Unnamed: 0 int64 | title string | text string | label int64 |
|---|---|---|---|
9,400 | Russia accuses U.S.-led coalition of trying to partition Syria | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s ambassador to the United Nations accused the U.S.-led coalition in Syria on Wednesday of trying to partition the country by setting up local governing bodies in areas seized from Islamic State, Russian news agencies reported. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was cited as complaining that the coalition was discussing measures to restore the economy with the new bodies, but not with the Syrian government. What the coalition is doing amounts to concrete steps to partition the country, Nebenzia was quoted as saying. | 1 |
9,401 | Putin, Trump speak by phone, aim for cooperation: Kremlin | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday agreed to work toward “constructive cooperation”, including on fighting terrorism, the Kremlin said. In their first phone call since Trump won the Nov. 8 election, they agreed to “channel” relations between Russia and the United States and “combine efforts to tackle international terrorism and extremism”. “The importance of creating a solid basis for bilateral ties was underscored, in particularly by developing the trade-economic component,” the Kremlin said in its statement. It added that the countries should “return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation, which would address the interests of both countries as well as stability and safety the world over.” Trump’s team issued a statement saying Putin called to offer congratulations. The statement said Trump told Putin he was looking forward to a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and its people. The two men will maintain contact by phone and seek to meet each other in person, the statement said. Trump will succeed President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. Obama’s relations with Putin have become tense over issues that include Syria and Ukraine. | 1 |
9,402 | Racists Explode Over Old Navy Ad, The Internet Perfectly Responds (TWEETS) | Old Navy posted a completely innocent photo of an interracial family to Twitter over the weekend. Despite the fact that is 2016, racists almost instantly began attacking Old Navy for helping to support white genocide. This just proves once again that any type of inclusion in society terrifies racists.Here is the photo that ruined every racists day. The photo simply shows an interracial family standing together, in the way almost every family seems to pose for an Old Navy advertisement.Oh, happy day! Our #ThankYouEvent is finally here. Take 30% off your entire purchase: https://t.co/nGQ9Pji1pN pic.twitter.com/vq4mIczm6A Old Navy Official (@OldNavy) April 29, 2016White genocide is a racist conspiracy theory. Those who believe in it think that racial equality is a covert attempt to exterminate the white race. They view any display of racial diversity as a part of a giant brainwashing scheme cooked up by people who hate white people. Of course, displays of racial diversity are really just showing the reality of the world. Reality being something these racist trolls seem to have completely distanced themselves from.My family and I will never step into an @OldNavy store again. This miscegenation junk is rammed down our throats from every direction. Cultural Combat (@CulturalCombat) April 29, 2016What's this? A sick joke where the white guy doesn't realize it's not his kid? A commercial for cuckoldry?#WhiteGenocide@OldNavy Viva Europa (@realVivaEuropa) May 2, 2016Open Borders + Forced Integration + Multiracial everything 24/7 + Mixed future for WHITES = #WhiteGenocide. @OldNavy pic.twitter.com/oLoRA1u6wT Ann Kelly (@LadyAodh) May 1, 2016Fortunately, the racist trolls received more condemnation than they could throw out. Many people, angry at the racist attacks being launched at Old Navy, began to post photos of their multi-racial families in response. The images speak volumes as to just how absolutely ridiculous and hate filled these racist trolls actually are.Hey @OldNavy, my family and I thank you for the diversity in this ad! #LoveWins, no matter the color pic.twitter.com/TjgYUPMGu4 KHARY PENEBAKER (@kharyp) May 1, 2016.@kharyp @OldNavy Thank You Old Navy! Interracial families are beautiful and we appreciate the representation! pic.twitter.com/kVNuGHfAB9 Noelle Devoe (@Noelle_CD) May 2, 2016.@OldNavy Props on this ad! My family and I appreciate it. #RepresentationMatters pic.twitter.com/ZXQ8YbT0QS Austin Null (@thenivenulls) May 2, 2016@thenivenulls @OldNavy yes it does!! pic.twitter.com/i9oiyq0fUX Tiara Henderson (@Disneymommy22) May 2, 2016It s sad that these racist clowns exist in the first place but they do have a tendency to bring out some of the most beautiful responses to their ignorance. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously said Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. What could possibly be more beautiful than family?Thank you once again social media. You re the only thing that can both destroy a person s faith in humanity and restore it in just a few minutes.Featured image from Twitter | 0 |
9,403 | North Carolina Republicans Lose As Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Voter Suppression Law | Republican racists in North Carolina just got their asses handed to them by the United States 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.In 2013, Republicans abused their power in North Carolina by passing a law designed to keep them in power by suppressing the votes of minorities and young people by requiring they bring voter identification. The law also cut early voting, ended same day registration, and heavily restricted pre-registration of young voters. It has been the most draconian anti-voting law in the country, and has drawn massive protests ever since.Critics of the law challenged it s constitutionality in court, only to see the district court rule against them. But now a federal appeals court has not only reversed the lower court s decision, it slammed them. In holding that the legislature did not enact the challenged provisions with discriminatory intent, the court seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees, Judge Diana Motz wrote in the decision. This failure of perspective led the court to ignore critical facts bearing on legislative intent, including the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina. And then Motz roundly condemned the Republican-dominated state legislature of North Carolina. The General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans, she wrote, stressing that the court did their homework which led to their ruling.In response to claims that intentional racial discrimination animated its action, the State offered only meager justifications. Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist. Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the State s true motivation.Faced with this record, we can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court to the contrary and remand with instructions to enjoin the challenged provisions of the law. We recognize that elections have consequences, but winning an election does not empower anyone in any party to engage in purposeful racial discrimination. Motz concluded.Here s the full decision via Talking Points Memo:This is a major victory for voting rights in this country and a humiliating defeat for Republicans who really thought they could suppress the votes of millions of Americans and get away with it just because they gained power in the state.Now Democrats have a fair chance to not only oust these Republicans and take back the state government of North Carolina, the voters who just got their voting rights restored will get a chance to vote in November just in time to participate in what will be a historical election.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
9,404 | Trump’s Billionaire Neighbor Could Enter Race, And Split The Vote For A Trump Win | A fellow multi-billionaire from New York and neighbor to none other than Donald Trump has already laid the groundwork for entering into the 2016 presidential race. That person is Michael Bloomberg and this time, he s not only flirting with the possibility, but he s also considering throwing in $1 billion of his own money to make it happen. While that may be a lot of dough for the Donald (a sizeable percentage at least) for Bloomberg, it s practically nothing.The former Mayor of New York is no stranger to politics, either, having served in the position for 11 years, and he s worth an estimated $37.2 billion. That makes him the 12th richest person in the world today, according to Forbes. If anyone could make a dent in the race, it s him.He would have to run as an independent, for sure, and while the chances of him winning would be slim to none taking that path, here s what s more important: Bloomberg entering the race would be a straight-up disaster for Democrats, to say the least. And, it makes you start to think along these terms; is a billionaire going to buy the presidency this go around, for a fellow New York billionaire?Mr. Bloomberg says he would be in it to win it, but let s look at the numbers: The Washington Examiner did a poll already on this and had Trump winning in a three-way race if Clinton gets the nomination. Trump would receive around 37 percent of the vote to Clinton s 36 percent while Bloomberg would only tally 13 percent. While it s possible there could still be a Clinton win within the margin of error, it opens up a path for a Trump win, period. Just giving Trump a possible win is enough to make this scary.The elections department at the Huffington Post has a vast array of polls pitting Clinton against Trump, going back months. Guess what, Clinton has won in a head to head matchup against the Donald in 23 out of the last 28 conducted. That s an overwhelming amount. It s safe the say that having an independent of Bloomberg s stature running is something Democrats would rather end up avoiding.Why Bloomberg thinks he would have a chance in this thing, other than to hand the presidency over to the GOP is beyond us. But according to several sources in his camp, he s apparently hoping that Bernie Sanders takes some key early states, at which case he could step in around an early March time frame. If Bernie takes momentum away from Clinton, Bloomberg thinks he has a chance. Here s what that tells us: Bloomberg could take even more votes away from the Democratic Party he thinks anyways than he would from the Republican Party were Sanders to win the nomination. That doesn t look good, either.His record backs that up, too: he s pro-gun control, pro-abortion, recognizes climate control is a huge problem, is for immigration reform; in practically every social view he leans to the left. The only thing that hurts him with Democrats is the fact that he has close ties to Wall Street and has a lot of business views that aren t exactly great for poor people.Even Trump wouldn t mind Bloomberg jumping in. The New York Times even made it the title of their latest article announcing the news: Donald Trump Would Love to See Michael Bloomberg Run. I would love to see Michael run I would love the competition. I d love to see what would happen. (We run) different kinds of business, it s a very different kind of business, but I would say that if he ran, I d be very happy about it. He s not the only one either who sees Bloomberg running as a gold mine for Trump. Alan Patricof, a financier and longtime donor to the Clintons, said it would be a terrible thing for the Democratic Party if the former Mayor decides to run as an independent. If it was President Trump or President Bloomberg, I d certainly rather have President Bloomberg. But, it certainly can t help the Democrats. Mr. Patricof might prefer Bloomberg, but that doesn t mean Bloomberg would come out ahead. Ari Fleischer, a former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush says this would be a godsend for his party. Bloomberg s entry into the race would be a dream come true for Republicans. He would draw mostly from the Democratic column. I hope he runs. If there s one thing we know, Bloomberg is no idiot. If he enters the race, he must know he d only be doing a favor for Trump. And, that on the face of it, doesn t make him an enemy of Donald Trump. If anything, it would make them best friends, no matter what they d like voters to think of their relationship to one another.Featured image via Wikipedia | 0 |
9,405 | ILLEGAL ALIEN GETS Full-Ride To Prestigious Harvard Medical School | Welcome to socialism, where colleges, universities and our government work hand-in-hand to level the playing field. It all starts by punishing the white middle and upper class legal citizens of America, who had the audacity to be born white, work hard and follow the rule of law in America Harvard University raked in an astounding $608 MILLION in federal funding in 2014.Harvard Medical School has a 5% acceptance rate.From Harvard Med School website:Student Profile:Harvard Medical School affirms that medical education is enhanced by diversity among the student body, and has one of the most diverse medical school enrollments in the country. 17% of the student body comes from groups underrepresented in medicine, and another 35% from other minority groups. Students hail from 45 U.S. states, many foreign countries, and over 100 different undergraduate institutions.Harvard s Medical School website only shows only partial scholarships are available for students from lower income families. Perhaps they make exceptions for lawbreakers?! An illegal alien has won a full-ride scholarship to Harvard Medical School, highlighting the growing inflow of migrants into the white-collar professions.Blanca Morales of Santa Ana, California was the valedictorian of Santa Ana High School and graduated with honors from University of California Irvine. Now ABC 7 news has reported that Harvard has offered her a slot plus tuition costs even though she is an illegal alien who was brought into the country at the age of five.Tuition and fees for Harvard Medical School come to over $62,000 for the 2016-17 school year.Morales s gain was eased by President Barack Obama s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action, which provided her with a form of legal status, plus a work permit. She is the first Health Scholar DACA student to be admitted to Medical School, reads a portion of a post on the Health Scholars Program Facebook page.She s being touted as success story for the Democrats support of illegal immigration.But Morales gain marks a larger trend namely, the increasing inflow of white-collar immigrants, legal and otherwise, seeking jobs also sought by hard-pressed American professionals.Since the 1990s, blue-collar Americans have seen their wages and opportunities reduced by blue-collar immigrants.But American professionals are also losing a wide variety of jobs to a resident population of roughly 1 million white-collar foreign guest-workers.The California and New York state legislatures have allowed professional licensing boards to provide professional licenses to illegals so they can compete for white-collar jobs. Illegal immigrant Cesar Vargas lawyers convinced a New York appeals court in June of 2015 to grant him the authority to practice law. A California court made a similar decision in 2014.Lawyers have also found a way to convert Obama s 2012 DACA mini-amnesty for roughly 800,000 younger illegals status into permanent residency.DACA recipients ask the Department of Homeland Security for permission to leave the country and then return under the legal status of advanced parole. That is a benefit that is supposed to only be granted for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The case is detailed in a letter from two U.S. Senators to Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson.Several universities are organizing so-called study abroad trips with white-collar illegal alien students so they can obtain advanced parole to let them continue on the path to legalization, according to the letter from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Lee (R-UT).United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials have been overwhelmed with DACA applications, processing near 7 million in fiscal year 2014 alone. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has pointed out that those seeking to come to the United States legally face greater obstacles in the visa process than those who have come illegally.Favoritism towards illegals disadvantages the people who legally migrate into the United States. Self-described legal immigrant and community volunteer Francisco Rivera of Los Angeles, California told Breitbart News last August:People need to understand that not every immigrant supports immigration reform [for illegals] and I do not approve of it. You don t cut in front of people in line and expect not to pay the consequences. That s why we have rules and laws, not just in this country, but many countries. You need to get in line. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
9,406 | North Korea would not commit to peace talks but 'door ajar': U.N. envoy | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said on Tuesday that senior North Korean officials did not offer any type of commitment to talks during his visit to Pyongyang last week, but he believes he left the door ajar. Feltman, the highest-level U.N. official to visit North Korea since 2011, met with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister Pak Myong Guk during a four-day visit that he described as the most important mission I have ever undertaken. Time will tell what was the impact of our discussions, but I think we have left the door ajar and I fervently hope that the door to a negotiated solution will now be opened wide, Feltman told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors on his visit. They need time to digest and consider how they will respond to our message, he said, adding that he believed Ri would brief North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on their discussions. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered on Tuesday to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from U.S. demands that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would have to be about giving up its nuclear arsenal. Feltman said he asked North Korea to signal that it was prepared to consider engagement like possible talks about talks and to open technical channels of communication, such as the military-to-military hotline, to reduce risks, to signal intentions, to prevent misunderstandings and manage any crisis. They listened seriously to our arguments ... They did not offer any type of commitment to us at that point, said Feltman. They agreed it was important to prevent war ... How we do that was the topic of 15-plus hours of discussions. He said the United Nations could act as a facilitator. North Korea is pursuing nuclear and missile weapons programs 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. Feltman described his visit as constructive and productive and said the North Koreans agreed to continue a dialogue. The people who we met listened carefully to our arguments, they explored our thinking, they asked questions, they argued with us, but ultimately they have to take what we said and talk about it internally, talk about it with their leadership, he said. | 1 |
9,407 | At least three dead as Lidia slams Mexico's Los Cabos tourist hub | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - At least three people died after torrential rain from Tropical Storm Lidia provoked major flooding around Mexico s popular Los Cabos beach resort on Friday, authorities said. Featuring maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph), the storm was projected to move north over a large swath of Mexico s Baja California peninsula before turning west toward the Pacific on Sunday. Local television footage showed abandoned cars and trucks in washed-out roads, as well as destroyed beach-front structures. Lidia, about 55 miles (89 km) north-northeast of Cabo San Lazaro, was moving at a speed of 12 miles per hour (19 kmh) as it skirted the western coast of the peninsula, according to an advisory from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC). Luis Felipe Puente, the head of national emergency services, told Reuters that the storm claimed a child and two adults who were trying to cross a raging river. Lidia also provoked power outages, damaged houses and roads, as well as forcing some 2,800 people into local shelters. While the storm is forecast to further weaken over the next couple of days, it is expected to dump between 6 to 12 inches (15-30 cm) of rain across the peninsula as well as parts of Sinaloa and Sonora states. These rains may cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, the NHC said in its advisory. | 1 |
9,408 | Jimmy Carter: ‘Koreans Want Peace Treaty to Replace 1953 Ceasefire’ | 21st Century Wire says Reframing the current diplomatic crisis in North Korea is essential if genuine progress is to be made in diffusing the current tense situation.Former US President Jimmy Carter is suggesting just that. But will the hawks in Washington listen?. The Carter CenterThe harsh rhetoric from Washington and Pyongyang during recent months has exacerbated an already confrontational relationship between our countries, and has probably eliminated any chance of good faith peace talks between the United States and North Korea. In addition to restraining the warlike rhetoric, our leaders need to encourage talks between North Korea and other countries, especially China and Russia. The recent UN Security Council unanimous vote for new sanctions suggests that these countries could help. In all cases, a nuclear exchange must be avoided. All parties must assure North Koreans they we will forego any military action against them if North Korea remains peaceful.President Jimmy CarterI have visited North Korea three times, and have spent more than 20 hours in discussions with their political leaders regarding important issues that affect U.S.-DPRK relations.In June 1994, I met with Kim Il Sung in a time of crisis, when he agreed to put all their nuclear programs under strict supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and to seek mutual agreement with the United States on a permanent peace treaty, to have summit talks with the president of South Korea, to expedite the recovery of the remains of American service personnel buried in his country, and to take other steps to ease tension on the peninsula. Kim Il Sung died shortly after my visit, and his successor, Kim Jong Il, notified me and leaders in Washington that he would honor the promises made by his father. These obligations were later confirmed officially in negotiations in Geneva by Robert Gallucci and other representatives of the Clinton administration.I returned to Pyongyang in August 2010, at the invitation of North Korean leaders, to bring home Aijalon Gomes, an American who had been detained there. My last visit to North Korea was in May 2011 when I led a delegation of Elders (former presidents of Ireland and Finland and former prime minister of Norway) to assure the delivery of donated food directly to needy people.During all these visits, the North Koreans emphasized that they wanted peaceful relations with the United States and their neighbors, but were convinced that we planned a preemptive military strike against their country. They wanted a peace treaty (especially with America) to replace the ceasefire agreement that had existed since the end of the Korean War in 1953, and to end the economic sanctions that had been very damaging to them during that long interim period. They have made it clear to me and others that their first priority is to assure that their military capability is capable of destroying a large part of Seoul and of responding strongly in other ways to any American attack. The influence of China in Pyongyang seems to be greatly reduced since Kim Jong Un became the North Korean leader in December 2011.A commitment to peace by the United States and North Korea is crucial.When this confrontational crisis is ended, the United States should be prepared to consummate a permanent treaty to replace the ceasefire of 1953. The United States should make this clear, to North Koreans and to our allies.READ MORE NORTH KOREA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire North Korea FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
9,409 | Alabama governor could face charges after ethics panel ruling | (Reuters) - Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said on Thursday he would not resign after the state’s ethics commission found probable cause that he violated ethics and campaign finance laws, a ruling that could result in criminal charges. The second-term Republican governor faces a hearing in separate proceedings on Monday that could lead to his eventual impeachment and ouster. The probable cause findings by the Alabama Ethics Commission prompted Republican Del Marsh, the leader of the state Senate, to call on Bentley to step down, local media reported. Marsh said the governor was not able to lead effectively. Bentley faces escalating political fallout over his relationship with a former senior adviser and has been dogged for the past year by questions concerning his potentially inappropriate use of state resources. Asked for a response to Marsh’s comments, Bentley said in a statement: “I have no intentions of resigning and I am looking forward to continuing to work on important issues facing the state.” The Alabama House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee will begin the impeachment process on Monday, said its chairman, Representative Mike Jones. “It’s time to put this in front of us, let’s address it, and let’s get it behind us,” Jones said on the floor of the House on Thursday. The committee will make a recommendation to the full House on whether to impeach Bentley. The judiciary committee has been conducting its own investigation apart from the ethics commission and plans to issue a report on Friday. Bentley denies any legal wrongdoing. “We think there is not a basis that the governor violated any law,” his lawyer, Bill Athanas, told reporters Wednesday night. “So the battle goes on.” After allegations of a scandal broke last year, Bentley apologized for making inappropriate remarks to married staffer Rebekah Mason, while denying allegations of a physical affair. Mason resigned as questions about the pair’s relationship began to dominate Alabama politics. Bentley’s wife filed for divorce in August 2015 after 50 years of marriage, citing unspecified problems. Local media said the ethics commission found probable cause that Bentley violated state campaign regulations by accepting a contribution and making a loan to his campaign outside the time frame permitted by law and using campaign funds to pay Mason’s legal fees. He also may have violated ethics law by using public resources for his personal interest. If charged with breaking Alabama’s ethics or campaign finance laws, Bentley could 20 years in prison per violation, the commission said. | 1 |
9,410 | the inherent violence of israels gaza blockade | north dakota is ablaze as a result of protesters against the dakota access pipeline and the protests have escalated quickly into violence and multiple arrests how did this happen and who is behind it
here are things you need to know about the dakota access pipeline protests | 0 |
9,411 | Puerto Rico GO bond price dips, rescue bill moves to Senate | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s benchmark General Obligation bond fell in price on Friday in choppy trading after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at helping the U.S. territory fix its fiscal mess. The GO bond, carrying an 8 percent coupon and maturing in 2035, last traded at 64.74 points in price, pushing the yield to 13.05 percent from 12.73 percent on Thursday, according to data provided by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. According to the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access database, about $21 million worth of bonds traded versus $14 million the day before. Late on Thursday the House passed the "Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act" (PROMESA), by a vote of 297-127, with the U.S. Senate expected to take up the bill quickly ahead of a $1.9 billion debt payment due July 1. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/1PjZvh5) Puerto Rico has a $70 billion debt load it says it cannot pay and a staggering 45 percent poverty rate. It faces steady migration of its residents to the mainland and a potential humanitarian crisis because it cannot sustain social services. PROMESA, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would establish a powerful seven-member federal Oversight Board to navigate through the restructurings. Among other things, the board would have the authority to enforce balanced budgets. “It is definitely a step forward, a very good step forward. We think it was necessary. It doesn’t answer all your questions but at least it sets up a framework and does provide fiscal management and oversight which we think was necessary because the credibility of the government is pretty much shot,” said Joe Rosenblum, director of municipal credit research at AllianceBernstein in New York. “We don’t think at these prices we are ready to dip our toes back in and we haven’t seen a lot of trading activity out there, so I think we are in company,” Rosenblum said. PROMESA does not set out specific rules for restructuring, leaving such decisions to the control board to work through with creditors. This is a critical point for municipal bond market investors where long-standing rules set out a hierarchy among creditors, typically with GO bondholders considered senior to all others. “Regardless of how things get restructured today, the fact that the economy continues to shrink and the population continues to shrink is a problem for the credit going forward,” said Craig Brandon, co-director of municipal investments at Eaton Vance in Boston. | 1 |
9,412 | Justice Department, ex-Obama lawyers duel over Arpaio pardon | (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said a criminal conviction against ex-Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio should be dismissed as moot in the wake of a controversial pardon from President Donald Trump, according to a court filing. However several legal groups, including one staffed by lawyers who worked for President Barack Obama’s administration, urged an Arizona federal judge to deem the pardon an unconstitutional overreach of executive authority. Trump, a Republican who has promised to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, has praised Arpaio’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Arizona’s Maricopa County which drew condemnation from civil rights groups. Arpaio was convicted in July of willfully violating a 2011 injunction barring his officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists solely on suspicion that they were in the country illegally. He had not yet been sentenced when Trump issued the pardon last month. Arpaio asked U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Arizona to vacate the verdict and all other orders in the case. The Justice Department on Monday said his request was valid. “The presidential pardon removes any punitive consequences that would otherwise flow from [Arpaio’s] non-final conviction and therefore renders the case moot,” it wrote in a court filing. The Protect Democracy Project, an advocacy group that includes the Obama administration lawyers, filed a separate brief urging Bolton to first decide whether the pardon was constitutional before dismissing the case. It was joined by the Coalition to Preserve Protect and Defend, a legal group consisting largely of government attorneys, and other legal advocacy organizations. Trump’s pardon will remove the ability of the courts to enforce its own orders, the coalition argued. “The result would be an executive branch freed from the judicial scrutiny required to assure compliance with the dictates of the Bill of Rights and other constitutional safeguards,” the group wrote. Arpaio campaigned for Trump in 2016 and investigated unfounded claims that Obama was not born in the United States, a falsehood that Trump also espoused for years. “Sheriff Joe is a patriot. Sheriff Joe loves our country. Sheriff Joe protected our borders,” Trump said last month. “So I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe, and I think the people of Arizona, who really know him best, would agree with me.” | 1 |
