Unnamed: 0 int64 | title string | text string | label int64 |
|---|---|---|---|
8,600 | Freedom or 'fool's errand'? D.C. to vote on statehood referendum | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-frustrated backers of statehood for the District of Columbia are pinning their hopes on a first-ever referendum on Tuesday in a long-shot bid to become the 51st U.S. state. Invoking the colonial-era demand of “no taxation without representation,” supporters say becoming a state would end Washingtonians’ status as second-class citizens because they lack representation in Congress. But opponents dismiss the referendum as a “fool’s errand” destined to fail because of partisan political hurdles and the need to amend the U.S. Constitution, a procedure accomplished only 17 times since 1789. The District of Columbia was carved out to serve as the nation’s capital, but it is not a state. Its 672,000 residents have no voting representative in the Senate or House of Representatives although they pay federal taxes, though they do have a delegate in the House. A “yes” vote could help pressure the new Congress and president - either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump - to admit the District of Columbia as a new state, though even advocates admit that is unlikely anytime soon. A “yes” vote would simply be an expression of public support for statehood, a non-binding measure without any legal force. “Statehood’s the only way that we can have the same rights and responsibilities as all the other citizens of the United States,” District of Columbia Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said. The overwhelmingly Democratic capital city was fed up with Republican lawmakers espousing the rights of states and cities to self-governance and then interfering with local issues such as abortion and marijuana legalization, Mendelson said. “That’s so antithetical to democratic principles, but that doesn’t seem to bother some of these folks,” he said. The referendum seeks to upend the Constitution’s provision giving Congress legislative control over the District of Columbia. Voters will cast a single “yes” or “no” vote on the referendum’s four parts: admission as a state, its boundaries, approval of a constitution, and guarantees of a representative form of government. The new state would embrace the current 68-square-mile (176-square-km) district except for a core of federal property around the White House, Capitol and monument-rich National Mall. The District Council approved the referendum unanimously, and a Washington Post poll in November 2015 showed 67 percent of residents backed statehood. The Democratic Party’s national platform also supports the idea. “If you’re not part of a state, large parts of the constitution don’t apply to you,” said statehood advocate Ann Loikow. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other statehood backers took the vote’s design from the successful bid in the 1790s by Tennessee, then a federal territory, to become a state through a referendum and petition to Congress. Supporters and skeptics say that even if the referendum passes it would face a dead end in Congress, where Republicans would oppose statehood since it would add Democratic senators and a representative to Congress. Besides the political obstacles, Roger Pilon, a constitutional scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, called the statehood quest a “fool’s errand” because of constitutional obstacles. For the District to become a state, Congress would have to propose an amendment to the Constitution, which would then have to win a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House. Even if an amendment could win approval in both houses of Congress, it would face another big hurdle: approval by the legislatures of at least three-fourths of the 50 states. Washingtonians have tried to achieve statehood before, but never by an up-or-down referendum. Congress ignored a statehood petition that included a constitution voters ratified in the 1980s. The House of Representatives rejected a statehood bill in 1993, and it failed to reach a Senate vote. A constitutional amendment for voting rights in Congress fizzled in the 1980s. | 1 |
8,601 | DNC Hilariously Matches Republican Voters With Candidates In Parody Dating Site Ad (VIDEO) | Are you a Republican? Are you tired of trying to figure out which GOP candidate to vote for? Well, you re in luck because the DNC can totally help you out.The Democratic National Committee created a parody commercial for a dating site service that matches conservative voters with the Republican candidate that best completes them.That s right. Conservative voters can find their political soulmate on gopHarmony.The ad features a bunch of happy young men and women who are using gopHarmony satisfactorily, complete with testimonials. I m still looking for that perfect match. Someone who hates Obamacare just as much as I do! one woman claims.A man named Dr. Love then appears to comfort conservatives that the site is here to finally help them find a GOP candidate who is just as out of touch with reality as you are. I wanted to find my match easily without the constant disappointment, another woman says. I also don t want to let Mexicans and Muslims into the country. A male gopHarmony user then says he has no idea how the economy works, but that s okay because neither does anyone else on gopHarmony.The ad then lays out the metrics used to determine potential matches, including fear, being too thirsty, misogyny, xenophobia, climate denial, refusal to compromise, watching Fox & Friends unironically, hatred of unions and workers, being allergic to facts, attempting to repeal Obamacare, NRA score, and shutting down the government among many others. If you re the kind of person that other people don t like being around, then gopHarmony is perfect, Dr. Love declares before concluding by asking viewers to please clap, a clear dig at Republican presidential wannabe Jeb Bush.Here s the hilarious video via YouTube:This video was a perfect shot at the Republicans by the DNC. Of course, the video didn t paint an entirely accurate picture of the GOP. After all, there was way too much diversity in it. That s also something conservatives hate. Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
8,602 | Immigrants in Central Florida nervous about seeking shelter | APOPKA, Fla. (Reuters) - With Hurricane Irma barreling down on Central Florida, Apopka resident Carmen Nova had a decision to make. A Mexican immigrant living in the country illegally, she knew her mobile home was at risk in the storm. But the 30-year-old mother of three also knew that seeking protection could pose its own hazards. In a time of increasing public sentiment against illegal immigration, undocumented immigrants like Nova are nervous about reporting to authorities, even if it is to take refuge from a hurricane. There s an internal storm, there s an external storm, and there s a political storm, and they re all targeting this community, said Sister Ann Kendrick, a Roman Catholic nun, community organizer and immigrant rights advocate. They re getting hammered, said Kendrick, who has worked hard in advance of the hurricane to convince undocumented immigrants that it is safer to take shelter than to remain in less-than-sturdy homes. Like other counties in Florida, Apopka s Orange County issued an evacuation order for people living in mobile homes, which are also known as manufactured homes and are a popular housing choice for immigrants. Fears among immigrants in the area were heightened in recent days after the sheriff in neighboring Polk County pledged to check criminal records of people seeking shelter. Although the statement did not mention immigration status and officials later clarified that undocumented immigrants would not be targeted, the warning nevertheless reverberated in migrant communities. In Apopka, a town of about 50,000 people outside Orlando, Kendrick had plenty of work to do in advance of the storm. The area s undocumented immigrants historically came to the area to work on farms but in more recent years have shifted to construction, landscaping and housekeeping. Tirso Moreno, leader of the Apopka-based Farmworker Association of Florida, said the Polk County warning had an impact in Orange County. It scared people, said Moreno, who also spread the word with immigrants that they must take shelter. Moreno said he was not convinced that all the undocumented workers he spoke with would take his advice, saying some were likely to wait out the storm in their mobile homes. The big problem is that many of them don t have enough information, although it s better than it used to be now that we have more Spanish-language media, Moreno said. Kendrick said she fielded calls throughout the day on Friday from undocumented immigrants who wondered if it was safe to report to shelters. About 50 people, including several undocumented families, were waiting in line outside a shelter at Apopka High School when it opened at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Kendrick said. They trust the schools, and they trust us, so if we tell them it s safe, they re coming, Kendrick said. Nova, who cleans houses for a $15 an hour while her husband works as a landscaper for $12 an hour, was among those who decided to seek shelter, saying she would put her fate in God s hands. If they ask for papers, I don t have them, Nova said from her mobile home with boarded up windows as she prepared her family to move to the shelter. The authorities will have to do what they have to do. I am not going to live in fear. | 1 |
8,603 | Trump picks financier Scaramucci to head White House communications: official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump picked Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, a long-time supporter, to be his White House communications director on Friday, a White House official said. Currently at the Export-Import Bank, Scaramucci is expected to start his new job in August, the official said. No other changes were immediately expected in a communications operation that includes press secretary Sean Spicer and his deputy, Sarah Sanders, the official said. The appointment comes as the White House deals with questions around a special counsel probe and several congressional investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion with Trump’s campaign. The communications position has been vacant since Michael Dubke resigned in May as communications director. Spicer has been serving a dual role as press secretary and communications director since Dubke left. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Scaramucci was interviewed by Trump on Friday morning and the job had been offered and accepted. Scaramucci, a Republican fundraiser and founder of Skybridge Capital, was earlier offered the post of U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. | 1 |
8,604 | why you should drink carrot juice daily how to make your own | keywords better tasting food gmos homestead homesteading
if you clicked a link that got you to this page you cant pretend that you are not interested in homesteading any longer im not sure if you are afraid of the effort afraid that you wont know what to do or what you are afraid of but its time to get up and get going
i have been homesteading for over years and wouldnt change it for anything in the world my husband and i have made many mistakes along the way but we have never been afraid to put in the hard work to get any job done for all our hard work we have become one of the rare profitable homesteads that are more than just surviving
we all have our own reasons that we want to try homesteading so dont base yours off of mine i am just hoping to spark some interest to get you off your feet so you can make your dream become a reality i provide healthy food for my family
we are not vegan vegetarian of allergic to gluten but we are completely aware of what we are putting into our bodies i just dont like to buy vegetables from the grocery store that have been produced chemically i also dont like to buy meat that was fed all sorts of things that i dont know about
everything that i put on my kitchen table to feed my family has been grown or produced by me or someone i know i know that the corn we ate last night was grown using some organic soil water and a little alpaca poop for good measure the pork also came from our farm and i know about everything that pig ate in his very happy two years of life
im not saying that we are the healthiest family in the world but i know we arent eating chemicals that is what matters to me and my husband the food tastes so much better
the food that we produce on our homestead is so much better that the food you are purchasing at the grocery store the truth is that they are looking to produce as much perfect looking food as they can as fast as they can they dont want to grow the strands of produce that take a little longer but taste exponentially better
the meat also takes better because you arent rushing that either not to mention the fact that you are feeding the animals with healthier and better tasting food when you slaughter the food yourself it will taste better as well animals that are stressed when they get slaughtered produce meat that is much tougher that meat that we produce here on the homestead freedom
not many people can say that they have complete freedom to do what they please during the day now that doesnt mean that we dont have responsibilities but we can take an hour off in the middle of the day to attend the elementary school winter concert we can also take those doctor appointments in the middle of the day when the office isnt insane
if you want to get freedom over your own life start homesteading today we have economic security
if the economy crashes we are not in risk of going without anything that we really need we dont rely on anyone for any of the basic necessities including a source of income we have everything that we need in order to survive right here on the homestead there isnt much that can go wrong with the government that could put us at risk
i am not an apocalypse prepper but i will say that homesteaders are more prepared should a disaster occur we have more knowledge and experience in all of the tasks needed in an extreme survival situation than most people i know our kids understand the meaning of hard work
im not saying that your kids dont understand the meaning of hard work but my kids have been there and done that my nine year old wakes up two hours before school and takes care of the chickens every day those chickens are completely her responsibility and she know that
i do allow my kids to use electronics during down time they just know the difference between down time and chore time they feel like they are part of the team so it doesnt feel like we are making them do chores every day you might also like | 0 |
8,605 | Iraq PM Abadi expects Islamic State's complete defeat in Iraq this year | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State will be completely defeated in Iraq this year, Iraqi state television quoted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as saying on Tuesday. Islamic State s cross-border caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group s de facto capital in Iraq, after a nine-month battle. The group s last territory in Iraq is now a stretch skirting the western border with Syria following the fall of the town of Hawija and surrounding areas on Oct. 5 in an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. | 1 |
8,606 | Quarter of Republicans think Cruz's birthplace disqualifies him for president: poll | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A quarter of Republicans think White House hopeful Ted Cruz is disqualified to serve as U.S. president because he was born in Canada to an American mother, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified. Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta, has brushed aside the attacks about his eligibility as pure politics. But the questions could hamper his ability to rally the broad Republican support he would need to win the party’s nomination to run for the presidency in November’s election. Only 47 percent of all voters surveyed responded that they thought Cruz is qualified to be president with regard to his citizenship, with 26 percent saying they were not sure. The poll was taken from Jan. 7 to Jan. 14, before questions about Cruz’s eligibility became one of the most heated moments of Thursday night’s Republican primary debate. New York businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has made questions about Cruz’s eligibility a regular attack line on the campaign trail and the debate stage. “I already know the Democrats are going to be bringing a suit. You have a big lawsuit over your head while you’re running, and if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office?” Trump said during Thursday night’s debate. “So you should go out, get a declaratory judgment, let the courts decide.” But Cruz tried to use Trump’s own previous words against him in response. “Back in September, my friend Donald said that he had his lawyers look at this from every which way and there was nothing to do this,” Cruz said. “Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have.” Trump became a conservative darling in 2011 when he repeatedly questioned President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president, insisting that the president may have been born in another country and demanding to see his birth certificate. Obama was born in Hawaii. It made Trump one of the most well-known “birthers,” a term used to describe those who insisted Obama had been born elsewhere. The constitutional issue at question is the requirement that a president be a “natural born” citizen. Cruz, 45, has argued that because he became a citizen at the time he was born, that makes him qualify as natural born. But his opponents argue that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, natural born would have required being born on American soil. U.S. Senator John McCain, who ran as the Republican nominee in 2008, was born in Panama, but argued he met the requirement because his birth took place on a U.S. military installation, which is the same as American soil. The poll, which has a confidence interval of 5 percentage points, posed two questions to two separate polls of voters. One group was asked about Cruz’s eligibility. The other half was asked a generic question about the eligibility of anyone born in Canada with an American parent. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson and Chris Kahn; editing by Grant McCool) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 1 |
8,607 | Kenyan president, election overturned by court, attacks judiciary | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday the country had a problem with its judiciary, which annulled his election win of last month, and we must fix it . The Law Society of Kenya said in a strongly worded statement that Kenyatta, as the head of state who under the constitution is a symbol of national unity , should refrain from derogatory comments about the judiciary. Kenyatta, speaking a day after the Supreme Court canceled his victory and ordered new polls within 60 days, repeated his message from Friday that he would respect its ruling. But, speaking on live television at the State House in Nairobi after meeting elected officials from his Jubilee party, he added Who even elected you?...We have a problem and we must fix it. He did not elaborate. The decision to annul the election was unexpected and unprecedented in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges. The president s latest comments mark the second time since Friday s ruling that he has criticized the judiciary in public. On Friday, during an impromptu rally in Nairobi, he accused the court of ignoring the will of the people and dismissed the chief justice s colleagues as wakora , or crooks. The lawyers association condemned Kenyatta s use of the Kiswahili word, saying that the judges serving in the highest court had acted professionally, with honor and dignity . They...do not deserve the disrespectful treatment they are being shown , the statement read. The president s appearances since the ruling suggest he intends to campaign rigorously for the re-run of the Aug.8 poll. He said via Twitter on Saturday: For now let us meet at the ballot. Attention now turns back to the election board. The court ruled that it had failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution . Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader whose coalition brought the petition against the election board to the Supreme Court, said on Friday that some officials from the commission should face criminal prosecution. The chairman of the election board said there would be personnel changes, but it was not clear if that would be enough for the opposition. Sweeping out the whole board would complicate efforts to hold a new poll within two months. Last month s election which included the presidential poll in addition to races at other levels of government was one of the most expensive ever held in Africa. Ahead of the vote Kenya s treasury said preparation and conduct of polling would cost the equivalent of around $480 million. Analysts saw the president s latest comments on the judiciary as a worrisome development. It s extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be issuing veiled threats at the judiciary, said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group. This was a tremendous moment for Kenyan democracy, where the court upheld the rule of law. Politicians should be careful not to incite the public against the judiciary. On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Supreme Court s verdict was backed by four of the six judges and declared Kenyatta s victory invalid, null and void . Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days. Prior to last month s election Maraga spoke out to emphasize the judiciary s independence. In a statement he read out on behalf of the Judicial Service Commission less than a week before the election, he listed instances in which politicians from the ruling party and the opposition had tried to intervene in the judiciary s work. The emerging culture of public lynching of judges and judicial officers by the political class is a vile affront to the rule of law and must be fiercely resisted, the statement read. We wish to state that ... the judiciary will not cower to these intimidating tactics. Kenya s judiciary went through sweeping changes in a bid to restore confidence in the legal system after the bloodshed following the 2007 election. Experts say the constitution adopted in 2010 enshrines protections for the judiciary against interference by the executive. | 1 |
8,608 | Pence not offended by comments to him at 'Hamilton' show | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on Sunday he was not offended by rare and pointed comments made to him by a cast member of “Hamilton” after he attended the hit Broadway show. “I wasn’t offended,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday,” declining to ask for an apology as President-elect Donald Trump had demanded. Pence acknowledged that many Americans were disappointed and anxious after Trump’s surprise Nov. 8 election victory following a raucous campaign, but he sought to reassure Americans that Trump would be a president “for all Americans.” After the show on Friday evening, Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays America’s third vice president, Aaron Burr, read a statement directed at Pence, who was in the audience, while standing in front of the cast in full costume. “We, sir - we - are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” Dixon said. Pence sought to address Dixon’s concerns, telling CBS in a separate interview that Trump has “a great heart. He’s got heart for the American people” and wanted to reassure “anyone, including the actor who spoke that night, that President-elect Donald Trump is going to be president of all the people.” Trump criticized the cast in a series of tweets on Saturday and again on Sunday. “The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, taking time out from his search for appointees to his incoming administration. “Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!” Pence praised the hit show and urged people to see it. Trump called the sold-out show “highly overrated” Sunday. Pence noted that there were some boos and cheers when he arrived at the theater. He recalled telling his family of the response: “That’s what freedom sounds like.” “Hamilton” is a hip-hop-infused musical that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, a penniless immigrant who rose to become the right-hand man of General George Washington, as well as a key figure in the creation of the U.S. financial system and the creator of the U.S. Coast Guard. He was killed in an 1804 duel with Burr. | 1 |
8,609 | Senators want probe of Allergan transfer deal with tribe: letter | (Reuters) - Four U.S. senators have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into a deal drugmaker Allergan Plc (AGN.N) struck with a Native American tribe to protect some of its patents from generic challenge, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Democrats Maggie Hassan, Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Richard Blumenthal in the letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday called Allergan’s deal “a blatantly anti-competitive attempt to shield its patents from review and keep drug prices high.” Allergan said on Sept. 8 that it was transferring patents on its dry eye medication Restasis to upstate New York’s Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which agreed to exclusively license them back to the company in exchange for ongoing payments. Allergan said in an emailed response to a Reuters request for comment that it met last week with the staffs of Senators Brown and Hassan to provide detailed briefings on the agreement. “We would welcome the opportunity to provide additional briefings for these Senators, as well as the opportunity to brief Senators Casey and Blumenthal, and answer any questions they may have,” Allergan said in the email. The tribe and company have said that the tribe’s sovereign status shields the patents from review by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative court empowered to invalidate patents. On Friday, the tribe asserted this immunity in an ongoing administrative proceeding brought by generic drugmakers led by Mylan NV (MYL.O), which are seeking to invalidate Allergan’s patents to introduce cheaper versions of Restasis to the market. Mylan has called Allergan’s deal with the tribe a “sham transaction” and said the tribe should not be allowed to invoke immunity to prevent administrative review. Some patent lawyers have noted that the patent board has recognized the immunity of state entities like public universities, and tribal immunity is considered to be an even stronger shield. Generic drug companies often seek to challenge brand-name drug patents through administrative proceedings, which are cheaper and faster than federal court litigation. Allergan has said it would not invoke the tribe’s immunity in federal court. | 1 |
8,610 | Trump says suspected gunman who shot at lawmakers is now dead | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the suspected gunman who opened fire on Republican lawmakers on Wednesday had died from injuries he received during the shooting. “The assailant has now died from his injuries,” Trump announced from the White House. | 1 |
8,611 | U.S. companies sign billions in deals with Vietnam | WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. companies signed business deals with Vietnam worth over $8 billion on Wednesday, including power projects and jet engines from General Electric Co (GE.N) and diesel generator technology from Caterpillar (CAT.N), the Commerce Department said. The 13 deals were announced as Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with U.S. President Donald Trump as part of a three-day, trade-focused trip to the United States. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has pledged to shrink U.S. trade deficits, said the transactions would include $3.4 billion in U.S. produced content that would support 23,000 jobs. But the Trump administration still wants more work from Vietnam to bring down a rapidly growing $32 billion trade surplus with the United States, said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I heard from U.S. officials ahead of the trip that just signing deals with U.S. companies was nice but not enough,” Hiebert said. GE said on Wednesday it had signed deals in Vietnam worth about $5.58 billion for power generation, aircraft engines and services, its largest single combined sale with the country in GE’s history. GE’s agreement with Vietjet Aviation JSC VJC.HM includes 20 jet engines made by CFM International, a joint venture of GE and Safran SA (SAF.PA) of France. It also includes a 12-year engine service contract for 215 LEAP-1B engines on 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that Vietjet has ordered, GE said. GE’s power unit signed a memorandum of understanding to build two 750-megawatt gas fired turbine power plants in conjunction with state energy group PetroVietnam, using the Blue Whale gas field. GE also signed a joint development agreement to erect an 800-megawatt wind power facility. Partners in the agreement are Phu Cuong Group and International Mainstream Renewable Power, GE said. Honeywell (HON.N) also signed a $100 million deal to supply VietJet with 98 auxiliary power units for the airline’s new fleet of Airbus (AIR.PA) A320 aircraft, including maintenance for 12 years. Caterpillar and its dealer in Vietnam, Phu Thai Cat, agreed to provide generator management technology for more than 100 generators in Vietnam, the company said. The technology would allow for remote function monitoring including fuel, temperature and pressure. The value of the Caterpillar deal was not disclosed. Hilton Worldwide (HLT.N) signed a deal worth $650 million to manage a 610-room dual-branded hotel in Vietnam, while port security firm Passport Systems Inc signed a deal worth $1 billion, with $420 million in U.S. content, Commerce said. | 1 |
8,612 | SICKENING: Obama Lectures Gold Star Mom…Islamic Terrorism Is “Manufactured” [VIDEO] | During Wednesday s Presidential Town Hall on CNN, President Obama was asked by Gold Star mother Tina Houchins why he doesn t use the term Islamic terrorist, which Obama stated was a sort of manufactured issue before outlining the reasons why he doesn t use the term.Houchins asked, As a Gold Star mother, my son gave his life for acts of terrorism. Do you still believe that the acts of terrorism are done with a self-proclaimed Islamic religious motives? And if you do, why do you refuse to use the term racially I m sorry, Islamic terrorist? BreitbartObama goes through the whole litany of horrific acts ISIS commits (all of which are condoned by the Quran) and insists that the ISLAMIC State of Iraq and Syria has NOTHING to do with Islam.Watch our Jack-Ass-In-Chief arrogantly address this Gold-Star mom with his defense of Islam: | 0 |
