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The Clinton Grifters were out in NYC and ready to fundraise for Hillary but looks like Bill didn t waste any time he s such a flirt! Check out the photo below of the not so loving grasp Bill has on Hillary. Very interesting but what s more interesting is that the efforts to make Hillary relatable have been intense but doesn t this type of elitist event ruin all that work to make Hillary just another gal? Let s face it, the same liberal elites who backed the Obamas are jumping on the Clinton train but they want YOU to believe they re not anything like those greedy capitalist Republicans they like to bash Hahaha!!!New York s A-List came out to support Hillary Clinton s presidential campaign last night at a private but star-studded New York City fundraiser.The event was held in designer Vera Wang s Upper East Side apartment on Sunday night, and was co-hosted by Vera, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, and Georgina s husband, producer Harvey Weinstein. And plenty of other famous names were happy to fork over a donation for the chance to spend time with the Democratic frontrunner, who turns 68 today and arrived at the party with husband Bill Clinton in tow.Tickets for the exclusive event cost $2,700 and included a photo with the Clintons, who seemed to be in a good mood as they walked past paparazzi after most of the other guests had arrived. Hillary took a break from matching pantsuits and opted instead for a shiny red top and plain black pants, while Bill who waved and held her hand as he walked beside her donned a simple blue suit. Other fashionable guests who turned up for the fete included celebrity designers Jason Wu, Michael Kors, and Cynthia Rowley. Martha Stewart, photographer Annie Leibovitz, producer Jane Rosenthal (of Meet the Parents fame), Vogue editor Andr Leon Talley, and Anna Wintour s daughter Bee Shaffer were all shot walking in as well, while Glee star Matthew Morrison and his wife Renee Puente stopped to pose for pictures.Read more: UK Daily Mail
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BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday authorized an investigation of President Michel Temer for suspected corruption involving a decree regulating ports, adding to graft allegations the president has so far parried with backing from Congress. The new investigation is based on a wiretapped conversation of a former Temer aide, Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who, according to court documents, discussed shaping the decree in return for bribes channeled from a port operator to the president. In his ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the new probe was warranted because Brazil s top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, had found strong indications of crimes, given that the decree signed by Temer answered part of the demands made by logistics firm Rodrimar SA. Temer s lawyer said in a statement sent to the Supreme Court that the allegations against the president are contaminated by untruths and malicious distortions. The decree was publicly debated and benefited all port operators and not just Rodrimar, it said. Rodrimar also denied that it had received any special treatment from the government. The company said the decree in question partially addressed widespread demands from Brazil s port operators. Temer has denied any role in the corruption scandals that have come to light during a sprawling three-year investigation of political bribery in Brazil. His lawyers have also challenge the plea bargain deal that yielded the wiretap of Rocha Loures, arguing that the billionaire beef tycoon who arranged the recordings was unfairly favored by a close aide to Janot. Last month, Temer s allies in Congress easily blocked a corruption charge leveled by Janot. He is also expected to beat additional charges that Janot could level this week before leaving office. The latest investigation approved by the court adds more allegations to the mix. Brazil s currency, the real, posted its biggest daily drop in nearly a month, slipping 0.8 percent against the U.S. dollar as the investigation and a separate police probe into Temer s allies kept pressure on the president. Temer s success in beating back accusations had bolstered bets that he would be able to return focus to his market-friendly proposals to overhaul Brazil s tax and social security policies, tackling a record deficit.
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This video should rock every advocate of free speech to the core. Is there a social media platform that isn t silencing the voice of conservatives?Watch:
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A Schlotsky s Assistant Manager in Seguin, Texas, gave a Texas Deputy a receipt that said FCK U. According to the Texas Sheriff s Deputies Facebook page, on Tuesday, December 20, 2016, Texas Deputy Sheriff Caddell, who was in full uniform, ordered lunch at the drive-through at the Schlotsky s in Seguin, Texas. After the Deputy received the order, he looked at the receipt and noticed that it had been modified. A photo of the receipt was posted on the Texas Sheriff s Deputies page, and the top part, showed in bold type, was DRIVE THRU FCK U. The remaining part of the receipt that is visible in the photo lists the date as 12/20/2016, 1:47 p.m., host and employee numbers, and the modified message again: DRIVE THRU FCK U.The Texas Deputy, whose agency has not been identified and whose name has not been confirmed, called the restaurant and discovered that it was the Assistant Manager who had modified the receipt. The Texas Deputy then called the Schlotsky s corporate office, who posted a response to the incident. In the response, it was noted that each franchise is independently owned and operated, and that the Seguin franchise owner had contacted the Texas Deputy to apologize and to let him know that this is being taken seriously, that they respect and value police officers and all first responders. The corporate response also noted that this was an isolated incident, that the employee received appropriate action, and that he had reached out to the Sheriff s Office to apologize. The company s response reminded Sheriff s Office employees that they are always welcome at the Sequin location, where each officer in uniform is offered a discount in appreciation for their service. Blue Lives Matter
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Another German couple is believed to have been detained in Turkey this weekend and one of the individuals remains in police custody, while the other has been barred from leaving the country, a German foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. Spokesman Martin Schaefer told a news conference that Germany had no official information on the arrests that occurred on Sunday in Istanbul, but said the random nature of continued detentions by Ankara was cause for the utmost concern . The nightmare continues that is facing so many German citizens who wanted to do nothing but spend their vacation in Turkey, said Schaefer. It can hit anyone who thinks about entering Turkey. One doesn t believe oneself to be in danger, but suddenly one is in a Turkish prison. Schaefer said those traveling to Turkey should be aware of the potential dangers, but said Berlin had no immediate plans to issue a formal travel warning. We will not be drawn into using travel guidance in a political manner, Schaefer said, adding that continued random arrests by Turkey of German citizens could force Berlin to issue such a warning. That would put Turkey on a par with Libya, Yemen or Syria, he added. The foreign ministry has urged German citizens since July 26 to exercise caution when traveling to Turkey. Before Monday s news of additional arrests, 10 Germans were in detention in Turkey, including German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who has been held for over 200 days. Schaefer downplayed the relevance of Turkey s warning on Saturday that its citizens should take care when traveling to Germany, saying the warning had nothing to do with the reality of 80 million German citizens and ethnic Turks living here. EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, in separate remarks, rejected calls for breaking off discussions with Ankara about its accession to the European Union, saying such a move would only strengthen President Tayyip Erdogan, who is under fire from Brussels over his crackdown on opponents after a failed coup. Last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expected to win a fourth term in the Sept. 24 election, infuriated Erdogan s government when she called for a formal halt to Turkey s stalled EU accession talks. Later she conceded that such a move would have to be decided unanimously by the EU. Tensions between Berlin and Ankara have been running high for more than a year, fueled in part by conflicts over lawmaker visits to German troops stationed in Turkey and Ankara s crackdown on alleged supporters of last year s coup.
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PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea violated an armistice agreement with South Korea this month when North Korean soldiers shot and wounded a North Korean soldier as he defected across their border and it must not do so again, South Korea s defense minister said on Monday. The defector, a North Korean soldier identified only by his surname, Oh, was critically wounded but has been recovering in hospital in South Korea. The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the international community over its nuclear weapons program, but the North has not publicly responded to the defection at the sensitive border. South Korean Minister of Defence Song Young-moo issued his warning to the North while on a visit to the border where he commended South Korean soldiers at a Joint Security Area (JSA), in the so-called Truce Village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone, for rescuing the defector. A North Korean border guard briefly crossed the border with the South in the chase for the defector on Nov. 13 - a video released by the U.N. Command (UNC) in Seoul showed - a violation of the ceasefire accord between North and South at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Shooting towards the South at a defecting person, that s a violation of the armistice agreement, Song said. Crossing the military demarcation line, a violation. Carrying automatic rifles (in the JSA), another violation, he added as he stood near where South Korean soldiers had found Oh, collapsed and bleeding from his wounds. North Korea should be informed this sort of thing should never occur again. Since the defection, North Korea has reportedly replaced guards stationed there. Soldiers have fortified a section of the area seen aimed at blocking any more defections by digging a trench and planting trees. As Song was speaking 10 meters away from the trees North Korean soldiers planted, four North Korean soldiers were spotted listening closely. South Korean military officials pointed out two bullet holes in a metal wall on a South Korean building, from North Korean shots fired at Oh as he ran. Oh has undergone several operations in hospital to remove bullets. His lead surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, told Reuters his patient has suffers from nightmares about being returned to the North. In South Korea, six soldiers, three South Korean and three American, were given awards by the U.S. Forces Korea last week in recognition for their efforts in rescuing the defector. After inspecting the site on Monday, Song met troops stationed there for lunch and praised them for acting promptly and appropriately . South Korea has been broadcasting news of the soldier s defection towards North Korea via loudspeakers, according to the South s Yonhap news agency. South Korean military officials have declined to confirm that.
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MANILA (Reuters) - Most Filipinos believe only the poor are killed in their country s war on drugs, and want President Rodrigo Duterte to reveal the identity of alleged narcotics kingpins and charge them in court, a survey released on Monday showed. The survey of 1,200 Filipinos by Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted late in June also showed public opinion was split over the validity of police accounts of operations against illegal drugs that resulted in deaths. More than 3,800 people have been killed during Duterte s 15-month-old crackdown, all during police operations. Human rights group say the death toll is much higher and the official figures overlook murders attributed to shadowy vigilantes. Some activists say unknown gunmen have collaborated with police to kill drug dealers and users. Police and the government vehemently reject those allegations and accuse critics of exaggerating the death toll for political gain. The high death toll in Duterte s fight against crime and drugs, a key election plank, has stoked international alarm, although domestic polls have shown Filipinos are largely supportive of the tough measures. The crackdown has come under heavy scrutiny of late, prompted largely by the police killing of a 17-year-old student on August 16. Two witnesses on Monday told a senate inquiry they saw police officers kill another teenager arrested earlier in the same area for robbery. In both teen killings, however, police said the victims had violently resisted arrest. A third teenager arrested with the second victim was found dead with 30 stab wounds in a province about a three-hour drive away from the capital. Duterte has several times brandished what he called a file on 6,000 alleged druglords at the center of the country s trade. In the SWS survey, 74 percent of respondents said they wanted him to make that list public. The survey also showed 60 percent agreed with the statement that only poor drug pushers were killed. Duterte, who enjoys huge support among working class Filipinos, has been angered by critics who characterized his campaign as a war against the poor. The survey also showed nearly half of respondents were undecided whether police were telling the truth when saying that drugs war deaths happened only when suspects refused to go quietly. Twenty-eight percent said the police were lying but a quarter believed they were being honest. The Philippines, extremely sensitive about foreign criticism of its drugs war, last week accused the West of bias, hypocrisy and interference after 39 nations, most of them European, expressed concern about the drug-related killings.
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In a convenient distraction from Trump s recent $25 million settlement in fraud lawsuits connected to his fake university, virulently homophobic Indiana Governor and future Vice President Mike Pence decided to go see a Broadway show.Naturally, Pence s appearance at Hamilton was not well-received, with the crowd booing him as he entered and the cast taking some time at the end of the show to have a come to Jesus moment with the man who thinks many of them should be electrocuted, imprisoned, or killed.Now to many of Trump s followers who are, shall we say, not exactly fans of Abraham Lincoln, this was the worst thing to ever happen in a theatre in the history of ever. But to the rest of us, a much-needed message was delivered: that he should be there to represent all Americans, not just the ones he likes.This message to Pence sent the conservative world nosediving into Lake Stupidity, with many of them vowing to boycott the musical (which is sold out until seemingly six generations from now) and one particularly deplorable Trump fan decided to cause a scene that lasted through multiple musical numbers (the cast was praised for acting like he wasn t even there).While Pence himself was not offended by the cast s message, Fox News Jeanine Pirro joins Donald Trump in being irrationally furious about the nontroversy. What happened in that theater one block from this studio was out-and-out reverse racism and teed-up hate! Pirro said on her show Saturday, accusing the actors of using a play about our American history as a political bully pulpit an ironic statement given Pence s numerous horrific remarks about women, they gay community, and many other groups of Americans (not to mention that Trump has become one of the most notorious internet trolls in history).Pirro demanded to know why the cast did not lecture Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, who are not terrible people, for being terrible people when they attended the production. Last night violates everything that you say that you stand for, she raged. You re Hamiltonians, you re students of American history. Why not hip hop about the electoral college or is that the part of the Constitution that you just want to ignore? Maybe you want to dance about Hamilton, why not dance about that! Pirro continued as she dissolved into a greater degree of madness than normal. And I ve got news for you. Don t lecture this man. You may know a little about hip hop and dancing around a stage. I majored in American history and I saw the play Hamilton and I loved it, she said as he rant ended. But you just took the fun, the enjoyment and the memory of that play right out of me, which might explain why the number one hashtag is that s trending right now is #BoycottHamilton. Featured image via screengrab
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When they go low we go high -Former First Lady Michelle Obama explaining how Democrats take the high roadSince @dailycaller and @peterjhasson think tweets are worse than putting ppls lives at risk, please show them all the love they deserve Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 6, 2017He didn t stop there however, the unhinged Eichenwald kept ranting. He went on to suggest that people should start dropping dead bodies off at FOX News:With Fox News saying ppl with preexisting conditions exaggerate the impact of no insurance, we should have our dead bodies dropped there. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 6, 2017His tweets keep getting more and more insane, like this one where he suggests Republican want to kill Americans for tax cuts:I've sometimes wondered if Republicans would even kill for tax cuts. Now we know. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 5, 2017Or this one where Eichenwald says Evangelicals who have insurance are Satan :Since Evangelicals are now saying ppl can do w/o insurance because it helps bring them to God, evangelicals w/ insurance clearly love Satan. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 5, 2017Eichenwald doubles down on his visceral hate for anyone who holds an opposing view with this vile tweet, where he confirms to everyone who follows him or reads his tweets that liberalism is indeed, a mental disorder:Millions like me tonight dont know if GOP "health" bill will pass & kill them. I hope those who vote for it someday face same anguish we do. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 6, 2017Eichenwald issued a statement in response to the Daily Caller article. It can be found here.
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that the European Union and the United States would continue to work together following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. “EU-U.S. ties are deeper than any change in politics. We’ll continue to work together, rediscovering the strength of Europe,” Mogherini, high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a tweet. EU officials and diplomats said European governments may need to strengthen their own cooperation if a Trump administration pulls back from international commitments.
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DES MOINES (Reuters) - Texas Senator Ted Cruz was victorious in the first Republican nomination contest of the 2016 White House race, but there was another big winner in Iowa on Monday night: Florida Senator Marco Rubio and the Republican establishment. For months, Cruz and Donald Trump’s brand of angry, scorched-earth, insurgent politics defined the race for the Republican presidential nomination, while more moderate candidates tussled with themselves to try to mount a challenge to them. The hope among Republican party leaders has long been for a champion to emerge. And on Monday, that person was Rubio, who finished a hair behind Trump and only a few points behind Cruz. When Rubio took the stage in a hotel ballroom after the final results were announced, he gave what amounted to a victory speech. “This is the moment they said would never happen,” the first-term senator said. “For months, they told us we had no chance.” The fight for the nomination has unmistakably entered a new phase. “We have a three-way race,” said Craig Robinson, the former political director of the Iowa Republican Party. Rubio’s night shocked Iowa political observers like Robinson, who had predicted Rubio would wind up far behind Trump and Cruz, with perhaps around 15-18 percent of the vote. He finished with 23 percent. Rubio’s performance will strengthen his argument that supporters of other moderate, establishment candidates such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Ohio governor John Kasich should throw their support, and their money, behind him. Rubio could use the extra cash. His campaign committee raised just over $14 million from donors in the fourth quarter of 2015, putting him well behind Cruz, who brought in more than $20 million. To date, his campaign has raised nearly $40 million, while Cruz has raised $47 million. Rubio’s Super PAC, which can raise unlimited funds as long as it does not coordinate directly with him, also trails the PACs supporting Cruz. It pulled in $30.5 million last year, while Cruz’s PACs raked in $42 million. Trump, a billionaire, largely self-funds his campaign. Rubio’s third place finish in Iowa means he “is the consensus establishment candidate,” said Douglas Gross, a Republican strategist in Des Moines. Rubio flew to New Hampshire on Monday evening and will likely begin making that argument to voters there ahead of the state’s primary, or early nominating contest, on Feb. 10. On the campaign trail in Iowa, Rubio railed at many of the same targets as Cruz and Trump: Islamic State, immigration and President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, popularly known as Obamacare. But he embedded his criticism within a more optimistic, inclusive message. The American-born son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio would be the first Hispanic president. “It’s not enough to just be angry,” Rubio told voters during last-minute campaigning in the weekend before the caucus vote. “Anger is not a plan. Anger is not solution.” Iowans who supported Rubio at the caucuses told Reuters they responded to his positive message and viewed him as the best candidate to beat Hillary Clinton in the November election, should she be the Democratic nominee. “I’ve been looking for someone who really will be an agent for change and I think Marco Rubio will be that guy,” said Kevin Huerkamp, 56, of Clive, Iowa. According to election returns, Rubio swamped both Cruz and Trump in Iowa’s urban areas - Des Moines, Iowa City, Davenport -suggesting that he could prosper when the Republican race progresses to denser, more populated states such as Florida and Ohio. (This story has been refiled to replace Rubio’s name in last paragraph with Trump’s)
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(Reuters) - Carly Fiorina was so happy to be named U.S. presidential hopeful Ted Cruz’s running mate, she broke into song during her acceptance speech. But the chorus that greeted her on social media was anything but complimentary. Cruz announced at a rally on Wednesday in Indianapolis that the former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard would join his ticket. But the unveiling faced scorn on social media after she started to sing while addressing the crowd. "I know two girls that I just adore," crooned Fiorina, in reference to Cruz's two daughters, Caroline and Catherine. "I'm so happy I can see them more. 'Cuz we travel on the bus all day; we get to play." (here) Twitter users reacted with bewilderment, mocking Fiorina over her singing. “Carly Fiorina started singing at a rally where she’s named VP by a candidate who ain’t getting the nod,” tweeted writer and Ebony columnist Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick). “This election is hilarious.” “Fiorina is singing and it’s extremely creepy,” tweeted Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), the politics lead with news agency Storyful. “You know this was a joke but then she literally went and sang at the event,” tweeted joseito (@go_oat). After suffering a series of crushing losses to Trump in nominating contests on Tuesday, Cruz praised Fiorina as a principled fighter for conservative values who knew how to create jobs and would be a valuable ally on the campaign trail.
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21st Century Wire Yesterday, Judge Anna Brown handed out not guilty verdicts to both Ammon and Ryan Bundy, leaders of the 41 day occupation of Malheur National Wildlife refuge near Burns, Oregon earlier this year. The Bundys along with five other defendants, were acquitted of all major charges relating to the Oregon protest event, including conspiring to impede refuge employees and possession of firearms at a federal facility. Ammon Bundy led the protest in Oregon in January 2016.Ammon and Ryan Bundy are still being held in custody however, awaiting a second trial will they will face federal charges in the state of Nevada over the high-profile Bundy Ranch Standoff with the employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) near Bunkerville in April 2014.The Burns standoff came to an abrupt end after one protest spokesman and Arizona resident, Robert LaVoy Finicum (photo, left), died after police fired on protester vehicles, before a special federal tactical team tracked, shot and killed the rancher at a pre-planned ambush along a remote rural road outside of Burns.Not surprisingly, the surprise acquittal has sent Democratic Party-linked media outlets into a tail spin. The New York Times still labelled the the Bundy brothers as Armed antigovernment protesters indicating a hyperbolic editorial bias against the defendants which was visible through the trajectory of this story.Similarly, both Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Harney County Sheriff David Ward are on record saying that were not happy with Friday s verdict, not surprisingly, as both these officials played a crucial role in the state s escalation of violence which colminated in Finicum s death. Brown even issued a public statement saying she was disappointed the jury s decision.Despite a campaign of highly coordinated trial by media propaganda, led by the Oregonian Newspaper and other federal-leaning media outlets like the Washington Post, and ultra-liberal websites like Salon.com the jury was still able to judge the facts, and eventually ruled on the side of the protesters. I knew that what my husband was doing was right, but I was nervous because the judge was controlling the narrative, said Angela Bundy, 39, wife of Ryan to a Times reporter.According to one juror, the verdict was a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution to prove that there was a conspiracy indicating that the federal government s botched affair might have been down to over-zealous political atmosphere in Washington that led to proscecutors going for a completely over-the-top set of charges in order to make a political statment instead of just sticking to the facts and Constiutional law.Police Tase Bundy Lawyer in CourtroomRight after the verdict was rendered, a bizarre courtroom scene erupted which ended in one of the Bundy s defense lawyers was tased and taken into custody after he asked the court to produce paperwork showing the order to rearrest his client. Attorney Marcus Mumford was visibly shaken after the incident.Watch the video testimony of Mumford here: READ MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files
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Nothing good can come out of a protest over a thug who was shot to death by a cop defending his own life in a town that was ravaged, looted and burned by more out-of-control thugs. All of these acts were inspired by our racist President and his former, lawless Attorney General Eric Holder. How many more innocent lives will be lost or businesses destroyed over the lie that Michael Brown was innocent and had his hands up when he was shot? Gunfire broke out after a car mowed down a protester in Ferguson, Missouri on the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Several people were injured, at least one person seriously.***WARNING***Extremely Graphic Video***The Tuesday night protest took place near and in the street, and the demonstrators sometimes impeded traffic, but retreated from the roadway when warned by police.The man was reported to be badly injured, and was taken by a private car to a hospital, Cowan told The Chicago Tribune.Police responded to reports of gunfire, but found no evidence that anyone had been hit by a bullet, said Ferguson PD spokesman Jeff Small.The 2014 death of Brown at the hands of Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, was the catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. Via: RT
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NAACP President becomes victim in 5 4 3 2 1 North Carolina NAACP President William Barber was removed from a flight in Washington, D.C., Friday night after he was deemed a disruptive passenger by an American Airlines pilot.Barber wrote in a statement that he had boarded the plane and was sitting in the two seats he had purchased when he overheard a man sitting behind him talking loudly. Barber says after he asked a flight attended to ask the man to lower his voice, that s when the altercation started. But as she left, I heard him saying distasteful and disparaging things about me, Barber said in the statement. He had problems with those people and he spoke harshly about my need for two seats, among other subjects. Barber says he purchased two seat because of a physical disability, the same ailment that caused him to stand up instead of simply turning his head to confront the passenger behind him. I asked him why he was saying such things, and I said he did not know me, my condition, and I added I would pray for him, Barber said.The police were called and Barber was escorted off the plane.Via: Breitbart News
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The USAA financial services firm is reinstating its advertising on Sean Hannity s Fox News Channel program after receiving heavy criticism for its initial decision from many of the military members and veterans that it serves.The San Antonio, Texas-based company said Tuesday it will also start advertising again on other programs where it had suspended ads, including Hardball and The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, and Jake Tapper s The Lead on CNN.Following Hannity s reporting on (what the AP calls a discredited conspiracy theory) involving the death of a Democratic National Committee staff member, the liberal advocacy group Media Matters last week posted a list of his show s advertisers and USAA was one of 10 to say it was pulling its commercials. At the time, the USAA said the company s policy was to avoid politically opinionated shows.But many of USAA s customers reacted angrily, and it didn t help when the company s advertising on other opinion shows was pointed out.USAA said it wasn t trying to favor one set of political views over another. We heard concerns from many members who watch and listen to these programs, USAA said in a statement on Tuesday. Our goal in advertising has always been to reach members of the military community who would benefit from USAA s well-known commitment to service. Today, the lines between news and editorial are increasingly blurred. The advertising is returning while the company reviews its policy about avoiding the opinion shows.Hannity was due to return to Fox Tuesday following a brief vacation. He had said he would no longer talk about the shooting death of Seth Rich last year following pleas from the man s family, although his network had retracted an online story about Rich because it hadn t met its reporting standards.Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, said he wasn t surprised by USAA s decision, given the avalanche of protests. His group was behind mobilizing that backlash, and said its members generated more than 1,600 phone calls to USAA within 48 hours. AP
