a White House source said was expected this week, was unlikely to fully eliminate the ability of challengers to pursue legal actions. More than two dozen lawsuits were filed in U.S. courts against the initial travel ban, which temporarily barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In one case, which ultimately got the order temporarily suspended, the state of Washington claimed standing in part because the ban affected Washington residents living and working legally in the United States as permanent residents known as green card holders. By excluding legal permanent residents from a new order, something the administration has said is likely, the president would make it harder for opponents to challenge the ban. Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative advocacy group Freedom Watch, said that with a narrower order, legal standing could be a real problem for potential challengers. “If you’re not a citizen, or if you’re not a permanent resident, you have no constitutional rights,” Klayman said. Trump has said travel limitations are necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist militants. Americans were deeply divided over the measure, which had some support but was condemned by prominent U.S. companies and allies. The initial order caused chaos at airports, as people, including green card holders initially, were temporarily blocked from entering the United States. Some of those people, and several states, challenged the order. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in the Washington case, said the ban likely violated the state’s due process rights and suspended it. The 9th Circuit also ruled that Washington had legal standing to challenge the ban, over objections from the Department of Justice. Stephen Legomsky, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Barack Obama, said a narrower ban “weakens the arguments for standing but doesn’t entirely eliminate them.” Legomsky noted that, “in general the Constitution does not apply to people outside the United States, but that is not iron clad.” A U.S. citizen whose spouse was barred from visiting by the order, for instance, could argue that he or she had standing to challenge it. Or a state university might argue that the order negatively affected it. In its ruling, the 9th Circuit said Washington state had standing because it was harmed by Trump’s order, specifically noting that faculty at the state’s universities from those seven countries would be prohibited from traveling for research or academic collaboration. “The universities’ reputations depend on the success of their professors’ research,” the court wrote. The one thing legal experts on all sides of the issue agree on is that the new order will be challenged in courts. “No matter what they do there will be litigation,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr. He said he thinks it likely challengers will be able to establish standing, leaving the courts to decide whether the ban is legal. At that point, Yale-Loehr says, the wording of the new order will become crucial. “If they limit the executive order to people who have never been to the U.S. before, they might win on the merits eventually,” he said. | 1 |
7,824 | WHY TRUMP’S OWN CHILDREN WON’T Be Voting For Him In NY Primary | I m pretty sure Trump will win with a YUGE majority in New York without his kids votes. Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump won t be voting for their father, Donald, in the New York primary next week.The deadline to register to vote in the Republican primary in New York was October 9, 2015. Both Eric and Ivanka missed the deadline to register. They had a long time [to] register and they were, you know, unaware of the rules, and they didn t, they didn t register in time, Trump stated during an interview on Fox News. So they feel very, very guilty. But it s fine, I mean, I understand that. I think they have to register a year in advance and they didn t. So Eric and Ivanka I guess won t be voting, Trump added. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
7,825 | Russia notifies intent to suspend communication channel: coalition official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has notified the U.S.-led coalition of its intent to suspend a communication channel for avoiding air accidents in the crowded airspace over Syria, a coalition spokesman said on Friday. A Russian foreign ministry statement had said that Moscow was suspending an air safety agreement with the United States originally drawn up to ensure that the two countries’ planes did not collide. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters separately that Russia would keep military channels of communication open with Washington, but would not exchange any information through them. “I can confirm that the Russians communicated their intent regarding the deconfliction channel to the Coalition today,” coalition spokesman U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian said in an email. | 1 |
7,826 | U.S. Treasury, Democrats concerned over Puerto Rico plan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress was ironing out a new plan on Wednesday to rescue Puerto Rico from crippling debts that threaten the island territory’s funding for hospitals and emergency services, as the treatment of bondholders simmers as a point of contention. The Obama administration and congressional Democrats raised concerns about legislation being floated by Republicans. It would steer creditors and holders of Puerto Rico bonds toward a new, independent board that would seek a fair way to write down an estimated $70 billion in debt. Puerto Rico’s economy has struggled for years and the U.S. territory’s government has borrowed heavily to pay its bills. Its bankruptcy reorganization options are limited under present law and Congress has become involved. The Republican bill “imposes an unworkable, mandatory process” on debt restructurings “that will only delay the ability to reach a comprehensive resolution,” Treasury Department Counselor Antonio Weiss told a congressional panel. All of Puerto Rico’s many debtors “would have to complete a complicated process before any single entity could begin to restructure,” Weiss said in prepared testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, which hopes to advance legislation soon. Republicans control the U.S. Congress, but they likely will need support from Democrats to pass a rescue plan. Weiss painted a dire picture of Puerto Rico, where he said essential government services are being curtailed because of a lack of cash, hospitals have closed some floors amid layoffs, and fuel for emergency vehicles is running dry. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, speaking to reporters, complained of television ads airing in some parts of the United States that she said were misleading. The actions being weighed, Pelosi said, “do not cost the taxpayers one dollar.” Pelosi said Democrats are concerned “about the negative impact of the legislation on working people in Puerto Rico, as well as the effects of transferring federal lands on Vieques without providing for strong conservation protections.” If the House committee can amend the bill in a way that a majority of members approve, it would advance to the full House. Many investors would face a loss under the Republican plan and are lobbying Congress to protect their bottom lines. The rescue plan adopts some principles of bankruptcy law, and some lawmakers have balked at the idea of letting Puerto Rico modify its bonds, saying it would create chaos for municipal markets. | 1 |
7,827 | WATCH: SNOWFLAKES ASKED Communist Party Platform or Democratic Party Platform? [Video] | Ami Horowitz is fantastic! Check out this man on the street effort to see how much snowflakes know about what they profess to support. Have the Democrats gone so far to the left that they can t tell the difference between their party platform and that of the communists? It s an eyeopener!If you haven t seen Ami Horowitz before, he has a fantastic video about sharia law in America:Ami Horowitz hits the streets of Minnesota to find out if the Somali Muslims there understand that American law is the only law. They don t get it and say that they prefer Sharia law. Do you think that if we keep bringing over thousands and thousands of Muslims that they will want to keep our law? Think about it Dana Loesch speaks with the filmmaker Ami Horowitz: | 0 |
7,828 | China expels former justice minister from party for graft | BEIJING (Reuters) - A former Chinese justice minister has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party following an investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog, the first time the government has announced that she was in trouble. Wu Aiying, 65, was justice minister from 2005 until February this year, according to her official resume, and one of only a handful of senior female officials in China. In a statement released late on Saturday following a four-day meeting of the party s Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, Wu s name was listed as one of a number of officials to have been expelled from the party for graft. While the other names listed, including former Chongqing city party boss, Sun Zhengcai, had been announced earlier, Wu s name had not been mentioned by the party in connection with any investigation. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection found that Wu had serious discipline problems , the communique said using a euphemism for corruption, but gave no other details. It was not possible to reach Wu or a representative for comment. Wu had spent most her career working in the eastern province of Shandong, where she rose to become a deputy provincial party chief, before moving to Beijing in late 2003 to work at the Justice Ministry. China s legal authorities have been one of the focuses of President Xi Jinping s crackdown on deep-rooted corruption, with powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, and many of his allies and former associates, jailed. It is not clear if Wu had any direct connection with Zhou. The WeChat account of the state-run Beijing News, Political Matters, said that Wu was known to be a no-nonsense straight talker, once shouting at an underling when a mobile phone rang in the middle of a meeting. The announcement about Wu comes a few days before the party opens a key, once-in-five-years Congress on Wednesday, which will see Xi strengthen his power and promote key allies and aides. | 1 |
7,829 | JUST IN: PRESIDENT TRUMP BLASTS “Retiring” FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and “’Leakin’ James Comey” After JUDICIAL WATCH Uncovers A McCabe Bombshell | After Judicial Watch exposed a serious ethics issue related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe s involvement in his Democrat wife s VA Senate campaign, President Trump just took to Twitter to expose FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, calling him: The man in charge, along with leakin James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (33,000 illegally deleted emails) Trump seemed to be stunned that McCabe could be given $7000,000 for wife s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation? into her emails.How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017President Trump then tweeted:FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017Judicial Watch today released 79 pages of Justice Department documents concerning ethics issues related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe s involvement with his wife s political campaign. The documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited for a Virginia state senate race in February 2015 by then-Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam s office.The news that Clinton used a private email server broke five days later, on March 2, 2015. Five days after that, former Clinton Foundation board member and Democrat party fundraiser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, met with the McCabes. She announced her candidacy on March 12. Soon afterward, Clinton/McAuliffe-aligned political groups donated nearly $700,000 (40% of the campaign s total funds) to McCabe s wife for her campaign.Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a July 24, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to an October 24, 2016, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01494)). Judicial Watch seeks:All records of communication between FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and other FBI or Department of Justice officials regarding ethical issues concerning the involvement of Andrew McCabe and/or his wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, in political campaigns; All records related to ethical guidance concerning political activities provided to Deputy Director McCabe by FBI and/or DOJ officials or elements.Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton tweeted about McCabe using his FBI email account to promote his wife s campaign that was funded with Clinton crony cash . Fitton then suggested that McCabe is retiring after he was also implicated in the FBI anti-Trump texts, saying: No wonder he s retiring ..@JudicialWatch uncovered docs suggesting FBI #2 Andrew McCabe used his FBI email account to promote his wife's campaign (funded with Clinton crony cash). He was also implicated in the FBI anti-@RealDonaldTrump texts. No wonder he's "retiring." https://t.co/BCEaX1mFQ8 Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) December 23, 2017An October 23, 2016, email shows McCabe running the response effort to a Wall Street Journal article that was published that day, titled Clinton Ally Aided Campaign of FBI Official s Wife. McCabe provides Michael Kortan, the assistant director of Public Affairs, his version of a timeline of events surrounding the Clinton investigation and his wife s campaign. McCabe said he contacted then-FBI Chief of Staff Chuck Roseburg about Jill McCabe s candidacy and was told that the D [Comey] has no issue with it. (Judicial Watch earlier this month released documents showing that McCabe finally did recuse himself from the Clinton investigation only a week before last year s presidential election.)Internally, the Wall Street Journal article started a flurry of emails among Mrs. McCabe s campaign, Kortan, Director McCabe, and the FBI s General Counsel. Part of that exchange is an email from McCabe to someone in the General Counsel s Office: Sucks pretty much. Buckle in. It s going to get rough. The colleague responds, I know. It s awful. I shouldn t be shocked by now, but I really am appalled. McCabe also forwarded the article to Comey who responded, Copy. On October 24, 2016, a memo was sent to all Special Agents in Charge, Assistant Directors, Executive Directors and the General Counsel s Office regarding the Wall Street Journal article discussing campaign activities concerning Mrs. McCabe. Kortan suggested that questions could be referred to his office and he attached an Overview of Deputy Director McCabe s Recusal Related To Dr. McCabe s Campaign for Political Office. The Overview itself was previously reported by Judicial Watch.The documents also show repeated use of the official FBI email system in connection with Mrs. McCabe s political campaign. For example:On March 13, 2015, Mrs. McCabe emails to her husband s official FBI email account a draft press release announcing her run for state Senate.In August 2015, McCabe uses his official FBI email account to advise a redacted recipient to visit his wife s campaign website: Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate. On November 2, 2015, Mrs. McCabe forwards an email to her husband then the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI s Washington Office that accuses her opponent of extorting local businessmen. The email was sent to her husband s official FBI account.The documents include an October 2016 letter from House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz to McCabe questioning a possible conflict of interest by noting that Clinton headlined a Virginia fundraiser on June 26, 2015, for Mrs. McCabe. A significant amount was donated after the FBI had initiated its investigation and begun meeting with Secretary Clinton s attorneys in August 2015. The documents also show that FBI leadership was sensitive to reports of FBI internal dissent with then-Director Comey s handling of the Clinton investigation. On October 24, 2016, Mrs. McCabe forwarded to Director McCabe a True Pundit article titled, FBI Director Lobbied Against Criminal Charges For Hillary After Clinton Insider Paid His Wife $700,00. The story reported that former FBI Executive Assistant Director John Giacalone resigned in the middle of the Clinton email investigation because he saw it going sideways and that Jill McCabe received money from a PAC headed by McAuliffe, who was under investigation by the FBI for campaign finance law violations. McCabe forwarded the article to Comey, noting FYI. Heavyweight source. Comey replied to McCabe, copying Chief of Staff James Rybicki, saying, This still reads to me like someone not involved in the investigation at all, maybe somebody who heard rumors These new documents show that the FBI leadership was politicized and compromised in its handling of the Clinton email investigation, said Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch President. It well past time for a do-over on the Clinton emails that requires a new, honest criminal investigation of her misconduct. The Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Special Counsel have opened investigations into whether McCabe violated the Hatch Act and failed to properly disclose payments to his wife s campaign on his ethics report. The Justice Department s Inspector General is examining McCabe for failing to recuse himself from the Clinton investigation due to his meeting with McAuliffe. | 0 |
7,830 | Outgoing leader's protege set to win Kyrgyz presidential election | BISHKEK (Reuters) - A protege of outgoing pro-Russian leader Almazbek Atambayev looked set for a surprise outright victory in Kyrgyzstan s presidential election on Sunday, despite polls having predicted a close runoff between him and an opposition leader. According to preliminary data published by the central election commission, former prime minister and Atambayev ally Sooronbai Jeenbekov had secured 54.22 percent of the vote based on a count from 97 percent of the polling stations. His main opponent, oil tycoon Omurbek Babanov, trailed well behind with 33.47 percent, according to the same early data. A close ally of Moscow and host to a Russian military base, Kyrgyzstan helps its former Soviet overlord project power across a region where China and the United States also vie for influence. In contrast to other Central Asian states, which are mostly run by autocrats, Kyrgyzstan is a boisterous democracy that produces sometimes chaotic changes of leadership. After its first two presidents were ousted by riots, the country restyled itself as a parliamentary republic where presidential powers are mostly limited to foreign policy and security matters. But Atambayev strengthened executive powers last year. Constitutionally barred from seeking a second six-year term, he backed Jeenbekov, 58, an experienced apparatchik who served as prime minister until August. In Sunday s election, observers, citing pre-election polls, saw none of the candidates clearing the 50 percent threshold for outright victory, with Jeenbekov and Babanov then competing in a runoff. Babanov s campaign office declined to comment on the preliminary results but said it would do so on Monday. Babanov s next move will be closely watched because allegations of electoral fraud were among the main factors behind violent protests which toppled two Kyrgyz presidents in 2005 and 2010. Atambayev - likely to remain a powerful figure if his preferred candidate Jeenbekov does win - warned on Sunday he would use any violence as an opportunity to cleanse the country. Atambayev and Jeenbekov s Social Democratic party is the biggest in parliament and dominates the coalition cabinet. But they faced stiff opposition from Babanov, 47, whose Respublika-Ata Zhurt (Fatherland) party has the second-biggest parliamentary faction and whose poll numbers had suggested he and Jeenbekov would compete in a tight runoff. Babanov, also a former prime minister, has accused the government of abusing its powers to ensure Jeenbekov s victory after the authorities charged some of his campaign supporters with plotting a coup and planning to bribe voters. Babanov has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges against his supporters as dirty election tactics. Atambayev and his cabinet have also accused Kazakhstan, a bigger and wealthier neighbor, of backing Babanov - which both Babanov and the Kazakh government deny. What they (the authorities) are doing is outrageous, Babanov told reporters on Sunday, adding some of his campaign staff and a reporter for a TV station owned by Babanov had been attacked by unidentified men on the day of the vote. Atambayev on Sunday warned opponents against trying to stage violent protests after the vote. In fact, if there is unrest, it s going to be a good thing, I would like to cleanse (the country of) them all completely, he told reporters after casting his ballot. Both Jeenbekov and Babanov have said they consider Russia - where hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrant laborers work - a strategic partner. According to preliminary data, voter turnout was 55.93 percent. | 1 |