8,613 | Macron vows Caribbean rebuild as anger rises against European powers | PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to quickly rebuild the islands of the French Caribbean during a visit on Tuesday meant to dispel anger at his government s response to Hurricane Irma, which killed at least 43 people in the region. The clutch of Caribbean islands hardest hit by the storm were mainly overseas territories belonging to Britain, France and the Netherlands, whose tens of thousands of residents are European Union citizens. The U.S. Virgin Islands were also hard hit. European countries and the United States have sent troops to deliver aid and provide security after the storm toppled homes and hospitals, but locals and tourists short of food or shelter say help was slow to arrive. Macron, who is also facing the first test at home of his resolve to reform the economy with a day of protests against his labor reforms, denied that authorities reacted too slowly. Basic services in the region were lost after Irma, weakening law and order, and looting erupted on some islands. Haiti s government said on Tuesday more than 10,000 people were in shelters after heavy rains flooded the former French colony. Britain was forced to reinforce its marines on the British Virgin Islands after more than 100 very serious inmates escaped after a prison was breached in the storm, Alan Duncan, Britain s minister for Europe and the Americas, said on Tuesday. It was not clear if the prisoners had been captured. Macron was due to travel on Tuesday to St. Martin, an island France shares with the Netherlands that suffered some of the worst devastation from Irma. Most of the 10 people killed by Irma lived on French territories there. St. Martin will be reborn, I promise, Macron told reporters in Pointe-a-Pitre, on the French island of Guadeloupe. I will shake up all the rules and procedures so the job is done as quickly as possible. It will be done quickly, it will be done well, and it will be done better. Macron said 50 million euros will be made available as soon as possible, and 2,000 security forces have been deployed, including the army, roughly double the original contingent. The French government has said it would take at least three months for water distribution to normalize. The electricity supply has also been badly hit, authorities said. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson traveled on Tuesday to the Caribbean to visit British territories devastated by Irma. Among the hardest hit islands were the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, plus Antigua and Barbuda. He is very keen to see for himself the devastation, to reassure governors who have done a magnificent job under quite the most incredible pressure, Duncan said. Four people died on Anguilla, up from one reported previously, Duncan said, while the death toll on the British Virgin Islands rose by one to five. Speaking on CNN, Stacey Plaskett, delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives for the U.S. Virgin Islands, said there was no real looting occurring, but rather desperate people scrambling for scarce supplies. Our airport, the terminal looks as if grenades have been inside there and bombed the places out, she said. This is not anything that we could ve been prepared for. | 1 |
8,614 | Madonna Has One Word To Describe Donald Trump’s Animal-Murdering Sons | Madonna just called out Donald Trump s privileged sons and it s EPIC.The Republican nominee s sons Eric and Donald Jr. often go hunting for sport because that s what rich white assholes do with their spare time.In 2011, the douchy duo went on a safari and killed a majestic leopard that they held up like a trophy while getting their picture taken. They then posted the image on the Internet to brag about their kill because apparently they think killing an animal that is decreasing in overall population somehow makes them men.Well, Madonna has seen the picture and she is NOT impressed and she really only had one word to describe Trump s little boys. How Big of [a] Pussy Do you have to BE to kill this Noble Animal for sport? Madonna wrote on Instagram along with the photo. Just ask Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric. Then she endorsed Hillary Clinton because she doesn t need to shoot animals to prove how tough she is.How Big of. Pussy Do you have to BE to kill this Noble Animal for sport? Just ask Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric. One more reason to vote for Hilary! ???A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on Aug 31, 2016 at 11:23pm PDTAs mentioned above, the leopard population is decreasing and the species has been designated as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union, so the Trump s hunt is definitely something worth being enraged about. After all, we are witnessing a decline of many of the world s animal species and these two assholes are contributing to the problem.In addition, the brothers have killed elephants, which is an endangered species facing a catastrophic decline. And that s just the tip of the iceberg since there are photos of many other animals they have killed. Law enforcement might want to make sure two aren t serial killers, because killing animals is how that usually starts. Instead of spending their daddy s money on killing sprees, perhaps they should spend the money on making sure these animals are here for future generations to enjoy. But that would be asking a lot of these heartless pricks.Featured image via The Mirror | 0 |
8,615 | U.S. court: Ruling on Trump travel ban will not come Wednesday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court said it would not issue its ruling on Wednesday regarding a temporary suspension of President Donald Trump’s order restricting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. A representative for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a statement that it would give up to 90 minutes advance notice before it hands down its ruling. | 1 |
8,616 | Trump plays left and right in drive to protect 'Dreamers' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and top aides have urged conservative Republicans in Congress to craft legislation protecting “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children, a move that could jeopardize efforts to work with Democrats on the issue. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and other officials have reached out to more than a dozen Republicans, including some of the loudest anti-immigration voices in Congress. The consultations followed a dinner Trump held earlier this month with the top two congressional Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi. The president discussed with the two Democrats legislation to shield from deportation roughly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers. In comments that angered Trump’s conservative political base, White House officials said Trump would not necessarily insist on funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a condition for helping the Dreamers. Trump’s pledge to build a border wall was a central theme of his 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier this month, Trump rescinded an Obama-era program that shielded Dreamers from deportation, but gave the Republican-controlled Congress - long gridlocked over immigration - six months to come up with legislation to address the issue. The recent consultations with Republicans included a dinner that Pence hosted for a group of conservative lawmakers at his residence. Republican Representative Mark Walker, who attended the dinner with Pence, said the administration was delivering a stark warning: Trump wants conservatives to participate in offering ideas for a Dreamer bill. If they do not, they will be frozen out of the discussions. Walker, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said White House officials had made clear that Trump was willing to work with Democrats and moderate Republicans on a Dreamer bill if that was the only option. The outreach to conservatives suggests the administration is trying to minimize the potential backlash from Trump’s base over the Dreamer issue. Many conservatives staunchly oppose protection from deportation for any illegal immigrants, viewing it as a form of amnesty. But any effort to bring conservatives on board with legislation could alienate Democrats. Among other Republicans who have been contacted by the administration are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Representative Steve King and Senator Tom Cotton, who have pushed hard for strict immigration limits and tougher law enforcement. The White House said administration officials had also reached out to other Republicans, like Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who in the past participated in negotiations on immigration reform. A White House official told Reuters that in conversations with Republicans, the administration was offering “principles” for Dreamer legislation that included building the border wall and expanding the use by companies of the “E-verify” system to check the legal status of new hires. Both are initiatives Democrats strongly oppose. Republican Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, said there had been “ongoing conversations” between lawmakers and the administration. He added members of his caucus were looking at ideas for an immigration bill. A senior Democratic aide said Democratic leaders were awaiting an offer from the White House that would build on Trump’s mid-September agreement to collaborate on a Dreamer bill. The aide said Democrats “look forward” to engaging Trump on a border security package sketched out at the dinner with the president, which did not include most of the conservative ideas now being floated in Congress. | 1 |
8,617 | Armed Men Break Into Protected Wildlife Area, Kill Rarest Fish On Earth (VIDEO) | The Nye County Sheriff s Office just arrested three men who went on a drunken rampage through a protected area of Death Valley National Park in Nevada.On April 30, Steven Schwinkendorf, 29, Edgar Reyes, 35, and Trenton Sargent, 26 used a gun to shoot off gate locks meant to prevent entry into the protected area surrounding the Devils Hole geothermal pool.The Death Valley pool is the only known habitat for the rarest species of fish in the world, the Devils Hole pupfish.According to authorities, once inside the protected area the men fired the gun several more times, shooting out motion sensors and damaging sensitive scientific equipment.One of them urinated on the ground, while another decided to use the protected spot as a place to vomit.According to a statement released by the Nye County Sheriff s Office:Their unlawful visit ultimately culminated with at least one of the suspects stripping off their clothes and entering the water of Devils Hole. The suspect(s) in the water stomped around the shelf area of the critical ecosystem before swimming around the deeper water, leaving behind a pair of dirty underwear when finished.The statement goes on to say:The intrusion is believed to have resulted in the death of at least one endangered Devils Hole pupfish, and fisheries biologists are trying to ascertain the extended damage that may have been done to food sources and egg sites which could lead to more loss of a species whose numbers are now below the last count of 115 in existence.Security cameras captured footage of the rampage. The Center for Biological Diversity and the National Park Service offered a $15,000 reward for the capture of the three men, saying their actions constituted a crime against the shared natural heritage of all Americans.Now that they ve been identified and arrested, the men face up to a year in prison and fines of up to $50,000 each.Here s more on this story via Newsy on YouTube:Image credit: Video screen capture via Newsy on YouTube | 0 |
8,618 | Israel's embassy in Jordan can't reopen before legal action against guard - source | AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan will not allow Israel to reopen its embassy in Amman until it has launched legal proceedings against an Israeli security guard who shot dead two Jordanian citizens in July, a Jordanian diplomatic source said on Thursday. Israel must also be able to assure its Arab neighbor that justice has been served in the case, the senior source said, asking not to be named. The embassy was closed shortly after Israel hastily repatriated the guard under diplomatic immunity to prevent Jordanian authorities from interrogating him and taking any legal action against him. The Israeli ambassador and embassy staff were pulled out. Israeli sources said on Wednesday they were planning to replace Ambassador Einat Schlein at the Amman embassy in an effort to improve ties. However they did not address the long-standing Jordanian demand to take legal action against the security guard. They can look for a new ambassador but that ambassador will not be welcome in Jordan until a due legal process takes its course and justice is served, the diplomatic source said. Our position remains solid in Jordan.. The embassy will not reopen until these conditions are met... which is the position we took from the very beginning, he added. Jordan maintains that even if the guard had diplomatic immunity that did not mean he could not be punished. The guard enjoyed immunity and not impunity under Vienna conventions, the source said, referring to the Vienna Convention that specifies privileges given to diplomats. Jordan acted in compliance with its obligation under international law and Israel has to do the same, the source said. Jordanian officials have treated the shooting as a criminal case and say the two unarmed Jordanians, one a bystander and the other a teenage workman, were killed in cold blood by the armed guard. Israel said the armed guard opened fire after being attacked and lightly wounded by the workman, who was delivering furniture at his home within the embassy compound, and acted in self- defense, in what Israeli officials called a terrorist attack . A televised welcome and hero s embrace by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the guard enraged King Abdullah. In a rare outburst, the monarch accused Netanyahu of using the incident as a political show saying it was provocative on all fronts . The king called on Israel to put the guard on trial. From the very beginning they had addressed this issue in a disgraceful way to politically exploit it, the source said. The handling of the shooting has tested ties between Israel and Jordan, one of only two Arab states that has a peace treaty with Israel. They have a long history of close security ties. Many Jordanians, in a country where the peace treaty is unpopular and pro-Palestinian sentiment widespread, were outraged the guard was allowed to leave and staged protests calling on the authorities to scrap the 1994 peace treaty. Israel has said it is highly unlikely it would prosecute the security guard but has hinted at financial compensation to the family of one of the dead Jordanians. | 1 |
8,619 | Factbox: Likely players in potential post-coup Zimbabwe unity government | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s army appears to be pushing for a quick and bloodless end to 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe s 37 years in power, to be replaced by a national unity government headed by his former deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa. According to political sources in Harare, Mugabe - now under house arrest in his lavish Harare home - was resisting pressure to stand down voluntarily. [nL8N1NM1N9] Assuming he does, the following are likely to be key players in the expected settlement, according to political sources in Zimbabwe and South Africa and several years of Zimbabwean intelligence documents seen by Reuters: EMMERSON MNANGAGWA (LIKELY PRESIDENT) - A lifelong Mugabe aide and 1970s liberation war veteran known as The Crocodile , Mnangagwa, 75, was in the pole position to succeed Mugabe until his progress was impeded by the dramatic political ascent of Mugabe s wife, Grace. His sacking as vice-president this month cleared a path for Grace to the presidency and appears to have been the trigger for the army to step in to advance its preferred successor. MORGAN TSVANGIRAI (LIKELY PRIME MINISTER) - A former union leader who founded the Movement for Democratic Change in the late 1990s, Tsvangirai, 65, has been Mugabe s main political rival for two decades. He served as prime minister in a 2009-2013 unity government formed after violence-ridden elections in 2008. Tsvangirai has been undergoing treatment for cancer outside Zimbabwe but returned to Harare late on Wednesday. CONSTANTINO CHIWENGA (POSSIBLE VICE-PRESIDENT) - As the military chief who pulled the trigger on the coup, Chiwenga is expected to win a senior role in the interim administration. Chiwenga, 61, who has served in the armed forces since Zimbabwe s independence in 1980, was sanctioned by the United States and European Union although the latter removed him from its list of restricted individuals in 2014. JOICE MUJURU (POSSIBLE VICE-PRESIDENT) - A liberation war veteran with the nom de guerre Spill Blood , Mujuru, 62, formed her own political party after being ousted as vice-president in 2014. Her husband, Solomon Mujuru, a general who died in suspicious circumstances in 2011, was regarded as one of the most feared men in Zimbabwe and one of the few people capable of challenging Mugabe. DUMISO DABENGWA (POSSIBLE VICE-PRESIDENT) - Moscow-trained Dabengwa, 77, nicknamed The Black Russian , fought in the 1970s anti-colonial struggle for ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People s Liberation Army), a rival to Mugabe s ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army). His incorporation in any unity government would ensure it represented both wings of the liberation struggle. TENDAI BITI (POSSIBLE FINANCE MINISTER) - A lawyer by training, Biti, 51, won international plaudits as finance minister in the 2009-2013 government that stabilized the imploding economy. He told Reuters he would be happy to reprise this role if Tsvangirai, his former political mentor, was on board. | 1 |
8,620 | Meet The ‘Responsible Gun Owner’ Who Was Shot In The Back By Her 4-Year-Old While Driving (VIDEO/SCREENSHOTS) | Meet Florida resident Jamie Gilt. Everyone say Hi, Jamie! Jamie is many things. She s a Ted Cruz supporter. She s a pro-gun advocate who runs a narcissistically-named pro-gun Facebook page called Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense, apparently named thusly to mock firearm safety groups. According to her Facebook likes she is an admirer of the Tea Party, she s a horse enthusiast, thinks Hillary Clinton belongs in prison, and admirers the terrorist group who engaged in an armed standoff with the federal government at Bundy Ranch. She s also exactly the sort of person who would leave a loaded gun within arm s reach of a 4-year-old.On Tuesday afternoon, a Putnam County Sheriff s Deputy noticed a woman behaving frantically inside her four-door pickup truck. The officer quickly realized that a woman inside the vehicle had been shot, according to Captain Joseph Wells. The woman explained to the officer that she had been shot by her four-year-old son as he sat in the back seat of the car while the two traveled to her sister s home to pick up a horse. She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back, Wells said, noting that there were no holes in the back of the truck, which had a horse trailer hitched to the back. The child was not strapped into his booster seat when the deputy found Gilt. There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but however the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them, Wells said. Investigators are working to determine if the child was strapped in at the time of the shooting.Gilt s Facebook profile is filled with posts supporting Ted Cruz, whom she says has the longest history of protecting gun rights among the 2016 field, as well as numerous other right-wing posts ranging from wildly inaccurate to completely f*cking stupid to downright insane. One post in particular has been drawing attention, however. Gily uploaded a photo on March 6 days before the shooting that depicted two scary criminals who are breaking into your home to rob you, rape your children, and kill your dog. The ammosexual gun advocate remarked that being dead might change their plans. In the comments below the meme, Gilt cheerfully declares that all her children know how to shoot something her 4-year-old proved after she left a loaded gun within arm s reach of him. Even my 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22., she wrote in response to someone who praised her spirit and patriotic attitude. She was shot with a .45-caliber handgun, depriving the world of the most ironic Facebook post of the week.While some may argue that she is a responsible gun owner who was simply an unfortunate victim of circumstance and bad luck, that she would never treat a gun like a toy, a tweet from last year reveals that she considers her guns to be exactly that toys. This is surely a belief she passes down to her children, including the one who shot her.Gilt isn t just an idiot about guns she s full-blown, Jesus-Christ-What-The-F*ck-Weapons-Grade-Stupid. Here is just a small sampling of her Facebook posts, one of which claims that it presumably the Revolution is inevitable at this point because one of the Oregon terrorists was shot after he attempted to pull a gun on law enforcement: Gilt s pro-gun page is filled with similar bullsh*t: The NRA tells us that people like Gilt are ready to hop into action at a moment s notice to save us from the bad guys with guns and Gilt certainly thinks of herself as the mythical Good Guy With a Gun, a warrior sent by God herself to defend the citizenry from tyranny. The truth is that she should not have access to weapons if she can not prevent her children from having access to weapons period.Gilt is in stable condition. The child is in the care of family and the Department of Children and Families has been notified of this completely preventable monumental act of stupidity. Wells says there will be no criminal charges because the shooting is being investigated as accidental. However, things may change depending on how the boy managed to get ahold of the weapon.Watch a report on the shooting below:Featured image via Facebook | 0 |
8,621 | European Union asks Obama to stop 9/11 Saudi bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday called on President Barack Obama to block a U.S. bill allowing survivors and families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, saying it was in violation of international law. “The possible adoption and implementation of the (bill) would be in conflict with fundamental principles of international law and in particular the principle of State sovereign immunity,” the European Union delegation to the United States said in a letter to the U.S. Department of State seen by Reuters. The letter said the EU considers that the bill’s adoption and its implementation could have unwanted consequences, as other states adopt similar legislation. Congress has overwhelmingly passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, known as JASTA, in reaction to long-running suspicions, denied by Saudi Arabia, that hijackers of the four U.S. jetliners that attacked the United States in 2001 were backed by the Saudi government. Obama in coming days is expected to veto the bill on grounds that other countries could use the law as an excuse to sue U.S. diplomats, service members or companies. But Congress could have the last word if the Senate and House of Representatives each override that veto by a two-thirds vote. | 1 |
8,622 | REPORT: Comey Firing Was Nothing More Than A Trump Tantrum Over Russia | Everyone is rightfully stunned and outraged that Donald Trump decided to inexplicably fire the man who was investigating his 2016 presidential campaign s ties to Russia, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey. People are (also rightfully) suggesting that this firing is all part of a cover-up an attempt to squash the Russia investigation. While there was likely nervousness related to the Russia investigation that went into this decision, there is a much more Trumpian reason for it, according to Politico: a Trump temper tantrum over the media s coverage of the criminal probe into the possibility of Trump/Russia collusion.Comey recently testified on Capitol Hill that there is an ongoing investigation into Russia s 2016 election meddling. Said probe includes the possibility that Trump campaign officials coordinated with the Russians in an attempt to tip the election to Trump. Of course, Trump was outraged at this public scrutiny, and his ego cannot take the idea that anything but his own supposed brilliance won him the election. From Politico:He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.So, there you have it. Trump was angry that Comey s testimony had brought the Russia story that refuses to go away back into the spotlight, and he was angry at his and his staff s inability to control it. Trump has reportedly been considering getting rid of Comey for roughly a week, which would mean that it was right around the time of Comey s Capitol Hill testimony that the easily agitated president put his FBI Director in the line of fire over Russia.This is nothing short of a Constitutional crisis. We have no choice but to DEMAND a 9/11-style independent commission on Russia, as well as a special prosecutor for this case. No one appointed by Trump ESPECIALLY Attorney General Jeff Sessions should be anywhere near this probe.This isn t partisan. This is about the soul of the republic, and we must get to the bottom of this, even as Trump continues to make Nixonian moves in fits of rage and attempts at cover-ups.Featured image via Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
8,623 | Trump’s ‘Wag the Dog’ Moment | 21st Century Wire says Robert Parry, best known for breaking the Iran-Contra affair, takes us through what we know so far surrounding Donald Trump s recent decision to send Tomahawk missiles into Syria and also explores what lies behind the plans within plans of the White House and those who now celebrate yet seemingly manipulate Trump behind the curtain.Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire was joined by Robert on 1100KFNX Patrick Henningsen LIVE and is an interview you don t want to miss.More on this report from Consortium News Robert Parry Consortium NewsJust two days after news broke of an alleged poison-gas attack in northern Syria, President Trump brushed aside advice from some U.S. intelligence analysts doubting the Syrian regime s guilt and launched a lethal retaliatory missile strike against a Syrian airfield.Trump immediately won plaudits from Official Washington, especially from neoconservatives who have been trying to wrestle control of his foreign policy away from his nationalist and personal advisers since the days after his surprise victory on Nov. 8.There is also an internal dispute over the intelligence. On Thursday night, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a high degree of confidence that the Syrian government had dropped a poison gas bomb on civilians in Idlib provinceBut a number of intelligence sources have made contradictory assessments, saying the preponderance of evidence suggests that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels were at fault, either by orchestrating an intentional release of a chemical agent as a provocation or by possessing containers of poison gas that ruptured during a conventional bombing raid.One intelligence source told me that the most likely scenario was a staged event by the rebels intended to force Trump to reverse a policy, announced only days earlier, that the U.S. government would no longer seek regime change in Syria and would focus on attacking the common enemy, Islamic terror groups that represent the core of the rebel forces.The source said the Trump national security team split between the President s close personal advisers, such as nationalist firebrand Steve Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner, on one side and old-line neocons who have regrouped under National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army general who was a prot g of neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus.White House InfightingIn this telling, the earlier ouster of retired Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser and this week s removal of Bannon from the National Security Council were key steps in the reassertion of neocon influence inside the Trump presidency. The strange personalities and ideological extremism of Flynn and Bannon made their ousters easier, but they were obstacles that the neocons wanted removed.Though Bannon and Kushner are often presented as rivals, the source said, they shared the belief that Trump should tell the truth about Syria, revealing the Obama administration s CIA analysis that a fatal sarin gas attack in 2013 was a false-flag operation intended to sucker President Obama into fully joining the Syrian war on the side of the rebels and the intelligence analysts similar beliefs about Tuesday s incident.Instead, Trump went along with the idea of embracing the initial rush to judgment blaming Assad for the Idlib poison-gas event. The source added that Trump saw Thursday night s missile assault as a way to change the conversation in Washington, where his administration has been under fierce attack from Democrats claiming that his election resulted from a Russian covert operation.If changing the narrative was Trump s goal, it achieved some initial success with several of Trump s fiercest neocon critics, such as neocon Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, praising the missile strike, as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The neocons and Israel have long sought regime change in Damascus even if the ouster of Assad might lead to a victory by Islamic extremists associated with Al Qaeda and/or the Islamic State.Wagging the DogTrump employing a wag the dog strategy, in which he highlights his leadership on an international crisis to divert attention from domestic political problems, is reminiscent of President Bill Clinton s threats to attack Serbia in early 1999 as his impeachment trial was underway over his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. (Clinton also was accused of a wag-the-dog strategy when he fired missiles at supposed Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 in retaliation for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.)Trump s advisers, in briefing the press on Thursday night, went to great lengths to highlight Trump s compassion toward the victims of the poison gas and his decisiveness in bombing Assad s military in contrast to Obama s willingness to allow the intelligence community to conduct a serious review of the evidence surrounding the 2013 sarin-gas caseUltimately, Obama listened to his intelligence advisers who told him there was no slam-dunk evidence implicating Assad s regime and he pulled back from a military strike at the last minute while publicly maintaining the fiction that the U.S. government was certain of Assad s guilt.In both cases 2013 and 2017 there were strong reasons to doubt Assad s responsibility. In 2013, he had just invited United Nations inspectors into Syria to investigate cases of alleged rebel use of chemical weapons and thus it made no sense that he would launch a sarin attack in the Damascus suburbs, guaranteeing that the U.N. inspectors would be diverted to that case.Similarly, now, Assad s military has gained a decisive advantage over the rebels and he had just scored a major diplomatic victory with the Trump administration s announcement that the U.S. was no longer seeking regime change in Syria. The savvy Assad would know that a chemical weapon attack now would likely result in U.S. retaliation and jeopardize the gains that his military has achieved with Russian and Iranian help.The counter-argument to this logic made by The New York Times and other neocon-oriented news outlets essentially maintains that Assad is a crazed barbarian who was testing out his newfound position of strength by baiting President Trump. Of course, if that were the case, it would have made sense that Assad would have boasted of his act, rather than deny it.But logic and respect for facts no longer prevail inside Official Washington, nor inside the mainstream U.S. news media Continue this report at Consortium News READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SYRIA FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