9,413 | France defends Iran nuclear deal, which Trump calls deeply flawed | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France made a new plea on Monday for the United States to preserve the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and suggested its provisions expiring after a decade could be strengthened, as U.S. President Donald Trump again criticized the agreement as deeply flawed. The pact between Tehran and six world powers, which calls for Iran to curb its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions, is under threat as Trump must decide by Oct. 15 whether to certify Iran is keeping its end of the bargain. If Trump, who as recently as Thursday accused Iran of violating the spirit of the deal, chooses not to certify, the pact could unravel, possibly triggering a regional arms race. The Republican president, who has called the agreement struck under his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, the worst deal ever negotiated, made no secret of his views during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. The president believes that the JCPOA is deeply flawed, and he did share his views with President Macron about how he believes the deal is flawed, Brian Hook, director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department, told reporters. The pact is formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The president was very candid with him about what he thinks are the shortcomings. ... He told him that it is under review and that they are taking a hard look at the Oct. 15th decision and more broadly how to fix the Iran deal, Hook said. Hook said the two also discussed an integrated strategy against Iran that would take into account what he described as Iran s support for terrorism, its ballistic missile program, its destabilization in the Middle East and other aggressions. Asked if he planned to stick with the pact, Trump earlier told reporters as he began a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday: You ll be seeing very soon. Israeli officials have said changes Israel wants in the JCPOA include lengthening the 10-year freeze on Iran s nuclear development program or even making that suspension permanent and destroying centrifuges rather than just halting their operation. The deal was negotiated with Iran by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France. The six will meet with Iran at the ministerial level on Wednesday. The prospect of Washington reneging on the agreement has worried some of the U.S. allies that helped negotiate it, especially as the world grapples with another nuclear crisis, North Korea s nuclear and ballistic missile development. It is essential to maintain it to avoid proliferation. In this period when we see the risks with North Korea, we must maintain this line, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. France will try to convince President Trump of the pertinence of this choice (keeping the accord), even if work can be done to complement the accord after 2025, he said. A senior French official said Trump had not given Macron an indication on whether he had made up his mind during their Monday bilateral. However, the official said Macron had put on the table the prospect of new nuclear negotiations after 2025 during his bilateral with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and warned him that Tehran should stop provoking the United States with its regional activities. We feel the post 2025 subject is a red line, but our president put it on the table because it s a concern and a legitimate request that we must make, the official said. 2025 will arrive quickly and we have to be ready before Jan 1. 2025, so he asked that we think together how to work on this question. If Trump does not certify that Iran is complying with the agreement, the U.S. Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions waived under the deal. Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Sunday that Tehran would react strongly to any wrong move by Washington on the nuclear deal. Paris took one of the hardest lines against Tehran in the negotiations, but has been quick to restore trade ties and Macron has said repeatedly there is no alternative to the deal. French officials say Iran is respecting the JCPOA and that, were the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to say otherwise, a mechanism exists to reimpose sanctions. The IAEA is the body ensuring the accord is carried out, but the United States and Iran quarreled over how Tehran s nuclear activities should be policed at an IAEA meeting on Monday after a U.S. call last month for wider inspections. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued on Friday that Washington must consider the full threat it says Iran poses to the Middle East when crafting its new policy toward Tehran. A senior French diplomat underlined that the nuclear deal was achieved in large part because it was not linked to all the other grievances the United States may have had with Iran. With Europeans not on the same page as the Trump administration, Iranian officials say they have an opportunity to divide the P5+1 group that negotiated the deal with Iran. A senior Iranian diplomat and a former nuclear negotiator said he believed the Europeans had no intention of following Trump s overtly aggressive Iran policy. They are wise. Look at the region. Crisis everywhere. From Iraq to Lebanon. Iran is a reliable regional partner for Europe, not only a trade partner but a political one as well, the diplomat said. European powers have been committed to the deal. The IAEA has repeatedly confirmed Iran s commitment to the deal. Trump s insistence on his hostile policy towards Iran will further deepen the gap among the P5+1 countries, the diplomat said. | 1 |
9,414 | Ivanka Trump Legally BARRED From Participating In Any Trump Businesses | The Office of Government Ethics has said that Ivanka Trump must file financial disclosure forms, and that she s barred from participating in anything related to the Trump family s businesses because she s an adviser to her father in the White House. The ethics office was never contacted about her role, revealing yet another area in which the White House is either sorely ignorant or sorely corrupt (most likely both).Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tom Carper asked the ethics office about the rules that Ivanka is supposed to follow. At the time they asked, Ivanka was in the process of getting her government-issued devices and a security clearance, and her lawyer had already said she would stick to the same ethics rules applied to every other government employee.This is what the ethics office told Warren and Carper about the ethics rules applying to her: [T]he primary criminal conflict of interest statue prohibits senior White House appointees and other executive branch employees from participating personally and substantially in particular matters directly and predictably affecting their financial interests. Among other things, this prohibition extends to the financial interests of companies in which they have ownership interests the primary criminal conflict of interest statute prohibits Ms. Trump from participating in particular matters affecting her financial interests, including the financial interests of Trump family businesses and other companies in which she has an ownership interest. That conflict of interest statute also covers her spouse s financial interests, which are imputed to her. So even if her husband, Jared Kushner, didn t have his own White House office, he still couldn t participate in the Trump Organization either.Ivanka s company was granted trademarks in China the same day she had dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The company said that the new trademarks are normal for the business that they do, and she did place her company in a trust and resigned from her position in the Trump Organization to accept her White House role. The Trump Organization, however, has likewise received a number of trademarks in China since Trump took office.She maintains financial control of her own company, though, as well as an interest in Washington s Trump International Hotel, according to The New York Times. These ethics rules apply to financial interests, even for employees and executives who ve formally resigned from their positions in their businesses. And those Chinese trademarks, granted after she took her post in the White House, could violate the ethics rules to which she s bound. Her ability to approve or deny certain deals through her trust may violate those rules as well.Unfortunately, ethics compliance is under the purview of the White House, and the White House is pretty loyal to Donald Trump and has shown zero interest in ensuring ethical compliance. The ethics office doesn t have enforcement power they just issue guidance. Congressional Democrats now have a powerful case against Ivanka should it come to light that she s violating these rules, though.There s word for this if she doesn t bring herself into full compliance: Corruption.Featured image by Sean Gallup via Getty Images | 0 |
9,415 | Britain to propose new language on Irish border, Irish PM says | DUBLIN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May told her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar that she would propose suggestions to Brexit negotiators over the next 24 hours to try to break an impasse on the issue of the Irish border, Varadkar said on Wednesday. We discussed the idea certainly but we didn t discuss any particular words or combination of words or language but I certainly indicated a willingness to consider any proposals that the UK side have, Varadkar told a news conference after speaking to May by telephone earlier on Wednesday. Having consulted with people in London, she wants to come back to us with some text tonight or tomorrow. I expressed my willingness to consider that because I want us to move to phase two if that is possible next week. | 1 |
9,416 | TRUMP BLASTS ‘FAKE’ NEWS: Sets Record Straight On Melania’s Stilettos and ‘Paper Towel Gate’ In Puerto Rico [Video] | President Trump blasted the fake media (see full interview below) for criticizing his response to Hurricane Maria and said Puerto Ricans actually loved it when he lobbed these beautiful, soft paper towels into the crowd.In a friendly interview with Mike Huckabee for the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Trump said he s done a great job helping Puerto Rico and was just having fun when he started tossing paper towel rolls at hurricane victims. There was a crowd of a lot of people and they were screaming and loving everything and I was having fun, Trump said his visit to San Juan Tuesday. They were having fun. They were saying: throw them to me, throw them to me, Mr. President. And so the next day they said, oh, it was so disrespectful to the people. It s just a made up thing. RESPECT FOR THE WHITE HOUSE President Trump speaks up on why the First Lady wears formal shoes when leaving the White House: Out of respect for the White House, she wants to look good leaving the front entrance of the White House. So she dresses up and puts on formal shoes, high heels, Trump said of the First Lady s fashion choices. . She has sneake rs, in the meantime, so she can change into other clothing when we re walking through where a hurricane is just leaving. And she took tremendous abuse. The media will keep up their lies so it makes it even more important for President Trump to get out there and do interviews like this. The media makes him out to be horrible person by lying about things like the paper towel incident. He s been great with every problem he s taken on. | 0 |
9,417 | NYPD Commissioner OBLITERATES Ted Cruz’s ‘Fictional’ Knowledge Of Counterterrorism | In an op-ed that puts to rest any notion that Ted Cruz knows what he s talking about when it comes to terrorism and national security, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton did not hold back.In the wake of the ISIS attack on Brussels, the Texas Senator went on camera to call for mass surveillance of Muslims in communities across the country as well as increased police patrols in those neighborhoods. Because spying on and treating Muslims like criminals is going to somehow prevent them from radicalizing.Not so, says Bratton, who wrote in his op-ed in New York Daily News that what Cruz believes about Muslims is fiction and that the outcome he seeks is a fairy tale. Recently, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called for police to patrol and secure Muslim communities before they become radicalized. We already patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods, the same way we patrol and secure other neighborhoods, Bratton wrote.We do not patrol and secure neighborhoods based on selective enforcement because of race or religion, nor will we use the police and an occupying force to intimidate a populace or a religion to appease the provocative chatter of politicians seeking to exploit fear.Nor will we accept the fiction of Sen. Cruz s narrative as presented. Cruz repeated the false reports surrounding the NYPD Demographics Unit and my decision to abolish it because it wasn t serving any useful purpose. He tried to depict the demise of the unit, as other ill-informed observers have done, as a knuckling under to the forces of political correctness rather than the sensible administrative decision that it was. The fact is that the former administration had allowed the unit to dwindle down to two investigators. Why? Because the work of the unit, which was to map the ethnic makeup of the city to better understand the domain of the New York metropolitan area, was finished. The two remaining detectives simply had little to do.Bratton then dropped the hammer on Cruz. It is clear from his comments that Sen. Cruz knows absolutely nothing about counterterrorism in New York City. We have in this city, without a doubt, the most effective and extensive counterterrorism capacity of any city in this country and virtually any city in the world. Bratton went on to literally list the taskforces that work hard to provide counterterrorism for New York City, including the Joint-Terrorism Task Force with the FBI, Critical Response Command, NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau, NYPD Intelligence Bureau, and the NYPD Domain Awareness System.In the end, Bratton explained that over 900 police officers under his command are Muslims who work hard to keep the city and their own families safe from terrorists every day and schooled Cruz on the Constitution before cautioning him to actually do some damn research before opening his mouth again.Sen. Cruz s references to the discontinuance of the Demographics Unit shows he has been hoodwinked by a 21st century fairy tale that refuses to die. He uses it in tandem with his suggestions that the police create a looming presence to intimidate Muslim neighborhoods with a show of force.In New York City, we protect all communities from crime and terrorism yes, Muslim communities too because like us, they are Americans who own businesses, work hard, pay taxes and dream of a better life for their children. Over 900 of them work in my police department as police officers, many of them in counterterrorism and intelligence. Many of them have served in the military and fought for their country. We police our city not by campaign slogans or inflammatory rhetoric, but by an old piece of parchment called the U.S. Constitution and another called the Bill of Rights.Ted Cruz and others seem to be willing to sideline these principles because what they stand for shifts with the tide of the campaign and the shrillness of the name-calling. But as it has been said, when you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. Sen. Cruz needs to do some homework before he speaks again.Enough said.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
9,418 | FEMALE MUSLIM “FEMINIST” Linda Sarsour Calls for “Jihad” Against President Trump | On April 3, 2017, Brooklyn-born Sarsour, daughter of Palestinian immigrants, shared the dais Sunday another darling of the feminist resistance, Rasmea Odeh convicted in Israel of killing two Hebrew University students in a 1969 terrorist attack and of planning an attack on the British Consulate. After her release, Odeh was able to immigrate to the United States by hiding her crime. She s now being deported to Jordan.It was a curious embrace of terrorism and anti-Semitism from a recipient of a $500,000 taxpayer grant from Mayor de Blasio, as Sarsour s group, the Arab American Association of New York, was last year. Sarsour, in fact, has been an important ally of de Blasio s since his election a role she s sure to reprise in the mayor s bid for a second term.Sarsour said last month feminism is about the rights of all women. Yet in the same interview, when asked whether there s room for people who support the state of Israel in the women s movement, she said: There can t be in feminism. Apparently, Sarsour doesn t believe all women deserve equal rights Israeli and Israel-supporting women are an exception. And, by her logic, since she isn t for the rights of all women, she isn t a feminist. NYPThe Daily Caller reported that Sarsour spoke at the 54th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) last week and that she said she was not advocating for a violent form of jihad. A word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader, that is the best form of jihad, she said, quoting the Islamic prophet Muhammad. I hope, that when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad, that we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reining in the White House, said Sarsour, who was named a Champion of Change by the Obama administration in 2012.The activist, who helped organize the Women s March, spent much of her 22-minute speech attacking Trump. When I wake up every morning and remember who is sitting in the White House, I am outraged, she said at one point.At the beginning of her speech, Sarsour thanked Siraj Wahaaj, a Brooklyn-based cleric who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing.ISNA, the group hosting Sarsour, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case. The Holy Land Foundation helped funnel money to the terror group Hamas.Sarsour recently met a former Hamas operative named Salah Sarsour. It is unclear if the two are related, though The Daily Caller reported in January that the pair posed for a photograph on the sidelines of a convention held in Chicago in December. Sarsour has also come under fire for some of her past comments about other female activists. In 2011, she posted a tweet saying that activists Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Brigitte Gabriel, both critics of Islam, should not be allowed to have vaginas. Brigitte Gabriel = Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She s asking 4 an a$$ whippin . I wish I could take their vaginas away- they don t deserve to be women, she wrote at the time.In her ISNA speech, Sarsour suggested that Muslims in America should be wary of assimilation if it comes at the price of sacrificing their identity. Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community. It is not to assimilate and to please any other people in authority. And our top priority is to please Allah, and only Allah, she said. | 0 |
9,419 | GOP Senator Drops Brutal Truth Bomb On His Colleagues: Trump’s Comments Are ‘Definition Of Racism’ | When Donald Trump began his one-man quest to smear the judge presiding over his Trump University lawsuit using appalling racial rhetoric, it was offensive but not surprising. After all, this is a man who began his campaign by labeling Mexicans rapists and murderers in his very first speech. What was surprising was the sheer level of cowardice on display from Trump s fellow Republicans. Faced with a candidate who said Muslims and Mexicans can t be his judge, conservative politicians tried to distance themselves from the comments, but not actually call it what it is: Racism.Sen. Mitch McConnell, for example, managed to avoid the term racism a total of three times in one interview. The sidestepping was so egregious that it prompted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to call McConnell out on the Senate floor as an example of Republican spinelessness. Likewise, many other Republicans released statements saying they found the comments unacceptable but never articulated why. The vagueness was surely intentional. It s going to be hard to win a general election in an increasingly diverse America when your candidate is openly spewing racism. Standing up to that sort of hate mongering would take courage and that s something that is solely lacking in today s GOP.However, one man who seems to have little interest in the toeing the party line for an unapologetic bigot is Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) who said what his fellow Republicans were thinking but terrified to say: Donald Trump s smears on his judge are racism. It s as clear as day.Public Service Announcement:Saying someone can't do a specific job because of his or her race is the literal definition of "racism." Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 6, 2016Sasse isn t wrong. Trump has repeatedly said that the judge in his case is out to get him because of his Mexican heritage. Judge Curiel isn t Mexican, he was born in Indiana, but the very fact that he is of Hispanic ethnicity makes him suspect in Trump s eyes. In a sit down with CNN s Jake Tapper, Trump admits as much:Tapper: I don t care if you criticize him. That s fine. You can criticize every [legal] decision. What I m saying is, if you invoke his race as a reason why he can t do his job Trump: I think that s why he s doing it!Sasse is one of the few Republicans left who hasn t caved to the pressure to stand behind Trump as the nominee. Unfortunately for the Republicans that had hoped to cower behind their wall of silence and ride this out, Sasse made that all but impossible. Trump s comments are the literal definition of racism' and they need to own up to that or risk looking complicit in those statements. Sasse has given them an opportunity to come clean. It s now up to them to take it.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
9,420 | At U.N., Trump's tough talk opens door for Macron's diplomacy | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron cast himself as the antithesis of Donald Trump at the United Nations on Tuesday, a position that could enable him to play the honest broker in international conflicts. A few hours after the U.S. president pugnaciously defended his unilateralist America First doctrine and launched scathing verbal attacks on North Korea and Iran, Macron took to the same stage to advance a diametrically opposed stance. Multilateralism is the most efficient way to face global challenges. It is the realization of a vision of the world that protects us, Macron said in his first address to the U.N. annual gathering of world leaders in New York. The response to Trump was barely veiled when he added minutes later that multilateralism was also believing that the United Nations has all its legitimacy to act and maintain international balances. The two men, who had a warm exchange on Monday ahead of a bilateral meeting, appear to have little in common on paper, but since his election in May, Macron, 39, has nurtured a close relationship with the 71-year-old businessman-turned-politician who entered the White House eight months ago. Despite Trump s unpredictable foreign policy, Macron has sought not to isolate Washington, sensing an opportunity to sway its thinking and elevate the role of France, a nuclear power and permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, in global affairs. As part of that, Macron has also sought to improve ties with Russia despite its tense relationship with the West. IRAN-US MEDIATION While Trump on Tuesday called a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran an embarrassment and the worst ever , Macron staunchly defended it as good and labeled its opponents as irresponsible. That President Trump thinks that this agreement is not perfect and doesn t protect enough is an argument that I can hear, but I asked him what was his alternative proposal. I didn t understand it, Macron later told reporters. He quickly followed the criticism with an acknowledgment that Trump s fears were not completely irrational. I m proposing additional elements (to the deal) that are independent, but that will alleviate concerns that the United States and countries in the region may have, Macron said. French and European diplomats said Macron had also had a frank exchange with Iran s president Hassan Rouhani on Monday, warning him that Tehran should stop destabilizing the region and stoking Trump s furor. JAW-JAW BETTER THAN WAR-WAR Despite little prospect of getting Iran and the United States around the same table to push a new peace initiative to end a six-year-old Syria civil war, Macron suggested he would try to mediate between the two rivals. If we don t resolve the Syrian problem with Iran around the table, then we will not have an efficient response because Iran today is among the powers that have an influence on the ground, Macron said. Paris is trying to set up an international contact group on Syria to revive stalled peace talks in Geneva, but Trump s anti-Iran stance has partly complicated those efforts. Noting the U.S. refusal today, I want that the contact group advances and that the United Nations and France can serve as intermediaries with Iran, Macron said. Macron, France s youngest leader since Napoleon two centuries ago, used the U.N. platform to stress that war was truly a last resort and that past mistakes had shown that. Trump had earlier escalated his standoff with North Korea over its nuclear challenge, threatening to totally destroy the country of 26 million people and mocking its leader, Kim Jong Un, as a rocket man. Multilateralism must do everything to avoid war. Every time we have forgotten this and tried to get a short-term satisfactory solution without a diplomatic roadmap we failed and that was the case in Iraq and Libya, Macron said. With North Korea we are not there. I think it is untimely to put forward the threat of war, he added, urging better implementation of sanctions to pressure Pyongyang back to peace talks. Despite clear differences on policy, Macron has repeatedly emphasized that he shares certain objectives with Trump, making crushing Islamic State and countering global terrorism leading priorities. We have an exemplary relationship with the United States in fighting terrorism in Africa and the Middle East, Macron said. While Trump irked Macron with his decision to pull out of a landmark international accord reached in Paris in 2015 to fight climate change, the French leader has not given up on trying to get Trump to reconsider. We have a disagreement on climate. President Trump said he wanted to leave the deal, but on a legal basis he still needs to put that into action so it s not a legal reality yet. The Paris accord is a basis.. I will make it live. I continue to talk to the United States with the hope that it comes back into the international fold and clarifies its vision of things. | 1 |
9,421 | Three Republicans threaten to vote no on healthcare | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Republican U.S. senators warned Thursday they would not vote for a slimmed-down Obamacare repeal bill without guarantees that the House of Representatives will go into negotiations with the Senate on the measure. The senators - Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Ron Johnson - said they fear the House will simply take up the Senate-passed bill and approve it, instead of negotiating with the Senate to produce a more comprehensive measure. They think the slimmed-down healthcare bill, which Senate Republicans are still developing, will be an insufficient replacement for Obamacare. The three senators are enough to block a bill from passing the Senate, assuming no Democrats will vote for an Obamacare repeal bill. | 1 |
9,422 | AWESOME! President Trump Gives Fatherly Advice About ‘The Road of Life’ to UCLA Basketball Players | You ve gotta love this president and his ability to send personal messages via twitter He just gave some fatherly advice to the three UCLA basketball players in deep trouble for shoplifting while in China President Donald Trump on Thursday encouraged the three UCLA basketball freshmen who he helped get out of China after being arrested for shoplifting to thank President Xi Jinping for his help as well.LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill were arrested during a team trip trip to China on Nov. 8 after being accused of stealing designer sunglasses in Hangzhou. Trump learned of the incident while traveling in Asia and asked his Chinese counterpart to intercede.Ball, Riley and Hill gave remorseful statements on Wednesday and thanked Trump and the U.S. government for their help Trump had tweeted earlier in the day wondering if he would receive gratitude from the players for his intercession.On Thursday, he also dispensed a little life advice. To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You re welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made your release possible, and HAVE A GREAT LIFE! he wrote.To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You're welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017 Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life! he added. .your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017While they got out of trouble in China, the three freshmen have been indefinitely suspended from their team by head coach Steve Alford. Read more: WFB | 0 |