7,831 | Geraldo Rivera: GOP Will Only Nominate A ‘Crazy Person’ Who ‘Can Never Be Elected’ (VIDEO) | Those of us on the left have long said that the Republican base took a jump off the cliff into crazy land never to return a long time ago. Well, now, one of their own is saying the same. Geraldo Rivera, famed host of trash TV turned GOP mouthpiece, has come out and echoed what we have all been saying for ages: his party is bashit insane. Rivera went on Fox News this weekend and spoke with Howard Kurtz, who pointed out that the Fox correspondent was likely a little uncomfortable with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump s comments regarding immigrants from Mexico, considering the fact that it is well documented that Rivera and Trump have been bosom buddies for many years.Rivera said: He is a friend of mine, I do love the guy. And then he said Mexican immigrants are dope dealers and rapists. Indeed. We all remember The Donald s infamously racist tone upon the opening of his travesty of a presidential campaign. It s nice to know that it did not go unnoticed by Rivera.Rivera continued: Though I have a deep respect for him and his family, I could never vote for him unless he moderates that position. It is easy for me to draw that line, I can go that far but no further. You have to be compassionate to this [immigrant] population. Well, that s good to know. One less vote for that lunatic Trump, even from a self-professed right winger in the public eye. Rivera went on to say that he thinks that, Donald doesn t really mean it, and then let loose on what those on the left already have known about the GOP s base for a very long time now: I think you have to be a crazy person to get the Republican nomination these days. I think that they have to tow a line that is in many ways intolerable for a reasonably intelligent compassionate person. You have to clear the [anti-immigrant Rep. Steven King] hurdle in Iowa to get anywhere. Steven King is the congressman that said of Mexican immigrants that they have the calves the size of cantaloupes because they are all carrying dope across the border. I mean, if you have to please that person to get past the nation s first primary election then you are doomed to a radical position that will never fly with the American electorate, and you can never be elected. Well, yeah. I mean, even though most Republicans are that nutty and ignorant, there are plenty of moderates who cannot look the other way on such positions, and certainly independents and left wingers can t. Despite the circus that is the current state of American politics, most of us really just aren t that nuts, thankfully.I might not agree with Geraldo Rivera on much, but this time he is right on the money the current incarnation of the Republican Party is beyond crazy.Watch Rivera s comments below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
7,832 | Trump to deliver remarks on decision on Jerusalem embassy: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald 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, adding that Trump is pretty solid in his thinking on the issue. Trump notified Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to make the major change in calls to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia s King Salman. Many of the leaders warned that unilateral U.S. steps on Jerusalem would derail a fledgling U.S.-led peace effort and unleash turmoil in the region. (This story corrects spelling of press secretary s surname to Sanders instead of Saunders in first paragraph) | 1 |
7,833 | Russian teenager handed jail sentence in Norway explosives case | OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian court sentenced a 17-year-old Russian citizen to nine months in jail on Monday for making a small explosive device and bringing it to the center of Oslo in April. Prosecutors had sought a two-year sentence for the teenager, saying he had frequented Islamist websites, become radicalised and possessed images of Islamic State members killing prisonners. The teenager, who denied any wrongdoing, said he had been planning to detonate the device in a forest near his home. The device was placed in central Oslo on a busy Saturday night in April, one day after a truck attack in Stockholm in neighboring Sweden killed five people. The Oslo police bomb squad said the device was about 30 cm (1 ft) across and appeared capable of causing only a small amount of damage.[L8N1HH0LT] Soon after the discovery of the device, Norwegian police raised the country s security threat level. The teenager has lived in Norway since 2010 and has previously applied for asylum. The status of that application was not immediately clear. In 2011, far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and destroyed Norway s government headquarters, before going on a shooting rampage, killing 69 people at nearby Utoeya island. | 1 |
7,834 | Obama: U.S. giving more support to Iraq as it fights Islamic State | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that the United States is providing more support to Iraq as its military moves to take back territory from Islamic State, and he expects the city of Mosul will be retaken eventually. “As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let’s make sure that we are providing them more support,” Obama said in an interview with CBS News. U.S. officials announced in Baghdad on Monday the United States will deploy about 200 additional troops, mostly as advisers for Iraqi troops as they advance toward Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control. The increase raises the authorized U.S. troop level in Iraq to 4,087, not including special operations personnel, some logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations. “We’re not doing the fighting ourselves,” Obama said, “but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up, when we are gaining intelligence, working with the coalitions that we have, what we’ve seen is that we can continually tighten the noose” on Islamic State. “My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall,” Obama said. | 1 |
7,835 | Trump to nominate Huntsman as Russia ambassador: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate Jon Huntsman, an envoy to China under former Democratic President Barack Obama, as U.S. ambassador to Russia, the White House said on Tuesday. The job, all the more high-profile because of allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate. If confirmed, Huntsman, who has long been expected to be Trump’s pick for the job, will head to Moscow as the U.S. Congress and a special counsel investigate Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election and allegations that Trump’s campaign had ties to Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the interference, and Trump has said there was no collusion with Moscow. Huntsman, a former Utah governor, was U.S. ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011. He has served in the administrations of five U.S. presidents and was a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Trump has said he wants to improve relations with Russia. The Republican president met with Putin in Germany at the gathering of G20 leaders there earlier this month and officials said he raised the issue of Russian meddling in the election before moving on to other issues such as the war in Syria. Reports in March that Huntsman would get the Moscow envoy post were greeted with mixed reviews in Moscow, with one politician saying he was “not a dove” and the Kremlin saying it would welcome anyone who was a “convinced proponent” of establishing a dialogue with Russia. | 1 |
7,836 | Several states jointly sue to block Trump's revised travel ban | (Reuters) - A group of states renewed their effort on Monday to block President Donald Trump’s revised temporary ban on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, arguing that his executive order is the same as the first one that was halted by federal courts. Court papers filed by the state of Washington and joined by California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon asked a judge to stop the March 6 order from taking effect on Thursday. An amended complaint said the order was similar to the original Jan. 27 directive because it “will cause severe and immediate harms to the States, including our residents, our colleges and universities, our healthcare providers, and our businesses.” A Department of Justice spokeswoman said it was reviewing the complaint and would respond to the court. A more sweeping ban implemented hastily in January caused chaos and protests at airports. The March order by contrast gave 10 days’ notice to travelers and immigration officials. Last month, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle halted the first travel ban after Washington state sued, claiming the order was discriminatory and violated the U.S. Constitution. Robart’s order was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump revised his order to overcome some of the legal hurdles by including exemptions for legal permanent residents and existing visa holders and taking Iraq off the list of countries covered. The new order still halts citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days but has explicit waivers for various categories of immigrants with ties to the country. Refugees are still barred for 120 days, but the new order removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria. Washington state has now gone back to Robart to ask him to apply his emergency halt to the new ban. Robart said in a court order Monday that the government has until Tuesday to respond to the states’ motions. He said he would not hold a hearing before Wednesday and did not commit to a specific date to hear arguments from both sides. Separately, Hawaii has also sued over the new ban. The island state, which is heavily dependent on tourism, said the executive order has had a “chilling effect” on travel revenues. In response to Hawaii’s lawsuit, the Department of Justice in court papers filed on Monday said the president has broad authority to “restrict or suspend entry of any class of aliens when in the national interest.” The department said the temporary suspensions will allow a review of the current screening process in an effort to protect against terrorist attacks. There is a hearing in the Hawaii case set for Wednesday, the day before the new ban is set to go into effect. The first hurdle for the lawsuits will be proving “standing,” which means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find individuals who would have a right to sue, in the eyes of a court. To overcome this challenge, the states filed more than 70 declarations of people affected by the order including tech businesses Amazon and Expedia, which said that restricting travel hurts their revenues and their ability to recruit employees. Universities and medical centers that rely on foreign doctors also weighed in, as did religious organizations and individual residents, including U.S. citizens, with stories about separated families. But the Trump administration in its filings in the Hawaii case on Monday said the carve-outs in the new order undercut the state’s standing claims. “The Order applies only to individuals outside the country who do not have a current visa, and even as to them, it sets forth robust waiver provisions,” the Department of Justice’s motion said. The government cited Supreme Court precedent in arguing that people outside the United States and seeking admission for the first time have “no constitutional rights” regarding their applications. If the courts do end up ruling the states have standing to sue, the next step will be to argue that both versions of the executive order discriminate against Muslims. “The Trump Administration may have changed the text of the now-discredited Muslim travel ban, but they didn’t change its unconstitutional intent and effect,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement on Monday. While the text of the order does not mention Islam, the states claim that the motivation behind the policy is Trump’s campaign promise of “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” He later toned down that language and said he would implement a policy of “extreme vetting” of foreigners coming to the United States. The government said the courts should only look at the text of the order and not at outside comments by Trump or his aides. | 1 |
7,837 | Mexico Senate committees pass controversial security bill | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican Senate committees on Wednesday approved a controversial security bill that human rights groups say risks granting excessive power to the armed forces in their already checkered role in combating organized crime in the country. The bill, which enjoys some cross-party support between conservatives and centrists, will now pass to the floor of the upper house of Congress for discussion and possible approval late on Wednesday or on Thursday morning. The Law of Internal Security aims to regulate the armed forces role in combating drug cartels, a conflict which has claimed well over 100,000 lives in the last decade. Senate committees approved the bill on Wednesday, a senate spokesman said. Lawmakers who support the bill say it will set out clear rules that limit the use of soldiers to fight crime. Rights groups have strongly attacked the bill, saying it prioritizes the military s role in fighting the gangs over improving the police, and could open the door to greater abuses and impunity by the armed forces. The military has already been embroiled in multiple human rights scandals including extrajudicial killings of gang members and the disappearance of 43 students near one of its bases in 2014. The United Nations, Amnesty International and Mexican human rights organizations have all criticized the bill. This law should not be approved quickly, it puts liberties at risk by giving more power to the armed forces without designing controls and counterweights, said Santiago Aguirre from the Miguel Agustin Pro Center for Human Rights. Last week, President Enrique Pena Nieto asked lawmakers to include civil society s views in their discussion of the bill, which sparked attempts by protesters to bar access to the upper house of Congress when it reached the Senate. | 1 |
7,838 | Police suspect car bomb that killed Maltese reporter was triggered from boat | VALLETTA (Reuters) - Maltese investigators believe a man charged with murdering an anti-corruption journalist set off the car bomb which killed her via SMS from a cabin cruiser out at sea, police sources said on Wednesday. Three men were charged on Tuesday over the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia, whose car was blown up as she drove out of her home on Oct. 16. The crime shocked the Mediterranean island and raised concerns among European Union lawmakers about the rule of law there. The three, named as Vince Muscat, and brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, have all pleaded not guilty. Police sources said investigators suspected George Degiorgio sent the text message after receiving a signal from his brother Alfred, who they believe acted as a lookout. A boat has been impounded. There was no immediate statement from the men s lawyers. Caruana Galizia wrote a popular blog which highlighted cases of alleged graft and targeted politicians in government, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and the opposition. Seven other men were arrested in connection with the probe and then released without charge, police said. Caruana Galizia s family, which has criticized the handling of the case, said in a statement on Wednesday that the murdered journalist had not been investigating any of the 10 people arrested. Simon Busuttil, former leader of the opposition in the Maltese parliament, tweeted a link to the statement, adding: This can only mean that those who commissioned the assassination of #DaphneCaruanaGalizia are still out at large. Evidence gathered so far suggests the bomb was placed inside her rented car while it was parked in an alley outside her house six miles from Valletta on the night before her death. Mobile phones were recovered from the sea in Marsa, an inland area of Valletta harbor, the sources said. Prime Minister Muscat has called the killing an attack on press freedom, and asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to help local police investigate. Caruana Galizia s son said she was killed because of her work. Members of an EU fact-find mission said last week there was a perception of impunity in Malta. | 1 |
7,839 | WATCH: Muslim Journalist Absolutely DESTROYS Trump Spokeswoman | Donald Trump s spokeswoman Katrina Pierson went on national television to try and validate and justify Trump s comments about Muslims hating Americans. This time however, she was schooled by Muslim journalist Dean Obeidallah.During the interview, Pierson labeled the culture of Islam as the problem and referenced polls in some Muslim countries that showed a distaste for America. However, Obeidallah pointed out that her information is misleading because Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world, has a more favorable view of the United States than Germany and if a Muslim country has an unfavorable view of America, it s because of U.S. foreign policy and not some congenital hatred for the United States.For example, Pierson cited that polls show that the Palestinian Territories, the majority of whose inhabitants are Muslim, have an unfavorable view of the United States. While this is true, it s because when Palestinian civilians are tear gassed, gunned down in the streets, or bombed from the air, it s with US made weapons it gives to Israel. If the Palestinians were majority Christian or Jewish, they would still have an unfavorable view of the United States.Watch Here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuMKCqgm0Gg]Obeidallah also fired back at Pierson and Trump s idiocy by pointing to Trump s business dealings in Muslim countries. He said: Let s be honest. Donald Trump says here in America, Islam hates us. Then he goes to Dubai and does multi-million dollar business deals. Donald Trump loves Muslims when he s making money with them. He loves you when he s making money and demonizes you when he s getting votes. He s a despicable hypocrite. A special kind of hypocrite. There are many more proud and capable Muslim Americans like Dean Obeidallah in the united States and it would be great if we continue to see them on national television to rip apart the racists in our midst. Featured image via video screenshot. | 0 |
7,840 | Rainbow celebrations as Australians vote for same-sex marriage | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians have voted overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage, paving the way for legislation by the end of 2017 and sparking rainbow celebrations on Wednesday, with people wearing wedding dresses and sequined suits and declaring our love is real . Australia will become the 26th nation to formalize the unions if the legislation is passed by parliament, which is expected despite some vocal opposition within the government s conservative right wing. Thousands of people in a Sydney park broke into a loud cheer, hugged and cried as Australia s chief statistician revealed live over a big screen that 61.6 percent of voters surveyed favored marriage equality, with 38.4 percent against. Australian Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe, who came out as gay three years ago, said the result was a huge relief. It means that the way you feel for another person, whoever that may be, is equal, Thorpe told reporters at the Sydney celebrations. The voluntary poll is non-binding but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull immediately said he would fulfill a pledge to raise a bill in parliament with the aim of passing laws by Christmas. Turnbull played down concern of a split in his coalition government over the policy as the conservative faction presses for amendments to protect religious freedoms that discriminate against same-sex couples. It is unequivocal, it is overwhelming. They have spoken in their millions and they have voted overwhelmingly yes for marriage equality, Turnbull told reporters in Canberra after the survey results were announced. They voted yes for fairness, yes for commitment, yes for love. A marriage equality bill was introduced into parliament later on Wednesday. The result marks a watershed moment for gay rights in Australia, where it was illegal in some states to engage in homosexual activity until 1997. It s a g day. Way to go Australia, tweeted U.S. TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who is married to Australian actress Portia de Rossi in the United States. Almost 80 percent of eligible voters took part in the survey - a higher turnout than Britain s Brexit vote and Ireland s same-sex marriage referendum. Mark Barry, 59, wiped away tears as he took in the result with his partner of 35 years, Gerrard Boller. I know a celebrant who is going to be very happy about this, Barry told Reuters. Irish-born Qantas Airways Chief Executive Alan Joyce, one of the few openly gay business leaders in Australia, told the Sydney crowd, many of whom sheltered from the sun under rainbow umbrellas, that the result was an amazing outcome and urged Turnbull to move quickly on legislation. Turnbull has been under pressure amid a citizenship crisis that has cost him his deputy and the government s majority in parliament and political analysts said the resounding yes vote presented him with his first opportunity in months to exert decisive control. Nick Economou, a political scientist at Monash University, said Turnbull should feel emboldened by the result and this is the sort of thing he has been looking for to show some assertive leadership . The no campaign had sought to leverage powerful religious organizations in a survey campaign that was criticized by some in the yes camp as divisive and aggressive. Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher said he was deeply disappointed that the likely result will be legislation to further deconstruct marriage and family in Australia . On the strength of the yes vote, conservatives dropped a plan for a competing bill that would have allowed private businesses to refuse services like wedding cakes for same-sex weddings by objecting on religious grounds. | 1 |
