Only hours after President Donald Trump's aide, Kellyanne Conway, had a fiery exchange with CNN's Chris Cuomo over whether or not the White House was obsessed about Hillary Clinton, the president completely undercut her argument. On Thursday morning, the president, spending his " Executive Time" watching "Fox & Friends," angrily tweeted about his Democratic opponent in 2016, while slamming the infamous dossier in an attempt to distract from the ongoing probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to the Kremlin. Disproven and paid for by Democrats “Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?” @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 But just the night before, Conway vociferously defended Trump and insisted no one in the White House cared about Clinton. "We don't care about her. Nobody here talks about her," Conway said. "Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton, I promise you." "We don't care about her. Nobody here talks about her." Kellyanne Conway claimed that while many cannot get over the 2016 presidential election, the White House does not talk about Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/VvVVbeeLyK pic.twitter.com/W73q9nZnF5 — CNN (@CNN) January 11, 2018 Conway also asserted that the public still had not gotten over the election and that most haven't moved on. Trump, however, was handing out electoral maps last year touting his victory. "So many people can’t get over the election results," Conway said. Cuomo fired back, "Says my friend who can’t keep Hillary Clinton’s name out of her mouth." "I'll make you a deal," Conway said. "I'll never talk about her [Clinton] again, but then you can't talk about the 2016 election." "I'm not, I haven't mentioned the election once," Cuomo replied. In recent months, Conway has tweeted about Clinton on numerous occasions herself. It took Hillary abt 5 minutes to blame NRA for madman's rampage, but 5 days to sorta-kinda blame Harvey Weinstein 4 his sexually assaults. — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 10, 2017 So, Hillary blames Bernie 4 Trump's "Crooked Hillary", blames Obama 4 "lay off Bernie", blames Bernie Bros 4 sexism. https://t.co/6MjMmc3q8m — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 5, 2017 The two continued to talk over each other, and Cuomo brought up the alleged Russian election meddling, as well as the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which top Trump campaign officials met with a Russian lawyer with potential ties to the Kremlin in order to receive dirt on Clinton. "The idea that we would have to look any further than Hillary Clinton to beat Hillary Clinton is a fantasy," Conway said. The CNN host added, "Is we inconclusive of Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, who went to a meeting with a Russian lawyer who was promising dirt on Hillary Clinton?" "And what came of that meeting? Absolutely nothing," Conway responded. "That's not the point," Cuomo emphasized. "The point is why you went." In essence, Conway's behavior was a larger metaphor of the Trump presidency. Either Conway — who delivered to America the phrase "alternative facts" — was deliberately lying about Trump's personal obsession with deflecting and pointing the finger at Clinton, or she has proven yet again that the right hand still has truly no idea what the left is doing. The exchange didn't end on television, though, continuing on Twitter Thursday morning. So fun to see the predictable heads exploding, but I should've finished that sentence #CuomoPrimeTime @CNN. "Nobody in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton" when noting whose presidential leadership = historic tax cuts & economic boom, reg reform, put ISIS in retreat. — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) January 11, 2018 hey kellyanne - good thing no one talks about hrc in the white house. is "nobody" new potus code name? https://t.co/3r9q0VWKOK — Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 11, 2018 Hey @ChrisCuomo - when we are forced to think/talk about hrc it's because you and your colleagues can't let go of an election she/you lost. Sad!Proven further by after a 30-minute interview about policy and accomplishments, HRC is all you and others can say... https://t.co/SuL5EspkRE — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) January 11, 2018 And the coda of this story comes from Kellyanne Conway, who went on "Fox & Friends," where she talked about Hillary Clinton. "We only have to talk about her because people won't let go of an election she lost miserably." -- @KellyannePolls on Hillary to @foxandfriends this morning.Yes, really. — Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) January 11, 2018


The newly-installed constitutional assembly led by President Nicolas Maduro has ousted Venezuela's chief prosecutor on Saturday, a move that signals that the embattled government is making swift moves to consolidate power. Hails of "traitor" and "justice has arrived" erupted from the 545 pro-government delegates during the unanimous vote to remove the top law enforcement official, Luisa Ortega, from her post. The assembly replaced her with a staunch government supporter. The delegates said they were acting in response to a ruling by the government-attacked Supreme Court, which was separately considering a request to sanction Ortega. Speaking to journalists after her removal, Ortega said dozens of national guardsmen in riot gear barred her from entering her office, alleging that authorities wanted to get their hands on sensitive information implicating high-level officials in dirty dealings. "Do you know what they want to achieve with this? They want to hide the corruption and violation of human rights taking place in Venezuela that I will continue to denounce," Ortega said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro plans to seat a new controversial constituent assembly in an effort to rewrite the country's constitution despite continued opposition protests. The new legislative body's constitution would nullify the other branches of government, leading opposition leaders to call on citizens to protest in the streets in objection. Maduro is expected to seat the 545-member body at the legislative palace in the capital of Caracas on Friday, just yards from the opposition-led National Assembly. He plans to attend the assembly's opening session and promised to use the assembly itself to attack his political opponents. "The only way they'll get us out of here is by killing us," National Assembly first vice president Freddy Guevara told the Associated Press. "They will never have a seat that the people of Venezuela gave us." Maduro's assembly was elected on Sunday, despite opposition claims that the election itself was rigged in favor of Maduro supporters, resulting in a boycott. The U.S. State Department condemned the assembly on Thursday, claiming the rigged election only served to empower "the Maduro dictatorship." Several U.S. lawmakers joined in the condemnation, including Sen. Marco Rubio who issued a message of support to the Venezuelan people in Spanish. "At a time of deep divisions in our own politics, both the left and the right here in the United States support the people of Venezuela and condemn the Maduro government," said Rubio. "Even those who sympathized and defended the late Hugo Chavez, condemn the direction Nicolas Maduro has taken your country." The senator added that Venezuelans are "only a free and fair election away from a better future." Sen. Bob Menendez, senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, claimed a "sham election" was used to elect the pro-Maduro assembly. "Nicolas Maduro's decision to move forward with a sham election to create a constituent assembly and shred his country's constitution offers yet another disturbing example of how dangerously unfit this man is to lead country," said Menendez in a statement released on Monday. Venezuela's legislative palace has been the scene of violent protests in recent weeks. Three months of bloody protests and a beleaguered economy have taken a serious toll on Venezuelans. Conditions are expected to worsen should Maduro and his supporters be successful in rewriting the constitution. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


According to the mayor of the Cadiz town Rota, on Spain's southernmost coast, the authorities have found 12 of the migrants after they fled on foot and are looking for 30 others. It has been reported in the Spanish media that all of the asylum seekers are men and the missing migrants fled by running into nearby fields when they arrived. Wed, February 15, 2017 The 12 migrants who have been found are from the sub-Sahara and Morocco and they arrived on the beach known as Juan and Juana. A crane has moved the dinghy from the beach where the migrants managed to paddle their craft ashore despite strong winds in the area. In October, dozens of migrants protested about the living conditions in a Spanish detention centre. The protesters held up banners demanding freedom and dignity. After thousands of migrants from Africa crossed over to Spain in 2014 and 2015, the country’s authorities stepped up security and passed a law enabling its border police to refuse migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum. The European Union (EU) is now desperately attempting to cut the number of African migrants making their way to Europe. Thousands of migrants have targeted Spain as a route into the EU and the UK. Migrants have particularly targeted the Spanish colonies of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.


Hollywood will not easily recover from Harvey Weinstein -- not for a long time. The hypocrisy level has hit Defcon 1, 9.9 on the Richter scale. Hollywood’s politics have always been a self-serving charade, a liberal masquerade for a rapacious and lubricious lifestyle. But now, thanks to the Weinstein scandal, we see it more clearly than ever. And it couldn't be more repellent. (I had always thought Bill Clinton would have made the greatest studio executive of all time. Now I'm convinced of it.) If conservative investors had any courage, this would be the time to make a hostile takeover of the movie business. Unfortunately, they don’t. I know this from bitter personal experience. Wealthy conservatives are delighted to support the Philharmonic, but when it comes to popular culture they turn away, as if afraid to get their hands dirty. That this is a huge mistake should be obvious. They have abandoned the culture -- and our children -- to the creepiest people imaginable. What is going on in Hollywood is far from being just about Harvey. It’s approaching a pandemic. So many previously silent assaulted or raped women are coming out of the woodwork, it seems like a long-belated remake of “Cheaper by the Dozen.” No one knows who will be next or if it will stop at Harvey. The rot is everywhere, even, perhaps especially, in the precincts of “high art.” Gwyneth Paltrow says now is the time to put an end to these attacks on women. But where was she years ago when Harvey got “handsy” with her? Looking the other way while earning millions and garnering Oscars. Meryl Streep claimed she was clueless about Weinstein’s repulsive antics. Time to award her her greatest Oscar yet -- for playing someone deaf, dumb, and blind while living as a troglodyte in the Gobi desert. Either the woman’s a liar or an utter nincompoop. I’ll go with the former. As for the great feminist George Clooney -- the first male star out of the box to condemn Weinstein’s behavior -- let’s give him the Nobel Prize in virtue signaling. By coming forward, he was able to ace out his competition -- Howard Zinn-loving Matt Damon, who disgraced himself forever by covering up for Harvey a decade ago. (For those who may have missed it in the onslaught of sleazy details, Damon assured then New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman that Miramax’s high-paid Italian representative was a genuine “creative film executive” and not Harvey’s European procurer, as was, evidently correctly, rumored. Damon is the same “progressive” movie star who makes films opposing school choice for the masses while living in a thirty million dollar house and sending his kids to private school. I take it back -- maybe we should give him the Nobel in virtue signaling.)