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21st Century Wire says A tidal wave of revelations is pouring out of the Clinton campaign as the 2016 presidential election draws to a close. MELTDOWN The Clinton campaign continues to unravel following a series of troubling details. (Photo illustration 21WIRE)Over the weekend, it was discovered through a Wikileaks email dump, that Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, John Podesta s top aide, had an email exchange with Michael Lux of Progressive Strategies revealing that the Democratic consultant Robert Creamer of Democracy Partners, was closely allied with Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. POLITICAL BOMBSHELL Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook had close ties to disgraced DNC consultant Robert Creamer. (Image Source: Lockerdome)Creamer gained national attention when he became the subject of video sting operation captured by the investigative non-profit Project Veritas. Not only was it revealed that the Creamer discussed ways to commit voter fraud and violence at Donald Trump rallies on camera he also met with White House officials some 342 times over the past year, including 47 private meetings with President Obama or other senior officials. DNC SCANDAL Robert Creamer of Democracy Partners and Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. (Image Source: National Vanguard)Creamer s visits to the White House also included his wife, a 9-term Illinois Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.White House visitor records have shown that Schakowsky took 47 private meetings with Obama or his senior staff, over the past year. The consultancy Democracy Partners appears to have applied Schakowsky as a political buffering point, in the event of a fallout over their operations at a grassroots level. The nature of this type of procedural separation is to keep certain high-ranking officials of the hook in case of a massive upheaval over various underhanded campaign tactics, potentially giving the Clinton campaign and the DNC plausible deniability.The Mook fallout is the latest in a laundry list of problems for the Clinton campaign and comes at a time when interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, is embroiled in controversy of over leaked debate questions prior to at least two 2016 town hall debates. Brazile stepped down from her role at CNN earlier in October. Here s a passage from the Daily Caller describing the scenario: Donna Brazile, the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, began providing town hall and debate questions to the Clinton campaign earlier than previously known, emails released by WikiLeaks on Monday show. The article continued by stating that the revelations expose that the interim DNC chair was more deeply involved than previously outlined: In the March 12 exchange, Brazile mentions [Roland] Martin by name and offers to provide more than just the one town hall question that she is known to have shared with the campaign. I ll send a few more. Though some questions Roland submitted, Brazile wrote to Palmieri in the March 12 email thread, which is entitled From time to time I get the questions in advance. Martin, is a commentator for TV One and the host of News One Now, as well as a CNN contributor.In another matter, the Wall Street Journal revealed the following, while disclosing an apparently contentious relationship between the FBI and DOJ, while the FBI appears to be somewhat fractured over the latest email server case developments: The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe [of the Terry McAuliffe campaign contribution scandal], the bureau s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a teenage minor, they had recovered a laptop. Many of the 650,000 emails on the computer, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter. Some critics have called for McCabe to recuse himself after it was revealed his wife received $675,000 from a well-known Clinton confidant, Terry McAuliffe. This was further underlined after the House Oversight Commitee wanted more information about the Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe and its ties to the Clintons.The alleged internal feud among agencies was compounded when Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates objected to FBI Director James Comey reopening the Clinton email server case this past week something that added to the Lynch/Clinton tarmac meeting before the first FBI ruling in the Clinton case.According to a report filed by Zero Hedge, a close friend of Podesta, Peter Kadzik, the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ), will be in charge of a probe into Huma Abedin, Clintion s closest aide.Interestingly, as a mountain of controversy envelops the Clinton campaign, the FBI is now conducting an early inquiry into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, over his alleged foreign business connections.Back in August, the following business connection was revealed by NBC news: In 2008, according to court records, senior Trump aide Paul Manafort s firm was involved with a Ukrainian oligarch named Dmytro Firtash in a plan to redevelop a famous New York hotel, the Drake. The total value of the project was $850 million. Firtash s company planned to invest over $100 million, the records say.That same year, Firtash acknowledged to the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine that he got his start in business with the permission of a notorious Russian crime lord, according to a classified State Department cable. Other cables say Firtash made part of his fortune through sweetheart natural gas deals between Russia and the Ukraine. Although the US State Department has determined that Firtash may have ties to a criminal enterprise in Russia so far, there s nothing directly linking Manafort to any underground element at this time.Watch this space as the Russia/Trump meme fostered by mainstream media or some other politically polarizing element will look to deflect from the Clinton campaign meltdown.More from LifeZette below OUT OF CONTROL? Wikileaks reveals Robby Mook s links to DNC contractor who discussed ways to commit voter fraud and violence. (Image Source: Slate)WikiLeaks: Trump Rally Agitator and Clinton Campaign Manager Are Close Top Clinton aides discussed Bob Creamer and his grassroots/netroots operationby Jim Stinson LifeZette Robert Creamer, the operative behind sending provocateurs to Donald Trump rallies, was close to Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton s campaign manager, according to new emails released by WikiLeaks.Creamer, who allegedly spearheaded the dirty tricks for the Democrats, wasn t just consulting for the Democratic National Committee, according to videos made by Project Veritas. He was sending people to provoke Trump at events.Creamer has thus become a red-hot issue in the campaign. And now it s apparent he is close to Mook. That surprising detail came out Sunday morning when WikiLeaks posted hundreds more emails from John Podesta s Gmail account. Podesta is Clinton s campaign chairman whose account was hacked in March.More from LifeZette here READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
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Midway through a lackluster freshman year at the University of San Diego, I called my parents and told them I planned to leave school after the spring semester. They took the news pretty well considering they had just shelled out more than $50, 000 in tuition and living expenses at one of the ritziest private universities in the country, a university where the gym bears the name of the dietitian Jenny Craig and some dorms feature an ocean view. Here, you could easily graduate unaware that 1 in 10 students at surrounding California State universities is estimated to be homeless. I listened to my father’s objections as I walked to the west edge of campus, passing the university’s big, whitewashed buildings, its meditation garden and its infinity pool, before I reached a spot where I could see San Diego’s entire Mission Bay and, beyond that, the Pacific. “If you leave now,” my father said, “you’ll never go back. ” He asked me to get permission from the school so I could return after a year, and I agreed. This made my departure a gap year — something I hadn’t considered up to that point. A lot of other Americans hadn’t either, until the White House announced that President Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, would take one before attending Harvard next fall. In coverage of Malia’s decision, conservative and liberal media alike called out the perceived elitism of gap years: “Malia Obama Taking a Gap Year Is the Ultimate Sign of Luxury” read the The New York Post headline. “Malia Obama’s ‘Gap Year’ Is Part of a Growing (and Expensive) Trend,” said The New York Times. Slate posed the question “Gap Years for Everyone?” — speculating that “a student who spends a year working to save up money would probably just call the experience ‘life. ’’u2009” Commenters on Twitter further demonstrated negativity: The idea that gap years are inherently elitist may be due to the potentially high cost of travel and of independent programs, which offer a structured experience — typically of adventure, service and more or less education — that can cost upward of $20, 000. But that criticism cuts against the realities most students already face — that is, average tuition and fees of $8, 940, or $28, 308 at private colleges, according to the College Board. When factoring in room, board and other expenses, this would mean spending about $100, 000 over five years at public colleges and more than double that at private ones. After five years, only 53 percent of students at public colleges have graduated. The remaining students will have racked up absurdly high expenses on the way to earning, or not earning, a degree. For them, regardless of what background they come from, time away from campus seems prudent. I certainly wasn’t alone in failing to think carefully before committing to college. I sometimes took three trips a day to the beach with other students. By second semester, most of my friends were less concerned with final exams than with finding the coolest house the fewest steps from the beach to live in the following year. And I would have been too, if I had stayed. I was already failing at least one class. And although my grades were not poor enough to be asked to leave school, I had lost the motivation to do anything but fulfill the minimum course requirements. I felt guilty for wasting so much money and I couldn’t see doing the same thing for three more years. Although I appreciated my parents’ support, I also recognized the extent to which it had become detrimental. Their attempts to eliminate any possibility of real failure had guaranteed its own kind of failure. Financial dependence had enabled me to make a major life decision, the decision to go to college, without taking personal ownership of it. I had managed to avoid thinking about why a degree mattered to me or how I hoped it would enrich my life. When applying to colleges, I had put down whatever fluff my high school counselors suggested for my admissions essays and was accepted by a few schools whose campus scenery had attracted me far more than the course offerings. A gap year presented itself as a chance to claim the independence that formalized education had not encouraged. It was an opportunity to discover a sense of purpose outside of school, to prompt some thinking on those questions before graduating. Without classes and the path to a degree as a crutch that gave structure to my days, I’d be forced to create a structure of my own. But my father wasn’t convinced that a gap year was the right decision. He let me know that if I left school, I wouldn’t receive any financial support. At the time, I viewed this as a threat. Now I see it as a first step toward allowing me the freedom I needed. I knew this wasn’t an easy concession for him. The dependence that many parents encourage — throughout college and even after their children leave home — is now commonplace. In her book “Parenting to a Degree,” the sociologist Laura T. Hamilton documents cases in which a parent comes to the rescue with homework help or buys a daughter clothes so she fits in better with her sorority sisters. What’s often lost in these stories — and the predictable rants on the negative effects of helicopter parenting — is the question of what responsibility children have, as they get older, to put an end to patterns of dependency. It was difficult making a clean break from those patterns to figure out what I wanted to do for the unstructured year ahead. Most of the information I found on gap years was written for parents, by parents. It seemed to miss the point, at least the point as I saw it: to loosen the parental grip so that students can develop an educational framework of their own. While working summer jobs to save money, I found an internship at Surfer magazine in Orange County and reported for duty in late August. I slept in my car the first two nights and rinsed off in the ocean before work until I found an affordable place to rent, and because the internship was unpaid, a job at a store where I could work evenings. As I quickly learned, a food store that defines itself by what it doesn’t have tends to attract a clientele. I took turns providing customers with my and stocking shelves, which I did with a recent college graduate who could not find employment that put his degree to good use and with a woman who claimed to hate the taste of water so much that she drank only juice. This wasn’t the kind of job I wanted to hold for the rest of my working days. Showing up at the store after a day at Surfer, where the editors had some level of engagement with the tasks at hand, prompted career reflection like never before. It was refreshing, after a school year filled with so much apathy, to meet people who seemed to actually care about their work. At the same time, entering the work force made the burden of assuming debt — and my own privileged ability to attend college free of loans — visible in ways that continuing on in school would have never allowed. I came to realize what it meant to take a college education for granted. Aside from opportunities for unpaid internships, I found few options for learning experiences during my gap year. According to the nonprofit American Gap Association, about 1 percent of students in the United States take gap years. By contrast, in Australia and certain European countries, gap years are encouraged as part of the educational process 17 percent of students in the United Kingdom participate in a gap year, according to one study by its department of education. More colleges in the United States are encouraging applicants to consider a “bridge” year before enrolling, and many independent programs and some campuses — like Florida State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Princeton and Tufts — even offer fellowships and financial aid. Ethan Knight, the executive director at the American Gap Association, still sees the need for greater support to encourage a more diverse set of students to participate. “You can get access to Pell funding to go to beauty school,” he said. “There’s certainly as much learning to be had in a gap year as there is in beauty school. So why shouldn’t students be able to earn access to Pell and other government grants for certain gap year experiences?” Mr. Knight pointed to opportunities that could be valuable, such as traveling abroad to learn languages that the State Department views as critical. But federal grants are contingent on receiving college credit, making them unavailable to anyone taking a year off school. In its own way, my limited options became a rewarding educational challenge. In the winter, I moved to Puerto Rico, scrubbed dishes in a locally owned hotel restaurant for $5 an hour, found a used car for $450, and shared a for $400 a month. I ate leftovers off dirty dishes in the restaurant. I cleaned the deep fryers, the garbage bins and the vomit left in the bathrooms by East Coast vacationers. All the other employees at the restaurant spoke in Spanish, and I was perceived as dumb for not speaking fluently. I’d seen the same thing happen at home to whose first language was not English, although it had never fully registered until our roles were reversed. Experiencing these humiliations was a lot easier knowing I had the freedom to leave at any time. Still, it poked holes in my comfort with, and blindness to, some of the inequalities I had grown up with, making them harder to ignore when I left the restaurant behind. And I did leave the restaurant behind, as soon as I had saved enough money to travel for a few months. I bought a plane ticket to Indonesia, rented a motorbike there, and traveled island to island by ferry. The trip was not without its mishaps. To name a few: I was bitten by a monkey got in a motorbike accident lost a good amount of skin on my hands, chest, back, legs and feet in numerous brushes with coral while surfing got a raging ear infection surfing too close to a polluted river mouth after it rained. I did not want my parents to worry, and so I took care to avoid mentioning these hiccups in sporadic calls and emails home from Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Java and Sumatra. What I did mention to my parents, much to their satisfaction, was that I actually looked forward to returning to college in the fall. Time free from the obligations of schoolwork had enabled me to realize my passion for writing, and to apply this to an English major, where I would discover the most formative classes and professors of my education. With this newfound interest I experienced many of the benefits that gap years are said to provide: Studies show that students who take time off before graduating increase their averages, drink less when in college, and go on to find more fulfilling career paths. It also helped me graduate in only two and a half more years — one semester behind where I should have if I’d stayed in school. After graduating, too, I found satisfying work (for a few years, editing a surf magazine). Looking back, though, it would be hard to identify anything from that year as a formula for success. But that was exactly the point. I stocked shelves, scrubbed dishes, did an unpaid internship and traveled. My performance in school did improve afterward, but if I’d thought about chasing those results, or recommended those experiences to others, there’s just no way the same benefits would follow. While there’s certainly a place for making those kinds of calculations, a gap year was about removing those expectations, at least temporarily. It was a time when education ceased to be an act of dependence, an act of fulfilling my parents’ wishes. Only then could the act of graduating from college become a move toward independence. Only then could I make space for education to have value of its own.
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by Yves Smith
Private equity shills are readying the Blame Cannon for the industry’s widely forecast fall in returns.
Who are the allies of the private equity firms attempting to villianize as the cause of deteriorating performance? Not the 0.1% Masters of the Universe, who are always and every the sole cause of Good Things but never never to be found when Bad Things occur. No, it’s those evil “populists” interfering with the proper operation of the world according to private equity that is messing up returns.
We’re not making this up. From the Wall Street Journal :
The rise of “populist” politicians in western nations could challenge the ability of private-equity firms to do business and make money, according to a report from Hamilton Lane, one of the largest advisers to investors in the industry.
The backlash against globalization may cause higher taxes on private-equity firms, create more regulation, drive more volatility and restrict economic growth, Hamilton Lane’s annual review said.
This is utterly ludicrous if you’ve been paying attention.
From the first half of 2015, the average EBITDA multiple for PE purchases was over 10X, higher than the peak of the last cycle, in 2007. Even limited partners who are leery of saying a bad word about private equity, like CIO Chris Ailman of CalSTRS, described PE acquisitions as “priced to perfection” . The trading prices of the private equity firms that are public shows that equity market investors believe that private equity firms will not earn any carry fees over the next couple of years.
And as we’ve pointed out repeatedly, since the second half of 2015, senior officers of prominent private equity firms have increasingly been warning that private equity returns going forward will be lower than levels of the past. And none of them used Putin, um, Trump, um populism as the excuse for why returns were going to decline.
Hamilton Lane has more reason than most to blame private equity’s declining fortunes on external forces rather than the obvious factors of too much money chasing too many deals, and if the Fed ever pulls it off, rising interest rates being particularly punitive to high risk strategies like private equity, which is fundamentally levered equity. As we’ve pointed out, private equity has doubled its share of global equity from 2005 to 2014.
Hamilton Lane is not just a consultant to private equity; it is deeply conflicted by virtue of being a private equity fund of fund manager, which means it needs to play nice with the general partners in order to maintain access to funds. And the limited partners it has advised on private equity need excuses they can take to their boards and broader constituencies when private equity returns fizzle. So it’s easy to blame those nasty anti-capitalists rather than admit that private equity has always been a cyclical play and the end of a cycle is nigh. In fact, it should have occurred after the 2007 deal frenzy, but private equity was an accidental beneficiary of central banks’“rescue the financial system” emergency operations, and got a stay of execution.
In a sign that the public is getting smarter about private equity, 80% of the comments on the Wall Street Journal story were not buying what Hamilton Lane was selling. The other 20% were general criticism of populism rather than votes of support for private equity.
This skew should not be surprising given some of the strained claims Hamilton Lane made. Notice in the quote above that the first, and presumably therefore the most important problem for private equity was “higher taxes on private-equity firms,” which almost certainly refers to closing the carried interest loophole. But readers are supposed to believe that that would dent their ability to make money for investors, when those investors are almost without exception exempt from US taxes.
Now some private equity industry members have stomped their feet and said they’d quit if they had to pay more taxes. It’s hard to take this hissy fit seriously since there are not other lines of work in which they’d earn remotely comparable pay even with a bigger tax bill. At the largest firms, the typical annual pay is eight figures, and for the top dogs at big and some medium-large funds, nine figures.
And it’s not as if “talent” makes as much of a difference as the general partners would have you believe. Industry data shows that no one has a secret sauce. Top quartile funds are less likely to perform well in the next period then by chance. An investor in private equity should stop wasting time picking winners. They should try to avoid crooks and otherwise attempt to index.
So who might leave the industry if anyone? The departures are more likely to take place at the smallest funds or ones with mediocre performance, since the difference in tax treatment would have a bigger impact on the ability of the principals to maintain what is perceived to be an adequate lifestyle.
Ironically, thinning out the marginal players is if anything likely to be salutary for industry performance. With too much competition for deals, the winning bid is often made by someone who is desperate to win a deal (as in their investors perceive them to be too slow at putting money to work) or not well informed.
But the Hamilton Lane whinge is a harbinger of the sort of excuses you can expect to hear from both general partners and limited partners over the coming years, the tired old “whocoulddanode?” in new garb. 0 0 0 0 1 0
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Is it really possible to describe Donald Trump with just one word? Certainly a few come to mind. Try and pick just one, though. Which one comes to mind first?The conservative media outlet The Blaze trolled a Bernie Sanders event recently and posted a video of Bernie supporters describing both Bernie and Donald Trump with just one word. It wasn t exactly a hit piece; all of Sanders supporters responding enthusiastically for their candidate while completely lambasting Trump. Not much news there. All it did was tell us what we already know, Bernie supporters don t exactly think Trump is all that amazing.First, here are the words most commonly used to depict Bernie Sanders: Inspirational. Consistent. Amazing. Awesome. Equality. Honest. Logical. Compare that to what they think of Trump: Disgusting. Dishonest. **shole. Racist. Bigot. Evil. Insane. Sounds about right.It really just looks like The Blaze likes Bernie Sanders events. Maybe they re #feelingthebern, too? They seem to go there a lot. Although, they didn t particularly like a video of Sanders mocking Republicans Family Values during a speech he gave in Iowa on Friday.Here s what Bernie had to say about Republican s so-called values: They love families. Can t stop talking about families. When Republicans talk about family values what they are saying is that no woman in this room in this country, should have the right to control their own body. I DISAGREE. The race is tight and it s anybody s guess as to who will win Iowa. Bernie s campaign is counting on younger voters to help win the day for him he does have far more of them than any other candidate from either party, after all. When these very same voters get older there will be a dramatic paradigm shift to the left on issues but as of right now it s not clear if the younger vote will help Bernie defeat Hillary. Perhaps it s fitting that we get more of their opinions to see where this country is heading, though. It certainly isn t in the way of Donald Trump.Featured image from screen capture
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A Democratic Senator tried to compare Trump nominee Kathleen Hartnett White to a horse during testimony before members of the Environment and Public Works Committee .Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse tried to relate a story of Caligula s horse to the nominee but it went over like a lead balloon. We could start off by saying as a rule of thumb that a woman should never be compared to a horse Not a good idea. This arrogant and insensitive Senator thought he would get away with demeaning Ms. White .Watch what happens when Senator Barrasso gets his two cents worth in The committee voted to confirm White s nomination to lead the White House s Council on Environmental Quality, Wednesday.Washington Free Beacon reports:During a business meeting prior to the party-line vote, Whitehouse likened White to the ancient Roman emperor Caligula s horse: There is a popular legend of the Emperor Caligula appointing his horse to the Roman Senate, Whitehouse said. Had he done that, it would have raised important questions, but the real questions would not have been about the horse. The horse was just a horse. The real questions would have been about the power of the Emperor Caligula and the spine of the Roman Senate. Discussing the merits of the horse would be pointless. Approving this nominee for CEQ would be so preposterous that it would be like appointing Caligula s horse, in that the real question becomes about the power of our fossil fuel emperors and the spine of the Senate, he said. This is a moment in which the Senate takes its own measure. I guess we re about to see the answer. Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) quickly condemned Whitehouse s remarks: Let me just say that comparing Ms. White to a horse, as one of our Democrat colleagues just did, to me is a new low, Barrasso said. It s disturbing, it s demeaning, and it s dehumanizing.
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In a sorry attempt to smear the protester who allegedly threatened Trump with a sign in Reno, people are already working on creating fake connections for Austyn Crites, who didn t even have the gun the Trumpkins at the Reno rally claimed. Since the original story disintegrated before their eyes, they re now turning to other, ahem, methods to show that Hillary was really behind Crites non-assassination attempt.Crites is a #NeverTrumper, but is still a Republican and has no ties to Hillary that anyone s aware of. Nevertheless, Trump is among the first who tried to paint him as such by asking how much Hillary had paid him to protest at his rally. That was just before he told his people to get Crites out of there.There are stories floating around claiming that, because Crites name has been mentioned on Wikileaks, he must be a paid Hillary shill. Nobody could ever possibly show up on the joke that is Wikileaks if they re not connected to Hillary in some way, right? Right. Ha. Crites name apparently does show up on Wikileaks, but even this right-wing site says they re not in connection with any of Podesta s emails. Rather, he shows up in connection with a company called Stratfor, which is a global intelligence agency The Atlantic characterizes as just The Economist a week later and several hundred times more expensive. Yet Wikileaks claims that Stratfor is a front for a global network of shadowy informants and spies, and even publishes its payment laundering scheme for those people. The truth is that Stratfor is, more or less, a joke among analysts and others who actually know what s going on in the world, and their methods of information gathering are no different than journalistic methods.In other words, in reporting this, Wikileaks appears desperate to The Atlantic, and the people screaming SMOKING HILLARY GUN!! because Crites name appears in a few Wikileaks dumps are just as pitifully desperate.They don t care, though. They re going about their task of exposing the connection between Trump s assassin and Hillary with all the gleeful abandon there is in the badly misinformed, paranoid extremist.Mediaite also found evidence that these poor, desperate souls are creating fake profiles for Austyn Crites trying to link him to Hillary. The one that they screencapped is a little too obvious to be serious because it lists him as a money launderer for the Clinton Foundation and a paid protester for the DNC. It also claims he studied Civil Disobedience at the University of Chicago s Booth School of Business.They re getting just flat out ridiculous now, especially given that James Comey just crushed their hopes of any indictment against Hillary over new emails, and the Secret Service destroyed their dreams of proving that Hillary s hiring people to murder Donald Trump.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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More debates! Fewer candidates! We're still talking about Iowa! It's your Thursday edition of For the Record ... let's get to it!
Two more Republican candidates dropped out of the race Wednesday, leaving eight candidates (nine if you count Jim Gilmore, but that's like counting Pluto as still being a planet). Senator Rand Paul is out, dealing a blow to anyone who wanted to make political donations solely in Bitcoin; 2012 Iowa Caucus winner Rick Santorum also suspended his campaign.
After careful consideration, Santorum threw his 0.4% worth of influence at Marco Rubio, while Paul says he won't make any endorsements in the primary — though he says he'll back the eventual Republican nominee.
For Paul, he returns to Kentucky to focus full-time on his re-election campaign for Senate. A few months back, Paul said he'd give up to $500,000 to help pay for an early Kentucky caucus, which would have enabled him to run both for president and senator for a few months longer (here's hoping he kept the receipt).
Rick Santorum, meanwhile, is heading home to binge-watch "Touched by an Angel" on Netflix.
On the Kübler-Ross model of grief, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are stuck on "denial" about the Iowa results. (You might say that Trump is on "anger" but no, he's just like that.) On the Democratic side, the official results say Hillary Clinton edged Sanders by 0.29%, one of the closest caucuses in Iowa history; still Team Sanders is looking into how coin-flipping in some precincts affected the ultimate outcome. (One question still unanswered: If a coin landed on its edge, did those delegates go to Martin O'Malley?)
On the Republican side, Donald Trump is calling for a complete do-over based on Ted Cruz staffers spreading rumors that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race, and encouraging Cruz's precinct captains to try to lure Carson supporters to their side. Trump is insisting actually won the caucuses based on his strong pre-debate poll numbers.
So why were the polls and caucus results different? Experts are suggesting it was a strong get-out-the-vote effort by Cruz, plus a number of last-minute deciders, plus the decline of land lines and the increase in cellphone use, which actually makes a lot of sense because "SORRY NEW PHONE WHO IS THIS" was pulling in 8% support in late January.
There's another Democratic debate tonight (9 p.m. EST on MSNBC), this time with only Hillary and Bernie on the stage. O'Malley, who dropped out of the race following the Iowa caucuses, will see no significant decrease in speaking time.
"But wait, this debate wasn't on the original schedule," said no normal person anywhere. It's true, this debate is one of four added to the Democratic debate schedule just as the race gets more heated. Yesterday the two campaigns argued over Twitter about the definition of "progressive," a debate that spilled over into last night's town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire. The tl;dr version: Sanders says Clinton is too moderate on military intervention, the financial industry and trade; Clinton says compromise is needed because "(a)n important part of being a progressive is making progress." The fun part will be during the general election, when the Democratic nominee will spend months telling the country how centrist and mainstream they are.
If the political gods formed a human out of campaign contributions and sadness and then made it run for president, this is what it would look like.
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COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - At least two people have died after a boat carrying refugees fleeing Myanmar capsized on its way to Bangladesh on Sunday, local authorities told Reuters. The boat sank near Shah Porir Dwip, on the southern tip of Bangladesh, said Lieutenant Colonel Ariful Islam, the local commander of Border Guard Bangladesh. He confirmed via SMS that the bodies of a boy and an elderly woman had been recovered in the water while eight others had been rescued. The rescue operation was ongoing on early Monday morning, local time, and the number of missing unknown, he said. More than 500,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when an attack by Rohingya militants on police and military posts in Rakhine State sparked a ferocious response from Myanmar s security forces which the United Nations described as ethnic cleansing . Myanmar s government denies the allegations of ethnic cleansing and has labeled as terrorists the militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who launched the initial attacks. Six weeks after the violence erupted, Rohingya continue to stream into neighboring Bangladesh by land and sea amid reports that Myanmar s military and Buddhist mobs have targeted Rohingyas with summary killings and burned villages. Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist nation, does not recognize the Rohingya Muslims as citizens, even though many have lived in Rakhine for generations. After waves of violence in the past five years, about 1 million Rohingya have been forced to move to Bangladesh. The overturned vessel is the latest of a series of deadly mishaps at sea involving Rohingya refugees. Most recently, on Sept. 28, a boat carrying about 80 refugees overturned. Seventeen survived, while 23 were confirmed dead and the remainder declared missing. On Sept. 6, 46 bodies were recovered after another boat sunk in the narrow stretch of water that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. Among the dead were 19 children, 18 women and 9 men.
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HARARE (Reuters) - The head of the youth wing of Zimbabwe s ruling party on Wednesday publicly apologized on state television to the military, which has seized power saying it aims to isolate criminals in President Robert Mugabe s entourage. Kudzai Chipanga, whose powerful ZANU-PF youth wing has been a strong supporter of Mugabe and his wife Grace, said he had voluntarily given his statement apologizing for denigrating defense forces chief General Constantino Chiwenga. It was an abrupt about-face for Chipanga, who on Tuesday accused the army chief of subverting the constitution. Defending the revolution and our leader and president is an ideal we live for and if need be it is a principle we are prepared to die for, Chipanga had said at the party s headquarters in Harare.
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Bernie Sanders is on fire, especially after this weekend s resounding victories in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii, which have propelled the Democratic presidential hopeful s campaign to unprecedented momentum as the Democratic primary moves forward. Speaking in front of a crowd of thousands in Wisconsin on Saturday, Sanders said: Let me begin by thanking the people of Alaska for giving us a resounding victory tonight. We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton s lead and we have with your support coming here to Wisconsin, we have a path toward victory. Alright, are you ready for a news alert? We just won the state of Washington. The crowd then erupted. Now, there s a new ad that celebrates those weekend victories with Bernie dancing to the tune of the song The bird is the word, which plays off of the bird that landed on a podium earlier in the week while Sanders was speaking in Portland, Oregon, hence the new nickname Birdie Sanders. The ad highlights the landslide victories in Washington and Alaska on Saturday, and Idaho and Utah earlier in the week.The victories are quite impressive because of the sheer number of voters who overwhelmingly supported Sanders. In Idaho, he won with 78% of the vote. While in Utah he received 79%, Alaska 81%, Washington 72%, and Hawaii with 70%.The Sanders campaign definitely seems to be gaining momentum towards the possibility getting the Democratic nomination. It will be interesting to see how this may help him going forward through upcoming primaries.Watch video here: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgd3kmaosc]Featured image via video screenshot.