8,624 | Tribal clashes, political void threaten oil installations in Iraq's south | BASRA/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Worsening clashes among tribes and a political void is threatening security at oil installations in Iraq s main southern oil producing region, officials and security sources said. Iraq has concentrated security forces in the north and west of the OPEC oil producer in the biggest campaign since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to retake territory lost to the Sunni extremist group Islamic State in 2014. That has created a void in the south, home to Iraq s biggest oilfields, where fighting between rival Shi ite Muslim tribes over farmland, state construction contracts and land ownership has worsened in the past few weeks. The surge in violence risks undermining government plans to lure new investment to the oil and gas sector it needs to revive an economy hit by a surge in security spending and destruction by Islamic State. Stability in Basra, the main southern city at the edge of the Gulf, is of vital importance as a hub for oil exports accounting for over 95 percent of government revenues. Officials said tribal clashes had not affected oil output yet. But this could change as recent fighting with mortars and machine guns had come close to the key West Qurna oil phase 1, West Qurna phase 2 and Majnoon oilfields north of Basra city. Tribal feuds have been exacerbating recently and such a negative development could threaten the operations of the foreign energy companies, said Ali Shaddad, head of the oil and gas committee in Basra s provincial council. State-run South Oil Co. (SOC) said the violence had started scaring oil workers and foreign contractors who in some cases had refused to move drilling rigs over security concerns. Tribal fighting near oilfields sites is definitely affecting the energy operations and sending a negative message to foreign oil firms, Abdullah al-Faris, a media manager at SOC, said. Iraq s government has dispatched thousands of soldiers and policemen into Basra which had been like the rest of the mainly Shi ite south relatively peaceful since 2003. Security force have tried to disarm tribesmen, which had seized large caches of light and heavy weapons from Saddam Hussein s army in the chaos following the 2003 invasion. But security officials said forces were stretched as troops were preparing another offensive against Islamic State, or Daesh, in the north to retake Hawija town. Strategically located east of the road from Baghdad to Mosul and near the Kurdish-held oil region of Kirkuk, Hawija fell to Islamic State in 2014. We need larger forces to control rural areas and restrain lawless tribes in the south, said Army Lieutenant Colonel Salah Kareem who serves in a brigade that was based in Basra before being moved to Mosul. This is a difficult job for now as most troops are busy with fighting Daesh, he said. The security challenges have been worsened by a political void after top local officials quit over graft charges. Basra s governor Majid al-Nasrawi stepped down last month and left for Iran after Iraq s anti-corruption body began investigating graft allegations against him. In July the head of the provincial council, Sabah al-Bazoni, was arrested and sacked after the watchdog accused him of taking bribes and misuse of power. Graft has been a major concern in Iraq but analysts say both men had also been caught in a political battle as parties from the country s Shi ite majority were gearing up for national elections in April 2018. Basra is seen as the ultimate prize given its oil wealth and investment potential. Bazoni, who belongs to former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki s State of Law coalition, had been at odds with Nasrawi from the Shi ite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq over managing the province and distributing contracts for basic services and rebuilding infrastructure in Basra. Disagreements over how to award state contracts had escalated with each party publishing files alleging corruption against the other rivals, two Basra politicians said on condition of anonymity. For some political parties having the upper hand in Basra is a key objective to expand their power, said Baghdad-based analyst Jasim al-Bahadli, an expert on Shi ite armed groups. Basra is forming the triangle of money, power and influence, he said. Two officials working with foreign oil companies operating in the south said the departure of top officials raised worries that the tribal clashes could get worse. We need to see security challenges addressed to avoid working in a difficult operating environment, said one official working at a foreign oil firm in Basra, asking not to be named. | 1 |
8,625 | Republican House Speaker Ryan backs Trump after long courtship | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Ryan, the top elected Republican, ended a long period of soul-searching and endorsed Donald Trump for president on Thursday, a step toward unifying party loyalists behind the insurgent candidate despite concerns about his candidacy. Ryan had been a high-profile holdout to supporting Trump for the Nov. 8 presidential election out of concern about the presumptive Republican nominee’s bellicose rhetoric and break with party orthodoxy on issues including trade and immigration. The House of Representatives speaker announced his support in a column for the Janesville Gazette newspaper in his home state of Wisconsin. It surfaced in the middle of a speech by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in which she launched a far-reaching attack on Trump’s foreign policy credentials. Ryan did not specifically use the word “endorse” in his column, but his spokesman, Brendan Buck, made clear that Ryan’s move should be seen as an endorsement. The speaker had criticized the Republican candidate several times, including Trump’s proposal in December to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States because of national security concerns. The 46-year-old Ryan was the only member of the Republican congressional leadership who had not formally embraced Trump. In a tweet, Trump responded: “So great to have the endorsement and support of Paul Ryan. We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!” Ryan’s backing of Trump could give cover to more reluctant Republicans to get behind the billionaire businessman as their best chance to win the White House. “I think the endorsement is significant because it shows the falling in line of the establishment Republicans from the top,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. It should also help Trump make the case that he can bring the party together as he girds for a Republican nominating convention in July that many party leaders plan to skip. It also represents a blow to Republicans who have been trying to organize a third-party bid to give party loyalists who cannot abide Trump someone else to support. The “never Trump” crowd includes 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. Ryan was Romney’s vice presidential running mate. While Ryan’s decision could push some Republican leaders off the fence, many holdouts remained, such as two former rivals, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Aides to both said their positions had not changed. Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid described Ryan’s move as “abject surrender,” adding: “The GOP is Trump’s party now.” Ryan met Trump in a high-profile meeting last month and they have since had a number of telephone calls. “It’s no secret that he and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise,” Ryan wrote. “And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.” Ryan said he and Trump had spoken many times in recent weeks about how, “by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.” “Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall,” Ryan said. Announcing he will vote for Trump should make it a bit more comfortable for Ryan to chair the party’s nominating convention in Cleveland. While Ryan’s endorsement was significant for Trump, there remain many concerns about him within the party. Longtime Republican financier Fred Malek drew attention to worries about Trump in a column in the Washington Post on Thursday. He cited Trump’s criticism last week of New Mexico’s Republican governor, Susana Martinez, considered a rising star in the party with the ability to appeal to Hispanics. “These attacks on fellow Republicans must stop as we move closer to the general election,” Malek wrote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who has said he will support Trump, told CNN that Trump’s proposed Muslim ban was a bad idea and that his criticism of Martinez was ill-advised. Ryan said he too still had concerns about Trump’s tone. “It is my hope the campaign improves its tone as we go forward and it’s all a campaign we can be proud of,” Ryan told the Associated Press. | 1 |
8,626 | Kansas governor signs school funding bill aimed at adequacy | (Reuters) - Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Thursday signed into law a school funding bill that will face scrutiny by the state supreme court to determine if it fulfills a mandate for adequacy. The Republican governor said he approved the measure even though the legislature “missed an opportunity to substantially improve the K-12 funding system.” The Republican-controlled legislature faced a June 30 deadline set by the Kansas Supreme Court in March to come up with enough funding to meet the state constitution’s requirement for adequacy. Alan Rupe, an attorney for school districts that filed a funding lawsuit, said the additional $293 million lawmakers allocated to schools over the next two fiscal years falls far short of what is needed. “We’re grateful for the effort, but it’s not enough to achieve constitutionality,” he said, noting that the Kansas State Board of Education had proposed an $893 million, two-year funding increase. Now that the bill has become law, Rupe said he expects the supreme court to set up a process for the state to demonstrate how the measure complies with the constitutional requirement. Besides finding more money for schools, Kansas lawmakers also had to plug budget holes largely caused by falling tax revenue. Earlier this month, the legislature overrode Brownback’s veto of a bill hiking income tax rates to raise $1.2 billion over the next two fiscal years. | 1 |
8,627 | Libertarian Candidate Strips On Stage During Convention (VIDEO) | This weekend, the Libertarian Party held its annual convention in Orlando, Florida. On Sunday, as ballots were being counted to determine who would be the party s presidential and vice-presidential nominees, candidates vying for party chairman were each allowed two minutes to speak.During this time, James Weeks, a candidate for the chairman position, took to the stage. Instead of using his two minutes to urge party members to vote for him, he instead used his time to do a striptease.Reporters who were covering the convention tweeted out photos and video of the candidate s performance.The Washington Post s Dave Weigel tweeted:Image credit: Screen capture via Dave Weigel on TwitterAt around the same time, Byron Tau of the Wall Street Journal posted this image to Twitter.Image credit: Byron Tau via TwitterMeanwhile, Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News wondered how C-SPAN was dealing with the spontaneous striptease.Image credit: Vaughn Hillyard via TwitterC-SPAN aired the candidate s performance live.Video of the C-SPAN coverage, which identifies the candidate as James Weeks, was quickly posted to YouTube. At the end of the performance, Weeks told the audience that it was a dare, and announcing that he was going to go ahead and drop out. Watch the video below, courtesy of Crazy Horse on YouTube.According to multiple sources, many Libertarian Party delegates were not happy with Week s performance.Ben Jacobs, a reporter with The Guardian tweeted:NBC News reporter Jane Timm quoted other delegates, one who called the performance offensive, and another who feared that it might give people the wrong impression of the Libertarian Party.While Weeks performance is the most attention-getting story to come out of the Libertarian convention, it s not the only thing that happened.CNN reports party delegates eventually selected Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, as their presidential nominee and ex-Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld was chosen as vice presidential nominee.Image credit: video screen capture via C-Span on YouTube | 0 |
8,628 | Hillary Literally Laughs In The Face Of Reporter Who Pushes Insane Health Conspiracies (VIDEO) | In case you have been living under a rock, we recently learned that Hillary Clinton is human through a series of reports about That One Time She Coughed and The Time She Got Pneumonia. Yes, somehow anytime Clinton gets the sniffles, the Right pounces on it, using anything and everything they can to push absolutely bonkers conspiracy theories about the former Secretary of State s health (she s on her deathbed, don tchaknow).During an interview with ACB s Sarina Fazan Wednesday, the reporter asked Clinton perhaps one of the dumbest f*cking questions she has been asked regarding her health: if she would undergo neurocognitive tests to appease inflated, only-existing-on-Trump s-side-of-the-aisle concerns about whether or not her presidency will be like a four-year-long edition of Weekend at Bernie s.Hillary just laughed in her face. I m very sorry I got pneumonia, I m glad antibiotics took care of it, and that s behind us now, the former Secretary of State said, somehow managing to avoid knocking the reporter for starting off by claiming 9/11 was last week. Clinton explained that her health meets and exceeds the standards anyone else running for office has met, but Fazan was all so, ummmm, you gonna take those tests? There s no need for that, Clinton said firmly, surely wondering how the f*ck this woman got hired in the first place. The information is very clear. Hillary wasn t the only person laughing at Fazan, who also beat the dead horse that is the email scandal. Twitter lit up with people mocking the reporter for having the gall to waste time during an exclusive interview badgering the 2016 Democratic nominee about her health:@hannahfc and you are reporting this nonsense as if it is legitimate. Is this why you became a journalist? @danmericaCNN @abcactionnews (((David Galiel:-))) (@davidgaliel) September 22, 2016@Women4Trump @hannahfc @dmartosko @abcactionnews her career needs to die a hideous death Naked Punditry (@NakedPundit) September 22, 2016@hannahfc @abcactionnews oh jesus christ Chris (@hugetinymistake) September 22, 2016@hannahfc @danmericaCNN @abcactionnews No wonder media has an even higher negative rating than Trump these days. What dumb question! Violetta Argueta (@Vva10967) September 22, 2016@hannahfc @danmericaCNN @abcactionnews Wanna ask her if she covered up benghazi next? Any other conspiracy theories yall wanna fan flames of P. Williamson (@PWilliamson2006) September 22, 2016@hannahfc @albamonica @abcactionnews Has this reporter asked Trump if he'll undergo psychological tests? At least it's OBVIOUS he needs to. Peggy Holtman (@holtmapa) September 22, 2016@hannahfc @danmericaCNN @abcactionnews Sarina who (?) had the fucking you asked her WHAT??? Go back to school. Find a new career. (((bartnbeka))) (@bartnbeka) September 22, 2016@SarinaFazanWFTS Well at least people are talking about you for awhile even if it's for being a terrible journalist. Enjoy it while it lasts mattydean (@mattydean) September 22, 2016As some pointed out to this simpleton, Hillary released her medical records just after the 9/11 anniversary, which was more than a week ago. She was diagnosed with a mild, non-contagious bacterial pneumonia, was given antibiotics, and had to practically be tied down to keep her from rushing back out on the campaign trail because she has traditionally insisted on being f*cking Superwoman.What s next? Gonna ask her about Benghazi? Maybe she knows where Obama s real birth certificate is hidden. Could she have some inside information on a second gunman involved in the JFK assassination? Quit your job, Sarina. Seriously.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
8,629 | Trump Threatens ‘Rude’ Media, Whines That Reporters Won’t ‘Be Nice’ To Him (TWEET) | Donald Trump is starting another week in the White House with yet another attack on the media and the reporters that dare to cover his minions accurately.On Monday morning, Trump took to Twitter to warn the media to be nice to him and his dishonest team. Likely inspired by a set of recent interviews in which his senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, was blasted and taken to task for her ridiculous defense of Trump s wiretapping claims, Trump tweeted this little gem: It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better! Perhaps Trump and his team might do better if they followed his advice, too considering they ve made more enemies in the last few weeks than any administration in modern American history.And this wasn t Trump s only attack on the media, either. After watching Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski criticize his presidency for the last several weeks, Trump finally made the decision to unfollow them on Twitter. Seriously, it s almost as if we have a teenager living in the White House.If Trump wants the media to cover him more favorably, then perhaps he might try actually doing his job well for once or just doing his job, period. Trump is the laziest, most incompetent POTUS America has ever had and his team is just as much as a failure.If the coverage has been negative, it s because Trump and his people actually suck, plain and simple. But instead of trying to improve and fix what is being criticized, Trump would rather just go on Twitter, bully the media, and cry about it.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
8,630 | Most Americans say Republican healthcare plan will be harmful: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - When U.S. Senate Republicans unveil their plan to overhaul America’s healthcare system, they will face a skeptical public that already does not buy the justification for an earlier version that passed the House of Representatives, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. The June 9-13 poll shows that a majority of the country thinks the American Health Care Act would be harmful for low-income Americans, people with pre-existing health conditions and Medicaid recipients. Overall, 41 percent of American adults oppose the House plan, while 30 percent support it. Another 29 percent said they “don’t know,” according to the poll. “It’ll make people’s deductibles skyrocket” said Shannon Sowards, 39, of Memphis, Tennessee, a Trump supporter who took the poll. “So I’m not for this healthcare act. I’m for insurance for everyone.” The Senate is expected to release its full plan on Thursday. (Click here to view the poll's topline results: tmsnrt.rs/2sqhmM3) The gap between what Republicans say their plan will do and what people think it will do further complicates matters for Senate Republicans, who already have been criticized for drafting their bill in secret. “It would be great if a politican had the nerve to be brutally honest” and tell people that healthcare costs are going up, said Joseph Antos, a healthcare expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “None of them seem to.” For years, Republicans have promised voters they would replace Democratic former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, which they say is too costly and intrusive. When House Republicans pitched their health plan earlier this year, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan boasted that it would lower premiums, protect people with pre-existing conditions and improve public “access” to high-quality, low-cost healthcare. U.S. Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, who helped shape the House bill, said it “would make coverage of pre-existing conditions sacrosanct for all Americans.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, however, presented a different view of the bill. It estimated that under the House plan 23 million people would lose their health coverage by 2026 in an effort to cut the federal deficit. According to the poll, nearly 60 percent of adults said they thought it would make insurance more expensive for low-income Americans and people with pre-existing conditions. Fifty-seven percent said it would make Medicaid less available, and 69 percent said it would cut federal money for Planned Parenthood. Thirteen percent felt that the House plan would improve the quality of their healthcare, and 9 percent said it would make their healthcare cheaper. About 28 percent of Americans said they would be “less likely” to support their congressional representative if he or she supported the House plan. Another 16 percent said they would be “more likely” to support their representative and 33 percent said it would make “no difference.” Republican respondents were more supportive of the House plan than others. And even those Republicans who did not like the House plan said that it is probably an improvement over the current healthcare system. “It’s not going to change my political views” said Barb Huntington, 64, of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, a Trump supporter who took the poll. Huntington, who buys health insurance through her state’s Obamacare exchange, said her premiums went up by $25 per month this year. Huntington said she would not be surprised if they keep going up no matter what the Republicans do. “It’s going to be like that every year, and we’ll be lucky to have what we have,” she said. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English across the United States. It gathered responses from 1,492 adults, including 671 Democrats and 501 Republicans. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire group, 4 percentage points for Democrats and 5 percentage points for Republicans. (Click here for the survey questions and methodology: tmsnrt.rs/2tty3EI) | 1 |
8,631 | Immigrants in limbo as U.S. top court weighs Obama action | BALTIMORE (Reuters) - In the port city of Baltimore, where Europeans once streamed into America after crossing the Atlantic by ship, a 47-year-old immigrant named Rhonda is in a desperate position. She said she wants to provide for her teenage daughter but cannot get a work permit because she is in the United States illegally. “I’d like, as a parent, to provide for my daughter’s needs. Homelessness and moving around has been rough,” said Rhonda, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who has lived in the United States since 2001 and spoke on condition that her last name not be used to protect her daughter. In Houston, Daniel Castillo Garcia said he is apprehensive about his toddler son’s future because the 19-year-old Mexican native is in deportation proceedings after being picked up by U.S. federal agents near the border. “I’m very worried for my son because I need to provide for him,” said Garcia, who has lived in the United States since being brought into the country by his mother as a child in 2007. For these two and many others like them, perhaps their only realistic hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court revives President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration, which was thrown out by a lower court. That plan was designed to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, do not have a criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. Rhonda’s 16-year-old daughter and Garcia’s 2-year-old son are citizens by virtue of being born in the United States. The court hears the case on Monday and is due to rule by the end of June. Rhonda said she cannot get a work permit because she overstayed her original 10-year visa. She and her daughter are staying in temporary housing provided by her church because she has no income. For a year, she was separated from her daughter, who plays the violin and hopes to attend college, because they could find nowhere to live together. Rhonda, who said her Christian faith keeps her positive, believes work authorization would make the difference because employers increasingly demand such documentation. “That’s why I’m in such hardship. I’m very anxious for something to happen,” she said. In Baltimore’s heavily Latino Fell’s Point neighborhood, South Broadway is lined with store fronts advertising services in Spanish, ranging from tax preparation to cellphone providers. Catholic Charities runs an immigrant resource center offering legal advice as well as education and health services. Its managing attorney, Adonia Simpson, said about half the roughly 600 people she counsels annually have no option beyond Obama’s program, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), if they want to legalize their status and get work permits. Initial enthusiasm about Obama’s plan waned when a federal judge put it on hold in February 2015, just before it was due to begin. All Simpson can do for now is ask clients to gather documentation to be ready to apply. “The community is getting very discouraged,” Simpson said. In Maryland alone, about 56,000 people could be eligible for the DAPA program, according to the Migration Policy Institute think tank. Obama’s plan was challenged by Texas and 25 other states that argued he exceeded his authority in bypassing Congress to take the actions. “The president has violated the Constitution, and we are trying to prevent the president from implementing executive action that we believe is lawless,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. The Supreme Court is hearing the case at a time when immigration has become a hot issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with top Republican contenders calling for all illegal immigrants to be deported. An estimated 11 million immigrants are in the country illegally. In Houston, Garcia has pinned his hopes on the court reinstating Obama’s program. “DAPA will help me get that freedom and help me to keep going and have a good future for myself and my son,” Garcia said in an interview translated from Spanish by his attorney. | 1 |
8,632 | Melania's Slovenian hometown eyes Trump win as boon for tourism | SEVNICA, Slovenia (Reuters) - The small Slovenian town of Sevnica, Melania Trump’s birthplace, savored her husband’s shock win in the U.S. election as a likely boon for tourism on Wednesday, while a former schoolmate remembered her as “creative and innovative”. Until about a year ago, the town of fewer than 5,000 people, nestled in the foothills of the Alps, was scarcely known in Slovenia, let alone abroad. But on Monday, Sevnica was clearly looking forward to a financial spin-off from being the hometown of the 46-year-old future U.S. First Lady. “Sometimes the pressure of the media was too hard. The people of Sevnica are not used to it. On the other hand, the global attention is positive because Sevnica is developing into a tourist destination,” mayor Srecko Ocvirk said. Speaking to Reuters shortly after 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) in Sevnica’s Central cafe, the smiling mayor said local residents had supported Trump and his wife’s campaign. “We are very satisfied at the result,” he said. Born Melania Knavs in 1970, she lived in an apartment block in Sevnica with her family as a child. When she was a teenager, the family moved to a modest two-storey house above the Sava river on the outskirts of town, which sits below a well-maintained medieval castle. Residents say her father sold car parts and her mother worked for a factory that made a brand of children’s clothing very popular in communist Yugoslavia, before the country fell apart in the 1990s. Melania’s modeling career took her to Milan and thence to the United States, far away from her native Slovenia, a tiny former Yugoslav republic of 2 million people comparable in size to New Jersey. “Even as a child Melania was creative, innovative and Sevnica was too small for her,” said Mirjana Jelancic, Melania’s friend who is now a headmistress of Melania’s elementary school. “She was reserved and when I heard that Donald was running I said (to myself) this will be hard for her. She never wanted to be in the spotlight,” Jelancic said. “She was excellent at her job (in the campaign).” The head of the town’s health center, which received a donation from Melania in 2005 when she was pregnant with her son Barron, said she believed Melania would be a success in the White House, as well. “Melania will be an excellent First Lady who will take Slovenian values of generosity, loyalty and trust to the United States and the world,” Vladimira Tomsic said. | 1 |
8,633 | White House seeking sharp budget cut to climate agency: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is seeking a 17 percent cut to the budget of the government’s meteorological agency that monitors the climate and issues daily weather forecasts, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Citing a four-page budget memo, the Post said the proposed reductions in the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would affect research and satellite programs and eliminate funding for some smaller programs. The NOAA is part of the Commerce Department, whose overall budget “would be hit by an overall 18 percent reduction from its current funding level,” it said. The paper did not give a total figure for the proposed cuts, but said the White House Office of Management and Budget outline for the Commerce Department’s budget for fiscal year 2018 included sharp reductions for specific parts of the NOAA. The agency’s satellite data division would lose $513 million, or 22 percent, of its current funding under the proposal, and its Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research would lose $126 million, or 26 percent, the Post said. The paper said a spokesperson for the Commerce Department declined to comment, and that an unnamed White House official said the process was “evolving” and cautioned against specific numbers. | 1 |