ODESSA, TX (KWES) - An Odessa man and his company are donating $1 million to the American Red Cross towards Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The Red Cross said they're expecting to spend $30 million from their funds on the rebuilding. As The Red Cross is helping with the aftermath, they're also preparing for an even stronger hurricane to hit the country. "This is a marathon, it's not a sprint, so this is gonna go a long way to help those people recover," said Tracy Austin, Executive Director of the American Red Cross of The Permian Basin. John Bushman, owner of Investment Centers of America (ICA), decided to give back after watching families and single mothers trying to survive the high floodwaters. He describes to us what he saw on TV. "So all she [single mother] can do is put out a white flag for the police to come help her. She's just standing there with an 8-month-old baby in her arms, I don't know where the other two minor children were that got mentioned were, probably on top of the roof already," said Bushman. "So if that doesn't bring tears to your eyes or makes you think, then I don't know [what will]." The American Red Cross can't ignore a stronger hurricane, Irma. Irma could possibly hit Florida or the east coast, needing the American Red Cross to give even more help. "We will deploy and we encourage everyone to take cover, to go to their shelters, and also to prepare in advance," said Austin. "Right now, that's our messaging to make those preparations in advance and to take cover and go to a shelter because this is going to be a massive storm." The American Red Cross won't know what help to deploy until after Hurricane Irma makes landfall. Even though many resources are in South Texas, they say they're "Red Cross ready." You can donate or sign up to volunteer at redcross.org Copyright 2017 KWES. All rights reserved.


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The reporter of a botched Rolling Stone article about a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia willfully ignored facts and statements that disproved her preconceived storyline about the school’s callousness toward sexual-assault victims, an attorney for the former associate dean of students said in his closing arguments Tuesday. University administrator Nicole Eramo is seeking $7.5 million from the magazine over its portrayal of her in the 2014 story by Sabrina Rubin Erdely about the alleged sexual assault of a woman identified only as “Jackie.” Eramo claims she was unfairly portrayed in the article as trying to sweep Jackie’s sexual assault under the rug in order to protect the university. Attorney Tom Clare argued Tuesday that Erdely set out from the beginning to tell a story of “institutional indifference,” brushed off statements from her sources that didn’t fit that narrative and pushed her own views about the administration onto the vulnerable women she was interviewing. “Once they decided what the article was going to be about, it didn’t matter what the facts were,” Clare said. The story about Jackie’s rape set off a firestorm at the University of Virginia and in schools nationwide and prompted police to launch an investigation into the alleged assault. Eramo received hundreds of angry letters and emails and faced protesters outside her office. The story crumbled after other news outlets began asking questions and police found no evidence to back up Jackie’s claims. The article was officially retracted in April 2015. Eramo must prove that Rolling Stone statements about her made her appear “odious, infamous or ridiculous” and that the magazine acted with “actual malice,” meaning it knew that what it was writing about her was false or should have known it was false. A lawyer for Rolling Stone, Scott Sexton, said in closing statements there is no evidence the magazine knew a botched story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia was false before publishing it. While the women Erdely interviewed - including Jackie - told her that Eramo was their fiercest advocate, Clare argued that Erdely was so invested in her preconceived storyline that she was “blind to the facts.” He argued that Erdely purposely set out to make Eramo the “villain” because she knew she was an “easy target” and couldn’t speak publicly about Jackie’s case due to federal privacy laws. “It’s reckless, it’s cavalier and it’s intentional,” Clare said. Over the course of the more than two-week trial, the 10 jurors have watched 11 hours of video testimony, heard from a dozen live witnesses and have examined nearly 300 exhibits. Seven jurors will deliberate and three will be named as alternates. © 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTHR) - Indiana lawmakers in Washington are joining the chorus against white supremacist groups. Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) is co-sponsoring legislation with more than 30 members of Congress that calls for President Donald Trump "to strongly condemn white nationalists, the Ku Klux Klan, and other hate groups that make up the 'alt-right'." The lawmakers are also demanding the president fire officials in the Trump administration who support white supremacists, specifically naming Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka. BREAKING: I've introduced a resolution with 31 co-sponsors demanding Trump fire any staff who've endorsed or supported white supremacists. pic.twitter.com/2WuGMqhQPa "The President of the United States and his advisors should serve as an example to the rest of the country," Rep. Carson said. "As the country unites against this violent and hateful movement, people who fail to stand up to white nationalism and neo-Nazism should not be in a position of power." The legislation, outlined in a release from Carson's office, also calls for Trump to "use all available resources" to address the growth of hate groups in the country and to "unite all Americans against hate." Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) took to Twitter Tuesday evening to denouce the groups:


Shelly Yost is a cashier at Kroger. One day, she noticed an older woman making a bizarre purchase. The woman was buying $2,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. Something seemed off. Yost asked the woman why she was buying so many gift cards. The elderly woman said her granddaughter was in jail with a broken nose and that she needed to buy the gift cards to bail her out. The story was a red flag. The cashier had heard this one before. The woman was in a panic. She was terrified for her granddaughter’s well-being. “I want to let you know your granddaughter is OK. This is a scam that we know happens,” Yost told her, but the woman refused to believe it. “I asked her if she would please wait, and let me call the Sylvania police, so they could tell her that they would never accept gift cards as payment for somebody in jail. I didn’t want her to go somewhere else.” Yost stalled the frightened woman for as long as she could while she quickly slipped away to call the police. Yost also noticed the woman had a keychain from an assisted living facility and called them. The police arrived and talked the woman down. The assisted living facility was grateful. “The next day, they showed up, and they were the most genuine people,” said Yost. “They hugged me so tight and thanked me over and over. And they handed me a card, which I took and said ‘Thank you’. When I opened it later, there was super-nice gift in there.” Please SHARE if you think Yost went above and beyond what any cashier would normally do! Due to restrictions, this video cannot be viewed in your region.


Former George W. Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace reported Tuesday multiple senior Republican officials have told her that to expect that special counsel Robert Mueller is pursuing an obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump. “Three Republicans with close ties to the Trump White House, all veterans from previous Republican administrations, tell me that it’s clear from their conversations and contacts with the president’s inner circle that Bob Mueller is trying to build an obstruction of justice case,” MSNBC host of “Deadline: White House” reported Tuesday. “One of them going even farther and saying that the White House is now flying blind and doesn’t know who else might already be cooperating with Mueller’s team,” Wallace explained. That was not the only major news Wallace broke in the first minutes of her show. Wallace also introduced former U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, who worked on the staff of both Robert Mueller and James Comey of the FBI. “Would you surmise that Donald Trump’s taxes are something that Bob Mueller either has or will seek to obtain?” Wallace asked. “I would, Nicolle, and here’s why. I was a federal prosecutor for a long time and a white collar prosecutor, at the beginning of any case what you need are leads, how do you get those? The first thing you do, you get credit reports and you get tax returns,” Rosenberg explained. “I don’t know that they have the tax returns, but I know what white collar tax attorneys do, they get tax returns,” Rosenberg noted.