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Steve Bannon, Donald Trump s new campaign CEO, is the former chairman of the radical alt-right media company Breitbart. On Sunday, Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter and former Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella explained that the site is the de facto SuperPAC of Donald Trump. The two, along with former NPR CEO, Ken Stern explained the significance of the merger.Stelter begins the segment by describing the political merger as Trumpbart. We could call it a political merger, Trumpbart. This week, GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway became the new face of Donald Trump s campaign, appearing all across TV. But it s Steve Bannon who may be the new inner voice of the campaign. Until Tuesday, he was the executive chairman of the far-right website Breitbart. On Wednesday, he became the Trump campaign s CEO. Stelter asks Bardell to describe Breitbart to people who may not be familiar with the media site. Bardell responds, saying: I think you look at it as the de facto SuperPAC of Donald Trump. And really for the last year, year and a half in the Republican primary, they have been the rapid response arm of the Trump campaign. Anytime anything, Bardell says before being interrupted by Stelter. Rapid response arm of the Trump campaign? Let s underscore that You re saying it s even, what, further to the right than Fox News? Oh my gosh, it s not even a they make Fox News look like MSNBC, Bardella clarifies. I think that any time that there was a controversy, something that Trump may have said that was generating headlines, Breitbart was the first destination that you could go to to see in real time what the Trump line of thinking was. It was the most sympathetic voice for Trump, and anytime that anyone in the mainstream media would in any way, characterize, or attack, or question Trump s tactics, they were the place that you could go to for that sympathetic ear for Trump. This merger comes at an odd time for the Trump campaign it might end up being Breitbart that benefits from the merger. Trump has already tried and failed to pivot to the center multiple times on his most controversial positions. Having Bannon on board his campaign is only going to make that task that much more difficult. Breitbart, on the other hand, has a spokesman who they can use to make whatever reactionary conspiracy they might have go mainstream.You can watch the segment below.Featured image from video screenshot
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Donald Trump s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, doesn t just have trouble with grammar. Apparently, she struggles with American history as well.Following Trump s meeting with the leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), DeVos sent out a tweet that can only be described as completely clueless. According to the new education secretary, HBCUs are pioneers of school choice. Wowwowwow. These paragraphs are from a real, official US Department of Education statement from Betsy DeVos released today. pic.twitter.com/I2FDZfzdmt Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) February 28, 2017DeVos couldn t have gotten things more backward if she had tried. Historically black schools aren t models of school choice. In fact, it is the exact opposite. These schools arose because there was no choice. Slaves were forbidden from learning how to read and write. Following their emancipation, most white schools refused to let black students in.The first HBCUs were started to educate black teachers so that black children would have a shot at receiving any type of education at all. Later, in addition to the private institutions that had been founded, southern states set up public colleges to serve blacks rather than integrate existing schools.If DeVos really believes this is something to aspire to, it certainly does explain a lot. As secretary of education, she plans to fix our broken education system by diverting federal funds from public schools to private schools, which are largely unregulated. Critics argue that this will serve only to accelerate the resegregation of American schools.Following the integration of public schools in America, white parents who didn t want their children to share classrooms with black students opted to send their children to private schools. In the decade following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, approximately half a million white students left public schools for private ones.Maybe DeVos isn t just an idiot with no understanding of history after all. Between her tweet and her vision for the future of American schools, we are forced to ask if taking our children and their education back to the days of Jim Crow has really been her intention all along.Featured image via Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Sen. Ted Cruz may be seeing a surge in the Republican primaries, but that s probably just because voters don t know him well enough yet. If ever there were a more unlikable person running for president, you d be hard pressed to find him, just ask anyone literally anyone who has ever had the misfortune of knowing Ted Cruz on a personal level.While it s not surprising that most Democrats view Cruz and his right-wing policies as morally abhorrent and intellectually idiotic, members of his own party are sounding the alarm as well. This week, former presidential candidate Bob Dole broke ranks and very publicly went after Cruz, dropping some uncomfortable truth bombs. I question his allegiance to the party, Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. I don t know how often you ve heard him say the word Republican not very often. Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word conservative, Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: extremist. I don t know how he s going to deal with Congress, he said. Nobody likes him. Dole is being a bit too kind to Cruz, though. His allegiance isn t to Republicans or conservatives it s to Ted Cruz. This is the man, after all, who almost unilaterally orchestrated a government shutdown to prove an insane political point about Obamacare. It cost the country billions, destroyed America s financial credibility overseas, and ultimately accomplished nothing but it did get Cruz s name out there. Would Cruz do it again? In fact, he s already tried.But it s not just fellow politicians on both sides of the aisle who despise Cruz. His past is littered with people who are eager to publicly dish on how awkward, weird, and misanthropic Cruz was when they knew him. His former roommate at Princeton, the now legendary Craig Mazin, has spent much of the past few years relentlessly mocking Cruz on social media. He paints a very disturbing picture of his former Princeton peer.I have 30k followers now, and all I had to do was be stuck in a room with Ted Cruz for a year. I'm sure you're all nice, but SO NOT WORTH IT Craig Mazin (@clmazin) January 18, 2016@GaucheFilms He s not my buddy. I loathe him, and I loathe what he stands for. Craig Mazin (@clmazin) October 27, 2012My freshman year college roommate Ted Cruz is going to be elected Senator. In case I hadn't made it clear, he's also a huge asshole. Craig Mazin (@clmazin) October 26, 2012But maybe Mazin has a personal beef with Cruz. Maybe Cruz was a messy roommate or something? Nope. Another former classmate recently backed up Mazin s assessment.People might think Craig is exaggerating. He's not. I met Ted freshman week and loathed him within the hour. https://t.co/2ZrbTdjHJh Geoff (@gacohen) January 20, 2016Hilariously, The Daily Beast decided to track down more of his classmates to see if their stories matched Mazin s. What they found was an almost universal feeling that Cruz was a creepy, politically extreme asshole.In addition to Mazin and Leitch, several fellow classmates who asked that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like abrasive, intense, strident, crank, and arrogant. Four independently offered the word creepy, with some pointing to Cruz s habit of donning a paisley bathrobe and walking to the opposite end of their dorm s hallway where the female students lived. I would end up fielding the [girls ] complaints: Could you please keep your roommate out of our hallway?' Mazin says.Cruz exuded such creepy vibes that even in stories that are ostensibly not about how much he s loathed, people can t help but suggest it. The New York Times recently ran a story about Cruz s time working as a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. The story quickly devolved into former colleagues uncomfortably noting Cruz s sick fascination with murder. It freaked everyone out.In interviews with nearly two dozen of Mr. Cruz s former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as obsessed with capital punishment. Some thought his recounting of the crimes dime store novel was how one described his style seemed more appropriate for a prosecutor persuading a jury than for a law clerk addressing the country s nine foremost judges.But don t worry, it s not just co-workers, roommates, politicians, and pundits that dislike Cruz. Average people do as well. In 2014, ABC News decided to take a novel approach to judging a politicians popularity: See what people were saying about them on Facebook. What they found was that 61 percent of the mentions of Ted Cruz on the social media site were unambiguously negative.So how does Cruz survive in politics despite being hated by everyone? It s not as hard as you d think. For one thing, he s backed by a small but powerful group of millionaires who like his anti-government policies. Secondly, he s a power-hungry, shameless opportunist who seizes the spotlight any time he can. For politicians there is no such thing as bad publicity. The more Cruz s mug shows up on Fox News, the more conservatives learn to live with his inherent creepiness.It s hard to imagine that particular set of skills translating to an effective presidency, however. At this crucial time in America s relations with other nations, having a man who oozes unlikability in the oval office could be a disaster in the making. It s also clear that Cruz will use any opportunity to glorify himself, even if it is at the expense of the good of the country. (See: Government shutdown.)The fact that everybody hates Ted, and that the hatred only grows once you get to know him, should be a MASSIVE warning sign that something is not right with the guy. Is that someone we want running the most powerful nation on Earth?Feature image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr
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After Roy Moore s ugly loss in the Alabama Senate race last night, President Trump took the high road and congratulated Democrat candidate Doug Jones who won by less than 1% of the vote. President Trump tweeted: Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends! Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017Trump then tweeted an explanation as to why he didn t get behind Roy Moore in the primary, and chose instead, to support his Republican opponent Luther Strange.President Trump tweeted: The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him! The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017The verified Anderson Cooper account responded to President Trump s tweet by saying, Oh Really? You endorsed him you tool! Twitter user Blackish Jimmy Kimmel took a screen shot of Cooper s tweet before it was deleted:This is CNN #FactsFirst That awkward moment when You're @AndersonCooper trying to convince people that #FakeTweets are being made from your Verified twitter account. pic.twitter.com/tHexTfDv2e Blackish JimmyKimmel (@StrokerAce90) December 13, 2017#VeryFakeNewsCNN s communication team got out ahead of the sh*t storm and tweeted, This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We re working with Twitter to secure the account. This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We're working with Twitter to secure the account. CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 13, 2017Normally, we d give the Twitter user the benefit of doubt, but in the case of #VeryFakeNewsCNN, they haven t proven that they re ethical or fair in their treatment of President Donald Trump in the past, so there s really no reason for most of America to believe that Anderson s tweet to President Trump wasn t sent by him.What are you thoughts? Do you believe CNN, or do you think Cooper Anderson simply sent a response to Donald Trump that he deleted after he realized he exposed his hate for our President? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
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LONDON (AFP) — The accused of driving a van into a crowd of Muslim worshippers outside a London mosque is “troubled” according to his family, while those who know him describe a man who has verbally abused Muslim children. [Darren Osborne, a father of four from Cardiff in Wales, was arrested after the attack near Finsbury Park Mosque early Monday and is being questioned by police on suspicion of attempted murder and terrorism. According to witnesses who detained the man before police arrested him, he was shouting that he wanted to “kill all Muslims” before he was taken away. Neighbours said Osborne had been thrown out of The Hollybush, his local pub in Pentwyn, a suburb of Cardiff, on Saturday for drunkenly insulting Muslims. “He was cursing Muslims and saying he would do some damage,” according to a regular at the pub quoted by The Sun. His Muslim neighbour, Khadijeh Sherizi, said she had never had any problems with Osborne until this weekend, when he insulted her children. Her son Nadeem, 12, was quoted in The Guardian as saying: “I was on my bike and he just came up to me and said ‘inbred’. ” His sister Nadia, 10, said she and her grandmother had heard Osborne using the same word. “All of a sudden we heard him say ‘inbred’”. Other neighbours said that Osborne’s behaviour had become erratic in recent weeks, and that he was living in a tent in the woods after splitting up with his partner. “Around two weeks ago I saw him and he was a right state,” Peter Mackuin, 53, told The Sun. “His missus had been out looking for him, I saw him wandering out of the woods. ” — ‘Too much trouble’ — Sherizi told AFP of her shock when she recognised the suspect, saying: “I saw him on the news and I thought, Oh my God, that is my neighbour. “He has been so normal. He was in his kitchen yesterday afternoon singing with his kids. ” His mother Christine, 72, said she screamed when she saw her son in television footage. “My son is no terrorist — he’s just a man with problems,” The Sun quoted her as saying. In a statement on behalf of the family, his nephew Ellis Osborne, 26, said: “We are massively shocked. Our hearts go out to the people who have been injured. ” His uncle was “not a racist” he said, adding: “It’s madness. It is obviously sheer madness. ” Darren’s sister Nicola added that the suspect had shown no interest in politics, telling The Sun: “He wouldn’t even know who the prime minister was. ” Some neighbours described a normal but loud character. “I know him. I’ve lived here for five years, he was already living here when I moved in,” said Saleem Naema. “If I ever needed anything he would come. I just can’t believe that he did that. I am a Muslim. ” But others described a man who attracted trouble, and who often argued in the street with his wife. “He’s quite a shouty person, always shouting at his wife and kids,” pharmacist Rebecca Carpenter told The Times. Osborne was reportedly born in Singapore and is believed to have moved to Wales from in west England. Locals in told the Times newspaper that he had left “because he was too much trouble” frequently getting into pub fights.
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A lawyer for Melania Trump said Monday that he had informed several news organizations, including The Daily Mail, that they could face legal action for publishing articles that Ms. Trump contended were defamatory. In an email, the lawyer, Charles J. Harder, said Ms. Trump, the wife of Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, “has placed several news organizations on notice of her legal claims against them, including Daily Mail among others, for making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly having been an ‘escort’ in the 1990s. ” “All such statements are 100 percent false, highly damaging to her reputation, and personally hurtful,” Mr. Harder added. “She understands that news media have certain leeway in a presidential campaign, but outright lying about her in this way exceeds all bounds of appropriate news reporting and human decency. ” He said no suit had been filed, but added, “That may change. ” The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Harder represented the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan in the lawsuit against Gawker Media that ultimately resulted in Gawker’s filing for bankruptcy. Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur who spoke in July at the Republican National Convention, acknowledged in May that he had secretly funded the Hogan case and others against Gawker. Among the news outlets that Mr. Harder said had been sent notices were Inquisitr (which apologized to Ms. Trump and retracted an article about her that was published within the last week) Politico and Liberal America. Politico declined to comment. Reached by telephone, Tiffany Willis, the founder and editor in chief of Liberal America, said her publication received an emailed letter from Mr. Harder. In the email, a copy of which is posted on the publication’s website, Mr. Harder listed several statements he claimed were defamatory and demanded that the publication “immediately and permanently remove each of these statements from the story, and print a full and complete retraction and apology, with as prominent placement as the original story. ” “Failure to do so,” Mr. Harder added, “will leave my client with no alternative but to institute immediate legal proceedings against you and, should that occur, she would pursue all available causes of action and seek all available legal remedies to the maximum extent permitted by law. ”
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The LGBT mafia has never been more threatening or powerful Did you call a transsexual person he or she when they preferred to be called zhe? According to a newly updated anti-discrimination law in New York City, you could be fined an eye-watering $250,000.In the latest, astonishing act of draconian political correctness, the NYC Commission on Human Rights have updated a law on Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Expression to threaten staggering financial penalties against property owners who misgender employees or tenants.Incidents that are deemed wilful and malicious will see property owners face up to $250,000 in fines, while standard violations of the law will result in a $125,000 fine. For small business owners, these sums are crippling.It s not as simple as referring to transmen he or transwomen as she, either. The legislation makes it clear that if an individual desires, property owners will have to make use of zhe, hir and any other preferred pronoun. From the updated legislation:The NYCHRL requires employers and covered entities to use an individual s preferred name, pronoun and title (e.g., Ms./Mrs.) regardless of the individual s sex assigned at birth, anatomy, gender, medical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on the individual s identification. Most individuals and many transgender people use female or male pronouns and titles.Some transgender and gender non-conforming people prefer to use pronouns other than he/him/his or she/her/hers, such as they/them/theirs or ze/hirOther violations of the law include refusing to allow individuals to use single-sex facilities such as bathrooms that are consistent with their gender identity, failing to provide employee health benefits for gender-affirming care and imposing different uniforms or grooming standards based on sex or gender. Examples of such illegal behaviour include: requiring female bartenders to wear makeup, Permitting only individuals who identify as women to wear jewellery or requiring only individuals who identify as male to have short hair, and permitting female but not male residents at a drug treatment facility to wear wigs and high heels. In other words, if a bar owner prevents male bartenders from wearing lipstick and heels, they ll be breaking the law. They ve now got a choice between potentially scaring off customers, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Regardless of the establishment s client le or aesthetic, every property owner will be forced to conform to the same standard.This is the latest in what Spiked Online editor-in-chief Brendan O Neill calls The Crisis of Character in the west, in which identities become grounded in subjective interpretation rather than objective reality. The state is now forcing society to recognise the subjective identities of individuals, regardless of how absurd or surreal they may seem. In New York City, recognising someone s identity is no longer a matter of case-by-case common sense and courtesy. It s zir way or the highway.
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21st Century Wire says Washington s muscle flexing seems to have taken on a life of its own as the shadow of US neocolonialism falls over much of the world with increasing intensity. In Syria, the US is lashing out, lawlessly, at the bastion of resistance that has been denying its objectives for almost seven years. Now, the US secretary of State, Rex Tillerson has declared that China should exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to step away from its nuclear and missile programmes. Footage of a reported, massive live fire drill conducted by the North Koreans in April 2017 gives some indication of what the US might face if this escalation is magnified beyond recall, by the usual suspects at Fox News and CNN This report is from Peter Symonds of WSWS:In what amounted to a barely disguised threat, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday declared that China had to exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs, if it wants to prevent a further escalation in the region. In other words, if Beijing fails to rein in the Pyongyang regime, the US could resort to military measures.Tillerson s remarks followed a top-level meeting in Washington between him and US Defence Secretary James Mattis and their Chinese counterparts China s foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the People s Liberation Army s joint staff department.Tillerson called on China to make greater efforts to halt illicit revenue streams to North Korea that allegedly help fund Pyongyang s military programs. Just last week, he told a congressional committee the Trump administration was at a stage where we are going to have to start taking secondary sanctions that is, penalise countries and corporations that engage in economic activities with North Korea.Unilateral secondary sanctions imposed by the US would, above all, fall on Chinese companies. China is, by far, North Korea s largest trading partner. US officials and the media have repeatedly accused Beijing of failing to do enough to choke off trade and finance with the Pyongyang regime. Any penalties against Chinese individuals or entities would quickly sour relations between the US and China.Just before the talks, US President Donald Trump signalled that time was running out for China to force North Korea to bow to US demands. While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi [Jinping] and China, he tweeted on Tuesday, it has not worked out. While Tillerson s remarks indicate the US continues to pressure China for action against North Korea, Trump s tweet is a warning that the US will resort to other measures including military action if there are no results.Asked about Trump s tweet, Defence Secretary Mattis told the joint press conference with Tillerson: What you re seeing I think is the American people s frustration with a regime that provokes and provokes and provokes and basically plays outside the rules, plays fast and loose with the truth. Mattis denounced Pyongyang in particular for the death of Otto Wambier the American student imprisoned in North Korea who died on Monday after being flown back to the US last week. The Trump administration is considering a ban to prevent Americans from visiting Pyongyang. Three other US citizens are currently jailed in North Korea.The comments of Mattis and Tillerson suggest that relations with China could deteriorate rapidly, especially if North Korea conducts another nuclear test or a long-range missile launch. In comments to CNN, unnamed US officials claimed this week that satellite imagery showed new activity at North Korea s underground nuclear test site and suggested that a sixth nuclear detonation could be imminent.Ahead of yesterday s talks in Washington, US State Department officials indicated that Mattis and Tillerson would press their Chinese counterparts not only on North Korea, but a range of other sensitive issues, including the South China Sea and the so-called war on terrorism.Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, Susan Thornton, told Voice of America that all parties should freeze any construction or militarisation of features in the South China Sea a comment directed especially at China. Last month, the US navy carried out another provocative freedom of navigation operation, sending a guided missile destroyer within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit claimed by China around one of its islets.Trade and economic issues were excluded from yesterday s US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue but remained just below the surface. During last year s presidential election campaign, Trump repeatedly denounced China s trade policies and threatened punitive trade war measures. In seeking Beijing s assistance to pressure Pyongyang, Trump suggested the US could make concessions on trade.Having tweeted that Chinese efforts have not worked out, the implicit threat is that the US could ramp up the pressure on China over trade. What Trump is saying is, I don t need you on North Korea now, and therefore maybe we should have it out on these other issues, like trade, analyst John Delury told the New York Times.China is reluctant to impose new sanctions that will cripple North Korea s economy and provoke a political crisis that could be exploited by the US and its allies. At yesterday s talks, Chinese officials reiterated Beijing s call for renewed negotiations based on a freeze by Pyongyang on its nuclear and missile tests and a freeze by Washington on its joint military exercises in South Korea. The US has flatly rejected the proposal.Above all, the threat of US military strikes against North Korea hangs over Asia. Earlier this week, the Pentagon again sent two B-1 strategic bombers on a mission over the Korean Peninsula in a provocative show of force. The US Navy has two aircraft carrier strike groups stationed in the area, with another on its way.Any US military action against North Korea threatens to trigger an all-out conflict on the Korean Peninsula that could draw in other powers, including China, with devastating consequences. The Trump administration s recklessness is underscored by the fact that it is engaged in an escalating confrontation in Syria that threatens to provoke a clash with Russia and Iran, even as it is ramping up tensions in North East Asia.***FOR MORE INFORMATION ON NORTH KOREA: 21WIRE NORTH KOREA FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
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SEOUL (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog s chief said on Friday North Korea s sixth nuclear test conducted on Sept. 3 showed the isolated country has made rapid progress on weapons development that posed a new, global threat. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have increased markedly since the test, which led to a new round of sanctions against the North after a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution. (The) yield is much bigger than the previous test, and it means North Korea made very rapid progress, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Yukiya Amano told reporters in Seoul. Combined with other elements, this is a new threat and this is a global threat, he said after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. Amano said the IAEA did not have the capacity to determine whether the North had tested a hydrogen bomb, as Pyongyang has claimed. What is most important for now is for the international community to unite, Amano said. Tensions had already flared after North Korea tested two more intercontinental ballistic missiles and other launches as it pursues its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of international pressure. South Korea said on Thursday the North could engage in more provocations near the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean communist party and China s all-important Communist Party Congress. Insults and threats hurled between the North s leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have aggravated the situation further. Members of the international community have urged both countries to resolve matters peacefully while boosting pressure on Pyongyang to curb its weapons programs. A U.S. State Department official said on Thursday China was making progress in enforcing sanctions imposed on North Korea, and urged skeptical members of Congress not to rush to enact new measures before giving Beijing s efforts a chance to take effect.
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The hypocrisy of our media is astounding! What about Hillary s major corporate donors like GE for example, that have been working the loopholes in our tax system for decades? Does anyone care that Hillary has been taking money from some of America s biggest corporate tax dodgers for several years? Bernie Sanders recently outed the 10 biggest multinational corporations that paid no federal taxes for at least one year between 2008 and 2012. Sanders has made reining in corporate tax dodgers a key point of his presidential platform. In a recent press release, the Sanders campaign laid out the Vermont senator s plans to force multinational corporations to pay their fair share in taxes:As it turns out, all ten of those same companies are some of Hillary Clinton s biggest donors, whether to her campaign or to her family foundation.1. GENERAL ELECTRIC According to data from the nonpartisan group Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), GE posted $33.9 billion in U.S. profits, yet somehow got $2.9 billion in refunds in that same time period. According to the book Clinton Cash, then-Secretary of State Clinton lobbied the Algerian government for a GE power plant contract. After Algeria awarded the contract to GE, Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE gave a donation to the Clinton Foundation. Sanders also pointed out that while Immelt sat on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, the Fed gave GE $16 billion in financial assistance.2. BOEING Boeing is one of the nation s biggest corporate tax dodgers, making over $20 billion in profits between 2008 and 2012 and paying an overall income tax rate of negative one percent during those years. Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer noted that after Secretary Clinton successfully lobbied the Russian government to enter into a $3.7 billion contract to buy Boeing s aircraft, the aerospace company gave the Clinton Foundation a hefty donation of $900,000.3. VERIZON In the four years between 2008 and 2012, Verizon pocketed over $30 billion in profits and paid a tax rate of -1.8 percent, according to CTJ. The Sanders campaign s research claims that in 2012 alone, Verizon would have paid $630 million in income taxes had they been unable to stash U.S. profits in offshore tax havens.Verizon has given between $118,000 and $300,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years. And as Zaid Jilani reported in Alternet last year, Hillary Clinton is the favored candidate of numerous Verizon executives, many of whom have given the maximum donation to her 2016 effort:Verizon vice-presidents Lydia Pulley, Kathleen Grillo, and Donna Epps each gave $2,700 to Hillary for America. Verizon senior vice-president Thomas Edwards and vice-president Chris Debosier pitched in $1,000. Leecia Eve, a former Hillary staffer who today is a lobbyist for Verizon gave $2,700. Another Verizon lobbyist, David Lamendola, gave Hillary $1,000.To contrast, Sanders appeared at a rally for striking Verizon workers in New York City last year, demanding the company meet the workers demands and admonishing its executives for the company s greedy practices.4. BANK OF AMERICA In 2010, Bank of America got a whopping $1.9 billion refund from the IRS despite making $4.4 billion in profit. And the Institute for Policy Studies reported that Bank of America has over 300 foreign subsidiaries in countries and territories universally known as tax havens, like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.In his recent groundbreaking report for The Intercept, Jilani reported that Bank of America paid Hillary Clinton $225,000 in speaking fees after her tenure as Secretary of State.5. CITIGROUP Citigroup was the largest recipient of federal bailout money, getting an astonishing $2.5 trillion after the financial crisis even though they played a major role in the financial meltdown. Citi also paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2010 despite making profits in excess of $4 billion. Had the bank been unable to utilize offshore tax havens, it would have paid $11.5 billion in federal taxes in 2012.According to campaign finance database OpenSecrets.org, Citigroup is Hillary Clinton s top donor, having given over $824,000 in campaign contributions throughout her political career.6. PFIZER The Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant is notorious for its tax avoidance strategies, paying $0 in federal income tax between 2010 and 2012 and getting a $2.2 billion tax refund despite posting $43 billion in global profits.Pfizer executives gave nearly $40,000 to Clinton s presidential campaign between April and September 2015. And Pfizer itself has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to donor records obtained by the Washington Times.7. FEDEX In 2011, FedEx made $2.7 billion in profit, yet they were given a $135 million tax refund from the IRS that same year. FedEx also receives $1 billion a year in corporate welfare from the U.S. Post Office its chief competitor to use its aircraft to transport U.S. mail.FedEx has given anywhere between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The company was also one of four corporations to bundle a $2.5 million donation to Clinton s new diplomacy center (Boeing was another).8. HONEYWELL Despite making over $3 billion in combined profits between 2009 and 2010, Honeywell paid $0 in federal income taxes and got roughly $510 million in refunds. Honeywell CEO David Cote was also one of the loudest voices on the Fix The Debt campaign, calling for the Social Security and Medicare age to be raised to 70.Honeywell, a prominent weapons manufacturer, also gave $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. At the same time, Honeywell and others had their weapons shipped to countries blasted by international watchdogs for their deplorable records on human rights.9. MERCK Merck is one of the nation s largest pharmaceutical companies and biggest tax dodgers in 2009, Merck pocketed $5.7 billion in profits, yet paid $0 in federal taxes. Merck successfully got out of paying $18.69 billion in federal taxes in 2012 by stashing $53.4 billion of its U.S. profits in overseas tax havens.The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Merck donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation after becoming a member of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006. It also spent millions on lobbying the U.S. State Department during Hillary Clinton s tenure as Secretary of State.10. CORNING CTJ reports that between 2008 and 2012, Corning made over $3.4 billion in profits and got a $10 million tax refund, paying a 0.1 percent federal tax rate. The Sanders campaign pointed out that Corning CEO Wendell Weeks has called for the retirement age to be raised to 70, while he himself has a $22.8 million retirement account.While Clinton headed up the State Department, Corning lobbied heavily for multiple policies on which it stood to reap financial gains, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Clinton, in turn, lobbied China to lower tariffs on the type of goods manufactured by Corning. The company has also donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation and paid the former Secretary of State $225,000 in speaking fees after she announced her presidential campaign. Via: U.S.Uncut
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Ron Paul, who s a retired doctor, not an economist, has a prediction that in the very near future, the stock market will lose half its value. Guess who would be to blame? Why it s the black guy, of course. A 50 percent pullback is conceivable, Paul said on Futures Now recently. I don t believe it s ten years off. I don t even believe it s a year off. According to his calculations, it would cut the S&P 500 Index in half, to 1212, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average would collapse to 10,837.Paul noted that there s a lot of chaos in Washington right now, with an unpredictable president and those who are inclined to tear him apart but if the market takes that big of a tumble, he doesn t see it as Trump s fault. It s all man-made. It s not the fault of Donald Trump in the last week. If the market crashes tomorrow and we have a great depression, he didn t do it in six months. It took more like six or ten years to cause all these problems that we re facing, he said.Source: CNBCSix to 10 years ago, hmmm, who was in office for the vast majority of that time?Paul has spent much of his career as an economic doomsdayer, and sometimes it sounds like he s right, just because, well, broken clocks and all Two years ago, he predicted nearly the same collapse, but he had a solution, which could be anyone s for just $49.50 for sale on his website, of course.As part of an infomercial for Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, Ron Paul warned that a currency crisis of epic proportions would arrive soon and prophesied that life in America was guaranteed to end in disaster as a total breakdown of the stock market would lead to civil unrest and authoritarian clampdowns. Paul said people could avoid and even benefit from the collapse by purchasing Stansberry s Survival Blueprint for weathering the coming catastrophe for $49.50.Source: CNNThe only thing Ron Paul hates more than regulations and the Federal Reserve, is a more diverse society. He s a long-avowed racist who was never a fan of President Obama. In March, Paul s institute ran a blog post that accused Obama of sabotaging Trump.He s also a big believer in the Deep State, which is a shadow government that really runs the United States. According to another blog post, Obama is still part of that deep state.A 50 percent drop in the stock market would be disastrous for our economy, but as I mentioned, Paul is not an economist. He arguably predicted the real estate crash, but so did a lot of economists. Paul, like his buddy Alex Jones, is full of doomsday predictions and he has books to sell. If such a drop happens, you might be able to point fingers at some Obama policies, but it s Trump who s scaring the hell out of everyone, including investors. If we crash, Trump is driving the bus and he will get the blame at least from most people.Featured image via Pete Marovich/Getty Images
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted down on Monday a measure that would have compelled cell phone carriers to disclose a phone’s location with law enforcement in the event of an emergency, amid a last-minute lobbying effort from privacy advocates opposed to it. Lawmakers voted 229-158 to pass the Kelsey Smith Act, falling short of the two-thirds threshold necessary due to rules invoked to expedite the bill’s vote. The rejection was considered surprising, as House leadership rarely schedules a vote on legislation it is not confident will pass. However, Civil liberties groups aggressively opposed the bill on Monday, arguing that while well intended, it would create a warrant loophole and could lead to expanded government surveillance. R Street, a libertarian-leaning think tank, said phone companies already possess the authority to share cell phone location data in emergency situations and did so frequently, making the legislation largely unnecessary. The bill is named after a deceased 18-year-old Kansas woman who disappeared following a visit to a local Target store in 2007. Smith was found murdered four days later only after Verizon, her cell phone provider, shared the location of her phone with authorities, according to Representative Kevin Yoder, a Kansas Republican and author of the bill. “While I’m disappointed in tonight’s outcome, I look forward to the bill being brought back to the House floor when a simple majority vote can get it passed.” Yoder said in a statement. Smith’s parents were in attendance in the House chamber during the vote, according to Yoder’s office. More than 20 states have already adopted versions of the law since Smith’s death.