7,841 | In Trump freeze, U.S. agencies delay rules affecting farm towns | NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. regulators under the new presidential administration have instituted a freeze on rules key to the country’s farm belt, agricultural groups said on Tuesday, heightening uncertainty for some of the regions that helped propel Donald Trump into office. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay implementation of this year’s biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations finalized in the last weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, according to a government notice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pause rules affecting livestock, groups said. EPA and USDA representatives did not respond to requests for comment. The freeze prompted worry in rural communities on Tuesday, though sources said such delays are not unheard of with a new administration. Trump won nearly two-thirds of the rural vote in November, with big agricultural states lining up for the Republican. The more than decade-old Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been stymied by regulatory delays in years past and is facing uncertainty under the new administration, including a proposed EPA chief who has been a critic of the program. The RFS, which is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on imported oil, requires that oil companies blend increasing amounts of biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol, into gasoline and diesel. Refiners that fail to do so must buy paper credits. Some in the oil industry were heartened by the news. The oil industry has lobbied heavily for changes or a repeal of the policy. “While the regulatory freeze implemented by President Trump does not change the statutory compliance of the RFS, it does provide an opportunity to take a closer look at this fundamentally flawed policy,” said Chet Thompson, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents companies including oil refiners. Prices of the paper credits used by fuel companies to prove they are meeting the requirements dropped sharply after the news, falling to the lowest levels since November 2015. The Renewable Fuels Association, which represents biofuels producers, said it did not expect the procedural delay to lead to any significant changes to the requirements. The delayed fuel rules will be implemented on March 21, according to a federal register notice. About a third of the 13.6 billion bushels of corn produced in the United States in 2015 was used to make fuel ethanol, according to the National Corn Growers Association. At the USDA, “they put a regulatory freeze on everything that is in the pipeline,” said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council. The agency has put on hold new rules it had formerly said would help protect meat producers from mistreatment by packing companies and processors, he said. The pork council opposes the measures, saying they are not necessary. The freeze is also affecting new rules that would for the first time mandate specific space requirements for hens laying organic eggs, Warner said. The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association said the delay in implementing USDA rules involving meat packers was worrisome. The group, which represents cattle producers, had supported the measures as needed to prevent anti-competitive buying practices. It was not immediately clear when or if the USDA rules would be implemented. “We are certainly on edge right now and hope that with further review the Trump administration will see the value in those rules,” said Lia Biondo, the association’s policy and outreach coordinator. | 1 |
7,842 | WATCH: Mika Brzezinski UNLOADS Fury Against Trump And His Buddies For Fat-Shaming Women | The men of Morning Joe found Donald Trump s insults against women funny, but Mika Brzezinski shut them and their disgusting sexism down HARD.Joe Scarborough and Willy Geist had a laugh over Trump s interview with Bill O Reilly on Wednesday night and seemed to have no problem with him fat-shaming women just because they gain a little weight.Scarborough tried to excuse Trump s behavior as just trying to help while Geist called Trump the real hero of this story. A sickened Mika then jumped in and took Trump to the woodshed on behalf of women everywhere. It s a beauty contest. You can t actually have any weight on your body for a beauty contest because that wouldn t be beautiful. Think about that. Geist then cracked that women shouldn t put on 60 pounds and attributed the joke to Newt Gingrich, a supporter of Trump and his campaign. Really? Mika asked. That s the pot! People like Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich and men can walk around just rotund as all get out, Mika continued. And it s not an issue. But women, in order to be beautiful, you have to be 117 pounds. I m sorry. Can someone tell me what year we re in here? Is it 2016? I think we re back in the 70s with these hideous pageants which, by the way we need to talk about at some point. Someone who runs beauty pageants you have to think about how they think about women.Look at those beauty pageants. Look at them! Young women walking around in bikinis getting graded on how they look. I can t believe we still do these things.Do we want someone who ran beauty pageants? And still thinks it s okay to talk about gaining weight being a problem? Do we really want that person in the White House? Hiring women? I don t think he s going to hire women unless they re tens. In his view, which is 117 pounds and starving and covered in plastic. Indeed, these sexists think it s okay for them to gain weight but they think women should be held to certain standards. And that s why Trump is getting his ass handed to him by women right now in the polls.Joe Scarborough repeatedly tried to interrupt Mika and talk over her throughout her rant, which is something he probably took a lot of flack about later after the show.In the end, however, Mika got the last word and made it clear that Trump s treatment of women is not something to joke about. It s disgusting. It s perverted. It s a serious story. Stupid men. Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump s sexism should automatically disqualify him from seeking the presidency. Instead, Republican chose him as their leader and that demonstrated just how little they care about women, and if every woman in this country voted against Trump and the GOP every year, the party would go extinct.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
7,843 | Donald Trump Just Lost His Temper On Live TV And It’s Hilarious (VIDEO) | Donald Trump has caused plenty of heartache for Americans, especially those of Muslim and Mexican descent, as a result of his racist and vile rhetoric. He s left the world wondering how he s the GOP fronerunner for the nomination to run in the general election for president of the United States. Fortunately for Americans and the rest of the world, we are slowly but surely watching the unhinging of Donald Trump. His recent remarks about women are just one in a series of Trump crazy talk sessions that have left his campaign losing serious momentum. However, Trump has a way with words and he always blames someone else for his misfortunes. This time, it came in the form of a temper tantrum with a reporter.Here s the video: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ctyqB5TTM] MSNBC s Chris Jansing asked Trump if there would be any changes in his campaign staff in what was most likely a reference to a New York magazine article that reported infighting among his staff members. No, It s just the media again. I get the most unfair media. This is the first time I ve been asked this question. Nobody has called me about this. We are number one in every category, said Trump.Jansing then asked if Trump was concerned that his staff didn t know that Wisconsin conservative radio host Charlie Sykes was against his candidacy, which set him up for a brutal interview last week. Believing that he won the debate with Sykes, Trump said, You go into the enemy camp sometimes. He is not a very smart guy, not a very bright guy. Sometimes you go into unfriendly territory. That s part of the game. Here is the transcript from the rest of the interview:Jansing: Is Wisconsin unfriendly territory? Trump: No, you said about a radio talk show host. Jansing: So you re just talking about the radio host? Trump: That s what I mean about the dishonest media. Jansing: I m asking you a question, allowing you to answer it. Trump: Excuse me, Excuse me, excuse me! You re asking me about a show host and I said he was unfriendly territory. Then you say is that Wisconsin. It s so dishonest. No, no, that s called you know what s that s called, dishonest media, dishonest reporting. I think I m going to do great. Watching Trump get frustrated is reminiscent of how he s been frustrating most of America the last few months. Featured image via screencapture | 0 |
7,844 | Trump criticizes treatment of Flynn as unfair | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was being treated unfairly, implicitly criticizing the U.S. special counsel’s charges against him even though Flynn pleaded guilty. “I feel badly for General Flynn,” Trump told reporters at the White House, and went on to accuse his Democratic rival in the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, of having lied last year. Flynn, a retired Army general who was a senior adviser in Trump’s election campaign, pleaded guilty on Friday to having lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. He was charged as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion by Trump campaign aides. Trump did not provide evidence or detail about his accusation against Clinton. Clinton answered questions in July 2016 about her use of a private server for government emails while she was secretary of state. There was never any indication from the FBI that Clinton did not tell the truth. “Hillary Clinton on the 4th of July weekend went to the FBI Not under oath. It was the most incredible thing anyone’s ever seen,” Trump said. “She lied many times, nothing happened to her. Flynn lied and it’s like, they ruined his life. Very unfair.” Moscow has denied interfering in the election and Trump has denied collusion by his campaign. | 1 |
7,845 | NEW TV SHOW HAS COUPLES “Bravely” Putting Their Marriage On The Line By Sleeping With Strangers | Television just doing their part to contribute to the moral decay of America Sex in a box in front of a studio audience having failed to save American marriages, the TV industry now will attempt to rescue the institution by trying a two-week spouse switch for wedded couples. FYI has greenlighted The Seven Year Switch, an eight-episode series in which married couples bravely put their marriage on the line by shacking up with a new partner for a couple weeks. Production is underway for the series to premiere this summer.It s named after The Seven Year Itch, the 1955 Broadway play-turned-Billy Wilder movie starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Hopefully that will be lost on most viewers of this series because if they saw it, they re too old to be FYI s target audience or any network s for that matter.In today s announcement, FYI instead focused on the fact that someone at some point decided seven years marks the point in many marriages at which couples become restless and dissatisfied and might wonder why they d signed up with this guy instead of the doctor their mothers wanted them to marry. In the series, four couples at a crossroads in their relationship FYI did not say if they ve all been married seven years get the chance to shack up with a stranger for two weeks in an experimental marriage. They will eat, live and, yes, sleep with these total strangers, the network said.As with WE tv s recently pulled-due-to-lousy-ratings reality series Sex Box, relationship experts will help guide the Seven Year Switch couples through the process, FYI said. At the end of what the network explains is a monthlong experiment, each of the married couples will reunite and decide whether to divorce or renew their vows.Gena McCarthy, SVP Programming and Development at FYI, described it as an experiment to determine whether absence really does make the heart grow fonder, sidestepping the whole shacking-up-with-a-stranger part.Via: Deadline.com | 0 |
7,846 | Senate Republicans Diss Trump BADLY–They LOVE Tim Kaine And Aren’t Afraid To Say So | The GOP has, more or less, gotten into the habit of putting forth lukewarm defenses of Donald Trump and his many ahem problems, or just staying silent altogether. They re more vocal in their opposition to Hillary, however, her running mate, Tim Kaine, has Senate Republicans in an uproar because they love him and believe they can actually work with him. Kaine is something of a throwback to a chummier era of Senate politics, says Politico on this story. They mean that his ways of working are a throwback to a time before toxic, extremist Tea Party politics began eating the entire Republican Party from the inside out, like really nasty parasites that eventually kill their hosts. Senate Republicans are hoping that he ll use his relationships and ability to work with them as an asset should Hillary get elected.And their praise is pretty lavish, particularly for the opposing VP candidate at the height of a presidential election cycle. Politico spoke to a dozen GOP Senators about this. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who serves with Kaine on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: He understands the issues, he cares about having an outcome and I think he could be very effective with working with people here. Susan Collins (R-ME), who admittedly can be a bit more moderate than many of her colleagues, said: If we do end up having Hillary as our president he will be a good influence as far as relationships with Congress and getting away from the incivility that has marred the past decade. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has made no secret of the fact that he can t vote for Trump, and he s said he won t vote for Hillary, either. However, he, too, sees Kaine as an asset to Hillary: I don t know anybody on the Republican side who has a bad thing to say about him. He doesn t go out of his way to go after people politically and he s all about policy. Flake also said: I m not going to concede the election. But if he s in that position then Hillary Clinton will be well-served. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) seems to like that Kaine is playing up Democratic policy proposals rather than attacking incumbent Republicans while stumping for them in battleground states: I haven t seen anything yet that he s done [on the campaign trail] that would damage his ability to work with Republicans. And Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said of Kaine awhile back: Tim would be a good steady hand for [Hillary]. He d be well received on our side of the aisle if he s an emissary from the president. Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) both praised his bipartisanism. Hell, even the North Carolina Republican Party gave him an unqualified apology after mistaking a Blue Star Service pin, which he wears to honor his son on active duty, for the flag of Honduras and posting about it on Twitter:There are parts of the GOP that would have just quietly deleted that tweet and hoped the outrage would quickly die, lest they appear to actually (gasp!) respect a Democrat.It will likely be up to the Senate to try to pull the House in line should Hillary get elected. House conservatives, unsatisfied with the previous eleventy thousand investigations against Hillary, are talking about launching another one in a desperate and sorry attempt to find something on her that means they can unequivocally work against her, and thus, America, because reasons.With the strong possibility that Kaine can broker more bipartisan legislation and improve relations between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, though, then there s a slight possibility that the House may eventually fall in line. When the Senate sends bipartisan legislation over to the House that they won t even look at, they look like the sulky, peevish little kids who can t play nice that they are.Kaine could easily be the direct line to Senate Republicans that Hillary needs to actually get stuff done. And Senate Republicans are loving it.Featured image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
7,847 | Highlights: The Trump presidency on March 13 at 9:05 p.m. EDT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday: Fourteen million Americans would lose medical insurance by next year under a Republican plan to dismantle Obamacare, the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office says in a report that dealt a potential setback to Trump’s first major legislative initiative. A Republican plan to repeal taxes set under Obamacare would benefit the wealthiest U.S. households at more than five times the rate for middle-income families, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The U.S. Department of Justice asks for more time to respond to a request from lawmakers for evidence about Trump’s allegation that then-President Barack Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 election campaign. A group of states renew their effort to block Trump’s revised temporary ban on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, arguing that his executive order is the same as the first one that was halted by federal courts. Trump’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pushed back from Tuesday until Friday because of the winter storm bearing down on the northeastern United States, the White House says. Ahead of her trip to Washington, Merkel tells business leaders in Munich that free trade is important for both the United States and Germany. Trump is planning to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a two-day summit next month, according to media reports, as his administration seeks to smooth relations with the world’s second-largest economy. Trump’s Middle East envoy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in Jerusalem as the new administration tries to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. Trump is set to formally announce a review of vehicle fuel efficiency rules locked in at the end of the Obama administration when he meets with automaker chiefs this week, according to two sources briefed on the matter. Trump on Thursday unveils his 2018 budget emphasizing a military buildup, and some Republicans are concerned they will be forced to choose between opposing the president or backing reductions in popular programs such as aid for disabled children and hot meals for the elderly. The U.S. Senate confirms Trump’s pick to run the government health programs for the elderly, poor and disabled, Medicare and Medicaid, filling a critical role as Republicans fight to repeal and replace Obamacare. | 1 |
7,848 | liberal cnn commentator blames republicans for obamacares rising premiums | it wasnt long ago that the left represented the antiestablishment wing in politics they used to fight against globalism remember the antiglobalization movement even if their motives were different from those of todays antiglobalists as well as being against censorship imperialist wars and the expanding powers of governments and corporations but today you see leftists protesting against brexit attacking and censoring anyone who disagrees with the establishment using twitter on their apple products while sipping on their starbucks coffee and are calling for war in syria to challenge the russians so just how the hell did did they end up becoming the patsies for the elites
to understand we must go back to when the occupy movement was ongoing the occupy protests which now seem like ages ago came about as a response to the economic downturn with the people realizing that they were being screwed by the system we can debate endlessly about exactly who these people were and the motives behind them but the important fact is that to the elites it was a sign that the people were waking up and challenging their power
the elites were in a panic as this was the first time in postwar history that the people of west mobilized in mass to threaten their rule so the cabals decided that they needed to act fast before the whole movement evolved to a fullblown revolution and they already had a plan in mind the never antiquated strategy of divide and rule
the diversion
when the people are discontent and angry from being powerless and dispossessed the pressure will mount and it wont go anywhere the people want to vent out their frustrations the elites know that responding directly with repression only inspires greater desire to rise up so instead of fighting it they prefer to rechannel that pent up energy elsewhere
on february with the occupy movement still raging the elites were given that golden opportunityor rather they created onewhen a black teenager was shot dead in florida the none other than the infamous trayvon martin case the shooter wasnt even a full white but the elites jumped at the chance and used their control of the media to throw everything they had on it anything to divert the public attention away from them with their efforts it quickly became the biggest story of america
but they didnt stop there police shootings which have always been happening and to all races were also highly publicized by the mainstream media to stoke liberal outrage and racial tensions that led to the creation of black lives matter movementa movement that is financed by george soros and others to stir up unrests across america
did the elites convert occupy protesters into sjw patsies
the diversion was complete as the people were now more interested in racial issues than the who were dictating their lives the occupy movement faded away and the people were now venting out their anger elsewhere although i dont have as much proof as with the rise of blm movement i strongly suspect that the resurgence of social justice warriors around the same time is also the work of the elites who want the leftists to target fellow citizens over asinine cultural issues rather than the established order
the strategy
back in th century karl marx claimed that religion and nationalism was being used to distract the masses from the fact that they were being oppressed under capitalism if we were to apply this concept to the world today the culture wars going on now are distractions to keep the masses from undermining the power of the elites
the goal the elites is simple divide the masses and let them fight each other so that they will never come together to topple those in power meanwhile they themselves focus on expanding their own wealth and continue to implement institutional control to further their globalist plans the worst case scenario the elites want to avoid is to have the common people unite as one so they must do everything they can to fragment them by creating as many divisions as possible
my understanding of their modus operandi is this use hotbutton issues to stir up controversy something that doesnt affect them like gay marriage race issues and all other politically correct nonsense have the leftists either get outraged or do something that will provoke a reaction from the right let the people vent out their anger onto each other and get at each others throats when the issue fades away foment a new controversy to repeat the whole process by cycling through them over and over again the elites are able to maintain the status quo and keep the people from uniting against them
thus we have our current situation where the masses are divided with blacks against whites women against men islam and atheism against christianity left against right and so on but no more antiglobalization tea party movement or occupy wall street