9,423 | Factbox: Trump fills top jobs for his administration | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will name former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as his nominee for secretary of agriculture on Thursday, a senior transition official said on Wednesday. Here is a list of Republican Trump’s selections for top jobs in his administration. NOTE: Senate confirmation is required for all the posts except national security adviser and White House posts. Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to chairman and chief executive officer in 2006. A civil engineer by training, the Texan joined the world’s largest publicly traded energy company in 1975 and led several of its operations in the United States as well as in Yemen, Thailand and Russia. As Exxon’s chief executive, he maintained close ties with Moscow and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. Mnuchin, 54, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc before leaving the investment bank in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California’s largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized OneWest for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname, “Mad Dog.” He was rebuked in 2005 for saying: “It’s fun to shoot some people.” Sessions, 70, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country store owner, the lawmaker from Alabama and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Coats, 73, served as U.S. senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017, and was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005. He previously served as U.S. representative from Indiana’s 4th Congressional District. Zinke, 55, a first-term Republican U.S. representative from Montana and a member of the House subcommittee on natural resources, has voted for legislation that would weaken environmental safeguards on public lands. He has taken stances favoring the coal industry, which suffered during the Obama administration. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks lawmakers on their environmental record, gave Zinke an extremely low lifetime score of 3 percent. Ross, 79, heads the private equity firm WL Ross & Co. Forbes has pegged his net worth at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy. He blames massive U.S. factory job losses on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization. Lighthizer, 69, served as deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and has since spent nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases, currently with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. A harsh critic of China’s trade practices, Lighthizer in 2010 told Congress that U.S. policymakers should take a more aggressive approach in dealing with the Asian country. Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which runs the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor. U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is against abortion. Former Georgia Governor Perdue, 70, served on Trump’s agricultural advisory committee during the campaign. Perdue, a Republican, was elected to two terms as governor, serving from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he served in the state Senate representing a rural swath of the state about 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. After finishing his second term as governor, Perdue founded Perdue Partners, a global trading firm that consults and provides services for companies looking to export products. Shulkin, 57, currently is under secretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, putting him in charge of the country’s largest healthcare system. Shulkin, a physician, was chosen by Democratic President Barack Obama for the under secretary post in 2015. He has spearheaded an effort to cut waiting times for care at VA medical centers. Trump promised during the campaign to improve medical care for veterans. Shulkin would be the first VA secretary who had not served in the military. Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson had been reluctant to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. He is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand Plc, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Co. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. Perry, 66, is an addition to the list of oil drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who have been picked for senior positions in Trump’s Cabinet. The selections have worried environmentalists but cheered an oil and gas industry eager for expansion. Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and also briefly ran for president in 2016, would be responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons program. DeVos, 59, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for expansion of charter schools. The final leadership role of Kelly’s 45-year military career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States’ southern border with Mexico. Priebus recently was re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman but will give up that job to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump’s agenda. Priebus, 44, was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of Obama’s measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits in with the president-elect’s promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011 and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney, 49, a South Carolina Republican, is a fiscal conservative. He was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney was first elected to Congress in 2010. Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012 and was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. U.S. Representative Pompeo, 53, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government’s sweeping collection of Americans’ communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. Walter “Jay” Clayton is a New York-based attorney who advises clients on major Wall Street deals, specializing in public and private mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising efforts. His past clients have included Alibaba Group Holding Company, Oaktree Capital Group and big banks. Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 58, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign policy. Tom Bossert, 41, who worked as deputy homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. He currently runs a risk management consulting firm and has a cyber risk fellowship with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a “global power structure” that had robbed America’s working class. Navarro, 67, has suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. A professor at the University of California, Irvine, who advised Trump during the campaign, Navarro argued that Washington should stop referring to the “one China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei: “There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” Viola, 60, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a U.S. Army veteran who served in the famed 101st Airborne Division. He founded high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial Inc and served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. He is an owner of the Florida Panthers ice hockey team. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump’s campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump’s dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump’s gatekeeper and agenda-setter. | 1 |
9,424 | LOL! WATCH HILLARY Explain Hilarious Reason She Bought House Next Door To Chappaqua Home, After She Was Sure She’d Beat Donald Trump | America s biggest loser, Hillary Clinton was seen in her first televised interview on CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley since being pummeled by voters who overwhelmingly chose Donald J. Trump over her in the 2016 presidential election. Hillary, who isn t capable of letting her hair down, attempted to pretend to be forthcoming about how she dealt with the embarrassing thumping she took at the polls in an election pollsters insisted she d win.In typical Hillary fashion, she blames her loss to Donald J. Trump on Russians and Americans who elected a White Nationalist , while never once accepting responsibility for her flawed character or the enormous amount of distrust Americans have for her and for her sexual predator husband and the slush fund (the Clinton Foundation) the two of them, along with their dishonest daughter, have been operating for years.Watch Hillary tell Jane Pauley how she was so sure she was going to win the election, that she actually bought a house next to her and Bill s Chappaqua mansion in New York to house her staff servants. She also explains how painful it was to watch Trump s inauguration.lol | 0 |
9,425 | House GOP To Waste MORE Time And Money With Silly Investigation Into House Democrats | When House Democrats staged a 26-hour sit-in to protest the House s refusal to take up anything having to do with gun legislation, most people probably didn t expect the GOP to throw a tantrum, and then take their balls and go home. However, after the humiliation of the latest fruitless Benghazi panel, you d think that they d be a little more skittish about launching more investigations that are politically motivated. You d be wrong. They re about to do it again.House GOP leaders are looking at launching a frivolous investigation, this time into the House Democrats who were involved in last month s sit-in, to determine whether they should be punished for it. Republicans just can t get past the idea that something is only American, is only patriotic, if they agree with it. Very little is more patriotic than civil disobedience, and that s what the sit-in was.Republicans weren t so quick to jump to investigating Ted Cruz when he and a small cadre of Senate members shut down the entire government for 16 days because of Obamacare, or that Tea Partiers have disrupted other business in both the House and the Senate. They and their minions will say that s because Cruz & Co., and every other Republican, didn t break any rules, and House Democrats did.But at least the Democrats didn t bring the entire government to a standstill. It s only when Democrats disrupt Congress that it s a problem.House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy even said: Members of Congress (need) to adhere to the rules and the decorum of what is expected of being on the floor. What an odd interest in adhering to the rules all of a sudden. This is the GOP that s been having all sorts of fun passing closed rules to block amendments. In fact, they broke the record for the most closed rules in Congress. While the party in power can change the rules and make rules all they want (or, at least, that s how that power seems to be used), the House GOP has never shown any interest in actually doing things the right way.McCarthy believes that this isn t what democracy should look like, and claimed he d never seen such blatant flouting of the rules. Oh, please. What absolute bullshit.Nevertheless, they re looking into whether Democrats intimidated the floor staff to break decorum rules so they could engage in a purely political stunt, the purpose of which was to line their coffers with campaign cash. Those are ridiculous allegations on their face. Like Hillary Clinton can t possibly be innocent in Benghazi, House Democrats can t possibly have actually done this to try and spur movement on gun legislation.Because that would make the GOP look worse than they already do.Because they can t have this black mark on their record in an election year.Because admitting a mistake and making good-faith efforts to fix it and move forward just aren t the GOP s style.Because the GOP is more about political stunts these days than actually working for the people.That s what Benghazi is for them a political stunt intended to try and polish an image that s so badly tarnished it s permanently black.Democrats, and the public in general, are sick to death of Congress refusing to do anything anything at all about gun violence in this country. They don t even want to fund research into gun violence as a public health issue because they believe all such research will be politically biased against guns and gun owners. The GOP is too far up the NRA s ass now to be saved.It s a shame Republicans can t see past their own haughty, disgustingly dark brown noses with the NRA brands on them. They might actually have a chance to remain politically relevant if they d stop with the stunts, plus they d actually be working for the people! Imagine that!Featured image by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images | 0 |
9,426 | (VIDEO) HILLARY CLINTON’S TWISTED APPROVAL OF SANCTUARY CITIES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS | If local law enforcement begins to act like immigration officers what that means is that you will have people not reporting crimes. You will have people hiding from the police. And I think that is a real direct threat to the personal safety and security of all the citizens. -Hillary Clinton s reasoning for a sanctuary city | 0 |
9,427 | WATCH PRESIDENT TRUMP ARRIVE ON AIR FORCE ONE: Scheduled To Host Red Cross Charity Event At Mar-A-Lago…Angry Leftists Plan Protest [VIDEO] | The president s visit stretches from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, when he will travel to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. He s then expected to head back to Washington, D.C.Here are five key things to know while Trump is in town:1. This is Trump s first visit to Palm Beach since his Jan. 20 inauguration.Before this trip, Trump s last visit to his Palm Beach home was over the Christmas and New Year s holidays, when he was still president-elect.While in town, he played golf twice: once with Tiger Woods at Trump s West Palm Beach golf course, and a second time on New Year s Eve at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter.Trump and first lady Melania attended a Christmas Eve church service at the historic Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, where the couple was married and their son, Barron, was christened.2. The Trumps are expected to attend the 60th annual Red Cross Ball on Saturday night.The event was planned to be held at Mar-a-Lago well in advance of Trump s presidential election win, but that hasn t kept it from being a source of controversy. As the Red Cross prepares to possibly aid refugees affected by Trump s recent executive order, some have called for the organization to postpone or move the gala.However, the Red Cross Ball has a history at Mar-a-Lago. The estate s first owner, cereal heiress Marjorie Meriweather Post, was a noted supporter of the Red Cross, and began hosting the annual fundraiser there in 1957.3. This will be Melania Trump s first public appearance with her husband since the inauguration.Soon after the election, it was announced Melania and Barron, 10, would live in Trump Tower in New York City until Barron finishes his school year.Trump s daughter, Ivanka, has accompanied him on visits typically attended by the first lady, according to The New York Times.4. Protesters are expected to march through West Palm Beach on Saturday.Two local groups, South Florida Activism and Women s March Florida, are hosting a modified version of an earlier plan to march from Trump Towers in downtown West Palm Beach to Mar-a-Lago. Now, organizers say the march will head south to an area in West Palm Beach that sits just across the Intracoastal from Trump s lavish estate.The march, which kicks off at 5 p.m., could draw more than 2,200 people.5. Mar-a-Lago s original owner wanted the estate to be used as a winter White House. Post, who built the mansion and named it Mar-a-Lago because it stretches from ocean to lake, left Mar-a-Lago to the federal government in her will. However, federal officials said, Thanks but no thanks, citing the high cost to maintain the property and its position under one of Palm Beach International Airport s primary flight paths.More than 10 years later, Trump purchased the estate and its furnishings for a bargain: $10 million.Via: Palm Beach Post | 0 |
9,428 | THINK AMERICA CAN’T END UP LIKE GREECE? THINK AGAIN! | The United States government has been living beyond its means, running up an enormous debt that will eventually need to be repaid. Most Americans look at the rerun of the Greek euro crisis with something between smug amusement and condescending disapproval. When will those profligate Greeks get their economic house in order and stop looking to others to bail them out? But, should people living in glass economic houses really throw stones? After all, just like Greece, the United States government has been living beyond its means, running up an enormous debt that will eventually need to be repaid. True, our budget deficit this year will be lower than it has been, just $486 billion compared to $1.4 trillion as recently as 2009. But this is just a temporary respite. Within the next couple of years the deficit will start to rise again. By 2025, we will again face trillion-dollar shortfalls. And even a $486 billion deficit adds to our ever growing debt. Our national debt currently approaches $18.2 trillion, roughly 101% of GDP. That s right. We owe more than the value of all the goods and services produced in this country every year. It is as if your credit-card bills exceeded your entire pay check. That s not quite as bad as Greece, of course, whose debt exceeds 177% of their GDP. But it is worse than countries like France or Spain. And give us time! Like Greece, the driving force behind our debt is the growing cost of entitlement programs for health care and retirement. If one includes future unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, our real debt exceeds $90 trillion. That s more than five times our GDP. Greece is still in worse shape their unfunded liabilities top 875% of GDP but we re gaining. At the heart of Greece s problems lies a government grown too big, too intrusive, and too expensive. The Greek government spent nearly half of the country s GDP last year (49.3%), and that actually represents a decline from the 51.8% it averaged since 2006. The Greek s may complain about austerity, but they ve hardly practiced it. Our government is far smaller than Greece s today. Federal spending is just 20.5% of GDP. But, according to the Congressional Budget Office s alternative fiscal scenario, that could rise to almost 34% by mid-century. Factoring in state and local government spending, which already accounts for roughly 14.4% of GDP, total government expenditure in the US could reach 48% to 50% in 2050, roughly Greek levels. As government grows, the private sector contracts. Greece has one of the most inhospitable business climates in Europe, ranking 84th in the world in the most recent Economic Freedom of the World Index. Meanwhile, as the United States continues to increase taxes and regulations, we have fallen from the second highest economic freedom ranking just 15 years ago to 12th place. Of course, the United States has some advantages that the Greeks lack. Greece owes a significant share of its debt to foreign governments, while the majority of American debt is domestically held. The United States also faces low borrowing rates, while Greece has been effectively shut out of capital markets. The US debt may be bad, but in many ways we are the fastest horse in the glue factory. As long as the euro remains in crisis, we will continue to be able to borrow money at absurdly low interest rates. The United States also controls its own currency and monetary policy, while Greece is hostage to the European Central Bank, which must balance its interest against those of other countries in the monetary union, many of which are in far different economic positions.The danger for the United States is that spending on entitlements will surge in the coming decades, which means that, absent reform, they take over the economy. Investors would respond to the weaker economic outlook by demanding higher returns in order to continue investing in US bonds, which would further drive up interest costs, making our problems even worse. And, of course, unlike Greece, there aren t other countries or organizations available to bail us out.Read more: NYP | 0 |
9,429 | PRINCE CHARLES Uses Christmas Radio Broadcast To Ask British To Remember Mohammed | Christmas the perfect time to pander to Muslims There is a reason his mother never let him be King. During a recent radio broadcast, Charles, Britain s Prince of Wales, told his listeners that Christians should give thoughts to the prophet Mohammed during this Christmas season.Clip via The Telegraph Normally at Christmas, we think of the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, he said on Radio 4 s Thoughts for the Day. I wonder though if this year we might remember how the story of the nativity unfolds, with the fleeing of the holy family to escape violent persecution. The crown prince then likened that event to Mohammed traveling to Medina in search of converts. And we might also remember that when the prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina he was seeking the freedom for himself and his followers to worship. Prince Charles then claimed that all religious groups want the same thing the ability to live and worship in peace and to allow others to do the same. Whichever religious path we follow, the destination is the same to value and respect the other person, accepting their right to live out their peaceful response to the love of God, he said.The Prince of Wales then appeared to go after both president-elect Donald Trump s populist message as well as Great Britain s departure from the European Union based, in part, on the influx of immigrants from Middle Eastern Countries. We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s, he said. BPR | 0 |
9,430 | Italy's Berlusconi wins alimony case; ex-wife told to pay back millions | MILAN (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi need no longer pay his ex-wife 1.4 million euros ($1.7 million) a month, an Italian court said on Thursday, ruling the former prime minister had been unfairly treated in a divorce settlement. The Milan appeals court also told Veronica Lario, a former actress, to hand back to Berlusconi alimony payments totaling some 60 million euros, saying she had no right to the money. The good news for the tycoon politician comes as his political career - considered dead and buried only a year ago - is also back on the rise. The Milan case follows a landmark ruling by Italy s top appeals court in May that said divorce settlements need not guarantee spouses their previous standard of living but rather ensure they were financially independent. Berlusconi, Italy s seventh richest man, according to Forbes, with a wealth estimated at about 7 billion euros, was married to Lario for more than 22 years. They split in 2009, with the normally reserved Lario writing to Italy s national news agency to denounce her husband s interest in other women. Their divorce was formalized in 2014. Following their separation, Berlusconi was embroiled in scandals over his bunga bunga parties and convicted of paying to have sex with a 17-year-old minor. The verdict was later overturned when an appeals court said it could not be proved he knew she was underage. Berlusconi s partner of the last five years is Francesca Pascale, a former television show girl 49 years his junior. A court in 2012 initially awarded Lario alimony of three million euros a month. This was subsequently cut to 1.4 million, but Berlusconi complained it was still too high. A legal source said the Milan judges took into consideration the May Supreme Court ruling and decided that Lario, who has cash deposits of some 16 million euros as well as jewels and a real estate business, did not need additional monthly income. There was no immediate comment from Lario or her lawyers. | 1 |
9,431 | no title | there are lots of diiferent truths when i hear the fbi come out and admit they ran the false flags and helped cover them up im a believer at the moment its one side much the same as the other lets face it if they cant even arrest or solve the jfk murder and expose the truth then there wont be any one thing we can be certain of the crooks at the very top running the rest of the crooks will never be mentioned and while that exists nothing much will change i dont think its like a theftfest and when they crash it they will still have all the loot soros is a bigger threat to world peace and they dont stop him in fact they fund him go figure | 0 |
9,432 | Trump Jr. Was Told Before Meeting That Putin Wanted To Help His Daddy Win | Things just keep getting worse for Donald Trump Jr. With the word treason floating around on both the Left and Right, the last thing he needs is more inconvenient facts coming out about his meeting with a Russian lawyer past what we already know. Fortunately for him, he had the foresight to hire a criminal defense lawyer before the other shoe dropped.Speaking of shoes dropping, new information has come out about that meeting. Not only did he go there with the intent of getting information about Hillary Clinton from the Russians, Trump Jr. was informed beforehand that the material was part of the Russian government s effort to help install his dad in the Oval Office.The New York Times reports:The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.Mr. Goldstone s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information. It does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign. There is no evidence to suggest that the promised damaging information was related to Russian government computer hacking that led to the release of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails.According to Trump Jr., the meeting did not amount to much. For his light treason, he says, he received no information and they just chatted about an adoption program (yes, that s what he s going with).The adoption program in question was halted by Vladimir Putin in response to the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that blacklists Russian human rights abusers. Putin became so incensed that he decided American families may not adopt Russian children. The New York Times notes that Trump Jr. ended the meeting when the adoption program was brought up.The meeting was also attended by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Ivanka Trump s husband, Jared Kushner a lot of people for an innocent meeting about a Russian adoption program, but just the right amount for a little bit of treason.No inconsistency in statements, meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q's I simply provided more details. https://t.co/FdT1D4hfhz Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017To be clear, the meeting was not about adoption (though it was discussed), nor was it supposed to be. The meeting was about the Russian government delivering damaging information about Trump s political opponents to his lackeys.Trump Jr. was told this beforehand. He. Went. Anyway. His intent was to work with the Russian government against the United States, against our election, and for Vladimir Putin. There is no other way to describe what happened.It. Is. Treason.Featured image via Getty Images | 0 |
9,433 | Senate Judiciary Committee seeks Comey memos, possible Trump tapes | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday asked the FBI to provide memos related to former FBI Director James Comey’s dealings with his superiors in the Trump and Obama administrations. It also asked the White House to provide records of interactions with Comey, including those “relating to the FBI’s investigation of alleged ties between President Trump’s associates and Russia, or the Clinton email investigation, including all audio recordings, transcripts, notes, summaries, or memoranda,” according to a statement. | 1 |
9,434 | OBAMA REGIME’S SECRET ASIAN TRADE DEAL Would Let International Tribunal Overrule State and Fed Laws To Benefit Foreign Companies | Nothing to see here just Obama evening the playing field by giving an ad hoc international tribunal the ability to overrule US laws and allow them to levy fines against the US the American taxpayer would be responsible for paying. It is really worrisome, said top House Ways and Means Committee Democrat Rep. Sandy Levin. Countries do not want to give away their jurisdiction away to some arbitrary panel, he added.At issue is the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty and a provision called Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, that would let foreign firms challenge U.S. laws, potentially overruling those laws and resulting in fines to be paid by taxpayers. The provisions are becoming common in some trade deals between other nations.Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has warned that it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions has also raised a concern about another phase in the legislation, living agreement. He and other experts say that phrase means that the treaty can be changed after Congress approves it.The Asia trade deal would be up first if Congress OK s the pending Trade Promotion Authority, which fast-tracks trade agreements. Levin said it is in trouble over concerns about the secret TPP.Is anyone else feeling exhausted by watching Josh the liar Earnest explain the corrupt Obama administration?At a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Levin appeared with Jeffrey Sachs, prominent international economist at Columbia University, who panned the provision as a bid by foreign companies to make an end run around tough U.S. laws and regulations. Essentially, ISDS allows companies to sue states in a special ad hoc tribunal that is outside the court systems and outside of the legal systems of the host countries, he warned. U.S. law, U.S. court findings, could be set aside by this ad hoc process really designed and pushed by the corporate sector which sees this as an end run around national law, he added.Levin also joined in Sessions demand that the Asia trade pact be opened to the public. Currently, it is being kept in secret and only those cleared to see it are allowed to. Levin said, for example, that he was barred from discussing some TPP provision with Sachs.The White House has dismissed the secrecy claims, but Sachs said, It is secret. I haven t seen it. I can t see it. Levin also said that the treaty would include communist Vietnam which has far different worker rights laws than the U.S. He recalled recently meeting with a Vietnamese woman who was thrown in jail for trying to form a union. There has to be changes, he demanded.Via: Washington Examiner | 0 |
9,435 | NOT NEWS: [Graphic Video] Michigan Woman Runs Over Rival With Car Following Street Brawl | This is a story that will never make the news. A woman uses a car to intentionally hit another woman (this is the second time she s used her car as a weapon to hit another human being) but unfortunately, it s just another day of black on black crime, so it doesn t fit the media s narrative A wild fight between two 19-year-olds along a Michigan street Monday came to a dramatic end when one ran over her rival with a car.What began as a fight in the middle of the street with onlookers encouraging and sometimes interfering with the one-on-one showdown devolved into a hit-and-run, shocking video shows. Let them fight, at least one bystander yells repeatedly.Police have issued a warrant for Jalin Smith-Walker, accused of being behind the wheel during the graphic assault, The Grand Rapids Press reported. It was a fight between two former friends. It ultimately ended with blows being thrown, Grand Rapids Sgt. Terry Dixon told the Press.Smith-Walker has been charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.***Warning***This is a violent video with graphic language.Smith-Walker smiled broadly in her police mug shot after being arrested a few miles from the mall.After Monday s brawl in which the two tussled on the hood of one car, video shows a woman who police claim is Smith-Walker get into a car across the way and pull into the street.Via: NY Daily News | 0 |