8,634 | Russia's Putin registers re-election bid | MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin formally registered his re-election bid on Wednesday, submitting the necessary documents to Russia s central election commission in person ahead of a March 18 vote. Polls show that Putin, who has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years as either president or prime minister, is on course to comfortably win another six-year term. That would allow him to rule until 2024, when he ll turn 72. The former KGB officer is running as an independent, a move seen as a way of strengthening his image as a father of the nation rather than as a party political figure. The ruling United Russia party and the Just Russia party have both said they will support him. Allies laud Putin for restoring national pride and expanding Moscow s global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine. But opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been barred from the election over a suspended prison sentence he says was fabricated, says Putin has been in power too long and that his support is artificially maintained by a biased state media and an unfair system which excludes genuine opponents. Navalny has called for a boycott of the election, raising the prospect of large-scale protests and clashes with the police. | 1 |
8,635 | TX Professors Told Not To Upset Armed Students To Avoid Shootings Following ‘Campus Carry’ Law | This is what it has come to.Following the passage of a Republican-drafted bill to force guns onto college campuses whether the schools want them there or not the University of Houston has begun instructing professors to avoid literally triggering students who may be armed in order to avoid sparking a mass shooting. If that sounds ridiculously unhealthy, glad you could join us.In 2015, Republicans in the Texas legislature and Governor Greg Abbott forced through an NRA-drafted bill that would make it mandatory for schools in the state to allow guns on campus. As much as it was adored by right-wing gun lovers, educators and students were appalled. The implications are scary. Students will be packed into classrooms with any number of weapons just waiting to go off by accident or by design.Schools are preparing for the new guns everywhere law that will take effect in August, and much of the preparation centers around getting teachers ready to deal with classrooms full of 18-year-olds who brought a semi-automatic handgun to campus along with their textbooks. In a recent discussion of the new state law, the University of Houston displayed a slide that told faculty to not go there' on certain topics if they felt it might make some of their gun-happy students upset.Slide from recent campus carry dialogue at UH, in response to faculty concerns about dangers from armed students: pic.twitter.com/610RyhDZlf Jeff (@JeffintheBowtie) February 22, 2016USA TODAY spoke with the university s faculty senate president: My slides are not university policy but faculty to faculty discussion points in a faculty senate led discussion group. They express the downside of having more weapons on campus and the chilling effect that has on academic freedom, University Faculty Senate President Jon Snow tells USA TODAY College regarding his presentation.Ironically, many right-wingers have accused schools of censoring free speech by being overly politically correct in the classroom. It s hard to imagine any school has gone as far as Texas s Republican-led legislature. Professors may be worried students could get offended by a lecture, but few schools have to tell their professors to avoid triggering their students or else risk being shot in their classroom.Needless to say, many professors are not okay with this new way of doing things.Despite Republicans assuring the public that they are doing this to keep people safe, the students and professors themselves want nothing to do with this terrifying plan. It s led to demonstrations by students at schools like the University of Texas at Austin, and now, an unprecedented 168 professors from over 30 departments have signed a pledge that they will not take part in this bone-headed scheme.Republicans have ignored their concerns entirely. Instead, they are high-fiving the NRA lobbyists who put them up to it. So a few more kids might die in Texas schools? It s a small price to pay for freedom. Featured image via Twitter | 0 |
8,636 | Founder Of Bush Institute Endorses Hillary Clinton – Even He’s With Her Now | Former President George W. Bush s Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy joined the ranks of an ever-growing list of Republicans who find themselves backing the Democratic nominee when he announced on Monday that he is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.Speaking with MSNBC on Monday night, James Glassman, who also happens to be the founding director of the George W. Bush Institute at the former president s library in Dallas, officially announced he was backing Clinton and hailed her as by far the superior candidate. She has the experience. She s got the character. She has the values, Glassman said. She is the kind of candidate I support and that, as I say, millions of republicans are supporting. Glassman may be the highest ranking Republican to decide that he would have to be batshit crazy to support Donald Trump, but he is far from alone. He joins a growing number of other Bush administration officials who have endorsed Clinton and denounced Trump s bid for the presidency. Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former aide to President Bush Lezlee Westine, and former Bush State Dept. and NSC official Kori Schake have all said that they are backing Clinton over Trump.Sally Bradshaw, who managed two campaigns for Jeb Bush when he was running for governor, has said that because she lives in a swing state, she will cast her vote for Clinton if the race in Florida is close in November. Other former Bush officials, including former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden, have strongly criticized the GOP nominee but have stopped just short of officially announcing their support for Clinton over Trump.Republican Rep. Richard Hanna, who decided a while ago that he would retire when his term is up, is currently the only elected Republican to officially declare that he is endorsing Clinton. However, there are many prominent conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have said that they refuse to vote for Trump even though they have not officially come out in support of Clinton.Featured image via YouTube | 0 |
8,637 | Saudi King Salman to visit White House early next year: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi King Salman on Wednesday and the two leaders agreed Salman will visit the White House early next year, the White House said in a statement. In the phone call, Trump and Salman also discussed ways to continue advancing shared priorities, including enhancing security and prosperity in the Middle East, the statement said. | 1 |
8,638 | WATCH SHOCKING INVASION OF ITALY: Will These “Economic Parasites” End Up In The US? [Video] | More than 1,400 migrants disembarked in Italy on Friday, the first of more than 4,400 who are expected to come ashore during the day after being picked up by rescue boats this week in the southern Mediterranean. The problem is this is not a reuse but an invasion enabled by the smugglers and the European Union. Italy and Europe are toast!Italy, along with France and Germany have agreed to draw up a code of conduct for charities operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean with the aim of bringing under control the growing influx of migrants. In the past few days alone, up to 12 thousand people have arrived in Italy from Africa, while more than 85 thousand have landed in the country since the beginning of this year. Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini discusses this issue of the increased risk of terrorism in italy:The Italians are fed up with the invasion:Locals of the Castell Umberto commune in Messina protested against the arrival of a new group of migrants, Saturday, with the Messina s mayor Vincenzo Civa Lionetto cutting off electricity supply to a former hotel, where the migrants were placed.HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL INVADERS SET UP CAMP NEAR GEORGE CLOONEY S LAKE COMO MANSION:The locals are telling it like it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfIkiny_O14 | 0 |
8,639 | House Republican says tax plan won't have specific rates | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican tax law writer in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday that he does not expect an upcoming tax reform framework to contain specific numbers on income tax rates for corporations and individuals. “Probably not that specificity,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said at a policy forum when asked if the plan due for release on Sept. 25 would include target tax rates for individuals and U.S. corporations. “You’re going to see clear approaches on where we want to go on business rates,” Brady added. “You’ll see where we’re going on individual rates.” Asked later about his remarks, the Republican told reporters that House leaders are still in discussions with their counterparts in the White House and Senate to determine what details would be included. “My point is that it won’t have specifics through every region of the tax code that everyone is interested in,” Brady said. | 1 |
8,640 | GOP Official Drops Bombshell During Angry Debate With Lou Dobbs Over John Kelly [Video] | Top GOP Official Ed Rollins was interviewed by a very angry Lou Dobbs. He was furious with the ringside performance of John Kelly aka drama queen during President Trump s UN speech (some are saying it was before the speech). The Chief of Staff should be behind the scenes How about he should be fired because he s not even a supporter of President Trump! HE VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON!Ed Rollins: At least what I ve heard from sources inside who know Kelly, he is an honorable man and a good general. He didn t vote for him. He voted for Hillary. So I don t think basically he is a Trump supporter or ideologically a Trump supporter.Whaaaaaat????? How can President Trump have a Chief of Staff that doesn t even follow his belief in policy?There is controversy over whether Kelly was was drama queen during or before Trump s speech. If it was before then this is a great case of the Democrats trying to sabotage Trump again. No matter what happened, it s still shocking that Trump would have a Chief of Staff who isn t on bird with his policy. | 0 |
8,641 | jordanian bedouin poet proposes to tiffany trump asks her to wear burka | november by aht staff egypt says no to saudi drafts generals and pilots to fight alongside syrian army against isis syria finds new partner in fight against isis shares
the small jump needed for egyptiansyrian relations to go back to normal that syrian prime minister walid almuallem spoke of has been achieved apparently mohammad ballout from assafir lebanese daily reported that some egyptian military formations have recently arrived to syria signaling an end to the time where egypt simply stood by hands crossed looking at the goingson in syria
it seems that the egyptians have sent helicopter pilots to the hamah airbase and it is hoped that they will see action in joint egyptiansyrian operations
four senior egyptian military figures also joined the unit when it first came to syria and two major generals have been operating at the armed forces staff headquarters in damascus near the operations room the two major generals have been touring the fronts since they arrived a month ago and have been reviewing the efforts made at the fronts most recently the southern front at quneitra
these new developments are apparently the result of intensive unannounced high profile security meetings that began over a year ago between cairo and damascus arab sources also expect that these developments will go beyond these symbolic operations and will see egyptian task forces operating on a large scale in support of the syrian army
moreover a senior syrian security official also said that the egyptians have promised to send forces to syria and have schedule postdecember rd as the zerohour whereupon egyptian participation in syria will escalate another official also revealed that after december a large number of egyptian forces will also participate in the syrian operations and their participation will not be limited to aerial support more | 0 |
8,642 | 'Everything but Hillary Clinton,' France's Le Pen says, backing Trump | PARIS (Reuters) - France’s far-right National Front party leader, Marine Le Pen, voiced support for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would bring war and hardship to the world. Le Pen is a candidate in France’s April 2017 presidential election. While her increasingly popular party thrives on anti-immigration sentiment, she has been more careful in her speeches than Trump has been so as to make her party more mainstream. “As far as France’s best interest is concerned it’s, ‘Everything but Hillary Clinton’,” Le Pen told CNN in an interview hen asked which U.S. candidate she would support. “It’s everything but Hillary Clinton because I believe Hillary Clinton means war, Hillary Clinton means devastation, destabilizing the world, economic choices that would be devastating for my people, geostrategic choices that would lead to global conflicts.” Opinion polls see Le Pen making it to an early May run-off in France’s presidential election but losing that second round to a mainstream candidate as a majority of voters do not want her as president, despite her growing popularity. She shares with Trump a strategy that banks on presenting herself as “anti-system.” “What we have in common is that we’re not insiders, we are not taking part in the ‘system’, we depend on no one and do not take our orders from any financial institutions,” she told CNN in the interview taped and released on Wednesday. Trump has been rebuked by opponents for his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States. He has faced criticism even from within his own party for comments seen as insulting women, Muslims and Mexican immigrants. | 1 |
8,643 | Trump Suggests Banning Moderators At Debates: Matt Lauer ‘Was Tough On Me’ | Matt Lauer s performance as moderator of the IAVA Commander-in-Chief Forum was roundly slammed, but according to Donald Trump, the morning show host was not easy on him. So, Donald has come up with a way for the debates to treat him fairly. The GOP thin-skinned presidential nominee thinks there should be no moderators.Donald pulled the system is being gamed card. As far as the debates are concerned, the system is being gamed because everybody said that I won the debate, you know, the so-called forum that your group put on, Trump said. But they all said I won and that Matt Lauer was easy on me. Well he wasn t. He was I thought he was very professional, I have to be honest. I think he s been treated very unfairly, but they all said that I won, and what they re doing is they re gaming the system so that when I go into the debate, I m gonna get be treated very, very unfairly by the moderators. Donald added that Lauer, wasn t nice to me. He was tough on me. He gave me tough [questions]. I answered them better than she did. That must have been a different debate than the one we all watched. #LaueringTheBar quickly trended on Twitter. Lauer interrupted Hillary repeatedly while letting Donald speak without calling out the Republican candidate s lies. Meanwhile, Edward Murrow is spinning in his grave. The fact is, that they re gaming the system, and I think, maybe, we should have no moderator, Donald said. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate because I think the system is being rigged so it s gonna be a very unfair debate, and I can see it happening right now because everyone s saying that he was soft on Trump, he continued. Well now the new person s gonna try to be really hard on Trump just to show, you know, the establishment what he can do. So I think it s very unfair what they re doing. So I think we should have a debate with no moderators just Hillary and I sitting there talking. On Monday, Trump-backing CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord echoed Donald s thoughts on banning moderators for the debates. Has anyone seen Lord and Trump in the same room together? They might be the same person. They sure sound exactly alike.If Donald is afraid of a moderator, then he wouldn t fare well in talks with a world leader.Featured image via Mark Wallheiser/Getty | 0 |
8,644 | New York’s Attorney General Could Literally Put Trump Out Of Business | After perhaps the worst day in presidential history, something is brewing in New York that could do far more damage than any political scandal ever could. It could put Trump completely out of business.A group in New York State is petitioning New York s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, long a critic of Trump, is being urged to pull Trump s business charter altogether.The group is called Free Speech for People. They, like many liberal advocacy groups, are best known for ill-fated petitions, like this one attempting to impeach Trump. However, things could be different this time because of timing.The group did not unearth any new information about Trump s company. Instead, it dug up the company s past legal infractions, such settlements over housing discrimination charges in the 1970s and fraud allegations at Trump University last year, and argued that Schneiderman ought to take action against the company now that Trump has become president and declined to sell his interests. By continuing to operate under Trump family ownership and control with President Trump in the White House, the Trump Organization flagrantly abuses its state-granted powers, contrary to the public policies of New York against corruption and conflicts of interest, and contrary to the U.S. Constitution, the letter reads.Source: Washington PostWith one breaking scandal after another since the day Trump took office (less than four weeks ago), the public mood, especially in blue state New York, it turning against the wannabe dictator. Between Trump s Russia scandals (potential treason) and the fact that Trump refuses to divest himself from his business interests.While most in politics might dismiss the letter as being from liberal cranks (conservative cranks are typically the only ones politicians pay attention to), Free Speech for People have chosen the right target. Schneiderman has been fighting Trump since before Trump became a birther. He s currently in the process of suing Trump over immigration and he was one of the plaintiffs in the Trump University case.Schneiderman has acknowledged the letter, which is more than most would likely give us. Let s hope he takes up the cause. If you are in New York, contact Schneiderman s office at 800-771-7755.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images. | 0 |
8,645 | Peace prospects dead if Trump moves U.S. embassy to Jerusalem: Palestinian aide | JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Palestinian official warned on Friday that implementation of Donald Trump’s pledge to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would destroy any prospects for peace with Israel, even as a spokesman for the U.S. President-elect said he remained committed to the move. Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, issued the grim prediction just a day after Trump announced his decision to nominate as ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a pro-Israel hardliner who supports continued building of Jewish settlements and shifting the embassy from Tel Aviv. Speaking to foreign journalists, Erekat said Jerusalem was a final-status issue to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians, who also want it as the capital of a future independent state. Successive U.S. administrations have avoided formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. If Trump makes good on his campaign promise, it would up-end decades of U.S. policy, enrage the Muslim world and draw international condemnation. Jerusalem is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians. “No one should take any decisions which may preempt or prejudge (negotiations) because this will be the destruction of the peace process as a whole,” Erekat said, according to a transcript provided by an aide. The last U.S.-backed talks on statehood collapsed in 2014. He further warned of dire consequences if Israel annexes settlements built on occupied land. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and close friend of Trump who has no diplomatic experience, has advocated the idea of Israel annexing the West Bank, as it did with Arab East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move not recognized internationally. Erekat said he would like to look Trump and Friedman in the eye and tell them “if you were to take these steps of moving the embassy and annexing settlements in the West Bank, you are sending this region to more chaos, lawlessness and extremism.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had a fractious relationship with President Barack Obama, was satisfied with Friedman’s appointment, according to the Israeli website Ynet, and several members of his right-wing government welcomed the choice. Liberal Jewish-American groups have raised objections over positions he has stated in writings and press interviews, which they see as a rejection of a two-state solution, a longtime bedrock of U.S. Middle East policy, and alignment with Israel’s far right. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect “remains firmly committed” to relocating the embassy but that it was “premature” to present a timetable for such a move. U.S.-based analysts said that while Friedman’s appointment could signal a break with longstanding U.S. policy as well as Obama’s sometimes tough approach to ally Israel, U.S. ambassadors typically do not drive Middle East policy and it was still unclear how far Trump would be prepared to go. Friedman, who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, declined to answer questions when contracted by Reuters. “I’ll do that at some point, but I’m not providing any comments just yet,” he said. In Thursday’s announcement, Friedman said he looked forward to doing the job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.” “Appointing David Friedman ... is a positive declaration of intent,” Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked tweeted. “David is a true friend of Israel.” Friedman has also called liberal Jewish Americans supporting a two-state solution “worse than kapos,” a reference to Jewish prisoners in World War Two concentration camps assigned by Nazi guards to supervise fellow inmates. J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, told supporters Friedman’s appointment was “unacceptable” and it would fight to persuade U.S. senators not to confirm his nomination. | 1 |
8,646 | TRUMP GIVES BRUTAL WARNING To Lawless Sanctuary Cities…There’s A New Sheriff In Town [Video] | .@KrisKobach1787: Trump has made clear that sanctuary cities could lose federal grants if the mayors continue to defy federal law pic.twitter.com/mGrYjDCdFi FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) November 15, 2016 | 0 |
8,647 | Insight: Rap and the Party: China taps youth culture to hook millennial cadres | BEIJING (Reuters) - In his baseball cap and baggy yellow t-shirt, the rap star Li Yijie - better known by his stage name Pissy - is an unlikely face of China s strait-laced ruling Communist Party. His group, Tianfu Shibian, has won fans and the support of the party s youth league with songs like Force of Red and This is China that chime with President Xi Jinping s nationalist vision of China and its place in the world. Under Xi, set to begin a second five-year term at a key party congress next month, the once-hidebound Communist Party has sought to revitalise its role in society amid challenges to its traditional authority as the country gets richer, more mobile and more digitally connected. The party's modernising push also comes as a significant number of educated Chinese millennials, faced with a tough job market and high housing costs in big cities, have grown disillusioned about their career and life prospects. The party s effort extends increasingly to co-opting swathes of Chinese popular culture, such as Tianfu Shibian. At the same time, the government is cracking down on online content and entertainment that strays beyond the narrowing definitions of what is acceptable. If the Party sticks to the old ways, it will only be more and more rejected by young people, said Li, 23, whose band s name means Tianfu Incident . Tianfu refers to the region around Chengdu, the band s home city in western Sichuan province. We need to stand up and say: Why can t younger folks be more patriotic? he said during an interview in Beijing. We need to step into this system, he said. If the post-1990 generations don t enter the system, what is our country going to do? said Li. Beijing has the same idea. It has latched onto other acts like TFBOYS, a wholesome boy band whose three members each have nearly 30 million followers on the popular microblog Weibo, to help spread the Party message. The band often appears at Youth League events. This kind of propaganda is a step forward that better suits the demands of its audience, said Qiao Mu, a media researcher and former professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Ordinary people are now rejecting the old preaching ways of the People s Daily newspaper and CCTV News, he said, referring to the Party s official newspaper and China s state broadcaster. On its Bilibili account - a video site popular with China s post 1990s generation - the Communist Youth League has posted hundreds of videos this year interspersing patriotic raps with more traditional fare such as defence ministry briefings. One such guichu a fast-paced clip of repeated images, sounds and catchy music calls on citizens to be on the lookout and report people they suspect are spies to the authorities. Tianfu Shibian shot to prominence in 2016 voicing patriotic values in sometimes expletive-filled songs. Force of Red attacked Tsai Ing-Wen, the president of Taiwan, an independently governed island that Beijing considers a renegade province. There s only one China, HK, Taipei, they are my fellas, ran the lyrics of the song in English, along with expletives aimed at Tsai and her government: Far away from us you forget how to act. Even dogs know to come home with a thankful bark. The music video went viral, racking up more than 7 million views on the band s Twitter-like Sina Weibo feed and catching the attention of the Communist Youth League, a training ground for elite cadres within the 90-million-strong Communist Party. The group s next outing - This is China - came with production support from a Youth League-backed music studio, though the band says there was no other financial backing. The party connection deepened in September last year when Beijing sent the band to Woody Island, in a disputed area of the South China Sea, to film a music video rebuking an international tribunal ruling that rejected China s claims in the area. Li said the group now has ties across China s propaganda related agencies, and frequently dines with officials to exchange ideas. In return they ve cleaned up their act to fit with Beijing s drive towards more wholesome content. While their songs are unabashedly pro-China, Tianfu Shibian s lyrics also touch on problems in contemporary China, including tainted food, corruption, and pollution. Critique with rationality has its place in our songs, but we despise those who keep complaining blindly, Li told Reuters. Not everyone is a fan. A song by the band praising the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong was criticised online as glossing over China s Cultural Revolution, a period of chaos and violence between 1966-1976 in which some historians estimate as many as 1.5 million people died. Others online have dismissed the band as a propaganda machine, calling it wumao - roughly 50-cents - a reference to those paid by the government to post patriotic comments online. While countercultural or subversive art has long been at the fringes in China, it has all-but been extinguished in the Xi era, with censors banning not only politically incorrect material but also clamping down on negativity. China s most internationally recognised artist, Ai Weiwei, a fierce critic of Beijing, spent time under house arrest and finally left China in 2015. He had helped design Beijing s Bird s Nest stadium for the 2008 Olympics. Erstwhile rock and roll rebels have cleaned up their acts to placate censors or been sidelined. Zuoxiao Zuzhou - a music producer who was banned by the government from 2011-2014 for his connection to Ai Weiwei - is one who has chosen to toe the government line. With great difficulty, Zuoxiao Zuzhou has now established an image that is relatively acceptable to society, his agent, Qin Baogui, told Reuters, declining an interview with the artist because of the sensitivity of the topic. Cui Jian, whose 1986 Nothing to My Name became an unofficial anthem for students demonstrating during the deadly 1989 Tiananmen protests, pulled out of a show on Chinese state television in 2014 because he was told he would not be allowed to sing the song, his manager said at the time. On the flip side, films and music that embrace the party have benefited from state support to tap China s huge fan bases. The overtly patriotic Wolf Warrior 2 became China s top grossing film after its July release, helped in part by strong state media support. Last month, U.S. organizers aiming to bring Grammy Award artists to China said they would only promote artists with a positive and healthy image. As for Li, he is currently working on a song in the run-up to next month s Communist Party Congress, called A Letter to President Xi Jinping. However, Li has not joined the party himself - though it s some distance from youthful rebellion. It s too troublesome and complicated to write an application letter, he said. | 1 |
8,648 | House Republicans consider reviving healthcare push: lawmaker | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering a renewed push to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare sometime in the next month, lawmakers and aides said on Tuesday after the collapse of the effort last week. U.S. Representative Dave Brat, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus that blocked the White House-backed bill, came out of a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they were looking at ways to try passing legislation again. Congressional aides and other lawmakers confirmed the move. | 1 |