as long as those on the left continue berating the right as racists sexists and bigots who are controlled by corporations and the right in turn accuse the left of being degenerate socialist slackers who just want freebies from a nanny government nothing will change as long as the two sides see each others as enemies who are stupid and ignorant and getting in the way of creating a decent society the people will remain divided as long as the rest of the population go berserk over wedding cakes for homosexuals the latest misogynist outrage or how a lion named cecil got shot the elites will continue to win
a couple more points to consider i know they look like an occupying army but theres nothing to be alarmed about theyre just your friendly neighborhood police doing their jobs to protect you from the terrorists
first while this article has been focused on how the left has been toyed by the globalist elites lets not forget that the right are not totally immune to their influence either remember how neocons globalists puppets disguised as conservatives effectively lured the conservatives in america through faith and patriotism the support they got from that base was the impetus to launch their war against iraq based on bullshit evidences of wmds and saddamalqueda link while the right has changed a lot since then there are still conservatives today who are itching for a war with russia because usa usa usa
second it is crucial to remember that although the main goal is to maintain divide and rule it is not the end of it the elites have far more sinister aims by raising hell in societies through demographic conflicts and terrorism the elites are preparing for a total social control i get the feeling that the elites are letting the chaos and violence run its course so that the people from the two opposing camps will join together in their approval of new government measures for social control
no matter their differences when the people get terrified of savagery and disorder theyll welcome the state to intervene in the name of security europe is already getting used to large military presence on their streets while the us government is seemingly preparing for a war against their own citizens a leaked soros memo also reveals that the blm movement is potentially being used to federalize the us police while many people seem to be concerned about violence and terrorism it seems those are just tools used by the elites to justify a totalitarian state in the near future
the culture wars necessary fight or engineered distraction
the issue of culture wars is not an easy one as they are important in many ways but are still forms of distraction implemented by the elites
on one hand we are playing into the hands of elites by raging against social justice and feminist pigshits instead of trying to stop the globalists zionists bankers megacorporations and the governments from undermining our existence really do the issues of politicallyincorrect halloween costumes and whatever bathroom trannies use matter more than the fact that the middleclass is being destroyed revelations of massive corruption in the dnc the coming policestate and the globalist wars that are causing death and destruction around the world all the drama of outrage and counteroutrage is silly when the elites are snickering as their new world order is taking shape
on the other hand culture does matter in many ways uncontrolled immigration antimale laws and censorship are all very relevant issues and as much of the leftists are now serving as pawns of the establishment the situation isnt exactly the divide and rule model i described above in a way we are now forced to fight the left and everyone else who are getting in the way of fighting the globalist elites
so does this mean we should ally with those who scorn us or should we continue playing the elites games and bicker with their sjw drones i dont have a good answer but whatever we choose to do i believe it is crucial for us to focus our battles and not get trolled into petty issues that the mainstream media wants us to focus on we should always keep in mind that it is always those at the top who are the true enemies of mankind
conclusion is there still hope
although we no longer see grassroots movements and popular mobilization the current us election has shown that the people are still awake and sick of the establishment to me that alone is a hopeful sign that people are still willing to challenge the ruling class
with bernie sanders brought down by the establishment and his supporters scattered into different camps the only antiestablishment movement now is the presidential campaign led by donald trump this is why we are seeing unprecedented efforts by the elites to bring down trump and use disgruntled leftists against his supporters
i have my doubts about trump but he is thousand times preferable to the certain nightmare that hillary clinton will bring to america and the world if she gets elected but besides voting i believe that it is more important for the people themselves to wake up and be aware of the methods of control that are being implemented upon us we cant constantly expect some knight in shinning armor to come rally us we must take the initiative ourselves and be willing to fight for our own destiny
read more the elites have one rule for themselves and one rule for the rest of us | 0 |
7,849 | REMEMBERING FDR’S Famous Pearl Harbor Speech: How “A Date That Will Live In Infamy” Almost Wasn’t [AUDIO] | Did FDR actually deliver his fireside chats while sitting near a fire? Seventy-four years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed December 7, 1941, as a date which will live in infamy after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.But that most powerful line in his speech asking Congress to declare war and bring the U.S. into World War II almost wasn t. Roosevelt s original draft called it a date which will live in world history, rhetoric that had far less oomph. That memorable revision along with others a fact you can see for yourself thanks to thousands of pages of the longest-serving president s speeches made available Monday digitally for the first time.President Franklin D. Roosevelt made an important revision to his first draft of the address he would make to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, after the Pearl Harbor attacks. FDR Presidential LibraryThe massive archive at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, thanks in part to support from AT&T, includes over 46,000 pages of drafts, reading copies, transcripts and their audio files from Roosevelt s 12 years in office all online and free to the public.It s the largest archive of any president, according to FDR Library Director Paul Sparrow, and provides new insight into Roosevelt s presidency.Roosevelt was a historian and a collector, Sparrow said. He kept every draft, every script. The Pearl Harbor speech made December 8 stands out as one of the most pivotal moments of Roosevelt s presidency. On his blog, Sparrow wrote that it represents the tipping point, the actual moment when the United States was transformed from an isolationist nation to a global superpower and leader of the free world. Its message of resolve and determination in the face of a devastating attack is as relevant today as it was then. And it was written almost entirely by Roosevelt himself, not by speechwriters or his advisers. Roosevelt dictated the speech to his secretary just three hours after learning of the attacks.Roosevelt made edits to that draft most importantly changing world history to infamy in the first line. His close adviser, Harry Hopkins, would make the only other addition: With confidence in our armed forces with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God. The State Department was also pressuring Roosevelt to deliver a much longer, historical speech that detailed the U.S.-Japan tensions. They even presented the president with a 17-page suggested draft. Roosevelt politely listened to their suggestions, but had already decided he would stick with his three-page, seven-minute speech.The forceful brevity of that speech at such a crucial moment in U.S. history is one reason it is among the best-remembered in history. Roosevelt knew that lengthy speech wasn t what the American people wanted to hear right now, Sparrow said.Roosevelt, who was of course the longest-serving president in history, gave the most speeches and press conferences of any chief executive too. And as radio in the 1930s and 1940s became a way to reach the masses, he embraced it like any other with his regular Fireside Chats. Roosevelt s First Fireside Chat After Pearl Harbor 26:16 Though he didn t actually deliver them beside a fire, his rhetorical gift was on full display in the regular addresses, using common words and a conversational tone to reach the American public. In his own mind, he imagined sitting at a kitchen table and talking to his neighbors, Sparrow said. They have much more of an explanatory tone. Many are very instructional. Via: NPR | 0 |
7,850 | OBAMA’S BROTHER Will Vote For Trump: “Deep Disappointment” In Barack’s Presidency…Wants To “Make America Great Again” | The tsunami has started President Obama s Kenyan half-brother wants to make America great again so he s voting for Donald Trump. I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart, Malik Obama told The Post from his home in the rural village of Kogelo. Make America Great Again is a great slogan. I would like to meet him. Obama, 58, a longtime Democrat, said his deep disappointment in his brother Barack s administration has led him to recently switch allegiance to the party of Lincoln. The last straw, he said, came earlier this month when FBI Director James Comey recommended not prosecuting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her use of a private e-mail servers while secretary of state. She should have known better as the custodian of classified information, said Obama.He s also annoyed that Clinton and President Obama killed Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, whom he called one of his best friends.Malik Obama dedicated his 2012 biography of his late father to Khadafy and others who were making this world a better place. I still feel that getting rid of Khadafy didn t make things any better in Libya, he said. My brother and the secretary of state disappointed me in that regard. But what bothers him even more is the Democratic Party s support of same-sex marriage.Obama plans to trek back to the US to vote for Trump in November. Obama used to live in Maryland, where he worked for many years as an accountant and is registered to vote there, public records show. Mr. Trump is providing something new and something fresh, he said.For entire story: NYP | 0 |
7,851 | FEDERAL JUDGE Goes On Rant About Cops Killing Blacks….Declares: “Black Lives Matter!”…Blames Deaths Of Cops On Cops | This is a great story for anyone who doesn t understand the power one liberal judge can wield from the bench. U.S. District Judge Robart, who is presiding over a 2012 consent decree requiring the city to adopt reforms to address federal allegations of police bias, rebuked the Seattle police union for holding up reforms as it bargains over a new contract, The Seattle Times reported. The court and the citizens of Seattle will not be held hostage for increased payments and benefits, the judge said, according to the paper. To hide behind a collective-bargaining agreement is not going to work, he said.Kevin Stuckey, who recently became president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, said the union is prepared to sit down with the city and reach a deal.Judge Robart, a George W. Bush appointee, said proposed police reform legislation should include putting a civilian in charge of police oversight, shutting down a police-led disciplinary board and creating a civilian position of inspector general.Judge Robart threatened to call a hearing and override the city s bargaining process with the union if he concluded the union was interfering with reform, The Times reported. The judge ended Monday s hearing by citing a statistic that claimed 41 percent of the shootings nationwide by police were of blacks. Black lives matter, he said, drawing an audible reaction in a courtroom, The Times reported.Judge Robart added that the recent targeted shootings of police officers across the country signaled the importance of strengthening police and community relations.Commissioner Enrique Gonzalez said he s very encouraged that a federal judge has actually said that black lives matter, because now we know that not only is this movement happening in the streets even a federal judge has acknowledged that people of color have been on the receiving end of police brutality and this needs to change, The Stranger reported. Washington Times | 0 |
7,852 | The Dictionary Delivers EPIC Smackdown Of Kellyanne Conway’s ‘Alternative Facts’ Bullsh*t | This morning, Kellyanne Conway attempted to spin White House press secretary Sean Spicer s blatant lies about Trump s inauguration numbers into simply an alternate version of the truth. This isn t the first time she s said something like this, and so it s getting more than a little ridiculous. Fortunately, Chuck Todd nailed her to the wall for it, but he wasn t the only one. Merriam-Webster decided to nail her for it too, with a short, concise tweet:?A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 22, 2017Nothing like having the dictionary troll you when you try to redefine words in front of the whole damn world.Merriam-Webster didn t stop with just a single tweet, though. That link goes to an entire article blasting Conway for pretending the word fact doesn t mean what we think it means. In addition to the modern definition, which is their tweet, they gave three obsolete definitions which further puts Conway to shame: There are three obsolete senses of fact in English. Two of these senses are no longer used:Fact meaning a wrong or unlawful deed is rare, but is still used in the phrase after the fact. Merriam-Webster also reported, in that story, that lookups for the word fact spiked after Conway spewed her nonsense all over Chuck Todd. Fact is their #2 lookup today, and feminism is their #3 lookup. Their #1 lookup, though? Fascism. That s been one of their trending lookups for a few months now, which says something about how people on both sides view Trump.You know you ve screwed up big time with a word when you ve got the dictionary coming after you for it.Featured image by Yana Paskova via Getty Images | 0 |
7,853 | REVELATION THAT WILL SHOCK International Security World: VIDEO Captured From Inside Sophisticated ISLAMIC TERROR Technology Lab | Remote controlled car bombs are being constructed for countries where suicide bombers are scarce. The only thing they need are some radical Islamists to set the vehicles in motion. With our wide open borders and generous Refugee Resettlement Program (which brings hundreds of thousands of men and woman coming from countries who hate us to live in America on our dime) it shouldn t be too hard to implement their terror plans. Terror group Islamic State is employing scientists and weapons experts to train jihadists to carry out sophisticated spectacular attacks in Europe, while also modifying weapons systems capable of targeting passenger jets and military aircraft.From a jihadi university in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the scientists have stunned western weapons experts by producing a homemade thermal battery for surface-to-air missiles.It had been regarded as a virtually impossible feat for terror groups working without a military infrastructure.But footage exclusively obtained by Sky News shows that IS can now recommission thousands of missiles assumed by western governments to have been redundant through old age.Heat-seeking warheads can be used to attack passenger and military aircraft. They are 99% accurate once locked on.For decades terror groups, including the IRA, had these weapons but storing them and maintaining the thermal battery a key component to the warhead was very difficult.It seems that IS scientists have got round the problem, and that revelation will shock the world of international security.The IS research and development team has produced fully working remote controlled cars to act as mobile bombs, while they have fitted the cars with drivers ; mannequins with self-regulating thermostats to produce the heat signature of humans, allowing the car bombs to evade sophisticated scanning machines that protect military and government buildings in the West.Here is a stunning video actually showing Islamic State terrorists testing their inventions:The group trained fighters from a variety of countries to carry out attacks and to train more jihadists in their own countries.An IS trainer with more than eight hours of unedited training videos was captured by the remnants of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as he headed north through Turkey towards Europe.The FSA passed the material to Sky News but was not aware of the importance of the videos, described by a weapons adviser to the British military as an intelligence gold mine .Using aerial and satellite imagery Sky News has identified the location of the university and pieced together the apparently random collection of video files to reveal the true extent of IS s sophisticated development and training team.Although this type of activity had been widely suspected by western intelligence services, this is the first concrete evidence that it is taking place.Crucially, it is far more developed than had previously been thought possible.Groups of trainees from a range of countries including Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Egypt and Pakistan were given terror training courses using science labs and facilities based around the former Equestrian Centre in Raqqa. Via: Skye News | 0 |
7,854 | top trump aide steve bannon virulent antisemite or ardent zionist | clinton policy on syria would lead to ww iii trump am clinton policy on syria would lead to ww iii trump wed oct am us republican presidential candidate donald trump speaks during a campaign rally at orlando sanford international airport on october in sanford florida photos by afp
us republican presidential nominee donald trump says hillary clintons policy towards syria would lead to world war iii arguing that the democratic nominee would drag the us into an armed confrontation with russia
trump made the warning in an interview with reuters on tuesday following clintons proposal for the establishment of a nofly zone and safe zones in syria earlier this month
what we should do is focus on isil daesh we should not be focusing on syria trump said
youre going to end up in world war three over syria if we listen to hillary clinton he said
on october the democratic nominee said a nofly zone was required inside the warravaged country to stabilize fighting a move that was opposed in congress due to the risk of entering into conflict with russia since a usenforced nofly zone would mean the us could shoot down russian fighter jets should they enter syrian airspace
clinton also described the situation in syria as incredibly complex since the intervention of russia us democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton speaks at an early vote rally at broward college in coconut creek florida on october
youre not fighting syria anymore youre fighting syria russia and iran all right russia is a nuclear country but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk trump said
the republican nominee also referred to the removal of syrian president bashar alassad from power as a secondlevel priority to defeating daesh
assad is secondary to me to isil trump said
russia might down us planes
meanwhile us director of national intelligence james clapper also warned about the consequences of clintons push for a nofly zone in syria that could spark a conflict with russia
speaking at the council on foreign relations clapper said clintons proposal for the establishment of a nofly zone in syria could lead to russia shooting down american planes there james clapper the us director of national intelligence speaks at the council of foreign relations on october in new york city
i wouldnt put it past them to shoot down an american aircraft if they if they felt that was threatening to their forces on the ground he said
i take stock in the nature of the weaponry that they deploy and why they why they did that clapper said of russian weapons recently deployed to syria the system they have there is a very advanced airdefense system its very capable and i dont think theyd do it and deploy it unless they had some intent to use it
during the third and final presidential debate last week clinton reiterated her remarks on a nofly zone that could save lives and hasten the end of the conflict in syria
a foreignbacked militancy has been going on in syria since march with a plethora of armed groups each supported by one foreign country or another fighting the assad government
since the united states along with a number of its allies has been leading a socalled antiterror campaign in syria and neighboring iraq
instead of helping to rein in the takfiri terrorists the air raids have killed many civilians and caused extensive damage to the countrys infrastructure
iran has been offering syria advisory military help russia another syrian ally has also been conducting an aerial bombardment campaign against militant positions in syria at a request from damascus
the foreignsponsored conflict in syria has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions | 0 |
7,855 | Trump to visit Florida on Thursday in wake of hurricane: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House announced on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump would travel to Florida later this week as the administration continues to monitor the damage from Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The president and the entire administration continue to monitor the situation in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Florida, Texas and all areas affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in making the announcement. | 1 |
