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The victim of the angry Bernie Sanders supporter has an amazing attitude. It s the civility many of us have come to expect from Trump supporters who ve been unjustly attacked by uncivil and in many cases, unlawful Bernie Sanders supporters. A politically-motivated vandal in Washington State admittedly vandalized a Trump supporter s car, slashing its tires and dumping rotten yogurt through its sun roof, according to a police report filed last Monday.The suspect, named in the report as one Riley M. Silva of Gig Harbour, Washington, confessed his crime to the police. Showing no sign of remorse, he claimed his victim was an ignorant bigot and that he improved the community by vandalizing the car. According to the report, the culprit became angry after noticing that the car sported a Donald Trump sticker.His full confession to the police, which was originally posted on the blog of lawyer and author Mike Cernovich, reads as follows:I on the 11th day of the 4th month of 2016 did maliciously attack a hate symbol protected by the first amendment. After disabling the vehicle and dumping rotten food into the interior I feel I have improved the community and supported our nation s values by stopping a promoter of hate speech. I do not wish to have ignorant bigots in my town and in a just world the person deserved what was received and the situation is made whole.As America is far from just, I expect the bigot will want to be made whole. With this I declare he is owed nothng. But as the situation is what it is, I intend to make the individual whole provided he cease to promote ignorance and hate. I do not expect the law to recognize damage to tools of hate or fascism. Such things need to be destroyed so good people may remain and become free.The victim, Nathan Elliot, later posted pictures of the damage to his vehicle. In his statement to the police, he said that the damage to the tire alone would cost $500 to repair.Bernie Sanders supporter didn't like my Trump bumper sticker, so he vandalized my personal property. Cool. pic.twitter.com/QghClfl2ak Nate (@pulsarVision) April 10, 2016The police report describes Riley Silva as a skinny white male in his 20s, with long blond hair. The victim saw him while he was in the process of vandalizing his car, at which point he yelled at and ran towards the culprit, who fled in his own vehicle. In the report, Elliot claims that the culprit almost hit two other cars as he drove away from the scene. In addition to vandalizing the victim s car, Silva has been charged with reckless driving. -Breitbart NewsEven though I have amazing @USAA insurance, all costs will come out of my own pocket. That's a $400 tire by the way. Nate (@pulsarVision) April 12, 2016USAA Insurance tweeted an awesome reply to Nathan:@pulsarVision We are here to help. Is this a claim related need ? Please DM us your full name, claim# if applicable and you phone# . Thank u USAA (@USAA_help) April 12, 2016UPDATE on Nathan s new tire:@BreitbartNews @Cernovich @DanScavino @realDonaldTrump @Nero Update: new tire came in today can't tread on me!!! pic.twitter.com/AlVPDLym85 Nate (@pulsarVision) April 16, 2016Nathan has the perfect response to the violent Bernie Sanders supporters:It was only through learning how much others don t like the truth exposed, that I learned for myself how much I crave its very existence. Nate (@pulsarVision) February 14, 2016 | 0 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Embarrassed by Donald Trump’s rhetoric against Mexico, former World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday it is time to “remake” the case for free trade in the United States. The U.S. presidential race has been peppered with promises to rework trade policy in the United States’ favor, and many of the strongest attacks have been against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade accord between the United States, Mexico and Canada that took effect in 1994. Regarded by Mexican policymakers as a milestone in the country’s economic modernization, NAFTA has been vilified by Republican front-runner Trump and Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders as a job-killing betrayal of U.S. industry. Zoellick, a Republican who also served as U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, said Mexican officials had understandably been unsettled by Trump’s rhetoric and flagging U.S. congressional support for free trade. “The bigger issue in the U.S. will be a need to remake the case for trade,” he said in a phone interview. That meant more than the traditional corporate lobbying in Congress, said Zoellick, who was World Bank chief from 2007-2012. “This is now going to need a broader public push. Part of this will be a challenge to get the Facebooks, the Googles the Apples and others to not only make the case in Washington, but actually use social media, use big data resources and others to explain this to coming generations of Americans,” he said. While noting that some Americans had good reason to feel concern about the pace of change and unfettered immigration, Zoellick said Mexico, a “significant, modernizing economy”, ought to be integrated further into U.S. thinking. “If it were up to me, I would bring Canada and Mexico into the TTIP negotiations with Europe,” he said, referring to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a planned trade deal between the United States and the European Union. After China and Canada, Mexico is the United States’ third biggest trade partner, accounting for bilateral commerce worth around $500 billion annually. The United States is also home to an estimated 35 million people of Mexican origin. Claiming Mexico is “killing” the United States on trade and sending rapists and drug runners north, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs against Mexico and vowed to build a wall to stop illegal immigrants crossing the border. To make Mexico pay for the wall, he has threatened to block billions of dollars in remittances sent home by Mexicans in the United States, a plan Zoellick described as “outrageous.” “As an American, frankly, I’m embarrassed by his statements,” he said. However, he noted the Mexican government had to “walk a fine line” in countering Trump without stoking more tensions. A number of serving and former Mexican officials believe their government could have been more active in persuading U.S. businesses and politicians to make the case that both countries will lose out if Trump’s talk becomes reality. Zoellick said, however, it was a shared responsibility. “Depending on one’s perspective, this is really ... the U.S.’s burden to bear. And so while I concur that one would welcome assistance from Mexico, in some ways we’ve got to get our own act cleaned up in the U.S. first,” he said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration declined to name any major trading partner as a currency manipulator in a highly anticipated report on Friday, backing away from a key Trump campaign promise to slap such a label on China. The semi-annual U.S. Treasury currency report did, however, keep China on a currency “monitoring list” despite a lower global current account surplus, citing China’s unusually large, bilateral trade surplus with the United States. Five other trading partners who were on last October’s monitoring list - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland - also remain on the list, ensuring that the Treasury would apply extra scrutiny to their foreign exchange and economic policies. The Treasury report recognized what many analysts have said over the past year, namely that China has recently intervened in foreign exchange markets to prop up the value of its yuan currency, not push it lower to make Chinese exports cheaper. Foreign exchange experts told Reuters last week that a manipulator label was unlikely for Beijing. Trump, who on the campaign trail blamed China for “stealing” U.S. jobs and prosperity by cheapening its currency, repeatedly promised to label the country as a currency manipulator on “day one” of a Trump administration - a move that would require special negotiations and could lead to punitive duties and other action. The report did call out China’s past efforts to hold down the yuan’s value, saying this created a long-term “distortion” in the global trading system that “imposed significant and long-lasting hardship on American workers and companies.” The Treasury also warned that it will scrutinize China’s trade and currency practices very closely and called for faster opening of China’s economy to U.S. goods and services and a shift away from exports to more domestic consumption. “China will need to demonstrate that its lack of intervention to resist appreciation over the last three years represents a durable policy shift by letting the RMB (yuan) rise with market forces once appreciation pressures resume,” the report said. The report shows the Trump administration is taking an approach to foreign exchange based on data rather than politics, said Nathan Sheets, a former U.S. Treasury under secretary for international affairs during the Obama administration. “This isn’t the report that Donald Trump had in mind on Nov. 8,” said Sheets, who is now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “But it lays out legitimate complaints. It’s a clear statement to the Chinese that they need progress.” The Treasury did not alter its three major thresholds for identifying currency manipulation put in place last year by the Obama administration: a bilateral trade surplus with the United States of $20 billion or more; a global current account surplus of more than 3 percent of gross domestic product, and persistent foreign exchange purchases equal to 2 percent of GDP over 12 months. No countries were determined to have met all three of these criteria, but Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland all met two of them. The Treasury warned Japan against resuming currency interventions, saying that these “should be reserved only to very exceptional circumstances with appropriate prior consultations, consistent with Japan’s G-7 and G-20 commitments.” (For graphic on currency manipulation, click tmsnrt.rs/2p7aUox) (Link to the Treasury report: bit.ly/2pgnNAm) | 1 |
LONDON — Talks between the luxury house Louis Vuitton and workers at its ateliers across France were extended on Thursday, a day after scores of the company’s employees staged a walkout for the first time in 15 years to demand wage increases. Shortly before a deadline that had been imposed by Louis Vuitton, both sides agreed to prolong discussions, the company announced. While the employees are back at work for now, the image of striking leather workers on Wednesday might have had especially negative connotations for the luxury brand. For luxury businesses — where profits are often and the bespoke craftsmanship at its ateliers is front and center in marketing messages — a nasty shadow could be cast over those seen to be exploiting workers who cater to the whims of the elite. Louis Vuitton, known for its monogrammed leather goods and the skills of its French master craftsmen and women, is the jewel in the crown of its parent company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury group in the world by sales. The hourlong walkout on Wednesday, which was first reported by Agence started with employees gathering in front of their various production facilities across France at 7:30 a. m. Union representatives from Force Ouvrière and the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail told Agence that the workers were staging the protest after a wage increase offer from Louis Vuitton management failed to meet expectations. The company had offered a gross raise of 30 euros a month, or about $31. 95, for every employee, union representatives said — far lower than the €55 workers requested. Managers had also offered raises of an additional €10 to €20 a month for 80 percent of workers. As the luxury industry has grappled with an increasingly volatile trading climate because of geopolitical instability, fluctuating foreign exchange rates and the demands of consumers, LVMH — for the most part — appeared to be weathering the storm. In 2016, it posted record results, with total sales of €37 billion. Sales from its fashion and leather goods division — which does not break out results by brand — rose 8. 2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, to €3. 78 billion. The label also registered 9 percent organic growth, beating analysts’ estimates of about 5 percent. The latest set of strong results appears to have been one motivating factor for the workers’ strike, the first in over 15 years, according to a Force Ouvrière representative, Damelincourt. “Calling for a walkout at Vuitton is tough, people are afraid of being seen badly,” Mr. Damelincourt said. “But today, a good part of the employees have mobilized to show their dissatisfaction. ” “Louis Vuitton has once again registered an exceptional year of results in 2016, and we are proud to have contributed to this result,” he added. “We now want a remuneration worthy of our commitment. ” Mr. Damelincourt said that the turnout for the strike was 30 percent of all employees from the workshops in Issoudun and in Condé, more than 50 percent from the facilities in Asnières, and 25 percent to 50 percent of employees in workshops in the Ardèche area and in the Drôme. But LVMH had a different story. Louis Vuitton has 18 leather workshops, including 12 in France four of the French sites were involved in the walkout action on Wednesday, a company spokesman said. Louis Vuitton employs a total of 3, 100 atelier workers in France, hired 370 new employees last year and continues to be a highly place for creative workers to seek employment, the spokesman said. “In addition to their 13 months of payment every year, employees had in March 2017, for the last business year, the equivalent in of between four and five months in compensation,” the spokesman said, adding that this type of bonus was relatively rare in France. About two weeks before the start of the French presidential election, where employment laws are a major topic of debate, the impact of labor conflicts continues to be a problem in several business sectors. The French air traffic control walkout last month caused a 1, 500 flight cancellations, according to estimates by the commercial aviation group Airlines for Europe. In 2016, the country was paralyzed by strikes of pilots, train drivers, taxi drivers and garbage collectors. The unrest, alongside other factors such as a fear of terrorist attacks, has played a part in a decline in tourism to France, currently the most visited country in the world. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday cleared the way for approval of $1.1 billion in immediate funds to battle the Zika virus that is linked to birth defects, well above what is in legislation pending in the House of Representatives. By a vote of 68-29, senators limited debate on the measure, paving the way for likely Senate approval this week. Two other funding approaches failed to get enough support to advance in the Senate. Meanwhile, the White House threatened to veto a $622.1 million Zika bill poised to pass the House of Representatives later this week, saying it was “woefully inadequate.” Unlike the Senate legislation, the House bill also requires that the $622.1 million be fully offset with spending cuts elsewhere. Many conservative Republicans in the House refuse to approve Zika funds that would add to federal budget deficits, while Democrats and some Senate Republicans favor treating the problem as an emergency that would not have to be financed with spending cuts. Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri told reporters that the Senate measure “trimmed this package back (from Obama’s request) to what really addresses the emergency at the time.” Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, who crafted the legislation with Blunt, added, “We are going to need to keep the pressure on House Republicans to set aside their partisan bill and actually get the administration the emergency resources they need.” It was unclear how long it might take the Senate and House to work out their differences once they pass their respective bills. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. Last year, Brazil began detecting an increase in microcephaly and the virus has been spreading rapidly in the Americas, with new cases now being reported in warm climates in southern U.S. states including Florida. House Republicans argue their $622.1 million bill, when coupled with $589 million the Obama administration already shifted to Zika from unused funds to battle Ebola, would provide enough money through Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year. The administration says it needs the emergency funds to help state and local governments eradicate mosquitoes that spread the virus and to develop a vaccine. (This version of the story was corrected to say $622.1 million from $622.1 billion in the 3rd and 11th paragraphs.) | 1 |
BRUSSELS/MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Sacked Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont and four associates turned themselves in to Belgian police on Sunday, following Spain s issuing of an arrest warrant for rebellion and sedition. All are wanted by Madrid for actions related to the push for the region s secession from Spain. Puigdemont has become the public face of that move for independence. Other charges are the misuse of public funds, disobedience and breach of trust relating to the secessionist campaign, which has thrown Spain into a political crisis just as its economy has recovered from a sharp downturn and banking stress. Madrid has taken over administrative control in Catalonia, until then an autonomous region, and called new elections on Dec 21. Two polls on Sunday suggested pro-Catalonia independence parties will together win December s regional election although they may fall just short of a majority of seats in parliament needed to revive the secession campaign. Parties supporting Catalonia staying in Spain would divide seats but garner around 54 percent of the vote, the polls suggested. Puigdemont traveled to Belgium shortly after Madrid took control. On Sunday morning, Puigdemont and four of his former councillors presented themselves to police in Brussels. A judge will hear the defendants case on Sunday afternoon and has until Monday morning to decide whether the formalities for the extradition request have been fulfilled. According to a GAD3 survey of 1,233 people conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3 and published in La Vanguardia newspaper, pro-independence parties ERC, PDeCAT and CUP would take between 66 and 69 seats in the 135-seat parliament. A second poll taken over the same period for the conservative newspaper La Razon echoed the GAD3 survey, showing pro-independence parties would capture the most votes though still fall just shy of a parliamentary majority with 65 seats. Other seats would be generally divided between parties that support the region remaining as part of Spain, though they would run on separate tickets. Voter participation, however, will rise to a record of 83 percent, the GAD3 poll showed. Under the European arrest warrant system, the five defendants in Belgium can agree to an extradition order immediately or the judge can set bail or detain them. Belgian authorities have to inform their European counterparts if a European arrest warrant cannot be executed after 90 days. On Saturday, Puigdemont - who PDeCAT said on Sunday would lead the party in the election - called for a united Catalan political front for independence from Spain and against the detention of his former members of government. On Thursday, nine of his sacked cabinet were ordered by Spain s High Court to be held on remand pending an investigation and potential trial. One member of the dismissed cabinet, Santi Vila, was freed after paying bail of 50,000 euros ($58,035) on Friday. The other eight could remain in custody for up to four years. According to the GAP3 survey, 59 percent believed legal action against Puigdemont was unjustified while 69.3 percent said the jailing of the Catalan politicians would give the independence cause a boost at the ballot box. Catalan civic groups Asamblea Nacional Catalana and Omnium Cultural - whose leaders were imprisoned last month on sedition charges - called for a general strike on Nov. 8 and a mass demonstration on Nov. 11 to protest the detentions. The Catalonia issue has sent shockwaves across Europe, energizing regions with their own secessionist agenda while unnerving those fighting to keep the European Union from fracturing further. Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon, a member of the Flemish nationalist and separatist party N-VA, criticized Spain s handling of situation on Sunday, saying Madrid went too far in an interview with Belgian broadcaster VTM. Madrid says the judiciary acts independently of the legislative arm of government while adding that Catalonia leaders acted outside the rule of law when organizing the vote and making the declaration of independence. A pro-secessionist rally in Barcelona on Sunday attracted just a few hundred people, a long way from the hundreds of thousands to join pro-independence marches in October. Many of those attending waved the regional flag and carried protest signs. One protester, Antonia Aguilera, 63, said she was concerned the new elections would not be fair and would be manipulated by the Spanish government. Her concerns echo the deep mistrust many Catalans have of politicians in Madrid that has deepened since the arrests and after the national police used truncheons and rubber bullets to thwart voting in the illegal independence referendum on Oct. 1. I m disgusted by it all. We knew they would react but not as strongly as they did, she said, adding that she believed the pro-independence parties would win the December election. And then we ll be back where we started. | 0 |
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya s U.N.-backed government agreed with Italy on Saturday to establish a joint operations room for tackling migrant smugglers and traffickers as part of efforts to curb migrant flows toward Europe, according to a statement. Libya is the main gateway for migrants trying to cross to Europe by sea, though numbers have dropped sharply since July as Libyan factions and authorities have begun to block departures under Italian pressure. More than 600,000 have made the journey over the past four years. The agreement to set up the operations room was announced after a meeting in Tripoli between the head of the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Seraj, Libyan Interior Minister Aref Khodja, and his Italian counterpart Marco Minniti. A statement from Seraj s office said the center would consist of representatives from the coastguard, the illegal migration department, the Libyan attorney general and the intelligence services, along with their Italian counterparts. No details were given on the location of the center and how it would operate. In the past, migrant smugglers have worked with impunity in western Libya, where the GNA has little authority over armed groups that have real power on the ground. The Italian navy already has a presence in Tripoli port, providing technical assistance to Libya s coastguard, according to Italian and Libyan officials. The coastguard, which is receiving funding and training from the European Union, has become more assertive in recent months in intercepting migrants and bringing them back to Libya. Activists have criticized the policy, since migrants often face extreme hardship and abuse in Libya, including forced labor. Migrants who are caught trying to cross to Italy are put in severely overcrowded detention centers authorized by the interior ministry. The GNA has said it is investigating reports of migrants being auctioned as slaves in Libya, after CNN broadcast footage appearing to show such auctions. According to Saturday s statement, Seraj told Minniti that despite the successes achieved in the migration file, the number of illegal immigrants outside shelters remains large and we need more cooperation, especially in securing the borders of southern Libya through which these migrants flow . | 0 |
By Tom Engelhardt, a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture . He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com . His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World . Originally published at TomDispatch < /p>
To say that this is the election from hell is to insult hell.
There’s been nothing like this since Washington forded the Rubicon or Trump crossed the Delaware or delivered the Gettysburg Address (you know, the one that began “Four score and eleven women ago…”) — or pick your own seminal moment in American history.
Billions of words, that face, those gestures, the endless insults , the abused women and the emails, the 24/7 spectacle of it all… Whatever happens on Election Day, let’s accept one reality: we’re in a new political era in this country. We just haven’t quite taken it in. Not really.
Forget Donald Trump.
Doh! Why did I write that? Who could possibly forget the first presidential candidate in our history preemptively unwilling to accept election results? (Even the South in 1860 accepted the election of Abraham Lincoln before trying to wave goodbye to the Union.) Who could forget the man who claimed that abortions could take place on the day of or the day before actual birth? Who could forget the man who claimed in front of an audience of nearly 72 million Americans that he had never met the women who accused him of sexual aggression and abuse, including the People magazine reporter who interviewed him? Who could forget the candidate who proudly cited his positive polling results at rallies and in tweets, month after month, before (when those same polls turned against him) discovering that they were all “ rigged ”?
Whatever you think of The Donald, who in the world — and I mean the whole wide world (including the Iranians ) — could possibly forget him or the election he’s stalked so ominously? When you think of him, however, don’t make him the cause of American political dysfunction. He’s just the bizarre, disturbed, and disturbing symptom of the transformation of the American political system.
Admittedly, he is a one-of-a-kind “politician,” even among his associates in surging right-wing nationalist and anti-whatever movements globally. He makes France’s Marine Le Pen seem like the soul of rationality and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte look like a master tactician of our age. But what truly makes Donald Trump and this election season fascinating and confounding is that we’re not just talking about the presidency of a country, but of the country. The United States remains the great imperial state on Planet Earth in terms of the reach of its military and the power of its economy and culture to influence the workings of everything just about everywhere. And yet, based on the last strange year of election campaigning, it’s hard not to think that something — and not just The Donald — is unnervingly amiss on Planet America.
The World War II Generation in 2016
Sometimes, in my fantasies (as while watching the final presidential debate), I perform a private miracle and bring my parents back from the dead to observe our American world. With them in the room, I try to imagine the disbelief many from that World War II generation would surely express about our present moment. Of course, they lived through a devastating depression, light years beyond anything we experienced in the Great Recession of 2007-2008, as well as a global conflagration of a sort that had never been experienced and — short of nuclear war — is not likely to be again.
Despite this, I have no doubt that they would be boggled by our world and the particular version of chaos we now live with. To start at a global level, both my mother (who died in 1977) and my father (who died in 1983) spent decades in the nuclear age, the era of humanity’s greatest — for want of a better word — achievement. After all, for the first time in history, we humans took the apocalypse out of the hands of God (or the gods), where it had resided for thousands of years, and placed it directly in our own. What they didn’t live to experience, however, was history’s second potential deal-breaker, climate change, already bringing upheaval to the planet, and threatening a slow-motion apocalypse of an unprecedented sort.
While nuclear weapons have not been used since August 9, 1945 , even if they have spread to the arsenals of numerous countries, climate change should be seen as a snail-paced version of nuclear war — and keep in mind that humanity is still pumping near-record levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I imagine my parents’ amazement that the most dangerous and confounding issue on the planet didn’t get a single question , not to speak of an answer, in the three presidential debates of 2016, the four and a half hours of charges, insults, and interruptions just past. Neither a moderator, nor evidently an undecided voter (in the town hall second debate), nor either presidential candidate — each ready to change the subject on a moment’s notice from embarrassing questions about sexual aggression, emails, or anything else — thought it worth the slightest attention. It was, in short, a problem too large to discuss, one whose existence Donald Trump (like just about every other Republican) denies, or rather, in his case, labels a “hoax” that he uniquely blames on a Chinese plot to sink America.
So much for insanity (and inanity) when it comes to the largest question of all. On a somewhat more modest scale, my mom and dad wouldn’t have recognized our political world as American, and not just because of Donald Trump. They would have been staggered by the money pouring into our political system — at least $6.6 billion in this election cycle according to the latest estimate, more than 10% of that from only 100 families. They would have been stunned by our 1% elections ; by our new Gilded Age ; by a billionaire TV celebrity running as a “populist” by riling up once Democratic working-class whites immiserated by the likes of him and his “brand” of casino capitalism, scam, and spectacle; by all those other billionaires pouring money into the Republican Party to create a gerrymandered Congress that will do their obstructionist bidding; and by just how much money can be “invested” in our political system in perfectly legal ways these days. And I haven’t even mentioned the Other Candidate, who spent all of August on the true “campaign trail,” hobnobbing not with ordinary Americans but with millionaires and billionaires (and assorted celebrities ) to build up her phenomenal “ war chest .”
I would have to take a deep breath and explain to my parents that, in twenty-first-century America, by Supreme Court decree, money has become the equivalent of speech, even if it’s anything but “free.” And let’s not forget that other financial lodestone for an American election these days: the television news, not to speak of the rest of the media. How could I begin to lay out for my parents, for whom presidential elections were limited fall events, the bizarre nature of an election season that starts with media speculation about the next-in-line just as the previous season is ending, and continues more or less nonstop thereafter? Or the spectacle of talking heads discussing just about nothing but that election 24/7 on cable television for something like a full year, or the billions of ad dollars that have fueled this never-ending Super Bowl of campaigns, filling the coffers of the owners of cable and network news?
We’ve grown strangely used to it all, but my mom and dad would undoubtedly think they were in another country — and that would be before they were even introduced to the American system as it now exists, the one for which Donald Trump is such a bizarre front man.
What Planet Is This Anyway?