Illustration by Shakeil Greeley for GQ / Getty Images Laugh to stop yourself from crying. There are only seven days left in the 2016 presidential. Seven more days and, barring a last-minute constitutional crisis, this non-stop misery ride will finally be over. How long has it been? Eight? Twelve? Thirteen years? No one really knows any more. All we know is that the 2016 election has done to American democracy what cocaine did to Gary Busey's career, and, much like being stuck in an elevator with Gary Busey, it's hard not to pray for the sweet release of death. A presidential candidate bragging about sexual assault, a presidential candidate threatening to put is political opponent in jail, dog-whistle racism, actual straight-up racism; it's fair to say we're at a historic low-point in the story of American democracy. If only President Obama could wipe the Internet clean before he leaves office, so we never have to be reminded of this god-awful mess ever again. All that said, there was one bright light during these dark times: Twitter.com. Previously home to die-hard One Direction fans and a few hundred-thousand accounts pretending to be Will Ferrell, Twitter was undoubtedly responsible for some of this election cycle's most vile rhetoric—I mean, just look at Trump's tweets. But there's no denying it also came into its own during the 2016 election. It wasn't fun watching Donald Trump routinely debase our country's political system, but I'm not going to pretend the well-crafted tweets that sparked into existence as a result weren't also a welcome catharsis. To commemorate this bizarre time in our nation's history, we've compiled a chronological list of the 100 funniest* tweets of this genuinely terrible, and mostly unfunny, election. Hopefully, if there's anything left in the smoldering rubble that will be America after November 8th, they can be a reminder that there was at least some good in the parade of garbage. Now let's all agree to never ever do this ever again. *According to us. Please don't @ me. https://twitter.com/robdelaney/status/595313535489581056 https://twitter.com/mulaney/status/634155794724814848 https://twitter.com/IamEnidColeslaw/status/634517124124381188 https://twitter.com/ruinedpicnic/status/637482075638075392 https://twitter.com/SirEviscerate/status/638537356342075392 https://twitter.com/harikondabolu/status/666764215949074432 https://twitter.com/sageboggs/status/667828163557232644 https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/672896890237775872 https://twitter.com/iamchrisscott/status/673952110761807875 https://twitter.com/TheDweck/status/687844188881293312 https://twitter.com/bazecraze/status/691284564170375170 https://twitter.com/recordsANDradio/status/703051814669852673 https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/718541379966738433 https://twitter.com/TheNardvark/status/694968109040586754 https://twitter.com/behindyourback/status/695438054887026688 https://twitter.com/RexHuppke/status/701237173291524096 https://twitter.com/danguterman/status/708229794299645952 https://twitter.com/Ethan_Booker/status/713479005387767808 https://twitter.com/HumanPog/status/713741562761584640 https://twitter.com/InternetHippo/status/716365904901083136 https://twitter.com/clmazin/status/720259227067920385 https://twitter.com/sbstryker/status/727658556233670657 https://twitter.com/DanMentos/status/728320591598526464 https://twitter.com/morninggloria/status/728299373176737792 https://twitter.com/i_zzzzzz/status/733518431740252160 https://twitter.com/danreilly11/status/751259888433582084 https://twitter.com/cafedotcom/status/740378718925950978 https://twitter.com/Reince/status/740993607289688065 https://twitter.com/badbanana/status/740949015009710080 https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/742041665251205121 https://twitter.com/meiamanthony/status/743160996320129024 https://twitter.com/MattOswaltVA/status/751267557311586304 https://twitter.com/FullFrontalSamB/status/754005058786910208 https://twitter.com/PaulBegala/status/754343099157979137 https://twitter.com/KidFury/status/755279481917566976 https://twitter.com/amfmpm/status/755449902931607557 https://twitter.com/mattaukamp/status/755511596047298564 https://twitter.com/iamchrisscott/status/756323071871574017 https://twitter.com/GarrPhillips/status/756568645564850176 https://twitter.com/AJemaineClement/status/756347488601272320 https://twitter.com/OwensDamien/status/757640786091671552 https://twitter.com/MikeDrucker/status/758139850214244352 https://twitter.com/joshgondelman/status/758508667058659328 https://twitter.com/TimDuffy/status/758417030827696128 https://twitter.com/Walldo/status/758868709251293185 https://twitter.com/ingridostby/status/758869304037158912 https://twitter.com/MazMHussain/status/759573678480887808 https://twitter.com/gilbertjasono/status/760303035742576640 https://twitter.com/jonlovett/status/760593157176176640 https://twitter.com/DLin71/status/761023573158789120 https://twitter.com/LeonHWolf/status/717111637317173249 https://twitter.com/JosephScrimshaw/status/763100832124456961 https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/771921076775489537 https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/772460287572185088 https://twitter.com/desusnice/status/772477614191742976 https://twitter.com/theferocity/status/772835879043928064 https://twitter.com/DannyZuker/status/774718154412961793 https://twitter.com/pixelatedboat/status/775542746157158400 https://twitter.com/JoshMarvine/status/775835316078784512 https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/776592616934805504 https://twitter.com/MattMackowiak/status/776619326862299136 https://twitter.com/abwhite7/status/776481595721129984 https://twitter.com/joereid/status/776811718345449472 https://twitter.com/morninggloria/status/777560106837929985 https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/779369940402921472 https://twitter.com/SylviaObell/status/779762088101212161 https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/780219640744120321 https://twitter.com/aparnapkin/status/782039812404412416 https://twitter.com/McJesse/status/783145829267898368 https://twitter.com/ziwe/status/783289615977414656 https://twitter.com/michaelschaub/status/783490647361671168 https://twitter.com/JennyJohnsonHi5/status/784120727158951936 https://twitter.com/laurenreeves/status/784526072851357696 https://twitter.com/willrahn/status/784501181464846340 https://twitter.com/aedwardslevy/status/784504443047911424 https://twitter.com/BillDixonish/status/784531620539822081 https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/784529991463755776 https://twitter.com/shani_o/status/784576626248024064 https://twitter.com/gabedelahaye/status/784887498333827072 https://twitter.com/johncbussey/status/784769252758806528 https://twitter.com/BuckyIsotope/status/784605739058880514 https://twitter.com/meganamram/status/785273637901185024 https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/785291824273428480 https://twitter.com/SkipperClay/status/785294315270660097 https://twitter.com/Moochie_BMN/status/785296514792976384 https://twitter.com/jonnysun/status/785299378705670145 https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/784985960631205888 https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/786387229908152320 https://twitter.com/McJesse/status/786237633282400256 https://twitter.com/ch000ch/status/786983664571781120 https://twitter.com/RobbySlowik/status/786936084710166528 https://twitter.com/TheRealDratch/status/787830961895575552 https://twitter.com/double_cupp_me/status/789088080426831872 https://twitter.com/cecicardelle/status/789588565604925441 https://twitter.com/jrhennessy/status/790293668183670784 https://twitter.com/dubstep4dads/status/790298630100021249 https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/791407536884764672 https://twitter.com/Powerful/status/791812553659875328 https://twitter.com/GrahamDavidA/status/792085787529674756 https://twitter.com/Olivianuzzi/status/792078001064280064


Fulfilling his role as the titular head of “The Resistance,” Barack Obama took to Facebook Tuesday to snipe at the Trump administration’s announcement that it was rescinding the 44th president’s 2012 executive action called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. “We shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own,” Obama said. His post was florid and self-serving. But five words in his lengthy screed —“through no fault of their own” -- are undeniably true. It’s not the fault of the “dreamers” that their parents brought them here, without papers, as minors. On that we can agree. But whose fault is it that they are still in limbo? For that answer, Obama needn’t take to social media. He can simply look in the mirror. Ten years ago, a narrow consensus was forged in Washington, if only briefly. Its architects were Edward Kennedy and John McCain. Their carefully crafted legislation created a new temporary work visa, established an electronic data base for employers to check employees’ work status, and earmarked money for border enforcement. It also provided a path to citizenship for an estimated 11.6 million illegal immigrants, provided they paid a fine and back taxes, met English and civics requirements, and stayed on the right side of the law. President George W. Bush signaled his support. But the vote was going to be close, which Kennedy and McCain knew. Conservatives dismissed the path-to-citizenship as a fig leaf for amnesty. Organized labor hated the guest-worker program, known as Y-1. McCain and Kennedy could have overcome that opposition, albeit narrowly, except for one last little group of senators. Call it the Senate Presidential Wannabe Caucus. Its membership included Illinois freshman Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. That’s only two votes, but it was enough. On June 6, 2007, Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced an innocuous-sounding rider to the McCain-Kennedy bill. Its official description was “an amendment to sunset the Y-1 non-immigrant visa program after a 5-year period.” As everyone in the Senate understood, this was a “poison pill” designed not to shore up the bill, but sink it. Dorgan got his way, too. The amendment passed 49-48, essentially killing comprehensive immigration reform. Kennedy was incensed. He’d implored Dorgan and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid not to do it. McCain felt particularly sandbagged by Obama, who’d inserted himself into the legislative negotiations uninvited, wrangled a concession he wanted, then voted with Dorgan. McCain assumed Obama didn’t want George W. Bush or himself -- the man Obama expected to face in 2008 -- to get credit for immigration reform. Ted Kennedy, who ended up endorsing Obama over Clinton anyway, believed this, too. Kennedy died in 2009 before he could convince Obama to revisit this issue. It wouldn’t have mattered. The GOP was becoming more nativist, the Democrats more cynical. The chance for a legislative solution had come and gone. But what about a non-legislative solution? This turned out to be President Obama’s specialty, the niceties of constitutional democracy be damned. In June 2012, with shifting public opinion polls now in his favor, Obama issued DACA, which he called “a temporary, stopgap measure” to curb the practice of deporting undocumented Americans brought to this country before their 16th birthday. Was this constitutional? It might have been, had the president announced that because his Justice Department lacked the personnel to adequately adjudicate 11 million cases, it was necessary to prioritize law enforcement’s areas of emphasis and that, henceforth, no federal government resources would be spent on deporting the “Dreamers.” Wink. Wink. But that’s not what Obama did. He announced a formal new government program granting work permits to those without papers. This “temporary, stopgap” measure superseded existing federal immigration law and, two years later, Obama sought to expand DACA, prompting a legal challenge from several states. Was the president on shaky constitutional ground? One assumes so, if for no other reason than Obama repeatedly said so himself – and he did it in precise and colorful language. On Cinco de Mayo in 2010, he said, “Anybody who tells you … that I can wave a magic wand and make it happen hasn't been paying attention to how this town works.” “I am president, I am not king,” he said that October. “I can't do these things just by myself.” “I know some here wish that I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself. But that’s not how democracy works,” he said in April 2011. “I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books,” he added in July 2011. “… Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting … but that's not how our system works. That's not how our Constitution is written.” Later, he had the temerity to claim he hadn’t changed his stance, a howler that blew the minds of media fact-checkers. So that’s the backstory to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Tuesday announcement that the administration will rescind DACA because it’s unconstitutional. Trump has not spoken against DACA itself; moreover, he sent out a tweet reassuring “Dreamers” that they have nothing to worry about for six months. This gambit suggests that Trump wants DACA codified into law, apparently as part of a comprehensive package. Instead of responding to this overture in a spirit of compromise, Democrats chose vitriol and name-calling, their default position in the Trump era. Luis Gutiérrez, an Illinois congressman, called White House Chief of Staff John Kelly a “disgrace to the uniform he used to wear” over DACA. Remember last summer when every Democrat and most of the media went medieval on Trump for picking a fight with a Gold Star family? Well, John Kelly is a Gold Star dad, too. Luis Gutiérrez never wore the uniform. For sheer demagoguery, it was hard to top Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton’s erstwhile rival had this to say: “Trump’s decision on DACA is the ugliest and most cruel decision ever made by a president of the U.S. in the modern history of this country.” When one considers Woodrow Wilson re-segregating the federal workforce or FDR interning 110,000 Japanese-Americans who committed no crime, the thought occurs that this is possibly the most ignorant utterance by a U.S. senator in the modern history of this country. But historic amnesia was the Democrats’ de facto strategy and, in the interest of efficiency, they used the same talking points. “Trump is clueless & cruel,” tweeted former California Sen. Barbara Boxer. “Above all he is a coward.” Nancy Pelosi described it as “cowardice” and “cruelty.” Chuck Schumer called it “heartless.” And so it went. One wonders if this was DNC-circulated messaging, drawn up by some 24-year-old staffer. Someone apparently too callow to know that today’s Democrats are a historic anomaly. Normally Congress likes it when a president respects their prerogative to make law. Or perhaps these talking points weren’t written by a millennial. Perhaps they were written by a certain ex-president trying to help us forget that when he and Hillary Clinton -- along with Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Bernie Sanders -- had the chance to grant 11 million immigrants access to the American Dream, they instead chose, for partisan purposes, to keep them in the shadows.