7,856 | Troops and strays, the only signs of life in ruined Marawi | MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - With vehicles crushed and overturned and buildings reduced to skeletons of mangled steel and rubble, the Philippine city of Marawi resembles the aftermath of a war that lasted years, rather than months. Except for small clusters of troops dotted amid the ruins and skinny cats and dogs scavenging for food, the heart of Marawi is a ghost town, all but destroyed by the Philippines biggest and fiercest urban battle in recent history. Hundreds of rebels claiming allegiance to Islamic State seized large areas of the city of 200,000 people in May and clung on through unrelenting government air strikes and artillery bombardments, right until the last remaining gunmen were killed three days ago. The military escorted media on Wednesday through the ravaged streets of the once picturesque lakeside town, showing for the first time the front lines of a devastating conflict that has stoked fears of Islamic State s extremist agenda taking root in the region. The scale of the damage was stark as a convoy of vans carrying reporters and cameramen followed an army truck through one district after another, stopping off at key intersections recently cleared of unexploded munitions and booby traps. Wide boulevards in the city were lined by crumbling homes and shop fronts missing higher floors, with fragments of chairs, children s toys and household appliances wedged into piles of crumbled concrete. Tattered pieces of clothing poking above banks of rubble provided the only color in the mass of gutted grey buildings blackened by smoke. Vans, pickup trucks and cars were turned over, coated in rust or torn apart by bomb blasts. The militants planning, stockpiling of weapons and their combat capability stunned government forces, who had to fight street by street to take back the city and were often pinned down by snipers and homemade bombs. At first our forces cannot press them, they moved from one building to the next. Our concept was to restrict them - it took time, but we constricted them, said Lieutenant Colonel Sam Yunque, a special forces commander deployed in Marawi since the beginning of the conflict. We innovated to suppress their techniques. They were not better than us, that s why they lost. The Philippines announced the end of combat operations in Marawi City on Monday after troops killed 42 remaining militants, including some foreign fighters. More than 1,100 people, including 165 troops and 45 civilians, died in the conflict. The government has said the rest were militants. Senior officers said they took pains to protect the multitude of mosques in what is the only designated Islamic City in the mainly Catholic Philippines. Although many escaped the pounding of daily air strikes, domes and walls were peppered with holes from heavy machine gun fire as troops sought to flush out rebels hiding within. Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis praised Filipino soldiers for defeating the militants without attracting allegations of human rights violations. The United States provided critical tactical intelligence in the Marawi combat operation, deploying surveillance planes and drones, thermal imaging and eavesdropping equipment. The walls were blasted away at Marawi s police headquarters where the armory was looted, and in the adjacent jail where more than 100 prisoners were freed. Close by, a mosque minaret had fallen into a mash of metal and rock. Behind it was a lone, leafless tree with only a few branches left. The militants smashed through thick layers of concrete to turn drainage channels into trenches, doubling as tunnels for fighters to move between buildings and elude surveillance drones and army snipers. Rebel-held buildings were covered with graffiti, including one of an arrow through a heart, with the message I love ISIS , an acronym for Islamic State. But there was no love for the rebel alliance among the hundreds of jubilant soldiers at send-off ceremonies held this week as troops gradually return home. Colonel Corleto Vinluan, the commander of joint special operations, described the enemy as rats . He said the military had gained valuable experience in urban combat and chose a strategy that took time, but ultimately paid off. We couldn t just enter the area, it was very big, we did not know where the leaders were, we had to surround them and the area became smaller. It was that time when we really took control, Vinluan told Reuters. We didn t expect they ll last that long, their ammunition their firearms and their food. We learned a lot from this event, we adjusted our strategies. They were tough fighters, some of them, but not all. | 1 |
7,857 | Trump Cancels Trip To Israeli Historic Site After Authorities Say He Can’t Land His Helicopter On It | In yet another example of Trump s inability to maintain even a slight bit of tact while representing America s interests overseas, the White House reportedly canceled plans to visit a historic landmark during his visit to Israel one of the nation s biggest tourist attractions. The reason: Trump wanted to land his helicopter directly on the ancient mountain fortress and was told no.President Donald Trump has canceled a planned visit and speech at the ancient mountain fortress of Masada in Israel after authorities told him that he could not land his helicopter on top of the UNESCO-listed site.Instead, Trump will now deliver a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It comes after an Israeli Air Force (IAF) regulation that prevents helicopters landing at the summit of the Masada site, according to Israel s Channel 2 broadcaster.Unlike former presidents who have made the trip, such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Trump declined to land the helicopter at a base of the historic site and then take the cable car up, preferring to cancel the visit altogether.The reasons not allowing helicopters near the 2,000-year-old ruins should be obvious: For starters, the dust and sand that characterize the mountaintop are extremely rough on helicopter motors. Secondly, the wind and sand kicked up by the powerful blades can destroy the ancient structures, costing archaeologists priceless artifacts. Avoiding those issues by simply getting in a cable car was apparently too much energy.It may be another sign that Trump is hoping to breeze past this trip while doing minimal work. Sources close to Trump say he is extremely upset about having to travel abroad for a multi-day trip to the Middle East and already begged his staff to cut the number of days he d be gone. Keen observers of Trump s habits might note that Trump will be missing at least two weekends during the trip, days he typically reserves for golfing at his various private courses.Trump s demands on his overseas guests have raised eyebrows before. Earlier this year, Trump created a stir in England when reports leaked that he had requested Queen Elizabeth pick him up in a golden chariot:The White House has made clear it regards the carriage procession down the Mall as an essential element of the itinerary for the visit currently planned for the second week of October, according to officials.The request frustrated royal planners who described the situation as a logistical and financial nightmare.It s unclear how Israelis will react to Trump s show of laziness during his trip. Already the country s mood toward Trump is souring after the president is said to have leaked classified information provided by Israeli intelligence services to the Russians. He hasn t even left the White House and already his trip is shaping up to be trouble.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 |
7,858 | Ex-DOJ Lawyer Just Dropped The Most Depressing Truth Bomb About The Trump Administration | While most Americans are aware that Donald Trump has full intentions of undoing much of the country s progress and taking us backwards in history, it s an entirely different thing to hear it from a professional.Vanita Gupta, the former acting head of the Justice Department s civil rights division, had served under former POTUS Barack Obama and has made some very depressing remarks based on her experience with Obama s administration and Trump s. In an interview with the Washington Post, Gupta said she s been shocked by Trump s anti-civil rights agenda : I have a severe case of whiplash, not just from being at the Justice Department, but also, quite honestly, from being a civil rights lawyer my whole life. I just have never seen an administration in my lifetime that has been so intent on pursuing an anti-civil rights agenda. That s a frightening remark to hear from a civil rights lawyer. The bigotry that has taken over the government under Trump isn t hard to miss, but a reminder like this does not make it easier to swallow. Fortunately, Gupta believes that Americans are the ones who will ultimately keep the country true to its values.Gupta is now championing The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and she says that even though the Trump administration is signaling a downward spiral for human rights, she has hope due to the resistance to Trump s attempts to destroy America s progress. She said: I am heartened by the level of energy that exists in communities around the country that are pushing back. I don t think any of us who believe in our country and in American ideals are gonna give up and kind of just throw our hands up and cower into a corner. You can listen to her interview below:Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
7,859 | France invites U.S. to Dec. 13 summit on boosting fight against W.African militants | ACCRA (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron fears Islamist militants have scored military and symbolic victories in West Africa while a regional military force has struggled to get off the ground, a French presidential source said on Thursday. To help get the new G5 Sahel force operating effectively, he said, France has invited the United States to a summit with the five participating countries as well as the African Union and European Union in Paris next month. Thousands of U.N. peacekeepers, French troops and U.S. military trainers and drone operators have failed so far to stem a growing wave of jihadist violence, leading world powers to pin their hopes on the new G5 Sahel force. The G5 Sahel initiative - grouping Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger - faces an immense security challenge in a largely desert and weakly governed region and already faces questions over its financing and provision of equipment. Emmanuel Macron believes that it s not going quickly enough and that the terrorists have registered military and symbolic victories, especially in Niger, and (that) it s urgent to reverse this trend, the French official said in Ghana where Macron was winding up a three-day Africa trip. The (objective) will be to accelerate the calendar for the support of the force, and the operational calendar. The jihadist threat hit home again last month with an attack in Niger in which eight U.S. and Nigerien troops were killed, prompting American officials to forecast that U.S. involvement in the Sahel region would deepen. As well as the leaders of the G5 nations - all former French colonies - and the EU and African Union, the French presidential official said the United States had also been invited to the Dec. 13 summit. The G5 force is to eventually comprise 5,000 men from seven battalions and police the region in collaboration with 4,000 French troops deployed there since Paris intervened in 2013 to beat back an insurgency in northern Mali. It will also have to coordinate with MINUSMA, Mali s U.N. peacekeeping mission. MINUSMA has been frequently attacked in the north where Islamists have regained ground since 2013. A donor conference will be held in Brussels on Dec. 14 to raise funds for the Sahel force. Paris has also asked Saudi Arabia to help finance the force and representatives of the kingdom could also be in Paris on Dec. 13, the official said. | 1 |
7,860 | COLLEGE HOLDS EARLY SEGREGATED ORIENTATION To Help ONLY Minority Students With Financial Aid and Schedules | THIS IS EXPECTED FROM THIS LEFTY COLLEGE Will it trickle out to other colleges? Participants were able to move in before most other students. Privilege much? Victimhood translates to doing exactly what the so called victims fought against .Go figureThe University of California, Berkeley invited certain special populations of new students to move in a day early to attend racially-exclusive orientation sessions.According to a guide to the new Golden Bear Orientation program, the school offered a special programming on Monday for a variety of populations, including Hispanic students, black students, Native American students, and Asian American/Pacific Islander students. We want all our students to make it to orientation and to have an accessible and equitable experience. Tweet This Most other students, meanwhile, spent the day moving into their residence halls and preparing for the main freshman orientation program, which runs from August 15-22.The Black Student Orientation aimed to address the specific transitional and community needs of African American/Black students at the university with community building activities, academic and campus life workshops, and a resource fair. As part of the Black Student Orientation, students participated in a Black World Tour in which they were taken around the surrounding area for a showcase of black owned businesses. [RELATED: Black Harvard grads to hold separate commencement ceremony]Similarly, a Familia Orientation was offered for Chicanx and Latinx students on August 13, while an Asian American Pacific Islander Student Orientation was reserved for responding to the specific transitional and community needs of Asian American, Pilipinx , and Pacific Islander students. A final special population orientation was provided for native students enrolled at the elite institution, who were encouraged to show up early to map locations of your classes, get to know campus, meet continuing Cal Native students and other new Native students, and have a little fun before classes start. In fact, the Native American Student Development Office touts on its website that another bonus of attending the exclusive orientation was being eligible for early move-in, a benefit that the African American Student Development Center similarly advertises on its website, noting that participants were able to move in before most other students. Read more: Campus Reform | 0 |
7,861 | EU eyes tough Brexit transition terms | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU diplomats will start sketching out a Brexit transition offer on Wednesday that would probably let Britain stay in the single market for about two years after it leaves the bloc in March 2019, EU officials said. But some officials and diplomats involved in preparing for the first orientation debate among envoys from the other 27 EU states warned London should not assume it can clinch an initial deal next month to open talks on post-Brexit relations. Some governments see benefits in making Britain wait for it. A paper prepared for the discussion, seen by Reuters, showed the envoys would discuss the scope and duration of a transition, including how far Britain could remain in the single market - with all its obligations - and in other EU programs such as agriculture and fisheries schemes, the nuclear pact Euratom and security and defense arrangements. They would also debate how the transition would affect EU agreements with other states, such as trade, fisheries and aviation treaties. Several officials who spoke to Reuters said Britain would have to abide by all EU laws in the transition period, even if they are changed during that period, but would have no influence over them. Anything else would be too complicated, a second official said. Two others expressed the same view. The EU view on the transition period and the future will in a way be a moment of truth, exposing all the lies of those who campaigned for Brexit saying that Britain will be able to have the cake and eat it, a third official said. Wednesday s discussions will also seek to gather views on the trade relationship with London that is to follow a transition, which may finish in December 2020, at the end of the current seven-year EU budget period. EU leaders told Prime Minister Theresa May last month they were not ready to negotiate post-Brexit arrangements until London offered more concessions on its divorce terms. But they held out the prospect of opening such talks at a summit in mid-December and ordered their officials to start preparing among the 27 for a move to this new phase of talks. British Brexit Minister David Davis is expected in Brussels on Friday for the first negotiations since the mid-October summit with May. But the anticipated brief encounter with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is not expected to produce a breakthrough on how much Britain will pay the EU on leaving. Diplomats and officials said the continued slow pace of the divorce talks was increasing the possibility that EU leaders would again refuse next month to open trade talks. They said some may already be considering that as a useful tactic against Britain, which is anxious to prevent businesses relocating investment. Some believe that the worse it gets for the British, the better for us... that maybe we could delay it all until for instance March, increasing the uncertainty and triggering the contingency plans in the corporate sector, the first EU official said. That would be ruthless and risky, but people have different views on what is risky. An EU diplomat involved in negotiations said he expected envoys also to discuss how to handle a possible failure next month to open the next phase of talks if May refuses to meet EU demands. What do we do if they (the British) don t move? he said. Some continental negotiators believe British anxiety about businesses starting to shift investments in the new year if there is no transition deal could be to Brussels advantage. Officials said Britain s full membership in the single market, even during a transition, is not a given. There is no up-front agreement on that. It is part of a bigger package. For instance it is not feasible to expect they would be in the single market ... but not pay into the EU budget, one said. There will be one or two more meetings of EU envoys before they expect to agree what they might offer Britain in terms of a transition period, officials said. The results of these discussions will not be presented to the British, however, until leaders have agreed to open a new phase of talks. | 1 |
7,862 | Clinton Trolls Trump With AWESOME New Website | After emerging victorious in the Democratic Primary Tuesday night securing the majority of pledged delegates thanks to New Jersey and California Hillary Clinton got right down to business. And her first order was to reach out to Trump-weary Republicans with a new domain: RepublicansAgainstTrump.orgRegistered on May 24, the website asks disenfranchised Republicans to sign a pledge to not vote for the presumptive GOP nominee in November. The pledge simply states:Donald Trump is not qualified to be president. He does not represent my beliefs as a Republican and, more importantly, my values as an American. He does not speak for me and I will not vote for him.If one signs the pledge, they will receive a free sticker, courtesy of the Clinton campaign.As Clinton shatters the glass ceiling, Trump continues to divide the GOP, and the Democratic candidate s campaign is taking full advantage of the rift.Just yesterday, Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois who faces a tough reelection battle became the first elected member of the GOP to un-endorse Trump. On the same day, an Iowa legislator, who has served as a Republican for 18 years, announced he would be leaving the GOP due to Trump s racism.Today, failed presidential candidate and Governor Scott Walker backed away from an endorsement of Trump, saying, It s just sad in America we have such poor choices right now. Just two days ago, Walker expressed willingness to endorse the frontrunner.Not only does Clinton want to win, she wants an absolute blowout. There s no better way to achieve that than to reach out to Republicans and right-leaning independents who refuse to back a racist demagogue. Unlike other elections, it s pretty clear what Trump is: a bigot. Republicans realize this, giving Clinton an advantage to nab support from the other side.Clinton is set to begin campaigning in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 |
7,863 | Democratic Senator Franken to resign: CNN, citing sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Al Franken will announce his resignation on Thursday, a day after a majority of his Democratic Senate colleagues called for him to step down following a string of sexual misconduct allegations against him, CNN reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. | 1 |
7,864 | Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Aug 18) - Camp David, Homeland Security, Democrats | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Homeland Security and law enforcement are on alert & closely watching for any sign of trouble. Our borders are far tougher than ever before! [0831 EDT] - The Obstructionist Democrats make Security for our country very difficult. They use the courts and associated delay at all times. Must stop! [0855 EDT] - Radical Islamic Terrorism must be stopped by whatever means necessary! The courts must give us back our protective rights. Have to be tough! [0906 EDT] - Heading to Camp David for major meeting on National Security, the Border and the Military (which we are rapidly building to strongest ever). [1009 EDT] - I have directed that U.S. Cyber Command be elevated to the status of a Unified Combatant Command focused on....cont: [bit.ly/2vPIlR8][1128 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 1 |
7,865 | BOILER ROOM – No Surrender, No Retreat, Heads Will Roll – EP #38 | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, ACR/21Wire contributor Randy J and Daniel Spaulding from souloftheeast.org. In this first broadcast of 2016 we re going off the rails and off the cuffs, listeners will be hearing us go around the BOILER ROOM on a myriad of topics including the Protest happening in Oregon over the Hammond Ranch incident and the federal abuse of small ranchers and farmers, the usual off-ramp into pop-culture topics, Obama s newest anti-gun executive order and more. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! Live ACR player below Show goes live at 6 PM PSTThis week s topics: | 0 |
7,866 | BEWARE OF HILLARY CLINTON’S “Smart Power” Foreign Policy…It’s NOT Smart! [VIDEO] | What the heck is Hillary Clinton talking about? Her smart power foreign policy when it comes to terrorism is more of the same failed Obama policy of coddling Islamic terrorism! This is a great video of 4 minutes of Hillary lying and being the complete phony she s always been. | 0 |