8,649 | POLICE DEPT CANCELS “HIGH-FIVE” A COP At Elementary School Over Concerns Of Offending “Undocumented Children…Kids Of Color” | It s official the inmates are running the asylum A police department in Northampton, Massachusetts is ending its High-Five Friday program at local elementary schools due to concerns that undocumented children and others may feel uncomfortable seeing an officer at school.The program, started by the Northampton Police Department in December, had officers stand outside of a school each Friday morning to high-five students as they walked in to begin the day. WFBToday was High-5 Friday at Bridge St School! Thanks to everyone who participated! The kids and officers all had fun! #highfiveHere are a few tweets that were sent out by the NPD highlighting their high-five program with kids:Today was High-5 Friday at Bridge St School! Thanks to everyone who participated! The kids and officers all had fun! #highfive pic.twitter.com/Trz0yoW3Qh Northampton Police (@NorthamptonPD) December 9, 2016Today was High-Five Friday! Thanks to Jackson St School for hosting! We hope that everyone had a great time! Happy Friday!! #highfive pic.twitter.com/MWY6JBlHlK Northampton Police (@NorthamptonPD) January 6, 2017Here is part of their Facebook explanation for doing away with the high-five program:This is the same Northampton Police Department by the way, that celebrated the great turn-out for the nasty women march that was really about protesting Trump and defending abortion. Does it make you feel any safer when you see a police department bragging about their promotion of lawless liberal politics? | 0 |
8,650 | Moldova recalls ambassador from Moscow as dispute escalates | KIEV/CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova recalled its ambassador to Russia for consultations in response to the harassment and intimidation by Russian authorities of Moldovan politicians and officials, the Moldovan foreign ministry said on Monday. Moldova and Russia have been embroiled in a series of rows this year, including tit-for-tat expulsions of each other s diplomats in May and Moldova declaring the Russian deputy prime minister persona non grata in August. The Chisinau government says its officials are being mistreated partly to derail a Moldovan investigation into an alleged Russian-led money laundering operation. Russia has accused Moldova of some openly anti-Russian actions . In announcing the ambassador s recall, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website: We will look for ways to overcome the current situation so that in the future such actions are avoided, which can spoil Moldovan-Russian relations, which the Moldovan side wants to be friendly, trusting and based on respect for each other. Ex-Soviet Moldova is politically divided between a pro-Western government, which favors closer integration with the European Union, and Russian-backed President Igor Dodon. In December the head of Moldova s ruling party, Vlad Plahotniuc, accused Russian authorities of harassing him and other officials with dozens of bogus legal cases intended to put him on international law enforcement watch lists. | 1 |
8,651 | Marco Rubio’s Attempt To Sweet Talk A Gay Voter In A New Hampshire Bar Ends In Tears (IMAGE) | Florida Republican senator and presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has spent much of his political life and campaign making life harder for LGBT people. So what happened when he was confronted by a real life gay man in new Hampshire on Monday? Nothing good.On Monday February 8th, openly gay 50-year-old Timothy Kierstead was enjoying a drink with his mother and his husband in the wonderfully appropriately named Puritan Backroom diner, when he was approached by Marco Rubio during a campaign event. He asked the candidate a very simple question: Why do you want to put me back in the closet? The color leeched from Rubio s face as he realized he d definitely come to the wrong table.The New York Times reports that the candidate, when face-to-face with Kierstead, responded: I don t You can live any way you want. But it did not end there. As The Times continues: Mr. Rubio, who is seeking to win over conservatives, is seldom asked about gay rights at his campaign stops.During a brief conversation, Mr. Kierstead, 50, told Mr. Rubio that he was married but complained that the senator s position amounted to him declaring that we don t matter. Mr. Rubio, who was standing with his youngest son, Dominick, 8, by his side, gently disagreed. No, I just believe marriage is between one man and one woman. Well, replied Mr. Kierstead, that s your belief. Mr. Rubio continued: I think that s what the law should be. And if you don t agree you should have the law changed by a legislature. Rubio was reminded by Mr. Keirstad that this is exactly what the LGBT community had done, and that the Senator and his party were seeking to have their religious prejudices supersede the law of the land. In fact, just last December, Rubio told Chuck Todd: It is the current law. I don t believe any case law is settled law. Any future Supreme Court can change it. I don t think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage, What is wrong is that the Supreme Court has found this hidden constitutional right that 200 years of jurisprudence had not discovered and basically overturned the will of the voters in Florida, where over 60 percent passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage in the state constitution as the union of one man and one woman. In short, Rubio doesn t believe that the Constitution gives federal government the right to regulate marriage, unless it is regulating against the rights of same-sex couples. Rubio doesn t want the government regulating his access to guns, yet he is totally in favor of the government regulating the access of same-sex couples to marriage. This hypocrisy reveals that for Rubio and his fellow Republicans, the government can never be too big, so long it is enforcing their prejudices.Rubio, suddenly lost the courage of his convictions, tried to remove himself from the situation at the soonest opportunity. The campaign also did it s best to pretend the incident never even happened.Enjoyed meeting voters at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, NH today. #fitn pic.twitter.com/S7VVTtnY40 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 8, 2016With his campaign polls going into free fall, his robotic performances being heavily criticized, and his failure to win round the Puritan Backroom isn t it time Rubio slipped quietly into the night and declared what we all know to be true? It s game over for Marco Rubio. Featured image from Twitter | 0 |
8,652 | WATCH DINESH D’SOUZA’S GREAT COMEBACK To A Student Who Called Him A “Hack” [Video] | If you want to call me a hack, you should probably be able to point out at least one thing I said that was demonstrably false. pic.twitter.com/3UCo3z2umH Dinesh D Souza (@DineshDSouza) March 26, 2017 | 0 |
8,653 | U.S. lawmaker wants North Korea out of the U.N. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate s East Asia subcommittee is asking China and 20 other nations on Monday to clamp down on North Korea by cutting ties, closing down diplomatic facilities and working to oust the country from the United Nations. As North Korea has defied U.N. Security resolutions to conduct nuclear and ballistic missile tests, Washington has been scrambling for an effective response. Many of President Donald Trump s fellow Republicans have been calling for tougher action, imposed more quickly, including calling for stiff secondary sanctions and other punishments for companies, banks and countries that do business with North Korea. In a letter seen by Reuters that will be sent to ambassadors from China and 20 other countries, Republican Senator Cory Gardner, the subcommittee chairman, asked that the countries immediately end diplomatic and economic relations with Pyongyang. Maintaining official diplomatic relations with a regime that continues to defy international law and threaten nations across the globe only serves to reward nefarious behavior, wrote Gardner. In addition to cutting off bilateral ties, I urge your government to support expelling the DPRK from the United Nations, the letter said. Gardner recently introduced legislation that would impose a U.S. economic embargo against any entity that does business with North Korea. The U.S. military staged bombing drills with South Korea over the Korean peninsula and Russia and China began naval exercises ahead of a U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday where North Korea s nuclear threat is likely to loom large. Gardner s letter will be sent to ambassadors to the United States from China, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden and Vietnam. | 1 |
8,654 | Libyan coast guard intercepts nearly 300 migrants east of Tripoli | TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya s coastguard intercepted 299 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries on two rubber boats east of Tripoli on Tuesday, officials said. The migrants were intercepted near the town of Zliten by one of several coastguard vessels that Italy repaired and delivered to Libya earlier this year. Libya s western shoreline is the main departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat, many of them fleeing conflict or poverty. Crossings have dropped sharply since July, when an armed group in the smuggling hub of Sabratha began blocking departures. Under pressure from Italy and other European states, Libya s coastguard has also become increasingly active, patrolling more widely and intercepting migrants before they can reach international rescue vessels. As of Oct. 24, more than 18,800 migrants had been intercepted so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. More than 111,000 had crossed to Italy, the vast majority from Libya. The group picked up on Tuesday was brought back to Tripoli port and was being transferred to a detention center in Tajoura, a suburb of the capital. It included about 15 children and 25 women, said coastguard official Ali al-Shebrak. A reporter saw one newborn child crying from hunger as his mother, barely able to walk, was given medical treatment from an ambulance. (Refiles to correct day of week from Thursday to Tuesday) | 1 |
8,655 | Leaked Audio: CEO Of CBS Gleefully Celebrates The Rise Of Donald Trump (VIDEO) | Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS, one of the three largest media outlets in the United States, was recently caught on tape gleefully celebrating the rise of Donald Trump.During an investor meeting held at the end of February, Moonves laughingly told the audience that the rise of Trump may not be good for America, but it s damn good for CBS. Moonves says, Man, who would have expected the ride we re all having right now? This is pretty amazing. An ecstatic Moonves then goes on to ask, Who would have thought that this circus would come to town? As he tells investors that the Trump show has been damn good, for company profits, the entire room explodes with laughter.Barely able to contain himself, Moonves tells the crowd that the money s rolling in. What can I say, he continues, still laughing, This is fun. After saying that he s never seen anything like what s going on in American politics today, with presidential candidates throwing bombs at each other, and not even talking about the issues, Moonves rejoices over the fact that the marketplace is flooded with money, and then proclaims that This is going to be a very good year for us. It s no surprise that America s trust in the mainstream media has fallen to a historic low.What is somewhat surprising is the fact that 40 percent of the Americans still think that the mainstream media is trustworthy. Journalistic integrity and ethics in reporting went out the window with the end of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s. It was further eroded by media consolidation, which began in the 1990s, after the Telecommunications Act was passed.Today, six networks own 90 percent of the U.S. media.If you thought those companies were interested in something other than generating as much money as possible, you won t after you hear Moonves comments and listen to the laughter coming from those who stand to make a lot of money off the evil Donald Trump is spreading across our country.Watch the video below from Thom Hartmann on YouTube. The audio starts at roughly 4:15. The founders of our country understood that a free and independent media is essential to a healthy democracy.In the U.S., the press is no longer the watchdog of government that it once was. Instead, as this leaked audio shows us, it is simply the means through which giant corporations rake in huge profits for their shareholders, unphased by trivial things like what s best for the country or even what s ethical or moral.As the New York Times reported here on March 15, the media s coverage of candidates in the 2016 elections has been anything but equal or fair.The numbers shown on the chart below represent millions of dollars in media coverage, comparing paid advertising to free coverage each candidate has gotten from the media.Image credit: screen capture New York TimesAs you can see from the graph, the mainstream media has spent a huge amount of time on Donald Trump coverage, while also neglecting every other candidate in the race.What this leaked recording should tell us is that we need to stop tuning in to everything Trump. Since there s no doubt that the media is motivated by profit alone, the best way to address the problem (outside of legislation) is to stop tuning in to the media s non-stop coverage of Donald Trump.If we want Trump to go away, and most of us do, the best way we can make that happen is for the public to quit rewarding the media for their excessive coverage of Trump, which is coming at the expense of all the other candidates, and our democracy.Image credit: video screen capture Thom Hartmann on youtube | 0 |
8,656 | New Zealand PM says ban on foreign home buyers to start early 2018 | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday a ban on foreigners buying existing homes would begin in early 2018, but the restrictions would not apply to Australians. Ardern campaigned in the recent New Zealand election to restrict foreign buyers to reduce demand, while the country tackles what her Labour party says is a housing crisis left unresolved by the previous National administration. We are determined to make it easier for Kiwis to buy their first home so we are stopping foreign speculators buying houses and driving up prices. Kiwis should not be outbid like this, said Ardern in an emailed statement, using the colloquial term for New Zealanders. The politically sensitive housing crunch has seen prices rise more than 50 percent nationally in the last decade. In the city of Auckland, prices have almost doubled in that period. The central bank sees fast-rising prices as a major economic risk. The ban would not apply to Australians, Ardern said, given New Zealanders are exempt from home ownership restrictions in neighboring Australia, where many New Zealanders live. Ardern told reporters that legislation would be introduced in parliament by Dec. 25. The restrictions were being fast-tracked so that Labour would not have to renegotiate foreign investment provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, after a long series of talks to revive the agreement since the United States pulled out in January. The TPP currently requires its 11 member states to give foreign investors equal treatment to locals unless there are specific exemptions. New Zealand had no such grounds for an outright ban on overseas investment in housing, but its Overseas Investment Act is exempted from the trade deal. By adding housing to that legislation, Labour will be able to go ahead with the ban without having to request any changes to the TPP when ministers meet on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam next week to finalize the agreement. Ardern said that New Zealand would instead focus on renegotiating rules allowing investors to sue member countries included in the TPP, though she acknowledged it would be difficult to get large changes so late in negotiations. Some government figures show the number of home sales including foreigners is only around 3 percent, though Labour has criticized that data and says it excludes many types of owners, including those who purchase property through trusts. It is very important that we preserve these rights for New Zealand, Trade Minister David Parker told reporters. | 1 |
8,657 | FLESH EATING DISEASE IN AMERICA? Yep…Syrian Refugees May Be Bringing Disease With Them | And here we thought terrorism was the only thing we needed to be concerned about There is a risk that Middle Eastern refugees entering the U. S . could be infected with a flesh-eating disease that is sweeping across Syria.Health agencies confirmed that Syrian refugees have transported leishmaniasis to Lebanon and Turkey, where it has been difficult to manage and treat.Compounding the problem, patients can be infected with the parasitic disease without showing symptoms for weeks, months, or even years, and an asymptomatic patient most likely doesn t know that he or she is a carrier. This means the health screening process for refugees could miss the disease entirely .Breitbart Jerusalem spoke with healthcare experts, including an epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC s Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch, which is responsible for guiding the medical screening of the Syrian refugees seeking to enter the U.S.Volcano-like ulcersLeishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is spread almost entirely by sandflies, including those present in the U.S.There are three main types of the disease: cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral leishmaniasis.Cutaneous is the most common form among Syrians. It manifests in skin sores that typically develop within a few weeks or months of a sand fly bite. The sores can initially appear as bumps or nodules and may evolve into volcano-like ulcers.Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis causes skin ulcers like the cutaneous form , as well as mucosal ulcers that usually damage the nose and mouth.Visceral leishmaniasis, which has also been found among Syrian refugees, is the most serious form and can be fatal. It damages internal organs, usually the spleen and liver, and also affects bone marrow.Refugees transmit to Lebanon, Turkey; threat to Europe, U.S. L ast year, the CDC published a study of a September 2012 outbreak among Syrian refugees. The investigation found:Fifty-nine percent of patients had more than one of the following: disease compromising the function of vital sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, and mouth) (27%); lesions of greater than 5 cm in diameter (49%); disfiguring facial lesions (37%); special forms, such as sporotrichoid or lymphangietic with satellite lesions (9%); and lesions present for more than 12 months duration.Earlier this month, the news media hyped a story that the Islamic State was causing the spread of leishmaniasis, because as the U . K . s Mirror newspaper put it - militants were slaughtering innocent people and dumping their bodies in the street. L eishmaniasis has been spreading like wildfire in Syria since the health system collapsed in rebel-held territories in 2011. By 2012, there were already 52,982 documented cases of the disease in SyriaAlso in 2012, the CDC documented that migration patterns of refugees with cutaneous leishmanias is were identified in Lebanon, with the health agency producing a helpful illustration showing the disease s movement from cities in Syria to regions in Lebanon. The peer-reviewed medical journal Pathogens noted that Lebanon had no cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis prior to 2008 and only sporadic cases in the following years. After the arrival of refugees, 1,033 cases were confirmed by 2012, 96.6% (998) of which were among Syrian refugees. Writing at AHC Media, a publication for healthcare professionals, Dr. Philip R. Fischer, Professor of Pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic, documented the spread to Turkey as well: As Syrians leave their homeland, they sometimes carry their germs with them. There have been dramatic increases in the number of cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in southeastern Turkey. In Turkey, 69% of cutaneous leishmaniasis patients are Syrians living in tent cities.Fischer also noted a significant risk of the disease spreading to Europe with the arrival of Syrian refugees.As recent news reports have shown , many Syrian refuges don t stay in Turkey and Lebanon. There is a significant risk that cutaneous leishmaniasis will reemerge in southern Europe, where the natural vector of the L. tropica parasite already exists.Leishmaniasis has been endemic to Syria for centuries. Fischer noted that in 1756 a British physician referred to the illness as Aleppo boil and Aleppo evil. However, it was minimized over time due to the advent of insecticides.Medical screeningRefugees who enter the U.S. must undergo medical screening according to protocols established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Each refugee must submit to a physical examination, including a skin test and possibly a chest x-ray to check for tuberculosis, as well as a blood test for syphilis.The blood tests do not currently look for leishmani a sis. Clearly, an attending doctor could easily spot a patient with obvious skin ulcers. However, leishmani a sis cannot be detected upon physical examination if the patient is asymptomatic, as can be the case for years.Dr. Heather Burke, an epidemiologist from the CDC s Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch, explained to Breitbart News that there is generally a window of three to six months from the initial physical examination until a refugee departs for the U.S.She said a medical examination is valid for six months, and explained that patients undergo a second examination just prior to departure - a quicker fitness to fly screening. While she conceded that this final examination is not thorough, she said it would pick up any visible skin lesions. Burke told Brei tbart Jerusalem that she is not aware of a single case of leishmaniasis entering the U.S. via Syrian refugees.Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, warned that most doctors in the U.S. know nothing about leishmaniasis. We d all need to refer patients to tropical diseases specialists, she told Breitbart Jerusalem. The treatments are toxic and expensive, and some are not widely available. For Orient, the only sensible public health policy is for all refugees to pass through a quarantined place like Ellis Island. Officials need to know where they ve been and what diseases occur there. We need sophisticated, reliable screening methods and excellent vector control in any areas where refugees stay. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
8,658 | Trump Doesn’t Want You To Know About This Study That PROVES Refugees Contribute To Our Economy | Trump administration officials who were under pressure from the White House scrapped a study which found that refugees had brought in more government revenue overall than they had cost in benefits, the New York Times reports. The Trump administration has been unable to rationalize its move to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, so it rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services which concluded that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past ten years than they cost.The New York Times reports:The draft report, which was obtained by The New York Times, contradicts a central argument made by advocates of deep cuts in refugee totals as President Trump faces an Oct. 1 deadline to decide on an allowable number. The issue has sparked intense debate within his administration as opponents of the program, led by Mr. Trump s chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, assert that continuing to welcome refugees is too costly and raises concerns about terrorism.Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer has claimed that he was a mentor of Stephen Miller s and said that his mentee is a white nationalist. Miller denied that affiliation with Spencer, but his actions prove that he s an extremist.The study concluded that refugees contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of government between 2005 and 2014 via the payment of federal, state and local taxes. Overall, this report estimated that the net fiscal impact of refugees was positive over the 10-year period, at $63 billion. The White House claims that the study was politically motivated. This leak was delivered by someone with an ideological agenda, not someone looking at hard data, a White House spokesman said. The actual report pursuant to the presidential memorandum shows that refugees with few skills coming from war-torn countries take more government benefits from the Department of Health and Human Services than the average population, and are not a net benefit to the U.S. economy. According to two sources, Miller personally intervened to ensure that only the costs and not any fiscal benefit of the program were considered, so it appears that he intentionally left out a few major details.Trump has filled his administration with swamp-like creatures, including Steve Bannon, who once played a large role in the White House, and Stephen Miller who still occupies Trump s ear.Photo: Alex Wong via Getty images. | 0 |
8,659 | GOOD MORNING AMERICA Travels All The Way To Melania Trump’s Homeland Of Slovenia To Trash Her [VIDEO] | The GMA reporter shows several random people on the streets of Sevnica, Slovenia a picture of Donald and Melania Trump and asks, Do you know who this is? Here are their responses: I have no idea. Oh yeah. That s Donald Trump s wife that is from Slovenia. I don t particularly like Donald Trump, because she s also ashamed from being from Slovenia. Oh it looks like to be the new American President, so that would be his quasi-English speaking wife. I don t like this Trump Melania, she s there because she was searching for really better life. So that s why she found a husband. We are small nation, so everyone who succeeded in the world is a story of success. She s a bad ad for Slovenia. She talks like, I don t know, like she doesn t like us anymore. I don t know, she s more for Hollywood than for the White House. | 0 |
8,660 | ‘Piece Of Sh*t’: GOP Senator Immediately Regrets Trolling Bernie Sanders Over Trumpcare | The Republican healthcare plan is a travesty and the numbers don t lie. Sen. Orrin Hatch does, though. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tweeted on Thursday, Let us be clear and this is not trying to be overly dramatic: Thousands of people will die if the Republican health care bill becomes law. Sanders is correct but he s being stingy with his numbers. Actually, tens of thousands of our country s neediest will die if Trumpcare becomes law and all because Republicans want to gift the wealthy with a tax cut.Let us be clear and this is not trying to be overly dramatic: Thousands of people will die if the Republican health care bill becomes law. Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 23, 2017Medicaid saves lives and that s a fact that Hatch refuses to acknowledge. The Utah Senator responded to Sanders accurate tweet, saying, The brief time when we were *not* accusing those we disagree with of murder was nice while it lasted. The brief time when we were *not* accusing those we disagree with of murder was nice while it lasted. https://t.co/qr1rzon1cg Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) June 23, 2017When was that brief time, Orrin? Was it when Sarah Palin called Obamacare the death panels then when the Affordable Care Act became law, lives were saved. Trumpcare assures death to thousands of vulnerable Americans.Twitter users reacted swiftly to Hatch s tweet.Well you could stop trying to actively murder us while you line your pockets. Just see how that works out for public discourse. Dennis Perkins (@DennisPerkins5) June 24, 2017it is an unavoidable fact that people are going to die if this bill passes you useless cynical octogenarian piece of shit joe mande (@JoeMande) June 24, 2017 in this house we declare orrin hatch is a murderer David Kaib (@DavidKaib) June 24, 2017can we accuse you of trying to bankrupt people, then? Because that is also true Greg Olear (@gregolear) June 24, 2017Have you guys considered not trying to pass laws that will kill people? Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) June 24, 2017hey man. fellow verified account here. i can cuss at you without being banned so here goes: you are a crap person, mister! Virgil Texas (@virgiltexas) June 24, 2017But if thousands will die as a result, what do you call it, Senator? "A good tax cut?" HarleyPeyton (@HarleyPeyton) June 24, 2017Death panels, anyone? Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 24, 2017Stop trying to kill people then dickhead dan (@dannolan) June 24, 2017Stop trying to murder poor people Steve Schreiber (@sschreiber13) June 24, 2017fuck you. im putting you in the toilet you old bitch. fuck you jesse farrar (@BronzeHammer) June 24, 2017Vote no on the murder bill, Senator David Greenwald (@davidegreenwald) June 24, 2017Hey quick question who came up with "death panels" Victoria McNally (@vqnerdballs) June 24, 2017How rude of us to point out the fact that Trumpcare will kill thousands of us and wreck countless other lives. We must mind our manners. Lawrence Glickman (@LarryGlickman) June 24, 2017Well, we mustn't make our precious senators feel sad. That would be the greatest crime of all, apparently. Kevin Gannon (@TheTattooedProf) June 24, 2017You're a fucking murderer dude. Make peace with it. Prolific Jezzer ? (@leducviolet) June 24, 2017Healthcare is literally life and death. Life and death language utterly applies. Matt Debenham (@debenham) June 24, 2017You're a repulsive liar who cares about nothing but money. Fuck you for hurting the American people, you soulless fucking monster. beth ??? (@bourgeoisalien) June 24, 2017how can you stand being you 2ND AMENDMENT MUSLIM (@2dAmMuslim) June 24, 2017Obamacare is not perfect but Republicans insisted on a watered-down version before it passed and now we re left with a healthcare system that needs to be fixed but not eradicated. Some conservatives think that the GOP health care plan isn t cruel enough. We disagree with conservatives. This proposal to repeal Obamacare is cruel enough already. If it becomes law, it will destroy families, financially and emotionally. Sanders never mentioned the word murder in his tweet so we suspect that Hatch has a guilty conscience.As former Vice-President Joe Biden put it, Slashing Medicaid hurts kids, the elderly, people with disabilities and those struggling with addiction. All for tax breaks for the wealthy. Hatch already knows this. The opioid crisis is sweeping across the U.S. and Republicans want to target a program which would help some drug addicts eventually become useful citizens in this country. By the way, the Senator s state ranks 4th in overdose deaths.Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images. | 0 |
8,661 | Catalan commission to investigate claims of abuse during banned referendum | MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia will create a special commission to investigate claims of abuse by Spanish police during a banned referendum on independence on Sunday after more than 800 people were left injured, leader of region Carles Puigdemont said on Monday. Thousands of Spanish police were shipped in to the region to prevent the vote on secession though scenes of violence due to heavy-handed tactics by armored, baton-carrying riot units have received international condemnation. The vote which the constitutional court banned and Madrid said was illegal, yet still attracted millions of defiant voters, was valid and binding, Puigdemont said during a conference. The Catalan leader said he had had no contact with Spain s central government and called on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to say whether he was in favor of mediation in talks over the region s future, which should be overseen by the European Union. | 1 |