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Social conservatives run campaigns and win elections on platforms of so-called family values. Often, though, it turns out that these supposedly pure people are anything but. Case in point Cheektowaga, New York lawmaker Angela Wozniak.This particular gem has now been forbidden to have interns after conducting an extramarital affair with one. After the young man, Elias Farah, shut the affair down, Wozniak began sexually harassing him. She also make his job a living hell, and kept him from attending and participating in events. After all of this came to light, a panel committee consisting of both Republicans and Democrats was formed to address this grossly and obviously improper conduct. Ultimately, it was decided that Wozniak was guilty of incredibly poor judgment in conducting this affair and her behavior after it was over. There was, however, no way to prove on a legal level that Wozniak created a hostile work environment or sexually harassed Farah.Despite the lack of legal evidence, though, the investigating committee is now going to look into Wozniak s office every six months going forward. Also, her attempts to go after her accuser have luckily backfired, as she ironically ran for office after a Democratic opponent, Dennis Gabryszak, resigned over his own sexual scandal. A potential November Democratic opponent, sums up Wozniak s hypocritical behavior perfectly: She ran on a platform of family values based on the conduct of her predecessor. I hope to restore voters confidence in their government and be a leader they can be proud of. And that is the problem with these holier than thou family values types. They make literal careers of condemning other people s lives and modes of living, all the while doing in private just what they preach against in public.No one would care if these people didn t try to pretend to be above the rest of us. But, since they do good riddance to yet another family values hypocrite. I m sure it s only a matter of time before Angela Wozniak is forced to resign.Featured image via video screen capture from Raw Story
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Market Watch U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday, with the Dow industrials jumping 257 points, led by a surge in financial, health-care and industrial stocks, as investors bet on the infrastructure spending policy promised by President-elect Donald Trump.The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.40% gained as much as 316 points, briefly surpassing the all-time closing high set in August. The index closed 256.95 points, or 1.4%, higher at 18,589.69, its highest level since Aug. 18. Pfizer Inc. PFE, +7.07% and Caterpillar Inc CAT, +7.70% led the gains, rallying more than 7%.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit Serbia and Kosovo next week, the White House said on Tuesday. A White House statement announcing the Aug. 15-17 Balkan tour said Biden would hold meetings with each country’s president and prime minister, but did not say what subjects would be discussed. The United States last month transferred two inmates from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Serbia. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Serbia for what he called a “significant humanitarian gesture.” Kerry visited Serbia and Kosovo in December. His stop in Kosovo underscored Western concern over the slow pace of progress 16 years after a U.S.-led NATO air war set the former Serbian province on the road to independence. Kosovo, a mainly Muslim but secular and staunchly pro-American country, declared independence in 2008.
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The woman in the video isn t Swedish, but her husband is. She recalls a Sweden that used to be clean, safe and peaceful when she was a teenager. Today she claims that when she walks the streets, all that she sees are, hijabs, burqas and looting foreign men who stand on corners and cat call her, and men who lifestream gang rapes while they throw rocks at cops. Mr. Trump, please keep talking about Sweden. Sweden calls upon our @POTUS for help ! Please share as much as possible! Stop the madness! #mondaymotivation #SwedenSOS pic.twitter.com/QwKddF1Nsb Oak-Town Unfiltered (@hrtablaze) March 27, 2017
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Clinton And The DNC: A Crisis Not Merely Survived, But Transcended
When all was said and done, Team Hillary had to be pretty happy. Their four nights in Philadelphia turned out better than almost anyone expected.
Thursday night featured an orchestrated symphony of praise for Hillary Clinton and a precision-bombing of her opponent, Donald Trump.
Clinton's own remarks at the conclusion will not enter the pantheon of great American prose or political rhetoric. But no one had been reserving a place there. More importantly, she provided a fitting conclusion to the proceedings, meeting her own mark and cutting a convincing figure as the nation's first female president.
Think of it this way: She got it done. No, she didn't seem to be having fun doing it. Not half as much as Barack Obama did when setting the table for her the night before (and not to mention her husband, Bill, on Tuesday night). She did not have the magic Michelle Obama flashed on Monday night, when she moved the delegates and set the tone for a winning week.
Yet Hillary Clinton's moment was the most important of all, the one that marked paid to the entire enterprise. And it played even better on TV than inside the convention hall. (More on why that was so, in a moment.)
Whatever the judgment of the polls in the days ahead, the party's quadrennial confab represented an achievement in careful and effective political management. It was not just crisis survived, but crisis transcended.
Let us reflect for just a moment. Team Clinton and the Democratic National Committee hit town last weekend facing all kinds of bad weather.
First, literally: A heat wave studded with violent thunder, lightning and downpours.
Second: A flood of bad publicity was unleashed with WikiLeaks' release of nearly 20,000 emails from DNC staffers that revealed bias against rival candidate Bernie Sanders. Long assumed, though often denied, this evidence of the DNC tilt broke the dam on Sanders fans' bitterness and resentment — and at that worst possible time.
Third: Gale winds carried in the hot allegations and abuse from the Republican convention the previous week in Cleveland, where the catchphrase chanted regularly by the crowds was: "Lock her up."
All in all, a troubled forecast.
But as people filed out of the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night, most all of them seemed remarkably satisfied. Even many of the Sanders folks seemed resigned, or, at least, not overly disappointed. Most were also willing to vote against Trump, even if they couldn't quite vote for Clinton.
The intervening days brought tense moments. The first afternoon, the Sanders forces were in full cry — booing every mention of Clinton's name. There seemed to be little prospect for peace, and many opportunities for disruption and chaos.
Sanders' delegates arrived lacking the votes to contest the nomination, yet many seemed to believe Sanders might still win. They thought the release of the DNC emails proved Clinton's nomination was rigged, and they imagined this would be enough to pry open the delegate allocations or persuade superdelegates to switch to Sanders.
These reactions overestimated the importance and power of the DNC, which was important in many ways, but far from critical, in determining who voted or how. Still, the WikiLeaks release served to confirm the suspicion that party rules and party rulers were somehow overruling the popular will of the people.
It was obvious that the DNC controversies fed into a Rules Committee decision to reduce the future numbers of superdelegates (elected officials and party leaders who are uncommitted participants in the nominating convention and may vote their own conscience). In 2020, such delegates will be reduced from 720 to 250.
But negotiations were going forward even then. Sanders' people were talking, and there were delegation leaders willing to work overtime to heal wounds. Sanders himself, having already formally conceded, intervened to urge his delegates to show respect, if only to preserve the gains they had made as a movement.
By Thursday night, the convention organizers had perfected their defense against the hardcore of holdouts. Where the Sanders people wore bright yellow shirts to set themselves apart and held up signs protesting fracking or trade deals, the Clinton delegates sprouted American flags to wave about. There were also much larger American flags on poles that seemed to appear just in front of the more visible concentrations of Sanders people.
Outside, throughout the four days, there were thousands of protesters from Black Lives Matter and anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-fracking and just plain anti-Clinton groups.
They were kept away from the hall by barriers and police, but they did dump a mock coffin labeled "DNC" over one fence. Police arrested a handful and issued citations to dozens more. They did not manage to make much impression on those inside the arena.
Despite all this, there remained the thought that "more unites us than divides us," to quote candidate Clinton in one of her early appeals to Sanders supporters.
For many Democrats, the "more unites us" argument matters but does not truly motivate. What focuses their minds is the prospect of losing the White House this fall. While never welcome, that prospect has become truly disconcerting to them with Trump's takeover of the GOP.
Whenever the energy of the week seemed to flag, a fresh assault on Trump revitalized the proceedings. On the final night, the program reached an early emotional peak with the testimony of Khizr Khan, the father of a young U.S. Army captain killed protecting his troops from a truck bomb.
The father stood onstage with his wife and calmly, haltingly voiced his rage at Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
Khan held up his personal copy of the U.S. Constitution to offer it to Trump, questioning whether the Republican had ever read it. He also wondered whether Trump had ever visited Arlington Cemetery to see what other people had sacrificed for their country, adding: "You have sacrificed nothing and no one."
In fact, much of the program on stage this week in Philly was clearly meant to appeal to disaffected Republicans left feeling a chill last week in Cleveland. A basic element of this appeal was the robust embrace of traditional patriotism, its rhetoric and symbols.
For example, on Thursday night the program offered retired Marine Gen. John Allen, an old-school combat commander who stood onstage with 37 other veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Allen announced his support for Clinton in full-throated and almost apocalyptic terms, while his silent chorus nodded and applauded behind him.
Rich Galen, a longtime Republican operative who was a spokesman for former Vice President Dick Cheney, sent a tweet saying he was watching from his kitchen Thursday night in tears because the Democrats' convention looked more like his party than the event he saw in Cleveland last week. He was far from alone.
Longtime GOP strategist and campaign handler Stuart Stevens tweeted that Thursday night looked more like the last night of the 2004 convention in New York than anything he had seen in Cleveland. That was the last year the Republicans won the presidential election.
For those who spent weeks and months — and then critical hours — making the 2016 Democratic National Convention a success, it was not just a job. But in the first predawn hours after it ended, they could at least congratulate themselves on having done their job well.
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ZURICH (Reuters) - More than a quarter of Austrian voters may still be undecided ahead of the Oct. 15 election, according to one poll, although a separate survey suggested that Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz s People s Party maintains a robust lead. Twenty-seven percent of voters were undecided, according data from a Research Affairs online poll of 600 people released late Saturday by tabloid newspaper Oesterreich. Another poll published on Sunday by the Kurier newspaper showed 33 percent of voters backed Kurz s conservative party, with current Chancellor Christian Kern s left-leaning Social Democrats running second at 27 percent. The rightist Freedom Party was third, according to the Kurier poll, with 25 percent. Last week the Social Democrats chairman resigned after the party was linked to two Facebook accounts that made unsubstantiated allegations against Kurz and the controversy is likely boost voter turnout, said Wolfgang Bachmayer, whose OGM research service conducted the survey for Kurier. His poll suggests 79 percent of eligible voters will cast their ballots. Issues of substance have been completely overshadowed, with mud-slinging instead moving into the spotlight, Bachmayer said . On the brighter side of things, there are clear indications that participation will rise. Austria s co-governing Social Democrats and conservative People s Party said on Friday they would sue each other in the escalating scandal. The Kurier poll was conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5 and included 1,002 telephone interviews, with 470 people identifying themselves as voters certain to cast ballots on Oct. 15. Oesterreich s online survey, gathered from last Monday to Wednesday, had a relatively small sample size of 600 people, with a wide margin of error.
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GAZA (Reuters) - Gaza s merchants and consumers are reaping early rewards from reconciliation moves by the enclave s dominant Hamas Islamists and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli border restrictions, including a nearly blanket ban on exports from Gaza, and three wars since 2008 have imposed severe hardship in the territory. Israel says its rules are driven by security concerns, accusing Hamas of having used imported material to build weapons including rockets that have been fired at its cities. Since Hamas ceded Gaza s border crossings with Israel - the main gateway for commercial imports - to the Authority on Nov 1 under an Egyptian-brokered unity deal, many prices in the territory have dropped. The main reason for the decrease: the Authority has canceled surcharges, sometimes as high as 25 percent, that Hamas collected in cash from merchants in Gaza. Businesses, in turn, have passed on some of those savings to customers: a 2017 Kia Picanto compact car, for example, now sells for $20,000 instead of $22,500, and a kilo of beef costs 40 shekels ($11), down from 50 ($15). And this week, the PA, which takes its own tax in an arrangement agreed with Israel, allowed the import of cigarettes costing eight shekels a pack compared with the usual 21 shekels for other brands, through Israel s Kerem Shalom commercial crossing for the first time. Cigarettes used to come in only via smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border but the PA is seeking understandings with Hamas and Cairo to choke off that channel. (Hamas s fees) led to a weakening of sales power because the people in Gaza live under bad economic conditions and because of the Israeli blockade and the loss of jobs, said Tareq Al-Saqqa, who owns an electrical goods company in Gaza, where unemployment tops 40 percent. Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt maintain tight restrictions at their Gaza borders. Hamas, regarded by the West as a terrorist group, seized the enclave in fighting in 2007 against forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel s limits on Gaza s import of so-called dual use material, such as steel and cement, that it fears could be used by Hamas to make weapons or fortifications are unlikely to change soon. But hundreds of truckloads of food and a wide variety of consumer goods move into Gaza daily via Israel. Hamas, which handed administrative control of Gaza to the Authority under the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo on Oct. 12, has spurned Israel s demand it disarm. Israel said it would deal with the new administration in Gaza but in the way that would not allow Hamas and other factions to develop their military capabilities, which means it will continue to ban essential materials, said Mohammad Abu Jayyab, a Gaza economist. He and other local economic experts cautioned against any hopes of a rapid revival of Gaza s economy unless Israel s restrictions were fully removed. Responsibility for security in still an open issue in Gaza, where Hamas, which is still policing the territory, has what analysts say are at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters. Further unity talks are scheduled for Nov. 21 in Cairo. Keeping pressure on Hamas, Abbas has yet to lift economic sanctions he imposed in Gaza in June that included a cut in salaries the Authority paid to 60,000 civil servants. Abbas recently sent nearly 15,000 of them into early retirement. (This version of the story corrects spelling of surname, paragraph 12)
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The NFL announced Tuesday that the final Sunday Night Football game of the season has been canceled Was it due to low attendance in previous weeks? Well, it s part of the reason. Low attendance has been plaguing the league since the kneeling controversy took hold.Recently, a liberal news source tried to downplay the boycott from NFL fans by citing injuries from key star athletes in the NFL as the reason for low interest in games. We think the kneeling controversy has more to do with the lack of interest in games. It s being reported that the attendance is down 9% from last year:We ve seen stadiums with hundreds of empty seats along with low viewership.There are a few other reasons why the game was canceled but low attendance was certainly part of it:Daily Caller reports:The league had yet to announce who would play during the primetime game next Sunday, but with the chance that none of the matchups would have playoff implications for one or both of the teams, they opted not to schedule the game.NEW YEAR S EVE:The other problem the league faced was broadcasting a game on New Year s Eve, which would invite lower number of viewers traditionally on that night. We felt that both from a competitive standpoint and from a fan perspective, the most fair thing to do is to schedule all Week 17 games in either the 1 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. windows, NFL broadcast chief Howard Katz said in a statement.The last time a Sunday Night Football game took place on the final night of the year was in 2006 when the Chicago Bears hosted the Green Bay Packers. That game was Hall of Fame member Brett Favre s final game with the Packers. Despite that fact, the game only drew 13.4 million viewers, which for that season was a quarter of the typical audience for SNF. In a season plagued with lower ratings due to the national anthem protests, the league s decision was not surprising.
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Mark Zuckerberg has a daughter, and unlike parents involved in the anti-vaxxer movement, he s a responsible parent who cares about the health of his kid and those around her.The Facebook founder posted a photo of himself holding his daughter Max in a doctor s office waiting for vaccinations. Doctor s visit time for vaccines! Zuckerberg wrote.// < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Doctor s visit time for vaccines!Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, January 8, 2016Because of this responsible act, Zuckerberg is protecting his daughter from diseases such as measles and rubella, the former of which has come roaring back as a threat because anti-vaxxers refuse to vaccinate their damn kids.But while most people praised Zuckerberg, anti-vaxxers were quick to attack him and demonize the vaccines and science that has saved hundreds of millions of people around the world since the MMR vaccine became available in 1971.According to Raw Story, a woman named Amy Smith claimed in a comment that one of her family members allegedly had a seizure because of vaccines. We all care about our kids. Growing up, my mom s best friend had a perfectly healthy daughter. She received MMR and had a grand mal seizure and suffered brain damage. Her dr diagnosed her with vaccine injury. She was left unable to talk or walk for the rest of her life. So that was MY first personal experience with vaccines. Bottom line A pharmaceutical that carries at least a risk of harm to some, should never be mandated. Because, in the end, no one seems to care about the sacrifices made for the common good. Another woman named Colleen Kennedy wrote furiously that herd immunity is a myth and proceeded to try and scare people by listing the ingredients of the vaccine as if this has not been public knowledge for years.Others attacked the pharmaceutical industry for allegedly created epidemics so that they can sell more vaccines. You know, crazy ravings from paranoid people.As we all know, measles became a national story once again as the virus became an epidemic in this country, especially in California where many parents send their unvaccinated kids to school. Measles had been largely wiped out in this country by 1997, but because of anti-vaxxers, measles made a comeback and killed an American for the first time in 12 years.The MMR vaccine is one of the most successful preventive measures a parent can take to keep their kids healthy. Not only is measles the eighth leading cause of death worldwide, it s deadlier than the Ebola virus that sent Americans over the edge with fear in 2014. Even Fox News own medical expert strongly endorsed vaccines and ripped anti-vaxxers a new one when asked about the new epidemic.Mark Zuckerberg is being a responsible parent and leading by example that he doesn t fear vaccines and trusts science. Other parents would be wise to follow suit for the sake of their own children.Featured Image: Raw Story
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Confidence is high he is spilling his guts while being tortured, but coward he is he quickly gave it all up and now is dead.
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21st Century Wire says Is this year s US election a story of the political elite establishment going to war with social justice?In the following episode of CrossTalk, three experts discuss how social justice is a rising force in American election politics.With the rise of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, a movement is definitely emerging that is calling for a radical change to how things are currently being done.Do you think that this election cycle will bring about the real change that people are so obviously desperate for, or will the political establishment find a way to crawl back into power?Watch the episode here: . GET THE FULL STORY ON THE ELECTION: 21st Century Wire 2016 Election Files
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Jill Stein got less than 1% of the vote nationwide in our presidential election, but after raising more than $7 million to do a recount (at an estimated cost of around $2 million), Jill Stein finds out she missed the deadline to file for a recount in PA. Where will all of the money go that she raised to either throw the election for Crooked Hillary, or to make Trump s presidency appear to be illegitimate? Jill Stein had everything she needed to launch a presidential recount. She had the cash, the grassroots fervor and the spotlight of an adoring media. But there s one thing she needed to overturn Trump s victory: a calendar. Washington ExaminerThe Wisconsin Elections Commission agreed Monday to begin a recount of the presidential election on Thursday but was sued by Green Party candidate Jill Stein after the agency declined to require county officials to recount the votes by hand.It will be a race to finish the recount in time to meet a daunting federal deadline, and the lawsuit could delay the process. Under state law, the recount must begin this week as long as Stein or another candidate pays the $3.5 million estimated cost of the recount by Tuesday, election officials said.Also Monday, Stein filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania to force a recount there and her supporters began filing recount requests at the precinct level in the Keystone State. Stein who received just a tiny piece of the national vote also plans to ask for a recount in Michigan on Wednesday.Unless Stein wins her lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court, officials in each of Wisconsin s 72 counties would decide on their own whether to do their recounts of the 2.98 million statewide votes by machine or by hand, with dozens of counties expected to hand count the paper ballots. JS
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Get short URL 0 9 0 0 NATO is tracking the movement of the Russian Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, considering its presence in the international waters close to the alliance's member states acceptable, Germany’s Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — On October 15, the Russian Northern Fleet’s press service said that a group of warships headed by the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov and accompanied by the Pyotr Veliky battle cruiser, the Severomorsk and the Admiral Kulakov anti-submarine destroyers, and support vessels was sent to the Mediterranean to hold drills and strengthen capabilities.
NATO officials have expressed concerns that the group could be used to support Damascus in the ongoing Syrian civil war. "It is acceptable that the Russian aircraft carrier operates in the international waters, though considering the current situation we will keep a close eye on it," she said. ...
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Every day, the NFL gives fans another reason to stop supporting them. Although the NFL agreed to refund a small portion of the money our Defense Department (US taxpayers) have paid them to show support for our military, it s the idea that Americans have been duped into believing it was something they did out of honor or reverence for our military. The NFL has reached a new low with their acceptance of players who are disrespecting our flag to promote Obama s race war, while disallowing the Dallas Cowboys to honor the 5 police officers slain in their hometown by a Black Lives Matter terrorist. Don t forget, they also looked away when Cleveland Brown s player, Isaiah Crowell posted an Instagram picture of a cop with his neck being slit open. The NFL never said a word. They never even acknowledged what some considered to be a terrorist type threat to our law enforcement. In May, 2016, the NFL announced that they would return more than $700,000 of taxpayers money that was paid to teams for sponsored military tributes.After being criticized for paid patriotism, in which money came out of the armed forces budget for various measures of public recognition during games, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league would pay that money back.In a letter written to Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain on Wednesday, and disclosed on Thursday, Goodell said that following an audited review of 100 marketing agreements from 2012 to 2015 by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche teams were deemed to have received $723,734 for acts of sponsored patriotism. Given the immense sacrifices made by our service members, it seems more appropriate that any organization with a genuine interest in honoring them, and deriving public credit as a result, should do so at its own expense and not at that of the American taxpayer, the report said. Americans deserve the ability to assume that tributes for our men and women in military uniform are genuine displays of national pride, which many are, rather than taxpayer-funded DOD marketing gimmicks. PGLast year, Flake and McCain disclosed that the U.S. Department of Defense had spent $5.4 million in contracts with 14 NFL teams from 2011 to 2014. Some of those contracts disclosed that payment was for on-field flag ceremonies and tributes to welcome home veterans. One team, the Atlanta Falcons, had made more than $1 million from the department over those four seasons.The National Guard spent $6.7 million on contracts with NFL teams from 2013 to 2015. Via: ESPNThere has never been a better time to boycott the NFL, their merchandise and any of their sponsors.