7,867 | Buffett hits back at Trump over tax comments | (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett denied on Monday an allegation by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that he, like Trump, had taken “a massive deduction” that allowed him to avoid federal income taxes. Buffett said he paid about $1.85 million in income tax in 2015, and that returns for previous years were similar in respect to contributions, deductions and tax rates. Buffett said he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, but had “no problem” releasing his tax information. Trump has refused to release his tax returns, citing ongoing audits by the IRS. “I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13,” Buffett said in a statement, adding that “being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.” Buffett, ranked the world’s third-richest person by Forbes magazine, said he had copies of all 72 of his returns “and none uses a carryforward.” Responding to an Oct. 1 New York Times story, Trump acknowledged during the presidential-candidates’ debate on Sunday that he had used investment losses to avoid paying taxes. Trump repeatedly said he was only taking advantage of tax provisions used by wealthy people who support Clinton. “I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett ...”, he said. The Times reported that Trump’s declared loss of $916 million in 1995 was so large that he could legally have avoided paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), said his 2015 tax return showed adjusted gross income of $11,563,931. “My deductions totaled $5,477,694, of which allowable charitable contributions were $3,469,179. All but $36,037 of the remainder was for state income taxes,” he said. “The total charitable contributions I made during the year were $2,858,057,970, of which more than $2.85 billion were not taken as deductions and never will be. Tax law properly limits charitable deductions,” Buffett said. Buffett said he had no problem releasing his tax information while under audit. “Neither would Mr Trump – at least he would have no legal problem.” | 1 |
7,868 | BREAKING: FBI Agents Say White House Will Kill Russian Investigation | Agents within the FBI are worried that President Donald Trump may succeed in killing the probe into his campaign s ties to Russia. The Daily Beast is reporting on what has happened at the FBI since James Comey was fired on Tuesday. They say that agents who are working on the investigation fear they will be transferred to other departments and that their work will be discontinued. Comey, they say, was much more important to the investigation than many, who are outside of the agency, understand. While he may not not have actively been conducting the investigation, his active support helped it continue.A former lawyer in the Department of Justice s National Security Department, Carrie Cordero, said, He gave the agents, the investigators, cover politically. He said, You go where the facts take you and I will handle the politics of it, I ll go brief the Hill, I ll hold off the White House. He s the lineman in football, keeping everybody away from the guys that are trying to run or make the pass. He provided a cover for them to do what they needed to get done. One FBI source said, Management in counterintelligence are insanely concerned, worried about the overreaching obstruction and political influence from the White House. What could the White House do to stop the investigation? One former FBI official says, They could slow down the investigations to a crawl, prevent charges from moving forward to DOJ for prosecution, or any other number of ways the White House could subvert these investigations, said a former FBI official who worked on Russian investigations.A former FBI official, who was in the counterintelligence department, said, You have to remember, these agents have families they need to support. The threat of being fired for doing their job is real here. And what about the testimony Andrew McCabe gave before the Senate that the investigation would continue? One Congressional staffer said, Literally who cares, nothing he said matters. He ll be gone. Of course, gumming up the works and intimidating FBI agents are not the only two things the White House can do to thwart an active FBI investigation. They can make sure it hits a wall when it gets to the prosecutorial stage at the Department of Justice. Whereas the FBI is made up of career law enforcement personnel, the Department of Justice is headed by a number of political appointeesFormer assistant director of the bureau s Criminal Investigation Division, Ron Hosko said, There are often frustrations in sensitive, important investigations that you end up with prosecutors either too few, who are unwilling to move forward at the desired pace, or too many and you turn every simple decision into a debate club and it slows progress. Here, I think that is the pulse that you in the media and others ought to be keeping close to: What s the pace. Are the investigators getting the prosecutors support that they need? Hosko added, Prosecutors will sometimes start to debate and question every word in a subpoena and it tends to slow progress. And then you start to ask questions about is this because of something political? Hosko concluded with, The Orange blob in the WH doesn t care about anyone or anything he can t control. He s made that abundantly clear. All of this means that it is critically important to appoint a special prosecutor to look into this. It is more than clear that the Trump Department of Justice cannot be trusted to handle this investigation. Featured image via Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | 0 |
7,869 | trump breaks from stump speech to admire beautiful trump mask | kremlin nato was created for agression
russia today reports of the new reinforcement of nato troops close to russias borders show the aggressive character of the organization the kremlin has said commenting on recently announced preparations to deter an alleged russian threat
the western military alliance was established not for peacebuilding but exactly for aggressive actions kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov said on monday despite the fact that blocs which opposed nato no longer exist its impossible to change the alliances aggressive nature due to its ideological and political bases
earlier on monday the times published a report suggesting that hundreds of thousands of nato troops will be put on a higher state of alert amid growing tensions with russia according to the british daily which cites the alliances secretarygeneral jens stoltenberg and the uks outgoing permanent representative to the bloc adam thomson nato aims to largely speed up the time its troops can be deployed
it reportedly aims to have up to military personnel from nations across the alliance at the ready having shortened their response time to about two months compared to the current days
we are responding with the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the cold war stoltenberg told the times the bloc is looking into how more of its million personnel can be ready on a shorter notice he added saying that nato defense ministers have already had discussions on the issue
having accused moscow of assertive behavior the nato chief said russia had increased its defense spending and was developing new military capabilities
in regard to its national security russia acts within its national borders undoubtedly posing no threat to anyone peskov said commenting on stoltenbergs statements the way the military bloc has reacted once again shows the organizations aggressive nature he added | 0 |
7,870 | CNN Host Destroys Moderate Republicans For Failing To Condemn Extremism That Led To Trump (VIDEO) | CNN host Fareed Zakaria made a pretty damning point about Donald Trump s extremism on Monday night.Zakaria dedicated a few minutes to discuss the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican Party, pointing out that his extremist rise is no different than the rise of Islamic extremists in the Middle East. A main cause of the rise of extremism in the world of Islam has been the cowardice of Muslim moderates who, for decades, chose not to condemn bad ideas and ugly rhetoric, Zakaria said, clearly referencing the fact that moderate Republicans here at home allowed conservative extremism, or Christian Sharia law, to fester within the party until it turned into a full blown infection that threatens to kill the party and ruin America. Fearing that they would be seen simply as ideological weaklings, they avoided confronting the cancer in plain sight. It is now clear that a similar dynamic has been at play in the world of conservatism, he continued.Zakaria then praised Mitt Romeny for condemning Trump, but criticized him for taking too long to do so and for gratefully accepting Trump s endorsement in 2012 even though he was still the face of the birther movement. What is different about the conservative movement, Zakaria says, is that some of its mainstream members have embraced the rhetoric and tactics of the extremes. He then noted that it was Newt Gingrich who began this shift in the 1990s by circulating a memo calling for Republicans to smear Democrats with words such as failure, pathetic, disgrace, and incompetent, all of which have been used by Trump during this current election.Zaharia then destroyed the Republican notion that President Obama is at fault for Trump s rise within the GOP and offered a better explanation: Republicans have fed the country ideas, decline, betrayal, and treason. They have encouraged the forces of anti-intellectualism, obstructionism, and populism. They have flirted with bigotry and racism. Trump merely chose to unashamedly to embrace all of it, saying plainly what they were hinting at for years. In doing so, he hit the jackpot. The problem is not that Republican leaders should have begun to condemn Trump last year, it is that they should have condemned the ideas and tactics that led to his rise when they began to flourish in the last century. Here s the video via YouTube.In other words, moderate Republicans should apologize for waiting so long to call out the extremism within their own party and now it s just a question of whether this extremism can be defeated before it is too late.Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
7,871 | U.N. Human Rights Council extends Myanmar mission until September 2018 | GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. Human Rights Council decided on Friday to extend the mandate of a fact-finding mission in the country by six months, until September 2018, as requested by the mission s leader, but over the objections of Myanmar, China and the Philippines. Myanmar s representative on the council, Hau Khan Sum, said the mission was not helpful, it is not in line with the situation on the ground and would do no good to finding a solution to Rakhine issues , referring to violence in Myanmar s Rakhine state. The council backed the resolution, which was put forward by Estonia on behalf of the European Union, without a vote. | 1 |
7,872 | Damascus rejects Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government rejects the independence referendum organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, Syria s foreign minister has said. Voting started on Monday in northern Iraq despite intense international and regional pressure to call the vote off. We in Syria only recognize a united Iraq and reject any procedure that leads to the fragmentation of Iraq, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was cited as saying by Syrian state news agency SANA. This step is rejected and we do not recognize it and yesterday I informed the Iraqi foreign minister of this stance. An assistant to the Syrian foreign minister told the pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan that what is happening in Iraq is a product of American policies that aim to fragment the region s countries and create conflict between its parts. The referendum harms Iraq and harms our Kurdish brothers, Ayman Soussan added in the comments published on Monday. The Shi ite-led government in Baghdad has maintained relations with Damascus throughout the country s war, even as other Arab states cut ties with President Bashar al-Assad s administration. Iraqi Shi ite militias have fought on Assad s side against Syrian rebels and Islamic State. The Syrian government, which is regaining territory with Iranian and Russian military backing, also opposes steps taken by Syrian Kurds towards autonomy in northern Syria since the start of the country s civil war in 2011. Kurdish-led regions in Syria held elections for community leaders on Friday, the first in a three-phase vote that will culminate in the election of a parliament and the establishment of a federal system of government. Syrian Kurds insist independence is not their aim and they want to remain part of a decentralized Syria. | 1 |
7,873 | France's Macron says euro zone needs its own budget, a finance minister | PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday reaffirmed that he wanted the euro zone to have its own budget and finance minister, adding that it was key to ensure the stability of the single currency union and to weather economic shocks. The fundamental issue at stake is not a mechanism which will magically solve all our problems, Macron said in a speech on the future of Europe. What is at stake is to reduce unemployment which affects one in five European youths. He added that his idea was not about mutualizing past debts or about trying to resolve the public finance problems of one state or another . | 1 |
7,874 | Honduras president with strong lead in TV station's election exit poll | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - An exit poll by a Honduran TV channel gave a strong lead to President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a staunch U.S. ally of the center-right National Party, after polling stations closed in the poor Central American nation s election on Sunday. The Channel 5 exit poll gave Hernandez 43.93 percent of the vote, with Salvador Nasralla, who helms a broad left-right coalition called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, trailing on 34.70 percent. The Honduras election tribunal is due to give its first official count later in the evening. | 1 |
7,875 | après le succès de mariés au premier regard m va lancer fécondées au premier regard le gorafi | keywords food packaging packaging
one of the major reasons why lots of people choose organic foods is to avoid exposure to chemicals however most of these organic foods such as beans often come in packaging which if not done well there are lots of chemicals present that can greatly interfere with the normal physiology especially if there is a wrong choice of packaging company
various types of food packaging can possibly leach compounds into your food investigate your packaging kitchen and youll observe a lot of materials to be concerned about regardless of the possibility that youre for the most part a real food type of individual you presumably have canned merchandise oats pastas and granola bars packaged in plastic bags plastic wrap and plastic storage in your washroom
most by far of food and refreshment cans which seem by all accounts to be made of metals like steel and aluminum in reality are lined with bpa bps or deplorable substitutes like polyvinyl chloride pvc which contains the known cancercausing agent vinyl chloride your canned soup soda significantly seltzer or juices are likely exposing you to bpa and different compounds youre in an ideal situation not ingesting
even packaging made of evidently amiable paper might be lined with chemicals of concern like pfass which can be found in pizza boxes and the wrapping of slick takeout food extra chemicals from flame retardants to bpa have worked their way into our paper packaging as laudable efforts to recycle paper have presented a variety of different contaminants
the environmental working group ewg has added yet another database to its arsenal of chemical data for consumers permitting the individuals who need to avoid exposure to toxins to check for bpa in their food packaging they built up the database since they contend that consumers have a right to recognize whats in their food particularly with regards to an ingredient for example bpa that has been linked to cancer infertility mind nervous system and cardiovascular abnormalities diabetes obesity and different genuine disorders theres no simple route for your average consumer to discover what their food is stuffed in and little research demonstrating the amount of these chemicals migrate into our food
a wholefood unpackaged eating regimen is your best safeguard against the chemicals in packaging also it is very important to check the reputation of the packaging company and if they are positively or negatively rated since there are such a large number of unknowns with regards to packaging your most solid option is to avoid it when conceivable proper packaging is can go a long way in ensuring that you retain the health of your body
one of the key things in making the packaging safe is by entrusting a packaging company that knows the importance of eliminating all chemicals in the food stuffs there are packaging companies that are more careful when dealing with food packaging your foods wrongly and without proper care can not only pose a risk in your health but it can ruin your name as the packaging company below are some of the ways that you can drastically reduce the harm that may arise during the food packaging at the point when conceivable avoid canned foods and beverages plastic wrap and plastic bottles instead pick a glass when you can and cook beans yourself but if you must buy look out for the reputable packaging companies accomplish your very own greater amount food preservation to lessen your exposure to packaging chemicals have a go at dehydrating some of your gardens harvest and storing it in glass containers avoid putting hot food in plastic storage containers or heating foods packaged in plastic in the microwave plastics are significantly more inclined to leach chemicals when heated experts recommend keeping plastics out of the dishwasher too
by following the above measures it can go a very long way in ensuring that you do not consume chemicals that are risky to your health
author bio karen cole is freelance writer in health beauty niche she is currently doing research about food packaging and wwwallinpackagingcouk is helping her a lot in completing the research hope you all like this post you might also like | 0 |
7,876 | The NY Daily News Has Just LITERALLY Told Ted Cruz To F*ck Off For Trashing NYC Values (IMAGE) | If there s one thing you never do in life, it s piss off a New Yorker. If there s one thing you really never do in life, it s make fun of New York City on national television telling a city of millions, a city where liberty literally stands, that it has bad values.Well, Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has now done both of those things, and needless to say, the city is pretty damn pissed. During the recent GOP debate, Cruz, tried to insult Trump by bashing New York values. He said: Donald comes from New York and he embodies New York values Everybody understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal and pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage. And focus on money and the media. Donald Trump then turned to Cruz and promptly ripped the a**hole to shreds for such a blatantly horrific remark.Trump wasn t they only one upset, here is the latest New York Daily News cover: Stop the presses! A new Page 1 DROP DEAD, TED: https://t.co/68hKgqmjBx pic.twitter.com/veDsxLYDTN New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 15, 2016The NY Daily News, alongside the Statue of Liberty offering the candidate the universal symbol for f*ck off, has instructed the Canadian-born Cruz to go back to Canada.Cruz, in his lame attempt to appeal to rural folks who are scared of the big, bad city, because people other than just folks who think like them live there, has now stepped in a monumental pile of sh*t made of his own word vomit.If Cruz needs a reminder of New York values let s give one to him.New York values embody a city that never sleeps, one that is always there, always vibrant, and always willing to take on the world, literally, it s where the UN is and where the Statue of Liberty stands. The statue that embraces all. A statue that is the very embodiment of the United States of America.New York is a city that has some of the most prestigious colleges, the best theater and art, and is home to millions of people who come from every corner of the earth.New York is a city, that when attacked in the worst domestic terror attack in the history of the nation, stood together, stood strong, never gave up on one another, and citizens literally gave their lives to save one another.THOSE are New York values, and for Cruz to trash New York City, he s showing himself as the un-American, horrible person that he truly is. Way to let your smarmy true colors shine, Ted.Featured image: Twitter | 0 |
7,877 | RACE-BAITING COP HATERS Dealt Major Blow: Baltimore Judge Finds No Evidence Of Crime Committed Against Freddie Grey | This is the second major blow today to Obama and his plans to fundamentally transform America. The first blow to Obama was today s US Supreme Court ruling against his unlawful executive amnesty proclamation. Both of these decisions are victories for Americans who are sick and tired of watching our nation being torn apart and divided by racist hate mongers, whose only goal is to build a coalition of Democrat voters A judge explained why he found a police driver not guilty in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken on the way to the station: He didn t see any evidence of a crime.Baltimore Judge Barry Williams ruled Thursday that the state failed to prove Officer Caesar Goodson committed murder, manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment or misconduct in office. There has been no evidence that this defendant intended for a crime to happen, Williams said. The state had a duty to show the defendant corruptly failed in his duty, not just made a mistake. Goodson s acquittal is the worst blow yet to efforts to hold police accountable in a case that triggered riots in the troubled city. The state s third failure to convict also casts doubt on whether any of the six indicted officers will be found guilty.Baltimore s police union president, Gene Ryan, called on State s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to reconsider her malicious prosecution, since he s certain the remaining officers also will be found without guilt.The case became a rallying cry for the growing Black Lives Matter movement and sparked more outrage nationwide over how black people are treated by police and the criminal justice system.But the case hasn t fit quite so neatly into the American narrative of white authorities imposing justice unfairly on black people. In this case, the defendant, trial judge, state s attorney and mayor are African-American; at the time of Gray s death, so was the police chief.After the verdict, Black Lives Matter activist and Baltimore native DeRay Mckesson aimed his criticism at the entire system. Today is a reminder that there is a set of laws, policies and police union contracts across the country that will protect any form of police behavior, he said.Goodson was the only one of the six officers charged in Gray s death to be accused of murder. He s the second to be found not guilty, and another officer s case ended in a mistrial.Mosby appeared crestfallen as she hurried out of the courthouse and sped away in a black SUV. When she confidently announced the charges last year, she reflected the anger of many people who saw the case as open-and-shut. Via: AP | 0 |