I wish I still had my high school civics text. If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember it: the one in which a man from Mars lands on Main Street, USA, to be lectured on the glories of American democracy and our carefully constructed, checked-and-balanced tripartite form of governance. I’m sure knowledge of that system changed life on Mars for the better, even if it was already something of a fantasy here on Earth in my parents’ time. After all, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower — my mom and dad voted for Democrat Adlai Stevenson — was the one who, in his farewell address in 1961, first brought “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power” and “the military-industrial complex” to the attention of the American people.
Yes, all of that was already changing then, as a peacetime war state of unparalleled size developed in this country. Still, 30-odd years after my father’s death, surveying the American landscape, my parents might believe themselves on Mars. They would undoubtedly wonder what exactly had happened to the country they knew. After all, thanks to the Republican Party’s scorched-earth tactics in these last years in bipolar Washington, Congress, that collection of putative representatives of the people (now a crew of well-paid, well-financed representatives of the country’s special interests in a capital overrun with corporate lobbyists), hardly functions anymore. Little of significance makes it through the porticos of the Capitol. Recently, for instance, John McCain (usually considered a relatively “moderate” Republican senator) suggested — before walking his comments part way back — that if Hillary Clinton were elected president, his fellow Republican senators might decide a priori not to confirm a single Supreme Court justice she nominated during her tenure in office. That, of course, would mean a court now down to what looks like a permanent crew of eight would shrink accordingly. And his comments, which once would have shocked Americans to the core, caused hardly a ripple of upset or protest.
On my tour of this new world, I might start by pointing out to my mom and dad that the U.S. is now in a state of permanent war , its military at the moment involved in conflicts in at least six countries in the Greater Middle East and Africa. These are all purely presidential conflicts, as Congress no longer has a real role in American war-making (other than ponying up the money for it and beating the drums to support it). The executive branch stands alone when it comes to the war powers once checked and balanced in the Constitution.
And I wouldn’t want my parents to simply look abroad. The militarization of this country has proceeded apace and in ways that, I have not the slightest doubt, would shock them to their core. I could take my parents, for instance, to Grand Central Station in midtown Manhattan, their hometown and still mine, and on any day of the week they would see the once-inconceivable: actual armed soldiers on guard in full camo. I could mention that, at my local subway stop, I’ve several times noted a New York police department counterterror squad that could be mistaken for a military Special Ops team, assault rifles slung across their chests, and no one even stops and gawks anymore. I could point out that the police across the country increasingly have the look of military units and are supplied by the Pentagon with actual weaponry and equipment directly off distant U.S. battlefields, including armored vehicles of various sorts. I could mention that military surveillance drones, those precursors of future robotic warfare (and, for my parents, right out of the childhood sci-fi novels I used to read), are now regularly in American skies ; that advanced surveillance equipment developed in far-off war zones is now being used by the police here at home; and that, though political assassination was officially banned in the post-Watergate 1970s, the president now commands a formidable CIA drone force that regularly carries out such assassinations across large swaths of the planet, even against U.S. citizens , and without the say-so of anyone outside the White House, including the courts. I could mention that the president who, in my parents’ time, commanded one modest-sized secret army, the CIA’s paramilitaries, now essentially presides over a full-scale secret military, the Special Operations Command: 70,000 elite troops cocooned inside the larger U.S. military, including elite teams ready to be deployed on what are essentially executive missions across the planet.
I could point out that, in the twenty-first century, U.S. intelligence has set up a global surveillance state that would have shamed the totalitarian powers of the previous century and that American citizens, en masse, are included in it; that our emails (a new concept for my parents) have been collected by the millions and our phone records made available to the state; that privacy, in short, has essentially been declared un-American. I would also point out that, on the basis of one tragic day and what otherwise has been the most modest of threats to Americans, a single fear — of Islamic terrorism — has been the pretext for the building of the already existing national security state into an edifice of almost unbelievable proportions that has been given once unimaginable powers, funded in ways that should amaze anyone (not just visitors from the American past), and has become the unofficial fourth branch of the U.S. government without either discussion or a vote.
Little that it does — and it does a lot — is open to public scrutiny. For their own “safety,”“the People” are to know nothing of its workings (except what it wants them to know). Meanwhile, secrecy of a claustrophobic sort has spread across significant parts of the government. The government classified 92 million documents in 2011 and things seem not to have gotten much better since. In addition, the national security state has been elaborating a body of “ secret law ”— including classified rules, regulations, and interpretations of already existing law — kept from the public and, in some cases, even from congressional oversight committees.
Americans, in other words, know ever less about what their government does in their name at home and abroad.
I might suggest to my parents that they simply imagine the Constitution of the United States being rewritten and amended in secrecy and on the fly in these years without as much as a nod to “We, the People.” In this way, as our elections became elaborate spectacles, democracy was sucked dry and ditched in all but name — and that name is undoubtedly Donald J. Trump.
Consider that, then, a brief version of how I might describe our new American world to my amazed parents.
America as a National Security State
None of this is The Donald’s responsibility. In the years in which a new American system was developing, he was firing people on TV. You could, of course, think of him as the poster boy for an America in which spectacle, celebrity, the gilded class of One Percenters, and the national security state have melded into a narcissistic, self-referential brew of remarkable toxicity.
Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is elected president, one thing is obvious: the vast edifice that is the national security state, with its 17 intelligence agencies and enormous imperial military, will continue to elaborate itself and expand its power in our American world. Both candidates have sworn to pour yet more money into that military and the intelligence and Homeland Security apparatus that goes with it. None of this, of course, has much of anything to do with American democracy as it was once imagined.
Someday perhaps, like my parents, “I” will be called back from the dead by one of my children to view with awe or horror whatever world exists. Long after the America of an unimaginable Donald J. Trump presidency or a far-more-imaginable Hillary Clinton version of the same has been folded into some god-awful, half-forgotten chapter in our history, I wonder what will surprise or confound “me” then. What version of our country and planet will “I” face in 2045? 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 |
The FBI announced Friday it had uncovered news emails related to its investigation of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton‘s handling of classified information while conducting a separate investigation into the pervy sexting habits of former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner. Weiner of course is the estranged husband of Hillary’s closest aide, Huma Abedin who herself figures prominently in Clinton’s email scandals.
The FBI announced Friday it had uncovered news emails related to its investigation of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton‘s handling of classified information while conducting a separate investigation into the pervy sexting habits of former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner. Weiner of course is the estranged husband of Hillary’s closest aide, Huma Abedin who herself figures prominently in Clinton’s email scandals.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump saw this coming from a mile away, fingering Weiner as a potential national security threat all the way back in August of 2015. “It came out that Huma Abedin knows all about Hillary’s private illegal emails,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Huma’s PR husband, Anthony Weiner, will tell the world.”
Abedin recently announced the couple’s separation after Weiner became embroiled in a new series of embarrassing online sexting scandals, including one allegedly involving an underage girl that prompted the FBI to investigate.
One month earlier, Trump said he didn’t like the thought of “Huma going home at night and telling Anthony Weiner all of these secrets.”
Trump was sounding the alarm about Weiner as early September 2013, when he wrote that Huma should “dump the sicko Weiner” because he was “a calamity who is bringing her down with him.”
Click to read more from Heat Street. | 0 |
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to pick an indisputably qualified nominee for the Supreme Court and chided Republicans who control the U.S. Senate for threatening to block him from filling the pivotal vacancy. Obama told senators he has a constitutional duty to nominate a new justice after Saturday’s death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and reminded them of their constitutional obligation to “do their job” and vote to approve or reject his nominee. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the seat on the nation’s highest court should remain vacant until Obama’s successor takes office in January so voters can have a say on the selection when they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election. “I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there,” Obama said. “The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,” Obama, a former constitutional law professor, told a news conference at the close of a two-day meeting with leaders from Southeast Asia. In Washington, Scalia’s chair in the court’s ornate chamber was draped with black wool crepe in accordance with court tradition following a justice’s death. The court said Scalia’s body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court building on Friday before his funeral Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Saturday. Obama’s nominee could shift the balance of power on the court, which had five conservatives and four liberals before Scalia’s death. The president said he understood the high stakes for Republican senators under pressure to vote against his pick for the lifetime appointment, who conceivably would be the deciding vote in cases where the court is split. Obama said the “venom and rancor in Washington” has led to the Senate routinely blocking his nominations for lower courts and other posts but said the Supreme Court is too important to get trapped in political gridlock. “It’s the one court where we would expect elected officials to rise above day-to-day politics,” he said. But Republicans have pointed out that Obama and members of his cabinet, who were then in the Senate, were not above trying to block the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Samuel Alito by then-President George W. Bush in 2006. “While he complained about filibusters today, he joined filibusters while in the Senate,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Asked about his record, Obama acknowledged Democrats have played politics with nominations, too, through what he described as “strategic decisions” that ultimately did not block the president’s nominee. “But what is also true is Justice Alito is on the bench right now,” Obama said. Obama shed little light on whom he would choose or how the White House will try to finesse his choice through Congress. “We’re going to find somebody who is an outstanding legal mind, somebody who cares deeply about our democracy and cares about rule of law,” Obama said. “I’m going to present somebody who indisputably is qualified for the seat, and any fair-minded person, even somebody who disagrees with my politics, would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court,” he added. Asked directly if that meant he would choose a moderate candidate, Obama said, “No.” He said there was “more than enough time” for the Senate to hold hearings and vote on his nominee without the White House needing to resort to a procedure known as a recess appointment to get around the Senate when it is not in session. But he did not explicitly rule out a recess appointment. Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose panel weighs Supreme Court nominations, said on Tuesday he will wait until Obama names his pick to fill the vacancy before deciding whether to hold confirmation hearings. Grassley has offered mixed messages since Scalia’s death on how the Senate should proceed on the vacancy, alternating hardline views on blocking any nominee with comments not ruling out hearings. “I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions” about confirmation hearings, Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. “In other words, take it a step at a time.” | 1 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said on Tuesday that “any action that would undermine” peace efforts to create two separate states for the Israelis and the Palestinians “must absolutely be avoided”. Mogherini was speaking alongside U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to Brussels, as U.S. President Donald Trump is considering recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “A way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states,” Mogherini said, stressing the EU’s support for unlocking meaningful peace talks. She said the EU’s 28 foreign ministers will jointly discuss the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brussels next Monday, to be followed by a similar meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas early next year. | 0 |
Anthem
RIP - Leonard Cohen Dead at 82
Video
" Rolling Stone" - Leonard Cohen, the hugely influential singer and songwriter whose work spanned nearly 50 years, died Monday at the age of 82. Cohen's label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed his death on the singer's Facebook page Thursday evening.
"It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," the statement read. "We have lost one of music's most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief." A cause of death and exact date of death was not given.
November 11, 2016
Leonard Cohen Everybody Know Live 1988
"My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles with the knowledge that he had completed what he felt was one of his greatest records," Cohen's son Adam wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone . "He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humor."
"Unmatched in his creativity, insight and crippling candor, Leonard Cohen was a true visionary whose voice will be sorely missed," his manager Robert Kory wrote in a statement. "I was blessed to call him a friend, and for me to serve that bold artistic spirit firsthand, was a privilege and great gift. He leaves behind a legacy of work that will bring insight, inspiration and healing for generations to come."
Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.
Cohen's haunting bass voice, nylon-stringed guitar patterns and Greek-chorus backing vocals shaped evocative songs that dealt with love and hate, sex and spirituality, war and peace, ecstasy and depression. He was also the rare artist of his generation to enjoy artistic success into his Eighties, releasing his final album, You Want It Darker , earlier this year.
"I never had the sense that there was an end," he said in 1992. "That there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot."
"For many of us, Leonard Cohen was the greatest songwriter of them all," Nick Cave, who covered Cohen classics like "Avalanche," "I'm Your Man" and "Suzanne," said in a statement. "Utterly unique and impossible to imitate no matter how hard we tried. He will be deeply missed by so many."
Leonard Norman Cohen was born on September 21st, 1934, in Westmount, Quebec. He learned guitar as a teenager and formed a folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Early exposure to Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca turned him toward poetry while a flamenco guitar teacher convinced him to trade steel strings for nylon. After graduating from McGill University, Cohen moved to the Greek island of Hydra, where he purchased a house for $1,500 with the help of a modest trust fund established by his father, who died when Leonard was nine. While living on Hydra, Cohen published the poetry collection Flowers for Hitler (1964) and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966).
Frustrated by poor book sales, and tired of working in Montreal's garment industry, Cohen visited New York in 1966 to investigate the city's robust folk-rock scene. He met folk singer Judy Collins, who later that year included two of his songs, including the early hit "Suzanne," on her album In My Life . His New York milieu included Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, and, most importantly, the haunting German singer Nico, whose despondent delivery he may have emulated on his exquisite 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen .
Cohen quickly became the songwriter's songwriter of choice for artists like Collins, James Taylor, Willie Nelson and many others. His black-and-white album photos offered an arresting image to go with his stark yet lovely songs. His next two albums, Songs From a Room (1969) and Songs of Love and Hate (1971), benefited from the spare production of Bob Johnston, along with a group of seasoned session musicians that included Charlie Daniels.
During the Seventies, Cohen set out on the first of the many long, intense tours he would reprise toward the end of his career. "One of the reasons I'm on tour is to meet people," he told Rolling Stone in 1971. "I consider it a reconnaissance. You know, I consider myself like in a military operation. I don't feel like a citizen." His time on tour inspired the live sound producer John Lissauer brought to his 1974 masterpiece, New Skin for the Old Ceremony . However, he risked a production catastrophe by hiring wall-of-sound maximalist Phil Spector to work on his next album, Death of a Ladies Man , whose adversarial creation resulted in a Rolling Stone review titled "Leonard Cohen's Doo-Wop Nightmare."
Cohen's relationship with Suzanne Elrod during most of the Seventies resulted in two children, the photographer Lorca Cohen and Adam Cohen, who leads the group Low Millions. Cohen was well known for his wandering ways, and his most stable relationships were with backing singers Laura Branigan, Sharon Robinson, Anjani Thomas, and, most notably, Jennifer Warnes, who he wrote with and produced (Warnes frequently performed Cohens music). After indulging in a variety of international styles on Recent Songs (1979), Cohen accorded Warnes full co-vocal credit on 1984's Various Positions .
Various Positions included "Hallelujah," a meditation on love, sex and music that would become Cohen's best-known composition thanks to Jeff Buckley's incandescent 1994 reinterpretation. Its greatness wasn't recognized by Cohen's label, however. By way of informing him that Columbia Records would not be releasing Various Positions , label head Walter Yetnikoff reportedly told Cohen, "Look, Leonard; we know you're great, but we don't know if you're any good." Cohen returned to the label in 1988 with I'm Your Man , an album of sly humor and social commentary that launched the synths-and-gravitas style he continued on The Future (1992).
In 1995, Cohen halted his career, entered the Mt. Baldy Zen Center outside of Los Angeles, became an ordained Buddhist monk and took on the Dharma name Jikan ("silence"). His duties included cooking for Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, the priest and longtime Cohen mentor who died in 2014 at the age of 104. Cohen broke his musical silence in 2001 with Ten New Songs , a collaboration with Sharon Robinson, and Dear Heather (2004), a relatively uplifting project with current girlfriend Anjani Thomas. While never abandoning Judaism, the Sabbath-observing songwriter attributed Buddhism to curbing the depressive episodes that had always plagued him.
Leonard Cohen, the hugely influential singer and songwriter whose work spanned five decades, died at the age of 82. Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns/Getty
The final act of Cohen's career began in 2005, when Lorca Cohen began to suspect her father's longtime manager, Kelley Lynch, of embezzling funds from his retirement account. In fact, Lynch had robbed Cohen of more than $5 million. To replenish the fund, Cohen undertook an epic world tour during which he would perform 387 shows from 2008 to 2013. He continued to record as well, releasing Old Ideas (2012) and Popular Problems , which hit U.S. shops a day after his eightieth birthday. "[Y]ou depend on a certain resilience that is not yours to command, but which is present," he told Rolling Stone upon its release. "And if you can sense this resilience or sense this capacity to continue, it means a lot more at this age than it did when I was 30, when I took it for granted."
When the Grand Tour ended in December 2013, Cohen largely vanished from the public eye. In October 2016, he released You Want It Darker , produced by his son Adam. Severe back issues made it difficult for Cohen to leave his home, so Adam placed a microphone on his dining room table and recorded him on a laptop. The album was met with rave reviews, though a New Yorker article timed to its release revealed that he was in very poor health. "I am ready to die," he said. "I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me."
The singer-songwriter later clarified that he was "exaggerating." "Ive always been into self-dramatization," Cohen said last month. "I intend to live forever.
Suzanne (Rare Footage) | 1 |
US Congressman Joe Wilson was right! Obama is a liar His reckless and amateur decisions have made America more unsafe than we have ever been. Now he s asking Americans to vote for Hillary to ensure his lawless legacy lives on The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.The settlement, which resolved claims before an international tribunal in The Hague, also coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before. With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well, President Barack Obama said at the White House on Jan. 17 without disclosing the $400 million cash payment.Senior U.S. officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange. They say the way the various strands came together simultaneously was coincidental, not the result of any quid pro quo. As we ve made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home, State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years. But U.S. officials also acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a fierce foe of the Iran nuclear deal, accused President Barack Obama of paying a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages. This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures of Americans, he said.Since the cash shipment, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.At the time of the prisoner release, Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House portrayed it as a diplomatic breakthrough. Mr. Kerry cited the importance of the relationships forged and the diplomatic channels unlocked over the course of the nuclear talks. For entire story: Wall Street JournalAs a bonus, here is Rep. Joe Wilson calling out Barack Obama on one of his many lies: | 0 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack outside the offices of the Yemeni finance ministry in the southern port city of Aden, the group s news agency Amaq said on Wednesday. Hospital officials said at least two people were killed in the explosion. | 1 |
Does Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and hopeful, think Donald J. Trump has the mental fitness to be president of the United States? His answer in an interview on Monday was not very convincing. “Yeah, and my answer would be, sure,” Mr. Gingrich said, after a sigh and a pause, in an interview for the first episode of “The ” a new politics podcast from The New York Times that was published on Tuesday. The former speaker declined to give a more emphatic endorsement of Mr. Trump’s psychological sturdiness when the interviewer, Michael Barbaro, asked if he could “be more forceful than ‘sure.’ ” Instead, Mr. Gingrich said he believed Mr. Trump was “at least as reliable as Andrew Jackson” and praised him for possessing “a personality which will by definition not be normal. ” Here is a transcript of the exchange: (Andrew Jackson was last in the news when the Treasury Department decided in April that the former president, a slaveholder known today for both his persecution of Native Americans and advocacy for poor whites, would share the $20 bill with the former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.) Questions have mounted among both Democrats and Republicans about whether Mr. Trump possesses the mental fitness and strength of character to serve as president, and his poll numbers have fallen as a result. Mr. Gingrich acknowledged Mr. Trump’s trouble in his interview with “The . ” “The last two weeks have been peculiarly bad for Trump,” he said. Mr. Trump has appeared to inflict much of that damage upon himself, including by engaging in a feud with the parents of a fallen United States soldier who criticized him at the Democratic National Convention, confounding many of his supporters. As his numbers have fallen and his troubles have grown, some Republican officials have begun to publicly reject his candidacy. On Monday Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said she would not vote for Mr. Trump, citing his “constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize” to those he has attacked. Earlier that day, 50 national security officials who served in Republican administrations signed an open letter warning that he “would put at risk our country’s national security and ” if he won the election. | 0 |
PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said telecommunications group Sprint Corp (S.N) and a U.S. satellite company OneWeb will bring 8,000 jobs to the United States, and the companies said the positions were part of a previously disclosed pledge by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. SoftBank (9984.T) holds stakes in both companies and its chief, billionaire businessman Masayoshi Son, earlier in December said he would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs. Sprint in January said it had cut 2,500 jobs as part of its plan to cut $2.5 billion in costs. On Wednesday it said it would create 5,000 jobs in areas including sales and customer care by the end of its fiscal year ending in March 2018. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar said the jobs were part of the pledge made by Son but would be funded by Sprint. SoftBank and OneWeb had announced on Dec. 19 that the Japanese company was leading a $1.2 billion funding round. OneWeb plans to use the funds to build a plant in Florida to produce low-cost satellites, creating almost 3,000 jobs at the company and its suppliers. SoftBank described its $1 billion share of the funding as the first tranche of the $50 billion promised by Son in a meeting with Trump. It is not clear whether the $50 billion SoftBank investment would be part of a $100 billion tech investment fund that the head of SoftBank and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had announced earlier in the year. “I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, they are taking them from other countries,” Trump told reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people. So that’s very exciting,” he added. Shares of Sprint Corp, which is 82 percent owned by SoftBank, were barely changed in after-hours trading. | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. President Donald Trump got into Twitter spats with the Iranian government, the University of California, Berkeley and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The issues ranged from missile tests to free speech to TV ratings. Speaking to a gathering of religious leaders in Washington, Mr. Trump brushed aside criticism and pledged to “destroy” a law restricting political speech by churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right. Late Thursday, he unexpectedly shifted his stance on Israel, warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on settlement construction. _____ 2. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited South Korea, his first stop on an Asia trip meant to reassure U. S. allies. But his visit was overshadowed by news of Mr. Trump’s testy phone call with the leader of Australia over the weekend. He clashed with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over an agreement to take in 1, 250 refugees. European leaders are gathering in Malta to discuss a crisis that has unexpectedly overtaken the agenda: the newly unpredictable United States. _____ 3. The administration amended its immigration order to allow U. S. entry to the families of Iraqi interpreters who served the U. S. government and military forces. But tumult over the order continued. The C. E. O. of Uber is stepping down from the president’s economic advisory council, saying he did not want his participation to be mistaken for support. Somali refugees in Kenya suddenly robbed of hope say they fear reprisals from militants. And tens of thousands of people from the seven countries named in the executive order are effectively stuck in the U. S. because the State Department revoked their visas — without notifying them. _____ 4. It isn’t clear exactly what happened during the standoff at a prison in Smyrna, Del. But when authorities used a backhoe to storm it at dawn, they found a hostage corrections officer unresponsive. He was quickly pronounced dead. Sgt. Steven Floyd had worked for the Department of Correction for 16 years. Details of his death were not released, and officials said they were treating all 120 inmates as suspects. A woman who worked as a counselor was not only unharmed, she had been protected by the inmates. The inmates’ grievances included allegations of mistreatment and a lack of educational and rehabilitation programs. _____ 5. Several community groups in Michigan and Minnesota are rejecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal aid to fight violent extremism. The money comes from Homeland Security grants to counter recruitment by terrorist and white supremacist groups. But the community groups are reacting to reports that the Trump administration is considering reshaping the program to target only Muslims. _____ 6. The Super Bowl, scheduled for Sunday night in Houston, is infused with national politics like never before. During Fox’s pregame telecast, Bill O’Reilly will interview Mr. Trump, who is a friend of the Patriots’ owner, coach and star player. There may be protests outside the stadium, or at the halftime show. Lady Gaga remained coy about the plans for her halftime performance. Fox and the N. F. L. are trying to keep game commercials apolitical. A lumber company’s ad depicting a mother and daughter who encounter a wall during an arduous journey north was nixed. _____ 7. Snapchat’s parent company filed paperwork for its public stock offering. While the filing does not indicate a price for an initial public offering, Snap is expected to seek a market valuation of more than $20 billion from investors. The move puts the company’s chief executive, Evan Spiegel, in the spotlight. The chairman of Google is calling him the next Gates or Zuckerberg. _____ 8. “ . ” That’s our critic, describing “I Am Not Your Negro,” a new documentary about James Baldwin. “Whatever you think about the past and future of what used to be called ‘race relations’ — white supremacy and the resistance to it, in plainer English — this movie will make you think again, and may even change your mind. ” _____ 9. A happy ending: A woman gravely injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is about to marry the firefighter who rescued her. This week, they both walked up the 1, 576 steps of the Empire State Building, she with a prosthetic leg and he with his firefighting gear on, to benefit the Challenged Athlete Foundation. _____ 10. Finally, new research suggests a surprising function for sleep: to forget. Pruning synapses that grow exuberantly to store the day’s memories appears to be a biological necessity, protecting important moments but making space for new knowledge in the brain’s hard drive. “You can forget in a smart way,” one researcher said. Hope you get some rest. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0 |
ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A group campaigning for the secession of a part of southeastern Nigeria, formerly known as Biafra, on Tuesday accused the army of laying siege to their leader s home, a charge the armed forces denied. Rising tensions prompted the governor of Abia state, where the leader s residence is located, to impose a curfew. Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group said soldiers had surrounded the home of leader Nnamdi Kanu. Groups have stepped up calls for secession since Kanu was released on bail in April after being detained for nearly two years on charges of criminal conspiracy and belonging to an illegal society. There was no surrounding of Nnamdi Kanu s residence. It is not true, said army spokesman Sani Usman. Secessionist sentiment has simmered in the region since the Biafra separatist rebellion tipped Africa s most populous country into a civil war in 1967-70 that killed an estimated one million people. The military presence in southeastern Nigeria has increased in the last few weeks to crack down on crime. The IPOB also said that soldiers stormed Kanu s family compound on Sunday, which the army also denied. Politicians waded into the dispute on Tuesday. Abia state governor Okezie Ikpeazu said in a statement that people were advised to observe a curfew from 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) to 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) from Sept. 12 to Sept. 14. A caucus of southeastern lawmakers in the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament, said in a statement through its chairman Enyinnaya Abaribe that the military had sent a strong signal that the region is under siege, which should not be so in a democracy . Renewed calls for Biafran secession prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to use his first speech after returning from three months of medical leave in Britain, in August, to say Nigeria s unity was not negotiable . Amnesty International in 2016 accused Nigeria s security forces of killing at least 150 Biafra separatists at peaceful rallies. The military and police denied the allegations. | 0 |
Apparently being the wife of a former Democrat President and serial pervert, and (more importantly) having a vagina, allows people to overlook her reprehensible behavior During Wednesday night s democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said the mother of a Benghazi victim lied.Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, one of the four Americans who were killed by terrorists in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi during Clinton s tenure, said in a CNN interview last October that Clinton lied to her about the circumstances surrounding her son s death.Instead of stating that her son s death had been caused by an act of terrorism, Clinton blamed an inflammatory video that had been circulating online in the weeks leading up to the attack a narrative she knew at the time to be false.When asked about this on Wednesday, Clinton pushed back at Smith s claim, saying the mother of the Benghazi victim was absolutely wrong. I can t imagine the grief she has about losing her son, Clinton said. But she s wrong. She s absolutely wrong! Via:The FederalistOf course, Hillary was LYING when she called Sean Smith s mother a liar. There is clear evidence of her lie that was found in her unsecured emails. Her media allies at CNN chose to give her a pass on the truth in favor of allowing a greiving mother of an American hero to be called a liar on national tv. Watch the video of Hillary s testimony in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi: Hillary Clinton sent an email to her daughter, Chelsea, on Sept. 11, 2012 in which she asserted that an al-Qaida-like group was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, it was revealed on Thursday during the former secretary of state s testimony to the House Select Committee on Benghazi.The email, which was revealed by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, indicates that Clinton knew early on that the attacks which left four Americans dead was carried out by terrorists. But as Jordan pointed out, Clinton and others in the Obama administration had already begun crafting the narrative that the attack was spontaneous and that the attackers were motivated by a YouTube video many Muslims found offensive. | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Colony NorthStar Inc has ended a consulting agreement with Rick Gates, a former campaign aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the real estate and financial firm said on Monday. Gates, who had been working as a consultant for Colony for six months, according to the spokesman, was indicted on Monday on charges of conspiracy to launder money and failing to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government. The charges were part of a probe by Robert Mueller, a special counsel appointed to investigate whether Russia tried to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor, and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded in any such effort. Gates pleaded not guilty to all charges on Monday. David Bos, the lawyer who represented Gates in an appearance in federal court, declined to comment. Gates could not be reached for comment. A longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was also indicted on Monday, Gates continued to work on Trump’s campaign after Manafort left in August 2016. Gates also worked with Colony NorthStar founder and executive chairman Thomas Barrack Jr. on Trump’s presidential inaugural committee, according to three sources who asked not to be identified. Barrack chaired the committee. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape influential U.S. courts by stocking them with conservative judges faces at least one significant impediment: some of the courts best placed to thwart his agenda have liberal majorities that are likely to stay in place in the short-term. Those courts, including an influential Washington appeals court and two appellate courts that ruled against Trump in cases involving his travel ban, all had an influx of fresh liberal blood under President Barack Obama. “Trump is not going to be able to make any significant dents into the Democrats’ control of those three (appellate) circuits,” said Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. After eight years in office, Obama was able to make enough appointments to leave a strong liberal imprint on the federal courts. When he left the White House in January, nine of the 13 federal appeals courts had a majority of Democratic-appointed judges. The federal appeals courts, divided into 11 geographic regions plus two based in the District of Columbia, often have the final say in major legal disputes. The conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court, which now includes Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, can overrule appeals court decisions, but hears only a small number of cases, which leaves lower court rulings in place most of the time. The appeals courts can shape the interpretation of such issues as abortion, religious freedom, voting rights and race. Appellate court judges serve lifetime terms, and so far Trump’s opportunities to appoint new ones have been mostly limited to courts that already lean conservative. Among the courts conservatives would most like to shift are the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both of which ruled against Trump in cases challenging the Republican president’s executive orders temporarily banning travel to the United States by people from six predominantly Muslim countries. The Supreme Court partially revived the ban last month. The ideological balance of those courts has provided some hope to Trump’s legal opponents, including Democratic state attorneys general, who have already sued the administration over the travel ban and other issues. “Strategic attorneys general can likely chart a path through Democratic-leaning courts - making it harder on the Trump administration to pursue its agenda through executive action,” said Sarah Binder, a scholar the nonpartisan Brookings Institution think tank. Thanks in part to efforts by the Republican-led Senate in the final two years of Obama’s presidency to block the Democratic president’s judicial appointments, Trump has 21 appeals court slots to fill, according to the federal judiciary’s administrative office. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved two of Trump’s appeals court nominees on Thursday. In some of the key courts, new vacancies in the near term are more likely to be in slots currently filled by Republican appointees, so Trump’s early appointments will be unlikely to change the court balance. A case in point is the announcement this week by Republican appointee Janice Rogers Brown on the Washington appeals court that she plans to step down. In Washington, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is often called the second-highest court in the land, in part because it hears a large number of cases concerning major government regulations on issues such as the environment and labor. Democratic appointees hold a 7-4 advantage among the 11 active judges. Of the Democratic appointees, Judge David Tatel is 75 and Judge Judith Rogers is 77. The next oldest is Merrick Garland at 64. Obama made four appointments to the court, the oldest of whom is 56. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is also stacked against Trump: out of 25 full-time judges, Democratic presidents appointed 18 and Republican presidents seven. The oldest Democratic appointee, liberal icon Stephen Reinhardt, is 86 years old. The 10 9th Circuit judges appointed by President Bill Clinton who still work full-time range in age from 63 to 72, and none have given any indication they plan to reduce their caseloads. The court currently has four vacancies, but three of those seats are based in states - California, Oregon and Hawaii - with two Democratic senators who are likely to resist attempts to place extreme conservatives on the court. Those dynamics make it extremely unlikely that Trump will be able to significantly alter the 9th Circuit’s orientation, Hellman said. The Virginia-based 4th Circuit has a 10-5 majority of Democratic appointees and no current vacancies. The oldest Democratic appointee is Judge Robert King, who is 77. Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, who has advised the White House on judicial nominations, is optimistic about Trump’s long-term prospects. “It takes time to recalibrate the federal courts,” he said. In the meantime, Leo said, every slot matters, since conservative judges on liberal-majority courts can offer critical dissents in important cases and serve a kind of signaling function to the Supreme Court. | 1 |
Washington (CNN) The White House is making clear that President Barack Obama will defy Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail who want him to leave the momentous task of nominating a new Supreme Court justice to the next administration.
"This is not the first time that Republicans have come out with a lot of bluster, only to have reality ultimately sink in," White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Monday.
Schultz pointed to previous White House victories over the GOP-led Congress -- raising the debt limit, implementing the Iran nuclear deal and reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank -- and said history shows "Republicans fell back when their positions aren't tenable."
Washington is in tumult after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, which left a turbulent White House race transformed, a lame-duck president back at the center of the political storm and Senate Republican leaders juggling an electoral hand grenade. After the shock of Scalia's passing and the swift eruption of a bitter partisan feud over his replacement, Obama and his GOP adversaries are digging in for a showdown.
Schultz emphasized Obama's plans to nominate a successor to Scalia and said it's the Senate's job to fulfill its constitutional duty to consider that nominee.
"There are no caveats. The Constitution does not include exemptions for election years or for the president's last term in office. There's no exemption for when a vacancy could tip the balance of the court," Schultz said.
But he said Obama won't select a nominee immediately.
"The president will take the time and rigor this process deserves before selecting a nominee. I would not anticipate an announcement this week, especially given that the Senate is out of recess," Schultz said Monday. "But as soon as the Senate returns, the president was very clear that he's going to fulfill his constitutional responsibility to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia."
That position ensures a titanic fight over Scalia's replacement, placing Obama on a collision course with Republicans while thickening the plot of an election that now leaves the White House, the Senate and the nation's top court up for grabs.
GOP presidential candidates are leading the charge in the battle over a replacement for Scalia, a beloved icon for conservatives who was found dead at the age of 79 at a resort in West Texas on Saturday. They are warning that since an appointment could remake the court for a generation as key legal battles over abortion rights, affirmative action and campaign finance loom, it should be put off until next year.
"This is for the people to decide," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said at a rally in South Carolina on Monday. "I intend to make 2016 a referendum on the U.S. Supreme Court."
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already warned Obama not to try to fill the vacancy on the Court, saying it should be up to a new president to weigh in once voters have spoken in November.
McConnell must navigate a treacherous political moment and decide whether a Republican maneuver to block a confirmation process could benefit his party at the polls or risk driving up Democratic turnout in November and put his grip on the Senate at risk.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and several other Democrats want Obama to choose a Supreme Court nominee who would inflict maximum political pain on Republicans because he or she would be very difficult for the GOP to oppose, according to two Democratic sources.
In other words, some influential Senate Democrats want Obama to choose a nominee who Republicans would ordinarily support but are only opposing now because it's an election year. This, they believe, would allow them to paint the GOP as intransigent and well outside of the mainstream, undermining the Senate GOP's election-year argument that they are committed to governing in a bipartisan manner.
Going this route, they believe, would increasingly ratchet up pressure on at-risk Republicans who are facing tough reelections, energize the Democratic base and potentially flip the Senate if the GOP stands in their way and denies a popular nominee a vote.
Reid spoke with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough shortly after Scalia's death, according to a source familiar with the call.
It's unclear who specifically Reid wants in the post. Some Democrats point to appellate judge Sri Srinivasan, who would be the first justice of South Asian descent serving on the court and was confirmed to his current post by a 97-0 vote in 2013.
"I think the president, past is prologue, will nominate someone who is in the mainstream," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, the likely incoming Democratic leader, said Sunday.
But several other Democrats are also pointing to other potential groundbreaking choices and candidates who don't hold judicial posts, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey.
The sudden political crisis also put one group of Republicans -- swing-state senators whose seats could dictate whether the GOP can hang on to the chamber in November -- in a difficult position. Privately, senior Democratic officials told CNN that there's little chance of Obama's nominee winning confirmation unless these endangered GOPers break ranks.
One vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, would not say if they wanted the Senate to deny Obama's nominee a vote.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat from West Virginia, who often votes with Republicans, wants the Senate to act on a nominee when the President puts one forward, an aide to the senator told CNN.
But several others made clear they stood with Republican leaders who believe that the issue could invigorate conservative turnout in November.
"I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate," Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a vulnerable incumbent, said in an email to CNN.
And in a statement, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican facing a competitive reelection fight in 2016, said the Senate should not confirm a Supreme Court nominee until a new president is elected.
"We're in the midst of a consequential presidential election year," Ayotte said, "and Americans deserve an opportunity to weigh in given the significant implications this nomination could have for the Supreme Court and our country for decades to come."
On Monday, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania became the fourth of five swing-state Republicans to back McConnell's strategy.
"We should honor Justice Scalia's legacy, and we should put off a decision on his replacement until the newly-elected president can make his or her choice," Toomey said in a statement.
Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican up for re-election this year, also said Monday he thought the future president should nominate Scalia's replacement.
"Whether the next president is a Republican or Democrat, I will judge any nominee on the merits, as I always have," Portman said in a statement. | 0 |
(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'));Obama Tears Share thisPosted by Dave Sayen on Thursday, January 7, 2016Don t take our word for it, watch Obama s speech on gun control in December, 2012. Pay close attention to the 1:01 mark, where he rubs his left index finger into the corner of his eye (exactly like he did last week) pauses, (like he did last week) puts his head down and pauses a bit longer (waiting for the menthol to work) and then (exactly like last week) he lifts his head and exposes the tears flowing, but only from the eye he put his finger in before tears ever began flowing:This is a character issue. Whether you disagree or agree with his gun control agenda is not the issue here. The point is, if the elected leader of the greatest nation on earth is willing to stand in front of millions and place menthol in his eye in order to make himself cry fake tears, to persuade Americans we need gun control, why should Americans believe ANYTHING he has to say? | 1 |
Democrat Alan Dershowitz dismissed a major argument Democrats have been making against Donald Trump Jr., and said it s clearly unconstitutional . This brilliant Harvard Law professor is a Democrat who is FED UP with the left s constant Russia mantra! He knows there s nothing there and tells Judge Jeanine:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjqxLE6thZIDemocrats have been arguing that laws stop campaigns from receiving anything of value from foreign entities, and have said that items of value can also be information.That s their reasoning for why they think Trump s campaign violated election laws when Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer who said she had dirt on Hillary Clinton.Not so fast! Harvard Law s Alan Dershowitz told Judge Jeanine that campaign finance laws have never been prosecuted that way and that using the law to prosecute people who obtain information from non-U.S. sources would violate the First Amendment: Under the campaign finance laws, I mean, there is a claim that if you get something of value, and they re alleging that information from a foreign national could be, you know, stretched out to mean, you know, words. Judge Jeanine asked Is that something that s ever been prosecuted? Dershowitz replied: Of course not, and if it were to be prosecuted, the First Amendment would trump. A candidate has a right to get information from whatever source the information comes. Dershowitz then made the key point that just as newspapers are free to print any information they obtain from others, even when the source obtains it illegally, candidates for office have the same right to get information anywhere they want.He also stressed again there is no legal precedent to treat information as money under U.S. campaign finance laws: You can t include information under the campaign finance law. That would be unconstitutional. These are very key points that the press refuses to make clear for people Have you heard this anywhere? Note that this is coming from a DEMOCRAT who was a Hillary Clinton supporter! Please pass on to anyone who has been listening to the hysteria from the lefty media and even FOX News! Read more: WE | 0 |
MILAN (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday called on world leaders to work in favor of nuclear disarmament to protect human rights, particularly those of weaker and underprivileged people. The pontiff said that there was a need to work with determination to build a world without nuclear weapons , speaking from the window of the papal apartment overlooking St. Peter s Square and citing his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si (Praised Be). His remarks came on the day that the group which won this year s Nobel Peace Prize urged nuclear nations to adopt a U.N. treaty banning atomic weapons. With rising tensions between the United States and North Korea, the pope has repeatedly warned against the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of nuclear devices and has called for a third country to mediate the dispute. At his weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Francis added that men and women in the world had the liberty, the intelligence and the capacity to guide technology, limit their power, at the service of peace and true progress . Speaking aboard the plane back from his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the pope suggested that some world leaders had an irrational attitude toward nuclear weapons. Last month he appeared to harden the Catholic Church s teaching against nuclear weapons, saying countries should not stockpile them, even for the purpose of deterrence. Pope Francis, a strong defender of environmental protection, also hoped that an upcoming Paris summit would adopt efficient decisions to contrast climate change. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday he could make some cabinet announcements before the party’s July convention in Cleveland, Fox News Channel reported on Wednesday. “I like the idea of doing some of this before we go into Cleveland. Yes, I could do that and I think it would be well-received,” it quoted Trump as saying in an interview. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, who has proposed cuts to an array of government agencies, is asking department heads to offer up plans to operate more efficiently. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, told reporters on Tuesday he would be instructing agencies to outline how they will comply with the president’s budget, which slashed spending for foreign aid and many domestic programs. The federal hiring freeze imposed shortly after Trump entered office will be lifted on Wednesday, but agencies will be asked to remain mindful of Trump’s goal to reduce the federal workforce, Mulvaney said during a briefing. Mulvaney acknowledged that the president’s budget would have to be approved by the Republican-controlled Congress, where lawmakers from both parties have balked at some of the drastic reductions. “One of the reasons this is so difficult to do is you just can’t wave a magic wand in the Oval Office and do these things,” Mulvaney said. “There will be certain things for which we will need legislative authority.” In the bare bones budget issued last month, the White House did not offer many specific details on how the budget cuts would be achieved. Mulvaney will ask departments to fill in some of those blanks. Preliminary plans are due from departments in June, with the final versions expected in September. Not every department gets a cut under Trump’s plan. Mulvaney stressed that some agencies including the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs department will be able to beef up their workforce. | 1 |
(Reuters) - The South Dakota House of Representatives failed on Thursday to override a veto by Governor Dennis Daugaard of a bill that would have made the state the first in the United States to dictate what bathrooms transgender students can use in public schools. By a vote of 36-29, supporters of the bill did not muster the two-thirds vote required in both chambers to override the veto. The Republican-controlled House had approved the bill beyond that threshold in January. The proposed law would have required transgender pupils to use restrooms and locker rooms in public schools that correspond to their gender at birth. Supporters, including conservative Christian groups such as Family Heritage Alliance Action, said the bill would enhance the privacy of all students. But civil rights groups said the measure would expose schools to legal challenges over access to restrooms and that it violated Title IX, a federal rule regarding discrimination in public schools. “Fairness and equality have prevailed over this unconscionable legislative assault on transgender children,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, reacting to the vote on Thursday. The bill would have required schools to provide “reasonable” accommodations for transgender students. Those accommodations include a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom or the supervised use of a restroom, locker room or shower room designated for use by faculty. In vetoing the bill on Tuesday, Daugaard, a Republican, said it would invite conflict and litigation, diverting resources from education. In December, a suburban Chicago school district reached an accord with the U.S. government over locker room access for a transgender student after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found the district discriminated against the student in violation of Title IX. Daugaard’s veto came about a month after a U.S. appeals court heard arguments over whether a high school in Virginia should be ordered to allow a transgender male student to use the boys’ bathroom. Last week, local lawmakers in Charlotte, North Carolina, voted to allow transgender people to use public bathrooms matching their gender identity. Republican State House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore said he would consider legislation to block the measure. | 0 |
Wells Fargo was flowing with regrets on Friday, taking out ads in nearly a dozen newspapers saying the bank took “full responsibility” for creating sham bank accounts without its customers’ permission. The bank’s chief executive officer, John Stumpf, even called one prominent Democrat in Congress to express his willingness to assume personal responsibility for the mess. The bank fired at least 5, 300 employees and refunded millions of dollars to customers. But with its banking regulators, Wells Fargo was not as contrite. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines and hire an independent consultant to review its sales practices, but it was able to settle the investigation into the questionable accounts without officially admitting to any of the suspected misconduct. It was classic Wall Street. Since the financial crisis, regulators have brought dozens of cases against banks and other financial firms, hitting them with tens of billions of dollars in fines and requiring the companies to overhaul their business practices. But frequently, regulatory cases are settled without a bank having to admit doing anything wrong. Some Congressional officials and governmental watchdog groups say regulators may be too eager to extract a fine and to settle a case quickly than to prove a bank’s guilt in court. It could take years of court battles for regulators to prove that every one of the 1. 5 million accounts that Wells said may have been unauthorized was indeed phony. “It’s very troubling,” Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat and member of the Banking Committee, said in a telephone interview Friday. “Wells Fargo is saying they take responsibility, but they aren’t actually taking responsibility in the official sense. ” Mr. Merkley said he wants the leadership of the Banking Committee to hold hearings on the Wells Fargo scandal. He hopes to hear testimony not only from bank executives, but from regulators on why they agreed to the settlement terms without an admission of wrongdoing from the bank. Republican staff members of the banking committee were briefed by Wells Fargo executives on Friday. The staff is still collecting information from the bank to help committee members decide whether the scandal warrants hearings, people briefed on the matter said. A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said that while the bank readily admits that it created questionable accounts, it does not agree with other findings by its banking regulators, namely that the bank’s culture and business model fostered such behavior. “We recognize that these instances occurred, and we want to be very open about that and make sure they don’t happen again,” said Mary Eshet, the Wells Fargo spokeswoman. “But this was not part of an intentional strategy. ” Legal experts say that not admitting wrongdoing may have another benefit for Wells Fargo: helping the bank defend itself against lawsuits from aggrieved customers. “It ends up being a ”’ said Robert Hockett, a professor at Cornell Law School. “The regulator gets some kind of payment from the accused, and the accused gets to ease the risk of private plaintiff litigation by not admitting to guilt. ” Wells has already been hit with a number of lawsuits over the phony accounts. In addition to the 1. 5 million sham bank accounts that regulators say may have been opened, there were an additional 565, 000 credit card accounts that bank employees may have applied for without customer consent. In some cases, bank employees would move money from a customer’s existing deposit account to open up another one. The unauthorized account was then quickly closed, but the bank employee got credit for drumming up new business. Regulators said employees were given financial incentives to open up as many new accounts as they could, as part of a bank culture to grow business. Much of the illegal activity took place in California, including in and around Los Angeles, where the city attorney filed a lawsuit against the bank last year over the questionable accounts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency then joined the investigation, which broadened to encompass several other states. As part of the settlement, Wells agreed to pay $100 million to the consumer protection bureau, the largest fine ever levied by that agency. Still, the fine pales next to the penalties that banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America paid to settle civil investigations into soured mortgage securities sold in the to the financial crisis. “Wells is paying what amounts to a couple of parking tickets for each of the 1. 5 million accounts,” Mr. Hockett said. Regulators say that the Wells Fargo fine may look small by comparison, but that the amount of financial harm to the consumer is relatively small. Wells said that the average refund to consumers was $25. Some regulators have vowed to push more financial firms to officially own up to their misdeeds. In a speech in 2013, Mary Jo White, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, noted that in criminal court, judges will not accept a guilty plea unless the accused admits to the unlawful conduct. Ms. White said in the financial industry, pushing companies to officially admit to their actions was important to public accountability. “Anyone who has witnessed a guilty plea understands the power of such admissions,” Ms. White said in her speech. “It creates an unambiguous record of the conduct and demonstrates unequivocally the defendant’s responsibility for his or her acts. ” That said, there will still be times that the securities agency would settle cases without such admissions. Just this week, the S. E. C. settled a case with the investment firm Raymond James over trading commissions. The firm settled the case “without admitting or denying the findings” by the agency. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Journalists from NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox News will moderate the three scheduled debates between U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ahead of the Nov. 8 election, the nonpartisan group organizing the events said on Friday. NBC anchor Lester Holt will ask questions at the first debate on Sept. 26 in New York, while ABC global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will co-moderate the Oct. 9 “town meeting” style debate in St. Louis, the Commission on Presidential Debates said. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate on Oct. 19 in Las Vegas, it said in a statement. CBS journalist Elaine Quijano will moderate the single vice presidential debate on Oct. 4 between Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence and his Democratic rival, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, the commission said. C-SPAN’s Steve Scully will be a back-up moderator for all four of the debates, it added. Trump, the Republican candidate, has said he will take part in the three debates but wants to see the conditions. Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s announcement. The New York businessman, who has never held elected office, has had repeated run-ins with the media since launching his campaign last year, charging networks like CNN with “phony reporting,” sparring with MSNBC hosts and insulting Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly. His campaign has also black-listed several reporters and news outlets. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, has said she will participate in all three debates as scheduled. Separately, NBC has said Trump and Clinton will participate in a “commander-in-chief” forum focused on military issues on Sept. 7 in New York, appearing separately. On Friday, Trump’s son Eric raised questions about ties between the anchor for that event, Matt Lauer, and the Clinton Foundation and said NBC and its cable offshoot MSNBC have been against his father. “Obviously, there’s a lot of speculation because of his involvement with the foundation,” Eric Trump told Fox News in an interview. “I hope he’ll be fair.” Representatives for NBC said Lauer was not a member of the foundation and that he had interviewed former President Bill Clinton for the network’s “Today” show, not on behalf of the foundation. Trump’s reality television show, “The Apprentice,” debuted on NBC in 2004. NBC later cut other ties with the businessman, dropping his “Miss USA” and “Miss Universe” pageants, and Trump sued. NBC is a unit of Comcast Corp.. Fox News is part of the Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, ABC News is owned by Walt Disney Co, while Time Warner Inc owns CNN. CBS Corp is also publicly traded. | 0 |
President Obama indicated Thursday that he is preparing to announce Cuba’s removal from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that should quickly lead to a full restoration of diplomatic ties and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington.