9,436 | Trump judicial nominee withdraws from consideration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as a federal judge withdrew from consideration on Monday after video of his Senate confirmation hearing showing him unable to provide answers to rudimentary legal questions went viral last week. Trump accepted Matthew Petersen’s offer to withdraw his nomination as a district court judge in Washington, a White House official said. Petersen, a Republican member of the Federal Election Commission, became the latest of Trump’s judicial nominations to fail as the president seeks to win confirmation of judges who will make the federal judiciary more conservative. “Just because you’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny’ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge,” Republican Senator John Kennedy, who grilled Petersen during his Dec. 13 confirmation hearing, told WWL-TV, referring to the 1992 comedy film about a novice lawyer. Kennedy, who has been critical of some of Trump’s judicial nominees, asked several basic legal questions that Petersen could not answer. The video was shown on cable news shows and widely viewed on the internet. “While I am honored to have been nominated for this position, it has become clear to me over the past few days that my nomination has become a distraction - and that is not fair to you or your administration,” Petersen wrote in his withdrawal letter to Trump. “I had hoped that my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television,” Petersen added. Petersen became the third Trump judicial pick whose nomination foundered in the past week. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last week Trump’s nominations of Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley would not move forward. Both had faced criticism for controversial statements. Talley was reported by online magazine Slate as having posted online sympathetic comments about the early history of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) white supremacist group. He also failed to disclose that his wife works in the White House counsel’s office, which overseas judicial nominations. Mateer ran into trouble over 2015 speeches including one in which he referred to transgender children as being part of “Satan’s plans,” CNN reported. Despite those setbacks, Trump has made significant progress in filling vacancies on the federal courts with conservative judges, including 12 on the important courts of appeal. He also appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Courts, restoring the high court’s conservative majority. | 1 |
9,437 | Clinton campaign chief Podesta: FBI probing hack of his emails | (Reuters) - The chairman of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, John Podesta, said on Tuesday the FBI is investigating the hack of his emails as published on WikiLeaks. Speaking to reporters aboard the campaign plane, Podesta said the FBI probe is part of a broader investigation into the hacking of Democratic computers. He said Russia is behind the hack and may be colluding with the campaign of Clinton’s opponent, Republican Donald Trump. | 1 |
9,438 | GQ Magazine: Obama Is One Of The Greatest Presidents Of Our Time | Like Rolling Stone before them, GQ Magazine is hailing President Obama as one of the greatest presidents of our time. Calling him 20 dollar bill great and Mount Rushmore great, GQ s Jim Nelson puts it plainly:Something is dawning on us it s almost too soon for us to admit, but it s there, a half-considered thought only now blooming in our brains. Maybe we dismiss it with one of those quick cognitive fly swats. Nah, too early to say or I hate that guy. But the truth is coming, and it sounds like this: Barack Obama will be inducted into the league of Great Presidents.In fact, Nelson is so confident that President Obama will be remembered as one of greatest presidents, that he predicts, in due time, Obama will overtake Clinton as the best one since FDR.Now that s a lot of confidence. But how can Nelson be certain of such a grand prediction? It s really, really simple: he got stuff done. He helped save the world and United States economy, he signed into law Obamacare, his character was paramount in the face of unprecedented obstruction, and yes, he is the first black president. But there was one special, electrifying quality that President Obama gave us that the best of best have given us: his speeches. His ability to communicate and relate to the average American was unlike any other:With Obama, each thoughtful step of the way, from his soaring acceptance speech ( The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep ) to his epic speeches on race and religion, his responses to the shootings in Tucson and Newtown, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the opening of Cuba ( Todos somos Americanos! ),and countless other momentous occasions, he knew how to speak to our better angels at a time when it was hard to locate any angels.With his mesmerizing clout, President Obama was able to do what other before him like LBJ, Clinton and FDR did, and that was get things done. In an era when getting things done is a thing too often out of reach, President Obama overcame the odds.I agree completely with GQ President Obama is one of the nation s finest presidents, and history will be very kind to him. As it should be.Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images | 0 |
9,439 | Foreign Policy Insider: Trump Turned Off Recording During His Phone Call With Vladimir Putin | On Thursday, Donald Trump eased sanctions against Russia s spy agencies following a phone call last week with brutal Russian dictator and Trumpfriend Vladimir Putin. Details of the call have been scarce, limited to a vague, one-paragraph statement posted on the White House website:President Donald J. Trump received a congratulatory call today from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call lasted approximately one hour and ranged in topics from mutual cooperation in defeating ISIS to efforts in working together to achieve more peace throughout the world including Syria. The positive call was a significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair. Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern.Many have been wondering why information about the specifics of the call has been so scarce. According to Ian Berman, vice president of the conservative-leaning American Foreign Policy Council, the reason is simple Trump turned off the recording. On Wednesday, Bergman said at a forum on Russian-Turkish relations at the Bipartisan Policy Center that there was no readout of the Trump-Putin call because [the] White House turned off recording. .@ilanberman: "there was no readout of the Trump-Putin call bc WH turned off recording" Kremlin readout is very positive @BPC_Bipartisan pic.twitter.com/oi4v1R5dN0 ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) February 1, 2017The Kremlin s clearly sanitized readout sounds very nice, if one ignored the fact that multiple intelligence agencies have confirmed that Putin personally spearheaded a massive hacking and propaganda campaign on Trump s behalf or that he began receiving his quid pro quo when The Donald eased sanctions against his spy agencies. According to a statement on the Kremlin s website, both sides expressed their readiness to make active joint efforts to stabilise and develop Russia-US cooperation on a constructive, equitable and mutually beneficial basis and The sides stressed the importance of rebuilding mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between the two counties business communities, which could give an additional impetus to progressive and sustainable development of bilateral relations. In other words, Putin and Trump talked about how our own fascist dictator intends to repay Russia s leader for his help in securing the Oval Office.While it is yet unconfirmed that the recording does not exist, it seems this is the case given the vague readout and the clear attempt to keep information from Americans. If he did indeed shut off recording, why would he do that? There is only one answer plenty was said that would be uncomfortable if the American people learned the details.We as Americans need to demand a full release of every call Trump has had with world leaders. We need to demand answers because we will not get them otherwise.Featured image via Getty Images/Win McNamee | 0 |
9,440 | Report: Scalia’s Death Was As Natural As The Love Between Two Men | Conservatives have been floating the ridiculous theory that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered. Somehow, they are unable to comprehend how an obese 79-year-old smoker with a history of heart problems could possibly die after a day of hunting, partying, and gorging on food and their irrational hatred of Barack Obama has instead led them to believe that the President had Scalia murdered.In an email to Addicting Info, one conservative summed up the paranoia quite nicely:Let s look at facts. Two to three cases before the Supreme Court involved Obama or an Obama agency such as the DOJ. Scalia was the most conservative Justice on the Court and would have been that fifth vote to say what Obama did was unconstitutional therefore Scalia gone he puts a liberal justice nomination with the hope either the Senate confirms now or Democrats take over the Senate next year (which is expected).Presidents throughout our history have been known to use the CIA to commit assassinations. In the 1970s the CIA showed Congress a gun that shot a frozen dart inside a person and melted poison causing a heart attack. With the new technology we have I think they can do better than a 9mm gun. Comparing to what happen in Russia. Putin had an ex kgb agent killed in a similar way. The ex kgb agent was with a group of friends then suddenly felt ill after talking with someone. It was ruled natural causes. Then a UK court recently said he was possibly murdered.Here s another problem. The DOJ is not allowing Texas authorities to investigate. With the DOJ being a party to a case and yes Texas being a party against them to a case, the DOJ would have incentive to cover it up.So yes the theory is not so far fetched.ThanksFranklin StrumAfter we mocked him a bit, Sturm pointed out that:Presidents have throughout history used the CIA to commit political assassinations. And the technology that I mentioned is on unclassified record the CIA had in the 1970s, technology is better now. Even liberals don t trust the CIA. As for Obama himself he had everything to gain from Scalia s death. Nothing would stop him from ordering an assassination as nothing stopped Presidents prior.This, of course, is just one of the many, many theories surrounding how and why President Obama had the elderly man killed, but conservatives like Mr. Sturm will undoubtedly be relieved to know that Scalia actually died of natural causes. USA Today reports that the official cause of death is, indeed, a myocardial infarction also known as a simple heart attack.Texas Judge Cinderela Guevara says she was called by a county sheriff Saturday because the two justices of the peace were out of town: As part of my investigation, one of the things I did ask the sheriff and the U.S. Marshal: Were there any signs of foul play? And they said, Absolutely not. At that time I still wanted to be careful, and asked them if (Scalia s) physician would call me. The justice s personal doctor called her at 8 p.m. Saturday night. She said the physician told her that Scalia had a shoulder problem last week and underwent an MRI. Scalia also suffered several chronic ailments, Guevara said. I felt comfortable what I knew was going on with him physically, she said.That s right no poison ice darts, no ninja gerbils, no death rays, or any of the other imbecilic ideas conservatives have had since Scalia was found dead in his bed Saturday morning. A simple heart attack.Conservatives have been defiantly refusing to confirm anyone President Obama nominates but the President has vowed to get a nomination through, no matter what they say. While this is, alongside being part of their continuing effort to stand in Obama s way on every single issue, an effort to show support for the deceased Justice, conservatives are going against Scalia s wishes in refusing all nominees until they can (they hope) get a Republican in office.Scalia, for all his many, many, many, many faults, completely disagreed with politicizing Supreme Court nominations while he was alive something the Right will ignore in their continuing war on Obama and sanity.Featured image via NY Times | 0 |
9,441 | CNN HACK ATTEMPTS “GOTCHA” Moment With Trump…Immediately Regrets It [VIDEO] | Watch CNN, Dana Bash ask Donald a question she wishes she didn t:Trump shuts down Dana Bash after questioning him for "taking time off" to attend his hotel's grand opening. pic.twitter.com/LtLAu1jkbQ Asa J (@asamjulian) October 26, 2016 | 0 |
9,442 | WATCH: Louis C.K. NAILS Trump And His Gullible Supporters During Appearance On Colbert | If Donald Trump was watching The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night he was probably screaming at the television.Because when comedian Louis C.K. made an appearance on the show he did not hold back when he was asked about the liar in the White House. Sometimes people lie, That guy lied, they found out he lied. Then there s somebody who lies because they can t quite stay inside the boundaries of truth, C.K. began. Then you have a liar, somebody who it s almost like a problem, they lie a lot. Then you have a lying sack of sh*t, he continued as the audience became more excited. That s somebody who just they just lie, they like it, he likes it. He just goes, Heh heh, that wasn t even true, wasn t even true. Then I said they were liars. It s just insane. It s just gross. He s just a gross, crook, dirty, rotten, lying sack of sh*t, that s how I feel. The audience wildly applauded but Colbert alerted C.K. that there was at least one guy in the crowd who voted for the liar. Louis, there s a guy who voted for him up there, Colbert said.That s when C.K. noted that Trump voters were duped. Trump voters were hurt the most because Trump lied to them and they believed him. Look if you voted, that s the guy he lied to, C.K. said. He didn t lie to me. He lied to him, he didn t lie to me. Everybody else was like yeah, no that s not true. But that guy bought it. He s the victim of the lying. Here s the video via Twitter.Tune in tonight to hear #LouisCK explain what kind of liar our President is. #GROSS #CROOK #DIRTY #ROTTEN #LYINGSACKOF #LSSC pic.twitter.com/mMXbz5ShXA The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 5, 2017And Louis C.K. is absolutely right. Trump is the king of lies, his biggest of which is that he will make America great again. His lies about not having any ties to Russia and his lie about President Obama wiretapping him have also been widely covered and debunked. However, Trump continues to repeat them at every turn.A lot of Trump supporters now realize that they made a huge mistake as Trump s policies directly harm them and their families. But again, it s hard to pity a group of people who made such a stupid decision when it was crystal clear that Trump was lying. All they had to do is accept the facts instead of buying Trump s bullshit alternative facts. If they had done that, Trump would not be in the White House ruining their lives now.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
9,443 | Rubio denies report on Romney White House endorsement: CNN | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Marco Rubio denied a report on Sunday that a high-profile endorsement by former Republican White House nominee Mitt Romney is on the horizon. The Huffington Post reported that Romney was scheduled to throw his backing behind the U.S. senator from Florida in the 2016 White House race, Rubio called the reports untrue and said no endorsement was forthcoming. “That report is false,” Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t know where those reports are coming from.” Romney has previously said he would not endorse a candidate until the party’s nominee had been selected. A source familiar with the former Massachusetts governor’s thinking told Reuters that Romney’s stance on an endorsement remains unchanged. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alison Williams) 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 |
9,444 | Twitter Erupts In Brutal Mockery Of Cringe Worthy Trump/Pence Logo | Donald Trump unveiled his vice presidential pick on Friday. He had claimed that he would postpone the announcement due to the tragedy that took place in France on Thursday night, but for whatever reason, he skipped the normal fanfare and tweeted out the announcement of Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate just before 11 am.Along with the name of his VP, he also revealed a new campaign logo to the world.Via Twitter screen captureTwitter was quick to respond to his new logo with all the brutal mockery we have come to expect from the social media platform. Never one to disappoint, the result was absolutely hilarious.Many people picked up on the whole TP and toilet paper thing. Of course, you can t think about TP without thinking about Beavis and the Great Cornholio.The new #TrumpPence logo is for crap! ? pic.twitter.com/6s9GmmnROk Superhero Of Steel (@SuperheroSteel) July 15, 2016#TrumpPence. T-P. Toilet Paper. Obviously a joke waiting to be made. So you include it in your official logo design? C mon #AmateurHour Tanner S. Salyers (@TannerSalyers) July 15, 2016Question from #TrumpPence new logo: is the TP campaign single-ply, double-ply, triple-ply extra-padded with racism? Alex Hayden DiLalla (@AlexDiLalla) July 15, 2016Others on Twitter noticed the way the T and the P intersected in the new logo.You cannot un-see this version of the #TrumpPence logo. Credit: unknown. pic.twitter.com/GFCBQscoWU Ali A. Akbar (@ali) July 16, 2016Great job on the new #TrumpPence logo! ???????? pic.twitter.com/72ixO4aDpR Riley (@iMadeSmartCool) July 15, 2016The new #TrumpPence logo also comes with a secret hand sign, based on said logo. pic.twitter.com/PaBq16TmuW Mike Mika (@MikeJMika) July 15, 2016That #TrumpPence logo though pic.twitter.com/A2k0dVZT4v Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) July 15, 2016Some users noticed the similarity of Trump s new logo to an old logo used by fellow liberal blog Think Progress.HA! #TrumpPence stole the old @thinkprogress logo. PLEASE tell me they had it trademarked! pic.twitter.com/WC8Ios1D1b MercurialMiss (@MercurialMiss) July 15, 2016This user was willing to give credit where credit is due.#TrumpPence logo depicts intercourse, abbreviates toilet paper, and invokes White Supremacism. All at once. pic.twitter.com/6FlMx5LsRo Ryan Calo (@rcalo) July 15, 2016We aren t sure who came up with the design for this masterpiece, but Trump might want to go with somebody else when it comes time to design his next logo. Regardless, the resulting comments on Twitter were definitely the best part of Trump s VP announcement.Featured image via Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images | 0 |
9,445 | U.S. militia girds for trouble as presidential election nears | JACKSON, Ga. (Reuters) - Down a Georgia country road, camouflaged members of the Three Percent Security Force have mobilized for rifle practice, hand-to-hand combat training — and an impromptu campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “How many people are voting for Trump? Ooh-rah!” asks Chris Hill, a paralegal who goes by the code name “Bloodagent.” “Ooh-rah!” shout a dozen militia members in response, as morning sunlight sifted through the trees last weekend. As the most divisive presidential election in recent memory nears its conclusion, some armed militia groups are preparing for the possibility of a stolen election on Nov. 8 and civil unrest in the days following a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton. They say they won’t fire the first shot, but they’re not planning to leave their guns at home, either. Trump's populist campaign has energized militia members like Hill, who admire the Republican mogul's promise to deport illegal immigrants, stop Muslims from entering the country and build a wall along the Mexico border. Trump has repeatedly warned that the election may be "rigged," and has said he may not respect the results if he does not win. At least one paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers, has called on members to monitor voting sites for signs of fraud. Armed paramilitary groups first gained prominence in the early 1990s, fueled by confrontations in Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas, culminating in a militia sympathizer’s 1995 bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. Their numbers dwindled following that attack but have spiked in recent years, driven by fears that President Barack Obama will threaten gun ownership and erode the power of local government. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, estimates there were 276 active militias last year, up from 42 in 2008. In recent years, armed groups have confronted federal authorities in a series of land-use disputes in the western United States. Federal officials fear more clashes could come after seven militants were acquitted on conspiracy charges for occupying a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. Many fear Clinton would push the county further to the left. “This is the last chance to save America from ruin,” Hill said. “I’m surprised I was able to survive or suffer through eight years of Obama without literally going insane, but Hillary is going to be more of the same.” The Oath Keepers, a prominent anti-government force that sent gun-toting members to the 2014 race riots in Ferguson, Missouri, called on members last week to monitor voting sites on election day for any signs of fraud. An hour south of Atlanta, the Three Percent Security Force started the day around the campfire, taking turns shooting automatic pistols and rifles at a makeshift target range. They whooped with approval when blasts from one member’s high-powered rifle knocked down a tree. The group operates independently, but is affiliated with a national armed movement that calls for members to defend individual rights in the face of what they see as an overreaching federal government. The movement draws its name from the notion that no more than 3 percent of the American population fought in the Revolutionary War against Britain. Amid the war games, Hill weighed plans for a possible armed march on Washington if Clinton wins. He said he doesn’t want his members leading the way, but they will defend the protesters if need be. His group will not hesitate to act if a President Clinton tries to disarm gun owners, he said. “I will be there to render assistance to my fellow countrymen, and prevent them from being disarmed, and I will fight and I will kill and I may die in the process,” said Hill, who founded the militia several years ago. Trump’s candidacy has emboldened extremist groups to speak more openly about challenging the rule of law, said Ryan Lenz, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Prior to this campaign season, these ideas were relegated to sort of the political fringe of the American political landscape,” he said. “Now these ideas are legitimized.” Over the past week, some prominent Trump supporters have hinted at violence. ”If Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket,” former Illinois Representative Joe Walsh wrote on Twitter last week. Conservative commentator Wayne Root fantasized about Clinton’s death while speaking at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday. Back in Georgia, the Three Percent Security Force wrapped up rifle practice in the midday sun. They then headed further into the trees to tackle an obstacle course with loaded pistols at their sides, ready for whatever may come. “We’ve building up for this, just like the Marines,” he said. “We are going to really train harder and try to increase our operational capabilities in the event that this is the day that we hoped would never come.” | 1 |
9,446 | Iraqi Kurdistan parliament delays presidential elections by eight months | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Elections for the presidency and parliament of Iraq s Kurdistan region set for Nov. 1 have been delayed by eight months, the regional parliament announced on Tuesday. The decision came after the electoral commission said on Monday that political parties had failed to present candidates for both elections amid turmoil in the region following the independence referendum it held on Sept. 25. The proposal to delay the two elections was approved by 60 of 68 MPs who attended the parliamentary session in the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, Rudaw TV said. Eight MPs opposed the proposal and 43 didn t attend, mainly politicians opposed to Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani, one of the MPs said. Last week, Iraqi forces captured the oil city of Kirkuk and other territory claimed by the Kurds in retaliation for holding the referendum, dealing a severe blow to Barzani. The current KRG presidency, held by Barzani since 2005, and parliament, elected in 2013, are expected to continue until new votes are held. The loss of Kirkuk prompted calls from Gorran, the main opposition party, for Barzani to resign. | 1 |
9,447 | 18 REPUBLICAN SENATORS (Traitors) JOINED EVERY DEMOCRAT To Pass A One O’ Clock AM Vote Giving Obama A Blank Check | Take action! CALL these 18 RINO s and ask them why they voted at 1 A.M. on Friday morning to give Obama a no-limit credit card. Let them know you ll be working to replace them in the next election! This past Friday at one o clock in the morning, 18 Senate Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting to bust the budget caps and to completely suspend the national debt limit until March of 2017.These Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), surrendered to President Obama and gave him an unlimited credit card for the remaining 15 months of his term.REPUBLICAN SENATORS: Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) John Barrasso (R-WY) Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV) Thad Cochran (R-MS) Susan Collins (R-ME) John Cornyn (R-TX) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Orrin Hatch (R-UT) Mark Kirk (R-IL) John McCain (R-AZ) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Pat Roberts (R-KS) Mike Rounds (R-SD) John Thune (R-SD) Thom Tillis (R-NC) Roger Wicker (R-MS)+ Every Democrat SenatorThis debt vote is significant because it is the 20th time in the past 10 months that the new Republican majority allowed a bill to pass that was supported by a majority of Democrats and opposed by a majority of Republicans.If you didn t know otherwise, you would think the Democrats still controlled the Senate. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was right when he said McConnell is the most effective Democratic leader in modern times. It s no surprise that a new Gallup poll found that more Republican voters now view McConnell unfavorably (35%) than view him favorably (30%). Republicans are beginning to see that he doesn t share their values.Senator McConnell has broken so many promises and betrayed the party s core principles so often that more Democrats now approve of the Republican-controlled Congress (13%) than Republicans (9%).All of this is causing many Senate Republicans to question McConnell s leadership. Rather than looking out for their political interests, he continues to pressure them to support unpopular liberal legislation.TAKE ACTIONIf you have not cast your vote of no confidence against Senator McConnell, please click here to add your name.Also, please call the 18 Republicans who voted with all of the Democrats to give President Obama an unlimited credit card for the next 15 months.Click here for a list of their phone numbers.Tell them that you re disappointed in their vote and will be working to replace them with a true conservative.It s very important that these senators see strong opposition to their debt limit vote so they will be less inclined to betray us next time. They also need to better understand the political liability McConnell is for them.Thank you for standing strong for freedom.Ken Cuccinelli II President Senate Conservatives ActionVia: Senate Conservatives Action | 0 |
9,448 | Stephen Colbert Goes Completely Off Script To Ask Trump One Question (VIDEO) | The Stephen Colbert we love was in rare form Wednesday night when he was asked by an audience member what one question he would ask Donald Trump. Let s just say it s good he wasn t on air at the time. My question is, if you had Donald Trump on your show tonight, what would you ask him? the woman who identified herself as a college student asked Wednesday, hours after the Republican presidential nominee encouraged Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton s emails.Source: Raw StoryIf you recall, Trump has a rather cozy relationship with the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin. After an apparent Russian hack on the Democratic National Committee s email server, Trump, who has exchanged praise with Putin in the past, encouraged Russia to hack some more. Russia, if you re listening, I hope you re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Mr. Trump said during a news conference here in an apparent reference to Mrs. Clinton s deleted emails. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Source: New York TimesColbert is brilliant. He could have said that he d ask Trump about the legalities of colluding with a foreign leader to help sway the American election. He could have said he d ask about treason. Instead, Colbert chose to ask the billionaire this:Colbert thought about the woman s question for a moment, apparently trying to decide whether to say his answer out loud. We re not broadcasting right now, so I d say, What does Vladimir Putin s dick taste like? Colbert asked.Then the band started playing before Colbert laughed and said, that s a fine joke. Don t tell your grandkids that joke. Here s the video:Colbert s audience didn t seem to take offense. There was a pretty healthy round of applause, although it might have been a little reserved, just out of shock. They probably aren t used to Colbert playing blue.Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