Harvey grew into a hurricane on Thursday and authorities have reinforced their warnings as wind speeds have risen to 125 mph. Harvey could potentially be the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in years. Such strong gusts are expected to be accompanied by 3 feet of rain and 12-foot storm surges. Forecasters have called Harvey a "life-threatening storm" and say that million of people could be swamped as the storm moves through counties inland. (The Associated Press contributed to this report) The National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory on Thursday, instructing Texas residents along the Gulf of Mexico coast to "rush" their preparations as hurricane Harvey strengthens. The hurricane is forecast to become a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph, according to National Hurricane Center. The center reportedThursday afternoon that the tropical storm will make landfall late Friday night or early Saturday morning along the south-central Texas coast. "Harvey has intensified quickly this morning, and is now forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall, bringing life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, and wind hazards to portions of the Texas coast," the center wrote. People residing like coastal cities like Corpus Christi were encouraged to evacuate from their homes on Thursday. The mayor Joe McComb, called for people to leave in the "strongest possible terms." Some are surprised how much the hurricane has strengthened. A hurricane warning was issued for the Texas coast early Thursday, blanketing an area from Port Mansfield to Matagorda. Forecasters indicated that Harvey could become a hurricane after regaining tropical storm strength and began drifting towards the Gulf of Mexico. Harvey’s maximum sustained winds increased to near 60 mph Thursday, re-establishing its status as a tropical storm. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said additional strengthening is expected, resulting in Harvey emerging as a hurricane by the time its expected to reach Texas’s southern coast Friday. Some Twitter users on Thursday voiced alarm over Harvey, while others noted its name’s resemblance to comedian Steve Harvey. Harvey was centered about 335 miles southeast of Port Mansfield around 8 a.m. local time Thursday and heading north-northwest at about 10 mph. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered the State Operations Center to elevate its readiness level, freeing up resources there for possible rescue and recovery maneuvers. The governor also pre-emptively declared a state of disaster for 30 counties on or near the Texas coast to speed the deployment of state resources to those impacted. Texas emergency officials on Wednesday asked residents along the state’s upper coastline to relocate or prepare to head inland. People in low-lying areas were urged to seek higher ground, and individuals elsewhere were instructed to closely follow official announcements. Rice farmers in coastal Matagorda County late Wednesday rushed to harvest their crops as Harvey nears. People on South Padre Island, for their part, filled sandbags that evening to protect exposed businesses and houses from the storm. Other locations in the forecast path, finally, sought out generators, plywood and other goods from hardware stores as a safety precaution. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


This week, a Minneapolis mayoral candidate is running on major police reform that involves disarming the city’s police force. Raymond Dehn revealed the radical approach to public safety he’ll be taking should he be elected mayor in an interview with Fox 9 Minneapolis less than two weeks following the death of an Australian national by the name of Justine Damond. Damond, of course, was the woman shot and killed by Officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 while attempting to report the sound of a woman screaming behind her house. No one will ever know for sure whether it was the fireworks taking place in the area that night or if it was the alleged “slapping” of the patrol car by the victim just before the shooting that caused it. The only absolute in this tragic situation is that Justine Damond—a woman who called the police for help—is dead from a bullet shot from an officer’s gun. As is the case with every high-profile (Officer Involved Shooting) OIS, the equation cannot be balanced by departmental explanations that offer no objective truth in the minds of the masses. People are angry. They don’t want explanations. They want action. Dehn, of course, knows this and is attempting to capitalize on it at the polls by painting police with a broad brush as incompetent and unnecessarily armed. Don’t miss the fact that the District 59B representative only wants MPD officers to be restricted from carrying firearms on their hips. If he had it his way, he’d still allow them to keep guns in their vehicles. Therefore, his “solution” doesn’t even attempt to prevent the Justine Damond death from occurring. It’s an empty proposal made at an opportune time. There’s a reason the Justine Damond story has become an international story. It is a statistical anomaly. According to the Washington Post OIS Database, of the 574 civilians killed in officer-involved shootings so far this year, Damond is one of five unarmed women. The other four casualties on this list are Sariah Marie Lane, Ambroshia Fagre, Elena Mondragon, and Alteria Woods. No compatible source was found for this video. Lane, Fagre, and Mondragon were all killed while riding as passengers of fleeing vehicles that had been suspected by police to be stolen, involved in burglaries, and/or armed robberies. All four vehicles were used as deadly weapons by their drivers as they rammed police in attempts to get away. Woods, on the other hand, was used as a human shield by her boyfriend during a SWAT raid targeting him and his father for multiple shootings. While these four women were killed during deadly force encounters in which they were accessories to crimes committed by boyfriends, Damond’s case is entirely unique. The trend continues if we go back a few years. In 2016, three unarmed women were killed by police. Jessica Williams was shot in San Francisco after nearly trapping one officer between a fence and the stolen vehicle she was attempting to flee in. Kelsey Hauser was killed riding as a passenger in a stolen vehicle when her boyfriend attempted to run over officers after leading them on a high-speed pursuit in California. The third was 12-year-old Ciara Meyer, who was struck and killed after a constable’s bullet passed through her father’s arm. Meyer’s father reportedly pointed a rifle at the chest of one constable as he served an eviction order at the apartment. Meyer was set to lose his apartment. Instead, he got his daughter killed. In 2015, three unarmed women were shot and killed by police. India Kager was killed in Virginia while driving a vehicle with a homicide suspect in the passenger seat. When police approached the vehicle in a convenience store parking lot, Kager’s passenger opened fire on police. Both were killed in the shootout. The second was a 55-year old woman named Bettie Jones during a domestic violence call in Chicago. As an officer opened fire on a bat-wielding man in the apartment, Jones was caught in the cross-fire. The third, Autumn Steele, was shot by an officer responding to a domestic violence call in Iowa. Steele and her husband were actively fighting upon the officer’s arrival. After being bitten by the family dog, the officer fell backward while opening fire on the animal. Two rounds hit Steele instead. Each of the eleven officer-involved shootings involving “unarmed” females in the past three years is tragic—but the trend shows that seven of them were killed while engaging in criminal activity with boyfriends with a penchant for violence. Bettie Jones, Ciara Meyer, and Autumn Steel were killed as bystanders in legitimate deadly force encounters where officers feared for their lives. That leaves Justine Damond in a class of her own. Like I said, her death is the anomaly of all anomalies. Politicians like Raymond Dehn are free to use their own history of criminality to bolster their political profile in a society that loves a comeback story. Being a recovering cocaine addict and felon doesn’t preclude anyone from running for mayor, but when a politician takes advantage of tragedies such as Justine Damond’s death to suggest that police officers should place themselves in imminent danger…well, that’s where the line needs to be drawn. Despite advances in proficiency for firearms training over the course of several decades, 27 police officers have already been murdered by gunfire in the line of duty this year. In 2015, the total was 47. In 2016, it was 63. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, we are currently on track to lose around the same number to gunfire this year. Hopefully, we’ll buck the trend. Every officer will tell you that there is a wide spectrum of skill levels as it relates to weapons tactics, handling, and marksmanship. What we’ll also all tell you is that the level of skill a cop possesses matters little if someone is hellbent on killing them. An easy response for anyone telling you Dehn is onto something is to tell them that many of the gunfire-related deaths American police get hit with each year are ambushes. The most self-confident man or woman knows that it doesn’t take much skill to walk up behind them, point a gun to the back of their head, and pull the trigger. Our guns—readily accessible at our hips—are of little use in defending an attack from a gunman who’s got the jump on us. Just last week, Lieutenant Aaron Allan was shot 14 times by the occupant of a rolled-over vehicle on an Indiana roadway. One minute the LT is trying to help people involved in a car accident, and the next he’s getting shot dead by one of them. Earlier this month, New York State Trooper Joel Davis was shot while exiting his vehicle upon arrival at a domestic disturbance. Like Lt. Allen, he hadn’t even gotten the chance to get out of his holster. Four days prior to that, there was Detective Miosotis Familia, who was shot one time in the back of the head in the Bronx while writing in her note pad. Policing in America has become less and less desirable over the years, and the decline in numbers of police patrolling the streets shows it. The city with a major staff shortage will tell you the reason is “a stronger economy” creating more competition for prospective employees. The cop-hating fringe of the public will tell you, “Good. We don’t need them.” The local police union will tell you that it’s because of low pay, dissolving of pensions, lawsuits, etc. The police officer will tell you it’s because the risk is no longer worth it. Many officers feel like this job is punishing whether we do our jobs or we don’t. We’re trained to carry guns to save the lives of others and our own. If we don’t use deadly force when we should, we’re screwed. If we do use it when we should, we’re still screwed. Every now and then, we use it when we’re not supposed to—and that gets twisted to look like it’s the national norm. To pretend that police officers anywhere in America can do the job we do without access to a firearm by our side is to be willfully ignorant of the dangers we face daily in a society armed to the teeth with guns. We are not Great Britain, Ireland, or France. People don’t use machetes to hack at us, or vehicles to run us over. They come at us with guns—and we require our own to stand a chance. Whether it be Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, or Berkeley, mark my words, the progressive metropolis that turns officers into guinea pigs for this social experiment will find itself without a test subject—and without a police force.


The infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump brags about his ability to “grab” women with impunity because he’s famous is real, Access Hollywood‘s hosts asserted on Monday—just in case the president had any doubts. In response to a report that Trump was questioning the authenticity of the 2005 hot-mic recording, which captured the former reality TV star saying he could “grab [women] by the pussy,” Access Hollywood host Natalie Morales said on Monday’s show that the tap is, in fact, “very real.” “We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape. Let us make this perfectly clear: The tape is very real,” Morales said. “Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker room talk.’ He said every one of those words.” TRUMP: The "Access Hollywood" tape might be fake After the Washington Post revealed the tape ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Trump apologized and at no time stated that the tape was faked. When CNN’s Anderson Cooper pressed Trump on whether he “understood” that what he said was an admission of sexual assault, Trump pushed back, dismissing his comments as “locker room talk.” “I don’t think you understand what was said,” Trump responded to Cooper during an October 2016 presidential debate. “This was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologized to my family, I apologized to the American people. Certainly, I’m not proud of it, but this was locker room talk.” Following publication of the tape, at least 16 women came forward to say Trump sexually harassed or assaulted them. test test News that Trump reportedly questioned the tape’s veracity—once to a senator and, more recently, once to an adviser, according to the New York Times—brought the tape back to the surface amid an outpouring of allegations against high-profile men across entertainment, politics, and media. During Monday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to address Trump’s reported skepticism of the tape’s legitimacy and characterized the tape as unimportant because Trump won the election. “The president addressed this, this was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the president and the fact he’s sitting here in the Oval Office today,” she said.


The slaughter that happened last Sunday evening in Las Vegas, when an American man shot randomly into a crowd of around 22,000 at a music festival, was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. It also continued a pattern of terrorist attacks: all terrorists who have carried out lethal attacks in the U.S. since 9/11 have been citizens or permanent residents. In Trump’s first speech to Congress, he claimed “the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.” That is a flat-out lie that earned Trump “ four Pinocchios” — the most dishonest rating given by fact checkers at Washington Post. Here’s the truth: 154 people have been murdered by terrorists on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001; according to the New America Foundation, all of these murderers were U.S. citizens or legal residents. This means of course that none of these terrorists came from the countries listed in Trump’s travel ban, even though the United States is supposedly a safer place thanks to the travel ban. In fact, as New America points out: “None of the deadly attackers since 9/11 emigrated or came from a family that emigrated from one of these countries nor were any of the 9/11 attackers from the listed countries. Eight of the lethal attackers were born American citizens.” This is not to deny that there have been deadly attacks since 9/11 that have been inspired by jihadism and foreign terror groups. The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history prior to the Las Vegas killings took place in June 2016, when Omar Mateen, an ISIS-inspired terrorist who was an American-born citizen of Afghan descent, opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, murdering 49 people and injuring another 53. Nor can we ignore the vicious attacks carried out by ISIS militants that have killed or injured hundreds of people in England, France and Canada. Just this week two women were killed in a stabbing attack in Marseille, France, by a man allegedly promoting Islamic extremism. In the U.S. however, more terrorist attacks have been carried out by white American men than jihadists. Here are a few of those attacks, as highlighted by Vox: Reaching back further in time, remember Charleston, South Carolina and Sandy Hook, Connecticut? White American males are the primary terrorist threat in the U.S. While Trump is busy “keeping American citizens safe” by denying innocent Muslims the right to enter the U.S., he is also increasing the number of people the U.S. is guilty of killing worldwide. In the years since 9/11, the U.S. has been responsible for thousands of deaths, including 7,000 of its own soldiers, in the “War on Terror.” Americans troops are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the Taliban going strong, Trump recently announced his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. The invasion of Iraq by the U.S. helped destabilize the entire region and lead to the creation of ISIS, which has been waging its brutal war in the Middle East since then. And let’s not forget the American complicity in the destruction of Yemen. The U.S. has sold billions of dollars worth of deadly weapons to Saudi Arabia, which has used them to attack Yemeni civilians, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people. Far from facing this hypocrisy, Trump is now talking about revising export regulations to make it even easier for American arms manufacturers to sell to international buyers. Meanwhile Trump has put in place a travel ban on visitors from mainly Muslim-majority countries, who are fleeing from this deadly chaos. If you agree the Muslim ban is cruel and misguided, please sign this Care2 petition, telling Trump to stand up for American values and abolish the immigration ban. Photo Credit: Robert


Hillary Clinton apparently can't escape the " deep state." The Daily Beast reported Thursday that the Department of Justice has taken an interest in a familiar subject — the infamous email server of the former Democratic presidential candidate and her alleged bungling of classified information. Citing a source close to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, The Daily Beast claims that the Justice Department wants to know how those tasked with investigating Clinton's private email server went about their probe. DOJ officials are also reportedly interested in tallying the classified material contained in her emails and finding out "who put that information into an unclassified environment," The Daily Beast says. Before Clinton was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the FBI in July 2016, the former secretary of state claimed that many of the emails on her server were classified after the fact or that she was unaware of which "headers" denoted that an email was classified. Clinton's emails are a favorite grievance of President Trump, who has repeatedly called for his erstwhile political rival to be investigated again. As such, people within the DOJ are reportedly concerned that Trump's vocal tweets on the matter could cause the impression that the law enforcement agency is only doing the president's bidding. An unnamed former DOJ official even suggested to The Daily Beast that it was "an open question" if this inquiry would occur "without a political directive from the White House." The Justice Department would not comment on the reported inquiry to The Daily Beast. Read the full story here. Kelly O'Meara Morales


Another day, another uncomfortably shady revelation about Donald Trump's presidential campaign and possible connections to Russia. This time, it's the news that FBI investigators wiretapped Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort not once, but two times before and after the presidential election, per a CNN report. The news source reported on Sept. 18 that the surveillance continued into the early part of 2017, when Manafort had long since left the Trump team but was still in communications with the President. Several sources told CNN that the intelligence which the investigation collected included communications that “sparked concerns… that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign,” though at least two sources specifically added that the evidence wasn't conclusive. Manafort was surveilled under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, which must be backed with information showing suspicion that the subject could be acting as an agent of a foreign power. The warrant must be approved by top officials in the FBI and the Department of Justice. Notably, there's a big piece of the puzzle missing. CNN reports that the FBI was not surveilling Manafort during the now-infamous meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin connections in June 2016, which then-campaign manager Manafort and Trump's son-in-law and current White House adviser Jared Kushner also attended. But even with the missing pieces, the fact that government investigators were able to get the warrant, with such a high bar for approval, means that things are getting real for the investigation into Trump campaign leaders' dealings with Russia. Manafort was originally investigated for his alleged shady dealings with former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was at the head of a pro-Russian party which was driven out in 2014 by civil unrest and street protests. Manafort's firm was accused of lobbying for Yanukovych's interests while failing to register with the U.S. government as a lobbyist for a foreign power. In fact, that accusation is why Manafort left the Trump campaign back in August of 2016, after reports of the connections surfaced. CNN's sources said that the second warrant, the start date of which is unknown, was based on efforts to investigate possible ties between Trump campaign associates and Russian agents. So basically, for the first warrant there needed to be suspicion that Manafort was dealing with the Ukrainians (which, yeah, he was). For the second, investigators needed suspicion he was talking to Russian operatives — which is way more specific, and given Manafort's role in the Trump campaign, could be incredibly damning. On the other hand, the report also gives some near-credibility to Trump's old claim that former President Barack Obama was wiretapping him (and by "credibility," I mean you have to tilt your head and squint to "see" it). Back in March, Trump tweeted an accusation that Obama had wiretapped him at his residence at his eponymous Trump Tower shortly before the 2016 election, calling the former president "sick." Representatives of both Obama and the Department of Justice said that the claims were baseless. While Manafort keeps a residence at Trump Tower, there is still no evidence Trump himself was under surveillance. Which, however, doesn't mean he wasn't picked up by the surveillance on Manafort. CNN notes that Trump and Manafort continued to communicate for months after Manafort left the campaign, even after the FBI investigation into the former campaign manager became public knowledge. The conversations reportedly continued until lawyers for both men "insisted they stop." Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference in the election, reportedly told Manafort in July that the investigation planned to indict him, according to The New York Times. Agents reportedly showed up at Manafort's house with a search warrant, combing through his Virginia home and taking away binders of documents, computer files, and even photos of his wardrobe. A physical search warrant is unusual for someone whose lawyer has already been in touch with the Justice Department, as Manafort's has been — and is an indicator that prosecutors had probable cause to believe that the home contained evidence of a crime, and were concerned about destruction of evidence. As former federal prosecutor Jimmy Gurulé told the Times, “clearly they didn't trust him.” So, it's not looking good for old Paul, here. To say the least.