8,662 | Senator Lee to endorse Republican presidential candidate Cruz: reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah will endorse Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday, becoming the first member of the Senate to back Cruz, BuzzFeed News and Politico reported. Politico reported the pair would make the announcement later on Thursday at an event in Miami. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has slammed Cruz on the campaign trail for not having received any endorsements from fellow senators. Lee’s office could not confirm the reports. (Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Writing by Eric Beech) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
8,663 | BLACK CONGRESSMAN Plans To File Lawsuit Because Of Removal Of “POLICE AS PIGS” PAINTING From Capitol Building [Video] | Congressman Lacy Clay plans on filing a federal lawsuit regarding the removal of a painting that was taken down from display in the Capitol building because it portrayed police officers as pigs. The truth is that the painting broke the rules of a contest that took place to pick the painting that would hang in the capitol. Basically, this is grandstanding he has no case. Here s what kmov had to say about this new development: The office of a Democratic Missouri congressman says he intends to file a federal lawsuit over the removal of a constituent s painting from a display on Capitol Hill.The painting depicts protests in Ferguson, Missouri, that erupted after a police shooting of an unarmed black man.The painting depicts a pig in a police uniform pointing a gun at a protester. It was one of 400-plus winning entries in the Congressional Arts Competition.It was on display for more than seven months, but the Capitol architect removed the painting last month after some lawmakers complained.Congressman William Lacy Clay s office says he will file a suit Tuesday in response to what he claims is the arbitrary and unconstitutional disqualification and removal of the painting.The painting in the Capitol building at the center of controversy because it depicts the police as pigs will FINALLY COME DOWN!Missouri Democrat Lacy Clay has been in a tug of war with Republicans over whether it should hang in the hallway connecting the House office buildings to the Capitol. Several congressmen, including Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas) have, on separate occasions, removed the painting and returned it to Clay s office:FED UP GOP CONGRESSMAN Removes Cop-Hating Artwork Hung In U.S. Capitol By BLM Activist CongressmanBlack Caucus Chair Threatens Over Cops are Pigs Painting: We may just have to kick somebody s ass and stop them [Video]As it turns out, the painting is in violation of Suitability Guidelines :THE RULES PROHIBIT ART THAT DEPICTS subjects of contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature According to FOX News:Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers determined the painting violates the House Building Commission s rules and will be removed Tuesday after the federal holiday.Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), the former Sheriff of King County, Washington, wrote to Ayers demanding the artwork be removed, and arguing the painting is in clear violation of the Suitability Guidelines outlined in the official rules for the competition. In particular, Reichert asserted that the rules bar art that depicts subjects of contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature. Rohrabacher called the painting an insult to all police. | 0 |
8,664 | Medicaid cuts coming in Trump budget: Washington Post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, set to be unveiled on Tuesday, will include cuts to Medicaid and propose changes to other assistance programs for low-income citizens, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Republican healthcare bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in early May seeks to overhaul the national healthcare system and cut more than $800 billion over the next 10 years from Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled. The healthcare bill faces a difficult time in the Senate, where Democrats and some Republicans worry about its impact on costs for low-income Americans, among other issues. “In yet another broken promise to working people, President Trump’s budget pulls the rug out from so many who need help,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, in response to the report. “This budget is taking the fast lane to rejection by the American people and both parties in Congress” The Post report said the White House would also give individual U.S. states more autonomy over a variety of anti-poverty poverty programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the largest U.S. anti-hunger program, which was formerly called the food stamp program. More than 44 million Americans received benefits from the SNAP program in February, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. | 1 |
8,665 | what is going on with wikileaks | new leaked clinton emails came from the devices of anthony weiner shares by dean daniels october politics
on friday the fbi announced an investigation into newly leaked emails linked to hillary clinton in a surprising twist the new leaked emails from the private email server were discovered after the fbi confiscated electronic devices belonging to top aide huma abedin her controversial and perverted husband anthony weiner
officially the federal law enforcement agents are opening an investigation into weiner texting a yearold in north carolina and according to director comey the fbi were taking steps to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation
shortly after the announcement donald trump utilized the situation to advantage and running theme of clintons corruption at a rally in new hampshire supporters nearly cheered in complete unison lock her up
hillary clintons corruption is on a scale we have never seen before we must not let her take her criminal scheme into the oval office said trump to the roaring crowd
i have great respect for the fact that the fbi and the doj are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made mr trump said referring also to the department of justice this was a grave miscarriage of justice that the american people fully understand it is everybodys hope that it is about to be corrected
the fbis decision to reopen their criminal investigation into hillary clintons secret email server just days before the election shows how serious this discovery must be reince priebus the republican committee chairman said in a statement this stunning development raises serious questions about what records may not have been turned over and why and whether they show intent to violate the law
sign up to get alerts about dennis michael lynchs upcoming donald trump film and breaking news subscribe | 0 |
8,666 | Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga agree on ceasefire, Kurdistan says | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters reached an agreement on Friday to stop fighting in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said, although the status of any ceasefire remained unclear. A spokesman in Baghdad for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State earlier said the deal covered all fronts in the conflict, which broke out after Kurdish authorities held an independence referendum last month in areas of northern Iraq. However, he later told Reuters that the truce had not been officially agreed, while an Iraqi military spokesman declined to comment. According to the KRG, which is based in the Kurdish autonomous region s capital of Erbil, the ceasefire entered effect at 1 am on Friday (2200 GMT Thursday). The ceasefire is holding, Vahal Ali, the director of KRG President Masoud Barzani s media office, told Reuters. Diplomatic efforts are underway to set a date for talks to start between Erbil and Baghdad. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urging for dialogue to start, the Iraqi central government said in a statement. Iraqi government forces, Iranian-backed militias and Kurdish troops fought alongside each other to defeat Islamic State, also called ISIS, but the alliance has faltered with the militants largely defeated in the country. Iraqi government forces and the Tehran-backed Popular Mobilisation launched a surprise offensive on Oct. 16 in retaliation to the Sept. 25 independence referendum organized by the KRG. The offensive aims to capture disputed territories, claimed by both the KRG and the Iraqi central government, as well as border crossings and oil facilities. The city of Kirkuk, which lies in an oil producing area, fell to Iraqi forces without much resistance on Oct. 16 but the Peshmerga began to fight back as they withdrew closer to the Kurdish autonomous region. The most violent clashes happened in the northwestern corner where Peshmerga are defending land crossings to Turkey and Syria and an oil hub that controls KRG crude exports, located in the region of Fish-Khabur. Speaking in Geneva on Thursday, Tillerson said he was disappointed that the parties have been unable to reach an entirely peaceful resolution and that he had encouraged Abadi to accept the KRG overtures for talks on the basis of the Iraqi constitution . Both parties are talking with one another, but it is not an official ceasefire, U.S. Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman of the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, told Reuters, correcting an earlier statement in which he said a ceasefire had been agreed, In an interview with Kurdish TV Rudaw, Dillon called on the two sides to extend the deal to a complete halt in hostility and refocus our efforts on defeating ISIS . We are encouraging dialogue, we are trying to get the tensions down, he added. Abadi demanded on Thursday that the Kurds declare their referendum void, rejecting the KRG offer to suspend its independence push to resolve a crisis through talks. We won t accept anything but its cancellation and the respect of the Constitution, he said in a statement during a visit to Tehran. The KRG proposed on Wednesday an immediate ceasefire, a suspension of the referendum result and starting an open dialogue with the federal government based on the Iraqi Constitution . The fall of Kirkuk was a major blow to the Kurdish drive for independence championed by Barzani, as it halved the region s oil export revenue. | 1 |
8,667 | Trump Blamed Bernie Sanders For Campaign Violence, Here’s His Epic Response | Donald Trump is trying his best to blame the violence associated with his presidential campaign on anyone but the person who instigated it in the first place: himself.Reacting to criticism from the public, the media, and even his fellow Republican presidential candidates (who were largely silent on the violent rhetoric at Trump events before), Trump blamed the violence on the protesters who came out against his Chicago rally on Friday night and on Democratic candidate on Bernie Sanders.In response, the Sanders campaign absolutely crushed Trump s big lie.The campaign released a statement to reporters that began, as is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar. Sander then said, While I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests. That is a most likely a reference to video taken inside the rally showing loud cheers for Bernie! after it was announced that the Trump rally would be canceled (a decision, by the way, that Trump claimed came from police but which they denied).The statement continues, What caused the protests at Trump s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama. Sanders previously referenced those same birther attacks and their racially loaded nature during the Democratic debate on Univision earlier in the week.Then Sanders returned to the instigator of the violence, Donald Trump himself, and wrote, What caused the violence at Trump s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters. Sanders points out that Trump recently said he d like to punch a protester in the face and yearned for the days when a protester would be carried out on a stretcher. Sanders campaign also pointed out that Trump s campaign manager has been accused of assaulting a female reporter, Michelle Fields of the conservative Breitbart News.Sanders concludes his release with a demand of Trump and his campaign: What Donald Trump must do now is stop provoking violence and make it clear to his supporters that people who attend his rallies or protest should not be assaulted, should not be punched, should not be kicked. In America people have a right to attend a political rally without fear of physical harm. Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
8,668 | UK's Davis sees good Brexit deal despite recent tense talks | WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Brexit minister told a business audience in Washington on Friday that he hoped talks to leave the European Union would produce a good deal for both sides, although he conceded that discussions were getting a bit tense . David Davis had just returned on Thursday from Brussels, where EU officials warned that so far progress in their negotiations had fallen short of what was needed to move on to discussion of their future relationship. I am a determined optimist, Davis told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Because I fundamentally believe that a good deal is in the interests of both the UK and the EU and the whole of the developed world. Davis came under pressure from the U.S. Chamber s head of international affairs, Myron Brilliant, to lay out a clear path for Brexit for the 7,500 U.S. companies with operations in Britain - one that had predictable transition periods that minimized business disruption. Negotiations so far have centered on Britain s EU budget obligations, with the EU insisting the bill be agreed before talks can proceed to discuss areas like international trade. Davis declined to say whether Britain would be open to paying for access to the single market during any post-Brexit transition period and said London was closely examining the bill for exiting the EU. It is getting a bit tense. I rule nothing in, nothing out, Davis said. Britain would expect to conclude a free-trade agreement with the United States once a transition period with the EU ends, Davis said. But he cautioned that any deal between two large economies such as Britain and the United States would be quite complex . Davis appeared to seek to draw a line between Britain s ambitions for global free-trade agreements and the protectionist line being followed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought to impose trade tariffs and threatened to quit the North American Free Trade Area in order to boost domestic industry. Davis said Britain would press for further liberalization of services and engage with international bodies like the World Trade Organization. Trump has said the United States would consider ignoring WTO rulings. Britain has been courting the United States as it leaves the EU, with Prime Minister Theresa May becoming the first foreign leader to meet U.S. President Donald Trump after his inauguration in January. She called on Trump then to renew the special relationship between the two countries, and she has pinned hopes on securing a trade deal with the country soon after Brexit to show that Britain can prosper outside the EU . But she has been criticized by opposition politicians for trying to cozy up to Trump, whose unpredictable policy stances on issues such as trade and other international obligations have raised concern over whether Washington will stick to its global agreements. | 1 |
8,669 | BREAKING: US Appeals Court Deals Obama’s Executive Amnesty Huge Blow | How many times will our lawless president plead his unconstitutional positions before our Supreme Court? For a Constitutional lawyer, Obama sure does have a difficult time understanding how our laws work President Barack Obama s executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation suffered a legal setback on Monday with an appeal to the Supreme Court now the administration s only option.The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold a May injunction deals a blow to Obama s plan, opposed by Republicans and challenged by 26 states.The Obama administration has said it is within its rights to ask the Department of Homeland Security to use discretion before deporting nonviolent migrants with U.S. family ties.The case has become the focal point of the Democratic president s efforts to change U.S. immigration policy.Seeing no progress on legislative reform in Congress, Obama announced last November he would take executive action to help immigrants. He has faced criticism from Republicans who say the program grants amnesty to lawbreakers.In its ruling, the appeals court said it was denying the government s appeal to stay the May injunction after determining that the appeal was unlikely to succeed on its merits. Republicans hailed the ruling as a victory against the Obama administration.John Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, said in a Twitter message that the court decision was a major victory for the rule of law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement the ruling meant the state, which has led the legal challenge, has secured an important victory to put a halt to the president s lawlessness. Via: Reuters | 0 |
8,670 | Britain's Labour shifts on Brexit, proposes staying in customs union | BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Britain could stay in a customs union with the European Union after leaving the bloc if Labour win power, the main opposition party said on Monday, putting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May s divided government over Brexit. Labour s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said the party was ready to be the grown-ups in the room and take charge of negotiations to leave the EU, cautioning against taking anything off the table when looking at Britain s future ties with the EU. After months of sticking to a position little different from the Conservative Party s pursuit of a clean break with the EU, Labour changed tack last month by suggesting that, if in power, it would press for remaining in the EU s single market for a transition period to smooth Britain s departure in March 2019. Starmer s words took that position further. If we were in government...we would negotiate a final deal...that retained the benefits of the customs union and the single market, Starmer told hundreds of Labour members in the southern English seaside town of Brighton. Subject, of course to negotiations, remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour. He later told an event that rather than taking an off-the-shelf arrangement for future trade with the EU in a final deal, he wanted to pursue the harder challenge of trying to win a changed relationship with the single market that keeps free trade but not membership, possibly by signing a new treaty. But while challenging May s vision for Brexit, the move also could deepen divisions in Labour, putting those who want the close economic ties of a customs union at odds with others who say the referendum vote means complete withdrawal. Steve Baker, a Conservative minister working on Brexit, criticized Labour for having no plan for Brexit, no interest in controlling our borders and no desire to make the most of the opportunities it will bring . After Britain voted to leave the European Union last year, divisions over what Brexit will look like have split both parties and the country, revealing deep differences between the south and more industrial north of England, between young and old and between urban voters and those in rural areas. While Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain, England and Wales voted to leave. Labour and the Conservatives have both struggled to keep their parties together on Brexit strategy, but by aiming for what some call a softer departure, the leftist party hopes to offer a catch-all option to voters across the divide. While Labour said it offered flexibility, May s government counters that staying in the customs union, which imposes tariffs on trade with external countries while allowing tariff-free movement of goods, would betray the Brexit vote and stop Britain from agreeing trade deals with other countries. No rash, ideological red lines preventing a sensible deal. No fantastical, blue sky proposals. A pragmatic approach. Labour are now the grown-ups in the room. We stand ready to take charge of the negotiations, Starmer said. Labour is riding high since winning more seats than expected in a June election, when May s attempt to win a stronger hand in the Brexit negotiations failed and lost her Conservatives their majority. The party has capitalized on divisions in May s cabinet, saying Britain has run out of time, largely because of that election, to negotiate a bespoke deal for transition. The way the Tories (Conservatives) are handling Brexit tells you a lot about their competence - or should I say incompetence, Starmer said. Labour s move has attracted remain voters from last year s referendum, but the party is keen not to lose its supporters, mostly in northern England, who backed Brexit and have been reticent on how they see the future relationship with the bloc. But at its conference, packed with younger voters who have flocked to leader Jeremy Corbyn as someone who can bring change, Labour members voted to debate issues other than Brexit, meaning a public discussion of EU policy was not on the official agenda. Some more centrist members, part of a Labour First grouping, called it an unprincipled and anti-democratic stitch-up aimed at stopping differences of opinion from being exposed. Others said they would press their fight to force Labour to commit to staying in the EU s single market and customs union. It is now even more vital that as we go forward we put clear red water between the Labour Party and the government on Brexit, pro-EU Labour lawmaker Chuka Umunna said. For me and many others, that means committing to full and permanent membership of the single market and customs union. We will continue to make this argument. | 1 |
8,671 | U.S. appeals court grants Trump request on climate regulations case | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to put on hold a legal challenge by industry and a group of states to former President Barack Obama’s regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants, rules that the Republican president is moving to undo. A 10-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the request to put the litigation involving the regulations, known as the Clean Power Plan, in abeyance for at least 60 days while the administration plans its next steps. The court also asked the administration and other parties to file briefs on whether the case should be sent back to the Environmental Protection Agency. The Supreme Court last year put the regulations on hold pending the outcome of the case. In a separate order issued on Friday, the same court put on hold a case challenging another set of Obama climate regulations aimed at new power plants. Twenty-seven states, led by coal-producer West Virginia and industry groups, challenged the Obama regulation. Other states and environmental groups backed the former administration. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sided with the previous administration’s EPA to defend the Clean Power Plan, brushed off the court’s move, saying it simply puts the litigation on hold for 60 days. “Today’s temporary pause in the litigation does not relieve EPA of its legal obligation to limit carbon pollution from its largest source: fossil-fueled power plants,” Schneiderman said. “I will continue to fight in court to ensure EPA fulfills its legal responsibility.” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who led the challenge against the rule, said Friday’s decision signaled that the court has acknowledged the change in the political landscape “and that a decision on the merits is not appropriate at this time.” An executive order by Trump was part of his effort to cut federal environmental regulations to revive the energy drilling and coal mining industries, a promise he made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Energy analysts and executives have questioned whether Trump’s broad moves against environmental regulations will provide a big benefit for their industries, and environmentalists have called his actions reckless. The Clean Power Plan was designed to lower carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. It was seen as the main tool for the United States to meet the emissions-reduction target it promised to reach at U.N. climate talks in Paris in December 2015. Power plants are the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions. David Cherney, an energy analyst for PA Consulting, said the D.C. Circuit ruling gives the Trump administration more time to come up with a replacement to the Clean Power Plan, which will inevitably be followed by more legal challenges. “Any change to the Clean Power Plan by the Trump administration will be challenged in courts and would need to be sufficiently justified to survive legal challenge from the environmental lobby,” Cherney said. | 1 |
8,672 | nofly zone declared as militarized police prep for assault on frontline camp at standing rock | by brandon turbeville as the united states marches forward with its war of terror abroad it is as predicted by researchers and informed observers many | 0 |
8,673 | Turkey, Iran, Iraq consider counter-measures over Kurdish referendum | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey, Iran and Iraq have agreed to consider counter-measures against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence referendum, Turkey s foreign ministry said on Thursday. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries voiced concerns that the referendum would endanger the gains Iraq has made against Islamic State, and reiterated their fears over the potential for new conflicts in the region. In the meeting, the three ministers emphasized that the referendum will not be beneficial for the Kurds and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and agreed, in this regard, to consider taking counter-measures in coordination, the statement said. The statement gave no details on the possible measures but said the ministers, who were in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to intervene. Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq. Turkish troops are also carrying out military exercises near the border. The central government in Baghdad, Iraq s neighbors and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge Islamic State from its stronghold in Mosul. The statement said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and their Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari expressed concerns that conflicts surfacing as a result of the referendum would prove difficult to contain . But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which, though non-binding, could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. The three ministers also voiced their strong commitment to maintain Iraq s territorial and political unity, the foreign ministry s statement said. Turkey, which has pulled forward a cabinet meeting and national security council session to Friday over the referendum, will also convene parliament for an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, the chairman of the ruling AK Party s parliamentary group said on Thursday. | 1 |
8,674 | HOMELAND SECURITY: ISIS Has Already Tried To Exploit Refugee Program To Enter U.S. [Video] | Our Homeland Security Director gave us all the lowdown on the refugee program and it s what we all thought: ISIS has been trying to use the refugee program to come to America. Why in the heck are we still trying to bring refugees here? Can t we help them in the Middle East? The only thing I can guess is that this is Obama s agenda and he s not letting up on fulfilling it. The State Department and UN are pushing refugees through the system as fast as possible. This is big, big business for the Refugee Resettlement contractors ho get paid per refugee and then get millions from the feds on top of that. The kicker is that YOU pay for the goodies the refugees get once they re here. That s why America is a global magnet for refugees! | 0 |
8,675 | Gary Johnson To Paul Ryan: Trump Endorsement A ‘Mistake,’ Man Up And Admit It (VIDEO) | We all know by now that House Speaker Paul Ryan is a spineless weasel. He is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a President Trump, and yet he endorsed the great orange one anyway, and no matter how outrageously offensive Trump becomes, no matter how many times Ryan has to distance himself from Trump s remarks, he still says he s a Donald Trump supporter. Well, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is now calling Ryan out for making such a grave mistake, and wants him to un-endorse Donald Trump.Johnson sat down with CNN to express his views on Ryan s Trump endorsement, and he had nothing good to say about where the House Speaker is right now. Johnson said: I think Paul Ryan has an opportunity here to say, Look, I made a mistake. I m not saying that results in an endorsement of me, but come on, the statements that he s making he s made 100 statements that would disqualify any other presidential candidate from running and yet all you have to do is turn the page and tomorrow it will be 102. Host Erin Burneet pointed out that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had once floated the idea of supporting a Libertarian ticket, but had reservations about Johnson s policies, particularly his support of legal marijuana nationwide. Romney said that weed makes people stupid. Johnson disagreed, and admitted to taking a toke or two himself, and said: I do not agree with that. As someone who has used marijuana, I do not agree with that. What Gary Johnson doesn t seem to understand, though, is that Paul Ryan is not Mitt Romney. Paul Ryan is a dyed in the wool, loyal die hard GOPer till death do him and that wreck of a party part even if it means propping Trump up and letting him burn the world down.Give it up, Gary. As much as I agree with you, I think you need to realize that Paul Ryan will never, ever disavow his annointed nominee.Watch the clip below, via The Hill:Featured image via William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images | 0 |