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IT S A MUST READ! The first month of the Trump administration has already changed the direction of the immigration debate, with many more changes coming soon. So far, executive orders and deportations dominate the discussion. But the fight over how many refugees to admit or how best to vet those refugees obscures what the debate is really about.Changes in social policy do not make everyone better off, and immigration policy is no exception. I am a refugee, having fled Cuba as a child in 1962. Not only do I have great sympathy for the immigrant s desire to build a better life, I am also living proof that immigration policy can benefit some people enormously.But I am also an economist, and am very much aware of the many trade-offs involved. Inevitably, immigration does not improve everyone s well-being. There are winners and losers, and we will need to choose among difficult options. The improved lives of the immigrants come at a price. How much of a price are the American people willing to pay, and exactly who will pay it?This tension permeates the debate over immigration s effect on the labor market. Those who want more immigration claim that immigrants do jobs that native-born Americans do not want to do. But we all know that the price of gas goes down when the supply of oil goes up. The laws of supply and demand do not evaporate when we talk about the price of labor rather than the price of gas. By now, the well-documented abuses of the H-1B program, such as the Disney workers who had to train their foreign-born replacements, should have obliterated the notion that immigration does not harm competing native workers. Over the past 30 years, a large fraction of immigrants, nearly a third, were high school dropouts, so the incumbent low-skill work force formed the core group of Americans who paid the price for the influx of millions of workers. Their wages fell as much as 6 percent. Those low-skill Americans included many native-born blacks and Hispanics, as well as earlier waves of immigrants.But somebody s lower wage is somebody else s higher profit. The increase in the profitability of many employers enlarged the economic pie accruing to the entire native population by about $50 billion. So, as proponents of more immigration point out, immigration can increase the aggregate wealth of Americans. But they don t point out the trade-off involved: Workers in jobs sought by immigrants lose out.They also don t point out that low-skill immigration has a side effect that reduces that $50 billion increase in wealth. The National Academy of Sciences recently estimated the impact of immigration on government budgets. On a year-to-year basis, immigrant families, mostly because of their relatively low incomes and higher frequency of participating in government programs like subsidized health care, are a fiscal burden. A comparison of taxes paid and government spending on these families showed that immigrants created an annual fiscal shortfall of $43 billion to $299 billion.Even the most conservative estimate of the fiscal shortfall wipes out much of the $50 billion increase in native wealth. Remarkably, the size of the native economic pie did not change much after immigration increased the number of workers by more than 15 percent. But the split of the pie certainly changed, giving far less to workers and much more to employers.The immigration debate will also have to address the long-term impact on American society, raising the freighted issue of immigrant assimilation. In recent decades, there has been a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which the economic status of immigrants improves over time. In the 1970s, the typical immigrant could expect a substantial improvement relative to natives over his or her lifetime. Today, the economic progress of the typical immigrant is much more stagnant.Part of the slowdown is related to the growth of ethnic enclaves. New immigrants who find few ethnic compatriots get value from acquiring skills that allow more social and economic exchanges, such as becoming proficient in English. But new immigrants who find a large and welcoming community of their countrymen have less need to acquire those skills; they already have a large audience that values whatever they brought with them. Put bluntly, mass migration discourages assimilation.The trade-offs become even more difficult when we think about the long-term integration of the children and grandchildren of today s immigrants. Many look back at the melting pot in 20th-century America and assume that history will repeat itself. That s probably wishful thinking. That melting pot operated in a particular economic, social and political context, and it is doubtful that those conditions can be reproduced today.Many of the Ellis Island-era immigrants got jobs in manufacturing; Ford s work force was 75 percent foreign-born in 1914. Those manufacturing jobs evolved into well-paid union jobs, creating a private-sector safety net for the immigrants and their descendants. Does anyone seriously believe that the jobs employing low-skill immigrants today will offer the same economic mobility that unionized manufacturing jobs provided?Similarly, the ideological climate that encouraged assimilation back then, neatly encapsulated by our motto E pluribus unum (Out of many, one), is dead and gone. A recent University of California directive shows the radical shift. The university s employees were advised to avoid using phrases that can lead to microaggressions toward students and one another. One example is the statement America is a melting pot, which apparently sends a message to the recipient that they have to assimilate to the dominant culture. Opinion Today Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.Europe is already confronting the difficulties produced by the presence of unassimilated populations. If nothing else, the European experience shows that there is no universal law that guarantees integration even after a few generations. We, too, will need to confront the trade-off between short-term economic gains and the long-term costs of a large, unassimilated minority.Identifying the trade-offs is only a first step toward a more sensible immigration policy. We also need some general principles, combining common sense and compassion.First and foremost, we must reduce illegal immigration. It has had a corrosive impact, paralyzing discussion on all aspects of immigration reform. A wall along the Mexican border may signal that we are getting serious, but many undocumented immigrants enter the country legally and then overstay their visas. A national electronic system (such as E-Verify) mandating that employers certify new hires, along with fines and criminal penalties for lawbreaking businesses, might go a long way toward stemming the flow.But what about the 11-million-plus undocumented immigrants already here? A vast majority have led peaceful lives and established deep roots in our communities. Their sudden deportation would not represent the compassionate America that many of us envision.Perhaps it s time for some benign neglect. Many will eventually qualify for visas because they have married American citizens or have native-born children. Rather than fight over a politically impossible amnesty, we could accelerate the granting of family-preference visas to that population.We will also need to decide how many immigrants to admit. Economists seldom confess their ignorance, but we truly have no clue about what that number should be. About one million legal immigrants a year entered the country in the past two decades. The political climate suggests that many Americans view that number as too high. History shows that when voters get fed up with immigration, there is no reluctance to cut off the flow altogether. Back in the 1990s, Barbara Jordan s immigration commission recommended an annual target of about 550,000 immigrants. Such a cut would be significant, but it may be preferable to the alternative, which, in this political climate, could mean shutting off the flow.Finally, we need to choose between highly skilled and less-skilled applicants. High-skill immigrants, who pay higher taxes and receive fewer services and can potentially expand the frontier of knowledge, are more profitable for us. But giving an opportunity to the huddled masses is part of what makes our country exceptional.Regardless of the allocation, employers should not walk away with all the gains, and workers should not suffer all the losses. We need to ensure a more equitable sharing of the gains and losses among the American people.No matter where one stands in the ideological divide, President Trump has already answered the fundamental question guiding the design of a more rational policy. In his speech at the Republican National Convention, he described how he would pick among the available choices: We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, he said. But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. He added, We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people. Many of my colleagues in the academic community and many of the elite opinion-makers in the news media recoil when they hear that immigration should serve the interests of Americans. Their reaction is to label such thinking as racist and xenophobic, and to marginalize anyone who agrees.But those accusations of racism reflect their effort to avoid a serious discussion of the trade-offs. The coming debate would be far more honest and politically transparent if we demanded a simple answer from those who disagree with America First proposals: Who are you rooting for?Via: NYT
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s government published a draft agreement between Russia and Egypt on Thursday allowing both countries to use each other s air space and air bases for their military planes. The draft deal was set out in a decree, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Nov. 28, which ordered the Russian Defence Ministry to hold negotiations with Egyptian officials and to sign the document once both sides reached an agreement. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Cairo for talks with Egypt s political and military leadership on Wednesday and the decree said the draft had been preliminary worked through with the Egyptian side and approved by Medvedev. Russia launched a military operation to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015 and there are signs it is keen to further expand its military presence in the region. U.S. officials said in March that Russia had deployed special forces in Egypt near the border with Libya, an allegation Moscow denied. Russia has cultivated close ties with powerful Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, who held talks with Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, via video link from a Russian aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean this year and visited Moscow. Russian and Egyptian war planes would be able to use each other s air space and airfields by giving five days advance notice, according to the draft agreement, which is expected to be valid for five years and could be extended.
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in: General Health , Medical & Health , Sleuth Journal , Special Interests I’ve written many articles on the hazards and drawbacks of getting a mammogram, which include:
• The risk of false positives . Besides leading to unnecessary mental anguish and medical treatment, a false cancer diagnosis may also interfere with your eligibility for medical insurance, which can have serious financial ramifications
• The risk of false negatives , which is of particular concern for dense-breasted women
• The fact that ionizing radiation actually causes cancer and may contribute to breast cancer when done over a lifetime.
Results published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) show that women carrying the BRCA1/2 gene mutation are particularly vulnerable to radiation-induced cancer 1
• The fact that studies repeatedly find that mammograms have no impact on mortality rates As so expertly demonstrated in the video above, created by Dr. Andrew Lazris and environmental scientist, Erik Rifkin, Ph.D., it’s easy to misunderstand the benefits of mammograms. Mammograms are said to reduce your risk of dying from breast cancer by 20 percent, but unless you understand where this number comes from, you’ll be vastly overestimating the potential benefit of regular mammogram screening . Most doctors also fail to inform patients about the other side of the equation, which is that far more women are actually harmed by the procedure than benefit from it. 1 in 1,000 Women Is Saved by Regular Mammogram Screening While 10 Undergo Cancer Treatment for No Reason Incredible as it may sound, the 20 percent mortality risk reduction touted by conventional medicine actually amounts to just 1 woman per 1,000 who get regular mammograms. How can that be? As explained in the video, for every 1,000 women who do not get mammograms, 5 of them will die of breast cancer. For every 1,000 women who do get mammograms, 4 will die anyway. The difference between the two groups is 20 percent (the difference of that one person in the mammogram group whose life is saved). On the other side of the equation, out of every 1,000 women who get regular mammograms over a lifetime: HALF will receive a false positive. So while they do NOT have cancer, about 500 out of every 1,000 women getting mammograms will face the terror associated with a breast cancer diagnosis 64 will get biopsies, which can be painful and carry risks of adverse effects 10 will go on to receive cancer treatment for what is in actuality NOT cancer, including disfiguring surgery and toxic drugs or radiation. Surgery, chemo and radiation are all risky, and dying from the treatment for a cancer you do not have is doubly tragic All things considered, the evidence seems quite clear; most women should probably avoid mammograms, as they cause far more harm than good. Many studies have now come to that conclusion, and the most recent research, 2 published just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, again hammers home that point. Harms of Mammography Eclipse Benefits For this study, the researchers analyzed U.S. cancer statistics collected by the government in order to estimate the effectiveness of mammography. By comparing records of breast cancers diagnosed in women over the age of 40 between 1975 and 1979 — a time before mammograms came into routine use — and between 2000 and 2002, three key findings emerged. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 The incidence of large tumors (2 centimeters or larger) has declined, from 68 percent to 32 percent The number of women diagnosed with small tumors has increased, from 36 to 64 percent The incidence of metastatic cancer, which is the most lethal, has remained stable This may initially sound like good news for mammograms, but in absolute numbers, the decrease in large tumors was actually rather small — a mere 30 tumors less per 100,000 women. Meanwhile, the dramatic increase in small tumors was mostly attributed to overdiagnosis — an estimated 81 percent of these small tumors did not actually need treatment. The fact that metastatic cancer rates remained even suggests we’re not catching more of them, earlier. Instead, we’re catching and treating mostly harmless tumors. The researchers also found that two-thirds of the reduction in breast cancer mortality was attributable to improved treatment, such as the use of tamoxifen. Breast cancer screening only accounted for one-third of the reduction in mortality. Lead researcher Dr. H.Gilbert Welch explains the findings of the study in the video above. As reported by WebMD: 9 “The upshot, according to Welch, is that mammography is more likely to ‘overdiagnose’ breast cancer than to catch more-aggressive tumors early. What’s more, the researchers said that while breast cancer deaths have fallen since the 1970s, that is mainly due to better treatment — not screening. Welch noted the current study’s findings have nothing to do with women who feel a lump in the breast. ‘They need to get a mammogram,’ he stressed. But, Welch suggested, when it comes to routine screening, women can decide based on their personal values.” Screening as Personal Choice When speaking to NBC news, Welch went on to say that “screening is a choice. It’s not a public health imperative.” 10 At present, most conventional cancer specialists do view mammograms as an imperative, although recommendations vary depending on who you listen to. As of last year, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommends women of average risk should have their first mammogram at age 45, followed by an annual mammogram up until age 55. Women 55 and older should have them every other year. 11 Meanwhile, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends waiting until the age of 50, and only getting a mammogram every other year thereafter. 12 In response to heated debate over the varying guidelines, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring insurance companies to cover mammograms regardless of age. Not surprisingly, the ACS has sharply criticized the latest study. In a statement, chief cancer control officer of ACS, Dr. Richard Wender, said: “These conclusions are bold, attention-grabbing and should be taken with a grain of salt — actually, an entire spoonful.” The problem with Wender’s attitude is that this is by no means the first or only study suggesting that mammography has been vastly oversold. In fact, a number of studies have now refuted the validity of mammography as a primary tool against breast cancer. The Evidence Overwhelmingly Refutes Routine Use of Mammography Other studies that support the findings of the featured study include the following: ✓ Archives of Internal Medicine, 2007 : A meta-analysis of 117 randomized, controlled mammogram trials. Among its findings: Rates of false-positive results are as high as 56 percent after 10 mammograms. 13 ✓ Cochrane Database Review, 2009 : This review found that breast cancer screening led to a 30 percent rate of overdiagnosis and overtreatment, which actually INCREASED the absolute risk of developing cancer by 0.5 percent. The review concluded that for every 2,000 women invited for screening throughout a 10-year period, the life of just one woman was prolonged, while 10 healthy women were treated unnecessarily. 14 ✓ New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), 2010 : This study concluded that the reduction in mortality as a result of mammographic screening was so small as to be nonexistent — a mere 2.4 deaths per 100,000 person-years were spared as a result of the screening. 15 ✓ The Lancet Oncology, 2011 : This study described the natural history of breast cancers detected in the Swedish mammography screening program between 1986 to 1990, involving 650,000 women. Since breast lesions and tumors are aggressively treated and/or removed before they can be determined with any certainty to be a clear and present threat to health, there has been little to no research on what happens when they are left alone. This study however, demonstrated for the first time that women who received the most breast screenings had a HIGHER cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer over the following six years than the control group who received far less screenings. 16 ✓ The Lancet, 2012 , showed that for every life saved by mammography screening, three women are overdiagnosed and treated with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy for a cancer that might never have given them trouble in their lifetimes. 17 ✓ Cochrane Database Review, 2013 : A review of 10 trials involving more than 600,000 women found mammography screening had no effect on overall mortality. 18 ✓ NEJM, 2014 : Drs. Nikola Biller-Andorno and Peter Jüni published a paper in which they describe the findings of an independent health technology assessment initiative to assess the effectiveness of mammography, of which they were a part: 19 “First, we noticed that the ongoing debate was based on a series of reanalyses of the same, predominantly outdated trials … Could the modest benefit of mammography screening in terms of breast-cancer mortality that was shown in trials initiated between 1963 and 1991 still be detected in a trial conducted today?
Second, we were struck by how nonobvious it was that the benefits of mammography screening outweighed the harms.
The relative risk reduction of approximately 20 percent in breast-cancer mortality associated with mammography that is currently described by most expert panels came at the price of a considerable diagnostic cascade, with repeat mammography, subsequent biopsies and overdiagnosis of breast cancers — cancers that would never have become clinically apparent …
Third, we were disconcerted by the pronounced discrepancy between women’s perceptions of the benefits of mammography screening and the benefits to be expected in reality. The figure shows the numbers of 50-year-old women in the United States expected to be alive, to die from breast cancer, or to die from other causes if they are invited to undergo regular mammography every [two] years over a 10-year period, as compared with women who do not undergo mammography … The Swiss Medical Board’s report was made public on February 2, 2014. 20 It acknowledged that systematic mammography screening might prevent about one death attributed to breast cancer for every 1,000 women screened, even though there was no evidence to suggest that overall mortality was affected.
At the same time, it emphasized the harm — in particular, false positive test results and the risk of overdiagnosis … The board therefore recommended that no new systematic mammography screening programs be introduced and that a time limit be placed on existing programs. In addition, it stipulated that the quality of all forms of mammography screening should be evaluated and that clear and balanced information should be provided to women regarding the benefits and harms of screening.” ✓ British Medical Journal (BMJ), 2014 : A Canadian study put the rate of overdiagnosis and overtreatment from mammography at nearly 22 percent. 21 ✓ JAMA Internal Medicine, July 2015 : Here, researchers concluded mammography screenings lead to unnecessary treatments while having virtually no impact on the number of deaths from breast cancer. A positive correlation between breast cancer screening and breast cancer incidence was indeed found, but there was no positive correlation with mortality. 22 , 23 ✓ Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, September 2015 : The conclusion of this study is stated right in the title, which reads: “Mammography screening is harmful and should be abandoned.” 24 , 25 In short, the authors concluded that decades of routine breast cancer screening using mammograms has done nothing to decrease deaths from breast cancer, while causing more than half (52 percent) of all women undergoing the test to be overdiagnosed and overtreated. According to lead author Peter C. Gøtzsche, had mammograms been a drug, “it would have been withdrawn from the market long ago.” It’s Time to Revise the ‘When in Doubt, Cut It Out’ Mentality Going back to where we started, even when using the cancer industry’s own statistics mammography comes up short, provided you understand what the 20 percent actually means. To reiterate, the difference between getting routine mammograms and not getting them is that the life of 1 in 1,000 women is saved. Four die even with mammograms, compared to five deaths among those who do not get screened. And again, 10 of those 1,000 screened women will be treated for cancer even though they do not actually have it. Clearly the choice is yours. If you find comfort in thinking you may be that one person who is saved, then by all means follow your heart or gut instinct. Just be clear about the risks, because the chances are far greater you could be one of the 10 who ends up undergoing chemo or a mastectomy for a tumor that would not have caused you harm. As noted by Dr. Joann Elmore of the University of Washington School of Medicine: 26 “We get credit for curing disease that never would have harmed the patient. We receive positive feedback from patients thanking us for ‘saving my life,’ alarming feedback from patients with ‘missed diagnoses’ and no feedback at all from patients whose cancer was overdiagnosed. The mantras, ‘All cancers are life-threatening’ and ‘When in doubt, cut it out’, require revision.” Solid Evidence for Vitamin D as a Cancer Prevention Tool Mammograms are portrayed as the best form of “prevention” a woman can get. But early diagnosis is not the same as prevention. And when the cancer screening does more harm than good, how can it possibly qualify as your best hope? I believe the evidence really speaks for itself when it comes to mammography. The same can be said for research into vitamin D, which repeatedly shows that optimizing your vitamin D level within a range of 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) provides impressive cancer protection. I believe testing your vitamin D level is one of the most important cancer prevention tests available. Ideally get tested twice a year. There are exceptions, of course. If you feel a lump in your breast, a mammogram may be warranted, although even then there are other non-ionizing alternatives, such as ultrasound, which has been shown to be considerably superior to mammography, especially for dense-breasted women who are at much higher risk of a false negative when using mammography. One of the most recent studies 27 looking at vitamin D for breast cancer found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with cancer progression and metastasis. As noted by Stanford University researcher, Dr. Brian Feldman: 28 “A number of large studies have looked for an association between vitamin D levels and cancer outcomes, and the findings have been mixed. Our study identifies how low levels of vitamin D circulating in the blood may play a mechanistic role in promoting breast cancer growth and metastasis .” Having higher levels of vitamin D has also been linked to increased likelihood of survival after being diagnosed with breast cancer. 29 In one study, breast cancer patients who had an average of 30 ng/ml of vitamin D in their blood had a 50 percent lower mortality rate compared to those who had an average of 17 ng/ml of vitamin D. I am really grateful that the medical community has embraced vitamin D and started using it. However, it’s important to understand that the best way to get vitamin D is from sensible sun exposure, and if you’re really interested in optimal health and healing you will do everything in your power to get it. This is one of the reasons I moved to Florida. I have not swallowed vitamin D in over 8 years and still have levels over 60 ng/ml. There are many other benefits of sunlight exposure other than vitamin D. Over 40 percent of sunlight is near-infrared rays that your body requires to structure the water in your body and stimulate mitochondrial repair and regeneration. If you merely swallow vitamin D and avoid the sun, you are missing a primary benefit of sensible sun exposure. If you are stuck in the winter and have low vitamin D, it is probably best to swallow oral vitamin D like a drug, but please recognize that this is a FAR inferior way to optimize vitamin D levels and you are missing many important biological benefits when you avoid sun exposure. You can learn more about vitamin D’s influence on cancer and other health problems in my previous article, “ The Who, Why and When of Vitamin D Screening .” The fact of the matter is there are many strategies that are far more beneficial in terms of breast cancer prevention than mammography. So if you’re hitching your fate on mammograms, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. For key dietary guidelines and lifestyle strategies that can help reduce your cancer risk, please see my previous article, “ Top Tips to Decrease Your Breast Cancer Risk .” Another excellent resource is Dr. Christine Horner’s book, “Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer ,” which contains scientifically validated all-natural approaches that can protect against and treat breast cancer. Submit your review
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria s Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump for its position on the Iran nuclear deal, saying in comments to state media that it would increase regional tension and threaten security and peace. Syria condemns the aggressive policies of the U.S. administration against the interests of the people, and which will increase the atmosphere of tension in the region and the world, state news agency SANA quoted an official source at the ministry as saying. Trump refused on Friday to formally certify that Tehran was complying with the 2015 accord even though international inspectors say it is. He warned he might ultimately terminate the agreement. Syria is a close ally of Iran, which has given extensive military and financial aid to President Bashar al-Assad in his more than six years of war against rebels seeking to oust him. The nuclear deal was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, leading European allies to warn that putting it into limbo risks undermining U.S. credibility abroad. The U.S. Congress will now have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that it lifted under the pact.
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CAREFUL to dispose of the nuclear codes under the cover of darkness, US president Barack Obama began digging at an unknown patch of earth behind the White House at 3am this morning, WWN has learned.
However, there was some urgency required as first light began to break over the horizon and Obama, along with two aides, had yet to bury the modest box which contained the codes to all of America’s nuclear warhead missiles.
“Just shout the safety word we agreed on if you see anyone coming, even if it’s Michelle, no one can know it’s here, maybe we can tell her where they are when she runs in 8 years time,” Obama said to a secret service official as his brow glistened with sweat.
Now clawing at the earth in a frantic fashion with his bare hands fuelled by images of a tiny orange hand plunging its digits onto the ‘launch nuclear weapon’ button, the Democrat felt he could take no chances with the codes as Republican candidate Donald Trump was leading in some national polls.
“Whose job is it to regularly water the grass here, I want his ass fired, it’s been hell digging here, it’s so hard and dry,” Obama added, unaware watering the White House lawns was the official duty of the president of the country.
Finishing burying the box containing the codes, Obama used the shovel to dab down the freshly overturned soil before striking his aides over the back of the head with the digging tool.
“No one can know where it’s buried, no one,” Obama added, as he dragged their unconscious bodies to another patch of White House lawn, whereby he set about digging two fresh holes.
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James O Keefe has been at the forefront of new media since he outed ACORN posing as a pimp Who can forget that! He s exposed the left time and time again His latest video exposed liberal organizers suggesting violent ways to disrupt the inauguration of President Trump.It seems O Keefe recognizes that we are at war with the press more than anyone on the left. The blatant lies and complete distortions of just about anything President Trump says are happening 24/7 on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS. It s time to expose the REAL fake news Thank you James O Keefe!Here s O Keefe s first release where Joe Sterling, CNN s News Desk Editor for The Wire telling one of O Keefe s undercover reporters that climate change is settled science and, There is no debate. I mean, I m a little biased Joe Sterling, once News Desk Editor @CNN admits he has a clear bias in favor of @POTUS44. Doesn't #CNN claim to be "most trusted?" #CNNLeaks pic.twitter.com/VhxeJCK1lL James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 23, 2017The second release in a long list of undercover CNN tapes, PROVES Trump was correct when he talked about the polls being rigged. We all knew that President Trump was correct when he told Americans, Don t believe the polls that were incorrectly pointing to a huge Hillary win. We all know how that story ends. Trump beat Hillary in a landslide, and beat her in states that polls like CNN s, told us he had no chance of winning. Listen to CNN try to reason with O Keefe s undercover reporter about why they refuse to update their polls after new information emerges that could be a game changer in how the public perceives it:When questioned about their tactics and why they choose not to use new data to update one of their polls, CNN s Executive Editor Arthur Brice responded, I agree. I think its dishonest to use outdated information if new information shows something that is in variance with something you re reporting. It s just dishonest. In this bit we found @CNN's Executive Editor @ArthurBrice talks about using "dishonest and outdated information" in CNN's polls. #CNNLeaks pic.twitter.com/j2L2FrqYwY James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 23, 2017
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SAN FRANCISCO — Like so many bright, young entrepreneurs these days, Isaac Choi arrived here last year, set up shop and promised employees that he would lead them to the Silicon Valley dream. That dream is turning out mostly to be a mirage. This week, Mr. Choi’s company, WrkRiot, began unraveling in a highly public fashion. Its former head of marketing revealed that the had been mired in internal chaos and had sometimes paid employees in cashier’s checks before delaying payment altogether. She also alleged that Mr. Choi had forged wire transfer documents to make it look as if compensation were on the way. By late Tuesday, WrkRiot had taken itself offline. The veracity of Mr. Choi’s credentials are now also in question. While WrkRiot is not widely known, the ’s collapse has gripped Silicon Valley. Mr. Choi’s situation may be extreme, but the company’s implosion has a familiar ring to many who came west to be the next Mark Zuckerberg — but ended up instead at the next WrkRiot. Silicon Valley is always eager to celebrate its success stories, but the reality is that numerous tiny that few ever hear about form the tech industry’s dysfunctional underbelly. “With the exception of the alleged fraud, almost anyone who has worked at a has experienced most everything that went wrong at WrkRiot,” said Semil Shah, a investor based in Menlo Park, Calif. “People don’t realize the word is a broad concept that includes everything from a proven entrepreneur raising $15 million to a guy with money from friends and family. ” To an outsider, he said, “they’re both the same. ” On Hacker News, an online forum for techies, WrkRiot’s tale has exploded into one of the most popular threads, attracting more than 500 comments, including one from a poster who said that the ’s experience “is pretty much a rite of passage here. ” Tech blogs have also seized the tale one called it “one of the ugliest stories we’ve ever heard. ” Penny Kim, the former head of marketing at WrkRiot who wrote about her experience at the company, including the forgery allegations, said, “I’d heard stories about late paychecks or failing, but who expects fraud in Silicon Valley?” WrkRiot terminated Ms. Kim’s employment in after she filed a wage claim. She has since filed a retaliation complaint against the company and moved to Dallas, where she previously lived. In an interview this week, Mr. Choi, 35, said WrkRiot, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif. near where Intel has its headquarters, was “like any company. If you want to talk all have problems. ” When asked about the forgery claims, Mr. Choi said Ms. Kim was a disgruntled employee who was fired for cause and that the accusations were “unfair to my guys. ” Along with the Mr. Choi’s personal credibility is on the line. As he built WrkRiot, the entrepreneur said that he graduated from the Stern School of Business at New York University and that he worked at J. P. Morgan for nearly four years as an analyst. N. Y. U. and J. P. Morgan both said they had no record of Mr. Choi. At least one company listed on his LinkedIn profile also could not be found. Mr. Choi, whose LinkedIn profile has since been wiped clean, did not respond to questions about his résumé. His lawyer, Bernard Fishman, said he was not aware of the allegations against WrkRiot until contacted by The New York Times. Mr. Choi set up his in June 2015 under the name 1For. One, with a mission of helping people find the perfect job online. He brought in advisers with expertise in recruiting and data science and eventually hired nearly 20 employees, including Chinese nationals under work visas. The company later changed its name to JobSonic with a tagline, “Finally, a lightning fast job platform that cares. ” Eventually, the settled on the name of WrkRiot. Mr. Choi said the company had not raised any money from venture capital firms but that he had “a bunch of private investors who are individuals who believe in the company. ” He said one investor was related to him and one was not, but would not say how much money the company had. WrkRiot’s former chief technology officer and Al Brown, said Mr. Choi had intended to put $2 million of his own money into the company, but that only $400, 000 materialized. “I did not find out till the beginning of August that the money for the last payroll came from one of the employees,” Mr. Brown wrote in online comments this week. In Ms. Kim’s post about her experience at the company, which she did not initially identify but later confirmed was WrkRiot, she wrote that the without consulting her, hired someone who would report to her, did not plan ahead on its business — and had no idea what its business really was — and was repeatedly turned down by investors. The chief executive, later identified as Mr. Choi, also borrowed money from employees, she said. “Nothing about that surprises me anymore and it all seems like a horrible nightmare I was lucky enough to wake up from,” she wrote. Since Ms. Kim’s disclosures, others have told her they were also shortchanged by . Michelle Young, the founder of the online travel guide Untapped Cities, reached out to Ms. Kim to tell her about an undisclosed that bought ad space from her company — but then stopped paying. Ms. Young was eventually offered $40, 000 in guaranteed business by the if she agreed to a nondisparagement clause. She did not sign and is still waiting for some of the money she is owed. “At some point the checks stopped coming,” said Ms. Young. “There were warning signs. Offers that seemed too good to be true. ” After Ms. Kim’s post, several of WrkRiot’s advisers and former employees moved to distance themselves from the company. Daniel Tunkelang, a former WrkRiot adviser who has worked at LinkedIn and been a consultant at Pinterest, terminated his relationship with the company and wrote in a blog post, “I should have gotten to know the company and its leadership better before associating myself with them and lending them my credibility. ” At WrkRiot, a handful of the ’s remaining 10 or so employees gathered on Tuesday night to discuss their situation, according to a person who attended the gathering and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was concerned about retaliation. A few were hopeful that Mr. Choi could save the company. Some of the Chinese nationals whose work visas are tied to their employment said their visa extensions were in limbo, partly because WrkRiot had missed a payment to the company ADP, making it impossible for the government to verify their employment through ADP. By then, WrkRiot had shut down its website, its Facebook page and its Twitter account. Many of the employees are now hunting for other Silicon Valley jobs.