Police in Georgia say officers have responded to reports of shots fired at a high school and a teacher who may have been barricaded in a classroom is in custody. Police in Dalton tweeted that no children were hurt or were in danger. Police spokesman Bruce Frazier tells The Associated Press that the scene is secure. Police are not immediately saying what happened inside the school. Police say the school has been evacuated and students have been taken to the Northwest Georgia Center. Police are advising parents to go there to pick them up. Repeat: no children hurt, no children in danger. Dalton is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Atlanta. The identity of the teacher has not been released. The high school's website says it has 2,000 students. Click/tap here to subscribe to Khaleej Times news alerts on WhatsApp. Make sure you add our number +971545860953 under Contacts on your phone for uninterrupted service.


Setting the tone for the night. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton failed to shake hands at the startof the second presidential debate on Sunday, October 9, bunking tradition and kicking off the evening with two cold shoulders. The presidential candidates took to the stage in St. Louis for their second face-off, with Anderson Cooperand Martha Raddatz at the helm. After the two candidates were introduced, Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, walked onstage from opposite sides of the floor and retained grim expressions and stiff body language as they greeted one another, pointedly choosing not to shake hands prior to their explosive 90-minute debate. Trump's wife Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump were photographed shaking hands with Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton. The political opponents’ icy demeanor comes just two days after the GOP presidential candidate was caught on newly released 2005 footage bragging about forcibly kissing and groping women to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. “You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them,” Trump can be heard saying on the controversial audio clip. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p–sy. You can do anything.” Trump’s lewd remarks have had serious repercussions in the subsequent 48 hours, including a string of high-status Republican officials denouncing the real estate moguland the RNC withdrawing their financial support from the candidate. In response to the fall-out, Trump issued a video statement via Twitter on Saturday, October 8. “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am,” he says on the video. “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.” In recent weeks, Trump has come under fire for his numerous misogynistic comments about women in the past, including his most recent Twitter attack on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom he once called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” Despite the GOP leadership’s distancing itself from Trump, however, the former Apprentice host vowed not to drop out of the race. “The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly — I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN! #MAGA,” he tweeted prior to the debate. When Cooper, 49, directly asked Trump: "You bragged that you sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?" the Republican presidential candidate once again insisted that his words were just "locker room talk" and tried to deflect attention to ISIS, who are "really bad." Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!


Honestly, at this point in the 2016 presidential election, nothing should surprise you anymore. That includes when a sitting vice president says at a rally that he’s ready for fisticuffs with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. But it’s just another nugget for the late-night shows to feed off of, and that’s what “The Daily Show” did Wednesday night. Host Trevor Noah broke down the situation: Vice President Joe Biden said on the campaign trail for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton that he doesn’t want to debate Trump, and instead he wishes they were in high school so Biden could take Trump “behind the gym.” Trump responded by saying at one of his rallies, “Joe Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn… I’d love that.” Noah, now confused about where the fight is actually going to take place, points out, “This is why you don’t let old guys into Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is remember where Fight Club is.” Watch the complete clip below: Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.


From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iraqi special forces are facing “fierce” resistance as they battle the Islamic State group in southwest Mosul, a commander says.


Deception can destroy confidence. Pamela Myer, the author of “Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception” has made a career developing interview techniques and identifying verbal and non-verbal ques a person trying to lie to you might exhibit. Follow TI: On Facebook Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.


Trump Jr. allowed Tuesday night in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel that "he has probably met with other people from Russia" but insisted that he did not attempt to coordinate to impact the election or try to damage Hillary Clinton. He repeatedly suggested that the charges of collusion were "ridiculous" and "overplayed" and insisted that his father knew nothing about the June 2016 meeting. "It was such a nothing there was nothing to tell" his father, said Trump Jr. Donald Trump Jr. eagerly accepted help from what was described to him as a Russian government effort to aid his father's campaign with damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to the emails. The email exchange posted to Twitter by President Donald Trump's eldest son shows him conversing with a music publicist who wanted him to meet with a lawyer from Moscow. The publicist describes the lawyer as a "Russian government attorney" who has dirt on Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." In one response, Trump Jr. says he would "love" to hear more. President Donald Trump says his eldest son is "a high-quality person," and he applauds "his transparency." In a tweet Tuesday night, the president promoted his son's appearance on Fox News and called him a "great person who loves our country." My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country! White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a brief statement from the president Tuesday in response to revelations that Trump Jr. agreed to hear damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government's effort to help his father. Trump Jr., who was deeply involved in his father's presidential campaign, released the emails along with a statement describing the disclosure as an effort "to be totally transparent." The emails with publicist Rob Goldstone show that Trump Jr. was told that the Russian government had information that could "incriminate" Clinton and her dealings with Russia. Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ The messages were the latest disclosure to roil the ongoing investigation into potential coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies have said sought to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. As congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, investigate, the emails will almost certainly be reviewed for any signs of potential campaign collusion with the Kremlin, which the White House has repeatedly denied. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on the emails, citing the ongoing investigation. Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq In the emails, Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr. that the information "would be very useful to your father." Goldstone was working to connect Trump Jr. to Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who later met with Trump Jr. in New York at Trump Tower. Veselnitskaya has denied that she ever worked for the Russian government and said on Tuesday that she doesn't represent the Russian government, only herself. She also said she "couldn't have had" information on Hillary Clinton. "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," Trump Jr. replied to Goldstone in one of a series of email exchanges the younger Trump posted to Twitter. The emails, dated early June, show Goldstone telling Trump that singer Emin Agalarov and his father, Moscow-based developer Aras Agalarov, had "helped along" the Russian government's support for Trump. The elder Agalarov was involved with Trump in hosting the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. The two men also had preliminary discussions about building a Trump Tower in Moscow that fell through. Trump also appeared in a music video with the younger Agalarov. Goldstone at one point said he could send the information to Trump's father first directly "via Rhona," an apparent reference to the elder Trump's longtime assistant Rhona Graff. The email release followed days of evolving accounts from Trump Jr. about the nature of the meeting and its purpose. The president's son posted the emails only after they were obtained by The New York Times. On Saturday, Trump Jr. described the encounter as being a "short introductory meeting" focused on the disbanded program that had allowed American adoptions of Russian children. Moscow ended the adoptions in response to Magnitsky Act sanctions created in response to alleged human rights violations in Russia. A day later, Trump Jr. changed his account, acknowledging that he was told beforehand that Veselnitskaya might have information "helpful" to the Trump campaign, and was told by her during the meeting that she had something about Clinton. In his third description of what occurred, on Tuesday, Trump Jr. said he had believed the information he would hear about Clinton would be political opposition research. He said that he first wanted to speak by phone, but that when that didn't work out, he was told that the attorney would be in New York "and I decided to take the meeting." "The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official," Trump Jr. said in the Tuesday statement. "And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act." The Trump Organization has confirmed the authenticity of Trump Jr. posts on Twitter releasing the email chain. Associated Press writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody in New York and Julie Bykowicz in Washington contributed to this report.