8,676 | NATO sees growing Russia, China challenge; higher risk of war | BERLIN (Reuters) - China s growing military strength and a resurgent Russia will pose growing challenges to the trans-Atlantic alliance in coming years, and NATO s moves to bolster its capabilities could trigger a new Cold War-style arms race, a NATO report said. The report, completed once every four years, identifies 20 global trends that are likely to affect the alliance through 2035, ranging from artificial intelligence and accelerating technology development to climate change and growing inequality. General Denis Mercier, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, told Reuters the report showed a higher risk of major interstate war than in the 2013 report. We see a considerable increase in the risk of a major interstate conflict, Mercier said in an interview on the sidelines of the Berlin Security Conference. His command will release a companion report that maps out what NATO should do to respond to these trends in the spring, with both documents to inform the 2019 NATO political guidance. Having a global awareness is more necessary than before. We have to be ready for any kind of scenario, Mercier said, noting that globalization meant NATO had to weigh factors outside its region, including military expansion by China and India. Easy access to technology and the global nature of cyberspace would make it easier for terrorist networks to expand, challenging the current near-monopoly that state actors have on high-tech weapons, the report said. Environmental factors would also play a bigger role, from higher rates of natural disasters to the increased opening of the Arctic, the report said, as well as a growth in global debt and erosion of trust in financial institutions. The report said defense spending had begun increasing after Russia s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, and projections called for further increases through 2045. But it warned that the increases might create a security dilemma and start an arms race, as was the case during the Cold War . It said competing budget priorities and fiscal constraints in member states could hamper their ability to meet NATO alliance requirement in the future. Mercier said NATO was already working to expand its capabilities in the cyber domain, and to ensure cyber protections were baked into every weapons system and network from the outset. In NATO, we are under permanent attack in cyber, he said, noting that the alliance had proven quite good at protecting itself thus far, but needed to remain vigilant. | 1 |
8,677 | Trump says Puerto Rico in trouble after hurricane, debt 'must be dealt with' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday Puerto Rico is in deep trouble after being hit by Hurricane Maria and that its billions of dollars of debt to the Wall Street and banks must be dealt with. Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble, Trump wrote in a series of posts on Twitter. It s (sic) old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Trump did not offer a pathway for dealing with Puerto Rico s debt. The U.S. territory, struggling with $72 billion in debt, filed the biggest government bankruptcy in U.S. history earlier this year. Maria, the most powerful hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century, devastated the Caribbean island when it struck the U.S. territory with ferocious winds and torrential rains last week. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello on Monday asked for more government aid to avert a humanitarian crisis in the island, which is home to 3.4 million people. Puerto Rico s government on Monday asked a judge for up to four extra weeks to meet key deadlines in its bankruptcy case after Hurricane Maria brought its fragile infrastructure to its knees. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters in Washington that the administration was engaged in a fact-finding process to figure out how much help Puerto Rico needs. | 1 |
8,678 | Top Senate Democrat says has 'serious concerns' about court nominee Gorsuch | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate’s top Democrat on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick of avoiding answering questions “like the plague” and dodging efforts to gauge his judicial independence during a meeting that deepened his concerns about the nominee. Neil Gorsuch, the federal appeals court judge from Colorado who the Republican president nominated last week to a lifetime job on the high court, met privately with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York as he continues to try to build support for his confirmation by the Senate. “I thought there was a deliberate strategy to duck the hard questions. And he has an obligation to answer them, not simply to the Senate but to the American people,” Schumer told reporters afterward, referring to Gorsuch. Schumer said Gorsuch declined to answer questions such as whether a ban on Muslim immigration would be constitutional or comment on what is known as the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars officeholders from accepting money from foreign powers. Supreme Court nominees routinely avoid weighing in on pending legal disputes they could end up casting a vote on if confirmed to the job. But Schumer said he was seeking Gorsuch’s views on broader principles, rather than specific cases, that he believed a nominee should be able to answer. “The judge today avoided answers like the plague,” Schumer told reporters. Schumer said Trump is testing the fundamental underpinnings of U.S. democracy and its institutions. “These times deserve answers, and Judge Gorsuch did not provide them. I have serious concerns about this nominee,” said Schumer, who added that he had not yet made up his mind on whether or not to support Gorsuch. The shorthanded Supreme Court currently has four liberals and four conservatives, meaning Gorsuch’s confirmation would reinstate a conservative majority. Trump’s fellow Republicans control the Senate 52-48 but Schumer insisted that Gorsuch would need to win 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to move toward confirmation. Democrats can seek to use a procedural maneuver to block a confirmation vote if Gorsuch’s supporters cannot muster 60 votes, although Republicans could change the Senate rules. Schumer’s questions to Gorsuch followed Trump’s directive to temporarily ban people from seven Muslim-majority countries and any refugees from entering the United States. The ban, which Trump said was needed to protect the United States from Islamist militants, was suspended by a federal judge, pending an appeal by the Trump administration. His questions about the Emoluments Clause come in light of a lawsuit filed by ethics lawyers accusing Trump of allowing his businesses to accept payments from foreign governments, which is prohibited under that constitutional provision. Democrats argued that it is more important than ever for a Supreme Court nominee to demonstrate judicial independence, citing Trump’s harsh criticism of federal judges who have issued rulings against him. But Republicans belittled Democratic efforts to discredit Gorsuch. “If they keep working to paint Judge Gorsuch as a mouth-breathing bald eagle hunter, they’ll embarrass themselves,” said Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who also met with Gorsuch on Tuesday. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah told Reuters the Democratic questioning of the nominee’s potential independence “flies in the face of everything I know about Judge Gorsuch.” Lee described Gorsuch is “fair, decent, impartial.” | 1 |
8,679 | HERE’S PROOF Trump Is Peaking At Just The Right Time! [Video] | TRUMP is peaking at just the right time!TRUMP held a rally in ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA TODAY IT WAS PACKED!TEAM TRUMP IS WINNING FLORIDA! Get out & VOTE #TrumpTrain! January 2017 #DrainTheSwamp pic.twitter.com/uJSKURcUlq Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) October 24, 2016VIA: GATEWAY PUNDIT | 0 |
8,680 | Iraqi soldiers join Turkish exercises near shared border: witness | HABUR, Turkey (Reuters) - Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for military exercises in southeast Turkey near the border with Iraq on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said, as the two countries coordinate steps in response to the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum. A small group of soldiers holding aloft an Iraqi and a Turkish flag walked across the dusty plain where the exercises, launched last week, were being held some 4 km (2.5 miles) from the Habur border gate, the witness said. The flags were then held aloft from the top of an armored personnel carrier. National and international media observed the exercises from the main highway leading to the border gate. Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, intensifying pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over the referendum. | 1 |
8,681 | ROSEANNE BARR PAID HIGH PRICE For Crossing Hillary: My Show Was Cancelled By “Rapist Bill Clinton” For Interviewing Paula Jones [VIDEO] | Add one more person whose career or life has been destroyed by the Clinton s as they scratch and claw their way into the White House Actress and comedienne Roseanne Barr revealed that she paid a high price for crossing Hillary Clinton.Barr believes her talk show was cancelled after she gave Paula Jones, who accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual harassment, a platform to speak in 1998.The 63 year-old actress is sure the fate of her show was sealed when she interviewed Jones and did not support the Clinton narrative that the former president was innocent of the allegations. Liberal Hollywood took note and Barr s show ended, despite its former success, she believes. There really is a deeper issue underneath the Clintonite spin of this right-wing conspiracy because apparently conservatives are not letting the President keep his pants zipped up, or something. Here is her 1998 interview with Paula Jones who accused Bill Clinton of sexual abuse: Barr has made no secret of her dislike for the Clintons and has filled her social media with criticism of the Democratic presidential nominee and her husband. She even caught the attention of Donald Trump who tweeted his thanks for one of her comments.Via: DownTrend | 0 |
8,682 | some cities want their noncitizen immigrants to vote | go back to where you claim home kansas lawmaker tells protester dion lefler wichita eagle october
kansas state rep joe seiwert commented on facebook that an africanamerican singer who knelt while performing the star spangled banner at a miami heat game should go back to where she claims as home
seiwert rpretty prairie posted that comment and a longer followup on an antiblack meme that was originally posted to a prodonald trump facebook group and then shared by one of seiwerts constituents
seiwert confirmed the comments were his and said he was exercising his first amendment right to free speech as he says the woman in the meme did when she wore a black lives matter tshirt and knelt while singing the anthem
snip
the photo in the meme is of denasia lawrence a miami social worker and according to the miami sunsentinel a parttime gamenight employee of the heat professional basketball team the team has issued a statement saying team officials were unaware that lawrence planned to protest when they asked her to sing the anthem at fridays preseason game with the philadelphia ers
snip
to which seiwert responded i am where i claim home and like it they want to claim it and it is their right to go where ever they like so if they dont like it here i believe that their freedom completely allows them to go wherever they believe is more free and non racist if thats what they believe
seiwert said he didnt see the profanity in the meme when he commented and didnt do anything wrong
i have a personal life besides a legislative life he said maybe it was inappropriate i dont believe so because i said nothing derogatory and i believe that if people are that upset with the national anthem they can do whatever they want to on their own time but when theyre using it on national tv to make a statement thats not right
i said if she lawrence doesnt like it here then go where she would like it whats wrong with that he said
asked why a person should leave rather than try to change things where they are seiwert responded because maybe theres other people who dont want their place changed
he also said he did not think his comments had anything to do with race
it dont make any difference if theyre black white or green its the disrespect to our country he said and why does everybody put the color to it
snip
the person who made the meme took a photo of lawrence from the web and added in capital letters kneeling while singing the national anthem im so sick of these antiamerican blacks expletive black lives matter
seiwerts comment directed at lawrence was go back to where you claim home than sic
snip | 0 |
8,683 | Japan court rules Tepco liable over Fukushima: media | TOKYO (Reuters) - A court in Japan on Friday ordered Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to pay compensation to a group of former Fukushima residents, the second such ruling following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, Japanese media reported. However, the ruling by the Chiba district court, east of Tokyo, did not find the government liable for compensation, in contrast to a March ruling in another court that ordered both the government and Tepco to pay compensation to a separate group of evacuees. Tepco is facing mounting legal claims over the disaster, with about 12,000 former Fukushima residents filing about 30 similar class action lawsuits seeking compensation, media reports said. In the Chiba case, a group of 45 residents sought damages totaling about 2.8 billion yen ($25 million) for the emotional distress of fleeing their homes as radiation spread from the meltdowns at Tepco s Fukushima Daiichi plant after an earthquake and tsunami more than six ago. Tepco was ordered to pay a total of 376 million yen ($3.36 million) for 42 of the evacuees, Kyodo and Jiji reported. Tepco on Friday said it would review the contents of the ruling before making a response. Some 15,000 people died in March 2011 when three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered meltdowns after a magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan s northeastern coastline. Tepco has long been criticized for ignoring the threat posed by natural disasters to the Fukushima plant and both the company and government were lambasted for their handling of the crisis. In December, the government nearly doubled its projections for costs related to the disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($192 billion), increasing pressure on Tepco to step up reform and improve its performance. | 1 |
8,684 | Totally Blow The Minds Of Tea Partiers With The REAL HISTORY Of The Tea Party Movement | It s been just about seven years since the official founding of the tea party movement. Weird, it seems like much, much longer, but there it is. Seven years since tri-corner hats festooned with tea bags became the national symbol of incoherent, far-right outrage over the ascendancy of an African-American president tasked with lifting the nation out of a devastating Great Recession not of his own making.The tea party emerged as an unofficial sequel to the angry mobs that formed outside various McCain/Palin rallies during the 2008 campaign, complete with viral video messages warning of emerging communism, Hussein sleeper-cells and Rev. Jeremiah Wright goddamn-America-hating. A general profile of each group showed considerable overlap: white, Christian, conservative, older Americans who were both shell-shocked by the financial impact of the recession and that the obvious cultural shift taking place in politics, potentially leaving them behind. The president was no longer a twangy, southern good ol boy or a congenial, plain-spoken old man. This new president would be a northern intellectual an African-American man with an exotic name and an allegedly suspicious background. A flaming cocktail for inciting white conservative fear.Fast forward to the months following the January, 2009 inauguration.Coinciding with congressional debate over the new president s stimulus package, the movement proudly adopted as its namesake the Boston Tea Party, with tea carrying the bonus taxed enough already acronym. Both meanings contained within the name of the movement were hilariously ironical given how the stimulus would eventually contain, as a total dollar amount, the largest middle class tax cut in American history as well as the fact that the Boston Tea Party was a protest against a corporate tax cut.Feel free to spring this one on your conservative friends. You ll render them speechless.Rewind to 1773 and the passage of the Tea Act, the British law which ultimately sparked the infamous Boston Tea Party.The East India Company, an 18th Century corporation the McDonald s or Amazon of its era was in serious financial trouble, and being so closely tied to the economy of Great Britain, it was too big to fail.But rather than bailing out the corporation, King George and Lord North decided that if they just cut the export duty of the company to zero, allowing it to sell directly to the colonies, the East India Company would easily be able to unload its tea to colonial consumers at a discount boosting sales and rescuing the near-bankrupt mega-corporation. Plus, they reasoned, the colonists would embrace the British monarchy for the cheaper tea, and tensions between the empire and the colonies would be ameliorated, at least temporarily.So in May, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. The long-form subtitle of the act read as follows: An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty s colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company s sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company to export tea duty-free. Several months later, the East India Company attained the proper clearances and set off to various colonial sea ports with its duty-free tea.To repeat, the rationale for the Tea Act was that lower taxes meant lower prices, which meant the East India Company could sell a hell of a lot more tea. Suffice to say, the smaller colonial tea distributors weren t happy not to mention smugglers like Samuel Adams close confidant John Hancock. Colonial retail prices would be severely undercut by the tax-free tea, potentially shoving the smaller importers, and smugglers like Hancock, out of the tea business.It was your basic free market precursor to supply-side Reaganomics in action. In other words, the British government s solution to the East India Company s financial crisis was, in effect, a massive tax cut a tax cut to zero.Consequently, political activists and, most famously, the Sons of Liberty, proceeded to intimidate and raid with orders to tar and feather the pilots any East India tea ship landing at various ports from Philadelphia to Sandy Hook to, naturally, Boston. And later that year, on December 16, 1773, when East India vessels, the Dartmouth, Beaver and Eleanor, were docked in Boston Harbor, the Sons carried out their famous protest, dumping hundreds of crates of tea into the water.All because of a tax cut. Not only that, but the tea party Republicans, while comporting themselves as cheap knock-offs of the Sons of Liberty, have instead embraced the tax-cutting, supply-side policies of the British monarchy.Whoops.Boiled down, it appears as though the tea party movement is in favor of tax cuts, while embracing a historical event that was violently opposed to a massive tax cut. In the interim, the tea party has vocally objected to the notion that something like 47 percent of Americans don t pay federal income taxes. Who is the 47 percent? Forbes broke it down: 17 percent includes students, people with disabilities or illnesses, the long-term unemployed, and other people with very low taxable incomes. Also included would be people like our soldiers in foreign wars who are exempted from paying income taxes while they are on active duty in a war zone. 22 percent of people who did not pay federal income taxes in 2009 are people aged 65 or older who have modest incomes (and do not have earnings). 61 percent are working people who pay payroll taxes but are not paying income taxes.It s important to highlight that these 47 percenters do, in fact, pay state, local, sales and other taxes. So the tea party appears to be in favor of higher taxes for families, seniors and disabled Americans, while also being in favor of lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations, the latter being the exact opposite of the Sons of Liberty. You d think the tea party, which has apparently been taxed enough already, would support the idea that nearly half of us don t pay federal income taxes. But they don t. Weirdly.Obviously the tea party s organizers failed to read about history before inappropriately horking the tea party moniker, and, indeed, they re more than a little confused about taxes, both modern and historical the issue upon which the entire movement is based.Whoops again.Anyway, happy seventh anniversary, you magnificent bastards. Hopefully in honor of this occasion, someone will give you the gift that keeps on giving: some high school level history and economics books.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
8,685 | Yemeni PM says fishermen have seized Iranian vessel, sailors | DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian vessel with 19 sailors on board has been seized near a Yemeni island by local fishermen, Yemen s prime minister said on Saturday. There was no immediate official Iranian reaction to the comments made by Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on his Twitter account in which he said the ship was detained off the coast of Socotra, the largest island in an archipelago south of Yemen. He thanked the fishermen of another island in the archipelago, Abd al-Kuri, which lies to the east of Somalia. Iran s semi-official Fars news agency said that the Yemeni government, which Tehran does not recognize, had claimed that an Iranian vessel with a crew of 19 had been seized on Friday. There were no further details on the ship or its cargo. Regional and Western sources have said that Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shi ite ally in the country s civil war. Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is giving financial and military support to the Houthis, blaming the crisis on Riyadh. | 1 |
8,686 | WATCH: Rudy Giuliani Begs People To Search For Clinton Conspiracy Videos | On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani appeared on Fox News Sunday, where he decided to push the right-wing conspiracy theory that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is suffering from severe health problems. The right-wing myth was pushed heavily by Fox News Sean Hannity.Despite the fact that the conspiracy was debunked almost immediately, Giuliani insisted that Clinton is in fact at death s door with some kind of illness. He alleged that there is vast media conspiracy out to silence those who want to expose the truth about Clinton s health. She doesn t need to campaign. She has The New York Times, she has the [New York] Daily News, she has ABC, she has CBS, she has NBC. She has an entire media empire that constantly demonizes Donald Trump and fails to point out that she hasn t had a press conference in 300 days, 200 days, 100 days, I don t know how long, Giuliani said. Fails to point out several signs of illness by her. All you got to do is go online. All you have to do The show s host Shannon Bream interrupted Giuliani to say: Which her campaign and a number of people defending her saying there s nothing factual to the claims about her health, and that that s speculation at best. Here s where Giuliani really goes off the rails. He asks for viewers to look up videos from Clinton health truthers, rather than listen to what is reported on in the news. Go online and put down Hillary Clinton illness and take a look at the videos for yourself, Giuliani insisted.You can watch the segment from the broadcast below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
8,687 | 2 KILLED, 15 WOUNDED IN CHICAGO SHOOTINGS New Years Day, While #BlackLivesMatter Terrorists Take Fight To Evil Cops | Killing each other is okay, it s when a cop kills in the line of duty. That s where the Black Lives Matter protesters draw the line Two men were killed and at least 15 others were wounded in Chicago shootings on New Year s Day.The first shooting of 2016 left one person injured early New Year s Day in the South Chicago neighborhood.The 34-year-old woman was inside a residence at 12:05 a.m. Friday in the 8000 block of South Paxton when a bullet came through the window and grazed her hand, police said. She was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital in good condition police said. They shot this thing around. It came through my house, it injured my sister. And this is ridiculous, says Bianca Fisher. It doesn t make any sense. Neighbors say it s frightening. I understand it was a minor incident, so I m grateful for that, but we don t want any shootings at all. It s a New Year s custom that should be done away with, a neighbor said.A little over two hours after the first shooting came the first murder. Police say the victim is 24-year-old Deandre Holiday, gang member who had been arguing with another man inside a bar when it spilled out into the street. The other man pulled a gun and shot him in the chest, then fled, police said.The most recent nonfatal shooting left a man critically wounded at 6:40 a.m. in the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood.A man, thought to be in his 30s, was shot in the chest in the 1900 block of West Garfield, police said. He traveled to 55th Street and Artesian before he was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. 20 minutes earlier, another man was shot in the same neighborhood, according to police.The 29-year-old man was shot in the shoulder at 6:20 a.m. in the 5400 block of South Winchester, police said. He was also taken to Stroger, but his condition was not immediately known.About two hours earlier, a man was shot in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.The 26-year-old man was shot in the leg at 4:30 a.m. in the 600 block of South Kostner Avenue, police said. He took himself to Rush University Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition. About two hours earlier, three men were shot in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side.The men ages 26, 20, and 22, were standing near a gas station just before 3 a.m. in the 7500 block of South State when someone approached them and opened fire, police said.The 26-year-old was shot in the leg; the 20-year-old was shot in the back, and the 22-year-old was shot in the arm, police said. They took themselves to St. Bernard Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized.Less than an hour earlier, two men were shot in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side.The two 24-year-old men were shot about 2 a.m. in the 9800 block of South Beverly, police said. One man was shot in the right hand and the other was shot in the back, police said. Both were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.At 12:49 a.m., man was critically wounded in a shooting in the South Side Burnside neighborhood.A 38-year-old man was having an argument with someone he knew at a party at 12:49 a.m. in the 9200 block of South Drexel Avenue when that person pulled out a gun and shot him in the chest and back, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.Two hours before, a man was wounded in a shooting in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.At 10:15 p.m., the 18-year-old man was shot in the right hand while standing on the corner in the 7000 block of South Laflin Street, police said. He took himself to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition, police said.A 30-year-old man was shot Thursday night in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side.He was shot in the left leg in the 6200 block of South Martin Luther King Drive at 8:15 p.m., police said. He took himself to University of Chicago Medical Center, but his condition was not immediately available.A man was shot Thursday evening in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.At 4:48 p.m., the 28-year-old man pulled into a drive way in the 7200 block of South Aberdeen Street when he heard shots and felt pain, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with a gunshot wound to the leg, where his condition was stabilized.The first shooting of the holiday weekend happened just after 3 p.m. Thursday in the Austin Neighborhood on the West Side.A 24-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman were arguing with a third person in the 1000 block of North Lorel when the person pulled out a gun and fired shots, police said.The two victims took themselves to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, police said. The man was shot in the leg and his condition was stabilized at West Suburban. The woman was shot in the abdomen and transferred to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.Police said the shooting may have happened during an attempted robbery. The man is a documented gang member.2015 CRIME STATS RELEASEDHours before the city s first reported murder, the Chicago Police Department released new crime numbers for 2015. The statistics show there were more than 50 more homicides last year than in 2014. Via: ABC7 | 0 |
8,688 | Trump Goes Birther On Federal Judge Presiding Over Trump U Fraud Case: He’s A ‘Mexican!’ | Donald Trump has repeatedly sworn he loves Hispanics and Hispanics love him, but not apparently when it comes to the judge presiding over his Trump University fraud trial.Trump, whose guilt in this case is almost beyond doubt, swears that if he loses the case (which is looking likely), it s not because he is a shameless con man. No, it s because the judge is a hater and a Mexican. We re in front of a very hostile judge, Mr. Trump said. The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative. What happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that s fine, Mr. Trump said.The only problem: Judge Gonzalo Curiel is from Indiana not Mexico. Which is great. I think Indiana s fine.It s not the first time Trump has gone birther, of course. He famously set fire to piles of his own money in a quixotic quest to prove President Obama wasn t born in the United States. At several points, Trump even claimed to have proof, but never produced a single shred of evidence. His new accusations do, however, represent the first time Trump has claimed Mexicans aside from being rapists and drug dealers are infiltrating the federal justice system to screw over Trump personally.Why would they do that? Trump supporters seem to believe it s because of Trump s immigration plans. Facing a crowd of supporters who had killed time before Trump got up to the podium by mindlessly chanting build that wall, Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he suddenly floated the idea that the judge who is about to rule against him is a secret Mexican. He was quite literally preaching to the choir.All of this undermines Trump s assurances that Hispanic voters will flock to him in November. If he sincerely believes a federal judge would be prejudiced against him in his court case because of his Hispanic heritage, then it s not hard to imagine the rest of the Hispanic and Latino population would be repulsed by his message of anti-immigrant hate. He can t have it both ways.Trump closed his remarks by promising to file a lawsuit against Judge Curiel when he becomes president. I m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK? But we ll come back in November. Wouldn t that be wild if I m president and I come back to do a civil case? The audience roared the same audience that at one time probably raged at President Obama for taking a day to go golfing. Suddenly, a president who spends his time in office wrapped up in a personal civil case to settle a grudge is A-OK.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