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When Donald Trump recently said he would love to have a debate with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he probably didn t think it would actually happen despite the fact that he bragged about how much the debate would have such high ratings. But it turned out that Sanders was more than happy to fulfill The Donald s request, knowing full well that he could wipe the debate floor with the presumptive Republican nominee on any day of the week and not even break a sweat doing it. In teasing about the debate, Trump challenged Bernie to raise $10 million for charity a mission that Sanders immediately accepted by responding on Twitter: Game On. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7th primary. So although Trump might have never actually intended on having a face off with the Vermont senator and is likely regretting opening his big mouth (for once), it looks like it might actually happen!We can t wait to see Sanders put Trump in his place, and fortunately we have something to hold us over. We can easily get a preview of what the debate is going to look like thanks to the Trump vs. Bernie Web/TV Series and live tour, which is the genius comedy project of James Adomian (Bernie) and Anthony Atamanuik (Trump).These two comedians have brought Sanders and Trump to life with their spot-on impersonations, perfectly capturing Trump s ability to be offensive and effectively avoid answering direct questions, as well as Sanders unwavering dedication to human rights movements and the middle class. This skit is absolutely brilliant, and really gives us a taste of what we might actually see before Trump gets his ass handed to him in real life.You can watch the hilarious special below:Let s just hope Trump doesn t chicken out of the real debate! Sanders campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said Bernie is ready to go: We are ready to debate Donald Trump. We hope he will not chicken out. I think it will be great for America to see these two candidates and the different visions they have for America going forward. What we ll have to see, is does Donald Trump have the courage to get on the stage with Bernie Sanders. That remains to be seen. Featured image is a screenshot
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Anti-Trump Protester Holds Reprehensible Sign about Melania Anti-Trump Protester Holds Reprehensible Sign about Melania Culture By TruthFeedNews November 13, 2016
Want to see exactly how reprehensible the moral character of Anti-Trump protesters is?
Take a look at what this Hillary Supporter has on his sign.
“Rape Melania”
Police, please arrest this worthless scumbag and lock him up.
Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.
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CAIRO — The EgyptAir from Paris to Cairo, an Airbus A320 jetliner less than half full, had just entered Egyptian airspace early Thursday on the final part of its journey. Suddenly the jetliner jerked hard to the left, then hard to the right, circled and plunged 28, 000 feet, disappearing from the radar screens of Greek and Egyptian air traffic controllers. That began a day of emergency rescuers scrambling, officials issuing conflicting information and experts speculating about the fate of EgyptAir Flight 804, which carried at least 66 people from roughly a dozen nations and was presumed to have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. EgyptAir initially said wreckage of the plane had been found with the help of searchers from Greece, but a senior official of the airline speaking on CNN retracted that assertion hours later. Egyptian officials suggested that terrorism was a more likely cause for the disappearance than mechanical failure, but others cautioned that it was premature to make that judgment. The loss of the flight was the second civilian aviation disaster to hit Egypt in the past seven months. It resurrected fears and speculation about the safety and security of Egyptian aviation, which has a history of lapses — as well as the specter of a security breach in Paris, where the plane took off. The mystery of the plane’s demise also raised broader questions about the vulnerability of civilian air travel to terrorism. Flight 804 went missing against the backdrop of threats from militant extremist groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, with networks linking Europe to the Middle East. By Thursday evening, no group had claimed responsibility. With differing reports about precisely what wreckage had been discovered, President Abdel Fattah of Egypt ordered the armed forces to “take all measures necessary” to find the remains of the plane, his office said in a statement. The statement also said work had begun immediately “to unravel the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the Egyptian aircraft and establish its causes. ” As news of the missing plane spread in Cairo, relatives of those aboard rushed to the airport, some overcome with grief and anger over the lack of information. “Pray for them,” said a relative of a flight attendant who had just married. “We don’t know anything. ” Earlier in the day, Egypt’s civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, acknowledged at a news conference that the cause might have been terrorism. Mr. Fathi said that “if you analyze the situation properly,” the possibility of “having a terror attack is higher than the possibility” of technical failure. EgyptAir said the pilot and had nearly 9, 000 hours of flying time between them. Officials from the Interior Ministry and Cairo Airport described them as experienced fliers with no known political affiliations. The jetliner departed Paris at 11:09 p. m. on Wednesday. The pilot spoke to Greek air traffic controllers at 2:26 a. m. and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, officials said. Three or four minutes later, the plane made its last normal radar contact. At 2:37 a. m. shortly after entering Egyptian airspace, the plane made a turn to the left and then a full circle to the right, first plunging to 15, 000 feet from 37, 000 feet and then to 9, 000 feet. At that point it disappeared from radar, the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. There was also conflicting information about precisely how many passengers Flight 804 was carrying — 66 or 69. EgyptAir said early in the day that 56 passengers were aboard, along with seven crew members, and three members of airline security personnel. But three infants also were reported to have been aboard and it was unclear if they had been counted. At least 30 of the passengers were from Egypt, according to the airline, with others from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Chad, France, Iraq, Kuwait, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The aircraft was delivered to EgyptAir in November 2003 and had accumulated 48, 000 hours of flying time, according to data compiled by Flightradar24, an aviation website. Such aircraft are typically built to last 30 or 40 years, and there was no indication anything was mechanically amiss. But the aircraft’s North Africa itinerary in the previous two days was possibly more worrisome. Flightradar24 data showed it had flown round trips between Cairo and Asmara, Eritrea, and between Cairo and Tunis before going to Paris. American and European officials have expressed concerns about security gaps in North African airports. Officials in Egypt, who have been under intense scrutiny since a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board, declined to describe the events as a crash. The aviation minister’s quick acknowledgment that terrorism might be a cause this time was in stark contrast to the government’s handling of the loss of the Russian airliner, which Egyptian officials had insisted for months could not have been the result of terrorism. The French president, François Hollande, after speaking by telephone with President Sisi of Egypt, also raised the possibility of terrorism. “The information that we have been able to gather — the prime minister, the members of the government, and, of course, the Egyptian authorities — unfortunately confirm for us that this plane crashed at sea and has been lost,” Mr. Hollande said at the Élysée Palace. Mr. Hollande said that “no hypothesis was being ruled out,” and that search teams from France, Greece and Egypt were hoping to recover “debris that would enable us to know the truth. ” He added, “When we have the truth, we must draw all the conclusions, whether it is an accident or another hypothesis, which everybody has in mind: the terrorist hypothesis. ” Security at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, where Flight 804 departed, was tightened after the terrorist attacks in and around the French capital in November, and scrutiny of passengers and luggage was also stepped up in the wake of the bombing of Brussels Airport in March. President Obama was briefed by Lisa O. Monaco, his adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, and the administration offered “support and assistance,” the White House said in a statement. Administration officials said it was too early to say what had caused the plane to vanish. But they said they were sharing information from a terrorist watch list as well as other data with Egyptian, French and other investigators. EgyptAir said the last radar contact with the plane had been about 2:30 a. m. when it was 175 miles off the Egyptian coast. (Greek officials put the last radar contact at a minute earlier.) At 3:14 a. m. the Greek authorities began a search operation, deploying a military transport plane. At 4:26 a. m. — nearly two hours after the last radar contact — the plane emitted a signal, although it was not clear whether that was an emergency distress signal sent by a crew member or an automated signal from the plane’s onboard computers. “We don’t know if the pilot had something to do with this or if it is just the plane sending it,” said Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry. In the October crash of the Russian jetliner, the plane broke up in midair 23 minutes after takeoff from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el Sheikh. The Islamic State, whose local affiliate is fighting the Egyptian military in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed that it had brought down the plane, an Airbus . The crash dealt a crippling blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, which had already declined sharply in recent years. It also helped precipitate a decline in the value of the Egyptian currency in recent months. Russia and Britain have suspended flights to Sharm el Sheikh since the crash. The Egyptian investigation has yet to officially identify the cause. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Mr. Sisi discussed the resumption of flights in a telephone call on May 10, according to a statement from the Kremlin. The last major crash involving an EgyptAir plane occurred in 2002, when a Boeing 737 traveling from Cairo struck a hill near the Tunis airport, killing 18 of the 62 people on board. In March, a hijacker wearing a fake explosives vest diverted an EgyptAir domestic flight to Cyprus, but a standoff ended with his arrest and no injuries. The Cypriot authorities later described the man, Seif Eldin Mustafa, as “psychologically disturbed. ” He is currently battling extradition to Egypt. Egypt has come under criticism in the past for its lack of transparency in aviation accidents. In 1999, an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from New York, killing all 217 on board. Although American investigators concluded that the had steered the airplane into the sea, Egypt rejected the idea of suicide and still insists that the crash was caused by an unspecified mechanical failure.
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After the past disastrous week, he can’t win. But he’s already made all of us losers, and we’ve been accessories to his crimes.
The self-imposed carnage will mean almost nothing to Trump loyalists. But with 36 days left, the clock has run out for real estate magnate and—without a meaningful field organization, and with an undisciplined, national communications apparatus—there is simply no way for him to build and grow the kind of broad-based coalition necessary to topple Hillary Clinton’s current polling lead. Between now and Election Day, the gap is too large, there are too many yards left to run the football, and the real estate developer just dipped his hands in cement.
Without question, Trump would have been the most disastrous American president of the modern era. Some very real damage, however, has already been done—to what is deemed acceptable in our discourse, to the way in which we determine the long-term viability of candidates, and to the fundamental spirit of fair play—and there is no turning back.
There is more than enough culpability to go around—including a broad swath of GOP primary voters, journalists who partook in false equivalences in the name of clicks and ratings, and even the RNC honchos who refused to deploy legal mechanisms stop him. Of course, there is also the broader society which bought into the fable of his business acumen, tuning in for his weekly reality show on NBC, and handed him a trough laden with celebrity. Together, one and all, we made him.
There will almost certainly be social and political consequences of Trump’s months-long verbal carpet bombing campaign. Notwithstanding heroic acts of journalism, the so-called balanced egalitarian approach to election coverage has been dominated and fraught with dishonest political brokers. Beyond an emboldened, more virulently bigoted strain of ethno-nationalists, win or lose, Trump and his band of surrogates have fundamentally changed the rules of fair play.
Beating out more than a dozen primary opponents while lobbing bigoted remarks at Muslims, Hispanics, and women, a promised “pivot” never came to fruition. The fact that he was not forced to suspend his campaign after making racist remarks about a federal judge says as much about us as it does about Trump. With our tacit approval, he moved on to vicious stereotypes about African Americans and refused to apologize for his attempt to delegitimize the nation’s first black president. In fact, he said we should thank him for telling the truth and forcing President Obama to produce his long-form birth certificate. Instead of issuing a mea culpa, Trump falsely blamed Clinton’s 2008 campaign team for initiating the controversy and promptly patted himself on the back for putting the issue to bed.
Except Trump never walked away from birtherism. He continued to claim the document was fraudulent and even posited that the health official who signed it might have been murdered. On two occasions, he has risen to the podium and suggested circumstances under which his opponent might be shot.
For any other candidate in any other year, just one of those things would have been enough. But Trump knows it isn’t. “She’s nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be,” he boasted in an interview with the Times.
He knows that he and some of his most prominent surrogates—Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich—can keep blowing the whistle, changing the rules mid-play. They all but blamed Americans for paying their fair share of taxes and honoring their contractual obligations. Trump, in the words of former New York mayor Giuliani was a “genius” for using the net operating loss carry-forward deduction—an obscure loophole unavailable to most working Americans—to cure future tax debt for nearly two decades.
So what if he filed multiple bankruptcies, refused to pay small businesses after they rendered services to his companies, and cost tens of thousands of people their jobs? It was all fair and legal, according to Trump. So what if he is an admitted serial adulterer who won’t spare a breath before spitting out misogynist, hypersexualized comments about women. Everybody cheats, at least according to Giuliani, and the women deserved it, right? So what if it turns out to be true that Trump didn’t pay a dime in federal or state taxes over the span of 18 years—leaving police officers, school teachers, veterans, and others out in the wash. That makes him “smart,” right?
Once upon a time, allegations of fraud, draft dodging, flagrant philandering, and self-dealing, not to mention public verbal assaults against a litany of people, would have been immediate disqualifiers. A self-professed billionaire who paid no taxes for even one year would have been laughed off the stage. Candidates have surely dropped out over less. The torrent of bad press would’ve been enough to send any other self-respecting candidate for the hills. Within hours, the candidate and his spouse would’ve been standing tearfully before a flag draped podium proclaiming their allegiance to their country and vowing to continue the fight as private citizens for the public good.
Never in the history of American politics has a major party nominee made such a mockery of the process. But the game changed the moment GOP voters cast their lot with a one-time reality show personality with no public policy experience, little in the way of intellectual curiously, and no guiding values. It changed the moment sitting GOP members of Congress refused to call foul on some of his most egregious remarks. If you believe in nothing, nothing is truly out of bounds and, for Trump, apologies are an admission of defeat.
To the extent that Trump (and an almost laissez-faire media class) has begun to normalize various brand of racism, bigotry, and misogyny, it is truly a reflection on all of us. He needed willing participants and, unfortunately, he found them. Not only among the alt-right and white supremacists; he also found them in the halls of cable news networks with people incapable or unwilling to challenge his nonsensical rants and stop booking surrogates who flat out lie.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May pledged on Tuesday to hold a mirror up to society with a study showing sharp racial disparities in Britain, as she looks for a way to demonstrate her leadership is about more than just delivering Brexit. Among the findings of the audit, the data showed Asian, black and other minority ethnic households were most likely to be in persistent poverty, that ethnic minorities have a lower employment rate than white people, and that they were under-represented in senior public sector jobs. Bogged down by Brexit and losing her parliamentary majority in a snap election in June, May has struggled to deliver on social reforms to tackle what she has called burning injustices since taking control of the ruling Conservative party in July 2016. Attempting to relaunch that agenda, she published the findings of a Race Disparity Audit which pulled together existing data from across sectors such as health, education, employment and the criminal justice system and analyzed it to discover how ethnicity affects people s lives. This audit means that for society as a whole for government, for our public services there is nowhere to hide. These issues are now out in the open, she told a private meeting to launch the report, according to her office. The message is very simple: if these disparities cannot be explained then they must be changed. May s center-right Conservatives were blindsided in June s election by a surge in support for the left-wing policies of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has presented higher state spending as part of the cure for voters he says have been let down years of cuts to public services. The prime minister has done nothing but exacerbate the problems. Far from tackling the burning injustices she has added fuel to the fire, Labour s equalities spokeswoman Dawn Butler said. She called for the government to start offering solutions to the problems the audit highlighted. At last week s Conservative conference, May was keen to show party members that she had a plan to counter Corbyn s rise and allay fears that Brexit was squeezing out action on Britain s social problems. It will hold a mirror up to society and allow us and wider society to see where action is needed, May told a meeting of her senior ministers, according to a spokesman. May s deputy Damian Green said the audit s findings were not relentlessly negative , but added in a forward to the document: There is still a way to go before we have a country that works for everyone regardless of their ethnicity. (This refiled version of the story fixes date, no change to text; updates after publication).
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Hillary s for all Everyday Americans just not the elderly ones in wheelchairs Hillary Clinton wants to meet everyday Americans so badly, she drove right past many waiting in front of her event in Iowa.In the now-viral clip of reporters chasing after Clinton s Scooby van, the Clinton camp drove to the back entrance, surprising both reporters and many of her supporters waiting to get a glimpse of the candidate. I think what you don t see in that clip, which is one of the most surprising things is there were actually a ton of people waiting for her at the front of that college, said Financial Times reporter Megan Murphy. There were elderly people in wheelchairs, there were people and they just cruised right on by to the back. The news that Clinton symbolically drove past ordinary voters while driving their own everyday Americans to the event will certainly reflect poorly on the campaign. The incident draws parallels to the man Clinton hopes to succeed in the Oval Office when he drove past disabled veterans in Phoenix.The Democratic front-runner had already snubbed everyday Americans when she parked at a handicapped spot for her convenience at one event and did not include differently-abled citizens in her announcement video. Those were the everyday Americans. Those were the everyday Iowans and guess what they were lined up in front of that community college, Murphy said.Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski was appalled after hearing the story. Earlier in the day, she criticized the Clinton campaign for her evasive and inaccessible approach to the campaign roll out which has left Clinton looking stale and flat. Joe Scarborough, on the other hand, laughed and said the story proved the narrative of an inauthentic Clinton campaign. The former congressman said it was not surprising Clinton did not want to meet the elderly people on wheelchairs because her staff did not get to vet them first. Because they want the everyday Americans that they had talked to for 30 minutes about how to act like an everyday American, Scarborough said.With senior citizens making up a quarter of all voters in 2014, up from 21 percent in 2010, Clinton may face an uphill battle in gaining the trust of the most reliable voting block to turn out on Election Day.Via: WFB
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Trump spokeswoman and walking stump Katrina Pierson responded to how she thinks liberals reacted to Jeff Sessions claiming he will follow the Constitution on Monday with perhaps the dumbest thing that will disgrace Twitter this week, month, or maybe year. When Democrats heard @SenatorSessions commit to enforcing the United States Constitution as AG during his confirmation hearing #MAGA, she tweeted. Trump s favorite imbecile then includes a video of her impression of these imagined liberals, which is basically just her making stupid faces into the camera with a poorly-edited explosion and cartoonish sound effects. All of these things are terrible individually, but put them together and hoo boy!When Democrats heard @SenatorSessions commit to enforcing the United States Constitution as AG during his confirmation hearing #MAGA pic.twitter.com/QtQ3sBMMfy Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) January 10, 2017In the end, she wound up with sh*t all over her face.Naturally, Twitter wasn t going to allow Pierson to pull such an attention-seeking, ridiculous stunt without informing her of exactly what is wrong with her as a human being (and just making fun of her, period):@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions Any adults around there or is everyone associated with Trump pretty much like this? Bill Cullen (@oracle_head) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions you're defending a hardcore racist, if he had his way you would be in chains. Fuckin sellout!!! Jimmy (@ChicagoHitman) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions Childish Chisom Oz-Lee (@Chisomicon) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson SESSIONS seems to look down on everyone except white straight christians, in his own words. CANNOT admit he was ever wrong ! Dennis Lurvey (@GeniusPhx) January 10, 2017@the4closer attorney general is NOT a political position. he is supposed to apply the rule of law evenly. His past says he cannot do that. Dennis Lurvey (@GeniusPhx) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions lmao like enforcing the voting rights act Sam Robinson (@SamRob41) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions Session's nomination is clear proof that Trump has no intention to unify country. DrZmann (@DrZmann) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions Oh honey they didn't give you a job, did they? Mrs Dimsworthy (@MrsDimsworthy) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson Bath Salts no question about . Teddy Watts(Eduardo) (@WattsTeddy) January 10, 2017@KatrinaPierson @SenatorSessions Very silly and VERY immature. I pray you're able to assemble together some grace and dignity before D.C. Lisa Saunders (@MrsLisaSaunders) January 10, 2017In reality, liberals would be thrilled if Trump appointed someone who could be trusted to uphold the Constitution, but Sessions has a long and storied past with regard to race relations. Not only does he oppose the Voting Rights Act, but he was once determined to be too racist to be a federal judge when Reagan tried to appoint him. If he s too racist to be a federal judge, then he s too racist to be attorney general especially since he says himself that he was fine with the KKK until he learned they smoke marijuana (you seriously can t make this shit up).Featured image via screenshot and Twitter
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It s good to know that illegal aliens, potential terrorists and their families have a place they can go to and feel safe from law enforcement in Hamtramck, MI As a MI resident, I feel safer already Hamtramck, MI Public Schools will provide community resources and access to legal services for any families negatively impacted by President Trump s policies, according to a statement published in a Detroit newspaper. All Hamtramck schools are safe havens with a commitment to help all immigrant families connect with the needed resources to avoid deportation, Superintendent Thomas Niczay told the Detroit News.Hamtramck passed a resolution with the safe haven designation in January, before Trump even took office. As a board and a school district, we thought ahead and wanted to have a resolution in place to make our community know that whatever happens after January, Hamtramck Public Schools will be home away from home for their children, Hamtramck school board secretary Salah Hadwan, whose family emigrated from Yemen, told the News.Hamtramck achieved notoriety in November 2015 when it elected the nation s first Muslim-majority city council, after which it took on the name of Shariahville among some Michiganians who saw the town as an example of what they didn t want their cities to become.Hamtramck also became one of the first cities to allow a mosque to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer over loudspeakers in 2004, leading many ethnic Polish residents to move out of the city and head for the suburbs. WND
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21st Century Wire says Facebook is rolling out its latest artificial intelligence bot with the hope that the software will save lives, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The social media juggernaut will use a special algorithm to flag posts that fit a certain pattern, then route them to a human being that can escalate early intervention.The idea of proactive detection can be a slippery slope. What else are these Facebook bots flagging, and who else is mining that information?Read more at TechCrunch READ MORE AI NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire AI FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
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BERLIN (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has upset fellow members of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative bloc by proposing that Germany introduce Muslim public holidays. Germany is home to around 4.5 million Muslims, many of whom have a Turkish background. Many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere over the last two years are also Muslims. Speaking on the campaign trail ahead of an election in the northern state of Lower Saxony due on Sunday, de Maiziere - a member of Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) - said he was open to certain regions of Germany having Muslim public holidays. He pointed out that All Saints Day was only a public holiday in Germany s Catholic regions and added: In places where there are many Muslims, why can t we think about introducing a Muslim public holiday? In a speech posted in an audio clip on local news website regionalwolfsburg.de he also said Germany s public holidays were generally Christian, and should remain that way. His proposal prompted a backlash from fellow conservatives, who are due to start tricky three-way coalition talks with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens next week. The conservatives won a September election but suffered their worst result since 1949 as they lost support to the far-right. Senior CDU member Wolfgang Bosbach told the newspaper Bild that everyone in Germany could celebrate whatever religious festivals they wanted but added: Whether the state should also protect non-Christian holidays with legal regulation in future is a different issue entirely. Alexander Dobrindt, a senior figure in the Christian Social Union (CSU) - the Bavarian sister party of Merkel s CDU - told the same newspaper that Germany s Christian heritage was non-negotiable, adding: We won t consider introducing Muslim public holidays in Germany. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said de Maiziere remained of the view that Germany s public holidays were of a Christian nature and don t have any other roots . The constitution sets out that Germany s individual states decide on religious public holidays so the federal interior minister has no influence on whether there should be Muslim public holidays, the spokeswoman added. She said the northern city states of Hamburg and Bremen had signed agreements with some Muslim organizations so that Muslim pupils could have such time off school and workers could take holidays for festivals important to Islam, adding that some other states did the same.