While President Donald Trump was inside the Pensacola Bay Center auditorium in Florida on Friday night, urging people to vote for Senate candidate Roy Moore, Ivanka Trump’s pointed comment on accusations against the Alabama Republican was plastered on a political ad outside. The giant ad covered the sides of a truck that was parked across the street from the auditorium and then was driven around the rally. The ad featured a giant photo of Ivanka’s face along with her cutting comment about Moore in an Associated Press interview last month. “There’s a special place in hell for those who abuse children,” she said. (She also said in that interview that she had “no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”) She criticized Moore just days after The Washington Post reported he had had inappropriate relationships with teens when he was in his 30s. One woman said he removed her clothing and groped her when she was just 14. The ads were arranged for Trump’s Pensacola rally by American Bridge, a liberal group and PAC. “Try as Trump and the Republican Party might, there’s no way to escape the truth about Roy Moore or Ivanka Trump’s own words,” American Bridge spokeswoman Allison Teixeira Sulier said in a statement. “It’s a disgusting new low that the President, the RNC, and the rest of the Republican Party are trying to help send a pedophile to the US Senate, and the American people won’t soon forget it.” The New York Times reported last month that Trump was angry with his daughterfor speaking out against Moore. The president strongly supports the former judge despite multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. Related Video:


FBI Director James Comey caused a major shakeup in the presidential election with his letter Friday revealing a review of newly-discovered emails related to the FBI previously-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. Here is a rundown of what we know (and what we don't) so far: What emails were discovered? Many things remain vague and unknown about the newly uncovered emails. What we do know is that the FBI believes they are "pertinent" to its investigation into Clinton's use of a private server during her tenure as secretary of State. According to an official close to the investigation, there are thousands of new emails under review. What we don't know is whether they contain any classified material or could have any bearing on the previous investigation. Could the emails lead to criminal charges against Clinton? That is impossible to know at this point. In a speech Friday, Clinton said she is "confident" that the new developments won't change the FBI's recommendation not to prosecute her for improperly handling classified materials. Although Comey could not put a timetable on how long it will take to review the new material, a source tells USA TODAY that is unlikely it will be completed before Election Day. What is the connection to Anthony Weiner? The emails were discovered as part of an investigation into former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, who is suspected of having sexually charged communications with a 15-year-old girl. Investigators came across the emails while looking into devices used by Weiner. Weiner is married to — and currently separated from — longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin who had access to the same device or devices. Why did Comey make the review public? In his letter to lawmakers, informing them of the latest developments, Comey said he thought it was important to update them "in light of my previous testimony," which said the investigation had been concluded. Did Attorney General Loretta Lynch approve of Comey's letter to lawmakers? No. Lynch objected to Comey's decision to notify Congress that the FBI was reviewing newly discovered email, an official familiar with the matter told USA TODAY. Lynch based her objection on a long-held Justice Department policy that federal authorities should not take any action that may interfere with an election. Did Lynch try to stop Comey? Yes. Lynch shared her objections just hours before Comey sent the letter, according to USA TODAY's source. The FBI director weighed the attorney general's advice during a spirited discussion of the matter Thursday and early Friday, but in the end, Comey felt compelled to act. When is the election? Tuesday, November 8.


Arizona Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer. McCain was in the hospital to remove a blood clot from above his left eye when a tumor was located. Doctors revealed that McCain has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer. The statement says the 80-year-old senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. The doctors say McCain is recovering from his surgery amazingly well and his underlying health is excellent, according to the statement. McCain responded to the "outpouring of support" in seemingly good spirits Thursday, promising over Twitter that "unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I'll be back soon, so stand by!" I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support - unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I'll be back soon, so stand-by! The office of McCain sent a statement that read, "On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot. Scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria. The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. The Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent." The statement continued, "Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona. He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective. Further consultations with Senator McCain’s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate." His daughter, Meghan McCain, tweeted out a message, "The news of my father's illness has affected every one of us in the McCain family. My grandmother, mother, brothers, sister and I have all endured the shock of the news, and now we live with the anxiety about what comes next." John McCain's wife Cindy posted a message on Instagram reading: "Thank all of you for the wonderful thoughts. @senjohnmccain is doing well. We as a family will face the next hurdle together. One thing I do know is he is the toughest person I know. He is my hero and I love him with all my heart." McCain was the GOP's presidential nominee in 2008. A Navy pilot, he was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner for 5 ½ years. The Associated Press has contributed to this report.


Although he attended the 2004 Republican National Convention, and supported the GOP’s former gubernatorial candidate for New York state in 2002, the Bay Shore, NY native told Piers Morgan earlier this year that he’s actually an Independent. WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a registered Republican, and was reportedly invited to speak at the 2000 Republican National Convention. "I realize that the majority of people in the entertainment business happen to be Democrats," Doherty has said about her conservative views. "I have no problem with that. And they should have no problem with the fact that I'm a Republican." The Hills pot-stirrers were big McCain-Palin supporters in 2008. "I'm voting for John McCain," Montag told Us Weekly in 2008. "I'm a Republican and McCain has a lot of experience." Still, the pair weren't going to let their candidate's defeat by Barack Obama bring them down. "We're behind America and America's decision," Pratt told MTV News. "You win some, you lose some." Performing at GOP fundraisers does not a Republican make, according to Rimes. When asked via Twitter last year why she agreed to participate in a Republican fundraiser in Washington, D.C., she replied, "It's a job! I'm entertainment, not making a political stance," and added that she performed at the Democratic convention years ago and for Clinton "several times." The former Melrose Place scene-stealer is a registered member of the Republican party.


How many disasters must Puerto Rico suffer? After Hurricane Maria tore through the Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump was extremely slow to acknowledge that the U.S. territory was in dire need of aid. When Trump finally decided it was time to visit these Americans in need, his trip was a disaster in itself. Here are some of the shockingly insensitive, incompetent and tone-deaf things Trump said during his trip to Puerto Rico: Despite criticism from Puerto Rican leaders and the fact that only 32 percent of Americans approve of how he’s handled the disaster, Trump has spent much of his time on the island insisting that everything has been going terrifically! “I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done,” he said. “In Texas and in Florida, we get an A+, and I’ll tell you what: I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico.” “We only heard thank yous from the people of Puerto Rico,” he told another reporter. Here’s an idea: rather than telling people what a great job he’s done, Trump should actually just do a great job, and then the people of Puerto Rico will do the complimenting for him. Trump played upon an old, terrible stereotype of Latino laziness when he alleged that Puerto Ricans “ want everything to be done for them.” According to Trump in the same tweet, the leadership of Puerto Rico was ineffective and they couldn’t manage to get their own people to participate in the relief work. This comment is as dog whistle-y as racist dog whistles get, which is why it’s entirely fair that internet commenters started sharing this photo en masse to remind Trump who exactly likes to have everything to be done for him: While handing out flashlights to hurricane survivors, Trump couldn’t help but comment on the supposed pointlessness of the exercise. “Flashlights?” he said aloud. “You don’t need ‘em anymore. You don’t need ‘em.” Why Trump felt the need to say that is unclear, especially since at that point 95 percent of Puerto Rico was still without electricity. Maybe Trump was being taken to places with power, but the vast majority of Puerto Ricans could really use those flashlights to, you know, see at night. At least he wasn’t physically throwing the flashlights at the people of Puerto Rico. During another moment, Trump began tossing paper towel rolls one at a time to the crowd. It’s not only an inefficient manner of distributing supplies to people in need of resources, it’s a pretty degrading one. As much as Trump may fancy himself some sort of rock star, these aren’t fans attending a concert looking for free merchandise. Technically, Trump didn’t say anything in this instance, but the disrespect spoke volumes in his actions alone. The nerve of Puerto Rico to have a hurricane – don’t they know how expensive recovery efforts are? Trump made sure they were well aware at a press briefing on the island. “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you threw our budget a little out of whack,” he said. Hahaha, what a funny joke, right? The president didn’t make residents of Texas or Florida feel like they were a waste of money, so it seems extra suspect for the president to say something like this after already treating Puerto Ricans as lesser American citizens. In the face of his initial inaction, Trump has repeatedly tried to downplay the scale of Hurricane Maria. While speaking to Puerto Rican officials he said, “If you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died…” Trump said. Sorry, there’s no need to finish that sentence, did Trump just really suggest a place experiencing massive devastation was not a “real catastrophe”? It’s true that the death count in Puerto Rico is significantly lower than that of Hurricane Katrina, but if that’s enough to make Trump “proud” (his own words) of how he’s handled this crisis, he’s completely off base. In an interview on Tuesday, Trump told Fox News that to help Puerto Rico, he was going to “wipe out” their existing debt. “You can wave goodbye to that,” he said. Honestly, it was one of the most productive ideas to come out of the Trump administration throughout the disaster… too bad it seems that Trump was babbling without having consulted with his staff who are not on board with this idea. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney backtracked on the president’s comments saying, “I wouldn’t take it word for word with that,” insisting that the White House would instead focus on providing disaster relief. Way to get Puerto Rico’s hopes up!


Nigerian Police personnel of the Kaduna State Police Command are presently carrying out a peaceful protest against the non-payment of their August and September salaries. Eight Police commands namely: Kaduna, Kebbi Gombe, Nasarawa, Ekiti ,Bayelsa, Imo and Ogun are reportedly owing August and September salaries, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. The protest, which cuts across the rank and file of the command, has over 2000 protesters who are gathered in front of the Salaries Office inside the command headquarters. Cyril Abeh, the state commissioner of police, who said the delay in payment was from the finance ministry’s IPPS office and not the fault of the police, appealed for restraint. “They are police officers operating under the law, if they misbehave, we will deal with them according to the law. This is mutiny. I am in the field attending to a very important security matter, but will be on my way back to headquarters to address them now,” he said. Some of the protesting officers accused the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun of refusing to allow President Muhammadu Buhari to know the ”exact situation regarding the non payment of the police salaries.” “She already lied to Mr President that all is well. How can you fight corruption and you don’t pay police their two months salaries,” an officer said.