9,449 | Donald Trump’s Own Email Scandal Actually Broke The Law And He Should Be In JAIL | This is hypocrisy of the highest order and proves that Donald Trump would only make a mockery of our government institutions if he became president.The Republican nominee has made Hillary Clinton s emails one of his central campaign talking points, much to the delight of his rally crowds who chant lock her up at every opportunity because they think she somehow broke the law even though it has been determined by law enforcement that she has not.Trump has called Hillary s email circus worse than Watergate, which has drawn sharp criticism from anyone with a fully functioning brain, including former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman, who called the comparison absurd.As it turns out, Donald Trump has his own email scandal that really did break the law.According to Newsweek, Trump s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders since 1973 when he and his father fought the federal government after they got caught discriminating against African-Americans when it came to housing.Again, we are talking about thousands of emails and documents that multiple judges ordered Trump and his companies to provide to the court. Yet Trump flouted the orders and had the evidence destroyed rather than produce something in court that might help his opponent win the case.This is what is known as spoliation of evidence which is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Such actions are a criminal act and are punishable by a fine or imprisonment.As many times as Trump has committed these acts, he should have been behind bars by now. And he certainly should not be allowed to be president, because it s clear that Trump has no problem ordering his employees to break the law and would most definitely run one of the most secretive administrations in American history. Transparency would no longer exist because Trump hides anything that could hurt him.He has already demonstrated this behavior on the campaign trail by refusing to release his tax returns and his medical records, and now we know that Trump regularly destroys documents and email evidence despite such evidence being ordered provided by a court of law.Hillary Clinton s emails were a one-time mistake that other former Secretaries of State have made, including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both of whom are Republicans who served in Republican administrations. Nobody made a fuss when they used private servers, yet Trump and his rabid fans are whining about Hillary doing the same thing. If anything, Hillary Clinton is way more transparent than Trump has ever been. She didn t permanently delete the emails. They have all been recovered, which means there wasn t an actual effort to nefariously hide anything. Furthermore, she has released her medical records and tax returns. And she has never destroyed evidence in defiance of a court order.So while Trump s supporters are chanting lock her up, it s actually Donald Trump who should be in prison right now.Featured Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
9,450 | White House says it can't lawfully pay Obamacare subsidies | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said late on Thursday that it cannot lawfully pay subsidies to health insurance companies under the Obamacare health law, prompting howls of protests from Democratic lawmakers. A White House statement said based on guidance from the Justice Department, “the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare.” “In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments,” the statement said. | 1 |
9,451 | Trump, frustrated by Afghan war, suggests firing U.S. commander: officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s doubts about the war in Afghanistan has led to a delay in completing a new U.S. strategy in South Asia, skepticism that included a suggestion that the U.S. military commander in the region be fired, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. During a July 19 meeting in the White House Situation Room, Trump demanded that his top national security aides provide more information on what one official called “the end-state” in a country where the United States has spent 16 years fighting against the Taliban with no end in sight. The meeting grew stormy when Trump said Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, a Marine general, should consider firing Army General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, for not winning the war. “We aren’t winning,” he told them, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. RELATED COVERAGE Commentary: Steve Bannon is right on Afghanistan Commentary: The road to Afghanistan peace does not lie in Kabul In addition, once the meeting concluded, Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, got into what one official called “a shouting match” with White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster over the direction of U.S. policy. Some officials left the meeting “stunned” by the president’s vehement complaints that the military was allowing the United States to lose the war. Mattis, McMaster and other top aides are putting together answers to Trump’s questions in a way to try to get him to approve the strategy, the officials said. The White House had no comment on the accounts of the meeting. Another meeting of top aides is scheduled on Thursday. Although Trump earlier this year gave Mattis the authority to deploy U.S. military forces as he sees fit, in fact the defense secretary’s plans to add around 4,000 more U.S. troops to the 8,400 currently deployed in Afghanistan are being caught up in the delay surrounding the strategy, the officials said. “It’s been contingent all along informally on the strategy being approved,” a senior administration official said of the troop deployment. Trump has long been a skeptic of lingering U.S. involvement in foreign wars and has expressed little interest in deploying military forces without a specific plan on what they will do and for how long. Officials said Trump argued that the United States should demand a share of Afghanistan’s estimated $1 trillion in mineral wealth in exchange for its assistance to the Afghan government. But other officials noted that without securing the entire country, which could take many years, there is no way to get the country’s mineral riches to market, except to Iran. Trump complained that the Chinese are profiting from their mining operations, the officials said. | 1 |
9,452 | Obama makes no mention of Trump in first major post-presidential appearance | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Barack Obama, making his first major appearance since leaving the White House, made no mention on Monday of his successor, Donald Trump, but urged young people to get more involved in their communities at a time of stark political divides. “What’s been going on since I’ve been gone?” joked the former Democratic president as he moderated an event at the University of Chicago in the city where he began his political career and which will be the site of his presidential library. Obama, who once taught constitutional law at the school, recalled starting out as a young community organizer in the city and told a panel of six current and former students that he decided to focus his post-presidency on encouraging young people to engage with their communities. “The single most important thing I can do is to help in any way prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world,” he told an audience of several hundred people. Obama has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office in January despite efforts by Trump and the Republican-led Congress to undo much of his legacy, including on healthcare and the environment. Trump, a Republican, has said he “inherited a mess” and accused Obama in March, without providing evidence, of wiretapping his 2016 presidential campaign. Obama has denied the charge and FBI Director James Comey told a congressional hearing he had seen no evidence to support the allegation. Obama was not asked about Trump by the students and he took no questions from reporters. Saying it had long been his goal to bridge the country’s deep political divide, Obama said: “It’s harder and harder to find common ground because of the money in politics.” “Special interests dominate the debates in Washington in ways that don’t match up with what the broad majority of Americans feel,” he said. Obama added that changes in the way people use media allow them to converse just with those who agree with their own points of view. On Sunday, as part of a program to help at-risk young people, Obama met privately with men from Chicago’s troubled South Side to discuss solutions for the violence and joblessness that have marked that neighborhood. The former president, who together with his wife, Michelle, recently struck a two-book, $65 million memoir deal, is expected to travel to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next month. | 1 |
9,453 | Iran nuclear deal should be preserved: Russia | ASTANA (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would make a balanced decision on whether to remain engaged in the international deal to curb Iran s nuclear program. It is very important to preserve it in its current form and of course the participation of the United States will be a very significant factor in this regard, Lavrov told reporters on a visit to Kazakhstan. Under the deal, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for lifting most international sanctions that had crippled its economy. Trump is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the deal, a senior White House official said on Thursday, in a step that potentially could cause the 2015 accord to unravel. Trump, who has called the pact an embarrassment and the worst deal ever negotiated , has been weighing whether it serves U.S. security interests as he faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with its terms. If Trump declines to certify Iran s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement. | 1 |
9,454 | the splcs libelous new report on antimuslim extremists | originally published by the jerusalem post
in one of the immortal lines of godfather mafia boss michael corleone discusses the fate of his brother who betrayed him with his enforcer i dont want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive corleone said
message received the brother was murdered after their mothers funeral last week it was reported that the obama administration has delivered a message to the palestinian authority the administration has warned the pa that the us will veto any antiisrael resolution brought before the un security council before the us presidential elections on november message received open season on israel at the security council will commence november the palestinians are planning appropriately israel needs to plan too israels most urgent diplomatic mission today is to develop and implement a strategy that will outflank president barack obama in his final eight weeks in power lobbying the administration is pointless obama has waited eight years to exact his revenge on israel for not supporting his hostile strategically irrational policies and he has no interest in letting bygones be bygones before turning to what israel must do first we need to understand what israel can do a good place to begin is by considering what just transpired at unesco where twice in a week unesco bodies resolved to erase years of jewish history in jerusalem and the temple mount the fight that israel waged at unesco is not the fight it needs to wage at the security council the stakes at the security council are far higher like the un general assembly unescos decisions are nonbinding declarations that have no legal or operational significance as such there is no reason to expend great resources to fight them for israel the goal of the fight at unesco is not to defeat antiisrael initiatives that is impossible given the palestinians automatic majority the purpose of the fight at unesco is to humiliate european governments that side with antisemitic initiatives and to weaken the congenitally antiisrael body itself the government achieved both of these objectives italian prime minister matteo renzis disavowal of his own governments abstention from the vote on the first resolution like the similar position taken after the fact by the mexican government was a diplomatic victory for israel so too the fact that unescos own secretarygeneral irina bukova felt compelled to disavow her own agencys actions by rejecting the resolutions denial of the jewish peoples ties to jerusalem was a significant victory for israel her statement was deeply damaging for unesco and its reputation finally the fact that tanzania and the philippines voted against the resolution was a testament to israels capacity to convince other governments to abandon their traditional propalestinian voting pattern the palestinians won the vote at unesco because they are more powerful diplomatically than israel they have an automatic antiisrael majority but they werent empowered by their victory to the contrary they were bloodied by it in a sign of their weakening hold on member nations the palestinians and jordanians felt compelled to send a threatening letter to the members of unescos world heritage committee lest they dare to vote against the resolution powerful players dont make threats they dont need to israels experience at unesco teaches us that there are governments that are open to counteroffers israel doesnt need to hide in americas shadow it is capable of working on its own to blunt the impact of the palestinians automatic majority and it will need to use all of its resources to fend off a usbacked assault at the security council unlike unesco the security council can pass legally binding resolutions israel needs to be prepared to bring all of its resources to bear to prevent such a resolution from being adopted against it obamas intention to abandon israel at the security council means that israel comes to this battle severely hobbled but there is one advantage to the uss betrayal over the years israels ability to trust the us to veto antiisrael resolutions at the security council was been a mixed blessing on the one hand the us has secured israel from diplomatic assaults but on the other hand our ability to trust washington has made us diplomatically lazy and ineffective safe in washingtons shadow we have behaved as through all diplomacy is public diplomacy that is we have pretended that statecraft begins and ends with making the moral or strategic case for our side against the other guys but public diplomacy is just one diplomatic tool the syrian regime for instance has no moral case for securing international support bashar assad didnt convince russian president vladimir putin to support him by arguing that he is better than alternative regimes he bought putins support by offering him permanent air and naval bases in syria then there is morocco another weak state with no public diplomacy case to make last march un secretarygeneral ban kimoon outraged rabat when he acknowledged the plain fact that western sahara which morocco occupies is occupied territory morocco quickly secured the support of spain and france and launched an allout onslaught against ban how did morocco manage moroccos most powerful diplomatic resource is its control over migration flows from north africa to europe anytime it wishes rabat can open the migratory floodgates just as easily as it can keep them shut and the french and spanish know it in less than a month ban issued repeated abject apologies game set match morocco from reports to date it appears that shortly after the us elections on november the malaysians or egyptians will submit a palestinianbacked resolution that defines israeli communities in united jerusalem judea and samaria as illegal if the resolution is brought to a vote the us will fail to veto it such a resolution or a resolution obligating israel to withdraw to the armistice lines would cause israel grave harm so what resources does israel have to prevent this from happening of course we have public diplomacy and that might work with some friendly nations but it wont get us over the top we need to learn from the syrian and moroccan examples and consider what we have to offer security council members in exchange for their support in scuttling the approaching onslaught against us one such resource is the us congress israels allies in congress are sickened by the obama administrations devastating middle east policies a solid majority of lawmakers can be trusted to support actions that will reinforce israels position israel has other resources as well that we can trade on we have natural gas and we have technologies that the governments of the world require to surmount the challenges of the century there is no reason to give these resources away when we can trade them for diplomatic support as for the palestinians as the unesco vote showed they are less popular now than at any time in the past years all they have to offer is threats and antisemitism both are powerful weapons but they are no longer invincible israels goal must be to use our resources at the security council in a manner that will make it impossible for obama to enable an antiisrael resolution to pass a method for achieving this goal has two components the first component is to convince a friendly country on the security council to propose a balanced resolution that would counter the palestinianbacked israelbashing one such a resolution could include four points first it could deplore efforts to deny jewish history in jerusalem and the temple mount second it can condemn the paplo for their continued unlawful funding of terrorists third it can urge israel to restrain settlement construction in areas that in previous negotiations have been identified as likely territory for a future palestinian state fourth it can call on israel and the pa to reinstate negotiations immediately without preconditions israel has friendly ties with a few security council members among them uruguay and new zealand in the final weeks of the obama era it is possible that israel will be able to convince one of them to submit a balanced resolution along these lines obama would be hardpressed to oppose such a resolution in favor of one that singles israel out for rebuke but that still is insufficient obama can make uruguay and new zealand a better offer if he wishes and so we move to the second aspect of the plan if we learn nothing else from the obama era we must recognize that the time has come for israel to stop sufficing with just one security council veto most states have several and we need a few more russia today is the best place to start our search for a second veto putin is a dealmaker as his agreement with assad showed he is willing to consider attractive offers obviously israel wont offer russia bases but we do have other things to offer putin in exchange for a veto for instance in exchange for a russian veto at the security council israel can offer putin to lobby the us congress to cancel us sanctions against russia over russias annexation of crimea israel has no dog in that fight and the sanctions are not getting the us anywhere putin might go for the deal for two reasons first by stepping into the breach and defending israel against obama he will humiliate obama second if israel succeeds with the congress he will reap economic rewards for his part putin wouldnt even have to openly side with israel all he would have to do is announce that in the interests of regional stability russia will not support an unbalanced resolution on israel and the palestinians if putin supports a balanced resolution obama will be checkmated his plan to take revenge on israel for not following him off the strategic cliff will be foiled israel will have survived his presidency none of this will be easy and success is far from assured there are many more ways for israel to fail than succeed our diplomatic weakness remains a millstone around our neck but as the unesco resolutions showed attacking israel is no longer cost free we are not powerless in the grip of circumstances we have cards to play and now is the time to play them for all they are worth | 1 |
9,455 | German foreign minister says Trump dangerous for the world | BERLIN (Reuters) - A series of controversial remarks by U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump show that the world should be concerned if he is elected president, a spokeswoman for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday. Trump, a billionaire businessman seeking his first public office, has courted controversy with a string of inflammatory statements about women, Mexicans, Muslims and war veterans, among others. Steinmeier, unlike Chancellor Angela Merkel who has said she will not comment on the U.S. election, is not neutral on the issue because he believes it is important to draw attention to the dangers posed by Trump, said spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli. “He is indeed not neutral on this question because he thinks that if you follow what Trump is saying then you need to be really anxious about what could become of this world ... if (he) does in fact become president,” Chebli told a regular government news conference. Steinmeier is from the centre-left Social Democrats, the junior partner in Merkel’s conservative-led ruling coalition. A spokeswoman for Merkel said the chancellor did not wish to interfere in the U.S. election campaign. On Monday 50 prominent Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, described Trump as unqualified to lead the country and said he would be “the most reckless president in American history”. Trump is currently in the firing line after suggesting on Tuesday that gun rights activists could act to stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices. | 1 |
9,456 | [Video] KANSAS DEM MAYOR BRAGS ABOUT REDUCTION IN WHITE POPULATION: Thanks Radical Socialist Hispanic Group | What would a speech from a modern Democrat be if they didn t include the LGBT crowd and embrace illegal aliens? It s almost as if they were trying to divide our nation in order to gain votes.??The mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, in an address to the radical socialist organization National Council of La Raza, bragged that his city is no longer majority white and the city s schools now have students who speak 62 different languages.According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Kansas City, Kansas, was 52 percent white.But in a speech before the La Raza National Affiliates Luncheon earlier this week in Kansas City, Mayor Mark Holland boasted that only five years later his city s white population has been reduced to 40 percent.He seemed to suggest that La Raza was at least partly responsible for the progress. But he also cited the refugee resettlement work of the United Nations and U.S. State Department for the city s transformation into a gleaming example of multicultural diversity.Kansas City, he said, is very proud of the work of National Council of La Raza. Kansas City, Kansas, is a city with no ethnic majority. Kansas City, Kansas, is 40 percent white, 28 percent Latino, and 26 percent African-American, Holland said. Our school district speaks 62 different languages by the children every single day. And Kansas City, Kansas, has a proud heritage of welcoming all people into the community, people who are not welcome in other places. Latinos started coming with the Santa Fe railroad more than 100 years ago, to build the railroad, he said. Another railroad, the Underground Railroad, brought African-Americans to Kansas. If they could get across the river they were free and settled in a township of Quindero. We continue to have a number of groups of refugees from around the world, he added, mentioning the large Hmong community that came in the 1970s and 80s following the Vietnam War.In recent years, the city has welcomed more refugees from other parts of the world, including Muslim Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Hindus from Bhutan and Buddhists and Muslims from Burma.LGBTs welcome in KCKansas City has also thrown open its arms to the LGBT community, Holland said, even though most of the state of Kansas leans Republican.He said the city is the home of another persecuted group the Democrats. The Democrats still have a foothold in Kansas City and we re very proud of that, said the Democrat mayor. And because Democrats are in Wyandotte County, we welcome our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and celebrate their life and their love, and always will. Holland, an ordained Methodist minister, then went on the attack against any Christians who don t share his liberal theological views on same-sex marriage.He applauded the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision that redefined marriage for all 50 states. But we cannot let our guard down. This religious freedom component, I believe is the Confederate Flag of religious bigotry, being flown long after the fact, Holland said. As an ordained United Methodist pastor myself, I m offended to note, when they say Christians are offended by the ruling. In fact, many of us Christians celebrate the ruling and the continued welcome and recognition of all people. But I want to close by saying we just couldn t be more proud that La Raza is here in Kansas City and it s an honor to be able to greet you. The U.S. State Department, working with the United Nations, has sent 2,371 international refugees to Kansas City, Kansas, since 2002. The State Department s database does not include U.N. refugees dispersed throughout the U.S. before 2002 but the program has been ongoing in its current form since 1980. The U.N. picks about 95 percent of the refugees sent to the U.S. The State Department, working with nine major contractors such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, distributes about 70,000 refugees annually from mostly Third World nations into 190 U.S. cities and towns.U.N. sends KC 2,371 refugees since 2002The refugees, unlike most other classifications of immigrants, immediately qualify for a smorgasbord of state and federal welfare benefits and are placed on a fast-track toward full citizenship, which is obtainable within five years.Since 2002 Kansas City has received 1,090 refugees from Burma, 577 from Bhutan, 190 from Somalia, 126 from Iraq, 47 from Liberia, 37 from Eritrea, 36 from Russia, 34 from Burundi, 33 from Afghanistan, 26 from Vietnam, 24 from Sudan, 18 from Uzbekistan, and 11 from Iran, according to State Department data.Via: WND | 0 |
9,457 | IN YOUR FACE! Following Obama’s Gun Control Rally, Ted Cruz Announces Engraved Shotgun Giveaway…One Lucky American Will Win | We don t need to tell you that Ted Cruz is no fan of Obama or of his insatiable desire to strip Americans of their Second Amendment right. On the heels of Obama s gun grabber rally, Ted Cruz is announcing a FREE engraved shotgun to the lucky winner of his raffle.Presidential hopeful and gun lobby favorite Ted Cruz is raffling off a shotgun engraved with his official campaign logo.To win the prize, a 12-gauge Remington 11-87 with an engraving on the stock, contestants have to submit their name, email, zip code and phone number, according to contest.When contestants enter to win, they re asked to contribute but contributions are not necessary. Per the fine print, contributing does not improve the chances of winning. Via: Guns.comThe promotion is subject to rules of eligibility. Entries must be received before midnight on Jan. 30, 2016. | 0 |
9,458 | South Korea president says acquiring nukes would 'break promise' with world | SEOUL (Reuters) - If South Korea develops nuclear weapons in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test it would be breaking its “promise” with the world, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday. South Korea is in discussion with China regarding a draft U.N. Security Resolution in response to North Korea’s January 6 nuclear test, Park said in response to a question at an annual news conference. | 1 |
9,459 | U.S. welcomes decision by Saudi-led coalition to keep Yemen port open | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday said it welcomed an announcement by a Saudi-led coalition to keep the Hodeidah port in Yemen open for a month and allow humanitarian aid to flow through, and condemned a Houthi bombing of a palace in Saudi Arabia. In a brief statement, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders suggested the United States believed Iran bore ultimate responsibility for the Dec. 19 missile attack against the palace in Riyadh. We urge the United Nations Security Council to hold Iran responsible for its repeated and blatant violations of Security Council resolutions, Sanders said. At a briefing later on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Tim Lenderking said the United States would have a conversation with Saudi Arabia about the 30 days the port will be open and about possibly changing the timeline, but said the United States first wants to see ships moving in and goods and services reaching the people of Yemen. The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it would open the Houthi-controlled port it had blockaded. A cholera epidemic has been spreading across the country and 8 million people are on the brink of famine in what the United Nations deems the world s worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudis say the Red Sea port is also a hub used by the Houthis to bring in weapons, which it accuses Iran of supplying. Tehran denies the charges. Lenderking also said there was no military solution to the conflict and that President Donald Trump s administration believes the best course is aggressive diplomacy. Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted on Thursday in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. When asked if U.S. aid to Yemen would diminish given that Yemen drafted the resolution and was one of the 120 countries that voted for it, Lenderking said he was not sure but Trump s threat was not empty. | 1 |
9,460 | Rabbi Michael Lerner DESTROYS Trump In Brilliant Speech At Ali Funeral (VIDEO) | When we lost boxing legend Mohammed Ali this week, we lost more than an athlete. We lost a humanitarian, a man who was a great example to people all over the world of what being a leader and an all around decent human being means. Therefore, it is only fitting that his public funeral be a place to remind everyone what this great man was about, and what we as people should and should not aspire to be. That is just what Rabbi Michael Lerner did in a speech that brought the house down at Ali s funeral on Friday.Lerner took to the stage and declared that he was there as a representative of American Jews. After that, he turned his attentions to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Without mentioning the orange buffoon by name, Lerner said: We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for a few people. We know what it s like to be demeaned. We know what it s like to have a few people who act against the highest vision of our tradition to then be identified as the value of the entire tradition. Of course, this was a clear reference to Trump s appalling call to ban Muslims from the United States. Lerner wasn t done yet, though. He went on to trumpet the praises of a Clinton victory in November, and also insisted that we need to make the world a more equal place for all. He continued: Tell the next president of the United States that she should seek a constitutional amendment to make all national and state elections funded by Congress and the state legislatures, and all other sources of money be banned including money from corporations, from individuals. Make it all public funding. Tell her that the way to achieve homeland security is not for us to try new ways of domination. The strategy of domination of The world of the other to get security has been tried for the last 10,000 years and it doesn t work. The way to get security is for the United States to become known as the most generous and caring country in the world, not the most powerful. Well said, Rabbi Lerner. This speech is something everyone needs to hear, because you are right on the money in every way. Every single standing ovation you got here was more than well deserved.Watch the brilliance unfold below:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