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Will this FINALLY be the straw that breaks the camel s back? Wow and it s not even October yet! Things are not looking good for #CrookedHillary The House Oversight Committee is reviewing a Reddit post that alleges an IT specialist who worked on Hillary Clinton s private server sought advice on how to alter the contents of VERY VIP emails, according to Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).Meadows is the chairman of the panel s Government Operations subcommittee. The Reddit post issue and its connection to Paul Combetta is currently being reviewed by OGR staff and evaluations are being made as to the authenticity of the post, Meadows told The Hill. Reddit users appear to have uncovered a two-year-old post from an account believed to belong to Combetta, an engineer with Platte River Networks. The Denver, Colo.-based firm managed Clinton s private server.The Reddit Archives that are allegedly Combetta s, can be found near end of article. Combetta was granted immunity from Obama s Department of Justice in their investigation of Clinton.Combetta was the employee who deleted all of Hillary Clinton s emails.According users on Reddit, Combetta asked for assistance in July 2014 from Reddit users on how to purge emails and how to strip VIP s email address from a bunch of archived emails. -GPhttps://twitter.com/juliangwan/status/778006379596509184The post, which has been deleted but can be read in images archived by Reddit users, coincides with the discovery of Clinton s use of the server.Busted:Proof of Intent to Obstruct Justice 2 Years Ago from #HillarysHackerReddit Post Reveals. pic.twitter.com/aVgdV8gDla The Truther (@4evertruther) September 19, 2016 I may be facing a very interesting situation where I need to strip out a VIP s (VERY VIP) email address from a bunch of archived email Basically, they don t want the VIP s email address exposed to anyone, and want to be able to either strip out or replace the email address in the to/from fields in all of the emails we want to send out, reads the post, by a user called stonetear. Does anyone have experience with something like this, and/or suggestions on how this might be accomplished? Here is the Twitter user who uncovered Combetta s requests for help on Reddit:SMOKING GUN: "BleachBit" Paul Combetta ASKED TO STRIP OR REPLACE VIP's EMAIL ADDRESS! https://t.co/nz13MqzWth #MAGA pic.twitter.com/qQII96JI76 Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 19, 2016Here she is discussing her find:Great job! That's some damned good sleuthing, you should give the FBI some lessons. Girl_Grimly (@ed_grimly) September 19, 2016Thank you!!! I'm studying law (MS) with concentrations in eDiscovery/eLitigation, but close! I have amazing professors. https://t.co/baaz6PqJaw Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 19, 2016Wikileaks cheered Katica s good work on Twitter, and she was thrilled:This is so awesome to be to have @wikileaks on this. *swoon* https://t.co/CfXpo8PctY Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 20, 2016Combetta is currently one of the targets of a broader Oversight investigation on whether Clinton ordered the destruction of emails that had been subpoenaed by the Benghazi Select Committee. If it is determined that the request to change email addresses was made by someone so closely aligned with the Secretary s IT operation as Mr. Combetta, then it will certainly prompt additional inquiry, Meadows told The Hill. The date of the Reddit post in relationship to the establishment of the Select Committee on Benghazi is also troubling. The Reddit message was sent on July 23, 2014, according to an archive of the page saved by other users. The day before, the Benghazi Committee had reached an agreement with the State Department on the production of related records, according the FBI s investigation into Clinton s use of the server.The identity of the stonetear user is not confirmed. Reddit users point to the fact that an account on the online marketplace Easy for a Paul Combetta has the username stonetear and the inactive website combetta.com is registered to the email address [email protected] appeared under subpoena in a committee hearing last week on the alleged destruction of evidence, but both he and colleague Bill Thornton exercised their Fifth Amendment right not to testify.borismkv: There is no supported way to do what you re asking. You can only delete emails after they re stored in the database. You can t change them. If there was a feature in Exchange that allowed this, it could result in major legal issues. There may be ways to hack a solution, but I am not aware of any. permalinkembedsavegive goldstonetear: As a PST file or exported MSG files, this could be done though, yes? The issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you d recognize, and we re trying to replace it with a placeholder address as to not expose it.exproject: To my knowledge, there s no way to edit existing messages, that s a possibility for a discovery nightmare. To strip/rename on outbound/inbound you could rewrite it with a transport rule.stonetear: That wouldn t work on existing messages though right?odoprasm: Is there no way to access and edb manually?stonetear: I have full access to the server what are you suggesting with the EDB file?stonetear: I think maybe I wasn t clear enough in the original post. I have these emails available in a PST file. Can I rewrite them in the PST? I could also export to MSG and do some sort of batch find/replace. Anyone know of tools that might help with this?exproject: Just because you have the messages available in multiple formats and locations doesn t change that it s an attribute of the envelope not meant to be rewritten. The functionality is just not built into any tool I know of. Having that functionality would create the ability to screw with discovery (I mean, there could be mitigation with versioning, but that would need other configuration) While it may not be a read-only part of the envelope(I m not actually sure), the only tool that MIGHT be able to do what you want is MFCMapi, and I don t think you want to play with that for this job. The chance of getting it wrong would be pretty high I think and it is not a particularly friendly tool. I m not sure it could be scripted with it either. My recommendation would be what /u/borismkv said. Making a mailbox for VIP and telling them to use that. Forwarding to VIPs mailbox would be ripe for them to just respond directly instead of responding through his relay mailbox. As for your existing messages, if the current users absolutely cannot see the existing messages, you ll need to do a search and export and just forcibly remove the messages from their mailboxes. It s not clean and not advised by me, but if they don t want VIPs address out there it will need to be removed. I would do a search with his email address as the query with -LogOnly -LogLevel Full and see what kind of results you get.EDIT: Holy shit they actually deleted all their comments from a 2 year old reddit post, I think we hit gold on this one. Archive.is link of the deleted reddit postCan somebody make sure we have the twitter posts archived too? I really don t trust twitter to keep those up. Gateway PunditHere is the ARCHIVE of the messages that were deleted on Reddit.UPDATE: Here s a screengrab of the archived pictures from Reddit:The committee has scheduled another hearing on the preservation of State Department records for Thursday.Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has issued a criminal referral asking the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate deletions from the server.This latest probe stems from revelations from the 58-page report issued by the FBI summarizing its investigation into Clinton s use of the server.According to the FBI s report, an unnamed Platte River Networks technician deleted an archive of emails from the server in March 2015 after the House Select Committee on Benghazi had issued a subpoena for records relating to the 2012 attack on the Libyan outpost.According to the FBI s notes, longtime Clinton aide Cheryl Mills instructed Platte River Networks to delete a set of archived emails in December 2014. Mills told investigators Clinton had decided she no longer needed access to emails older than 60 days.But the technician apparently forgot the request and didn t immediately comply. According to the FBI report, between March 25 and March 31 of 2015, the technician believed he had an oh shit moment and deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from the [Platte River Networks] server. Reporting from The New York Times has since identified Combetta as that technician, citing an anonymous law enforcement official and others familiar with the FBI probe.Clinton and Mills told the FBI that they had no knowledge of the technician s deletion of the emails. The technician, according to the report, was aware of the existence of the [Benghazi Committee] preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton s email data on the [Platte River Networks] server. The HillFrom Representative Steven Smith:BREAKING: Citizen Journalist breaks HUGE Clinton email story PROVING Hillary ORDERED EMAILS TO BE STRIPPED! #MAGA https://t.co/m5fYUmibpT Rep. Steven Smith (@RepStevenSmith) September 19, 2016Rep. Steven Smith posted this on Monday morning. BREAKING: Citizen Journalist breaks HUGE Clinton email story PROVING Hillary ORDERED EMAILS TO BE STRIPPED! "The issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you'd recognize." WOW!#HillarysHacker pic.twitter.com/j9fDrm4HGU Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 20, 2016
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkey s military has begun setting up observation posts in northwest Syria s Idlib province, its General Staff said on Friday, part of a deployment that appears partly aimed at containing a Kurdish militia. Turkey sent a convoy of about 30 military vehicles into rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in Idlib, rebels and a witness said. Video distributed by the Turkish army showed what it said was the convoy starting to move on Thursday night, with military vehicles traveling along a road in darkness. Turkey says its operation, along with Syrian rebel groups it backs, is part of a deal it reached last month with Russia and Iran in Astana, Kazakhstan, to reduce fighting between insurgents and the Syrian government. The army said its forces in Syria were conducting operations in line with rules of engagement agreed with Russia and Iran. However, the deployment is also intended to rein in the Kurdish YPG militia, which holds the adjacent Afrin region, a senior rebel official involved in the operation said. (It is) in line with Astana 6 resolutions to ensure the area is protected from Russian and regime bombing and to foil any attempt by the separatist YPG militias to illegally seize any territory, said Mustafa Sejari, an official in a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group. Broadcaster CNN Turk reported on its website that there was a clash in Idlib countryside near the Ogulpinar border post in Turkey s Reyhanli district. It said the sound of doshka (machine-gun) fire from across the border could be heard in Reyhanli district and it was not clear which forces were clashing. The convoy was heading toward Sheikh Barakat, a high area overlooking rebel-held territory and the Kurdish YPG-controlled canton of Afrin, the witnesses said. President Tayyip Erdogan announced the deployment on Saturday, saying Turkey was conducting a serious operation with rebel groups it supports. Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the war. But since last year Ankara has focused on securing its border, both from jihadists and from Kurdish forces that control much of the frontier area inside Syria. Sejari, the rebel official, said it was important to contain the YPG to prevent any new military offensive to reach the Mediterranean, something that would require it to capture swathes of mountains held by rebels and Syria s army. Today we can say that the dream of the separatists to reach the sea and enter Idlib and then to Jisr al-Shaqour and the coastal mountains has become a dream, he said Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish group inside Turkey that has been waging armed insurgency against Ankara for three decades. We said we may come unannounced one night, and tonight our armed forces started the operation in Idlib with the Free Syrian Army, Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party on Friday. We are the ones with the 911 km border with Syria, the ones who are constantly under threat, he added, noting the YPG s presence in Afrin. As the strongest part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the YPG has received military aid from Turkey s NATO ally the United States to fight Islamic State. Last year, Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield operation, an incursion into northern Syria alongside Syrian rebel groups to take territory on the frontier from Islamic State. That operation was also aimed at stopping the YPG using its own advances against IS from linking Afrin with the much larger area it controls in northeastern Syria. In the area taken by the Euphrates Shield campaign, Turkey has made changes to local governance that indicate it may be laying a foundation for long term ties with that part of Syria. The Astana agreement with Assad s foreign allies Russia and Iran involves reducing fighting in several regions of Syria, including Idlib and adjacent swathes of the northwest, the most populous rebel-held area.
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Tweet Widget by Bill Quigley
A young Black lawyer from Youngstown, Ohio, had to sue a judge who held her in contempt of court for wearing a Black Lives Matter pin. The judge said his decision had nothing to do with politics. “The local NAACP chapter questioned that assertion and wondered whether the Judge would have jailed Burton if she was wearing a ‘Support the Troops’ pin.” Atty. Andrea Burton ultimately agreed to wear her pin in the courthouse, but not in the courtroom. Social Justice Attorney Andrea Burton: Jailed for Refusing to Remove Black Lives Matter Lapel Pin by Bill Quigley
“To remain neutral becomes an accomplice to oppression.”
Andrea Burton, a 30 year old Ohio criminal defense lawyer, was rocketed onto the national social justice scene this summer after she was handcuffed and jailed for refusing to take off a Black Lives Matter pin while in court.
Burton’s stance received international attention . “I think that you can’t remain silent or you remain a party to oppression,” she told The Washington Post . “I am usually a pretty agreeable person. I’m always smiling. I’m polite. I have manners. But at some point it eats away at you how any time people see you talk about Black Lives Matter, then you’re being sensitive, you’re the person who’s racist.” In interviews with local media Burton insisted “I'm not anti-police, I work with law enforcement and I hold them in the highest regard, and just to say for the record, I do believe all lives matter. But at this point they don't all matter equally."
The Black Lives Matter pin was about one inch across , the size of a nickel . Burton refused an order to remove the Black Lives matter pin by Youngstown Ohio Judge Robert Milich . Burton told the Judge she was asserting her First Amendment rights . “I said I’m respecting my first amendment right, that I’m not neutral to injustice, and to remain neutral becomes an accomplice to oppression.” The judge held her in contempt of court, jailed her and sentenced her to five days. After being jailed for five hours and the NAACP was called in to help, the judge released Burton pending an appeal of his decision.
Judge Milich, who was already famous for announcing his refusal to perform any marriages on the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage, told the media that his own personal opinions had nothing to do with the decision. The local NAACP chapter questioned that assertion and wondered whether the Judge would have jailed Burton if she was wearing a “Support the Troops” pin. When asked by The Daily Beast , whether he would jail a lawyer for wearing a pin that said Support Our Troops, he refused to say. “I can’t speculate on what a political pin might be until I look at it. I just used the definition in the Black’s Law Library Dictionary, and the standard dictionary of what’s political.” The Judge further muddied the waters when he said “There’s a difference between a flag, a pin from your church or the Eagles and having a pin that’s on a political issue.”
“Burton told the Judge she was asserting her First Amendment rights.”
Burton paid a high price for her convictions. After she was jailed, Burton, who had been previously regularly appointed to represent numerous Youngstown Municipal criminal defendants , said she was “frozen out” of the appointment process for representing criminal defendants and received no appointments at all.
Burton then filed a federal civil rights damages actio n against Judge Milich, the other Youngstown Municipal Judge, and the City of Youngstown for violations of her constitutional rights to Freedom of Speech, Due Process and Equal Protection. In the civil rights case, filed in the Northern District of Ohio, Burton pointed out police officers were in the same courtroom with black tape over their badges and the judge did nothing to them. After court monitored settlement discussions, Burton agreed to drop her federal civil rights case. In return the Judge agreed to drop her contempt charge. Burton said she will continue to wear her BLM pin in the courthouse but not inside the courtroom. Further, the settlement provided that local judges agreed not to retaliate against her and will fully consider her requests for future appointments to court-appointed cases.
Who is this brave lawyer?
Beginnings
Burton grew up in Youngstown, Ohio in a family active in the civil rights movement. “My grandfather marched on Washington with Martin Luther King ,” said Burton. “He was a good friend of A. Phillip Randolph . He protested in the South during the Civil Rights Movements and attended the 1963 March on Washington. He was one of the first black Councilpersons for Youngstown. My mother was pretty active in the black awakening during the 60s. She was fairly militant about civil rights as a teen and was what we know now as a feminist.”
Some of her courage is no doubt due to her upbringing. Burton’s older brother was born with a rare genetic disorder that left him mentally disabled and very sickly as a child. Dad operated a successful business despite addiction issues until his death when Burton was 15. Mom, a legal secretary and later a court bailiff, did heroic work caring for the family.
“My mother’s compassion and dedication greatly influenced how empathetic I have become. She pushed me greatly to do more than what was expected, to excel when it would be simpler to be typical. She never told me that there was anything I could not do if I set my sights on achieving it. She worked hard to make the resources available to me if I actually wanted them. Both my parents were college educated. Both were heavily invested in learning.
“My parents never really treated me as a child so I was often exposed to difficult realties and frank conversations. I was conscious of the ways people were different (i.e., gender, orientation, race, or class) but how it did not matter at all in determining their worth.”
Studies
Burton always did well in school. “I was expected to be a good student. My father was relentless about math grades and performances especially. I won a sport in the Junior Statesman Program at Georgetown University to study government when I was 16 years old. It was a highly competitive program that included people from all over the world.
Burton earned a scholarship and graduated from Youngstown State University in 2008 in pre-law and journalism. She was awarded another scholarship to study for her Masters in Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .
“I decided to become a lawyer as I finished my bachelor’s degree.” So after she received her graduate degree she returned to Ohio and commuted from home to attend the University of Akron School of Law . “The best part of law school was working in the legal clinic.” There she wrote appellate briefs for prisoners, provided legal research to inmates, handled applications for clemency to the governor and other pro bono services to low income individuals. She took social justice classes when she could and wrote a major paper on Kelley Williams-Bolar who was convicted of a felony for enrolling her children in another better school district. “I wanted to study why anyone would commit a felony to educate their kids, why was it necessary? What differences where there?”
“She wrote appellate briefs for prisoners, provided legal research to inmates, handled applications for clemency.”
After becoming a lawyer, Burton began a small private practice and spent a lot of her time working as a public defender. “It was a shock,” Burton admits. “People with power and influence held some bigoted ideas. People were not treated fairly and it was quite disheartening.
“As a criminal defense lawyer, I am motivated by humanity, compassion and the oath I took to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I am often asked how I could represent those accused of crimes, some heinous crimes. I see criminal defense work as an opportunity to make sure that the promise that the criminal justice system makes “innocent until proven guilty” is followed. Getting convictions and imparting justice are two very different things. My job is to make sure that statutes and rules are followed to guarantee a fair and impartial trial. Politics should not factor into that. I am merely an instrument of justice but I take my role extremely seriously.
“It is sometimes challenging to work with other attorneys and people in the justice system who are oblivious to the discrepancies people of color and impoverished people experience within the system that is set up to eradicate those inequities. I am also disappointed in people who accept the status quo just because it is easy and convenient. We need to be willing to continually re-evaluate our role in furthering injustice.
Justice
“Justice sometimes comes slowly, through time, by the changing of minds through understanding and experience. Other times it is the result of tumultuous uncertain revolutions. The problem with maintaining justice is that often we only recognize what justice is by seeing injustice. Sometimes the world needs a major event, a major catalyst to stir change. That process is often frightening. To me, living in a world where we value some more than others is unjust. Especially when some are undervalued to the point that people are systematically dying. When people are too afraid to have an informed dialogue about how factors intersect to create injustice that perpetuates injustice. Willful blindness in the face of a wealth of information is the greatest threat to civilization today.
Sustainability
“One of the ways I sustain myself is that I read continuously. I read philosophy as well as political and spiritual texts. I have a close friend that I speak with virtually every week. He has been a savior for me since I was 17 years old. We understand each other because we are both avid readers, with similar interests in philosophy and in that we both have always felt a sense of isolation and disconnection from our peers. This is important because I think that more and more people feel a sense of disconnect from the world despite the many connections created through social media.
“When someone asks me for a book recommendation, I suggest Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr. It is a religious book, but I do not read it simply for the Christian aspects of it. I read it because it’s empowering, powerful and because King was an extremely smart compassionate person and it shows. I also read Nietzsche religiously.
“I am involved in the YWCA which is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
“My dream is that differences in color would actually be as relevant as shoe size and that religious fanaticism would disappear.”
Advice to Law Students
“Learn to see value in every human being and truly read the papers that are the foundation of this Country. Study and understand the Constitution and The Federalist Papers . They demonstrate how this democracy was formulated. Know your history because it shapes today in ways you will never appreciate fully otherwise. Be prepared to examine yourself for your own conflicts in logic and your own biases. Learn how lawyers can become accomplices to injustice, even if unintentionally.
Role Models
“ Harriet Tubman , Sojourner Truth , Alexander Hamilton , W.E.B Du Bois , Langston Hughes , James Baldwin , Gandhi , Malala Yousafzai , Martin Luther King , A. Phillip Randolph , Rosa Parks , Thurgood Marshall , Ralph Abernathy , and Joseph Lowery inspire me. Malcolm X of course. And our President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama . I am also inspired by the countless individuals who face oppression and injustice in their lives daily but continue to work toward a better world. I am inspired by those who fight for those who are limited in power or face nearly insurmountable odds. I think the work of those individuals is the key to making the world a place where love conquers hate and fear.
Conclusion
“The day I wore that button and was found in contempt changed my life, the effect of it are still rippling, some in destructive ways and others in very inspiring ways. I wore it because my soul was so tired from all the inequities I had seen over my 4 years of practice. I was exhausted from losing a series of small battles for understanding for my vulnerable clients. I was tired of the indifference of the prosecutorial offices. And all I could think to do was wear this button for a little joy. For a small win. To hope to change someone’s mind. Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans.
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GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s Congress on Monday voted to preserve President Jimmy Morales s immunity from prosecution after the attorney general s office submitted a request to investigate him over suspected financing irregularities during his 2015 election campaign. Attorney general Thelma Aldana and a U.N. anti-graft body said last month they were seeking to investigate Morales over the illegal financing allegation. Two days later, Morales declared the head of the U.N. body persona non grata. Under the leadership of Ivan Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor, the CICIG has caused problems for Morales, first investigating his son and brother, and then seeking to prosecute him over some $800,000 in allegedly unexplained campaign funds. The Guatemalan president won office in 2015 running on a platform of honest governance after his predecessor, Otto Perez Molina, was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from a CICIG investigation. Morales, a former comedian, has denied any wrongdoing.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, when asked on Sunday if he was considering firing U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller, told reporters, “No. I’m not.” Democratic lawmakers in recent days have expressed concern that Trump might fire Mueller, who is investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump or anyone on his team colluded with Moscow. Russia denies meddling in the election and Trump has denied any collusion.
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The nuclear industry is a necessity, for energy production, for desalination, and in the fields of medicine, agriculture and other sectors. -Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali KhameneiSo many lies Is it finally time for the US to act before it s too late?Iran s president on Thursday said Tehran will not sign a final nuclear deal unless world powers lift economic sanctions imposed on the country immediately.The United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany the so-called P5 +1 group reached an understanding with Iran last week on limits to its nuclear program in return for lifting crippling economic sanctions, after extended talks in Lausanne, Switzerland.The U.S. has previously said the sanctions would be lifted in phases, but the details have not yet been negotiated.However, in a televised speech on Thursday, President Hassan Rouhani appeared to rule out a gradual removal of the successive round of sanctions that have hit hard its energy and financial sectors and crippled its economy. We will not sign any deal unless all sanctions are lifted on the same day, Rouhani said, according to Reuters. We want a win-win deal for all parties involved in the nuclear talks. Rouhani was speaking at a ceremony to mark Iran s nuclear technology day. The Iranian nation has been and will be the victor in the negotiations, he said.The deal negotiated in Switzerland says that sanctions will be suspended after international monitors verify that Iran is abiding by the limitations set out, and that the sanctions will resume if Iran fails to fulfill its obligations. It has never been our position that all of the sanctions against Iran should be removed from Day One, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday said there is no guarantee a full agreement will be reached by the end of June, the AFP news agency reported. What has been done so far does not guarantee an agreement, nor its contents, nor even that the negotiations will continue to the end, he said, according to the agency. Everything is in the detail, it may be that the other side (the six world powers), which is unfair, wants to limit our country in the details, he added. Officials say that nothing has been done yet and there is nothing binding. I am neither for nor against. The nuclear industry is a necessity, for energy production, for desalination, and in the fields of medicine, agriculture and other sectors. Negotiators have until June 30 to fill in the critical details to assure Iran it will get relief from the sanctions as soon as possible, and guarantee the world powers that Iran won t develop a nuclear weapon.Rouhani on Thursday also called for an end to airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and said they were a mistake. Not singling out any country in particular, he said, You learned that it was wrong. You will learn, not later but soon, that you are making mistake in Yemen, too, the Associated Press reported.(Wouldn t that be considered a threat?)Rouhani also called for a cease-fire in Yemen to enable talks to end the crisis, the AP said, adding to calls by the Red Cross and Russia for a cease-fire to allow aid into the war-torn nation.On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the U.S. military has begun air-refueling operations for the coalition conducting the airstrikes, as Shiite rebels known as Houthis continued their advance on the southern port city of Aden.The Pentagon also said the United States would expedite delivery of ammunition including bombs and guidance systems to the Saudis and other coalition members.Via: USA Today
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South African golfer and major champion Ernie Els looks forward to the return of Tiger Woods at the Farmers Insurance Open next week at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California. [The smooth swinging Els, AKA The Big Easy, thinks it quite plausible that Tiger can work his way back to winning tournaments again, including major championships. Els, who won the last of his four major at the British Open at Royal Lytham St. Annes Golf Club in 2012 at age 42, points out, “If players like myself, Darren Clarke and Mark O’Meara won (majors) in our 40s, surely Tiger thinks he can do it too. I am sure it’s on his agenda. ” Els says he would love to see Tiger play like his old self and thinks that he can do it if he can get it going at some of his favorite tournaments. “Mentally, he is as strong as anybody but he needs to find some momentum at his favorite events and if he gets that, he can start believing again. I would love to see him play like he did back in the 90s, but I am not sure that is going to happen,” Els told reporters on Wednesday. Certainly, there are a number of events he likes and no one exemplifies the idea of “horses for courses” more than Tiger. Woods has dominated more golf courses than any golfer in the history of the sport. He’s won at least four times on the same course at seven different Tour stops: Cog Hill (former home of the BMW Championship) Firestone (WGC Bridgestone) Doral (WGC Cadillac) Muirfield Village (the Memorial) Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational) Augusta National (the Masters) and Torrey Pines (Farmers Insurance Open). The South African knows where his bread is buttered and who has held the spreader for the last couple of decades. “We would not be playing for the money we play for if it wasn’t for Tiger, so we have to thank him for that, for what he has done for the game and it can only be good if he plays well. ” Els praised Tiger for his achievements, observing that “It’s been 20 years since he won his first major at the Masters and it’s quite amazing what he has achieved. ” He added, Woods “has won 14 majors in that span and he was injured for at least three or four of those seasons, so it’s really a major for every year he has been healthy as a professional. That’s incredible. ”
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BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - At least 16 people died on Sunday when a tourist boat capsized in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said. The accident took place in Krishna river about 25 km (15 miles) from Vijayawada city, district administrative chief B. Lakshmikantham told Reuters. The administration was investigating what exactly caused the incident, but the initial probe found that the private boat operator did not have the necessary permission to ferry people, Lakshmikantham said. Around 20 of the roughly 35 people on the boat were rescued and search operations were continuing, India s National Disaster Response Force said on Twitter.
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21st Century Wire says Ron Paul told RT that the US shouldn t engage in death struggle over who controls Aleppo.It s worth noting here that Ron Paul was correct back in Aug. 2013, when the US and Britain were insisting the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta. At the time Paul called it a False Flag designed to suck US into arming Jihadist rebels in Syria. Where Washington was demanding military strikes against Syria, cooler and more intelligence heads determined that the event was in fact staged, most likely by western and Gulf-backed rebels. Regarding the collapse of the ceasefire around Aleppo, the former US Congressman and Presidential candidate said that Washington should not be there [Syria] at all, despite this being an unpopular opinion in political circles, because the intervention contributes to jihadists expanding even further. So, I think we are doing the wrong thing, Paul told RT. I don t think it s good for our national defense. I think it makes us more vulnerable, because it does create more enemies. It s unpopular to suggest that maybe our presence over there contributes significantly to those who become radical jihadists and would like to do us harm. Watch Paul s interview here: It s not a proper function we don t have the moral authority. We haven t followed our own laws that said that we should not be involved in war and [the] overthrow of governments without a declaration of war, he said.Source: RT NewsREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE and its work by Subscribing and becoming a Member @ 21WIRE.TV
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The Mississippi State Supreme Court ruled that a county court judge can call herself by the nickname “JudgeCutie” in one of the fastest decisions the court has made in years. [After justices had heard arguments for two days, the court ruled to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state Commission on Judicial Performance against Gay that stated she was using her profession as a judge with her online presence as a means of promoting herself as a musical performer and motivational speaker, the Associated Press reported. The complaint stated that ’s online profile contained her opinions about what she thought of her profession as a Forrest County justice court judge, such as wearing her judge’s robe in a photo that graced the cover of a book about all her social media posts. ’s attorney, Oliver Diaz, argued before the Mississippi State Supreme Court that other judges used names that others might not consider as dignified, such as Judge Noah “Soggy” Sweat. Sweat served as a circuit court judge from 1966 to 1974. Diaz said the commission unfairly targeted her client because she was a woman. “It was a frivolous filing,” Diaz said of the complaint. Court documents say “JudgeCutie” was inspired by the TV judge “Judge Judy. ” Justices said did not violate the Mississippi Code of Judicial Conduct, the Daily Mail reported. Justice court judges in the state of Mississippi are elected to their positions and work on a basis. These judges preside over cases in small claims court of $3, 500 or less, misdemeanor criminal cases, and traffic violations that take place outside city boundaries.