Speaking at a gathering of Caribbean leaders here, Obama said the State Department had finished a review of the issue. There is little doubt that it recommends he drop Cuba from the list, and the only real question is when the announcement will be made.
That could come as early as this week, as Obama attends a summit of Latin American leaders that for the first time will be joined by Cuban President Raúl Castro. Administration officials said a decision on when the president will take action has not been finalized and awaits formal consultation with other affected government agencies.
[Read: Rare poll shows vast majority of Cubans welcome closer ties with U.S.]
But anticipation is already running high, and Caribbean leaders with whom Obama met on Thursday voiced strong approval for the new era in U.S.-Cuba relations.
In Washington, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement saying he welcomed what he said was the positive State Department recommendation.
Obama confirmed that the White House had received the review but said he would “not make an announcement today.” He added, “I do think we’re going to be in a position to move forward on opening embassies.”
As he began a meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, Obama noted that a new poll of Cuban public opinion, published in Thursday’s edition of The Washington Post, demonstrated “overwhelming support” for the normalization process and “overwhelming interest by most Cubans to put one era behind us and move forward.”
[Read: What it means to drop Cuba from list of terrorism sponsors]
A positive announcement on the terror-list decision would be welcomed at the two-day Summit of the Americas, which Obama will attend on Friday and Saturday in Panama with up to 35 other leaders from across the Western Hemisphere. The summit is held every three years, and this will be Castro’s first time in attendance. It will be Obama’s third time, following meetings in 2009 and 2012 that were overshadowed by U.S. insistence that Cuba be excluded.
Administration aides have strongly hinted that Obama and Castro will meet for more than a handshake at the summit, but they have not specified the nature of the encounter.
A White House official said Thurwday: “I can confirm that President Obama spoke with President Castro on Wednesday, before President Obama departed Washington.”
Secretary of State John F. Kerry also met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla late Thursday in Panama City, the Associated Press reported.
As delegations gathered on the eve of the summit, the presence of communist Cuba made for some extraordinary and also ugly scenes.
In one part of town Thursday, at a forum for the chief executives of major U.S. companies including Facebook, Coca-Cola and Boeing, a Cuban trade official invited America’s corporate leaders to visit the island, telling them his country was open for business.
But at a parallel event at a different location, raucous pro-
Castro crowds disrupted a gathering of nonprofit and civil society groups, blocking Cuban dissidents from participating and denouncing the event’s organizers for daring to invite them.
The tensions, which had boiled over into a wild melee Wednesday in a city park, were a reminder that Cubans’ deep divisions will persist long after the United States reopens an embassy in Havana.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of attacks targeting civil society representatives in Panama for the Summit of the Americas exercising freedom of speech and harassment of those participating in the Summit of the Americas Civil Society Forum,” said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, adding that the U.S. “condemns those who use violence against peaceful protesters.”
The situation was also a sign that while the Castro government is increasingly willing to tinker with its economic model, the experiment doesn’t extend to politics. The government also remains determined to stifle critics well beyond Cuba’s borders.
But Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, Cuba’s minister of foreign trade and investment, said in a speech that although U.S. sanctions continued to limit American business with the island, Obama’s recent moves were “a positive step.”
Malmierca said the Castro government is seeking more than $8 billion in foreign investment in its new effort to spur growth.
Once Obama approves the recommendation to delist Cuba, Congress will have 45 days to consider the proposal. But legislators have no power to alter such a recommendation except through new legislation, a move that is seen as unlikely. The administration has made the case to Cuba that Obama’s decision — even before the end of the 45 days — should be enough for the two countries to move forward on reopening embassies.
Cuba has said it cannot envision having full diplomatic relations with a country that has charged it with supporting overseas terrorism. In many ways, the U.S. designation, first imposed in 1982, is a Cold War relic. Although the United States strongly objects to Cuba’s domestic policies, it has offered no evidence for decades that Cuba is actively involved in terrorism abroad.
Leaders of 14 of the 15 members of the Caribbean Community, known as Caricom, met here with Obama. Those in attendance welcomed the broader move toward normalization, which Simpson Miller called “a bold and courageous move . . . for the good of all of our people.” Obama, she said, is “on the right side of history.”
[Obama moves to normalize relations with Cuba as American is released by Havana]
While the focus of the Caricom talks covered regional security and economic development, Obama’s visit here is also part of a larger plan, which includes his outreach to Cuba. The move is directly related to the administration’s efforts to improve U.S. standing in the region and to undermine Venezuela’s attempts to draw the Caribbean states into its orbit. For years, Venezuela has used cut-rate oil to buy anti-
American support from cash-strapped Caribbean governments.
In recent weeks, Caracas, with money problems of its own, has rolled back energy subsidies to Caricom members. With an energy security program announced in January by Vice President Biden, the Obama administration hopes to help fund island infrastructure to receive and use U.S. gas and petroleum, and then to subsidize U.S. sales of energy products to the Caribbean.
As they try to wean island governments away from Venezuela, administration officials have also attempted to play down their difficulties with Caracas. Thomas A. Shannon, a senior aide to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, was in Venezuela on Thursday for meetings with President Nicolás Maduro. The visit aimed to give at least the impression that the United States is trying to smooth over its differences with the Maduro government before the Caricom meeting and the larger Summit of the Americas.
Miroff reported from Panama City. David Nakamura in Washington also contributed to this story.
Where U.S.-Cuba relations stand and what may change
At the Summit of the Americas, focus is likely to be on the U.S. and Cuba
Argument between U.S., Venezuela puts Cuba in awkward position
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street investment banks must take losses amid efforts to fix Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said, adding that policymakers must focus on the island’s people, not financial firms. “These wealthy investors must take a significant haircut. The people in Puerto Rico should not be asked to suffer even more, so that a handful of wealthy investors can become even wealthier,” Sanders said in a statement on Friday. | 1 |
During a meeting of the Welsh members of the Parliament, PM Nigel Evans shamed the anti-Trump members, reminding them that they have decided upon their own version of democracy and that 61 million Americans supported Donald Trump at the ballot box. He started out by telling them: For those who find it difficult to understand to understand that the American people voted for Donald Trump, get over it because he s President of the United States. Evans reminded the members of Parliament that the Brexit was also a referendum handed down by British voters to members of Parliament who have forgotten them. We have to ask ourselves, and this actually includes myself, is that we have to ask ourselves, why is it that people felt so left behind that they ve made the democratic decisions that they have? These were the forgotten people and just like we have the forgotten people in the United Kingdom, there are the forgotten people in the United States of America. He s going to go down in history for being the only politician to deliver on his promises. But the fact is that there were 61 million people who voted for Donald Trump and when we stand up in this country and then condemn him for being racist and I ve seen no evidence of that. I ve seen no evidence of him being racist or that they attacked him in an unseemly way, we re actually attacking the American people the 61 million people who supported him. Here is the shortened version:Here is the full version: | 1 |
Donald Trump took a question from a Wounded Warrior named Todd, who explained his frustration with the VA. Mr. Trump then took down his information and offered to personally put pressure on the VA: | 0 |
Americans Seek to Help Persecuted Christians , Government Helps Muslims The people of the United States get it, but the Obama administration could care less. October 31, 2016
Originally published by the Gatestone Institute. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
As the Muslim persecution of Christians continues to reach critical proportions around the world (see report below), the average American shows much more concern than the current administration. Soon after it was revealed that the Obama administration has taken in 5,435 Muslim refugees, but only 28 Christians—even though Christians are approximately 10 percent of Syria’s population and are classified as experiencing a genocide there—a poll found that more than three quarters of American respondents agreed with the statement: “It is important to me that the next US President be committed to addressing the persecution that some Christians face around the world (eg., imprisonment, beheadings, rape, loss of home and assets).”
The deliberate targeting and killing of Christians in Europe also reached unprecedented levels in modern times. Most notably, on the morning of July 26, “ Allahu Akbar ” shouting Muslims stormed a small church in France during morning mass. They forced 85-year-old Fr. Jacques Hamel to his knees, slit his throat, and “ critically injured ” a nun, before being killed by police. (It was later revealed that police had known that church was being targeted and had even been monitoring one of the murderers for at least one-and-a-half years.)
Later, when a journalist asked Pope Francis if Fr. Jacques was “ killed in the name of Islam ,” the pope disagreed. He argued that he hears of Christians committing violence every day in Italy: “this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law… and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence.” The logic of the pope’s statement seems to be that violence done in direct contradiction of the Judeo-Christian God’s commandments—such as the murder of wives and mothers-in-law—is identical to violence done in accordance with Allah’s commandments to wage jihad on “infidels.”
In ISIS-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria, reports of Christians being tortured to convert, maimed, crucified, burned alive, beheaded, or sold into sex slavery continued to emerge. In Iraq, a report says that “Christians and other minorities in Iraq are facing persecution at unprecedented levels and are at the verge of extinction …. The Christian population has dwindled from 1.4 million to 300,000 in the last decade, according to some estimates. However, Minority Rights Group put that the number at anywhere between 50,000 to 250,000.”
A former ISIS member exposed some of the atrocities the group commits in Syria. “They were extremely brutal, killing women and the elderly who did not obey them. They abused and mutilated their dead bodies. They cut up the corpses, tied them to the back of the cars and dragged them along. They would find them and publicly execute them. I witnessed many executions.”
The remainder of July’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians—most of which was not committed by ISIS—includes, but is not limited to, the following: Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria : Two armed Muslim tribesmen murdered Rev. Joseph Kurah, an evangelical pastor, while he was working on his farm. They repeatedly hacked him to death with machetes. A local Muslim reportedly hired the assassins after he got into an argument with the Christian leader. Since 2001, Muslim Fulani have murdered thousands of Christians and destroyed hundreds of churches. According to a separate report , in just June and July, Muslim Fulani tribesmen targeted and invaded several Christian majority villages. They killed 133 people, destroyed 76 churches, and countless Christian properties and farms. Muslims hacked a female Christian preacher to death in the outskirts of Abuja. Eunice Elisha, a minister from the Redeemed Church of God, was found dead in a pool of her own blood after she went out to preach in the streets. A month earlier, on June 2, a Muslim mob beat Bridget Agbahime, the wife of a Christian pastor, to death with iron rods on the accusation that she blasphemed against Muhammad. About one million Christian children whose families have been displaced or affected by the violent activities of Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herdsmen are starving. Churches, which are currently the primary supporters of these children, have gone beyond capacity and tens of thousands of children are expected to die of starvation and disease if they do not receive aid from elsewhere. According to the report, Boko Haram’s seven-year rebellion has left 20,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.
Philippines : Attacks and murders of Christians around Mindanao Island, which has a large Muslim population, are on the rise. Fr. Sebastiano D'Ambra, who has lived in the region for 40 years, is calling on authorities to “find proper solutions” to stop “the agony of the Christian community.” He said, “A Christian was killed in Jolo a few days ago. A reliable source told me that 20 Christians have been targeted to be killed or kidnapped soon…. the Christian community is suffering a form of persecution from those who are guided by bad elements who claim to do it in the name of Islam.”
Kenya : Muslim gunmen from Al Shabaab murdered Pastor John as he was returning home from facilitating a peacemaking training seminar. The jihadis ambushed the bus he was in killing the pastor and six other people including children.
Democratic Republic of Congo : Suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and machetes slaughtered nine Christians in the North Kivu region. They also looted homes, seizing food and cattle as plunder. The area, which is 96 percent Christian, has seen more than 1,100 killed over the last year and a half.
Pakistan : The 2013 Muslim bombing of the All Saints Church in Peshawar, which killed more than 100 Christian worshippers, claimed its latest victim . After battling internal injuries she had received three years earlier from the attack, Cecilia, a 42-year-old Christian nurse, died from bomb fragments embedded in her body that had turned cancerous. According to the report, “With tearstained eyes,” her husband noted that “We are still losing loved ones [after the attack]. Forced Conversion, Rape and Murder of Christians
Libya : A report documents the sufferings that Christians experience at the hands Muslim militants when they migrate through Libya in an effort to reach Europe. In one instance 11 women were abducted and kept as sex slaves underground and repeatedly raped by various jihadis for almost a year. One of the Christian women, Amal, 21, said: “They took [the Christians] to Tripoli and kept us underground – we didn't see the sun for nine months…. Sometimes we didn't eat for three days. Other times they would give us one meal a day, half a piece of bread.” The Christian woman described how they were pressured into converting to Islam under threat of death and beaten with hoses or sticks. “Sometimes they would frighten us with their guns, or threaten to slaughter us with their knives.”
Islamic State : ISIS has been making use of social media—including Facebook, and mobile apps like WhatAPP, and Telegram— to sell enslaved Christian and Yazidi girls to a wider network of sadists and pedophiles. One Telegram posting showed a picture of a young girl with the caption: “Virgin. Beautiful. 12 years old,” the posting states. “Her price has reached $12,500 and she will be sold soon.”
Nigeria: Another report says that the Muslim terrorist group, Boko Haram, has murdered 466 people, almost all of whom were Christian, for refusing to convert to Islam; they also forced 218 women and young girls to “marry” their fighters.
Pakistan : Muslims kidnapped and forced a 14-year-old Christian girl to convert to Islam last May. Her father pled with them for weeks to release his daughter. They eventually pretended to relent, told him to meet them somewhere so they could return his daughter, and, once he arrived, shot him dead . The girl remains with the rapists, the slain father’s widow and three other daughters are hiding in their home in fear of further reprisals from the kidnappers. According to Najma Bibi, the girl’s mother: “several months after my daughter's kidnapping, the police have not done anything because we have no money to defend our rights. We live in a hopeless situation, we need help. I pray that my daughter will continue to place hope and faith in Jesus Christ.” Muhammad Iqrar, a Muslim man, assaulted and raped Sonia Nasar, a 16-year-old Christian girl. Although the rapist fled when her father rushed to the scene after hearing the cries of his daughter, Sonia was left in “critical condition.” He said that he expects no justice or follow up from local authorities, some of whom are associated with the rapist. Sobia Nadeem, a Christian girl studying for a Master’s degree in physics, was abducted by a group of Muslims, forced to convert to Islam, and forced to marry—at gunpoint—a man named Mohammad Hamza in Lahore. Although the girl managed to escape back to her parents’ home, she was taken to court where her family had to prove that her conversion and marriage were performed under force. Numerous reports continued to appear indicating that non-Muslim students, most often Christians, are being forced to convert to Islam through the public school system. Teachers force them to recite the shahada—which when said before Muslim witnesses makes the reciter a Muslim—and force them to study Muslim beliefs and practices. This often occurs in conjunction with denigration of the Christian faith. Due to ongoing Christian protests, the Punjab government said it would launch an inquiry. Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches and Symbols
Turkey : During the July 15 failed coup attempt, at least two churches were attacked . “One of the attacks happened in Trabzon. A group of 10 people attacked Santa Maria Church with paving stones and hammers to smash the windows” said the report. One church leader in Istanbul said, “I'm not optimistic about the plight of Christians in Turkey. Bear in mind we've had a Roman Catholic Bishop murdered, we've had clergy threatened, we've had one priest murdered 10 years ago. Any Christian leader, if they're being honest, would say that some of what's going on is quite alarming.”
Nigeria : On Friday, July 15, Muslims attacked a Catholic church. They were angered that Christians were praying in the church on Friday, Islam’s “holy day,” when Muslims congregate and pray in mosques. According to a Christian church leader, “Sometime around 2pm, some Muslim youths in their hundreds left their mosque after their Friday Jumat prayer and rushed to the church premises, climbed the wall and destroyed everything in the church: the windows, the altar, musical instruments, the chapel. The security man in the church premises was beaten to a pulp. Some women holding a prayer meeting were chased away. The seminarian, who is resident in the premises, was also beaten up and chased away.”
Iraq : According to a new report , “All 45 churches and monasteries inside Mosul are reportedly now occupied by ISIS, who have looted, burned and destroyed property, in addition to removing the building's crosses." Christians unable to flee are forced to pay large extortion money (jizya) or risk instant execution.
Sudan : A report notes that by continuously bombing Christian and non-Muslim indigenous regions near South Sudan, and targeting churches and pastors’ homes for destruction, the government is trying to “cleanse” the nation of Christians and create a homogenous Muslim state. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence, their homes, crops, churches, schools and hospitals destroyed.
Indonesia : Despite receiving all legal documents and permits, a Catholic family trying to construct a shrine to the Virgin Mary on their own land since 2009 continued to face growing threats from local Muslims. In 2012, a Muslim mob set fire to the shrine site and brought construction to a halt. Most recently in July, Muslims stormed the house of a Catholic leader and ordered him to stop the work, even though he has a building permit issued by the authorities. Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Egypt : According to a report , “Just like the biblical character Daniel in the lions' den, an Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity found himself at the mercy of ferocious attack dogs that were unleashed by his jailers to torture and possibly kill him. However, law student Majed El Shafie had God on his side and, just like in the story about Daniel, the savage animals miraculously did not harm him—to the utter astonishment of his prison guards.” He was, however, tortured by the Muslim guards themselves.
Uganda : Another Muslim convert to Christianity has lost his family, home, and business, and now lives in a small shanty. As a result of his apostasy, the extended family of the 53-year-old man, a former Muslim imam, stormed and eventually appropriated his ancestral home in an attempt on his life. Of that night, he said: “I heard people talking outside my house around 8 p.m., saying that they wanted to take away my life and, ‘We cannot watch the whole family turning to Christianity.’” He complained to the local council after his relatives also destroyed his business, but their intervention had no effect and he now lives without any means to provide for himself.
Pakistan : Nadeem James, a 27-year-old Christian man and father of two, was arrested in Gujarat district after a Muslim angry with him accused James of texting a poem deemed “blasphemous” of Muhammad. According to the accused’s brother: “We were not at home when the police raided our house to arrest Nadeem. However, when the cops couldn’t find any of us in the premises, they took away two women of the family – my wife and the wife of my elder brother, Faryad.” Around the same time, local mosques began calling on megaphones that if he didn’t surrender himself, Christian homes would burn. Nadeem surrendered himself and the women were released. “The charge against my brother is completely baseless. Nadeem is uneducated and could not have possibly sent that text message. I’m certain that Yasir Bashir [Muslim accuser] downloaded the supposedly blasphemous text onto Nadeem’s phone and then forwarded it to his cell number to build a case against my brother.” Yaqoob Masih, 56, a Christian sanitary worker, was accused of committing blasphemy against Islam in Hyderabad. According to the report, “Masih collected waste from the streets and dumped it at a specific [location], however Bakash [Muslim accuser], without verifying, tortured Masih with a stick, accusing him [of] committing blasphemy by burning pages of a book which [reportedly] carried Islamic verses. Masih was packing the garbage and waste in a trunk when Bakash accused him [of] blasphemy.” Masih was hospitalized from his injuries. A Muslim doctor who treated a dying Christian man with medicine that was donated through zakat, Islamic charity, received death threats . The Christian was on the verge of dying without treatment. In his defense, the Muslim doctor said he did not know the man was a Christian, or that it was against some interpretations of Islamic law to use Muslim charity money to help non-Muslims.
Iran : Three Azerbaijani pastors were arrested in Tehran during a visit. No reason was given to family and local legal experts. According to the report, “This is the latest in a succession of pastors who have been imprisoned by Iranian authorities over many years for accusations ranging from apostasy to evangelism.” And Ebrahim Firouzi, who has been under arrest since 2013 under vague charges
“suffered physical abuse at the hands of prison guards when he was forced to attend an appeal hearing.” Dhimmitude: Muslim Contempt and Hostility for Christians
Bangladesh : Christian and Hindu businesses received notices from a banned Islamic organization ordering them to uphold a number of Islamic customs or be killed. These include hanging banners with Allah’s name, keeping copies of the Koran, putting pictures of the Kaba in Mecca, removing pictures or statues of their own religions, creating a place for Muslims to pray, and banning music and female workers.
Pakistan : The government in the Raiwind district flooded a Christian graveyard with sewage water and desecrated all the graves. In response, protesting Christians complained that even in the grave they can receive no peace in Pakistan.
Sudan : Authorities insulted, forcefully arrested and jailed 14 Christians when they attempted to stop them from seizing an evangelical school on church property, which authorities plan on giving to Muslim businesses. Later, authorities returned to the same Christian school, gave letters of dismissal to the Christian headmistress, vandalized her office, and replaced her with a teacher of their own choosing.
Egypt : After a Christian man was stabbed to death and many Christian homes and a church burned by angry Muslims because of a rumor that a church was going to be built, Coptic Christian Bishop Makarious of al-Minya was interviewed on television. Church authorities in Egypt are regularly diplomatic and sensitive to what they say, but Makarious made many revealing comments. Although only Christians, no Muslims, were killed and hurt, he wondered why the government and media continue to describe these incidents as “clashes”—which suggests two quarrelling parties—when the reality is always that one side attacks the other: “Within minutes [of the start of one of the attacks], 100 Muslims instantly appeared, fully armed, as if ready for war.” He added: “As long as the attackers are never punished, and the armed forces are portrayed as doing their duty, this will just encourage others to continue the attacks, since, even if they are arrested, they will be quickly released.” When the host asked questions about who is released and why, suggesting that perhaps those released are in fact innocent of any wrongdoing against the Christians, the bishop replied: “Well what do you think when the actual attackers themselves are arrested, with complete proofs and evidences against them, but then they are still declared innocent and released?… this happens every single time.” About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis , or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
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We Are Change
According to the Code of Ethics for Journalism (yes we have one of those):
“A journalist should behave in such a way as not to become a victim of a collision of real or hidden interests.
He/she should reject privileges or presents which could influence his/her opinion or create such an impression. They should not take part in activities that endanger his/her professional integrity.The professional status of the journalist is not compatible with occupying a position in state bodies, or in the headquarters of political parties and other political organizations. If work in political parties causes conflict of interests, raises or may raise the question of objectivity of mass media, it is not acceptable. Conflicts of interests damage the prestige of mass media.”
That being said, award winning journalist and The Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington sought a ‘useful’ role in the Democratic party, and pledged to use HuffPost to ‘Echo [the DNC’s] Message’.
The part-time media tycoon and full-time socialite sought to play a “useful” role within the Democratic Party establishment by using her website to quote “echo” the party message, according to emails published by WikiLeaks.
In an April 2008 email to top Democratic operatives, including Paul Begala, Stan Greenberg, David Brock, and current Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Democratic operative Susan McCue relayed a discussion she had with Huffington about advancing the Democratic cause in an official capacity.