9,461 | Haha! Hot Mic Catches Schumer Saying Trump ‘Likes Us’ [Video] | Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thinks he s liked by President Trump. Haha! In fact, Schumer was caught on a hot mic today saying Trump likes us. After a couple dinners at the White House, Schumer thinks he s got a little bromance going with POTUS. Here s how it went down:The senator was speaking to staffers shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell s floor speech when, in reference to Trump, the senator said, he likes us. He likes me anyway, according to a transcription from the Washington Examiner.The comment came the day after Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had dinner with Trump at the White House. The topic of conversation was centered on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration amnesty program, according to the Democratic lawmakers. After the dinner, Schumer and Pelosi released a statement claiming Trump agreed to support DACA legislation in exchange for the Democrats support in passing a border security package, one without border wall funding. The White House came out afterwards, denying any such agreement was made. Look, what we said was exactly accurate, Schumer said to staffers in reference to his statement.The Democratic senator then recounted to aides what advice he gave the president. Here s what I told him: Mr. President, you are much better off sometimes stepping right and sometimes step left. [If] you have to step just in one direction, you re boxed, he said. He gets that. We are always going to work it out and it will make us more productive too, Schumer added.Read more: WFB | 0 |
9,462 | U.S. senator introduces bill to speed electronic warfare weapons | SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mark Kirk on Wednesday introduced legislation that would give the Pentagon more flexibility in funding electronic warfare programs and speed often sluggish acquisition times. Current acquisition rules make it tough for the U.S. military to quickly procure and field electronic warfare weapons systems before they are overtaken by developments around the world. Kirk, an Illinois Republican and retired naval intelligence officer, said the bill would help the U.S. military accelerate work on electronic warfare weapons and stay ahead of other countries that are rapidly developing their own capabilities. “It is critical our military dominate the offensive and defensive ends of electronic warfare,” Kirk said in a statement. “The need for enhanced electronic capabilities is even more pronounced on today’s battlefield.” Senator Kristen Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, is co-sponsoring the bill. The bill would amend the fiscal 2016 defense policy bill to include electronic warfare, or EW, under the Pentagon’s Rapid Acquisition Authority (RAA) program. That program lets program managers waive some acquisition rules to more quickly field technology. It would also allow the department to use different contract types, including those used for commercial items, when it buys EW weapons. The bill also includes directives for the Pentagon’s new joint Electronic Warfare Executive Committee, which is headed by Air Force General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a Kirk aide. The bill directs the committee to provide a strategic plan for the services to work together on electronic warfare systems, and tackle acquisition and budget processes, bolster training, fill capability gaps and advance offensive capabilities. Kirk is expected to discuss the legislation during a visit to a Northrop Grumman Corp facility in Rolling Meadows, Il. on Friday, the aide said. | 1 |
9,463 | Highlights of Reuters interview with House Speaker Ryan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here are highlights of a Reuters interview on Wednesday with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. ON ESTIMATES THAT THE REPUBLICAN TAX PLAN COULD INCREASE FEDERAL DEFICIT BY $1.5 TRILLION “The $1.5 (trillion) – without getting too deep into the details – represents incorporating the bill that we’ve always intended writing in the Ways and Means Committee in the House, which does have macroeconomic feedback. We are convinced that the models are really clear, people will change their behavior, businesses will change their behavior if taxes change.” “That $1.5 (trillion) number is sort of in the midrange of the growth we expect of the models we’ve seen.” “We believe that we’ll get faster economic growth, that will exceed this $1.5 (trillion), so we do not anticipate a big deficit effect from this tax reform.” “The Obamacare taxes will have to stay. We passed this in the House but it didn’t get through the Senate, so as a result of that, we can’t get rid of those Obamacare taxes in this tax reform.” “I think there is a way of addressing the concerns that our members have for middle-income taxpayers in those states so that they are net winners in tax reform as well.” ON WHY REPUBLICANS AIM TO PASS A TAX PACKAGE BY YEAR’S END “The reason we’re trying to do it with this timeline is we want to get a 3 percent (GDP growth) economy. We’re sort of limping along, growing between 1 and 2 percent, and that is so far underneath our potential as a country.” “I really believe getting this done now means we are going to have a very good 2018.” ON WHETHER THE HOUSE WILL PASS LEGISLATION TO PROTECT ‘DREAMER’ IMMIGRANTS THIS YEAR “I don’t know when we’re going to do it, we’re having lots of discussions on how to do it and the timing is something that’s just open debate.” “I want to do it ... the goal is: we want to fix this and we’re working on it, and we want to make sure that we do it in such a way that we don’t have the same problem down the road - that means border security and interior enforcement.” | 1 |
9,464 | What Republicans Are Doing To Stop People From Voting Is As Dirty As It Gets | Let s face it, if it weren t for gerrymandering, Russian interference and straight up lies, Republicans would never hold another majority again and they d certainly never hold the presidency. Unfortunately, that s not our reality and Republicans in Iowa are so desperate that they are turning to lies to keep people from voting.Iowa s Secretary of State, Paul Pete, wants to pass stricter voting restrictions in an effort to keep undesirables (Democrats especially Democrats of Color) from voting and he s lying to justify it.To substantiate his argument, Pate s office drafted a statement for a reporter from the local Gazette newspaper, noting that in Iowa it appeared 41 felons had cast ballots and that more than 200 election day voter registrations, or EDRs, had bounced back. The draft statement included the caveats that the irregularities do not necessarily constitute fraud and that the state would have a more complete picture of election data come March. Pate urged his staff to release it. We need to release info and these stats are public already. When an auditor turns them over to the county attorney or sheriff for action that pretty much makes it public. Am I missing something?, he wrote in an email.Source: Huffington PostIn a state of three million people, 41 felons voting doesn t exactly seem like a reason to change voting laws for everyone, but even that paltry number is vastly misleading. According to Pate s deputy, Carol Olson: I do not believe that we should say that 41 felons illegally cast ballots. We encouraged them to use provisional ballots, so that would feel a little like we baited them to do something illegal, she wrote. And it s risky to label it illegal because we don t know the circumstances. It might be illegal, but [it] might not be, if someone really believed their rights were restored. We can report the number of felons voting, but let s not call it illegal, she wrote.Olson noted that some of the statistics suggested something nefarious when it could simply be attributed to human error. I m also really reluctant to say that 207 EDR s (sic) from 15 counties bounced back. In the context of a discussion on election fraud, it sounds like we are suggesting that bounce backs are fraud or likely to be fraud, she wrote. First, it s only a partial report. What about the other 84 counties? How does this fit into the overall process of EDRs? The vast majority of these bounce-backs are sloppy addresses from voters in too much of a hurry when they register at the polls. That s a real reason to discourage EDR and a real reason to have pollbooks, but it s not an indicator of illegal activity. Regardless, it s likely the bill, that will require voter IDs, will pass, nearly ensuring that the state, which has long been a red-leaning swing state, will become a red state.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images. | 0 |
9,465 | REPORT: Melania And Barron Trump Will Not Be Moving Into The White House | President-elect Donald Trump recently asked his advisers how many nights a week he would have to spend in the White House. Trump, who obviously feels being president is a part-time gig, wants to spend as much time at his ritzy penthouse in Manhattan as possible. Previously, it was believed that Melania Trump would move to Washington but that s not going to happen.Future First Lady Melania Trump and 10-year-old son Barron will not be moving to the White House after Donald Trump s inauguration in January, according to the New York Post.Barron is halfway through a school year in New York. Melania is extremely close to Barron, and they have become closer during the campaign, a source told the Post. The campaign has been difficult for Barron, and she is really hoping to keep disruption to a minimum. According to another source, the future first lady will travel to the White House as needed, but her primary focus is on her son. Melania is very supportive of her husband and is fully on board of doing everything that s needed as first lady, said the second source.Although no plans are in place, the source said it s possible that Melania and Barron may move to the White House at the end of the school year.The president-elect has been using Trump Tower as his headquarters which has raised concerns over security costs for the city.It s cool with us if Melania wants to remain in New York City but if Michelle Obama had made this same choice, the outrage from conservatives would have been deafening. And we think it s great Melania has a close relationship with her young son. Mrs. Obama enjoys an amazing relationship with her daughters, too. However, she did move them to the White House where first families live. It s called a double standard.The role of the First Lady includes acting as White House hostess. We re wondering if Ivanka will fill the role of First Lady in Melania s absence now. Barron s tuition as the private school is approximately $40,000.Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty. | 0 |
9,466 | Schaeuble to head German parliament, unblocking coalition talks | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany took a first decisive step on Wednesday toward forming a new government when its veteran finance minister, conservative Wolfgang Schaeuble, agreed to become president of the parliament, clearing the way for another party to take his job. Chancellor Angela Merkel will hope that Schaeuble, deeply respected in Germany for helping to steer the euro zone through its debt crisis, can stamp his authority on a fractious Bundestag lower house that will include two more parties after Sunday s federal election. Merkel must assemble Germany s first three-way coalition since the 1950s after her conservatives lost support and a far-right party, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), entered parliament for the first time in half a century. In a sign of the challenges ahead, Andrea Nahles, the Social Democrats newly elected parliamentary leader, told reporters her party would hit conservatives squarely in the jaw after four years as junior partner in a Merkel-led grand coalition . Merkel s most realistic coalition option now is a deal with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), returning to parliament after a four-year hiatus, and the Greens. But the parties disagree on issues such as energy, Europe and migration, complicating the path to a so-called Jamaica coalition - a reference to the parties colors: black, yellow and green, which are also those of the Jamaican flag. Schaeuble, 75, who emerged as one of Europe s most influential politicians during the euro zone crisis, will bring unprecedented weight to the role of Bundestag president, normally a low-profile position. His willingness to quit as finance minister after eight years in the post makes it easier for the FDP to join a Merkel-led coalition. The FDP, who are as fiscally hawkish as Schaeuble, have said they want his old job. As an outstanding personality Wolfgang Schaeuble possesses a natural authority that is of particular importance in these times, said FDP leader Christian Lindner, himself seen as a likely successor at the finance ministry. Lindner s deputy, Wolfgang Kubicki, another possible candidate for the post, told the RND newspaper chain that Schaeuble s move showed Merkel s openness to a Jamaica coalition. He also underscored his party s call for a shift in fiscal policy. Schaeuble was criticized in southern Europe, especially Greece, for his insistence on tax hikes and spending cuts at a time of deep recession, but is popular at home for balancing the books and presiding over high growth and low unemployment. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking in Munich, said he did not think Schaeuble s departure would soften the EU s approach to heavily indebted Greece. The austerity measures will be continued by those who carried them out together with Wolfgang Schaeuble, he said. The Free Democrats, with a voter support base among Germany s small and medium-sized businesses, are as committed to budgetary discipline as Schaeuble but less pro-European, meaning Wednesday s news drew a mixed reception from the euro zone. I don t think there will be radical changes in German economic policy if the FDP replaces him, said one official close to euro zone policy-making. The FDP are also hardliners on deficits. But another euro zone official said the euro zone was losing one of the most pro-European politicians I know and instead getting a party markedly cooler on political integration. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told the Handelsblatt newspaper he would miss Schaeuble s steady hand. Wolfgang Schaeuble was a loyal discussion partner, serious, competent and also a good friend, he said. Merkel emerged from Sunday s election a weakened figure after her conservatives, still the largest bloc in the Bundestag, bled support to the AfD. But the exit of Schaeuble, the most powerful counterweight to the long-serving chancellor, could paradoxically strengthen her position. As Bundestag president, Schaeuble will not be involved in coalition negotiations, removing one strong-minded negotiator from the table and potentially giving Merkel a freer hand. Coalition negotiations will only begin in earnest after Oct. 15, when the conservatives hope to wrest power from the Social Democrats in a state election in Lower Saxony. By law, the new parliament must convene for its first session 30 days after the election, so by Oct. 24 at the latest. | 1 |
9,467 | Fox News Fans Found Out Malia Obama Is Going To Harvard, So They Called Her A ‘N*****’ (SCREENSHOTS) | If case you have not heard, Malia Obama is once again proving herself to be a smart young woman. Recently, Malia made headlines when she translated for her father during a trip to Cuba something that earned her a lot of irrational hatred from conservatives. Now, she is in the news again for accomplishing something many parents wish for their kids: she got herself accepted to Harvard.While is is certainly good news that the oldest of the First Daughters is following in her father s footsteps and becoming a successful human being, that still isn t enough for Fox News racist fans. After the right-wing propaganda network masquerading as a news agency reported that Malia (who can t so much as look at a school or even wear a t-shirt without becoming the target of insane right-wing harassment), will be going to a good school, conservatives lost their minds and responded with such vitriol that Fox had to shut down the comments section on the article.The White House announced the good news on Sunday. Fox reported:Malia is the eldest of the Obamas two daughters. She s 17 and a senior at the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in the District of Columbia.She s set to graduate high school in June, then celebrate her 18th birthday on the Fourth of July.Obama recently said he turned down an invitation to speak at Malia s high school graduation because his emotions would get the best of him.Malia decided on Harvard after visiting at least a dozen colleges, ultimately deciding to attend the school where her father earned his degree. Before she does this, she will take a year off school like many young people choose to do before going to college.There s nothing controversial about this at all. She did nothing wrong, but if you were to judge from the comments that flooded the website soon after the article went up, you would think she performed an abortion while marrying two undocumented immigrants inside a church while taking the congregants guns and stomping on a flag. Readers called her a n*gger, a monkey, an ape, and made it very clear that her skin color is something they consider important in determining her worth as a human being.Already, the Stupid Part of America suspects that she was granted special favors, that her blackness prevents her from getting grades good enough to earn her a spot at the prestigious school: This is just one example of the Right attacking President Obama s children. Malia became the subject of assaults after it was rumored that she had a couple drinks at a party while visiting Brown University. Whether or not she did is unknown, but conservatives decided that a.) she s guilty and b.) for doing what many teenagers do, she is literally the devil. Another time, a photograph of her wearing a t-shirt featuring the words, Pro Era, the name of a rap label. When she was younger, conservatives even photoshopped an image of the President touching Sasha inappropriately, then presented it as fact. Sadly, it was well-received by the right. Malia can t even get a job without being smeared as an affirmative action loser. Malia Obama is a classy lady, no matter what these inbred taint-barnacles say. It s disgusting that Obama s more hateful critics can t so much as have the decency to avoid attacking his children. The Obamas have faced more irrational bigotry than have any other presidential family in history and this is certainly not OK.Featured image via Getty Images/ Chip Somodevilla (modified) | 0 |
9,468 | South Korea president says China response to North Korea nuclear test key | SEOUL (Reuters) - China should play a key and proper role in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday. There is still a possibility of further North Korean provocations, including “cyber terrorism” following the isolated country’s fourth nuclear test on January 6, Park told an annual news conference. | 1 |
9,469 | Spanish foreign minister calls Catalonia's leader speech a 'trick' | PARIS (Reuters) - The independence speech made by Catalonia s leader was a trick , Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said on Wednesday, although he said there was room for negotiations within the frame of Spain s constitution. Carles Puigdemont s speech to the Catalan parliament on Tuesday was a trick to say one thing and do the opposite, Dastis told French radio station Europe 1. Puigdemont leader balked at making a formal declaration of independence from Spain on Tuesday, calling for talks with Madrid over the region s future in a gesture that eased fears of immediate unrest in the heart of the euro zone. Asked about the possibility of organize another referendum in Catalonia, Dastis said that Spain s constitution does not allow it. We cannot accept that a portion of the Catalans decide for the whole of Spain, he said. | 1 |
9,470 | Conservatives Who Think The GOP-Led Senate Preserved Gun Rights Need To Read This NOW | A mother s heart-wrenchingly true Facebook post is going viral following yesterday s Senate vote on gun legislation, despite her having written it just a few days after the Orlando massacre. To put it bluntly, Senate Republicans have a bad habit of saying they re voting for law abiding gun owners, and for gun owners rights, when they vote down gun legislation. They aren t. They re voting against children even extremely young children. Innocent children. American children. Their children and grandchildren. Politicians take a look. This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grand children and future generations to come. They will live their lives and grow up in this world based on your decisions. They are barely 3 and they will hide in bathroom stalls standing on top of toilet seats. I do not know what will be harder for them? Trying to remain quiet for an extended amount of time or trying to keep their balance without letting a foot slip below the stall door? Stacey Wehrman Feeley took a picture of her three-year old daughter standing on top of their toilet, and she originally thought this was simply the hijinks of a young child and she wanted to show her husband. Then her daughter told her what she was really doing: She was practicing for lockdown drills at her school.An innocent three-year old is practicing for lockdown drills. Why should a three-year old even have to worry about gun violence at her school, or anywhere else?That prompted the long Facebook post that contains the above paragraph, but that s not all she said. Feeley also said: No one thinks gun control will be 100% crime control. But maybe, just maybe, it helps 1% or 2% or 50%? Who knows unless we try? Why on earth are there not universal background checks? Where is a universal registration database? Why are high capacity magazines ever permitted to be sold to anyone other than direct to the military? Is that really necessary to protect yourself or hunt for that matter? What about smart guns, where are they? That is the question, isn t it? Republicans tend to parrot the NRA s line that these measures won t stop criminals or terrorists, so we shouldn t enact them at all. Democrats, too, do that to some degree, but not the way Republicans do. CNN called yesterday s votes tough election year politics, and mentioned longstanding disputes over what would be effective. Sadly, they re correct when they say this was expected.There s a reason the GOP is called the Party of No. They d rather do nothing at all than piss off their handlers, all while manipulating and controlling language to sound like they re the good guys.What Feeley is saying isn t, I have the solution. It s We need to start somewhere, and all these ideas have been on and off the table for years. Why has nothing been done? And that s the question that all our politicians need to start answering. It s also a question that the NRA needs to start answering, since they re among the loudest more guns voices out there.The face that politicians particularly members of the Party of No need to see isn t just the face of the victims in Orlando, or the victims of shootings that already happened. It s the children who have to live in a world where they aren t safe anywhere, even at home, because Congress patently refuses to even try.Read her full post below:Featured image via embedded Facebook post | 0 |
9,471 | Britain agrees to set EU 'Exit Day' in law | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s government said on Thursday it would use legislation to fix the time and date of the country s European Union exit, addressing concerns of Brexiteers who fear slow negotiations and opposition to the divorce could cause delays. The government said it was proposing a change to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill currently making its way through parliament to set the exit for 2300 GMT on March 29, 2019. We ve listened to members of the public and Parliament and have made this change to remove any confusion or concern about what exit day means, Brexit minister David Davis said in a statement. The date has previously been implied by a fixed two-year negotiating period triggered on March 29, 2017, but not explicitly stated in law. Prime Minister Theresa May and her team are battling to keep exit negotiations with the EU moving, amid growing concern that talks have yet to begin on a transitional deal to smooth the exit for businesses or the complex terms of a future trade deal. At home, May s government is facing a rough ride in parliament on the withdrawal bill, which forms the central plank of her Brexit strategy. After losing her parliamentary majority in an ill-judged election in June, May has to unite a Conservative Party deeply split over leaving the EU and rely on the support of a small Northern Irish party to get the bill through without defeats. The decision to define the date of Brexit in law came with a clear statement that the government is prepared to consider other concessions - even those proposed by political opponents. This important step demonstrates our pragmatic approach to this vital piece of legislation, Davis said. Where MPs (Members of Parliament) can improve the Bill, whatever their party, we will work with them. The bill will begin the latest stage of its journey through parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday, when lawmakers will debate and vote on some of the 186 pages of changes that have so far been proposed. The bill is at an early stage, and is expected to take months to make its way through both houses of parliament. | 1 |
9,472 | Justice Department Announces It Will No Longer Use Private Prisons | Republicans are about to lose a huge source of funding as the Justice Department announces it will phase out its usage of the highly controversial (and highly racist) use of the private prison complex.The DOJ, under the leadership of Loretta Lynch, made the determination after evidence from the Inspector General s office showed private systems were less safe and less effective than state/government run facilities. Consequently, the DOJ has instructed all government contractors not to renew contracts with any private prison operations and to substantially reduce already existing contracts.In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates highlighting the many faults plaguing the private system: They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security. Another cause for the discontinuation of the private system was the decline of America s prison population, which once exploded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As recently as 10 years ago, the Department of Justice, under the Bush Administration, began contracting with private prisons to contain a population made up of seemingly petty crimes that disproportionally affected blacks and other minorities.In total, these 13 private prisons across the country will be losing their government contracts, putting a severe dent in their funding. Considering the report also detailed higher levels of assault both by inmates and staff and higher rates of contraband, this is a perfect example of wasteful spending Republicans are always decrying. Luckily, the Obama Administration recognizes this and is taking care of it, all without the help of the GOP.Currently, private prisons account for 12 percent of the nation s prison population at just over 22,000 inmates. According to Corrections Corporation America, the United States spent $639 million on private prisons in the 2014-2015 fiscal budget.Once again, the Obama Administration is cleaning up a big mess made by President Bush.A dark stain on modern America is finally breaking apart. Private prisons, a staple in the age of modern Jim Crow, have outlived their use (if they were ever useful in the first place). The Justice Department s decision to end its contractual obligations is a huge step in the right direction, but it remains to be seen if states like Arizona, who put funding for prisons over education, will follow the lead.Featured image via Allison Shelley/Getty Images | 0 |
9,473 | Don't count on Germany's SPD to rescue Macron's euro agenda | BERLIN (Reuters) - During Germany s election campaign, the Social Democrats (SPD) rallied behind French President Emmanuel Macron s ideas for reform of the euro zone, including the creation of a budget, finance minister and separate parliament for the currency bloc. But as momentum builds for another grand coalition between the SPD and Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, doubts are rising about whether the center-left party will make European reform a top priority in looming negotiations. Several senior SPD officials, some speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while the party continued to support Macron s ideas, domestic reforms of health insurance, pensions and the labor market were likely to play a more prominent role in eventual talks. Europe is not a theme where we can simply push things through. We need to strive for a consensus, said Johannes Kahrs, a budget expert for the SPD in parliament and leader of the conservative Seeheimer Kreis wing of the party. It would be nice if the conservatives went along with the idea of a budget for the euro zone, but they need to want it. It would make no sense to try to bully them into this. The comments may come as a disappointment to Macron, who called SPD leader Martin Schulz after the collapse of three-way talks between Merkel s conservatives, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens a week ago, and urged him to do his part to ensure political stability in Germany. The EU faces a narrow window to forge agreement on Macron s European reform proposals because, as 2019 approaches, it is expected to be consumed by the Brexit negotiations, wrangling over a new long-term budget for the bloc and EU elections. For that reason, the French president would prefer to avoid a lengthy period of political uncertainty in Germany, including new elections that could delay the formation of a government in Berlin until mid-2018. Macron also may be hoping the SPD led by former European Parliament president Schulz and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel can convince Merkel s conservatives to embrace some of his more controversial ideas for the euro zone. Macron, a centrist, honed many of his European reform ideas with Gabriel when both were economy ministers. On page 98 of their election program, the SPD calls for many of the same measures that Macron supports: a euro zone budget, finance minister and parliament, as well as harmonized corporate tax rates and the transformation of Europe s ESM bailout mechanism into a more robust European Monetary Fund. Two months after the election, senior SPD officials say there is still broad support in the party for these ideas. But none suggest that the party is likely to insist on them in talks with Merkel that could begin next month. Several pointed to the departure of Merkel s hardline finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has shifted to the role of Bundestag president, as a significant step already. Before the election, a lot of people said we needed to get rid of Schaeuble. Now they ve done that for us, said one senior party member. Will we push for more on Europe? Yes. Will there be other priorities that are perhaps more important? Yes. Another SPD official said achieving a level playing field on corporate tax rates in Europe and introducing a financial transactions tax were just as important as Macron s plans to overhaul euro zone governance. While Merkel has shown a readiness to work with Macron, other members of her conservative bloc are skeptical about his euro zone ideas, fearful Europe could develop into a transfer union in which Germany pays for reform-wary southern countries. Over the past four years, the SPD struggled to put its mark on European policy, with Schaeuble, backed by Merkel, setting a strict rules-based course that emphasized structural reforms in euro member states over closer integration. | 1 |