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Caitlyn Jenner soon takes part in another transition. [According to Us Weekly, the former Olympian has received and accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump: Caitlyn Jenner accepts invitation to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration: https: . pic. twitter. — Us Weekly (@usweekly) January 11, 2017, Jenner has fought back against charges from the Left that a Trump presidency would create negative effects on women and the LGBT community. Instead, Jenner argued that Trump stands “very much for women” in addition to remaining open on some LGBT issues. Jenner, a staunch Republican, gave some idea of what frames her political views in an interview with Bill Simmons in August. “I believe in the simple things,” Jenner explained. “I believe in our Constitution. I think the Republican side, although I’ve been very disappointed with them over the last 10 to 20 years, has a better opportunity to bring this country back to, really, as close as you can to what it was. … I have kind of positioned myself with the Republican Party to try to help these people understand, [to help] the Republican Party understand what the issues are for the LBGT community. ” The E! Channel canceled Jenner’s show I Am Cait in August, the same month in which she told Bill Simmons about her love of the Constitution and the Republican Party. Surely nothing more than a coincidence there. After supporting Trump and attending his inauguration, Jenner’s chances of scoring another show rank only slightly higher than her chances of landing on another Wheaties box. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer will serve as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s press secretary in the White House when he takes office next month, Trump announced on Thursday. To round out his communications team, the president-elect appointed loyalists from his upstart presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, Trump’s sole spokeswoman when he began what was considered a longshot candidacy in June 2015, will be director of strategic communications. Jason Miller was appointed director of communications and Dan Scavino was named director of social media. Spicer, 45, served as RNC spokesman during Trump’s presidential campaign, alongside party chairman Reince Priebus, who stood by Trump amid furious opposition from establishment Republicans and was rewarded with the chief of staff position. Acerbic and professional, Spicer, a Navy Reserve commander, has been openly critical of media coverage of Republican candidates and the president-elect, but insists the future U.S. leader has a high regard for press freedom. “We understand and respect the role that the press plays in a democracy. It is healthy, it’s important. But it’s a two-way street,” Spicer told Politico recently, before bashing the news outlet for what he said was exclusively negative coverage. Spicer, who has been a spokesman for the Trump transition team, has a long background in public affairs. He led a turnaround in the RNC’s public affairs operation after taking over as communications director in 2011. He beefed up social media operations, built an in-house TV production team and created a rapid response effort to reply to attacks. Spicer worked in President George W. Bush’s administration as the assistant U.S. Trade Representative for media and public affairs. Before that, he was communications director for the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives. Spicer has tried to reassure news organizations that Trump will not try to ban them from covering him, as the president-elect sometimes sought to do during the election campaign. But Spicer and other Trump aides have indicated the new president would shake up the status quo in White House dealings with the media, including re-examining the need for daily televised news briefings and the practice of assigned seating in the briefing room. “I think we have to look at everything,” Spicer told Fox News when asked about the briefings. “And so I don’t know that it needs to be daily. I don’t know that they all need to be on camera.”
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WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) - Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday after President Donald Trump halted the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, sources at Cairo airport said. The passengers, arriving in transit to Cairo airport, were stopped and re-directed to flights headed for their home countries despite holding valid visas, the sources said. Trump on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries, saying the moves would help protect Americans from terrorist attacks. He said his most sweeping use of his presidential powers since taking office a week ago, barring travelers from the seven nations for at least 90 days, would give his administration time to develop more stringent screening procedures for refugees, immigrants and visitors. “I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don’t want them here,” Trump said earlier on Friday at the Pentagon. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people,” he said. The bans, though temporary, took effect immediately, causing havoc and confusion for would-be travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Besides Cairo it was not immediately clear whether other airports of countries listed by Trump had swiftly implemented the ban. Arab officials of the listed countries would not comment on the matter. The order seeks to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution, a move Trump separately said was aimed at helping Christians in Syria. That led some legal experts to question whether the order was constitutional. One group said it would announce a court challenge on Monday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the order targets Muslims because of their faith, contravening the U.S. Constitutional right to freedom of religion. “President Trump has cloaked what is a discriminatory ban against nationals of Muslim countries under the banner of national security,” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Trump has long pledged to take this kind of action, making it a prominent feature of his campaign for the Nov. 8 election. But people who work with Muslim immigrants and refugees were scrambling to determine the scope of the order. Even legal permanent residents - people with “green cards” allowing them to live and work in the United States - were being advised to consult immigration lawyers before traveling outside the country, or trying to return, according to Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group in Washington. On Friday evening, Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said he had fielded about 100 queries from people anxious about the order, which he said he believed could affect traveling green card holders, students, people coming to the United States for medical care and others. “It’s chaos,” Ayoub said. During his campaign, Trump tapped into American fears about Islamic State militants and the flood of migrants into Europe from Syria’s civil war, saying refugees could be a “Trojan horse” that allowed attackers to enter the United States. In December 2015, he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, drawing fire for suggesting a religious test for immigrants that critics said would violate the U.S. Constitution. His idea later evolved into a proposal for “extreme vetting.” Trump’s order also suspends the Syrian refugee program until further notice, and will eventually give priority to minority religious groups fleeing persecution. Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that the exception would help Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there. Legal experts were divided on whether this order would be constitutional. “If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution,” said Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration. But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump’s action would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions. “It’s a completely plausible prioritization, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted,” Spiro said. The order may also affect special refugee programs for Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government as translators after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is already affecting refugees and their families, said Jen Smyers of the Church World Service, a Protestant faith-based group that works with migrants. Smyers said she spoke to an Iraqi mother whose twin daughters remain in Iraq due to processing delays. “Those two 18-year-old daughters won’t be able to join their mother in the U.S.,” she said. Democrats on Friday were quick to condemn Trump’s order as un-American, saying it would tarnish the reputation of the United States as a land that welcomes immigrants. “Today’s executive order from President Trump is more about extreme xenophobia than extreme vetting,” said Democratic Senator Edward Markey in a statement. Some Republicans praised the move. Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, said Islamic State has threatened to use the U.S. immigration system, making it important to do more screening. “I am pleased that President Trump is using the tools granted to him by Congress and the power granted by the Constitution to help keep America safe and ensure we know who is entering the United States,” Goodlatte said in a statement. Without naming Trump, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday it was no time to build walls between nations and criticized steps towards cancelling world trade agreements. Trump on Wednesday ordered the construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall, a major promise during his election campaign, as part of a package of measures to curb illegal immigration. “Today is not the time to erect walls between nations. They have forgotten that the Berlin wall fell years ago,” Rouhani said in a speech carried live on Iranian state television. He made no direct reference to Trump’s order regarding refugees and travelers from the seven mainly Muslim states. Rouhani, a pragmatist elected in 2013, thawed Iran’s relations with world powers after years of confrontation and engineered its 2015 deal with them under which it curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions. Rouhani said earlier this month that Trump could not unilaterally cancel the nuclear deal and that talk of renegotiating it was “meaningless”. France and Germany voiced disquiet on Saturday over Trump’s new restrictions on immigration. “Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at a joint news conference with German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel. “The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbor is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people,” said Gabriel. “I think that is what unites us in the West, and I think that is what we want to make clear to the Americans.”
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BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will gradually get used to Chinese air force drills that encircle the island, China said on Wednesday, while Taiwan s premier reiterated the self-ruled island s desire for peaceful relations with its giant neighbor. China considers democratic Taiwan to be its sacred territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under Chinese control. It has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen, from the island s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, won presidential elections last year and has stepped up its rhetoric and military exercises. Beijing suspects her of pushing for the island s formal independence, a red line for China. Tsai says she wants peace with China, but also that she will defend Taiwan s security and way of life. Chinese state media has given broad coverage to island encirclement exercises near Taiwan this month, including showing pictures of Chinese bomber aircraft with what they said was Taiwan s highest peak, Yushan, visible in the background. Asked about the continuing drills and the footage released by the air force, China s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office said it and the defense ministry had repeatedly described the exercises as routine. Everyone will slowly get used it, spokesman An Fengshan told a routine news briefing, without elaborating. China s air force has carried out 16 rounds of exercises close to Taiwan in the past year or so, Taiwan s defense ministry said in a white paper this week. China s military threat was growing by the day, it warned. Proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being run by autocratic China, and Taiwan s government has accused Beijing of not understanding democracy when it criticizes Taipei. Taiwan Premier William Lai told a year-end news conference in Taipei that the United States, Japan and South Korea were all paying close attention to the activities of China s air force. Lai said his government would take its lead from the president, who was in charge of relations across the Taiwan Strait. Under the president s leadership the Executive Yuan pushes forward government affairs, stabilizing cross-strait relations toward peaceful development, Lai said, using the formal name for Taiwan s cabinet.
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If you watched Trumps acceptance speech last night you might now have caught this quick little dig at Hillary. Hillary s slogan is I m with her but Trump said, I m with you I will fight for you! Beautiful!Donald Trump: I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you. https://t.co/bCDBHPB5oi#RNCinCLEhttps://t.co/ZgzgVJZCVY CNN (@CNN) July 22, 2016
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Telegraph “Journalist” Calls For the Assassination of Donald Trump The Deletes Her Twitter Account Telegraph “Journalist” Calls For the Assassination of Donald Trump The Deletes Her Twitter Account Breaking News By Amy Moreno November 10, 2016
Monisha Rajesh, who is a “journalist” for Telegraph, called for the assassination of Donald Trump on Twitter.
She was instantly called out, and then deleted the tweet.
However, slews of screen shots were captured and the information went viral which prompted this “journalist” to delete her entire twitter account.
https://twitter.com/GoosesTweets/status/796771781520592896
— Trump Vol (@DamnVol) November 10, 2016 . @SecretService again, just in case @monisha_rajesh deletes the tweet, which it looks like she has. pic.twitter.com/3l3MhL0MXL
— The Coonskin Cap (@TheCoonskinCap) November 10, 2016 Apparently @monisha_rajesh has deleted the tweet and also deactivated her account 😉😂 https://t.co/wgrqWfmevT
These violent and emotionally unstable liberal idiots need to be held accountable for their actions.
Please contact Telegraph and DEMAND they fire this idiot.
Telegraph Twitter page here .
Facebook page here .
Email : telegraphenquiries@ telegraph.co.uk Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.
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This may shock you, but Michelle Obama wears clothing. In fact, sometimes she wears very nice clothing, like the Naeem Khan dress she wore to the Nordic state dinner on Friday. The Washington Post reports:Michelle Obama is standing out in a sea of black tuxedos in a blush-colored, strapless, floor-length gown at the Nordic Summit dinner.The first lady chose a dress by Indian-born designer Naeem Khan for the White House dinner honoring the leaders of Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Norway. She finished the look with gold jewelry and a wispy chignon.While state dinners typically celebrate a single head of state and Mrs. Obama often wears a gown by a designer from the country being honored the Nordic party was a twist on typical White House protocol.The President did, indeed, step on his wife s dress. The First Lady feigned outrage, then the couple had some fun with the situation. She looks good, Barack said when the two paused for photographs. He stepped on my dress, Michelle followed up. The President then put a finger up to his lips, playfully shushing as though the incident was to remain a huge secret. It was a very human moment for the First Couple. Naturally, conservatives had to jump in to share their thoughts on the apes in the White House. You can put lipstick on a monkey, but you still have a monkey, one commenter on ABC News Facebook page wrote. One person wondered if his (Michelle s) fake booby popped out of the dress. Others lamented that she did not fall and harm herself, while some chose to simply call her a pig and a gorilla. The unbridled hatred leveled at the First Family is unprecedented. Recently, upon learning that Malia Obama had gotten into Harvard, Fox News fans took time out of their busy day of huffing paint fumes and masturbating to Donald Trump s photograph to inform everyone they thought she was a n*gger. Barack and Michelle Obama have weathered a nonstop barrage of racist comments since before the President was elected the first time, but conservatives have not been remotely content to leave it at that. They genuinely believe that black people living in the WHITE ( White is, after all, in the name) HOUSE is a crime against nature.Barack Obama has been arguably the best President in decades, perhaps in our country s history, and will probably be the best for at least decades to come. Michelle Obama is a classy woman whose strength has enabled the President to be all that he is. Their children are impressive young ladies who will certainly make an impact on the world. The problem is that our frenemies on the Right are incapable of seeing anything more than a skin color they hate.Watch this deeply human event unfold below:Featured image via screengrab
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In their last meeting, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly laughed with her former adversary, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, tossing him a handful of softball questions he could swiftly bat away. But Kelly took a swing right at him on her show Thursday evening, blasting the billionaire for his comments about Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over the civil fraud lawsuits against Trump University, whom Trump has claimed is biased because of his Mexican heritage.
“This is out of line,” Kelly said, raising her voice. The Fox News host had planned to spend the segment talking about House Speaker Paul Ryan endorsing the candidate, but scrapped it when news broke a few hours before her broadcast that Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel, a U.S. District Judge, had an “absolute conflict” presiding over a pair of cases in which plaintiffs accuse Trump University of duping them into paying thousands of dollars to learn Trump’s tricks of the real-estate trade. (According to one former employee of the now-defunct for-profit school, whose testimony was revealed on Tuesday, “Trump University was a fraudulent scheme” that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated.”) The conflict, according to Trump, derives from the fact that Curiel is “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Curiel grew up in Indiana.
Trump told the Journal that his plan to close off the U.S. border with Mexico and his stated stance against illegal immigration makes the fact that Curiel’s parents are Mexican immigrants relevant. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” he said.
“The man is not Mexican. His parents are Mexican. He was born in Indiana. He has no conflict of interest,” Kelly deadpanned to the camera. “Now Trump is saying the judge needs to be investigated, someone should look into him, just because he’s ruled against Trump in this case repeatedly . . . That doesn’t make you biased. It doesn’t. Trump continues to attack a sitting federal judge who, by the way, did a lot to fight the drug cartels when he was a prosecutor, based on his ethnicity, suggesting he has an inherent conflict of interest because of his heritage. A Hispanic cannot judge a case against me, that’s what he’s saying.”
This was the fired-up anchor many were hoping to see in Kelly’s first Fox Broadcast special in May, in which she sat down face-to-face with the candidate after a months-long feud that began when Kelly asked him a question about his treatment of women during the first G.O.P. debate in August. For months following the debate, Trump slammed Kelly as a lightweight, suggested the reason for her tough question was that she was menstruating, and encouraged his online supporters to do the same.
Kelly harkened back to the months of harassment from Trump’s followers on Thursday night, subtly empathizing with what Judge Curiel could be about to go through at their hands. “Let me tell you, I guarantee you right now that this judge is getting threats, and vitriol and who knows what else,” she said.
Kelly set the record straight before moving on to broader Trump news: ”There’s no conflict of interest whatsoever based on his ethnicity, just to clear up this man’s reputation, who is a sitting federal judge and has served the country for four years in that capacity.”
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said German parties face a difficult task to bridge their differences in crunch coalition talks on Thursday, but she believes they can reach an agreement to work together in a new government. We have very, very different positions, she told reporters. If it works - I think it can work - there can be a positive result at the end of today s negotiations. But this is a difficult task.
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Notice how the left is still pushing the false narrative that the Russians hacked our election NOT TRUE!
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This wonderful lady is so right and so dead on in her description of Donald Trump s mission You will Love her! Democrats FAILED, they care about the inner city when its election time
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans plan to bring their tax overhaul bill for a vote next week, U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said on Tuesday, adding that he expects the plan to pass. “We’ll bring to the floor next week,” Brady told Fox News in an interview. “Our goal is to pass it next week out of the House.”
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Statues of Donald Trump have appeared in five cities across the country, and it s clear that they re not meant to honor him. They re almost caricatures, and they portray him stark naked in a rather ahem insulting way. The intent is essentially to unmask Trump, and portray him as the disgusting little prick he is.The statues were placed in L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland and New York City. The one in New York City was quickly removed, but ABC 7 Chicago reports that the West Coast statues still stand. An activist group known as INDECLINE, which speaks out against Trump, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the works of art. They said their hope is that Trump is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world. They also said: It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America s most infamous and reviled politicians. On their website, INDECLINE calls this particular protest The Emperor Has No Balls, and they ve made it very clear on the statues that they see Trump as the ball-less wonder of the GOP. A three-minute video on their website shows exactly how they made the statues, complete with sound bytes of some of the worst things Trump has said in his speeches. You can watch the video below, if you can bear it (warning: Explicit imagery, very NSFW):The Trump campaign didn t comment on the statues, but that may change at some point. Trump can t stand being portrayed in a bad light, and these statues make him look very bad, indeed.Nude statue of Donald Trump appears on Los Feliz sidewalk https://t.co/65Ot7SDqs6 pic.twitter.com/8scXOCwjFR ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) August 18, 2016
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he fired FBI Director James Comey because he was not doing a good job. “He wasn’t doing a good job, very simply. He wasn’t doing a good job,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office during a brief photo op as he met with Henry Kissinger, a former secretary of state. Trump declined to answer further questions about the firing, which was announced on Tuesday and stunned Washington.
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Imagine going over 80k into debt for your children to be even stupider than before their education pic.twitter.com/1um9rY2MA8 Viktor LePen (@ViktorFiel) November 17, 2016
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It’s a curious feature of American life that when four innocents are killed by a gunman in Chattanooga, or when a young white supremacist opens fire inside a historic AME Church in Charleston, we talk about loosening gun safety laws.
In the aftermath of this week’s murders, Donald Trump managed the near-impossible—sounding like a mainstream Republican politician—when he argued, “Get rid of gun free zones. The four great marines who were just shot never had a chance.” He is hardly alone in proposing this solution to the epidemic of gun violence. “These terrible tragedies seem to occur in gun-free zones,” said Rand Paul in January. “The Second Amendment “serves as a fundamental check on government tyranny,” Ted Cruz has said.
But if these Second Amendment-purists really think that guns make places safer, if they really think that guns are an important check on government and safeguard of liberty, then why do so many of them keep their workplace—the U.S. Capitol—free of firearms?
For almost two centuries and until very recently, ordinary citizens had free run of the Capitol. Ironically, as Congress has become less hospitable to gun safety laws, and as conservative Republican legislators have grown more strident in their desire to see citizens carry open and concealed weapons everywhere—in churches and schools, on college campuses, at bars and restaurants—the one venue that has grown more gun-free, more secure and more restrictive is the building they work in.
Until 1983, there were no metal detectors at the entryways to the Capitol. No staff and member identification badges. No requirement that American taxpayers reserve advance tickets, queue up in a subterranean visitors’ center and be guided through a select few rooms of the complex. The only areas truly off limits to non-credentialed individuals were the Senate and House floors, though in extraordinary times, even these rooms became public space.
When Union soldiers converged on Washington in the spring of 1861, the Sixth Massachusetts took refuge in the new House and Senate chambers. John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s young staff secretary, ventured over to inspect the “novel” scene. “The contrast was very painful between the grey haired dignity that filled the Senate Chamber when I saw it last and the present throng of bright-looking Yankee boys,” he observed..” Hay reclined on a leather sofa toward the rear of the chamber and gazed at the “wide-spreading skylights over arching the vast hall like heaven blushed and blazed with gold.” He thought it a fitting place to quarter the troops.
It took extraordinary circumstances for armed militiamen, citizens and congressmen to mingle freely on the House floor. But the stark contrast between now and then raises a poignant issue: Why should Congress be the only gun-free zone in America?
At exactly 2:32 on the afternoon of March 1, 1954, gunfire emanating from multiple points in the gallery interrupted legislative business on the crowded House floor, where 240 members of Congress were debating an immigration reform bill. The assailants—four Puerto Rican nationalists armed with German Lugers—created instant bedlam. Bullets “crashed through the table of the majority leader and chairs around it,” reported the New York Times, “and struck near the table of the Minority Leader and beyond.” At first, many House members mistook the gunfire for firecrackers. When they realized the gravity of their situation—they were sitting ducks, easy targets for unidentified gunmen who enjoyed a direct line of site—members dove behind their seats and crawled their way to the cloakrooms.
Capitol Police officers, with the aide of several spectators and one congressman, worked to subdue the attackers, while teenaged House pages dodged bullets to carry Rep. Alvin Bentley, a 35-year-old Republican from Michigan who had been gravely wounded, off the floor. Against odds, Bentley survived his injuries.
Remarkably, the attack in 1954 spurred no fundamental changes to Capitol security. The same cultural traditions that made the Capitol a natural dormitory for Civil War soldiers made it unthinkable that Congress would bar citizens from freely accessing and wandering its halls. The democratization of American politics from the 1830s onward reinforced a widely held conviction that, no matter how unrepresentative the makeup of the House and Senate might be of society at large, the national legislature was a people’s body, and its buildings belonged to everyone.
That began to change amid the turbulence of the late sixties. In 1967, with civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations assuming an increasingly strident tone—including several disruptive protests from the House and Senate galleries—Congress passed a new measure stipulating, among other provisions, that it be made a criminal offense, punishable by up to five years in prison, to carry or discharge a firearm in the Capitol. Still, even after the Weather Underground detonated a bomb in the Senate wing in the early morning hours of March 1, 1971, ostensibly to protest U.S. military operations in Laos, Congress took few precautions. As late as 1983, visitors were required to pass through metal detectors at the doors to the Senate and House galleries, but not upon entering the building itself, where they remained free to walk most corridors and inevitably happened across dozens if not hundreds of congressmen on days when either chamber was in session. At most, they were asked to open their handbags and purses for a manual inspection.
The status quo changed on the evening of November 7, 1983, when a bomb tore through the walls of the Senate Republican cloakroom and also badly damaged the office of Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. Fortunately, no lives were lost.
In response to the attack, Congress finally tightened Capitol security in a significant way. Whereas visitors had been able to access the building through 10 doors, now the Capitol Police only allowed the general public to use four, each outfitted with a metal detector. In later years, x-ray machines were added. Furthermore, staff members were now required to wear official badges that would allow them access to newly restricted areas. Reporters, accustomed to enjoying free run of the building, found themselves limited in their movement.
“There were a lot of older staff people and members around who thought it was just terrible to have metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs around,” recalled former House Clerk Donnald K. Anderson in an official oral history.
Indeed, even in the immediate aftermath of the bombing in 1983, many members balked at the idea of restricting access and tightening security, particularly where representatives of media outlets were concerned. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, warned that “to cut off access—free, spontaneous, adventitious and often calamitous—between senators and the accredited members of the press gallery would be to change our institution. It would begin to cut us off from the people who send us here.”
“It’s a sad day for the American government when any constituent has to go through a security guard to see a Congressman,” said Robert H. Michel, the House Republican leader.
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(Reuters) - U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence released a letter from his doctor on Saturday declaring Donald Trump’s running mate was in “excellent” health. “You are medically able to maintain your high level of professional work and your physical activity programs without limitations,” wrote Michael Busk of the St. Vincent Health, Wellness and Preventative Care Institute in Indianapolis. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has released a note from his doctor saying that he, too, was in “excellent” health. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election, and her running mate, Tim Kaine, also released medical information this week. The candidates moved to show their physical fitness to run for office after Clinton fell ill on Sunday at an event in New York City, prompting her campaign to disclose that she had been diagnosed with non-contagious, bacterial pneumonia. Busk said in the letter dated Thursday that he last examined Pence, who is the governor of Indiana, in July and has been his doctor since 2013. Pence exercises four days a week, mainly by biking, and takes no medications except for seasonal allergies. He had hernia repair surgery in 2015 and had basal cell carcinomas, a common form of skin cancer, removed in 2002 and 2010, the letter said. Pence’s father died of a heart attack, the letter said. But it said his father smoked cigarettes, while Pence neither smokes nor drinks alcohol. Pence’s cardiologists feel he has a “very good and strong heart,” the letter said.
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People have long speculated about Donald Trump s mental state. While it was once seen as unseemly to suggest that a public figure may be crazy, Trump s alarming behavior warrants an exception especially since he has the nuclear codes. Well, it s not our imagination and that s not just because we can see with every wild statement and unhinged Twitter rant that something is wrong with Trump. It s because, according to former Republican Congressman and current host of MSNBC s Morning Joe reported on Thursday that several of Trump s allies confided to him that Trump has dementia.Then, Scarborough went all in, and called for the use of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, and in doing so, decided to list many of Trump s infamous incidences of con artistry in the process: If this is not what the 25th Amendment was drafted for, I would like the Cabinet members serving America not the president you serve America, and you know it. You know you don t serve Donald J. Trump. Scam developer, scam Trump University proprietor, reality TV show host. You don t represent him. You represent 320 million people whose lives are literally in your hands, and we are facing a showdown with a nuclear power. You have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit. That people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia. This is astounding. Joe Scarborough is no liberal. I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he s definitely putting his country before his party, and doing the right thing. It s time for Republicans to stop being cowards and remove Trump.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images
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ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday dismissed NATO allies concern over Turkey s deal to buy a missile defense system from Russia and said Ankara would continue to take the security measures it thought right. Turkey, whose relations with its allies have frayed in recent months, said it opted for the S-400 because Western companies had offered no financially effective alternative. But NATO officials have voiced disquiet over the purchase of missiles incompatible with alliance systems. They went crazy because we made the S-400 agreement. What were we supposed to do, wait for you? We are taking and will take all our measures on the security front, Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara. Western firms which had bid for the contract included U.S. firm Raytheon (RTN.N), which put in an offer with its Patriot missile defense system. Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France s Thales TCFP.PA, came second in the tender. Turkey, with the second-largest army in the alliance, has enormous strategic importance for NATO, abutting as it does Syria, Iraq and Iran. But the relationship has become fractious. Erdogan has been infuriated by Washington s support for Kurdish YPG fighters in the battle against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s largely Kurdish southeast. The U.S. Pentagon said it had expressed concerns to Ankara about the Russian purchase. A NATO interoperable missile defense system remains the best option to defend Turkey from the full range of threats in its region, spokesman Johnny Michael said in a statement. France, however, said Turkey s decision was a sovereign choice which did not require comment from NATO allies. France s foreign minister is due to visit Turkey on Thursday. Germany has said it would restrict some arms sales to Turkey, reflecting the diplomatic strain over a security crackdown in Turkey following a failed military coup last year. Berlin had originally sought to freeze major arms sales, but scaled that back after Turkey said that would harm the joint fight against Islamic State. Berlin has criticized mass arrests that followed the failed coup and demanded the release of around a dozen German or Turkish-German citizens arrested in recent months. Turkey originally awarded a $3.4 billion contract for the defense system to China in 2013, but canceled that two years later, saying it would concentrate on developing a system domestically. Turkey later began talks with Russia, and in July Erdogan said the deal had been signed, although negotiations appear to have been drawn out over financing. Turkish media quoted Erdogan this week as saying he and Russian President Vladimir Putin were determined that the agreement should proceed.
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