7,878 | WOW! TRUMP REVEALS Embarrassing Story About Anti-Trump MSNBC Hacks “Crazy Mika” and “Psycho Joe” [VIDEO] | Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016FOX News host Sean Hannity exposed the rabid liberal anti-Trump vitriol that MSNBC hacks spew daily on their show. Hannity offered to pay for therapy for one year for both of them, as a way to help them cope with Trump s presidency:Today, President Donald Trump turned his ire on MSNBC s Joe Scarborough and his fianc Mika Brzezinski once again, branding them with new nicknames and dishing embarrassing details about their relationship.Trump called Scarborough Psycho Joe on Twitter Thursday morning and labeled his co-host Brzezinski low I.Q. Crazy Mika. I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017He recalled that the television couple both wanted to join him during a New Year s Eve party at his Mar-a-lago club, but he refused. to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017Trump again insisted that he did not watch their show anymore but was told that the couple speaks badly of me. Prior to Trump s tweets, the pair sneered mockingly at Trump because of his healthcare bill and started ridiculing the president because of a fake TIME magazine cover spotted in his golf club.Brzezinski mocked the photo of the cover, calling Trump s hands teensy and said he was lying every day and destroying the country :First lady Melania Trump s office also reacted to the news. As the First Lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder, the statement from the first lady s office read.In January, news of Scarborough s visit to Trump s club leaked, prompting mockery from fellow journalists. In response, an outraged Scarborough insisted he was not there to spend time with Trump socially but wanted to set up an interview. BreitbartPaul Joseph Watson of Infowars responded brilliantly to critics of President Trump s tweet:Same media that viciously attacked Trump over his appearance (hair, hands) for 2 years is whining over Trump's tweet about Mika's appearance Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 29, 2017It's OK to lie about Melania doing porn or to mock Barron for being autistic, but don't you dare say Mika Brzezinski had a facelift. Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 29, 2017Watson also (rightly) points out in another tweet that there is more outrage from the left over Trump s tweet about the MSNBC hack team, than about the attempted massacre of Republicans only a few weeks ago:There's more outrage over Trump's Mika Brzezinski tweet than the attempted massacre of Republicans. That's not a clich . There genuinely is. Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 29, 2017 | 0 |
7,879 | Trump baffles Sweden with crime comment, says it was based on TV report | (This story corrects paragraph 8 to clarify Swedish crime trends in the February 19 story.) By Anna Ringstrom and Jeff Mason STOCKHOLM/WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - A day after falsely suggesting there was an immigration-related security incident in Sweden, President Donald Trump said on Sunday his comment was based on a television report he had seen. Trump, who in his first weeks in office has tried to tighten U.S. borders sharply for national security reasons, told a rally on Saturday that Sweden was having serious problems with immigrants. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump said. “Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” No incident occurred in Sweden and the country’s baffled government asked the U.S. State Department to explain. “My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden,” Trump said in a tweet on Sunday. Fox News, a U.S. channel that has been cited favorably by Trump, ran a report Friday about alleged migrant-related crime problems in the country. A White House spokeswoman told reporters on Sunday that Trump had been referring generally to rising crime, not a specific incident in the Scandinavian country. Sweden’s reported crime rate has risen since 2005 but the annual government survey that asks Swedes whether they have experienced any of a broad range of crimes shows that rates are roughly unchanged over the last 10 years, even as Sweden has taken in hundreds of thousands of immigrants from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq. Trump’s comment confounded Stockholm. “We are trying to get clarity,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Catarina Axelsson said. Sweden’s embassy in the United States repeated Trump’s tweet about having seen the Fox report, and added, “We look forward to informing the U.S. administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies.” Trump has been widely criticized for making assertions with little or no supporting evidence. He has said more than 3 million people voted fraudulently in the U.S. election, which officials say is false, and incorrectly stated that he won by the most decisive margin in decades. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom appeared to respond to Trump on Saturday by posting on Twitter an excerpt of a speech in which she said democracy and diplomacy “require us to respect science, facts and the media.” Her predecessor was less circumspect. “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” former Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter. Other Swedes mocked Trump by posting pictures of reindeer, meatballs and people assembling IKEA furniture. “#lastnightinsweden my son dropped his hotdog in the campfire. So sad!” Twitter user Adam Bergsveen wrote. | 1 |
7,880 | Anti-Gay Pastor Who Cheered Killing Of Pulse Victims Just Got Arrested For Child Molestation | This hypocrite just got his ass handed to him by karma.Ken Adkins is an anti-gay Christian pastor in Georgia who cheered when a gunman killed nearly 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando,Florida this past June.The nation was horrified by the mass shooting, but many so called conservative Christians were very pleased.Adkins himself wrote on Twitter that the victims deserved to be killed. I don t see none of them as victims, he wrote. I see them as getting what they deserve!! His tweet received wide condemnation but that didn t bother the 56-year-old man of God. He simply continued preaching hate to his congregations.But now karma is biting Adkins in the ass for doing something that conservative Christians often falsely accuse gay people of doing.On Friday, Adkins turned himself in to police after he was accused of molesting a child in 2010.Adkins alleged molested the victim on multiple occasions in several different locations, including the church, in his car, and at the victim s home.The charges against Adkin s are especially ironic considering what the pastor has said about LGBT anti-discrimination laws.According to the Florida Times-Union,Adkins is a controversial figure in Jacksonville politics, particularly because of comments and crude caricatures he posted on his Twitter account while he helped lead the fight against expanding Jacksonville s anti-discrimination law to cover lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.Among the criticisms that Adkins lodged was his assertion that expanding the law would make it easier for sexual predators to find victims in bathrooms.Yet, it sounds like we need stricter laws protecting children from pastors instead.Adkins isn t the only pastor to meet karmic retribution after remarks about the Pulse nightclub shooting.Pastor Steven Anderson actually called for executing gays across the country in a video in which he cheered the slaughter at Pulse.The good news is that there s 50 less pedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles, Anderson spewed. These people all should have been killed, anyway, but they should have been killed through the proper channels, as in they should have been executed by a righteous government that would have tried them, convicted them, and saw them executed. You gotta wonder when Anderson will also be arrested for child molestation someday. After all, he sure does enjoy talking about pedophilia and accusing people of committing it even though he has no proof to back up his claims.At any rate, at least we got to see him throw a fit about various companies terminating their business ties with his church. You know, because businesses generally don t want to have anything to do with bigots who support mass murder.Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 |
7,881 | (AUDIO) RACIST BLACK PANTHER LEADER: “We’re willing to kill to save a black nation.” | What is it that they don t get? Does anyone even listen to these inciters of anger and hate? This is pitiful!WARNING: Profanity/Strong Racial LanguageThis Week on the New Black Panther Party s Black Power Radio, national chairman Hashim Nzinga said since America has declared war on us, evidenced by military police in the black neighborhood protecting the rich, the New Black Panthers should be looked upon as Founding Fathers who declare war and are willing to die or kill to save our babies and to save a black nation that is dying before our eyes. Nzinga said, America is about protecting the rich and the powerful. He added, We pay taxes. They have declared war on us and it s nothing but state racism. So if we say we are at war, we should be applauded like George Washington, Nzinga continued. We should be applauded like Thomas Jefferson. We should be applauded like the Founding Fathers of the country. This is not the hate hour, this is the love hour, he added. We have to love ourselves enough to be willing to die or kill to save our babies and to save a black nation that is dying before our eyes. Via: Breitbart | 0 |
7,882 | Tanzania closes third newspaper since June as part of media crackdown | DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania shut down another newspaper on Friday - the third since June - after a warning from President John Magufuli earlier in the year that the days of newspapers his government viewed as unethical were numbered. Hassan Abbasi, the director-general of the state-run Tanzania Information Services, said in a statement that Raia Mwema, a weekly newspaper, had been banned from publishing for 90 days, starting on Friday. The independently-owned outlet was suspended, he said, after publishing an article this week saying Magufuli was destined to fail in his job and in which it attributed fabricated statements to the president. The government ... issued a lenient punishment despite the gravity of the offense because the editors admitted their mistake, he said.Tanzania suspended publication of the weekly MwanaHalisi newspaper for 24 months on Sept. 20 and banned another newspaper, Mawio, in June for a similar period.Magufuli, nicknamed The Bulldozer for his forceful leadership style, has won some praise from Western donors for an anti-corruption drive and for cutting wasteful public spending.But opponents accuse him of increasingly undermining democracy by curbing dissent and stifling free speech. | 1 |
7,883 | OBAMA’S NEW AND “IMPROVED” FBI Offers HUGE Reward For Anyone Who Can Help Frame White Cop In Black THUG Shooting | No evidence No worries Obama s got this one. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party s presidential nominee would already be in jail if King Obama wasn t stalling the investigation In case you needed more evidence that Obama s Justice Department is more interested in proving white people are racists than actually fighting crime, here it is: The FBI is offering a huge reward for anyone that can help them frame a white police officer who killed an armed black criminal in a completely justified shooting.Last week, a white Mobile, AL police officer shot and killed Michael Moore during a traffic stop. I know what you are thinking, no, not fat white liberal gasbag Michael Moore, this was black criminal Michael Moore.On June 13th, Officer Harold Hurst with the Mobile PD was on his way to work when he observed a white Lexus make a dangerous left turn into traffic, almost causing an accident. The officer pulled the vehicle over that was being driven by Michael Moore, with two additional passengers. The ID Moore gave was fake and the car was stolen.Officer Hurst called for back up and asked Moore to step out of the car. The officer observed a .40 caliber handgun in Moore s waistband and ordered him to put his hands up. Instead, Moore reached for the gun so Hurst had no choice but to shoot. On the ground, Moore was still trying to get to the gun in his pants and the officer fired another round. Moore was taken to the hospital where he died.Police recovered a gun from Moore s body and one of the passengers in the car confirmed that he had a gun on him at the time of the shooting. This is as cut-and-dry of a justifiable police shooting as you will ever find, but not everyone sees it that way. Moore s family and local black activists insist this was a murder and accuse the police of a cover up.Because any time black people complain about something, no matter how little evidence there is to support their claims, the feds come running. The FBI and the US Attorney s Office have launched an investigation based on one little weird thing.Officer Hurst was on his way to work and had yet to report for duty. As such, he didn t have his body cam on and didn t capture the deadly confrontation. The feds figure this must be evidence that the officer is lying, even though all evidence points to the events unfolding the way Hurst said they did.With no actual evidence, the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who may have recorded the shooting on a cell phone according to AL.com. Seriously? There isn t any real crime going on so the feds want to spend a big wad of cash to help them build a case against a police officer who was just doing his duty? This is pathetic.Obama s Justice Department has wasted millions upon millions of dollars trying to prove how racist America is and come up with nothing. With expensive investigations into the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric, Garner, Tamir Rice, and dozens of other black deaths yielding no fruit, the administration seems hell bent on spending as much money as possible to prove Al Sharpton is right about something.Michael Moore was driving a stolen car filled with stolen goods. He had a fake ID and a handgun, which was also stolen. A passenger in his car said Moore had the gun and made a move for it before being shot. Why are the feds even looking at this case?And let s keep in mind that this is the same FBI that didn t see a problem with Omar Mateen, the radical Islamic terrorist who killed 49 people in Orlando. Via: DownTrend | 0 |
7,884 | CLUELESS ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTERS Asked Why They Oppose Trump [Video] | Is anyone else getting sick and tired of hearing all of the baseless lies being told about Trump? There is zero evidence that Trump is a racist, yet the Left continues to spew that horrible label every chance they get. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler s public relations mastermind | 0 |
7,885 | DESPERATE PROGRESSIVES ARE LOSING IN GERMANY: Leftist Politician Stabs Himself 17 Times, Blames German Right-Wing Extremists | The rampant migrant rape and violence is shining a light on the progressive agenda and it s exposing an ugly, reckless ideology that has dominated the EU for decades. The Left is in a battle to save itself and outside of stabbing themselves 17 times and then blaming the Right, there doesn t seem to be any way out of the mess they ve created. We recently posted about German citizens demanding rapefugees and economic migrants be gunned down at the border.For many the news fitted the current image of the #Kaltland [Cold Country]. A communication that it would have been better not to have to make , published by the Schwerin local association of Die Linke [The Left, former East German Communist party] on late Tuesday evening on its Facebook page. According to this, Julian Kinzel, an 18-year-old member of the local Schwerin board was the victim of a knife attack in Wismar on Monday evening. The three perpetrators beat him down and stabbed their victim around 17 times with a knife, according to a statement from the doctor who treated him , the statement reads. In the process Kinzel was said to have been insulted as a gay communist pig . This and the clothing worn by the perpetrators that is typical of the [far-right] scene (Thor Steinar) supports the suspicion that it was a crime with a far-right motivation, said the local chairman Peter Brill.The federal Left party even said the case was one of attempted murder . We are shocked, party explained on Wednesday on Twitter. Federal managing director Matthias H hn: The current case proves in a tragic way once again how dangerous and inhuman right-wing extremism is. Dietmar Bartsch, head of the Left grouping in the federal parliament, condemned the crime in the strongest possible way and explained that the Left would not give up in its fight against right-wing extremism. Party leader Katja Kipping said: The knife attack is horrific and also an attack on democracy. Already on Wednesday the speaker of the Rostock police management board, Isabel Wenzel, described the case as somewhat nebulous. She made reference to the fact that Kinzel only filed a complaint later on Tuesday evening and not personally at a police station, but via the internet. The hospital at which the young man was treated on Monday also did not report the case to police. Via: Der TagesspeigelJulian Kinzel warned in a reaction on the Facebook page of the Schwerin Left against further [right-wing] radicalisation: Our answer to hate must be love, to stupidity, reason and to violence, solidarity. Now the police hace arranged for the student to be subjected to forensic medical examination. The investigations up to now have come to the conclusion that Kinzel invented the attack. According to a statement from the Rostock police the type of injuries do not correspond to the sequence of events that has been claimed in the attack. On the contrary, it is sufficiently probable that Kinzel inflicted the injuries himself. | 0 |
7,886 | Acting DHS chief denies White House pressured her over immigration program | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke on Friday denied reports that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly pressured her to end protections for tens of thousands of immigrants, and said she plans to remain in the Trump administration. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Kelly pressured Duke to end what is called temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the United States. The newspaper also reported that Duke has informed Kelly that she plans to resign. The New York Times later reported that Kelly “made an 11th-hour plea” to Duke that she end the protections. “The recent media reports regarding the TPS decision-making process are seriously flawed,” Duke said in a statement late on Friday evening. She said she had conversations with Kelly, the former secretary of homeland security, leading up to her decision, but that he “consistently reiterated that, as the Acting Secretary, the current decisions were mine to make and should be done in accordance with the existing law.” “At no time did he pressure me to terminate TPS for Nicaragua, Honduras or El Salvador: any reports otherwise are false,” she added. In the end, Duke extended the benefits for Honduran immigrants until July 2018, though officials said it could then be terminated. Duke decided to end the special status for Nicaraguan immigrants, however, and it will expire in January 2019. Duke said it was “a tremendous honor” to serve at DHS, and said she planned to continue in the department’s second-highest position, deputy secretary, once Kirstjen Nielsen, the nominee for DHS secretary, wins Senate confirmation. “I have no plans to go anywhere and reports to the contrary are untrue,” Duke said. Thousands from both Nicaragua and Honduras were given the special status in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America. In all, temporary protected status protects more than 300,000 people living in the United States. | 1 |
7,887 | PRESIDENT TRUMP WEIGHS Executive Order On WELFARE REFORM: If You’re an Able Bodied American Who Wants A Paycheck…Find A Job | Trump administration officials are mulling an executive order that would instruct federal agencies to review low-income assistance programs, part of a coming effort to make sweeping changes to the country s welfare system.The White House began circulating a draft order to federal agencies for comment last week, according to two administration officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.One of the officials said the draft order calls on agencies to review existing regulations and propose new rules that conform to a set of broad welfare principles, including tighter work requirements that encourage recipients to shift back into the labor force.The order also calls for streamlining or eliminating duplicative services and establishing metrics for holding agencies accountable for program performance. It also encourages greater cooperation with state and local governments. PoliticoIf Americans are serious about helping to raise up the lower and middle class in America, it must start with jobs. President Trump has made a serious commitment to keeping American companies and manufacturing in America. If the US government continues to pay people to stay home, those jobs won t be worth fighting to keep here.A study by the NBES shows a correlation between parents who are welfare dependent and their children who are more likely to also become government dependents: If parents become welfare dependents, the likelihood of their children eventually becoming welfare recipients also increases. Specifically, when parents are awarded DI, the likelihood that one of their adult children will participate in DI rises by 5 percentage points over the next five years, and 11 percentage points over the next decade. These findings suggest that a more stringent screening policy for DI benefits would not only reduce payouts to current applicants, but would also have long-run effects on participation rates and program costs. The results underscore how important accounting for intergenerational effects can be when making projections of how participation rates and program costs may be affected by program reforms.One of our favorite videos was made in the city of Detroit that shamelessly glorifies the benefits of an EBT card, a government assistance program that was initially created to provide food for low-income families. Like most other government handout programs, the card is now used like a credit card for gas and other products unrelated to food. President Trump is likely going to spur anger and hate like we haven t seen before if he pulls the plug on welfare assistance for Americans who have been trapped in a government dependancy program in exchange for votes by Democrats for generations.When generation after generation of Americans stop having the desire to earn a living, this is the result: | 0 |