9,474 | Highlights: The Trump presidency on Feb. 24 at 12:35 a.m. EST/17:35 GMT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday: Trump says he will make a massive budget request for one of the “greatest military buildups in American history” in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism to eager conservative activists. Trump signs an executive order aimed at repealing or simplifying federal regulations. Trump criticizes the FBI for failing to stop leaks of national security information to the media and directs the agency to find those who pass on classified information. Russian politicians close to the Kremlin say Trump’s declared aim of putting the U.S. nuclear arsenal “at the top of the pack” risks starting a new Cold War-style arms race between Washington and Moscow. China dismisses renewed pressure from Trump over its role in North Korea, saying the crux of the matter is a dispute between Washington and Pyongyang. China says it has no intention of using currency devaluation to its advantage in trade, responding to Trump’s description of China as the “grand champions” of currency manipulation. Mexico does not need U.S. financial aid, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong says, after Trump ordered a report on such assistance given by the United States to its southern neighbor over the last five years. ANTI-TRUMP MOVEMENT Raucous town hall meetings held by Republican Congress members are the latest outburst in a relentless series of rallies, marches and protests that shows no signs of abating more than 30 days into the Trump administration. Germany does not yet have a full picture of the approach Trump’s administration is taking on foreign, security and trade policy but is keen to engage with Washington on these issues, a Foreign Ministry spokesman says. Peru’s Trade Minister Eduardo Ferreyros says he does not think Trump would want to renegotiate the trade agreement between the two countries because it has been beneficial to the United States. | 1 |
9,475 | TEACHER’S UNION PROTEST Gets Ugly As Protesters And Cops Duke It Out [Video] | In case you don t live in the Midwest, you might not have noticed that the fight continues between the Democrat-lead powers that just won t let go after decades of disaster in the city of Detroit. It s like the abused wife who s more comfortable with the evil she knows rather than getting the heck out of Dodge to find a better situation. The people of Detroit are still fighting the perceived racism from anywhere and everywhere in Republican Governor Snyyder s administration. The Democrats that ran the city into the ground with so much corruption and so many inept officials want the same-old same old back and want Emergency Managers put in place by Snyder to go away. The latest problem is with the Detroit Public Schools and the water scandal in the city of Flint. Here s the take from the Detroit News:Detroit Hundreds of teachers, activists and students gathered Wednesday outside Cobo Center in a combined effort to protest conditions in Flint and at Detroit Public School buildings.The protest outside Cobo came hours before President Barack Obama s scheduled visit to the North American International Auto Show inside the building. Snyder out, is a must, the crowd chanted, led by leaders wielding megaphones. Detroit won t go to the back of the bus. Joel Berger, an English teacher at Cass Technical High School, said the city-wide sickout and protest stemmed from a grassroots effort by teachers, students and parents.He also joined many protesters in directly linking issues in DPS and Flint. Teachers, parents and students are just fed up with the injustices that are being done to our students, Berger said. It s about (Darnell) Earley, who was the emergency manager in Flint when they switched their water over, and now he s being charged with looking over Detroit Public Schools. We re building toward a city-wide strike to restore the rights of the people of Detroit now, and to get rid of the (DPS) emergency manager, he said. It s clear that the state takeovers and the elimination of democratic control across Michigan cities has only created more destruction in black, Latino and poor communities, he said. In Flint, we had emergency manager Darnell Earley, who said himself that to save money, they d switch water from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. This is a city-wide struggle about our future, Douglass said. It s going to take this movement to prevent the racist attacks. Supporters of ousted teachers union president Steve Conn clash with Detroit police officers and hotel security at the Hilton Garden Hotel in Detroit where a hearing was held on Conn s bid to be reinstated.Some protesters insisted the sickout symbolized support for Steve Conn, the ousted former president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers union.The DFT executive board removed Conn from office and expelled him from the union in August after finding him guilty of internal misconduct charges.Read more: Detroit News | 0 |
9,476 | THE VIEW Brings On Bill O’Reilly’s Sexual Harassment Accuser…Is This REALLY Sexual Harassment? [Video] | The last accuser who could have been the nail in the coffin for Bill O Reilly spoke on The View about her sexual harassment lawsuit. Perquita Burgess and her lawyer were on The View for their 15 minutes of fame. Attorney Lisa Bloom should know better than to send her client on to speak out about her allegations. Lisa Bloom has a track record as a high profile lawyer for cases like this She should know better but it could be that she s trying to gain sympathy for her client.Please listen to the video and let us know what you think about what she said and about sexual harassment in the workplace:O Reilly settled with other women over sexual harassment but how do we know if any of them has any credibility? How does a man protect himself from such charges?If this could be brought up on charges, then every high profile man out there needs a witness when he walks around anywhere.Are the comments (if true) that this woman said Bill O Reilly made considered sexual harassment to you? What exactly is sexual harassment? If it s how you feel then men are in big trouble because of all of the offended women out there. Should the definition be broader or should it be more narrowly defined. We feel with our litigious society, the cases for sexual harassment should be very closely scrutinized. | 0 |
9,477 | Nigeria puts fortress towns at heart of new Boko Haram strategy | BAMA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria s government has a plan for the northeast, torn apart by eight years of conflict with Boko Haram: displaced people will be housed in fortified garrison towns, ringed by farms, with the rest of the countryside effectively left to fend for itself. The vision for the state of Borno, ground zero for the war with the Islamist insurgency, is a stark admission of the reality in the northeast. For two years, the military and government have said Boko Haram is all but defeated, and the remnants are being mopped up. But the military is largely unable to control territory beyond the cities and towns it has wrested back from Boko Haram. That means many of the nearly 2 million displaced people across the northeast cannot return to their homes in rural areas. Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno state, said it was not possible for people to live in small villages. There s beauty in numbers, there s security in numbers. So our target is to congregate all the people in five major urban settlements and provide them with means of livelihood, education, health care and of course security, he told Reuters. It s a long term solution, certainly. The plan for the eastern part of the state, centered on the town of Bama, is intended as a pilot scheme to be rolled out in other parts of Borno if it is successful. Vigilantes, currently members of a group known as the Civilian Joint Task Force, will become agricultural rangers, the governor said. Aided by Nigerian security forces, they will aim to secure and patrol a five-km (three-mile) radius around each garrison town where people can farm. Peter Lundberg, the United Nations Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, who heads the organization s response in the northeast, said the reconstruction of Bama town, the second biggest in the state, was logical . People are very eager to go back if the conditions are right and if the conditions are safe, if the conditions are dignified, and of course it has to be voluntary, he told Reuters. Sentiment amongst the displaced is mixed. Abubakar Goni, who lived outside Bama before fleeing to the Borno state capital Maiduguri, said he wants to return home, but if the town is safer he will agree to go there. I will support it as long as I will have a place to farm. I am also happy to hear the government will give us protection on the farm because I learnt Boko Haram men are still around. Others, like Tijja Modu Alhaji, are wary of potential disputes between residents of the towns where people will be sent and the returnees. I don t want to stay in Bama because I will still be a stranger there, just as I am in Maiduguri now, he said. I want to go home, not to somebody else s land. The governor s plan is still in its early stages. It involves bringing back thousands of people who fled the town of Bama and the surrounding area and sought refuge in camps in Maiduguri and elsewhere. They will eventually be housed in towns such as Bama, which was largely abandoned by its inhabitants when Boko Haram took it three years ago, but has since been recaptured by the military. Many of Bama s buildings are still shells, windows smashed, doors ripped out and roofs gone. Telephone and electricity wires remain torn down, more than two years after the military evicted Boko Haram. It is not clear how the returnees will be housed. There are already 15,000 people in a crowded camp for displaced local residents set up by the military after it retook the town. The United Nations had planned to move them gradually to new shelters accommodating 30,000 people that have been erected in the town, but the military said it could not oversee two camps there at the same time, UN and military officials told Reuters. The government has announced plans to build 3,000 homes in the Bama area. But there are concerns about how people sent to the town will manage, since many did not originally live there. It s one thing to move people to Bama, said Lundberg. Unless the engine of the economy can restart, the risk is that people are moving back to places where they will become very dependent (on aid). Aid workers said the demarcation between garrison towns and a lawless countryside means people have a choice: live in virtual quarantine, or return to their homes in the countryside, where Boko Haram roam, and be treated by security forces as potential insurgency sympathizers. You re imprisoned, but you re safe, said one senior relief worker, speaking on condition of anonymity. If you prefer your own life you can do it on the outside. Boko Haram s recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that killed at least 50 in a mosque in Adamawa state last week, are the last kicks of a dying horse, Nigeria s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said last Sunday. But military and diplomatic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said overstretched troops are unable to push Boko Haram out of non-urban areas. Much of Borno is not under the authorities control and attacks are rife. On Saturday, suicide bombers killed at least 13 people in the town of Biu and injured 53 others. Borno is not getting better at all. It may have even gotten worse, a diplomat said of the security situation outside urban areas. There is no recovery and stabilization. | 1 |
9,478 | Clinton leads Trump 48-43 percent in Washington Post-ABC tracking poll | (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a five-point lead over Republican Donald Trump in the latest Washington Post-ABC Tracking Poll released early on Sunday. In the Post-ABC poll released on Friday, Clinton led Trump by 47 percent to 44 percent. Clinton had an advantage in affirmative support, the poll said, with 55 percent of backers saying they are mainly supporting her, compared with 43 percent of Trump voters. More Trump voters say they “mainly oppose Clinton.” | 1 |
9,479 | 'It's not over yet,' Merkel warns supporters before vote | HAMBURG (Reuters) - Returning to her birthplace, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged supporters to mobilize undecided voters before Sunday s election, telling them not to take her conservatives solid lead in opinion polls for granted. Surveys show many voters are still undecided and, with the election likely to return a fractured parliament, she wants to maximize support to bolster her position in coalition negotiations. What I ve heard in the last days is unbelievable ... that everything is already decided, the 63-year-old told a crowd of several hundred packed into the Fish Auction Hall in Hamburg. It is not. Every vote counts! Noting that the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), her closest rivals, have not ruled out a left-wing coalition with the Left party and the environmentalist Greens - a tie-up untested at national level - Merkel added: We live in turbulent times. We can t afford any experiments. In these times, we need stability and security, and a clear path, both at home and abroad, she said. Before Merkel spoke in Hamburg, a band pumped up the crowd, belting out Celebration by Kool & The Gang and Bryan Adams Summer Of 69 . One or two greying supporters stood up and danced. SPD leader Martin Schulz told broadcaster RTL he believed there could still be a last-minute swing in his party s favor. The experience of all elections, national or international, show that the number of undecided people is growing more and more, Schulz said. Everything is still possible. A win for him would be against the run of the opinion polls. On Tuesday, a weekly survey conducted by Forsa showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc - known as the Union - at 36 percent, its lowest since April, but still far ahead of the SPD, on 23 percent. Attention in Germany is largely turning to who Merkel will govern with after the election, rather than whether she will stay in power. Latest surveys suggest that only another grand coalition of Merkel s conservatives with the SPD or a nationwide untested three-way Jamaica alliance of the conservatives, FDP and Greens would have a stable majority. A coalition involving the FDP could limit her room for maneuver on pressing ahead with euro zone reform. Without detailing how she wanted to develop the EU, Merkel delivered an impassioned defense of the European project, saying she regretted Britons vote to leave the bloc. I could stand here and talk for hours about how arduous Europe often is, she said, before adding: It always is worth standing up for Europe, even just because it gives us peace and freedom. | 1 |
9,480 | Illinois to sell bonds, but cannot tap all the proceeds | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois will sell $550 million of bonds on Thursday but lacks authority from the state legislature to spend all of the proceeds due to an ongoing budget impasse. “The General Assembly needs to grant appropriation authority to fully expend the proceeds from the bond sale, although existing FY16 appropriations could be used to expend a portion of them,” Catherine Kelly, a spokeswoman for Governor Bruce Rauner, said on Wednesday. Her statement followed a news conference earlier on Wednesday with the Republican governor and his transportation department head, who warned of the imminent shutdown of hundreds of construction projects if the Democrat-controlled legislature does not approve Rauner’s temporary budget plan. All but $20 million of the state’s general obligation bond issue is earmarked for mass transit and road construction projects. The odd timing of the announcement on the eve of the state bond sale handed Rauner’s Democratic rivals in the state legislature fodder to question the first-term governor’s actions. “We’re hoping none of his activities or staff work is going to drive up borrowing costs like it did for the Chicago Public Schools in February,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. The school district delayed, then downsized its bond sale, after Rauner threatened a state takeover of CPS and said the system was headed for bankruptcy, comments Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called “shameful” because of their possible impact on the bond sale. Rauner on Wednesday pleaded with Democratic lawmakers to return to session to pass a spending plan that would keep the state operating until January and fully fund K-12 schools. “Allowing the crisis to continue is wrong,” Rauner said, referring to the ongoing impasse that has left Illinois as the only state without a fiscal 2016 budget. Illinois has been dependent on court orders and a muddle of ongoing and stopgap appropriations to continue operating and lawmakers have not reached any agreement on a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The state’s GO bonds trade at wide spreads over Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A yield scale. But Illinois’ upcoming debt issue will likely benefit from yields in the municipal market that are at or near record lows as cash-heavy investors chase scarce supply of bonds issued by states, cities, schools and other issuers. Illinois’ already low credit ratings were downgraded last week ahead of the sale. | 1 |
9,481 | Huge blast in China's Ningbo city kills at least two, cause unknown | BEIJING (Reuters) - A powerful explosion in a Chinese city south of Shanghai brought down buildings in a neighborhood marked for demolition, killing at least two people, state television reported on Sunday. The explosion struck at around 8:50 a.m. (0050 GMT) in Jiangbei district in the port city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. Police said the cause of the blast was still uncertain. A huge tremor was felt in the vicinity when it hit, CGTN, a network operated by CCTV, wrote on Twitter. The force of the explosion destroyed the roofs of two buildings at the site of the blast, which CCTV said were already structurally unsound. It also shattered windows and punched holes in the walls of some residential and commercial properties as far as a kilometer away. Images from CCTV also showed a few flattened cars and a low-rise building with a collapsed wall. The state broadcaster said two people were killed, while 16 were slightly wounded and two were in serious condition. CCTV said the blast was not a gas explosion, as the gas pipelines beneath the ground were no longer active, citing the operator of the pipelines. According to local Zhejiang Daily, the buildings that collapsed had already been cleared of people. Police told Reuters the area had been marked for demolition. The official People s Daily posted aerial photographs of firefighters working at the site of the blast - an open area of debris and broken concrete. The newspaper said there were no residents at the site of the explosion, though there might have been rubbish collectors at work when the blast occurred. Another photograph posted by People s Daily showed grey smoke rising over the skyline of the city of Ningbo, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Shanghai. Earlier in the day, the official agency Xinhua news agency said the blast had happened at a factory. Rescue work and an investigation into the cause were under way, local police said on Weibo. Blasts and other accidents are common in China due to patchy enforcement of safety rules, although the government has pledged to improve checks to try to stamp out such incidents. | 1 |
9,482 | FED’S PREVENT ‘Mother of the Year’ From Boarding Plane To Join ISIS, Planning To Leave Two Daughters Behind In Philadelphia | There are just way too many wannabe male and female jihadists in our homeland right now. The truth is, we have no way of knowing how many of them are planning to do harm to their fellow Americans. Congress needs to stop the State Dept. sponsored Refugee Resettlement program. It s obvious we have a problem with Muslim Americans and Muslim immigrants living in America who want to join ISIS. It s up to Congress to take meaningful action to stop this insanity. <strong>THE YOUNG LIONESS</strong>A Philadelphia mother of two, who goes by the name of YoungLioness on Twitter, was arrested by federal officials Friday and charged with trying to support ISIS with money and resources.Keonna Thomas, 30, appeared in court in full black dress with only her eyes showing, just hours after her arrest. According to the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney s office, she wanted to join, fight with and die for ISIS.The only reason she didn t get on a plane last Sunday to put her plan into action, was because federal agents spooked her two days before the flight when they raided her home, federal prosecutors argued, saying Thomas was a flight risk and should be detained.The North Philly woman, who neighbors said lived quietly with her two daughters and grandmother, posted statements on Twitter accounts which led officials to believe she was intent on not only supporting the terrorist organization, but looked forward to martyrdom, federal officials allege. Read more:NBC | 0 |
9,483 | Islamic State families moved to site north of Mosul, Iraq confirms | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - About 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State militants have been moved to a new site north of Mosul, Iraqi authorities confirmed on Monday, dismissing the concerns of aid organizations, who were not warned about the move. They were transported to a safe location with better services, in Tal Keif, under the supervision of the Iraqi forces and specialized committees, said an Iraqi military statement. Foreign aid officials in Iraq said on Sunday they were gravely concerned about the families, who had been held by Iraq since Aug. 30 in the Hammam al-Alil transit camp, south of Mosul. These women and children are extremely vulnerable. Regardless of what their family members may be accused of, they have a right to protection and assistance, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Monday. None of the aid groups supporting the families at the camp, including the United Nations, were told in advance about the move, according to the NRC spokeswoman in Iraq, Melany Markham. The women and children were put on buses and taken away, with many leaving personal belongings behind. Aid officials are asking the Iraqi authorities for unfettered access to the families and calling on foreign governments to act quickly on behalf of their citizens. Humanitarian organizations and representatives from their home countries should be allowed to offer to them help, the NRC said. More than 300 of the families came from Turkey, many others from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, according to preliminary figures from the Iraqi army. Efforts to determine the nationalities of the families continued, said Laila Ali, a spokeswoman for Unicef said. Thereafter, the family tracing and repatriation process is expected to begin. Most of the families had fled to Tal Afar after Iraqi troops pushed Islamic State out of Mosul. Iraqi forces retook Tal Afar, a city of predominantly ethnic Turkmen that produced some of Islamic State s senior commanders, last month. It is the largest group of foreigners linked to Islamic State to be held by Iraqi forces since they began driving the militants from Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq last year, an aid official said. Thousands of foreigners have been fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. | 1 |
9,484 | news possible voter suppression lots of laser tag places are still open today | email
if this doesnt prove whats beautiful about america we dont know what does
politically sarah goodwin and colleen cassidy agree on almost nothing they vehemently oppose the others candidate of choice and couldnt differ more on the direction our country should be heading in yet as this heatedly divisive election cycle comes to a head these two demonstrated just how powerful a united american people can be when we put our differences aside and work together sarah a trump supporter and colleen a clinton supporter held each others hair back while vomiting out of intense election anxiety
in a campaign season as contentious as this one you really have to stop and appreciate moments like this
though sarah and colleen come from opposite ends of the political spectrum you wouldnt know it when looking into the stall at their polling station in cranford nj where they both lowered their heads into the same trash can and took turns holding each others hair back as they retched over the psychological toll this long strenuous elections taken on them no arguing no fingerpointing no namecalling just dual streams of stressinduced upchuck crescendoing in a duet of dryheaving the sight of two people who have been bombarded for months with messages that the other candidate will completely ruin the country as they know it patting one another on the back and encouraging each other to get it all out is all too welcome in an otherwise toxic and polarizing campaign season
need more proof that its possible for trump and clinton supporters to overcome their shared animosity during this historical moment of anxiety colleen even offered sarah an altoid once theyd both stopped throwing up and cleaned the barf from their shirts further sarah graciously let colleen borrow her eyeliner which had been smudged due to the tears summoned by a panic attack she experienced while in line to vote after checking in to make sure the other was feeling all right one last time each went their separate ways having found rare common ground with their political opposites in the form of sickening anxiety stoked by the intense fear politics and extremist partisan rhetoric deployed in the election
yup the spirit of abraham lincoln is alive knitting a torn nation back together
look at the media and youll see interactions between trump and clinton supporters portrayed as vitriolic and irreconcilably at odds but in reality youll find two human beings offering each other their sleeves to wipe the sick from their mouths before they head back out there to get this goddamn fucking thing over with and thats worth celebrating | 0 |
9,485 | Germany's FDP look to fill Schaeuble's big shoes | BERLIN (Reuters) - Wolfgang Schaeuble s decision to step aside as German finance minister has given the Free Democratic Party what it has long craved: the chance to shape policy from the most coveted perch in Chancellor Angela Merkel s next coalition government. However the opportunity also presents the party with a conundrum. FDP leader Christian Lindner has signaled for months that he would prefer to lead the business-friendly party in parliament rather than take a cabinet job under Merkel. If Lindner sticks to his stance then the FDP, which is returning to parliament after a four-year hiatus, must find someone else to fill one of the most important positions in international economic and financial policy. The person who replaces Schaeuble could also carry the prestigious title of vice chancellor. The only party member besides Lindner with that kind of stature is Wolfgang Kubicki, whose political skills are unquestioned but who is also known as a loose cannon, a reputation that may not suit a sensitive job where a few ill-judged words can move global financial markets. If it is not Lindner, then there are not a lot of options, said one senior figure in the party. Kubicki might be the only one with the profile and political weight. The finance ministry seems to be the FDP s for the taking. As the second biggest party in what is expected to be a three-way coalition with Merkel s conservatives and the Greens, it would have first choice of cabinet post. The post has become more influential over the past decade as Germany, the world s fourth largest economy, navigated the global financial crisis and euro zone turmoil. Schaeuble, who is becoming president of the parliament, was known for his budget discipline and tough stance toward struggling euro partners like Greece. Whoever replaces him will play a crucial role in shaping Germany s response to calls from French President Emmanuel Macron for an ambitious overhaul of the EU and euro zone. The finance ministry will be absolutely crucial in the next government in shaping not just Germany s fiscal stance but the future of Europe, said Jens Boysen-Hogrefe of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. No one besides Lindner deserves more credit for the FDP s revival after its disastrous 2013 election result than the 65-year-old Kubicki, a quick-witted lawyer who sails around on his yacht Liberty and is known as one of the most outspoken, colorful figures in German politics. Earlier this year, after Donald Trump announced his travel ban on seven mainly Muslim countries, Kubicki said Berlin should retaliate by barring the U.S. president from entering Germany. He has made clear in the past that he is interested in the finance job. In a 2010 interview with newspaper Die Zeit, he said it was the only position that might lure him from his home in the port of Kiel in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. Only one post would interest me, finance minister, Kubicki said at the time. Finance minister is the key job, and I would like to prove that budget consolidation can work. Asked on Friday by German daily Handelsblatt whether he wanted the job, Kubicki dodged the question, saying policy was more important than cabinet posts. But the interview with Die Zeit showed why the party, and Merkel, might have second thoughts. Explaining why he hadn t yet made a move to Berlin, Kubicki told the paper that if he did, he could turn into a drinker and possibly also a whoremonger . He then painted a hedonistic picture of political life in Berlin, replete with alcohol-soaked receptions and trysts with random women. When asked about these comments today, Kubicki who is married to his third wife, says he has become ethically and morally centered in the intervening years. The names of other FDP politicians are circulating as potential finance ministers. They include Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB); Carl-Ludwig Thiele of the Bundesbank; Volker Wissing, the former head of the Bundestag finance committee; and Otto Fricke, former head of the budget committee. Two members of the European Parliament, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Michael Theurer, have also been mentioned. One cannot completely rule out that Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) will keep the post. If they do, Peter Altmaier, who is expected to replace Schaeuble until the new government is formed, could be a favorite. However, the scenario that several politicians in Berlin said was most likely is that Lindner will be compelled to take the finance ministry, with Kubicki sliding in as parliamentary leader, which is seen as a role more suited to his strengths. Having Lindner, the face of the FDP, outside the government would be frowned upon by Merkel, who will be trying to hold together an unwieldy coalition with the FDP and Greens, a combination that has never been tried at the federal level. There are big differences between the FDP and Greens on economic, environmental and European policy. Add in Merkel s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is pushing a hard line on immigration, and it is hard to see how the parties will bridge some policy gaps and hold together. Regardless of who takes the job, big changes in fiscal policy are seen as unlikely. The FDP has called for 30 billion euros in tax cuts, but it is unlikely to get its way in the coalition talks and it remains committed to the Schwarze Null balanced budget that Schaeuble defended. You might see new impulses with an FDP finance minister, said Boysen-Hogrefe of the Kiel institute. But don t count on big changes. The Schwarze Null will remain a priority. | 1 |