Huffington, explained McCue, suggested that she would be more comfortable in a role of covert influence, and “using Huffpo to echo our message.” The media tycoon “has a point,” McCue conceded.
Back in October a HuffPo writer by the name of David Seamen went public that HuffPo and Arianna, was editing and censoring his material. https://youtu.be/hIcImy1MKuc Funny thing is that just prior to David going public the DNC held an “Off-the-Record” party for main stream reporters, news anchors, and editors. Guccifer 2.0 provided The Intercept with emails revealing “friendly and highly useful relationships” between the Clinton campaign and the U.S. media. Those emails showed that the Clinton campaign held a private, “off-the-record” dinner with “influential reporters, anchors and editors” No wonder only 6 percent of Americans trust the media. Here is the full list of RSVPs:
Back in 2011, Huffington praised Wikileaks, saying: “If I ruled the world, my first goal would be to make it easier to cut through to the facts. At the moment, we are all drowning in spin, smokescreens and lies. Those who perpetrated the two biggest policy disasters of the past ten years—the Iraq war and the financial crisis—could not have pulled their work off without a lack of transparency. So greater transparency would be at the top of my agenda..The internet has already shown great promise in cutting through spin. YouTube, Twitter, email, and turbocharged search engines have made it easier to expose our leaders’ distortions. But if I were in charge, I’d go much further to protect the rights of disclosure and free speech on the internet, and challenge the press—particularly in America—to break its addiction to faux objectivity.”
In the video below Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, gets confronted by Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange about censoring Jesse Ventura’s 9/11 article.
https://youtu.be/J-5JgDG7HcY The post Arianna Huffington Exposed Colluding With DNC in New WikiLeaks Emails appeared first on We Are Change .
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21st Century Wire says After a long drawn out round of bilateral peace talks in Geneva Switzerland this week, Russia and the United States announced a plan for a 48 hour ceasefire in Syria, scheduled to take effect at sundown Monday.Incredibly, the cornerstone of this agreement rests on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, both agreeing (for now anyway) that they would both be targeting the terrorist opposition force, Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria, supported covertly by both the Saudi Arabia and the US/CIA) who recently rebranded themselves to Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham in cynical desperate move to avoid being targeted by military airstrikes.Back in May, when another ceasefire was proposed, 21WIRE warned that it was only a ploy by the US to buy more time for rebels to re-arm and repair broken rat lines from Turkey into northern Syria. That turned out to be 100% correct, despite the fact the western media outlets were duped by Washington s desperate diplomatic ploy reinforced by a multi-million dollar, New York City-based PR campaign targeting social media and funded by George Soros and others, which was marketed using the tagline #AleppoIsBurning.Are we seeing more of the same this week in Geneva?For a comprehensive analysis on what this latest temporary ceasefire agree really means, and where it could be heading, watch his excellent segment featuring political analyst Ammar Waqqaf. Watch: According to Kerry, the plan is to ensure that Syrian government forces will not carry out combat missions where the so-called moderate opposition is present.Speaking of fight against Al-Nusra and its efforts to blend with moderate rebels, Kerry stressed going on Al-Nusra is not a concession to anybody but is profoundly in the interests of the US. 'Going on Al-Nusra is profoundly in the interests of the US' #Kerry https://t.co/1MeCyNAvE5 #LavrovKerry #Syria pic.twitter.com/fjvctBZJFa RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2016Kerry also outlined an establishment of the Russian-US Joint Implementation Centre (JIG) that would serve the purpose of delineation of territories controlled by Al-Nusra and opposition groups in the area of active hostilities. Taking the floor, the Russian FM confirmed that Russia and US had agreed to coordinate airstrikes in Syria, provided there is a sustained period of reduced violence. The first step toward the implementation of this clause will be a 48-hour ceasefire in Syria, Lavrov said.Lavrov elaborated that the ceasefire comes into effect on September 12 and should last for at least seven days.( ) Despite the mistrust and attempt to disrupt what we have agreed upon, we managed to work out a package of documents, there are five of them. It allows us to set an effective coordination in the fight against terrorism, to expand the humanitarian access to distressed population, first and foremost in Aleppo, Lavrov said.Due to the sensitive nature of the information contained in the agreements, they will not be made available to general public, Lavrov said. We cannot make these documents public. They contain rather serious, sensitive information. We don t want it to fall into hands of those who would surely try to disrupt the implementation of the measures stipulated within in the framework of humanitarian delivery supplies and in other parts of our agreements. Continue this article at RTREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s vow to respond with “fire and fury” if North Korea persisted in threatening the United States caught his foreign policy and military aides by surprise, two administration officials with direct knowledge of how the issue unfolded said on Wednesday. “President Trump’s comment was unplanned and spontaneous,” said a senior administration official who deals with the Korea issue and who requested anonymity. The comment was “all Trump,” said another administration official who, like the first, requested anonymity. Both officials said Trump, known for his off-the-cuff remarks, had not run that language by his senior aides beforehand. At an event on Tuesday on the topic of Americans over-using opioids, Trump said: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” U.S. officials and analysts cautioned against engaging in rhetorical shouting matches with Pyongyang, which in turn said it was considering a strategy to fire missiles at the U.S.-held Pacific island of Guam, where there is a military air base. The White House pushed back on Wednesday, saying General John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff and others on the National Security Council team were “well aware of the tone of the statement of the president prior to delivery.” “The words were his own. The tone and strength of the message were discussed beforehand,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in New Jersey, where Trump is at one of his golf courses on a working vacation. Sanders said that Kelly and others “were clear the president was going to respond to North Korea’s threats following the sanctions with a strong message in no uncertain terms.” After two intercontinental ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang last month, the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions against North Korea, that could slash its annual export revenue by a third. Pyongyang warned it was ready to teach the United States a “severe lesson.” The senior administration official who deals with the Korea issue told Reuters: “There had not been any discussions about escalating the rhetoric in response to North Korean leader Kim (Jong Un)’s statements or about the possible effects of doing that,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Nevertheless, it is important for the North Koreans to understand that this country’s strategic patience is exhausted and that our resolve to defend our allies, whatever is required to do that, is not.” Privately two other U.S. officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the president’s threat of “fire and fury” was not helpful and threatened to evoke an undesirable response from the North Korean leader. It also risked alienating U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, as well as adversaries China and Russia, all of whom Washington wants to help pressure Kim to abandon his pursuit of a robust nuclear arsenal capable of striking the continental United States. On Wednesday, Trump appeared to temper his comments by expressing hope that the U.S. nuclear arsenal would never need to be used. Senior administration officials found different ways to explain Trump’s “fire and fury” remark. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to play down the tough talk, saying Trump was just trying to send a strong message in language North Korea’s leader would understand because he “doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.” Speaking to reporters before landing in Guam on a previously planned trip on Wednesday, he said there was no imminent threat from North Korea and Americans should “sleep well at night.” By contrast, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis used some of his strongest language yet on North Korea, warning Pyongyang it must stop any action that would “lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.” He said North Korea’s actions would continue to be “grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates”. The State Department said the White House, State Department and Department of Defense were all “speaking with one voice.” State Department Press Secretary Heather Nauert said Trump and Tillerson had spoken for an hour after the president made his “fire and fury” comment. “We are all singing from the same hymn book,” Nauert said. | 0 |
BAGHDAD (AFP) — The Islamic State group on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack near Mosul it said was carried out by a British suicide bomber, the SITE Intelligence Group reported. [“The brother Abu Zakariya — may Allah accept him — detonated his vehicle on a headquarters of the Rafidhi army and its militias in Tal Kisum village, southwest of Mosul,” the claim quoted by SITE said. The IS statement did not say when the bombing occurred. The jihadist group uses the word “rafidha” which means “rejectionists” to refer to Shiite Muslims in a derogatory way because it considers them heretics. Forces from the Hashed (Popular Mobilisation) a paramilitary umbrella dominated by Shiite militias backed by Tehran, are active in the area mentioned in the statement. They are fighting alongside other Iraqi forces — including the army and the federal police — as part of a push that started on Sunday to retake the west bank of Mosul. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched a massive offensive on October 17 to retake the city, which is Iraq’s second largest and the only remaining major stronghold of the jihadists in the country. They retook control of the eastern side of Mosul last month. IS fighters of a variety of nationalities, including Britons, have carried out suicide attacks on many occasions in Iraq and Syria in the past three years. The IS statement said that the British fighter’s attack, and that of another suicide bomber of Iraqi nationality, caused many casualties but AFP could not immediately verify the claim. | 0 |
President Obama said world leaders were right to be "rattled" by Donald Trump.
“They are rattled by (him) — and for good reason,” said Obama of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The president was speaking Thursday in Japan on the sidelines of a Group of Seven conference, a two-day event focused on the global economy.
“A lot of the proposals he has made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines,” said Obama.
He dismissed concerns that attacks by Democratic rival candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were hurting the party's electoral chances.
“During primaries, people get a little grumpy with each other. Somebody’s supporter pops off and there’s a certain buildup of aggravation,” Obama said. “Every little speed bump, conflict trash-talking that takes place is elevated.” | 0 |
Embarrassing footage of Thailand s king wearing a crop top and showing his tattoos have prompted authorities to threaten action against Facebook.The video of King Maha Vajiralongkorn strolling around a shopping centre with a woman was widely shared on the social network.But Thai authorities have threatened to press charges if it is still available at 10am tomorrow.The video shows the monarch, who came to power last year following the death of his father, with a number of tattoos on his arms, stomach, and back.Watch:Under strict lese-majeste laws in Thailand, people can be jailed for up to 15 years for sharing material which is insulting to the monarchy.The video has been geo-blocked by the social network, but Thai authorities say 131 pages containing the illicit video are still available.Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission said: If even a single illicit page remains, we will immediately discuss what legal steps to take against Facebook Thailand. Last week the Thai Internet Service Provider Association emailed Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg calling for the posts to be blocked, the Bangkok Post reports. Daily Mail | 1 |
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 | 1 |
On March 20, 2016 Barkley had this to say about Obama: Listen, you people in America who are upset that President Obama did a [March Madness NCAA Basketball] bracket why don t ya ll just go say you don t like him because he s black. He continued, Cut through all the BS don t say he take too many vacations just say, We don t like him because he s black.' Via: TMZLess than a month ago, Charles Barkley said anyone who disagrees with Obama does so because they are discriminating against him because he is black. And now, according to the all-knowing former NBA star, anyone who believes the religious rights of business owners should be protected is discriminating against gays. What about white Christians Charles? Are they entitled to any protections, or do you have to fall into some sort of minority category in order to have any rights or protections in the new progressive America? Charles Barkley wants to move All-Star game due to 'Anti-LGBT' lawhttps://t.co/P0hK7FpJFo FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 8, 2016Retired professional basketball player and NBA analyst Charles Barkley has been bringing politics into this year s March Madness tournament left and right.His latest comments center around Indiana s Religious Freedom Act, the left s latest punching bag. Discrimination in any form is unacceptable to me, Barkley said Friday in a statement released through his agent to USA Today. As long as anti-gay legislation exists in any state, I strongly believe big events such as the Final Four and Super Bowl should not be held in those states cities. The Religous Freedom Act prevents Indiana state and local governments from substantially burdening a person s ability to exercise their religion unless the government can show that it has a compelling interest and that the action is the least-restrictive means of achieving it, according to the Indianapolis Star.The legislation, which will take effect July 1, makes no specific mention of sexual orientation, but it was quickly dubbed anti-gay by opponents.Barkley also turned the popular basketball tournament political when he made comments about President Obama s March Madness bracket. He said that people were criticizing Obama for filling out a bracket because he s black. Via: Red Alert Politics | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican candidate Donald Trump said he is unhappy with the dates set for this fall’s presidential debates, but White House rival Hillary Clinton countered that the schedule was decided long ago and vowed to show up regardless of his objections. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three televised debates ahead of the Nov. 8 election - Monday, Sept. 26, Sunday, Oct. 9, and Wednesday, Oct. 19. The dates were set almost a year ago. Trump and other Republicans said they should be changed because of conflicts with National Football League games. “I think two of the three are against the NFL, so I’m not thrilled with that,” the Republican presidential nominee said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that aired on Sunday. Speaking to reporters while campaigning at a cheese barn in Ashland, Ohio, Clinton noted that the debate schedule had been established long before the two major political parties chose their nominees. “I’m going to be there. That’s all I’ll say,” Clinton said just days after the end of the Democratic National Convention, where the former secretary of state accepted her party’s presidential nomination. In a statement, the commission said the chosen dates “will serve the American public well,” adding that it was impossible to avoid all sporting events when working out the schedule. It said the debates had never been rescheduled for such conflicts. Trump, who tweeted on Friday that Clinton was “trying to rig the debates” so that fewer people would watch, suggested in the ABC interview that his rival wanted the debates to be held “when nobody’s home” to watch. Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser and former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted that the scheduling “makes me think the commission is rigged to help hide Hillary from the voters.” The commission was established in 1987 by the Republicans and Democrats to ensure the debates became a permanent part of the campaign after a series of “hastily arranged” events in 1976, 1980 and 1984 - and no debates in 1964, 1968 and 1972. Neither party is involved with running the commission, which is governed by an independent board of directors. It is co-chaired by former Republican National Committee chairman Frank Fahrenkopf and Mike McCurry, a former press secretary in Bill Clinton’s White House. David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, suggested on Twitter that Trump could be “just trying to ditch” the debates. When asked directly whether Trump would participate, his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, said the Republican candidate “wants to participate” but also seeks “the maximum audience.” “So we’re going to sit down with the commission in the next week or so and we’re going to start talking to them and we want to make sure we have a broad audience, understanding, watching the debates,” Manafort told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” RNC Chairman Reince Preibus said the debates would get more viewers if they were on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights. “We’re going to be working with the commission and what they’re putting together,” Preibus said on CBS. “We’re not going to agree with anything that our nominee doesn’t agree with.” Clinton adviser John Podesta called the complaints “more Trump debate malarkey. We will be at the debates set by the bipartisan debate commission and expect he will too,” Podesta said on Twitter. Trump also told ABC he had received a letter from the NFL saying the debate dates were “ridiculous.” But Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL, said there was no such letter. “While we’d obviously wish the debate commission could find another night, we did not send a letter to Mr. Trump,” McCarthy said on Twitter. | 1 |
After a completely unhinged speech in Florida in which Trump claimed President Obama and Hillary Clinton were the founder and co-founder of the terrorist group ISIS, the media rightfully hounded him for his stupidity.And what did he do? He doubled down, this time using literal terms.When Hugh Hewitt, on his conservative talk-radio show, tried to clarify Trump s statement, the Republican presidential nominee doubled down and told the host that Barack Obama, in his official capacity as President of the United States, literally created ISIS:Hugh Hewitt: I ve got two more questions. Last night you said the President was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.Trump: No, I meant he s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I gave him the most valuable player award. I gave her too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.Hugh Hewitt: But he s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He s trying to kill them.Trump: I don t care, he was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okayAnd just like that, Trump resorted back to his typical dog whistle insanity that won him the nomination of the crazy party. In Hewitt s defense, he did warn Trump that such comments would welcome even more media scrutiny that would hurt his chances of winning over independent voters.But Trump doesn t care. He says he s made no mistake in pinning the founder label on President Obama.Politifact fact-checked two claims from Donald Trump when he tried to tie Clinton and Obama to ISIS exclusively, and both times it was discovered Trump was shocker a big fat liar.Regardless, facts are no match for the red-meat politics Trump likes to throw to his rabid supporters.Luckily no one is believing him, and no matter how much he tries to push the narrative, he can t get out of the 40 percent zone with polling.Democrats are loving the Trump implosion. It seems nothing he does can distract from the sheer stupidity that comes out of his mouth.Featured image via Joe Readle/Getty Images | 0 |
Does anyone in recent history remember the US Department of Education asking educators to place more emphasis on Christianity or Judaism in their curriculums? Yeah neither do we As parents across the country storm school board meetings over a perceived overemphasis on Islam in the curriculum, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. are suggesting ways teachers can focus more on the religion.A recent blog posted to Home Room, The official blog of the U.S. Department of Education, points out that terrorist attacks in Paris and California sparked anti-Muslim incidents in schools and other places.Muslim students, and those perceived to be Muslim, could be bullied, and the government wants teachers to know how to create an anti-bias learning environment by focusing specifically on those students and their faith. This means incorporating the experiences, perspective and words of Muslim people into the curriculum through social studies and current events instruction, children s literature, in order to learn about different cultures, the blog reads. When you teach about world religions, be sure to include Islam. It s also important to be aware that some Muslim students may feel relieved and comfortable discussing these issues in class and others may feel nervous, scared or angry to be talking about a topic so close to home. The education experts authors Jinnie Spiegler, director of curriculum with the Anti-Defamation League, and Sarah Sisaye of the Education Department s Office of Safe and Healthy Students suggest that teachers pick controversial current events ripe with examples of bias and injustice to highlight anti-Muslim discrimination, and to discuss what actions (students) could take to make a difference. Teachers should also take it upon themselves to spread awareness about Muslim cultural traditions by encouraging events like Hijab days, when female students wear the Islamic religious scarf donned by their Muslim classmates. The education experts provided a link to a YouTube video of an event at Vernon Hills High School in December as an example.Meanwhile, in places like Tennessee, state officials are reviewing curriculum early amid a barrage of complaints about questionable lessons on Islam in middle school history courses. Parents have highlighted lessons that required students to read, write and recite the Islamic conversion prayer; and pointed out the disproportionate amount of time students spend studying Islam versus other religions.Parents have also questioned the accuracy of texts that suggest Christians and Muslims worship the same God and that Islam is a religion of peace, EAGnews reports. A lot of the things we hear about Muhammad and a lot of the warfare that was waged is very much sugar coated, Williamson County School Board member Susan Curlee said at a December town hall. My concern is, are we going to be asking students on a test to potentially compromise their faith for the sake of a grade? she questioned.Also in December, parents in Greenville, Virginia raised objections to a world geography lesson at Riverheads High School that tasked students with copying the Islamic conversion prayer in Arabic, by hand. The intent, according to the lesson, is to give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy, The Shilling Show reports.The lesson doesn t appear to explain what the shahada or Islamic statement of faith is exactly There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah but it does discuss the inspiring beauty of the Koran.And it s those types of lessons that are sparking a backlash from parents across the country, from lawsuits in Maryland to proposed legislation in Tennessee, centered on what many view as Muslim indoctrination through curriculum.A bias toward Islam is one of the reasons Tyler County Board of Education President Bonnie Henthorn decided to homeschool her children, rather than allow them continue in public schools, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.And while the Education Department blog stresses the importance of creating classrooms that are free from discrimination and harassment based on protected traits including religion, it offers no suggestions for teachers struggling to explain to parents why government approved texts and associated lessons focus more on Islam than other religions. Via: EAG News | 0 |
Very outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter Seth MacFarlane recently told the Jason Rantz Show a few things he d like to see out of he fellow Bernie supporters. The Family Guy creator knows that you can be fervent in your support for a candidate without losing sight of the bigger picture.He said: I actually am one of the people who has been a little disappointed at the way that, not necessarily the campaign, the supporters of the campaign have treated Hillary. I think she s been treated a little harshly by the left. Then making a comparison with those on the right side of the aisle, a party who s lost their damn mind in regards to Trump, a man who they are actually putting forward with all seriousness for president, MacFarlane said: That party has lost some control. This is a guy who is the result of a lot of bigotry gone wild. On the other hand, my side, the left, has gotten a little unreasonable when it comes to separating the trivial from the profound. He added later: The problem is if we don t pick our battles, then we look unreasonable. And I think that s part of where Trump has come from because we have not been able to separate things that are injustices from things that we re just offended by. And it s troubling. MacFarlane seems to know that every ounce of hate thrown at Hillary Clinton is an ounce of ammunition that may be used later. He also knows that when there s no clear distinction between arguments that are serious versus those that are petty and ridiculous, it only serves to hurt the candidate you re trying to support. In essence, many Bernie supporters are actually helping Trump, because they re validating that same sort of rhetoric that is being seen from his supporters as well.At the end of the day, we need to remember that a Democrat needs to win the White House in November. Whether that candidate is Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, we need to vote blue no matter who. It s our best shot at retaining sanity within the Oval Office.Featured Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images | 0 |
This actually happens all the time no matter who the president is, but conservatives are throwing a tantrum because President Obama does it.On Sunday, former First Lady Nancy Reagan passed away at the age of 94. Tributes have since poured in from across the country, even from President Obama himself. Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for living in the White House, Obama said in a statement. She was right, of course. But we had a head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice. Our former First Lady redefined the role in her time here As somebody who is lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, I know how much she meant not just to President Reagan but to the country as a whole. He was lucky to have her. She will be missed. That doesn t exactly sound like a man who didn t personally like or respect Mrs. Reagan. But because President Obama has decided not to attend her funeral on Friday in order to stick to his already tight schedule, conservatives are freaking out and throwing hissy fits despite the fact that this is not new.While Presidents usually attend the funerals of former Presidents, they have historically skipped the funerals of other high ranking officials and First Ladies, often sending the current First Lady to represent them at the service. Michelle Obama is, in fact, attending Nancy Reagan s funeral.President Obama will be taking part in an interview in Texas at the South by Southwest Festival, where he is also scheduled to speak about civic engagement and using technology to address the challenges we face in the future. This was planned prior to Reagan s death.Yet, conservatives see this as a sign of disrespect. The only problem is that he is hardly the first president to skip a funeral for a former First Lady.For instance, President Clinton did not attend Pat Nixon s funeral in 1993 and President Bush did not attend Lady Bird Johnson s funeral in 2007. President Obama also did not attend Betty Ford s funeral in 2011.Jimmy Carter didn t attend Mamie Eisenhower s funeral in 1979 and Franklin D. Roosevelt did not attend Lou Henry Hoover s funeral in 1944.And if conservatives seriously want to refer to Obama as President Petty, they should know that Ronald Reagan did not attend Bess Truman s funeral in 1982, and keep in mind that she was First Lady when her husband President Harry Truman ushered in the end of World War II by ordering the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and was the longest lived First Lady in American history.As far as I have been able to research, the only First Ladies whose funerals have been attended by a sitting President in the last 70 years was Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962 and Jacqueline Kennedy in 1994 by President John F. Kennedy and President Bill Clinton respectively.Roosevelt had wanted a small private funeral but Kennedy attended anyway because at the time of her death, Eleanor had been known as the beloved First Lady of the World who served as First Lady during the Great Depression and World War II and is still the longest serving First Lady in American history. Jacqueline Kennedy brought grace to the White House and became a symbol of strength for a traumatized nation after the assassination of her husband in 1963. President Clinton attended her funeral because he was a friend of the family and even delivered remarks at the burial.The bottom line here is that conservatives have nothing to gripe about on this issue. Nancy Reagan s funeral is also a private one and it is quite possible that President Obama was simply not invited to attend and the only reason Michelle Obama will be in attendance is because it is a long tradition that First Ladies attend the funerals of their predecessors just as Presidents attend the funerals of their predecessors.So, there is no reason at all for conservatives to whine about President Obama choosing not to attend Nancy Reagan s funeral. He is not the one being petty.Featured Image: Wikimedia | 1 |
Oct 26, 2016 3:52 PM 0 SHARES
The long await IPO of Snapchat is finally coming: according to Bloomberg the social media will seek to raise as much as $4 billion in its planned initial public offering, making it the biggest social media company to go public since Twitter's initial public offering in November 2013.
Bloomberg reports that The IPO could value Snapchat at about $25 billion to $35 billion, citing unnamed sources, and while no final decision has been made and the size of the IPO may change, and the valuation could reach as much as $40 billion, one of the people said.
In a surprising twist, because the company’s revenue is less than $1 billion, it plans to file IPO documents confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the people said.
Snapchat chose Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to lead its offering, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, Allen & Co., Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG will also be involved as joint book runners, the people said.