President Donald Trump on Sunday strongly condemned what he described in tweets as a "mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria" that allegedly left women and children dead. He laid the blame squarely at the feet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia and Iran for backing resident Bashar al-Assad, who he called an "animal." Trump also warned, "Big price to pay." "Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!" the president wrote. In the third of a series of tweets, he faulted former President Barack Obama for not intervening in Syria during his time in office. In April of last year, Trump ordered a Tomahawk missile strike against a Syrian airbase for a similar chemical attack. Sunday's posts left many wondering if Trump would potentially retaliate against the Syrian government, which is backed by Russia. The criticism of Putin is arguably his strongest critique of Russia since he took office 442 days ago. Syrian aid groups and activists allege that dozens of people died in a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, the last rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta where Assad has pursued an intensive bombing campaign. The Syrian American Medical Society said that more than 500 cases, mostly women and children, suffered symptoms “indicative of exposure to a chemical agent” and 42 were reported dead. Both Syria and Russia deny involvement in Sunday’s alleged chemical attack. Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the White House is considering how to respond. He added that the national security team had been speaking to the president “all throughout the evening and the morning.” “I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” he said. The State Department, meanwhile, provided a full-throated critique of Russia in a statement on Saturday night that claimed that the nation had “breached its commitments to the United Nations” and called “into question [Russia’s] commitment to resolve the overall crisis and to larger non-proliferation priorities.” “Russia, with its unwavering support for the [Assad] regime, ultimately bears responsibility for these brutal attacks, targeting of countless civilians, and the suffocation of Syria’s most vulnerable communities with chemical weapons,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said. Last week, Trump reluctantly agreed to keep U.S. troops in Syria, though he stressed to his national security team his desire to end U.S. involvement in the conflict as soon as possible. Republican and Democrat leaders decried the alleged chemical attack on Sunday, calling for the U.S. to hold the Assad government accountable. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who serves on the Armed Services Committee called on the White House to act. “If [the president] doesn’t follow through and live up to that tweet, he’s going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “This is a defining moment.” Others from the president's own party piled on. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump should rethink his plans for an early withdrawal from Syria and consider another targeted attack on Syria's military facilities, such as the one he ordered a year ago. "That may be an option that we should consider now," she said. "But it is further reason why it is so important that the president ramp up the pressure and the sanctions on the Russian government, because, without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also blasted the president, as he said Trump signaling last week that the U.S. would withdraw from Syria only served to embolden Assad, Russia and Iran to conduct the attack. While McCain said it was good that Trump criticized all three parties on Twitter, he said social media posts meant little in this situation. "The question now is whether he will do anything about it," he said. "The President responded decisively when Assad used chemical weapons last year. He should do so again, and demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes." In the House, Republicans were also riled up and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that the United States should continue to lead in holding Assad and Russia accountable. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who serves as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee voiced his agreement on Fox News and called for military action. “We’re not going to occupy countries anymore, but this cannot stand in the civilized world,” McCaul said. “This needs to be responded to in a very firm and strong way. I think we need to deal also with Russia and Iran’s involvement in this. I think they are complicit.” Democrats also called for the White House to act and coordinate an international response. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "President Assad needs to be held accountable for his war crimes." "We need to make sure that there is a proceeding started by the international community to hold him accountable," said Cardin, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This is not the first use of chemical weapons." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Putin needed to be held accountable for the alleged attack as he had enabled "these war crimes." But how to do that rests with the White House, she added. “Members of Congress expect a comprehensive intelligence briefing on this attack as soon as possible," she said in a statement. "The Trump Administration must finally provide a smart, strong and consistent strategy in Syria.” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said it could affect Mike Pompeo, who Trump nominated to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, as he enters Senate confirmation hearings this week. “The United States must not waiver in our utter rejection of the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world, by anyone, for any reason," Menedez said in a statement. "During his upcoming hearing, I expect Secretary of State-nominee Pompeo to articulate an actual policy for Syria.”


This is now bigger than who becomes the next president. Trump is a threat to our democracy.


GOP congressional candidate Paul Nehlen has drawn on anti-Semitic sympathy to rally support for his fledgling campaign, BuzzFeed News reported Friday. Nehlen — who is running against House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a Republican primary this summer — ran a Twitter group chat where he rallied white nationalists to attack his opponents, BuzzFeed News reported. One of Nehlen's stated adversaries was the "Jewish media," who he believed had "coordinated" to smear him after he lost the support of Breitbart News for sending tweets about white pride. Nehlen's list of targets included conservative personality John Cardillo, author Kurt Schlichter, and former Boston Red Sox pitcher turned Breitbart radio host Curt Schilling. All three men, BuzzFeed News notes, are conservatives who distanced themselves from Nehlen. The candidate turned to his Twitter group to ask for some backup, writing, "Cardillo and others like him are working for Jewish media. Then, there are the fake conservatives who happen to be Jewish." Per screenshots published by BuzzFeed News, Nehlen then added: "I'm going to decimate them all. And y'all are gonna help me." Sources who spoke to BuzzFeed News said that "such requests were common" from Nehlen. One of the group chat's most notable participants is Richard Spencer ally Eli Mosley, who heads a white nationalist group of his own called Identify Evropa, BuzzFeed News points out. Mosley is a polarizing figure even among white nationalists, as many reportedly think he sparked the violence at last year's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was killed by a white nationalist. Read more about Nehlen's group chat at BuzzFeed News. Kelly O'Meara Morales


This past weekend, Americans watched in shock as “alt-right” members, neo-Nazis and white nationalists descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, attempting to spread their message of hate and intolerance. Clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters were numerous. One counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a man rammed his car into several counter-protesters. The man, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was later charged with second-degree murder. Earlier that day, he was photographed displaying the symbols of a white nationalist group called Vanguard America, which later denied he was a member. That weekend journalist Shaun King posted a video of several men beating a 20-year-old man named Deandre Harris. King, who was attempting to confirm the identities of the men behind the beating, found that one of the men, Alex Michael Ramos, identifies as Latino. A group called the Atlanta Antifascists then tweeted that Ramos was affiliated with the Atlanta chapter of the far-right organization Proud Boys and the far-right militia called the Georgia Security Force. When a viewer asked why he marched with racists, Ramos said, “I stood by racist people but they weren’t racist to me.” Ramos’ assertion that his Puerto Rican roots meant he couldn’t be racist is a prime example of Latinos who are completely ignorant of their ability to perpetuate white supremacy. Guess what? Latinos, both here and in Latin America, do and say plenty of things that promote anti-blackness — and most of the time we don’t even blink an eye when it happens. When it comes to discussing racism, we often subscribe to the black vs. white binary that we often see in the United States. If our views aren’t extreme, if we’re not a “full-blown racist,” then we’re completely absolved of perpetuating anti-blackness, right? Wrong. When we think like that, we tend to ignore the colorism — often subtle — that permeates through much of Latin America. It’s a difficult thing to confront, but if we don’t address it within our own community, we can’t expect it to magically resolve itself. Pulitzer prize-winning Dominican-American author Junot Diaz once said, “White supremacy’s greatest trick is that it has convinced people that it exists always in other people, never in us.” Don’t believe him? When he was fired over the comments, Figueroa wrote an open letter to Michelle Obama saying he isn’t racist because he comes from a bi-racial family. Meanwhile, in Mexican print media… ?? pic.twitter.com/xwyW0QWfJc — Laura Martínez® (@miblogestublog) August 17, 2017 Yes, Real Madrid are nicknamed “Los Blancos,” but the joke is clearly rooted in the idea that “white supremacy” is a problem “over there” in the U.S. and not in Mexico, where they released a stamp celebrating a cartoon character that is a racist stereotype. Right now would be a good time for us to revisit that and not just stop there, but continue to educate ourselves on how we can make sure we’re not promoting white supremacy.


A lady identified as Monisola (@Monaayy), has taken to the social networking platform to talk down on women who are in the habit of broke-shaming men. There is a mentality in this part of the world which has led to a lot of unrealistic expectations from women who believe it is their entitlement to be taken care of and to be with a wealthy men and as a result of this, they tend to look down on struggling men. The lady who appears to be fed up with this mentality, took to the online platform to share her opinion concerning the issue. She wrote:“I’m sick of broke shaming. It is obnoxious and cruel. To expect a man to be financially buoyant simply because he’s a man is just as offensive as expecting a woman to cook and clean simply because she’s a woman. Not every man has deep pockets .” “If we’re kicking against patriarchal norms then we can’t *expect* men to be rich because they’re men, especially if you as a woman don’t even have your own money! That’s a disgraceful double standard. If you don’t want the validity of your womanhood to be evaluated based on your domestic prowess, then stop devaluing men for being “broke”. “Everyone is on their personal journey. He’ll get there when he gets there. If you don’t want to date a man without money, fine, you have every right to make that choice. But don’t shame him for his financial status. “That is cruel. Money does not grow on trees. I even see women shaming men for being in the exact same financial position as them and honestly I’m embarrassed. Don’t be hungry please.” The post which went viral on social media, received several reactions from people who seemed to be in agreement with her post. Read the thread in full below; Stay updated with the latest Nigerian news from Information Nigeria