9,486 | British PM May's deputy denies inappropriate sexual advance | LONDON (Reuters) - Damian Green, number two in the British government, has denied an allegation that he made an inappropriate sexual advance on a young woman as discussion about an unhealthy culture of abuse by powerful men in British politics continues to swirl. Green, Prime Minister Theresa May s deputy, said it was not true that he had touched the woman s knee and told her that his wife was very understanding during a meeting in a pub in which the pair discussed her career aspirations and gossiped about sexual affairs in parliament. As the shockwaves from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal reverberate around the world, the Westminster parliament is among institutions now facing allegations of improper behavior by men in powerful positions. The allegation against Green came from Kate Maltby, an academic and critic three decades younger than him. She first met him as an acquaintance of her parents, and both are involved in a liberal Conservative group called Bright Blue. He offered me career advice and in the same breath made it clear he was sexually interested, Maltby wrote in an article in the Times newspaper describing the meeting in the pub in early 2015. It was not acceptable to me at the time and it should not be acceptable behavior in Westminster in the future, she said. A spokesman for May s Downing Street office said Green strongly denied the allegation made against him. The prime minister has referred the matter to the cabinet secretary to establish the facts and report back as soon as possible, the spokesman said. Maltby wrote that she had no contact with Green for a year after the meeting in the pub because she wanted nothing to do with him . A year later, Maltby wrote an article for the Times about the history of corsets, which was published with a picture of her wearing one. After the article appeared, she received a text message from Green that said: Long time no see. But having admired you in a corset in my favorite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime? The Times quoted Green as saying: It is absolutely and completely untrue that I ve ever made any sexual advance on Ms Maltby. He said the allegation of the advance in the pub was deeply hurtful from someone he considered a personal friend, and that the text he sent her referring to the corset picture was sent in the spirit of friends agreeing to meet for a regular catch-up. | 1 |
9,487 | Turkish and Iraqi militaries discuss Kurdish independence vote | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The heads of the Turkish and Iraqi armed forces discussed the illegitimate Iraqi Kurdish referendum on Saturday and stressed the importance of maintaining Iraq s territorial integrity, the Turkish military said. It issued a written statement after the Iraqi army s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, met his Turkish counterpart, General Hulusi Akar, in Turkey on Saturday, two days ahead of the planned referendum. | 1 |
9,488 | Marco Rubio To Rape Victims: Sorry You Were Raped, But Have Your Rapist’s Baby Anyway (VIDEO) | Not content with being a mere robot who repeats the same scripted line over and over during a debate, Marco Rubio demonstrated that he is a cold heartless robot on Sunday.Everyone knows that the Florida Senator is an extremist when it comes to a woman s right to choose an abortion.Last July, Rubio vowed to outlaw abortion at home and around the world, making clear that women are only voting against their own freedom if they vote for Rubio to become president.Rubio s position on abortion is one of the most strict among the GOP field, especially since he opposes exceptions for rape victims, whom he would gleefully force to carry their rapist s baby for nine grueling months with the risk that her rapist will claim parental rights and terrorize her for the rest of her life.And Rubio did little to soften that position on Sunday, telling George Stephanopoulos that he would look a rape victim in the eye and tell her to carry her rapist s baby to term. Abortion to me is not a political issue, Rubio said. It s a human rights issue. He then said that he would sign an anti-abortion bill with exceptions, but only because it would be a step toward banning abortion altogether. I do require an exception for life of the mother because I m pro-life. Number two, as I ve said, if they pass a law in Congress that has exceptions, I ll sign it. Because I want to save lives. The ABC host then asked Rubio point-blank what he would say to a woman who gets pregnant through rape, to which Rubio replied that he would tell her how sorry he is but she should have the baby anyway. It s a terrible situation. I mean, a crisis pregnancy, especially as a result of something as horrifying as that, I m not telling you it s easy. I m not here saying it s an easy choice. It s a horrifying thing that you ve just described. I get it. I really do. And that s why this issue is so difficult. But I believe a human being, an unborn child has a right to live, irrespective of the circumstances of which they were conceived. Rubio conceded that most Americans disagree with him on this issue, but nevertheless, he said he would still sign a bill banning abortion despite the opposition from the people.Here s the video via YouTube:Indeed, the Washington Post reports that support for the right to choose has never been higher, and even 40 percent of Republicans support choice.Rubio is clearly echoing former Republican candidate Rick Santorum, who called a rape pregnancy a gift from God four years ago. Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock felt the same way. And both men lost their bid for public office because of their extreme stance.As you also recall, the Republican war on women cost the GOP dearly in 2012 as women flocked to the voting booth to give their overwhelming support to President Obama. And seeing as how the GOP has only become more extreme against women s rights, it looks like 2016 will at the very least be a repeat, but could end up being a landslide for Democrats if an anti-abortion fanatic like Rubio becomes the GOP nominee.Women should always have a choice when it comes to making decisions about their bodies. But Republicans want to force women to have babies against their will even if that pregnancy was forced upon them by a rapist. That makes Republicans no better than the Make Rape Legal activists who are only becoming more emboldened as the conservative anti-women fervor gets more extreme.By forcing women to give birth to their rapist s baby, Republicans would reward rapists with progeny and give them even more power over their victims, while subjecting women to months and years of trauma. We do not need these kinds of men running our government. They only contribute to the rape culture that is plaguing this country, and that means most of the Republican field of candidates are unfit to be president.Featured Image: Woman Survival | 0 |
9,489 | Pilger Interview: Julian Assange Lifts the Veil on Hillary Clinton and the Globalist Conspiracy | 21st Century Wire says Today, RT International released a 24 min segment from a stunning interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, conducted by award-winning Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger.In his recent piece entitled, Why Hillary Clinton is Responsible for US Failures in Libya and Syria, 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen notes the true significance of Clinton s role in fomenting geopolitical uncrest during her term as US Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton is the architect of US foreign policy failures in Libya and Syria. We ve heard this statement made a lot over this US election cycle, but exactly how much truth is there to it? After researching this issue, not only is it true, it s an understatement. She wasn t just an architect, she was a chief instigator. Filmed at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, this exclusive piece reveals many of the inner workings of the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Clinton Foundation, her tenure as Secretary of State, the Obama White House and a summary of the Podesta emails. This is a must watch: This interview was provided to RT by John Pilger Special, courtesy of Dartmouth Films.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
9,490 | Top U.S. diplomat for Middle East to retire, U.S. officials say | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East has told colleagues that he has decided to retire, three U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the latest senior U.S. diplomat to leave the Trump administration. Stuart Jones, acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, has extensive experience in the Middle East after serving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Jordan and as deputy chief of mission in Cairo. Jones, 57, told colleagues the decision was his own and that he had not been pushed out or asked to leave the department. “This is his own decision ... There’s not been a falling out,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition that he not be identified. “There’s no story here, except another senior government official with real competence is leaving.” A State Department spokesman confirmed Jones’ planned retirement, saying he was leaving for personal reasons to pursue a new career. Jones’ case is different from those of two career foreign service officers - former undersecretaries of state Patrick Kennedy, the department’s top management official, and Thomas Countryman, its top arms control officer - who had risen to politically appointed jobs and were asked to leave in January. The decision to accept their resignations was entirely within President Donald Trump’s rights and there is usually turnover in such politically appointed jobs. But it constituted an abrupt departure for the two. Former State Department counselor Kristie Kenney also left in February, further shrinking the senior ranks of the agency. Jones was elevated to acting assistant secretary of state responsible for the Near East and had neither been offered the job on a permanent basis nor told that he would not get it, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. This official said Jones was not asked to leave and wanted to make his plans known so there would not be speculation that he had been forced out. Career diplomats with deep regional experience are typically chosen to run the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Officials who fit that profile include Robert “Steve” Beecroft, U.S. ambassador to Egypt; David Hale, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan; and Douglas Silliman, U.S. ambassador to Iraq. | 1 |
9,491 | (VIDEO) CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: DEBT HEADED TO 103% OF GDP – LAST SEEN AT END OF WWII | CBO DIRECTOR: How long the nation could sustain such growth in federal debt is impossible to predict with any confidence. At some point, investors would begin to doubt the government s willingness or ability to meet its debt obligations, requiring it to pay much higher interest costs in order to continue borrowing money. Such a fiscal crisis would present policymakers with extremely difficult choices and would probably have a substantial negative impact on the country. | 0 |
9,492 | breaking doj finally secures warrant to inspect humas emails daily wire | this detroit michigan womans tweet will be your feelgoodmoment of the day comment on this article via your facebook account comment on this article via your disqus account follow us on facebook | 1 |
9,493 | CRITICALLY WOUNDED GOP Rep. Steve Scalise Stood By Trump When Others Deserted Him…Recently Made Adorable Birthday Video Message With Trump For His Daughter [VIDEO] | Trump-hating, Bernie Sanders supporter and domestic terrorist James T. Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Illinois, was killed by Capitol Police after firing up to 100 rounds from an assault rifle at a baseball park in Alexandria, Virginia, leaving five injured including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise at 7am on Wednesday.Scalise s condition worsened throughout the afternoon and was deemed critical by hospital staff after he he was released from emergency surgery on his hip.Two Capitol Police officers were shot as they bravely returned fire on Hodgkinson while the lawmakers scrambled across the field to safety. Congressional staffer Zachary Barth and lobbyist Matt Mika were also shot but both are expected to recover. Daily MailDuring the 2016 election, Congressman Steve Scalise was a supporter of Donald Trump. Unlike some Republicans, Scalise continued to support his party s nominee after the leaked Access Hollywood tape on which Trump could be heard bragging about grabbing women by the private parts.Steve Scalise stood by Trump, even after the Access Hollywood tape leak when so many Republicans abandonedHe is one of us pic.twitter.com/5t54yEnWKq Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) June 15, 2017 Let me be clear, Donald Trump will do more to rebuild our middle class, get our economy moving again, strengthen our national defense, and appoint Supreme Court Justices who uphold our Constitution rather than rewrite it, Scalise told The Advocate. Those are the reasons I ve supported Donald Trump for President and that is why I will continue to do so. In March, Donald Trump recorded a special message for Steve Scalise s daughter on her birthday:.@POTUS has an important message for my daughter Madison on her 10th birthday! pic.twitter.com/GRlz1YJECh Rep. Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) March 17, 2017Steve Scalise was also a supporter of President Donald Trump s original travel ban signed in January. ISIS has said they want to infiltrate a lot of these refugee programs and we ve seen them carry that out in Europe, Scalise said. So we want to make sure that people who are coming into the United States aren t being infiltrated by terrorist organizations and until that can be done I think this freeze from certain countries, where we cannot vet, makes a lot of sense. Heavy | 0 |
9,494 | While wealthy Mexicans swamped by quake aid, poor feel abandoned | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Relief supplies and volunteers are piling up at rescue sites in upscale districts of Mexico City following Tuesday s deadly earthquake in a show of solidarity that has contrasted with the government s struggle to get aid to people most in need. In the wealthy neighborhoods of Roma and Condesa in the center of Mexico City, volunteers by the hundreds stand ready to help dig for survivors who may be trapped beneath the rubble. In recent days, however, they have largely remained idle. Others have brought food and water, eager to tend to rescue workers or the thousands of people made homeless by the quake. Yet they have struggled to find takers because so much sustenance is on offer. In the poor, far-flung neighborhoods in the outskirts of the capital, meanwhile, aid and comfort were less abundant. And in villages in some states surrounding the Mexico City, victims said they had yet to see government aid arrive. In the hard-hit Mexico City neighborhood of Del Valle, 48-year-old Marcela Sanchez came in search of aid after she lost her home in the large, working-class area of Nezahualcoyotl, in the remote northeast suburbs. We haven t received any aid, Sanchez said. Those of us who work in Mexico City return home with aid. God willing, they can help us. The government s response to Tuesday s quake, which killed 319 people in Mexico City and surrounding states, is under scrutiny ahead of presidential elections next year. Earthquakes are politically sensitive after the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party s flawed response to the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands. The government s handling of this disaster is markedly better than it was 32 years ago, when days passed before rescues began at many buildings. That disaster led to more rigorous building codes and regular quake drills. The lasting memory of the 2017 quake may be the outpouring of voluntary action, but also the unevenness of the relief operations and the lack of government coordination of resources. There s plenty (of provisions and aid workers). All that s missing here is emergency management, said Roberto Hernandez, founder of Los Topos, or The Moles, a civilian rescue squad that rose to prominence after the 1985 earthquake. The government response is being coordinated by the Civil Protection unit of the Interior Ministry, which did not immediately make an official available for comment. President Enrique Pena Nieto s office did not respond to requests for comment. A combination of Mexican government employees, police, soldiers and sailors as well as foreign aid teams and hordes of civilian volunteers have cleared buildings of debris, rescued some 69 people and recovered bodies. But the enormous logistical task of marshalling those resources has appeared wanting. Even in the best of times, coordinating action among myriad government agencies in Mexico is complicated, and volunteers and victims have complained that the overlapping jurisdictions have thwarted relief efforts. While rescuers work around the clock at disaster sites, dozens of police and military forces are left without any apparent task, sometimes just standing by, inactive. Hernandez, of Los Topos, complained about the slow pace of removing debris at a collapsed office building in Roma. While rescuers in hard hats worked atop the ruins, scores of uniformed police and soldiers appeared to have little to do. We need to break up slabs and bring them down to look for bodies or survivors. We did this 32 years ago and saved 137 people, Hernandez said. Look at them (police officers). Every one of them would be willing to pick up a couple of rocks if you asked them. The mayor of Mexico City said in an interview with broadcaster TV Azteca that the official response was improving. We have stuck to the contingency plan without reticence. We are working hand-in-hand with the navy, with the army, with the federal police, Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said. That contention may be lost on people in the states of Morelos and Puebla, closer to the epicenter of the 7.1 magnitude quake, where in some villages victims said the government had not arrived. Instead, caravans of volunteers from the capital traveled backroads and waded through rivers to deliver aid to remote populations. Even in relatively close neighborhoods, such as San Geronimo on the capital s southern extreme where many of the modest adobe and brick homes crumbled or cracked and road damage has impeded access, residents complained aid was slow to arrive and not nearly as abundant as in the upscale neighborhoods close to the city center. We have not had any support from the authorities, said Antonio Ramirez, a retired teacher who was surveying damaged homes. The support has been from ordinary people. Even the soldiers, instead of bringing picks and shovels, brought their machine guns. | 1 |
9,495 | Trump says son is 'innocent' over emails about Russian campaign help | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his eldest son as “innocent” following emails that showed Donald Trump Jr. welcomed Russian help against his father’s rival in the 2016 presidential election, deepening the controversy over purported Russian meddling. Trump Jr. released a series of emails on Tuesday that revealed he had eagerly agreed to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow’s official support for his father. Trump Jr., in a Fox News television interview Tuesday, said: “In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.” The president, after initially releasing a statement calling his son “high-quality,” on Wednesday praised the TV appearance and again condemned news coverage and investigations into his campaign’s alleged links to Russia. “He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Christopher Wray, Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday he did not consider special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling to be a “witch hunt.” The emails offered the most concrete evidence to date that Trump campaign officials embraced an offer of Russian help to win the election, a subject that has cast a cloud over Trump’s presidency and spurred multiple investigations. The emails do not appear to provide evidence of illegal activity, but legal experts say Trump Jr. could run into trouble if investigators find he aided a criminal action, such as hacking into Democratic computer networks, or violated campaign-finance laws by accepting gifts from foreign entities. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Moscow sought to help Trump win the election, in part by releasing private emails from Democratic Party officials. The Justice Department and Congress are both investigating alleged Russian interference in the election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia and Moscow has denied meddling. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday it was preposterous that Trump’s eldest son was under attack for meeting the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. “I learned with surprise that a Russian lawyer, a woman, is being blamed and Trump’s son is being blamed for meeting. For me, this is wild,” Lavrov told a news conference in Brussels. The allegations that Russia tried to help Trump win the election has cast a cloud over his presidency. White House aides say the president keenly watches cable TV news, which he often mentions in his tweets. Trump denied that on Wednesday, saying the White House was focused on getting healthcare and tax reforms through Congress. “The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V.,” Trump wrote on Twitter. One of the president’s personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, in a series of TV interviews on Wednesday said Trump Jr.’s meeting with Veselnitskaya was not a violation of the law and that the president was unaware of the meeting and the emails until recently. “There’s no illegality,” he told NBC’s “Today” program. Trump Jr. said that Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, now a top White House adviser, also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya, who has denied having Kremlin ties. | 1 |
9,496 | Longtime Trump advisor Scavino appointed his social media director | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A campaign advisor and longtime employee of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been appointed his social media director, the campaign said on Thursday. Dan Scavino, who was executive vice president and general manager at the Trump Organization, the Republican frontrunner’s real estate company, from 2003 to 2013, has worked directly with Trump on social media strategy in his bid to become president. Trump has actively used social media platforms such as Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc to reach his supporters, often launching personal attacks on those who cross paths with him or simply retweeting his fans. So far, the real estate mogul has had some success with that approach, receiving the biggest share of mentions on Twitter during Republican presidential debates. During Saturday’s debate, he garnered 33 percent of the social conversation, according to Twitter. While social media traction doesn’t necessarily translate to votes, it can indicate overall interest in a candidate. Trump finished first in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and second in last week’s Iowa caucuses. The candidate will continue to tweet for himself despite Scavino’s new role, said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. Scavino, who tweets under the handle @DanScavino, has more than 51,000 followers on Twitter. Many of his tweets are jabs at Trump’s competitors. (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Bernadette Baum) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 1 |
9,497 | Kazakh leader tells cabinet: Make state firms move cash home or you're fired | ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev threatened on Wednesday to sack his cabinet if they failed to make large state companies bring back cash held abroad. Nazarbayev, who wields sweeping powers in the oil-rich nation, also poured scorn on executives in private sector companies who, he suggested, were enjoying lavish lifestyles while keeping funds in foreign accounts. Enough of toying around, look at them, carried away with their games, keeping their money abroad, buying yachts and mansions in multiple countries, he said at a meeting with central government and regional officials. It is safer to keep money here, at home, we will ensure it is safe. Nazarbayev ordered Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev to investigate why state-controlled companies had tripled their foreign cash holdings to $6 billion in the first half of 2017. He did not cite a source for that figure. If you fail to do this, I warn you in front of the whole Kazakhstan, I will use other ways to return that money to Kazakhstan, but you will not be here any more, he told his cabinet. Nazarbayev said he also expected private sector companies to move cash back, citing Tengizchevroil, a joint venture led by Chevron, and state firm KazMunayGaz, as examples of groups keeping funds in foreign accounts. Tengizchevroil $4.5 billion, National Company KazMunayGaz - $3 billion, KazMunaiGas Exploration and Production - $2 billion. Again, he did not give a source for those figures. Tengizchevroil said it would comment later this week and KazMunayGaz could not immediately be reached for comment. Why are you doing this? You keep your money there while profiting from Kazakhstan s resources. Why is this money not being put to work in Kazakhstan? Nazarbayev said. Citing central bank data, he said some companies had also abused liberal foreign exchange regulations to delay the transfer to Kazakhstan of $7.7 billion in export revenue. | 1 |
9,498 | Donald Trump Openly ADMITS To America He Has No Principles; Raging Liar (TWEETS) | Admitting to the United States something most of the population already knew considering the popular vote went to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump just proved to the nation that he has no principles.He told all of us back in February that he would never settle the Trump University lawsuits. He would never do so out of principle! Trump University has a 98% approval rating. I could have settled but won't out of principle! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 29, 2016But, uh oh! Look what just happened!JUST IN: Trump has agreed to settle all 3 Trump University cases for $25 million, source says. https://t.co/KcO1gb9Ef3 @AaronKatersky pic.twitter.com/ZnWLFbMcDn ABC News (@ABC) November 18, 2016According to ABC News: Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump have settled all three fraud civil lawsuits against the now-defunct Trump University for $25 million and no admission of wrongdoing, according to attorneys on both sides. But you know, you always fork out $25 million when you re completely innocent, right? C mon now. He probably settled so there wouldn t be the optics of a president-elect likely being found guilty just before his inauguration. Settling it makes it go away. It also proves Trump to, yet again, be a raging liar, because he did end up settling after all.In fact, Trump s lead attorney Daniel Petrocelli said: We can all put the history behind us and move forward. That is certainly the view of President-elect Trump who looks forward to tackling the problems of our country. With the Trump organization saying they know he would have won but now Trump can focus on the nation.Oh, what a stand-up guy. Just throwing away $25 million for the good of the nation. Yeah. That s it. Sure.Needless to say, a fraud case going into the presidency would not have looked good and now the president-elect can put it behind him, albeit now with no principles. At least that s what Trump said of himself if he settled, which he did, so there you have it.Featured Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images | 0 |
9,499 | Russian warships dock in Philippines as Manila cultivates new ties | MANILA (Reuters) - Three Russian warships, including two anti-submarine vessels, docked in Manila on Friday to unload what navy officials said was weaponry and military vehicles donated to the Philippines as part of a new defense relationship. It was the third port visit this year by Russian warships as part of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte s moves to engage closely with Moscow, an arch-rival of Manila s former colonial master and closest defense ally, the United States. The load included 5,000 assault rifles, a million rounds of ammunition and 20 army trucks, Russian and Filipino navy officials said. We would do our best to make this port call a significant contribution indicating friendly ties and relations between two nations in the interest of security and stability in this region, said Eduard Mikhailov, deputy commander of Russia s Pacific Fleet flotilla. The visit was timed to coincide with the arrival next week of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is attending a regional defense meeting, and U.S. counterpart Jim Mattis, a Philippine navy spokesman said. Russia and the Philippines are expected to sign a security deal on military logistics next week. | 1 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.