The Los Angeles-based company makes an application for sharing selfies and videos, watching news videos and chatting with friends. After its last funding round, Snap’s private market value reached $18 billion. | 1 |
BOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who has spent more than $140 million on fighting climate change, said on Tuesday he will spend whatever it takes to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-drilling and anti-regulation agenda. The former hedge fund manager from California is putting together a strategy that will “engage voters and citizens to fight back” once Trump takes the White House in January, he told Reuters in an interview. However, he stressed he was not planning to fight Trump through the courts. Instead, he would focus on “trying to present an opposite point of view and trying to get that point of view expressed, and communicated to citizens.” Steyer’s pledge to fight Trump suggests an intensifying battle for U.S. public opinion on global climate change, an issue that has already divided many Americans, lawmakers, and companies between those who consider it a major global threat and those who doubt its existence. Other U.S. environmental groups are also preparing to resist Trump’s agenda, with some vowing street protests and more established organizations that helped draft some of President Barack Obama’s environmental regulations preparing to defend them in court. “We have always been willing to do whatever is necessary,” Steyer said, when asked how much money he was willing to spend to oppose Trump’s agenda. Trump campaigned on a promise to drastically reduce environmental regulation and ease permitting for infrastructure, moves he said would breathe life into an oil and gas industry ailing from low prices, without harming U.S. air and water quality. He has also called climate change a hoax and has promised to “cancel” the Paris Climate Accord between nearly 200 nations to slow global warming, a deal he said would cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars and put it at a disadvantage. While the approach has cheered the industry, it has sent shockwaves through the environmental movement, which is confronting the prospect of losing all progress it made during the Obama administration. Steyer, who had endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, called Trump’s policies dangerous. “Every single one of these things, whether it was getting rid of Paris or cutting back the EPA, we think are extremely dangerous to the security of every American,” Steyer said. “We think it is based on willful ignorance of the facts and flies in the face of the realities facing the world.” Steyer’s main political vehicle, NextGen Climate, on Tuesday called on the Obama administration to defy Trump’s pro-drilling agenda by issuing an order permanently blocking all new drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has also promised to ask Canadian oil pipeline company, TransCanada Corp, to resubmit its application to build a pipeline into the United States that would link Alberta’s vast oil sands to American refineries and ports on the Gulf Coast. The project, Keystone XL, had been rejected by the Obama administration after years of mass protests and lobbying by environmental organizations. Steyer said the project may no longer make sense since a slump in oil prices has reduced the profitability of oil sands production. Steyer, who four years ago left the hedge fund firm he co-founded to devote himself full-time to environmental activism, said young voter turnout in areas where NextGen focused its mobilization efforts during the 2016 campaign was up more than 20 percent from the last presidential election in 2012. “Did we get the president we want, absolutely not. Did we get a majority of clean energy supporters in the senate, no,” Steyer said. “But in terms of what we did, and the strategy we took, we wouldn’t do anything differently.” NextGen poured nearly $69 million into its elections related programs during the presidential campaign, according to federal records compiled by OpenSecrets.org, slightly lower than the $74 million it spent during the mid-term congressional elections in 2014, when only two of the six candidates it supported won. | 1 |
This is hypocrisy of the highest order and proves that Donald Trump would only make a mockery of our government institutions if he became president.The Republican nominee has made Hillary Clinton s emails one of his central campaign talking points, much to the delight of his rally crowds who chant lock her up at every opportunity because they think she somehow broke the law even though it has been determined by law enforcement that she has not.Trump has called Hillary s email circus worse than Watergate, which has drawn sharp criticism from anyone with a fully functioning brain, including former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman, who called the comparison absurd.As it turns out, Donald Trump has his own email scandal that really did break the law.According to Newsweek, Trump s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders since 1973 when he and his father fought the federal government after they got caught discriminating against African-Americans when it came to housing.Again, we are talking about thousands of emails and documents that multiple judges ordered Trump and his companies to provide to the court. Yet Trump flouted the orders and had the evidence destroyed rather than produce something in court that might help his opponent win the case.This is what is known as spoliation of evidence which is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Such actions are a criminal act and are punishable by a fine or imprisonment.As many times as Trump has committed these acts, he should have been behind bars by now. And he certainly should not be allowed to be president, because it s clear that Trump has no problem ordering his employees to break the law and would most definitely run one of the most secretive administrations in American history. Transparency would no longer exist because Trump hides anything that could hurt him.He has already demonstrated this behavior on the campaign trail by refusing to release his tax returns and his medical records, and now we know that Trump regularly destroys documents and email evidence despite such evidence being ordered provided by a court of law.Hillary Clinton s emails were a one-time mistake that other former Secretaries of State have made, including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both of whom are Republicans who served in Republican administrations. Nobody made a fuss when they used private servers, yet Trump and his rabid fans are whining about Hillary doing the same thing. If anything, Hillary Clinton is way more transparent than Trump has ever been. She didn t permanently delete the emails. They have all been recovered, which means there wasn t an actual effort to nefariously hide anything. Furthermore, she has released her medical records and tax returns. And she has never destroyed evidence in defiance of a court order.So while Trump s supporters are chanting lock her up, it s actually Donald Trump who should be in prison right now.Featured Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 0 |
For Norwegians, the sight of dozens of American Marines traipsing through the snow in military fatigues — the first time foreign forces have been posted to their country’s territory since World War II — may have brought a welcomed sense of security, but it also harked back to a dark era of the Cold War that many had hoped to forget. A United States military plane on Monday delivered most of the 330 Marines to a garrison in Vaernes, in central Norway, a deployment that Norwegian officials said had been carried out by the United States as part of a bilateral agreement. It was the latest effort by the United States and its European allies to buttress their defenses against a resurgent Russia, which condemned the move. Despite being generally welcomed across the political spectrum, the arrival of the Marines from Camp Lejeune, N. C. — shown on Norwegian television dragging their suitcases through the snow — also provoked some jitters in Norway. A wealthy country that is a member of NATO but not the European Union, the Nordic state has long prided itself on its independence. But the deployment recalled a Cold War era in which Russian intrigue grabbed headlines and Norwegians lived in fear of Soviet hegemony. Neuroses about Russia continue to exert influence in Norwegian popular culture. The political television thriller “Okkupert” depicts a future in which Norway is occupied by Russia, and with the backing of the European Union, takes over the country’s oil production. Such fears have been magnified in recent years with murky sightings of submarines across the region that have stoked concern about Russian espionage and military intervention. In October 2014, an unidentified vessel spotted off the Stockholm archipelago spurred Sweden’s largest mobilization since the Cold War and accusations that Russia was spying on the country. The episode, called “The Hunt for Reds in October” in the Swedish news media, included unsubstantiated reports of a man in black spotted wading near the vessel. It deeply unsettled the nation, even as the Kremlin issued strenuous denials and accused Stockholm of scaremongering. Then, in April 2015, the sudden appearance of an underwater vessel in Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, prompted the navy to fire depth charges — the first such warning in more than 10 years. And Lithuania on Monday said it plans to use European Union funding to build a fence on the border with Russia’s highly militarised Kaliningrad exclave to increase security and prevent smuggling, according to Agence . Construction of the $32 million fence will start this spring and will be finished by the end of the year, said Interior Minister Eimutis Misiunas. “The reasons are both economic to prevent smuggling and geopolitical to strengthen the E. U.’s external border,” Mr. Misiunas said. “It would not stop tanks but it will be difficult to climb over. ” In Moscow, the deployment of United States Marines in Norway has been met with disdain. After plans for the deployment were confirmed in October, Frants Klintsevich, a deputy chairman of Russia’s defense and security committee in the upper chamber of Parliament, was quoted by Russian news media as saying that the Kremlin viewed the Marines as a direct military threat. He also said the deployment made Norway a potential target for Moscow’s powerful arsenal, which includes nuclear weapons. On Monday, the Russian authorities reiterated their discontent. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster, that the move “certainly will not improve relations. ” “The relationship between Norway and Russia is put to a test now,” she said. “Instead of developing economic cooperation, Norway is choosing to deploy United States troops on Norwegian soil. ” The deployment of the Marines, who will be stationed hundreds of miles from the border with Russia, comes as countries across Europe have been reinforcing their defenses out of concern over an increasingly assertive Russia. Last week, a convoy from an American armored brigade crossed the German border into Poland, the first installment of what are expected to be several thousand NATO troops to be based across Eastern Europe. Relations between the West and Russia in the Nordic region and beyond have been tense since that country’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the outbreak of conflict between government forces and rebels in eastern Ukraine. At the same time, Donald J. Trump fanned alarm in Europe in the months leading to his election victory when he questioned whether the United States should automatically defend NATO allies if they were attacked, and predicated American support on the willingness of countries in the alliance to pay their fair share for military protection. In Norway, some lamented that the Marines’ arrival stood against the country’s traditions and threatened to make it a target of its much larger neighbor. Morten Harper, a leftist member of the local assembly that governs the area housing the military base, said the Marines’ arrival was ensnaring Norway into the United States’ “power struggle” with Russia. “We see an ever more tense foreign policy situation,” he said. “If there ever was to be a major conflict between the great powers in the future, this makes us a more likely bomb target. ” After World War II, Norway abandoned its neutral stance by joining NATO in 1949 and committing to the alliance’s doctrine of collective defense. But the country, which shares a northern border with Russia, sought to placate Moscow by pledging that no foreign troops would be allowed to be permanently stationed on its soil. Norway’s defense minister, Ine Eriksen Soreide, said in an interview on Sunday that Russia had no reason to be alarmed by the Marines’ presence. She said that the deployment did not flout the restriction because the Marines were there on a trial period that was . The Marines will take part in military exercises, involving skiing and surviving in Arctic temperatures, to hone their abilities to fight in tough winter conditions. It is part of a bilateral agreement between Oslo and Washington, but Norwegian officials said that, in the case of a conflict, the troops would probably fall under NATO’s command. Hedda B. Langemyr of the Norwegian Peace Council, a group made up of several nongovernmental organizations, said the deployment threatened to aggravate tension between Norway and Russia while breaching Norway’s tradition of not allowing permanent foreign troops on its soil. “It might give the hawks in Moscow arguments for a continued arms race,” she said. | 0 |
Thanksgiving by Glen Ford
“The core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.” No More American Thanksgivings by Glen Ford
This article originally appeared in the November 27, 2003 , issue of The Black Commentator, which Glen Ford co-founded and edited.
Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders” as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity.
We at are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity’s deliverance from the rule of evil men.
Thanksgiving is much more than a lie – if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the “flaw” in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events – subsequently revised – were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise – Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously – an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two.
The last Act in the American drama must be the “root and branch” eradication of all vestiges of Act One and Two – America’s seminal crimes and formative projects. Thanksgiving as presently celebrated – that is, as a national political event – is an affront to civilization.
Celebrating the unspeakable
White America embraced Thanksgiving because a majority of that population glories in the fruits, if not the unpleasant details, of genocide and slavery and feels, on the whole, good about their heritage: a cornucopia of privilege and national power. Children are taught to identify with the good fortune of the Pilgrims. It does not much matter that the Native American and African holocausts that flowed from the feast at Plymouth are hidden from the children’s version of the story – kids learn soon enough that Indians were made scarce and Africans became enslaved. But they will also never forget the core message of the holiday: that the Pilgrims were good people, who could not have purposely set such evil in motion. Just as the first Thanksgivings marked the consolidation of the English toehold in what became the United States, the core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.
The Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the Pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the Pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning. In light of this carefully nurtured fable, whatever happened to the Indians, from Plymouth to California and beyond, in the aftermath of the 1621 dinner must be considered a mistake, the result of misunderstandings – at worst, a series of lamentable tragedies. The story provides the essential first frame of the American saga. It is unalloyed racist propaganda, a tale that endures because it served the purposes of a succession of the Pilgrims’ political heirs, in much the same way that Nazi-enhanced mythology of a glorious Aryan/German past advanced another murderous, expansionist mission.
Thanksgiving is quite dangerous – as were the Pilgrims.
Rejoicing in a cemetery
The English settlers, their ostensibly religious venture backed by a trading company, were glad to discover that they had landed in a virtual cemetery in 1620. Corn still sprouted in the abandoned fields of the Wampanoags , but only a remnant of the local population remained around the fabled Rock. In a letter to England, Massachusetts Bay colony founder John Winthrop wrote, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection."
Ever diligent to claim their own advantages as God’s will, the Pilgrims thanked their deity for having “pursued” the Indians to mass death. However, it was not divine intervention that wiped out most of the natives around the village of Patuxet but, most likely, smallpox-embedded blankets planted during an English visit or slave raid. Six years before the Pilgrim landing, a ship sailed into Patuxet’s harbor, captained by none other than the famous seaman and mercenary soldier John Smith , former leader of the first successful English colony in the New World, at Jamestown, Virginia. Epidemic and slavery followed in his wake, as Debra Glidden described in IMDiversity.com :
In 1614 the Plymouth Company of England, a joint stock company, hired Captain John Smith to explore land in its behalf. Along what is now the coast of Massachusetts in the territory of the Wampanoag, Smith visited the town of Patuxet according to "The Colonial Horizon," a 1969 book edited by William Goetzinan. Smith renamed the town Plymouth in honor of his employers, but the Wampanoag who inhabited the town continued to call it Patuxet.
The following year Captain Hunt, an English slave trader, arrived at Patuxet. It was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them into slavery for 220 shillings apiece. That practice was described in a 1622 account of happenings entitled "A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affairs in Virginia," written by Edward Waterhouse. True to the explorer tradition, Hunt kidnapped a number of Wampanoags to sell into slavery.
Another common practice among European explorers was to give "smallpox blankets" to the Indians. Since smallpox was unknown on this continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Native Americans did not have any natural immunity to the disease so smallpox would effectively wipe out entire villages with very little effort required by the Europeans. William Fenton describes how Europeans decimated Native American villages in his 1957 work "American Indian and White relations to 1830." From 1615 to 1619 smallpox ran rampant among the Wampanoags and their neighbors to the north. The Wampanoag lost 70 percent of their population to the epidemic and the Massachusetts lost 90 percent.
Most of the Wampanoag had died from the smallpox epidemic so when the Pilgrims arrived they found well-cleared fields which they claimed for their own. A Puritan colonist, quoted by Harvard University's Perry Miller, praised the plague that had wiped out the Indians for it was "the wonderful preparation of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his providence for his people's abode in the Western world."
Historians have since speculated endlessly on why the woods in the region resembled a park to the disembarking Pilgrims in 1620. The reason should have been obvious: hundreds, if not thousands, of people had lived there just five years before.
In less than three generations the settlers would turn all of New England into a charnel house for Native Americans, and fire the economic engines of slavery throughout English-speaking America. Plymouth Rock is the place where the nightmare truly began.
The uninvited?
It is not at all clear what happened at the first – and only – “integrated” Thanksgiving feast. Only two written accounts of the three-day event exist, and one of them, by Governor William Bradford, was written 20 years after the fact. Was Chief Massasoit invited to bring 90 Indians with him to dine with 52 colonists, most of them women and children? This seems unlikely. A good harvest had provided the settlers with plenty of food, according to their accounts, so the whites didn’t really need the Wampanoag’s offering of five deer. What we do know is that there had been lots of tension between the two groups that fall. John Two-Hawks, who runs the Native Circle web site, gives a sketch of the facts:
“Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the pilgrim survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian chief, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out!”
It is much more likely that Chief Massasoit either crashed the party, or brought enough men to ensure that he was not kidnapped or harmed by the Pilgrims. Dr. Tingba Apidta, in his “ Black Folks’ Guide to Understanding Thanksgiving ,” surmises that the settlers “brandished their weaponry” early and got drunk soon thereafter. He notes that “each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of beer a day, which they preferred even to water. This daily inebriation led their governor, William Bradford, to comment on his people's ‘notorious sin,’ which included their ‘drunkenness and uncleanliness’ and rampant ‘sodomy.’”
Soon after the feast the brutish Miles Standish “got his bloody prize,” Dr. Apidta writes:
“He went to the Indians, pretended to be a trader, then beheaded an Indian man named Wituwamat. He brought the head to Plymouth, where it was displayed on a wooden spike for many years, according to Gary B. Nash, ‘as a symbol of white power.’ Standish had the Indian man's young brother hanged from the rafters for good measure. From that time on, the whites were known to the Indians of Massachusetts by the name ‘Wotowquenange,’ which in their tongue meant cutthroats and stabbers.”
What is certain is that the first feast was not called a “Thanksgiving” at the time; no further integrated dining occasions were scheduled; and the first, official all-Pilgrim “Thanksgiving” had to wait until 1637, when the whites of New England celebrated the massacre of the Wampanoag’s southern neighbors, the Pequots.
The real Thanksgiving Day Massacre
The Pequots today own the Foxwood Casino and Hotel , in Ledyard, Connecticut, with gross gaming revenues of over $9 billion in 2000. This is truly a (very belated) miracle, since the real first Pilgrim Thanksgiving was intended as the Pequot’s epitaph. Sixteen years after the problematical Plymouth feast, the English tried mightily to erase the Pequots from the face of the Earth, and thanked God for the blessing.
Having subdued, intimidated or made mercenaries of most of the tribes of Massachusetts, the English turned their growing force southward, toward the rich Connecticut valley, the Pequot’s sphere of influence. At the point where the Mystic River meets the sea, the combined force of English and allied Indians bypassed the Pequot fort to attack and set ablaze a town full of women, children and old people.
William Bradford, the former Governor of Plymouth and one of the chroniclers of the 1621 feast, was also on hand for the great massacre of 1637:
"Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."
The rest of the white folks thought so, too. “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots," read Governor John Winthrop’s proclamation. The authentic Thanksgiving Day was born.
Most historians believe about 700 Pequots were slaughtered at Mystic. Many prisoners were executed, and surviving women and children sold into slavery in the West Indies. Pequot prisoners that escaped execution were parceled out to Indian tribes allied with the English. The Pequot were thought to have been extinguished as a people. According to IndyMedia , “The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot ‘War’ killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.”
But there were still too many Indians around to suit the whites of New England, who bided their time while their own numbers increased to critical, murderous mass.
Guest’s head on a pole
By the 1670s the colonists, with 8,000 men under arms, felt strong enough to demand that the Pilgrims’ former dinner guests the Wampanoags disarm and submit to the authority of the Crown. After a series of settler provocations in 1675, the Wampanoag struck back, under the leadership of Chief Metacomet, son of Massasoit, called King Philip by the English. Metacomet/Philip, whose wife and son were captured and sold into West Indian slavery, wiped out 13 settlements and killed 600 adult white men before the tide of battle turned. A 1996 issue of the Revolutionary Worker provides an excellent narrative.
In their victory, the settlers launched an all-out genocide against the remaining Native people. The Massachusetts government offered 20 shillings bounty for every Indian scalp, and 40 shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave any Indian woman or child under 14 they could capture. The "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with "hostiles." They were enslaved or killed. Other "peaceful" Indians of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts – and were sold onto slave ships.
It is not known how many Indians were sold into slavery, but in this campaign, 500 enslaved Indians were shipped from Plymouth alone. Of the 12,000 Indians in the surrounding tribes, probably about half died from battle, massacre and starvation.
After King Philip's War, there were almost no Indians left free in the northern British colonies. A colonist wrote from Manhattan's New York colony: "There is now but few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by the hand of God, since the English first settled in these parts." In Massachusetts, the colonists declared a "day of public thanksgiving" in 1676, saying, "there now scarce remains a name or family of them [the Indians] but are either slain, captivated or fled."
Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later.
This is not thought to be a fit Thanksgiving tale for the children of today, but it’s the real story, well-known to the settler children of New England at the time – the white kids who saw the Wampanoag head on the pole year after year and knew for certain that God loved them best of all, and that every atrocity they might ever commit against a heathen, non-white was blessed.
There’s a good term for the process thus set in motion: nation-building.
Roots of the slave trade
The British North American colonists’ practice of enslaving Indians for labor or direct sale to the West Indies preceded the appearance of the first chained Africans at the dock in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The Jamestown colonists’ human transaction with the Dutch vessel was an unscheduled occurrence. However, once the African slave trade became commercially established, the fates of Indians and Africans in the colonies became inextricably entwined. New England, born of up-close-and-personal, burn-them-in-the-fires-of-hell genocide, led the political and commercial development of the English colonies. The region also led the nascent nation’s descent into a slavery-based society and economy.
Ironically, an apologist for Virginian slavery made one of the best, early cases for the indictment of New England as the engine of the American slave trade. Unreconstructed secessionist Lewis Dabney’s 1867 book “ A Defense of Virginia ” traced the slave trade’s origins all the way back to Plymouth Rock:
The planting of the commercial States of North America began with the colony of Puritan Independents at Plymouth, in 1620, which was subsequently enlarged into the State of Massachusetts. The other trading colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as New Hampshire (which never had an extensive shipping interest), were offshoots of Massachusetts. They partook of the same characteristics and pursuits; and hence, the example of the parent colony is taken here as a fair representation of them.
The first ship from America, which embarked in the African slave trade, was the Desire , Captain Pierce, of Salem; and this was among the first vessels ever built in the colony. The promptitude with which the "Puritan Fathers" embarked in this business may be comprehended, when it is stated that the Desire sailed upon her voyage in June, 1637. [Note: the year they massacred the Pequots.] The first feeble and dubious foothold was gained by the white man at Plymouth less than seventeen years before; and as is well known, many years were expended by the struggle of the handful of settlers for existence. So that it may be correctly said, that the commerce of New England was born of the slave trade; as its subsequent prosperity was largely founded upon it. The Desire , proceeding to the Bahamas, with a cargo of "dry fish and strong liquors, the only commodities for those parts," obtained the negroes from two British men-of-war, which had captured them from a Spanish slaver.
Thus, the trade of which the good ship Desire , of Salem, was the harbinger, grew into grand proportions; and for nearly two centuries poured a flood of wealth into New England, as well as no inconsiderable number of slaves. Meanwhile, the other maritime colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Connecticut, followed the example of their elder sister emulously; and their commercial history is but a repetition of that of Massachusetts. The towns of Providence, Newport, and New Haven became famous slave trading ports. The magnificent harbor of the second, especially, was the favorite starting-place of the slave ships; and its commerce rivaled, or even exceeded, that of the present commercial metropolis, New York. All the four original States, of course, became slaveholding.
The Revolution that exploded in 1770s New England was undertaken by men thoroughly imbued with the worldview of the Indian-killer and slave-holder. How could they not be? The “country” they claimed as their own was fathered by genocide and mothered by slavery – its true distinction among the commercial nations of the world. And these men were not ashamed, but proud, with vast ambition to spread their exceptional characteristics West and South and wherever their so-far successful project in nation-building might take them – and by the same bloody, savage methods that had served them so well in the past.
At the moment of deepest national crisis following the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln invoked the national fable that is far more central to the white American personality than Lincoln’s battlefield “Address.” Lincoln seized upon the 1621 feast as the historic “Thanksgiving” – bypassing the official and authentic 1637 precedent – and assigned the dateless, murky event the fourth Thursday in November.
Lincoln surveyed a broken nation, and attempted nation-rebuilding, based on the purest white myth. The same year that he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he renewed the national commitment to a white manifest destiny that began at Plymouth Rock. Lincoln sought to rekindle a shared national mission that former Confederates and Unionists and white immigrants from Europe could collectively embrace. It was and remains a barbaric and racist national unifier, by definition. Only the most fantastic lies can sanitize the history of the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts.
”Like a rock”
The Thanksgiving holiday fable is at once a window on the way that many, if not most, white Americans view the world and their place in it, and a pollutant that leaches barbarism into the modern era. The fable attempts to glorify the indefensible, to enshrine an era and mission that represent the nation’s lowest moral denominators . Thanksgiving as framed in the mythology is, consequently, a drag on that which is potentially civilizing in the national character, a crippling, atavistic deformity. Defenders of the holiday will claim that the politically-corrected children’s version promotes brotherhood, but that is an impossibility – a bald excuse to prolong the worship of colonial “forefathers” and to erase the crimes they committed. Those bastards burned the Pequot women and children, and ushered in the multinational business of slavery. These are facts. The myth is an insidious diversion – and worse.