8,689 | Under fire, Trump's attorney general removes himself from campaign probes | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday he would stay out of any probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election but maintained he did nothing wrong by failing to disclose he met last year with Russia’s ambassador. Sessions, a longtime U.S. senator who was an early and high-ranking player in President Donald Trump’s campaign before becoming the country’s top law enforcement official, announced the decision after several fellow Republicans in Congress suggested the move would be appropriate. “I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign,” Sessions told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference. Sessions said he had been weighing recusal - ruling himself out from any role in the investigations - even before the latest twist of the controversy over ties between Trump associates and Russia that has dogged the early days of the Trump presidency. The president backed Sessions, saying Democrats had politicized the issue and calling the controversy a “total witch hunt.” Sessions’ announcement did nothing to quell concerns among congressional Democrats, a number of whom called for Sessions to step down. Trump and Republicans who control Congress are trying to move past early administration missteps and focus on issues important to them, including immigration, tax cuts and repealing the Obamacare healthcare law. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. Sessions denied he had contact with Russian officials when he was asked directly during his Senate confirmation hearing to become attorney general whether he had exchanged information with Russian operatives during the election campaign. He told reporters he was “honest and correct” in his response, although he acknowledged he “should have slowed down” and mentioned he had met with the ambassador in his role as a senator. “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” Sessions said, adding he felt he should not be involved in investigating a campaign in which he had had a role. In a statement on Thursday night, Trump said Sessions “did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional.” Sessions’ meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak were disclosed on Wednesday night by the Washington Post. Sessions received Kislyak in his Senate office in September and also met him in July at a Heritage Foundation event at the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors. Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn last month after disclosures that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak before Trump took office and that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. The recusal means Sessions, a powerful member of Trump’s inner circle, will not be briefed on details of any probe. Should the Federal Bureau of Investigation decide to move forward with charges, Sessions would not be in a position to weigh in on whether the Department of Justice should take the case. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi urged Sessions to resign and said “his narrow recusal and sorry attempt to explain away his perjury” were inadequate. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Sessions’ explanation for failing to tell the Senate about his meetings “is simply not credible.” He called on Sessions to step down and said the Justice Department should name an independent prosecutor to investigate Russian interference. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee asked the FBI to launch a criminal investigation into Sessions’ statements to Congress about his communication with Russian officials. Sessions is one of many “subjects” of a government investigation of any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, two U.S. officials familiar with the probe said. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sessions was not now a “target” of the probe by the FBI, the Treasury Department, the CIA and the National Security Agency. The investigation, one of the officials said, had a number of subjects because of the numerous contacts between associates of Trump, including Flynn, and the Russian Embassy in Washington as well as Russian and some Ukrainian businessmen and companies. At least two other officials in Trump’s campaign said they also spoke with the Russian ambassador at a conference on the sidelines of the July convention last July, USA Today reported on Thursday. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner also met with Kislyak in December at Trump Tower in New York, an administration official said on Thursday, confirming a report in the New Yorker. While there is nothing legally wrong with such meetings, the reported contacts raise questions about the White House’s repeated statements that it knew of no further contacts with Russian officials beyond those by Flynn. Trump has accused officials in former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration of trying to discredit him with questions about Russia contacts. The White House dismissed the disclosure of the Sessions meetings as a partisan attack, saying his contacts with the ambassador had been as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Trump called frequently during his campaign for improved relations with Russia, drawing criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Ties with Russia have been deeply strained in recent years over Moscow’s military interference in Ukraine, military support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and President Vladimir Putin’s intolerance of political dissent. With his administration on the defensive over Russia, Trump’s enthusiasm seems to have cooled, and his top foreign policy advisers have begun talking tougher about Moscow. The Russian Embassy in Washington, shrugging off the uproar, said on Thursday it was in regular contact with “U.S. partners.” | 1 |
8,690 | Thai tour guide arrested for inappropriate behavior at Buddhist temple | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities have arrested a local tour guide for indecent behavior at a temple after she posted a photograph online that showed her standing on a pagoda, police said on Saturday. The arrest came as photographs of Naranon Narakamin 44 circulated on social media earlier in the week, including one that showed her standing behind a tourist with one of her foot placed on a pagoda at Bangkok s iconic Temple of Dawn. It is unclear when the photograph of Naranon was taken but it has outraged many conservatives who say her behavior was disrespectful to Buddhism. Tourist Police Deputy commissioner Police Major General Surachet Hakpal told a press conference on Saturday that the tour guide has exhibited inappropriate behavior at a Buddhist temple, and set a bad example for Thais and foreign tourists. Naranon, who has publicly apologized for her action, will be charged with breaching the national archaeological site act and could face up to one month jail term and a fine of up to 10,000 baht ($307.50), the police said. In Thailand, using feet to point at people or objects, particularly sacred objects is considered very rude. Revealing clothing and inappropriate action at places of worship is also considered offensive in the predominantly Buddhist country. Last month two American tourists were arrested and fined for public indecency after posing for a butt selfie at a temple in Bangkok. | 1 |
8,691 | North Korea says U.N. envoy expressed willingness to ease tensions | SEOUL (Reuters) - U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, who visited North Korea this week, expressed willingness to ease tension on the Korean peninsula, state media said on Saturday, amid a rising war of words over the North s missile and nuclear programs. North Korea also said in a statement carried by its official KCNA news agency that the U.N. envoy acknowledged the negative impact of sanctions on humanitarian aid to North Korea. Feltman, the highest-level U.N. official to visit North Korea since 2012, was not immediately available for comment. The United Nations expressed concerns over the heightened situation on the Korean peninsula and expressed willingness to work on easing tensions on the Korean peninsula in accordance with the U.N. Charter which is based on international peace and security, KCNA said. North Korea is pursuing nuclear and missile weapons programmes in defiance of U.N. sanctions and international condemnation. On Nov. 29, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which it said was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland United States. The United States and South Korea conducted large-scale military drills this week, which the North said have made the outbreak of war an established fact . KCNA said North Korean officials and Feltman agreed that his visit helped deepen understanding and that they agreed to communicate regularly. Feltman visited Pyongyang from Tuesday to Saturday, KCNA said. Last month s missile test prompted a U.S. warning that North Korea s leadership would be utterly destroyed if war were to break out. The Pentagon has mounted repeated shows of force after North Korean tests. North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States and says its weapons programmes are necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. | 1 |
8,692 | Police to remove people from Catalan voting stations on Sunday: government source | BARCELONA (Reuters) - Police will remove people from Catalan independence referendum polling stations on Sunday, a government source said on Saturday, without giving details on how this would be carried out. It would be up to the police how they remove people, the official source said. Volunteers staffing polling stations and using the national census in Sunday s banned Catalan referendum on independence from Spain will be liable for fines of up to 300,000 euros ($354,360), the source said. | 1 |
8,693 | (Video) Joe Biden Thinks China Is In North America | Joe Biden was at Miami Dade College speaking when he made this big mistake: | 0 |
8,694 | UNREAL! NEW YORK TIMES Blames Conservatives For Berkeley Violence…Watch This Video For The Truth! [Video] | Typical! The New York Times tries to blame conservatives for the violence TOTALLY caused by the Antifa thugs. Why does this not surprise us? Leave it to the left to twist and turn the truth to fit their narrative.The New York Times wrote: conservatives are eagerly putting themselves into volatile situations on campuses Watch this video and then tell us the Conservatives are to blame NO WAY, NO HOW!MORE PROOF THAT ANTIFA THUGS ARE TO BLAME FOR VIOLENCE: The irony in this entire cancellation of a tradition in Portland, Oregon is that now the Antifa (Anti Fascists) have pissed off the more moderate lefties. One group was going to speak at the parade event against white supremacy but now they won t get the chance. It s turning out that the Antifa group is more violent than any other radical group we ve known. They re even selling knives on their website! A threatening email has derailed one of the Portland Rose Festival s signature events, and spurred new debate about the ongoing political protests in Portland.Organizers of the 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade announced Tuesday that the event will be canceled, for fear that the east Portland parade could be disrupted by the type of riots which happen in downtown Portland. (see video below)Originally scheduled this Saturday, April 29, the parade is meant to highlight the local community and businesses along Southeast 82nd Avenue, aiming to turn around the negative perception many people have of the area. It started in 2007 and has since become a popular event on the Rose Festival calendar.This year s parade was once again set to feature the Multnomah County Republican Party as one of the many groups slated to march, but that inclusion drew ire from some of the city s left-leaning protest groups.At least two protests were planned for the day of the parade, one by Oregon Students Empowered and another by Direct Action Alliance. Both events were mentioned in an email sent to parade organizers on Saturday, threatening to shut down the event with hundreds of protesters in the street. You have seen how much power we have downtown and that the police cannot stop us from shutting down roads so please consider your decision wisely, the anonymous email said, telling organizers they could cancel the Republican group s registration or else face action from protesters. This is non-negotiable. The parade is organized by the 82nd Avenue of Roses Business Association, a part of the neighborhood business organization Venture Portland. Representatives from neither organization returned calls for comment.The cancelation isn t necessarily a win for the protest groups. Jacob Bureros, an organizer with the Direct Action Alliance, said the organization which intended to speak out against fascism and white supremacy during the parade is sad to hear the news. We are disappointed that the parade was canceled, he said. We re members of this community and this is an awesome parade. James Buchal, chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party, said his group was ready to march despite the protesters. He said the party had no hand in cancelling the event, and was taken by surprise when they heard the news. After seeing the email last weekend, they had no plans to back out. We weren t willing to just walk away quietly, he said. The next thing we knew the whole thing was canceled. The problem is the police said they couldn t offer additional security for the parade so the organizers backed out. We know the Portland Police Department can move to stop this type of activity.Check out this recent shut down of protesters blocking a bus in downtown Portland:Portland protesters were doing the usual idiotic tactic of blocking the street and not letting traffic proceed What they didn t realize is that the police aren t taking this anymore Watch the takedown of these punks Awesome!Check out the lady with the thumbs up! Haha!Read more: Oregon Live | 0 |
8,695 | Republican Representative Gowdy says he is not interested in FBI job | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy, who was among 11 people being considered for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said on Monday he is not interested in the job. Gowdy said in a statement that he told Attorney General Jeff Sessions he “would not be the right person” to lead the agency. President Donald Trump touched off a political firestorm last week by firing FBI Director James Comey, who was leading a probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties between Moscow and the Trump campaign. | 1 |
8,696 | Trump's Interior Dept. pick wins Senate confirmation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Interior Department as the White House seeks to increase fossil fuel production on federal lands. Ryan Zinke, a U.S. Representative from coal-producing Montana, won confirmation by a vote of 68 to 31, with several Democrats joining Republicans, who lead the chamber. The former Navy SEAL commander is an avid hunter and angler who is popular with many outdoor enthusiasts, including Trump’s son Donald Jr. Many environmentalists, however, are concerned about Zinke’s zeal for exploiting coal and other fossil fuels. As a one-term Congressman, Zinke worked to boost mining, including supporting an effort to end a coal leasing moratorium on federal lands. Forty percent of U.S. output comes from federal lands that are mostly in Wyoming and Montana. In his confirmation hearing in January Zinke said he would consider an expansion of energy drilling and mining on federal lands but would ensure that sensitive areas were protected. Democrats who voted against Zinke, including Senators Maria Cantwell and Chuck Schumer, questioned his support of fossil fuel development on federal lands. “Congressman Zinke says he’s a dyed in the wool conservationist, but doesn’t have the record to back it up,” said Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. “That should concern every outdoor enthusiast, every lover of our great and grand national parks.” Zinke will head an agency that employs more than 70,000 people across the country and oversees more than 20 percent of federal land, including national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite. Fellow Republican Senator Steve Daines, also from Montana, said Zinke “knows we must strike a balance between conservation and responsible energy development.” The White House is expected to issue an executive order soon reversing former President Barack Obama’s temporary moratorium on coal leasing on U.S. lands, which is part of a wider review of the program. The Senate is also expected to easily confirm Trump’s pick to head the Department of Energy, Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas, this week. | 1 |
8,697 | Russian Investigation Landing Very Close To Trump; Jared Kushner Now ‘Person Of Interest’ | While Donald Trump is on a whirlwind world tour, the Russian investigation is beginning to land uncomfortably close to home for Trump. A member of his own family, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, is now reportedly a person of interest. The Washington Post said a senior adviser to Mr Trump was among people investigators wanted to speak to. A New York magazine reporter then said the person in question was Mr Kushner, 36, who is married to Mr Trump s eldest daughter and who flew out of Washington on Friday night to accompany the President on his first official foreign trip.The Post said the person under investigation was close to the President, but did not identify them. However, the number of people who fit such a profile would be very small.Source: IndependentAnnnd another bomb: Russia probe sees a current Trump official as a significant person of interest, WaPo reports. https://t.co/mhFonUx1Wv pic.twitter.com/xjMPuELXVO Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 19, 2017WashPo reports:-person of interest is a WH official 3 officials had confirmed Russia contact 1 of them works at WH, Jared Kushner Ari Melber (@AriMelber) May 19, 2017Jared is the person of interest in the West Wing that the Feds are looking at. What an amazing end to the week! Eric Schmeltzer (@JustSchmeltzer) May 19, 2017Does this mean that an arrest of Kushner is imminent? No. While things have begun escalating rather quickly, The Washington Post reports that criminal charges are likely not near.Right now, all of this is speculative, but when you connect the dots, they connect right to Kushner. It could be that people behind the investigation believe that Kushner is vulnerable and likely to talk. We already know that he made a lie of omission on his security clearance application and forgot to mention a meeting with Russians. This makes him a fairly easy target in the investigation and as one of the few people to have the ear of Trump, he likely knows a lot about all of the Russian ties. He knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
8,698 | Syrian government forces press attack in east Aleppo | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city’s rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad. “The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected,” a Syrian military source told Reuters. The Syrian army and its allies had recaptured 32 of east Aleppo’s 40 neighborhoods, about 85 percent of the area, he said. Reuters journalists, rebels and a monitor confirmed the military thrust. There were no reports the Syrian army had made significant gains. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian army had suspended military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held areas, RIA news agency reported. The army and its allies tried to advance on two fronts, a Turkish-based official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said. “Helicopters, warplanes and rocket bombardment like every day. Nothing has changed,” the official said. Despite the bombardment, “the guys are steadfast,” the official added. During a tour of Old Aleppo on Friday, which the Syrian army took control of this week, Reuters journalists counted the sound of nine air strikes in about half an hour. Fighting could be heard from other areas nearby. The Russian air force and Iran-backed Shi’ite militias are fighting in Aleppo on the government side. Rebel leaders have given no sign they are about to withdraw as the civilian population is squeezed into an ever-decreasing area. Russian Defense Ministry official Sergei Rudskoi said on Friday up to 10,500 Syrian citizens had fled parts of east Aleppo still controlled by rebels in the last 24 hours. This could not be independently verified. Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria’s most populous city. The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country. The Syrian government now appears closer to victory than at any point in the five years since protests against Assad evolved into an armed rebellion. The war has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless. Outside of Aleppo, the Syrian army declared a ceasefire in several areas around Damascus and the northwestern province of Idlib beginning on Friday evening, without saying how long it would last. There was no immediate comment from rebels. But there was no sign of any such truce inside Aleppo. “There are aerial raids on the city’s neighborhoods with highly explosive incendiary bombs, barrel bombs and artillery shelling,” a fighter with the Nour al-Din al-Zinki rebel group on an eastern Aleppo frontline told Reuters. In Old Aleppo, newly recaptured by the government, there was widespread destruction in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, with fire-damaged ancient buildings, structures reduced to rubble and spent ordnance everywhere. At the side of a road sat a woman in her late 20s, veiled, dressed in black, and weeping as she cradled her baby. “My son was born after three months of siege. There were no hospitals, no diapers, no milk,” she said. “My milk is dry from fear and panic.” Dozens of displaced civilians, including children, had gathered in the road with their belongings after fleeing the Saliheen district, where battles continued. Maher Tashtash, aged nine, said the bombardment had been frightening and rebels had told them they faced death if caught by the army. His brother Mohammed, 12, said they had hidden in a cellar until the fighting passed. Even the dead were not spared the carnage. In the Dar al-Islam cemetery near Ibn Sina street in al-Hamdaniya, graves were destroyed. People were burying corpses in open public ground. The United Nations estimates about 100,000 people are now squeezed into an “ever shrinking” rebel-held pocket of Aleppo with virtually no access to food, water or medical care. In rebel-held Aleppo, a Reuters journalist said there were intense clashes on Friday in Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the eastern sector, where the Observatory and a Syrian military source said government forces advanced on Thursday. Fighting also took place northeast of Aleppo, where Turkey has intervened to support rebels against both Islamic State fighters and Kurdish groups. Turkish-backed rebels closed in on the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab with Turkish tanks and warplanes supporting the assault, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Moscow and Washington have discussed a ceasefire to let civilians escape eastern Aleppo and aid enter. Russia also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out. U.N. envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura told the Security Council on Thursday there were signs fighters in Aleppo may want to leave and the council should help them go, diplomats said. The Syrian government said on Friday it was ready to resume dialogue with the opposition, without external intervention or preconditions. Rebels said no such contacts were taking place. “There are no negotiations now, except what’s being discussed internationally,” said Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, speaking from Turkey. “We have asked for the evacuation of civilians who want to leave and of the injured. The fighters are determined to stay and face things.” U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss Aleppo, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a news briefing on Friday. The talks will focus on achieving a pause in the fighting, the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, and ensuring a safe departure for those who want to leave, Toner said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has invested months of intensive diplomacy on Syria, acknowledged the exasperation many feel. “I know people are tired of these meetings. I’m tired of these meetings. ... what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts while people are dying?” Kerry said at the U.S. embassy in Paris, according to a State Department transcript. “What is happening in Aleppo is the worst catastrophe – what’s happening in Syria is the worst catastrophe since World War Two itself. It’s unacceptable. It’s horrible.” The U.N. General Assembly voted 122 to 13 on Friday to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria, humanitarian aid access throughout the country and an end to all sieges, including in Aleppo. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight. The European Union said on Friday it would introduce more sanctions on Syrian individuals and entities over the Aleppo offensive. The U.N. human rights office said hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo were missing after leaving rebel-held areas, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces. The government has dismissed reports of mass arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings by its forces as fabrications. Rebels for their part deny they have prevented civilians from leaving opposition-controlled areas. | 1 |
8,699 | Kenya police disperse protesters as Odinga tempers vote protest call | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired teargas and shots in the air to scatter a small number of demonstrators in Nairobi two days before elections, as the main opposition leader appeared to pull back from a call for protests during the vote. In the western city of Kisumu, around 2,000 demonstrators marched on the election board offices, witnesses said, heeding Raila Odinga s appeal for protests against Thursday s repeat presidential ballot, before dispersing peacefully. Odinga is boycotting the contest against incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta. He says it will not be free and fair as the election board had made insufficient progress towards reforms he demanded after the original election held in August was annulled. Odinga had urged his supporters to ensure the new vote did not take place, repeatedly saying there would be no elections . But on Tuesday he told the BBC he was not calling for protests on election day itself. 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 a radio interview. When called for clarification, Odinga s spokesman said he was saying peaceful protests would still take place and that the opposition would fully explain their plans on Wednesday. At least 49 people have died in political violence since the August ballot, evoking unwelcome memories of the aftermath of a disputed 2007 vote, when more than 1,200 people were killed. On Tuesday evening, the bodyguard of the deputy chief justice was shot and wounded as he bought flowers by the side of the road, police said. The motive for the shooting was unclear, but it is likely to add to the tense atmosphere surrounding the vote. Judges have received threats since they nullified the August result. The political stand-off has blunted growth in East Africa s richest economy, a nation which values its stability and relative freedom in a region plagued by conflict. Kenya s Supreme Court is still hearing several cases challenging the legality of Thursday s election. One, brought by human rights activist Khelef Khalifa and two others, seeks to delay the vote on grounds that the election board is not sufficiently prepared. The Supreme Court, the only body that can now legally postpone the poll beyond the end of the month, will hear the case on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the election board canceled a planned briefing with journalists on preparations for the polls. Last week, the head of the election board said it was not clear a free and fair vote could take place due to intimidation and political interference. He spoke after the resignation of an election commissioner, who then fled the country and released a statement saying she had been threatened, although she did not say by whom. A day before the Aug. 8 vote, another member of the election board was found tortured and murdered. On Monday, the International Crisis Group, a global think-tank, called for a delay in the election. Proceeding under current conditions would deepen Kenya s ethnic cleavages and prolong a stalemate that has already claimed dozens of lives and come at a high economic cost, it said. Both the election board and the government have said the vote will go ahead, irrespective of whether Odinga contests it, and only a court ruling could legally delay the re-run ballot beyond the end of October. On Tuesday, police fired teargas and bullets into the air to break up protesters in the capital Nairobi. In Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, demonstrators said that the polls should not take place, but were unclear on how they should be stopped. All we know is that there will be no elections. As to how this will be done, we are waiting for the big announcement by Baba (Odinga) tomorrow, said one demonstrator, market trader James Ouma. Around him, marchers waved branches and blew whistles. Last week Odinga supporters disrupted at least three official pre-polling events. Police said some election board staff were seriously injured. Kenyatta won the first election on Aug. 8, by 1.4 million votes, but the Supreme Court annulled that outcome on Sept. 1 over procedural irregularities. Odinga s team then presented a list of demands to the election board. Some have been met - opposition monitors will now have access to the board s computers as results come in, a key official has gone on an extended holiday, and numerical results vulnerable to typographical errors will not be transmitted, rather only scanned copies of paper forms from tallying centers. The board said it was impossible to meet other demands - such as changing the technology provider - in the short time frame allotted for new elections. Under Kenya s constitution, fresh elections must be held within 60 days of nullified ones. | 1 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.