7,888 | CHER HUMILIATES Democrats Over Childish Neil Gorsuch “Tantrums” In One BRUTAL Tweet | DEMS,The Merrick Garland SHIP HAS SAILED Let It Go OR .Do You Want Some To Go With Your WHINE This Tantrum Wreaks Of Desperation Cher (@cher) April 4, 2017Don t be fooled by Cher s tweet to Democrats in Congress. She s not planning to switch parties anytime soon. Only 3 days ago, Cher warned her followers that if they don t act now (We re assuming she means acting against the evil Donald Trump and the horrible human beings who ve bought into his Make America Great Again mantra) it will be the end of America and the end of the world:WATCHING ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN . ADMINISTRATION X SMORE TREACHEROUS,FRAUDULENT, DUPLICITOUS,HORRIFYING IF WE DONT ACT, WILL END OF & Cher (@cher) April 1, 2017 | 0 |
7,889 | Democrats seek FBI probe of allegations Russia seeking to influence U.S. vote | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in Congress, including party Senate leader Harry Reid, asked the FBI to investigate concerns that the Russian government may be attempting to undermine the U.S. presidential election through cyber attacks that could include tampering with voting results. “The prospect of a hostile government actively seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War,” Reid said in a letter to FBI Director James Comey. Reid’s letter, dated Saturday, was first obtained by The New York Times and shared on its website on Monday. It was followed on Tuesday by a letter from four Democrats asking Comey to assess whether campaign officials working for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may be colluding with Russian interests to carry out recent hacks against the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in order to “interfere with the U.S. presidential election.” That letter was signed by Representatives Elijah Cummings, John Conyers, Elliot Engel and Bennie Thompson, each of whom serves as the top Democrat on a different congressional committee. Republicans control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Comey, speaking at a cyber security conference on Tuesday, declined to give details about what the Federal Bureau of Investigation was probing in connection with the political hacking but indicated the agency was closely watching what foreign countries are doing. “We take very seriously any effort by any actor, ... especially nation states, that moves beyond the collection of information ... and offers the prospect of an effort to influence the conduct of affairs in our country, whether that is an election or something else,” he said. The two letters follow a spate of hacking attacks targeting U.S. political databases, including some that officials and cyber security experts have blamed on hackers working for the Russian government. Kremlin officials have denied that. The FBI examined breaches in voter registration databases in Illinois and Arizona but did not specify who might have been behind it. Reid said that the threat of Russian government tampering in the election was “more extensive than widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results.” He also voiced concerns about possible Russian government efforts to manipulate Trump’s campaign ahead of the Nov. 8 election, and to use it as a vehicle to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. | 1 |
7,890 | Blast hits Afghan capital Kabul, numerous casualties | KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in the Afghan capital Kabul killed as many as eight people and wounded many others, most of whom appeared to be workers leaving their offices at the start of the evening rush hour, witnesses and officials said on Tuesday. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in Wazir Akbar Khan, a heavily fortified area of the city which houses numerous foreign embassies and government buildings. A Reuters television team counted eight people who appeared to have been killed, besides several wounded at the scene, which was shrouded in smoke from the explosion. All the casualties appeared to be Afghan civilians. A public health official said three dead and 15 wounded had been taken to city hospitals but a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least seven people had been killed and 21 wounded. The scene of the attack was covered in smoke and dust but I saw seven or eight vehicles loaded with dead and injured people coming out of the area, said Ali Nazari, the manager of a nearby travel agency. The explosion came at a time of heightened security in Kabul following a series of attacks in October, including one on a Shi ite mosque in the city that killed more than 50 people and a separate attack on an army training facility that killed at least 15 soldiers. Security had already been stepped up considerably following a devastating truck bomb attack outside the German embassy on May 31 that killed at least 150 people, with a series of barriers and checkpoints across the central area of the city. But a Kabul police spokesman said the blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber on foot. The target of the attack was not immediately clear but as well as foreign embassies, the area contains a defense ministry department dealing with foreign relations and several private businesses, including a barber and a travel agency. Afghan and Western security officials have said in recent days that they expected more attacks in Kabul in response to pressure being exerted on the Taliban and other insurgent groups by increased U.S. air strikes. In recent months, the U.S. has stepped up its campaign of air strikes as part of a new strategy aimed at reversing gains made by the Taliban and forcing the insurgents to seek peace talks with the Afghan government. Western officials say the campaign has inflicted significant casualties on Taliban fighters in the provinces but say the battlefield losses may push the insurgents to attack Kabul and other high profile targets. | 1 |
7,891 | California sues Trump administration over sanctuary policy | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday over federal restrictions on some law enforcement grants to so-called sanctuary cities, continuing a legal counterattack by Democrats against President Donald Trump’s administration. The city of San Francisco also filed its own lawsuit against the Justice Department late last week, saying the federal government has improperly sought to force local jurisdictions to enforce national immigration law by imposing funding conditions. President Donald Trump issued a broad executive order in January targeting wide swaths of federal funding for cities that generally offer illegal immigrants safe harbor by declining to use municipal resources to enforce federal immigration laws. However, a San Francisco judge drastically limited the scope of that policy in a previous lawsuit filed by the city. The Justice Department then sought to impose conditions on a national grant for local law enforcement that mandates access to local jails for federal immigration officials, as well as 48 hours notice before releasing anyone wanted for immigration violations. California’s lawsuit opposing those conditions, as well as San Francisco’s case, is similar to a legal challenge filed last week by the city of Chicago. In a statement on Monday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state, not the federal government, is best suited to determine how best to allocate its law enforcement resources. “When President Trump threatened to defund our local law enforcement’s ability to do its job and protect our people, he picked the wrong fight,” Becerra said. A Justice Department spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The Trump administration contends that local authorities endanger public safety when they decline to hand over for deportation illegal immigrants arrested for crimes. California receives about $28 million a year in federal law enforcement funding that would be subject to the new conditions, the state said in its lawsuit. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Monday said San Francisco receives about $1.4 million in such funds. Immigration enforcement is the federal government’s job, he said. “We’re not stopping them,” Herrera said. “But our police and deputies are focused on fighting crime, not breaking up hard-working families.” | 1 |
7,892 | Obama administration urges Congress to act on Puerto Rico crisis | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration urged Congress to pass legislation to help Puerto Rico resolve a debt crisis which was expected to trigger a bond default on Monday. “Congress has yet to produce a workable legislative response,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a letter to Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. “Congress must work quickly to resolve the few outstanding issues on the proposed legislation to help Puerto Rico.” | 1 |
7,893 | Ugandan opposition leader held on murder charge after protests | KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda s main opposition leader was arrested and charged with murder, police said on Friday, after they broke up a rally organized to protest moves to extend President Yoweri Museveni s rule. Kizza Besigye, who has contested and lost four elections against long-time leader Museveni, was detained on Thursday. Police blamed Besigye for the deaths of two protesters during Wednesday s rally, in which officers fired bullets and teargas during clashes with government opponents. Besigye and his colleagues led these youths who stoned police and caused deaths, police spokesman Denis Namuwoza told Reuters. Wednesday s clash in Rukungiri near the Rwandan border was one of several violent anti-Museveni protests that have spread across Uganda since the president last week for the first time openly expressed support for proposed legislation aimed at allowing him to stay in power. In office for more than three decades, 73-year-old Museveni would be barred from running again in the next election in 2021 by a law that caps the age of presidential candidates at 75. The proposed legislation would remove that age ceiling. Besigye, Museveni s former physician during the guerrilla struggle that brought him to power in 1986, has claimed the four elections the pair contested were all rigged - something Museveni has denied. The president has been a staunch western ally widely seen as an anchor of stability in East Africa s often volatile Great Lakes region. He has deployed troops in Somalia to help fight Islamist group al Shabaab, earnings plaudits from his western backers. HEAVY-HANDED TACTICS Besigye was arrested near the Rwandan border on Thursday, along with two other senior officials of his opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). Police spokesman Namuwoza said they had been charged with murder, assault, inciting violence and unlawful assembly, and transferred to a prison near the capital Kampala. There was no immediate reaction to the arrests from Uganda s opposition. The proposed new law is widely seen by critics as paving the way for Museveni to rule for life. Similar moves in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi have spurred unrest. Civil society organizations accused of helping rally support against extending Museveni s rule have had their premises raided, offices searched and equipment confiscated. Two of them, Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS), a think tank, and ActionAid, a South Africa-based international charity, have had their bank accounts frozen on police orders. In a statement on Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Kampala criticized what it called heavy-handed tactics of security forces which it said harmed democracy. Government must protect people s rights of assembly and expression, it said. | 1 |
7,894 | GOP Senator Has Shockingly Irresponsible Response To News Of Russia’s Election Meddling (TWEET) | The Washington Post dropped a bombshell intelligence revelation on us all on Friday: Russia wanted Donald Trump to be president, and they spent the entire election cycle doing all they could to get him elected. Now, no matter which candidate the Kremlin wanted in office, every American, regardless of political leanings, should be very alarmed that a hostile foreign power had its hands in our democratic process. However, one GOP Senator, John Cornyn (R-TX) seems to think that since it was his candidate that Vladimir Putin and his thugs successfully got into office, this story is much ado about nothing. Cornyn tweeted:All this "news" of Russian hacking: it has been going on for years. Serious, but hardly news JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 10, 2016No, Senator Cornyn, this is DEFINITELY news. It just so happens that it is news that you didn t want the American people to know. Essentially, your guy got into office with the help of Putin and the Kremlin, and you guys seem to be just fine with that for whatever reason. You should NOT be fine with it, as Russia is no friend to the United States of America. We all know this. However, your boy Trump is in love with Putin, so suddenly the most anti-Russia Republicans are A-OK with the Kremlin meddling in our elections. The ends justify the means, right?You guys need to wake the hell up. We literally are about to have Putin running America, and you don t think that s news? If not, it s time for you, sir, to find a new job.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
7,895 | U.S. confident Brazil can meet political, economic challenges: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Obama is optimistic about Brazil’s ability to meet political and economic challenges in the wake of a recent International Monetary Fund assessment, the White House said on Tuesday. “The United States and President Obama himself have confidence in the durability of the Brazilian democracy to weather those challenges,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. | 1 |
7,896 | Trump discusses safe zones in Syria with Jordan's king: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump discussed with Jordan’s King Abdullah the possibility of establishing safe zones in Syria, the White House said on Thursday. Trump met with King Abdullah briefly in Washington on Thursday morning, the White House said in a statement. Trump said last week he would establish safe zones in Syria for refugees fleeing violence in the war-torn country. | 1 |
7,897 | Lisa Bloom Has FRIGHTENING Warning For The Future Of Roe V. Wade Under Trump (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is a misogynist. We all know that. Now, he and his GOP cronies have the bully pulpit of the federal government from which to systematically dismantle women s right. Of course, this means that the all-important Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which guarantees the right to choose what to do with one s own body, is at grave risk right now.Ohio has already passed a so-called heartbeat bill, in which abortions would be banned should the doctor be able to detect a fetal heartbeat. This can often happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy before many women even know they are pregnant. There are no exceptions in this bill for victims of rape and incest, either.Now, women s civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom is sounding the alarm about just how much trouble we as women could be in under Trump with regards to reproductive care. Bloom says we are in, quote, Code Red territory on this one. Here is the video of her appearance on MSNBC s AM Joy regarding this dangerous eventuality:.@LISABLOOM: It's CODE RED in terms of our need to fight to protect women's rights now #heartbeatbill #AMJoy https://t.co/CB5JQsDzJG AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) December 11, 2016My fellow women and our awesome allies, the time to fight back is NOW. We cannot afford to be afraid to speak out. We cannot afford to sit on our thumbs. Women s rights are about to be rolled back 100 years under the misogynistic leadership of the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Hopefully, Democrats in the Senate do just what the GOP did to President Obama, and refuse to confirm any judges that do not respect a woman s right to choose. We can also hope that Republican women who are appalled at the treatment of rape and incest victims refuse to confirm these judges as well.We are mightier as a people than these bullies in the federal government. This was a fight that we thought was over, but it is only just beginning. Keep fighting, for the lives of women and girls everywhere depend upon it.Featured image via screen capture from Twitter | 0 |
7,898 | Sarah Palin says husband still in intensive care after accident | (Reuters) - Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Thursday that her husband, who was seriously injured in a snowmobile accident, was still in a hospital intensive care unit after surgery. Todd Palin, 51, had the surgery at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, Alaska, to repair “numerous breaks” in his upper body, Palin said on her Facebook page. “Docs essentially lifted and secured every rib with steel bands, anchored the broken clavicle with plates and rods, set aside repair of a broken shoulder for later,” she said. Todd Palin was in the accident earlier this week, prompting his wife to cut short a campaign trip for Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.Palin was Republican Senator John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election won by Democrat Barack Obama. | 1 |
7,899 | Venezuela's Maduro says 'terrorists' stole weapons from military unit | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan leftist President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that terrorists had broken into a National Guard unit over the weekend and stolen weapons, the latest sign of volatility in the oil-rich country convulsed by a profound economic crisis. Oscar Perez, a rogue Venezuelan police pilot wanted for lobbing grenades and shooting at government buildings in June, claimed responsibility for the attack, which he called Operation Genesis. A video posted on Perez s YouTube account shows armed, masked men taking control of military barracks under cover of night. They smash photos of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, handcuff around a dozen soldiers and berate them for supporting dictatorship in Venezuela. You yourselves are dying of hunger. Why have you not done anything, given you have weapons? Why do you keep protecting these drug-trafficking dictators? the assailants shout at gagged soldiers crouching on the floor of what appears to be a bathroom. Soon we ll win the war ... so that Venezuela can be free, says Perez, under the cover of a black balaclava. His Twitter account later posted a purported summary by authorities of the attack. The summary says some 49 armed men stole around 26 Kalashnikov AK-103 s and over 3,000 munitions for the rifles, as well as pistols, in Miranda state near Caracas during the early hours of Monday. Reuters was not able to independently confirm details of the attack. The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. An action film star who portrays himself as a James Bond cum-Rambo figure on social media, Perez has added surreal twists to Venezuela s long-running political drama. He rose to fame in June after hijacking a police helicopter flying over Caracas center. He fired shots at and lobbed grenades on the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Court to fight what he said was a tyrannical government. He went into hiding after the attack, only to pop up two weeks later at an opposition vigil for anti-government protesters killed during demonstrations that rocked the country earlier this year. Perez s latest offensive highlights instability in Venezuela, an OPEC member state heaving under malnutrition, disease and the world s steepest inflation rate. The opposition has long appealed to the military, historically a powerbroker in Venezuela, for help. Maduro on Tuesday denounced the attackers, whom he did not name, as terrorists sent by his ideological enemy the United States. Wherever they appear, I ve told the armed forces: Fire at the terrorist groups! he said during a speech on state television, as he blamed opposition groups in Miami for orchestrating the raid. Do these people think they can attack a unit of the armed forces to steal some guns and threaten democracy and that that s going to be tolerated? Zero tolerance! Maduro said. The military has played a key role in government since Chavez - himself a former military officer - took office in 1999 promising to bring greater equality to Venezuela, home to the world s largest oil reserves. The top brass continues to publicly profess loyalty to Maduro s government. Critics say juicy government contracts, corruption and contraband mean that many military officials want Maduro to stay in office and fear persecution should the opposition take power. Discontent is higher among lower-tier officials, who are often sent to control rowdy protests and are paid the equivalent of just a handful of U.S. dollars a month. | 1 |
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