Humanity cannot tolerate a 21st Century superpower, much of whose population perceives the world through the eyes of 17th Century land and flesh bandits. Yet that is the trick that fate has played on the globe. We described the roots of the planetary dilemma in our March 13 commentary, “ Racism & War, Perfect Together. ”
The English arrived with criminal intent - and brought wives and children to form new societies predicated on successful plunder. To justify the murderous enterprise, Indians who had initially cooperated with the squatters were transmogrified into "savages" deserving displacement and death. The relentlessly refreshed lie of Indian savagery became a truth in the minds of white Americans, a fact to be acted upon by every succeeding generation of whites. The settlers became a singular people confronting the great "frontier" - a euphemism for centuries of genocidal campaigns against a darker, "savage" people marked for extinction.
The necessity of genocide was the operative, working assumption of the expanding American nation. "Manifest Destiny" was born at Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, later to fall (to paraphrase Malcolm) like a rock on Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, Nicaragua, etc. Little children were taught that the American project was inherently good, Godly, and that those who got in the way were "evil-doers" or just plain subhuman, to be gloriously eliminated. The lie is central to white American identity, embraced by waves of European settlers who never saw a red person.
Only a century ago, American soldiers caused the deaths of possibly a million Filipinos whom they had been sent to “liberate” from Spanish rule. They didn’t even know who they were killing, and so rationalized their behavior by substituting the usual American victims. Colonel Funston , of the Twentieth Kansas Volunteers, explained what got him motivated in the Philippines:
"Our fighting blood was up and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' This shooting human beings is a 'hot game,' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." Another wrote that "the boys go for the enemy as if they were chasing jack-rabbits .... I, for one, hope that Uncle Sam will apply the chastening rod, good, hard, and plenty, and lay it on until they come into the reservation and promise to be good 'Injuns.'"
Last week in northern Iraq another American colonel, Joe Anderson of the 101st Airborne (Assault) Division, revealed that he is incapable of perceiving Arabs as human beings. Colonel Anderson, who doubles as a commander and host of a radio call-in program and a TV show designed to win the hearts and minds of the people of Mosul, had learned that someone was out to assassinate him. In the wild mood swing common to racists, Anderson decided that Iraqis are all alike – and of a different breed. He said as much to the Los Angeles Times .
"They don't understand being nice," said Anderson, who helps oversee the military zone that includes Mosul and environs. He doesn't hide his irritation after months dedicated to restoring the city: "We spent so long here working with kid gloves, but the average Iraqi guy will tell you, 'The only thing people respect here is violence…. They only understand being shot at, being killed. That's the culture.' … Nice guys do finish last here."
Col. Anderson personifies the unfitness of Americans to play a major role in the world, much less rule it. "We poured a lot of our heart and soul into trying to help the people,” he bitched, as if Americans were God’s gift to the planet. "But it can be frustrating when you hear stupid people still saying, 'You're occupiers. You want our oil. You're turning our country over to Israel.'” He cannot fathom that other people – non-whites – aspire to run their own affairs, and will kill and die to achieve that basic right.
What does this have to do with the Mayflower? Everything. Although possibly against their wishes, the Pilgrims hosted the Wampanoag for three no doubt anxious days. The same men killed and enslaved Wampanoags immediately before and after the feast. They, their newly arrived English comrades and their children roasted hundreds of neighboring Indians alive just 16 years later, and two generations afterwards cleared nearly the whole of New England of its indigenous “savages,” while enthusiastically enriching themselves through the invention of transoceanic, sophisticated means of enslaving millions. The Mayflower’s cultural heirs are programmed to find glory in their own depravity, and savagery in their most helpless victims, who can only redeem themselves by accepting the inherent goodness of white Americans.
Thanksgiving encourages these cognitive cripples in their madness, just as it is designed to do. | 1 |
Last week, after the New York Giants player Odell Beckham Jr., kneeled for our national anthem, he scored a pair of touchdowns in the team s 27-24 loss to the Eagles and celebrated the scores in very different ways Very disgusting ways.Odell Beckham is the perfect heel pic.twitter.com/6oLFAsnj2U Dan Gartland (@Dan_Gartland) September 24, 2017Sports Illustrated reported: After an impressive toe-tap catch in the back of the end zone, Beckham Jr. drew a flag for pretending like he was peeing on the Lincoln Financial Field surface.Odell Beckham raises his fist after scoring for a second time today pic.twitter.com/dy2G3mgEul Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 24, 2017This week, the disrespectful NFL player had a much different experience on the field:The alarming Giants season is going full disaster.Odell Beckham Jr. was carted off the field in the closing minutes of Sunday s home loss, 27-22, to the Chargers, the team s fourth (and best) wide receiver to be hurt on the day.Beckham went down on a pass that fell incomplete with about 4 minutes left in the game, the Giants up 22-20 at the time, before they promptly blew the game. He rose for the catch then came down awkwardly, his ankle appearing to get caught under cornerback Casey Howard.He has a broken left ankle. ESPN reported he will seek a second opinion before deciding on the next course of action. NYPHere s the video:Here's the Odell Beckham Jr. injury. It's bad. Really bad. pic.twitter.com/TLChjKpFOG NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) October 8, 2017-NYP | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential front-runner candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled proposals for reforming U.S. healthcare that included repealing Obamacare, allowing prescription drugs to be imported, and turning the Medicaid program for the poor into block grants to states. The plan also calls for the sale of health insurance plans across state lines, full deduction of health insurance premiums from income tax and adds: "We must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance." (here) Trump, who is the front-runner in the race to become the Republican nominee in November’s presidential election, is also proposing allowing individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HAS) to pay for out-of-pocket expenses. Contributions to HSAs would be tax-free and could be passed on to heirs without any tax penalty. The proposals include requiring “...price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure.” On drug prices, Trump departs from standard Republican policy by calling for lowering barriers to cheaper imported pharmaceuticals. “Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers,” the statement says, adding that “Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America.” The proposals also call for reforming mental health programs and institutions, but provides few details about how to do this. Trump also called for tighter enforcement of immigration laws, a key plank in his campaign platform, as a way to bring down healthcare costs. “Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments,” the proposal statement says. Democrats were quick to criticize the plan. “As Democrats have said all along, Donald Trump is not an outsider engaging in a hostile takeover of the GOP – in fact, he embodies the Republican Party. “The fact that his healthcare ‘plan’ is clearly cribbed from worn-out and false GOP talking points proves that Trump is just another Republican politician who wants to take healthcare away from millions of Americans without offering any substantive alternative,” Democratic National Committee Communications Director Luis Miranda said in a statement. | 1 |
Now that the election is over, Donald Trump is deciding who he will appoint to fill his cabinet. Although most the names on his list are fairly horrifying, none more so than who he is considering for White House Chief of Staff. Trump’s top pick is reportedly former Breitbart bigwig, Steve Bannon.
So what does a chief of staff do ? Well, the person holding this position is often called “the most powerful man in Washington.”
“The duties of the White House chief of staff vary, yet traditionally encompass the following, such as: select and supervise key White House staff, control access to the Oval Office and the president, manage communications and information flow, and negotiate with Congress, executive branch agencies, and external political groups to implement the president’s agenda.”
“In fulfilling these duties, the chief of Staff oversees and coordinates the efforts of the following offices within the EOP and White House Office: the Council of Economic Advisers, National Security staff, Office of Management and Budget, Office of Legislative Affairs, and Office of Management and Administration, to name a few.”
Okay, so that’s an important job. So who the hell is Steve Bannon? Not surprisingly, he is the worst of the worst.
David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Movement summed it up quite nicely: Bannon “stepped down at Breitbart to run the final few months of Trump’s campaign, but for years he has run one of the most popular far, far right wing websites, Breitbart. It masquerades as a news site but it’s home to the alt-right, as Bannon has bragged. In other words, the white supremacists and white nationalists, the anti-Semites, the anti-LGBT crowd, the anti-Black crowd, the anti-diversity, anti-feminism, anti-Obama movement. Racists, homophobes, bigots of every stripe get their ‘news’ at Breitbart. And it got Trump elected.”
According to court filings from his divorce proceedings, Bannon is not only a sadistic wife beater , but he is also every bit as anti-Semitic as Breitbart itself. His wife testified that he fought against allowing his daughters to attend an upscale school because of the number of Jewish children that attended.
“He said that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiny brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.”
This man , this is who Trump wants to have serving as the White House Chief of Staff. His advisors are encouraging him to choose RNC Chair Reince Priebus, but we all know how Trump is with taking advice from people who might actually know what they’re talking about. Who cares if Bannon actually knows anything about how to run the damn country, Trump just wants the biggest bigot he can find.
Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Share this Article! | 0 |
PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi s center-right coalition on Sunday looked set to win by a narrow margin a regional vote in Sicily seen as a crucial test of national trends ahead of forthcoming parliamentary elections, exit polls suggested. The Sicilian vote could mark a striking comeback for the 81-year-old four-times prime minister, whose candidate was predicted to have beaten off a tough challenge from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The center-left, led by Matteo Renzi s ruling Democratic Party, looked certain to finish a distant third after internal feuding wrecked its chances of retaining power on the Mediterranean island that it had governed since 2012. RAI state television said Nello Musumeci, backed by center-right parties, including Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!), would win between 35 percent and 39 percent of the vote. The 5-Star s Giancarlo Cancelleri was seen taking between 33 and 37 percent. Another exit poll for private broadcaster La 7 put Musumeci on 36-40 percent and Cancelleri on 34-38 percent. The center-left s Fabrizio Micari was seen 20 points behind the frontrunner in both surveys, followed by Claudio Fava, the candidate of a cluster of left-wing parties. The vote count will begin on Monday at 8 a.m (0700 GMT) and Musumeci s lead is inside the pollsters margin of error. The national election, to be held by May at the latest, is almost certain to produce a hung parliament, polls suggest, but a resurgent center-right coalition with Berlusconi at the forefront looks set to win most votes and seats. The billionaire media tycoon was widely written off after being expelled from public office following a tax fraud conviction in 2013, but he returned to the political fray after open heart surgery last year and campaigned actively in Sicily. The regional election looks like being a set-back for 5-Star. Its new leader, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, had campaigned tirelessly in Sicily since the summer as the maverick movement tried to win control of its first Italian region. Nonetheless 5-Star, which leads most national opinion polls, still won far more votes than any other single party in Sicily, with the second-placed group, Forza Italia, seen taking less than half as many ballots. The weak showing for the center-left piles more pressure on PD leader and former Prime Minister Renzi, whose party has splintered following a raft of vote setbacks in recent years. Sicily is one of Europe s poorest regions and is notorious in Italy for its bloated public payrolls, wasteful administration, corruption and organized crime. [nL8N1JH57F] Unemployment stands at over 22 percent, twice the national average, and youth unemployment is at 57.2 percent, compared with some 36 percent nationally. Immigration was also a hot button issue in the election campaign as the island has become the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya in recent years. Turnout in the election was low, just 36.4 percent at 7 p.m, three hours before polls closed, down from 37.7 percent at the same time in the last regional ballot in 2012, when the final tally was a record low of 47.4 percent. 5-Star officials said before the vote that a low turnout may hurt them because their loose party structure means they lack the organization and resources to get supporters to the polls. 5-Star has around 28 percent of support nationally, according to opinion polls, slightly ahead of the PD. The center-right bloc is made up of Berlusconi s conservative Forza Italia and the anti-immigrant Northern League, each with about 14 percent of the national vote, flanked by the far-right Brothers of Italy on around 5 percent. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton Seeks Even More Unfit Secretary of State Than Her October 28, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
Having never read any medieval German folk tales, Hillary Clinton is counting her chickens before they've hatched and preparing to hand out jobs that no one has handed her to hand out. She's busy planning her fantasy cabinet for her fantasy administration.
And her big pick makes sense.
Reportedly she would like to make Joe Biden the Secretary of State. Biden is the obvious choice. He's arrogant, dumb and brimming with bright ideas like just giving Iran money or splitting Iraq into little pieces. Obviously this wouldn't be a competency pick. The last time we had someone qualified as Secretary of State was during President Bush's time in office.
Then Democrats decided they would give the job as a consolation prize to failed presidential candidates. Because our foreign policy is just that important.
And who could be counted on to make an even bigger mess than Hillary Clinton or John Kerry... Joe Biden. It's a perfect plan. If you want a fall guy to blame everything on, they don't come any more obvious than Joe Biden.
And if you want someone shadowed by the soft bigotry of low expectations, you've gotta go Joe.
Joe Biden could accidentally start WW3 and everyone would shrug and say, "That's just Joe." | 1 |
Obama's DOJ Also Obstructed Clinton Foundation Investigation October
We now know that Lynch and Obama's DOJ are obstructing the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails. The biased media is predictably spinning this as the FBI being in the wrong and Hillary's backers at the DOJ being in the right.
But it also appears that the DOJ was obstructing any investigations of Hillary. Including that of the Clinton Foundation.
The FBI field office in New York had done the most work on the Clinton Foundation case and received help from the FBI field office in Little Rock, the people familiar with the matter said.
In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the Justice Department, according to these people. By all accounts, the meeting didn’t go well.
Some said that is because the FBI didn’t present compelling evidence to justify more aggressive pursuit of the Clinton Foundation, and that the career public integrity prosecutors in the room simply believed it wasn’t a very strong case. Others said that from the start, the Justice Department officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case.
“That was one of the weirdest meetings I’ve ever been to,” one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.
Justice Department officials told the FBI at the meeting they wouldn’t authorize more aggressive investigative techniques, such as subpoenas, formal witness interviews, or grand-jury activity. But the FBI officials believed they were well within their authority to pursue the leads and methods already under way, these people said.
Of course the DOJ wouldn't authorize investigations of the Democratic Party's chosen. That's the type of elemental corruption at work in the system. | 1 |
These videos are very disturbing. Americans are headed down this path if we don t fight back against the Left who put political correctness before our national security A German court has ruled that Islamists who patrolled a city s streets as Sharia police did not break the law and will not be prosecuted.Here is what a Sharia Patrol looks like:Nine were arrested in September 2014 after patrolling streets in Wuppertal, western Germany. They wore bright orange jackets with the words Sharia police . They told passers-by not to frequent discos, casinos or bars.The court said they had not violated laws on uniforms and public gatherings.Prosecutors have now lodged an appeal.The group of Salafists ultra-conservative Islamists included Sven Lau, a preacher whose passport was seized this year after he visited Syria and a photo surfaced, showing him posing on a tank, with a Kalashnikov rifle slung around his neck. He is suspected of trying to recruit Muslims to join jihadists fighting in Syria or Iraq and has spent some time in prison previously. He said he had gone to war-torn Syria in 2013 on a humanitarian mission.Sharia, the revealed, sacred law of Islam, governs all aspects of a Muslim s life.The group s appearance at night in Wuppertal, in the industrial Ruhr region, triggered sharp criticism in Germany. A film of their patrol appeared on YouTube:The action was condemned by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, who said it was harmful to Muslims .The group also carried notices proclaiming in English a Sharia Controlled Zone . The notices spelled out prohibitions like those in force in some Gulf Arab countries, outlawing alcohol, drugs, gambling, music and concerts, pornography and prostitution. Activists in the anti-Islam Pegida movement campaigning to stop immigration to Germany demonstrated in Wuppertal last year. They have staged regular marches against the Islamisation of Germany nationwide. Via: BBC | 1 |
By all accounts Loretta Lynch, president Obama’s choice to replace Eric Holder as attorney general, was very impressive in the first day of hearings. In fact, she was so impressive that even the right-wing bloggers at Powerline called her the Ernie Banks of nominees, which, judging from their eulogy for the real Ernie Banks, is very good indeed. But then they also said the committee was throwing softballs, so the metaphors got a little confusing. It was a very good day for Loretta Lynch, much to their chagrin. She was appropriately confident, dignified and boring and thus made for a dull affair that was unlikely to derail her nomination.
The second day of hearings, in which both Republicans and Democrats on the committee invited both people to testify, was a little bit more lively. We knew it would be when the committee announced their guests. The Democrats offered a group of former colleagues and law professors. The Republicans offered a couple of conservative law professors to denounce President Obama’s usurpation of democracy — and some far-right-wing activists to complain about being victimized.
The first person to testify was someone who had never met or had any knowledge of Loretta Lynch. This was former reporter and current right-wing icon Sharyl Attkisson who told a harrowing story of harassment, including her questionable allegation that the government bugged her computer, obviously shocking the likes of Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch to the depth of their souls. It’s one thing for the government to relentlessly pursue reporters like James Risen who report serious and important stories. They wholeheartedly support the Justice Department in such cases. Attkisson, however, resigned from CBS News because she felt the entire network was biased in favor of the Obama administration and refused to allow her to pursue the scandals she just knew were there. (These were scandals like Benghazi and Fast and Furious — scandals that have been investigated approximately 756 times under every committee in the Congress and have turned up zilch.) Somehow they’ve managed to morph this professional dispute into a story of Attkisson being victimized by the authoritarian police state.
It would have been interesting to hear testimony about the government’s pursuit of leaks and reporters over the past few years, which really is a scandal and which should form the basis of questioning for the new attorney general. But since both parties are generally in favor of this practice, that wasn’t to be. Instead the Republicans called one of their celebrity martyrs to testify about how hard it is for a conservative to live in this world.
The next activist they called to testify about Loretta Lynch was a man who admittedly has absolutely no knowledge of her but had something to say about how Eric Holder was very mean to police officers around the country. He is an African-American sheriff from Wisconsin named David Clarke who up to this point is best known for his appearances on “Fox and Friends” in which he says things like, “the NAACP is nothing more than a propaganda entity for the left” and that the behavior of black people is the reason they are getting shot so often. He suggested that the federal government is waging a war on police and should butt out of local business.
The final activist of the day was a citizen who has been working her heart out trying to protect our electoral system from the scourge of nonexistent voter fraud. That would be a woman named Catherine Englebrecht, who runs a far-right-wing group called True the Vote, which sends out groups of “observers” to African-American and Hispanic polling places to make sure they’re not stealing the votes of decent Americans. Upon Eric Holder’s resignation, her group put out a press release stating that Holder had carried out a “radical, racialist assault on voting rights.” She was there to complain about the Department of Justice failing to immediately interview her over the alleged IRS scandal and to excoriate them over the “nightmare of citizen targeting.” She then testified that Loretta Lynch was wrong in saying that laws had been passed throughout the South to prevent some people from voting. Sen. Jeff Sessions pointed out that an Alabama Tea Party leader had been victimized by the IRS and nobody at the IRS cares. Sen. Orrin Hatch expressed his deepest sympathy for what she’s been through and assured her that they were going to get to bottom of it. Her voice cracked with emotion as she said, “Thank you, sir.” This was the first committee hearing of the new Senate Judiciary Committee under GOP rule, a hearing to determine the fitness of a presidential nominee to the most powerful law enforcement office in the land, and they called a group of partisan crackpots and grass-roots loons to relitigate moldy pseudo-scandals and complain about nonexistent government persecution. And it’s not as if they couldn’t have found some real scandals to talk about. The Obama Justice Department is hardly perfect. But they are married to their Foxified version of reality and simply can’t see the forest for the trees. The whole spectacle was a nostalgic trip back in time to the days of Clinton madness when the judiciary committees were able to leverage any public hearing into a scandal fest. The press seems less inclined to go along these days, a fact that Sharyl Attkisson would surely attribute to its political bias. But the truth is that these “scandals” are just sad echoes of the scandal-mongering of the 1990s. The energy is gone, the issues seem pale and lifeless. Not that there was ever any “there” there, but they are now just going through the motions. But I hope Democrats don’t get too complacent. President Obama has never been able to get their scandal mojo rising. But there’s every reason to suspect that this is just an off-season workout for what they see as a return to the big leagues. If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency you can be sure there will be a return to the fiery investigations whenever the Republicans hold either house of Congress. And if history serves, the press will likely be eager to join the team. But this sad little show reveals just how much they are in need of some spring training. Loretta Lynch may be a genial public servant in the mold of Ernie Banks, but when it comes to scandal management, Clinton is Babe Ruth. They are going to need to up their game significantly. | 0 |
It s not often that the stupidity of a racist has layers. Typically a slur is aimed at a minority that is easily recognizable, disgusting and crass followed by a video being released and the internet calling the bigot in question out for it. Occasionally, the imbecile will be found and karma will collect their job, or in the very least, they re forced to quit the internet.In this case, the story has one added hilarious twist: The dumbass shouts the slur, loses his job and gets called out and he couldn t even get it right. During his hand-clapping chorus of Beaner! Beaner! Wetback! Wetback! the poster child for more education funding ignores one fun fact: The woman he is shouting at for being Latino tells him repeatedly that she is, in fact, of Arabic descent.That in and of itself shows just what a doofus the a-hole is. In the obvious circles he has to run in, being Arabic is far worse than being Hispanic. Hispanics are just drug dealers and rapists while Arabic people are all packing suicide vests. Maybe he felt if he called her something as clever as towel head she would detonate.Or perhaps he really is just that stupid.The man, an Oregonian identified as an employee of a small company, Wolcott Plumbing, now has bigger fish to fry. He ll be waiting in line Monday at the unemployment office. After local station KGB got hold of the video and reported on it, a company official wrote: First of all, this is a very upsetting situation. Under no circumstances do I personally nor do we as a company condone the use of abusive language of any kind to anyone. Upon further investigation today, I learned and confirmed it was one of my employees in the video. This employee was immediately terminated. When will idiots like this racist numbskull learn that those cell phones aimed at them while they spew their stupidity are recording? Hopefully not until after every single one is exposed.Featured image via screen capture | 1 |
It s so much fun watching Kellyanne Conway get humiliated on live television.On Monday morning, the wicked witch of the White House appeared on the Today Show to whine about how the media covers Donald Trump.Specifically, she bitched about the media covering what Trump says on Twitter. This obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little what he does as president, Conway started before NBC host Craig Melvin pointed out that Twitter is Trump s preferred method of communication with the American people. Conway replied by accusing Melvin of lying. Melvin fired back and instantly owned Conway with a simple fact. Well, he hasn t given an interview in three weeks. So lately it has been his preferred method. Here s the video via Twitter.WATCH: This obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little what he does as president @KellyannePolls pic.twitter.com/iyS3WnHoxh TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 5, 2017Indeed, Trump has especially used Twitter heavily ever since the London terrorist attack on Saturday.He attacked London s mayor and tried to use the tragedy to scare people into supporting his Muslim ban.Trump even threw a temper tantrum on Monday morning because the courts have blocked his unconstitutional ban.But Trump has used Twitter repeatedly like a drunken sailor since taking office and everything he says should be covered and scrutinized by the media. If Kellyanne Conway thinks the media shouldn t cover Trump s tweets she should take his phone away from him and make him quit social media entirely.Until then, Trump s Twitter feed is fair game.Also, why are networks still letting Conway spew her bullshit on the air?For quite some time, she had been kept off the air because of the amount of lying she does every time she makes an appearance. Now she is all of sudden back on television. If the media should be criticized for anything, it s the way they keep giving Trump s minions a platform to lie to the American people.But at least Craig Melvin called Conway out.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
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I am currently working as hard as I can to see that Donald Trump is defeated, that Hillary Clinton is elected president, and that Democrats gain control of the US House and Senate. The day after the election, working with millions of grass-roots activists, I intend to do everything possible to make certain that the new president and Congress implement the Democratic platform, the most progressive agenda of any major political party in the history of the United States.
That agenda includes overturning the disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding Social Security, breaking up "too-big-to-fail banks," making public colleges and universities tuition-free for the middle class, and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. It also includes pay equity for women, a new approach toward trade, aggressive action to combat climate change, raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, lowering prescription drug prices, a significant movement toward universal health care, and major reforms in our criminal justice and immigration systems.
If this election has taught us anything, it is that the American people are sick and tired of the economic, political, and media status quo. They are tired of a rigged economy in which millions work longer hours for lower wages while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. They are tired of billionaires like Trump and large profitable corporations not paying a nickel in federal income taxes while the middle class pays their fair share to support governmental services. They are tired of a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and others to spend hundreds of millions to elect candidates who will represent the wealthy and the powerful. They are tired of corporate media that focus on political gossip and look at elections as personality contests, rather than provide for a serious discussion of the major crises facing our country.
The anger and frustration of the American people, all across the political spectrum, is palpable. They want a government that represents the needs of working families and not just billionaires. They want bold action to rebuild the shrinking middle class, not inside-the-beltway palliatives written by corporate lobbyists.
At a time of massive political discontent, when millions not only are contemptuous of the major political parties but are also actually giving up on democracy, we need a new administration that has both vision and courage. We need vision from the top to point the way toward a new America that is more inclusive and egalitarian -- which boldly addresses income and wealth inequality, poverty, and the needs of the uninsured. We need an administration that has the courage to take on the powerful special interests -- corporate America, Wall Street, the insurance and drug companies, the fossil fuel industry -- who stand in the way of real change and whose greed is destroying this country. - Advertisement -
There is no moral excuse for the top one-tenth of 1 percent owning as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, for one family (the Waltons) having more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of our population, for the number of billionaires increasing by ten-fold since 2000 while we continue to have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any industrialized country on earth.
There is no rational reason why we remain the only major country not to guarantee health care to all as a right or provide paid family and medical leave, or why we have more people in jail than any other country on earth at the same time as we have outrageously high levels of youth unemployment in minority communities.
Too many Americans are living in despair and hopelessness. Too many of our brothers and sisters are turning to drugs, alcohol and suicide to avoid the painful economic realities of their lives. Too many others are turning to rage and bigotry as they try to make sense of their declining standard of living.
At a time of hateful political division, a new president can bring our people together by leading and appointing an administration that will fight for working people. We need a secretary of treasury who is prepared to take on the greed and illegal behavior of Wall Street, not someone who comes from Wall Street or will leave office to go to Wall Street. We need a trade representative who understands that our current trade policies have failed, and that we must adopt a trade approach that represents workers and not the CEOs of large corporations. We need an attorney general who is prepared to vigorously enforce antitrust laws and prosecute bankers and corporate leaders who break the law.
This is an historic and pivotal moment in American history. Now is the time for our next president to rally the American people against Wall Street and corporate greed and stand up vigorously for the declining middle class. - Advertisement - | 1 |
(Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Republican U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney to be director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a senior transition official said on Friday. The following is a list of Republican Trump’s selections for top jobs in his administration; all the posts but those of national security adviser, the White House chief of staff, White House director of the National Economic Council and White House strategist require Senate confirmation: Sessions, 69, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country store owner, the Alabama senator and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. U.S. Representative Pompeo, 52, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government’s sweeping collection of Americans’ communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. Ross, 79, heads the private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. His net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy. He blames the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization, for causing massive U.S. factory job losses. Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname “Mad Dog.” He was once rebuked for saying in 2005: “It’s fun to shoot some people.” DeVos, 58, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for the expansion of charter schools. Perry, 66, adds to the list of oil drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who have been picked for senior positions in Trump’s Cabinet. The selections have worried environmentalists but cheered an oil and gas industry eager for expansion. Perry, who also briefly ran in the 2016 presidential race, would have to be confirmed by the Senate to head the Energy Department, which is responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons program. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of President Barack Obama’s measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits with the president-elect’s promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011, and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is opposed to abortion. The final leadership role of Kelly’s 45-year career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States’ southern border with Mexico. Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson previously indicated reluctance to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. Carson is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. Zinke, 55, a first-term Republican representative and a member of the House subcommittee on natural resources, has voted for legislation that would weaken environmental safeguards on public lands. He has taken stances favoring coal, a fossil fuel that suffered during the Obama administration. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks lawmakers on their environmental record, gave Zinke an extremely low lifetime score of 3 percent. Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc, which runs the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close, and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor. Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a “global power structure” that had robbed America’s working class. Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 57, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under President Barack Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign policy. U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney, 49, a South Carolina Republican, is a fiscal conservative. He was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney was first elected to Congress in 2010. Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to serve as its chairman and CEO in 2006. A civil engineer by training, the Texan joined the world’s largest energy company in 1975 and led several of its operations in the United States as well as in Yemen, Thailand and Russia. As Exxon’s chief executive, he maintained close ties with Moscow and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012, and was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Company. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. Mnuchin, 53, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California’s largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized the bank for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. Recently re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus will give up his party post to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump’s agenda. The 44-year-old was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump’s campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump’s dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump’s gatekeeper and agenda-setter. | 0 |
DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - A Russian-sponsored Syrian peace initiative has not been scheduled yet, Russia s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Reuters on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam. The Syrian Congress on National Dialogue had been expected to be held in southern Russia on Nov. 18 but was postponed. | 1 |
So Obama is skipping Nancy Reagan s funeral for the South by Southwest festival in Austin. It s a big event for the tech world but you d think Obama would feel a duty to go to the funeral of the former First Lady. Our president is like a petulant child who does exactly what he wants to do without regard for anyone else. He s sending Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton is going what a snub! A White House official confirmed this afternoon that President Barack Obama will not be in attendance at former First Lady Nancy Reagan s funeral on Friday, instead opting to attend a popular multimedia festival in Texas.Obama will be represented at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library by his wife, Michelle. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she will be attending the service in Simi Valley, California, as well. In late February, Obama drew widespread criticism after skipping the funeral for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The president is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Friday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. The annual event features movie screenings, musical performances and conferences on interactive media and technology, and has become known as a must-attend date for those in the tech world and Silicon Valley. Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
WASHINGTON — President Obama sought to spotlight the effects of global warming Saturday as he prepared to travel to Alaska this coming week.
“Alaskans are already living with its effects,” he said in his weekly address.
The state — currently experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record — is expected to see its average temperatures rise by 6 to 12 degrees if nothing is done to halt climate change, Obama said. Four villages there are already in imminent danger from rising sea waters as sea ice and glaciers melt.
“This is all real. This is happening to our fellow Americans right now,” he said. “Think about that. If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we’d do everything in our power to protect ourselves. Climate change poses the same threat, right now.”
The president is striking a tricky balance between environmental conservation and energy production — he has long supported expanded oil drilling off the Alaskan coast, the very fuel that has contributed to global warming.
Obama is facing sharp criticism from environmentalists for his Alaska trip, which begins Monday. One activist organization, CREDO, said the president’s visit is a symbol of “the self-defeating hypocrisy of his policies on energy and climate.”
“Climate leaders don’t drill the Arctic,” the group said in an online petition. “Talking about the urgency of climate change while allowing massive fossil fuel extraction isn’t leadership, it’s hypocrisy.”
Obama said in his weekly address that he shares concerns about offshore oil drilling, noting he remembers the BP oil spill in the Gulf “all too well.” But he said the United States still has to rely on oil and gas while it is transitioning toward renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
“As long as that’s the case, I believe we should rely more on domestic production than on foreign imports, and we should demand the highest safety standards in the industry — our own,” Obama said.
He noted that while his administration issued a permit to Shell to drill off the Alaskan coast, it also mandated strict safety standards that the company has yet to meet.
“It’s a testament to how rigorous we’ve applied those standards that Shell has delayed and limited its exploration off Alaska while trying to meet them,” Obama said. “The bottom line is, safety has been and will continue to be my administration’s top priority when it comes to oil and gas exploration off America’s precious coasts.”
During his three-day trip, Obama is scheduled to participate in a climate change conference in Anchorage, tour a glacier and travel to coastal fishing towns.
“I’m looking forward to talking with Alaskans about how we can work together to make America the global leader on climate change around the globe,” he said. “Because what’s happening in Alaska is happening to us. It’s our wakeup call, and as long as I’m president, America will lead the world to meet the threat of climate change before it’s too late.” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is weighing a strategy that could allow more aggressive U.S. responses to Iran s forces, its Shi ite Muslim proxies in Iraq and Syria, and its support for militant groups, according to six current and former U.S. officials. The proposal was prepared by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other top officials, and presented to Trump at a National Security Council meeting on Friday, the sources said. It could be agreed and made public before the end of September, two of the sources said. All of the sources are familiar with the draft and requested anonymity because Trump has yet to act on it. In contrast to detailed instructions handed down by President Barack Obama and some of his predecessors, Trump is expected to set broad strategic objectives and goals for U.S. policy but leave it to U.S. military commanders, diplomats and other U.S. officials to implement the plan, said a senior administration official. Whatever we end up with, we want to implement with allies to the greatest extent possible, the official added. The White House declined to comment. The plan is intended to increase the pressure on Tehran to curb its ballistic missile programs and support for militants, several sources said. I would call it a broad strategy for the range of Iranian malign activities: financial materials, support for terror, destabilization in the region, especially Syria and Iraq and Yemen, said another senior administration official. The proposal also targets cyber espionage and other activity and potentially nuclear proliferation, the official said. The administration is still debating a new stance on a 2015 agreement, sealed by Obama, to curb Iran s nuclear weapons program. The draft urges consideration of tougher economic sanctions if Iran violates the 2015 agreement. The proposal includes more aggressive U.S. interceptions of Iranian arms shipments such as those to Houthi rebels in Yemen and Palestinian groups in Gaza and Egypt s Sinai, a current official and a knowledgeable former U.S. official said. The plan also recommends the United States react more aggressively in Bahrain, whose Sunni Muslim monarchy has been suppressing majority Shi ites, who are demanding reforms, the sources said. In addition, U.S. naval forces could react more forcefully when harassed by armed speed boats operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran s paramilitary and espionage contingent, three of the sources said. U.S. ships have fired flares and warning shots to drive off IRGC boats that made what were viewed as threatening approaches after refusing to heed radio warnings in the passageway for 35 percent of the world s seaborne petroleum exports. U.S. commanders now are permitted to open fire only when they think their vessels and the lives of their crews are endangered. The sources offered no details of the proposed changes in the rules, which are classified. The plan does not include an escalation of U.S. military activity in Syria and Iraq. Trump s national security aides argued that a more muscular military response to Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq would complicate the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State, which they argued should remain the top priority, four of the sources said. Mattis and McMaster, as well as the heads of the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Forces Command, have opposed allowing U.S. commanders in Syria and Iraq to react more forcefully to provocations by the IRGC, Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed Shi ite militias, the four sources said. The advisers are concerned that more permissive rules of engagement would divert U.S. forces from defeating the remnants of Islamic State, they said. Moreover, looser rules could embroil the United States in a conflict with Iran while U.S. forces remain overstretched, and Trump has authorized a small troop increase for Afghanistan, said one senior administration official. A former U.S. official said Hezbollah and Iranian-backed Shi ite militias in Iraq have been very helpful in recapturing vast swaths of the caliphate that Islamic State declared in Syria and Iran in 2014. U.S. troops supporting Kurdish and Sunni Arab fighters battling Islamic State in Syria have been wrestling with how to respond to hostile actions by Iranian-backed forces. In some of the most notable cases, U.S. aircraft shot down two Iranian-made drones in June. Both were justified as defensive acts narrowly tailored to halt an imminent threat on the ground. Trump s opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), poses a dilemma for policymakers. Most of his national security aides favor remaining in the pact, as do U.S. allies Israel and Saudi Arabia despite their reservations about Iran s adherence to the agreement, said U.S. officials involved in the discussions. The main issue for us was to get the president not to discard the JCPOA. But he had very strong feelings, backed by (U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations) Nikki Haley, that they should be more aggressive with Iran, one of the two U.S. officials said. Almost all the strategies presented to him were ones that tried to preserve the JCPOA but lean forward on these other (issues.) | 0 |
Top GOP Official Ed Rollins was interviewed by a very angry Lou Dobbs. He was furious with the ringside performance of John Kelly aka drama queen during President Trump s UN speech (some are saying it was before the speech). The Chief of Staff should be behind the scenes How about he should be fired because he s not even a supporter of President Trump! HE VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON!Ed Rollins: At least what I ve heard from sources inside who know Kelly, he is an honorable man and a good general. He didn t vote for him. He voted for Hillary. So I don t think basically he is a Trump supporter or ideologically a Trump supporter.Whaaaaaat????? How can President Trump have a Chief of Staff that doesn t even follow his belief in policy?There is controversy over whether Kelly was was drama queen during or before Trump s speech. If it was before then this is a great case of the Democrats trying to sabotage Trump again. No matter what happened, it s still shocking that Trump would have a Chief of Staff who isn t on bird with his policy. | 1 |
Fox News Channel has canceled its news program Red Eye. [According to AdWeek‘s TVNewser, which first broke the news, the last episode of Red Eye will air Friday, April 7 at 3 a. m. The irreverent news program with the timeslot launched in 2007 with host Greg Gutfeld, who left the show in 2015. Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart played a pivotal role in Red Eye‘s inception. Breitbart was a frequent guest on the program, which also regularly featured Gutfeld’s “repulsive sidekick” Bill Schulz, “ombudsman” Andy Levy and Tom Shillue, who became permanent host of the show in 2015. In a 2012 segment honoring the late conservative icon, Gutfeld said that Red Eye “would not exist” without Breitbart’s involvement. “It was him who talked to Fox to get me a job,” Gutfeld explained shortly after Breitbart’s passing. “I was living in England, and he talked to people at Fox. I met with people at Fox, and the next thing you know it was Red Eye. And everybody here who’s sitting here … we never would have met if it wasn’t for Andrew Breitbart bringing us together, because that’s what Breitbart does. ” The March 2, 2012 episode of Red Eye was dedicated to Breitbart, with the show airing clips of the late conservative icon’s most memorable appearances. In a column for Breitbart News following his departure, Gutfeld said Red Eye was successful because of a “beautiful deal made between its staff and its viewers. ” “The Redeye gang would refuse to underestimate the viewer’s intelligence, and the viewers would forgive us for our incoherence,” Gutfeld explained. “We attracted people that we would drink with, given the chance. These were late night types — up in the lonely hours for different reasons. Some had graveyard shifts. Others were nursing moms. Many, I learned were sick — or in hospitals, desperate for a distraction. ” According to TVNewser, current Red Eye hosts Tom Shillue and Andy Levy will remain with Fox News. A representative for Fox News Channel said the show’s 3 a. m. slot would be filled by repeats of Tucker Carlson Tonight. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0 |
This is a shocker! The very dry and serious Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry has been caught in a sexual affair with a Vegas beauty. FOX News announced he s taking some time off to sort things out . A married Fox News host is taking some time off after his mistress did a tell all revealing salacious details of their alleged affair.Natalia Lima spoke with In Touch and shared how her relationship with Fox News chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry, 44, went from innocent banter to something she claims was far more sexual over the course of the past five years. Lima, a Las Vegas hostess, also shared text messages she claims were exchanged between herself and Henry detailing sexual acts they had performed on one another and hoped to perform in the future. Fox News said in a statement shortly after details of the alleged affair were revealed in the magazine; We recently became aware of Ed s personal issues and he s taking some time off to work things out. Soon after the story about his affair was released Henry was seen smiling outside his home in his gym gear. He was then seen wearing his wedding ring as he took a walk around his neighborhood in an Under Armour shirt and Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap.Lima also said that Henry had a thing for bubble baths, and once brought over Mr. Bubble when he visited her at her condo for a hookup. He never gave me anything, but one time I was really stressed out about money so he did cover my rent, said Lima.She added that he did not withdraw the money from an ATM however as that would have been a red flag to his wife. One time he said, It s not like a crazy hookup, it s like you are my girlfriend, said Lima. He never really talked about his wife he mentioned her a couple of times but I never really asked about her, either. The relationship soured Lima claims after her Twitter account was hacked earlier this year, after which she said Henry began acting kinda weird. Henry deleted all of his tweets prior to January 23 on his Twitter account. They last met up in February and after promising to contact her the next day she did not hear from Henry again. It s like he used me. But I should ve know better, said Lima. Prior to their relationship turning sexual Henry shared photos of himself golfing or in front of Air Force One with Lima, but an October exchange is incredibly graphic between the pair. mmmmm yes bath w you, writes Henry. Lima responds with three kissing face emojis and then writes; Why are emojis so big? Lima followed that with emojis of a bathtub and a kissing couple. Henry then responded by sending his own emojis three unpeeled bananas and three pairs of female lips. Lima responds with an Lol and three female emoji lips. Henry shoots back; yummy woman, make me so, and then once again sends emojis of unpeeled bananas, this time upping the number to four.Read more: Daily Mail | 1 |
Republicans are desperately trying to convince America that Hillary Clinton can t be trusted with national security, but they conveniently ignore how they have put our nation in danger themselves.Once again, Republicans are obsessed with Hilary Clinton s private emails after the FBI declined to charge her with any of the imaginary crimes Republicans think she committed.So they are interrogating FBI Director James Comey over the decision because they didn t get their way.However, it should be pointed out that this whole scandal is just another manufactured persecution effort designed to sabotage the election prospects of their main opponent in the presidential election.According to Slate, Hillary Clinton did not even come close to compromising national security because even if Russia had hacked her private server the information gleaned would have been of little interest.Seven of the eight email chains dealt with CIA drone strikes, which are classified top secret/special access program .Everyone in the world knows about these strikes; nongovernment organizations, such as New America, tabulate them; newspapers around the world including the New York Times, where some of the same reporters are now writing so breathlessly about Clinton s careless handling of classified information cover these strikes routinely.The other top secret email chain described a conversation with the president of Malawi. Conversations with foreign leaders are inherently classified.In other words, even if terrorists had hacked Clinton s server they would not have learned anything they couldn t have learned from simply picking up a newspaper.Furthermore, the House Republicans conducting these witch hunts have actually put national security at risk AND they also use private emails.As it turns out, Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Rep. Trey Gowdy also use private emails.Alternet reports that Chaffetz uses his private email address on his business card instead of his official government email address and Trey Gowdy also uses his website email address.Here s an image of Chaffetz s business card.Gowdy even outed a CIA operative by releasing documents to the public as he was investigating Clinton for somehow exposing our national security to outside risks. I don t recall him ever calling for himself to be investigated for that.Alternet tried reaching Gowdy for comment but he ignored the request which means he refuses to discuss his own private email uses. It s true that there are legitimate issues with Clinton failing to segregate work and personal email, Alternet conceded. But it s troubling that Members of Congress handling sensitive investigations into national security matters such as the Benghazi incident don t appear to be willing to be transparent about their own email practices. Indeed, Congressional Republicans are not the only hypocrites when it comes to emails. Former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell also used private emails and received classified information on them when they worked in the Bush Administration. And let s not forget the millions of emails that the Bush White House deleted.Clearly, there is a double standard here. Apparently, Republicans have no problem putting national security at risk with their own failure to keep classified information off of private email servers but when a Democrat does it they immediately pounce as if it has never been done before. They declare that it s some major scandal even as they are doing the same thing.If Republicans want Hillary Clinton to be arrested so much, they should voluntarily turn themselves in to FBI custody for doing the same thing and much worse. That means President Bush, Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Trey Gowdy, and Jason Chaffetz should all be slapped with shiny metal bracelets. But we all know that Republicans won t do that.Featured Image: Flickr/Flickr | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. President Trump pledged to work closely with Japan on security and economic issues during a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House. The president reaffirmed his support for a defense treaty with Japan that he had questioned during the campaign. The two plan to play golf together in Florida on Saturday. Their closeness is in stark contrast to the president’s relationship with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who had been angered by Mr. Trump’s promise to review the status of Taiwan. Mr. Trump backed down from that position in a phone call with Mr. Xi on Thursday night, handing China a diplomatic victory. “Trump lost his first fight with Xi,” one analyst said. _____ 2. Among the issues Mr. Abe and Mr. Trump might discuss on the golf course: immigration. Japan has achieved what Mr. Trump promised to: It has very little illegal immigration and is officially closed to people seeking work. But its tough stance on immigration — both legal and illegal — is contributing to a severe labor shortage that’s hurting economic growth in the country. Some businesses get around the rules by hiring workers from China and elsewhere as “trainees. ” Critics say the system is rife with exploitation and even abuse. Above, the office of a labor union that houses workers who quit or are laid off. _____ 3. Shortly after Thursday’s appeals court decision blocking his travel ban, Mr. Trump vowed to fight on. “SEE YOU IN COURT,” he wrote on Twitter. Many legal experts say Mr. Trump’s chances of success at the Supreme Court, which for a year now has had just eight members, are slim. A tie would leave the appeals court ruling in place. The White House is insisting that Judge Neil Gorsuch, the nominee for the Supreme Court, was not referring to Mr. Trump when he said privately that he was disheartened by attacks on the courts. _____ 4. Those trying to divine the roots of the presidential adviser Stephen Bannon’s worldview have combed over a speech that he made in 2014 to a Vatican conference. Little noticed, until now, was a reference to Julius Evola, a deeply taboo, thinker who was a darling of Italian Fascists. Mr. Evola was a leading proponent of Traditionalism, a set of beliefs embraced by today’s that argues progress and equality are poisonous illusions. _____ 5. Months after the recapture of Falluja showed that Iraq could regain one of the Islamic State’s strongholds, the victory now seems at risk. There is no sign yet that the national government can secure and rebuild the Sunni city, and Iraqi and American security officials fear that neglected residents may once again embrace the Islamic State. The scene is more encouraging in parts of Mosul that have been retaken by Iraqi forces, our reporter observed this week. _____ 6. A French farmer who became something of a folk hero for helping migrants was given a fine, but no jail time. Cédric Herrou’s case made headlines around the world. He’ll be off the hook if he “stays out of trouble” for five years, but he vowed to continue offering migrants shelter. “There’s a deficiency of the state in France and in Italy, so I take action,” he said. _____ 7. Two celestial events will take place on Friday night: a lunar eclipse and the passing of a comet. The moon will appear slightly darker than usual at about 7:45 p. m. Eastern Standard Time. The comet will be tough to see without binoculars or a telescope. It should appear as a green dot because of its chemical components. If you want to try, the best time would be around 3 a. m. Eastern Time. _____ 8. We’ve rounded up some of the best new children’s books on history. Here are five illustrated biographies of iconic figures, including “Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History. ” The book conveys the centrality of reading and “careful decisions” to Douglass’s struggle for freedom and his later public work, offering an anchor for children trying to comprehend the cruelties of American slavery. _____ 9. The Grammys are Sunday, and the big matchup is Adele versus Beyoncé. The two megaselling queens of pop will face off in each of the top three categories — album, record and song of the year. A sweep by Adele could feed into complaints that the awards too often fail to recognize black performers in the most prestigious categories. Above, setting up for the event. _____ 10. Finally, this weekend is also when many people will celebrate Valentine’s Day. If you express your affection in food, we have recipes at the ready, including mocha chocolate chip cake, above, and less romantic but still delicious dishes like goulash. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the chief executive of AccuWeather Inc to head the government’s meteorological agency that monitors the climate and issues daily weather forecasts. Trump nominated Barry Myers, CEO of privately owned weather forecasting company AccuWeather, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the U.S. Commerce Department. Myers’ name was first floated for the position in January, and the Washington Post reported in May he had emerged as the front runner. AccuWeather did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The White House said Myers has run AccuWeather since 2007 and over the last decade the “company has experienced its highest grossing years, and its largest global web and mobile audience growth. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the use of weather information.” AccuWeather, based in State College, Pennsylvania, was founded by Myers’ brother Joel Myers. The Trump administration proposed in May cutting the NOAA budget by 17 percent to $4.8 billion, including cutting $230 million for grant and education programs. NOAA provides daily and long-term weather forecasts for agricultural planning and emergency response to severe weather like hurricanes. In July, Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, raised concerns about the nomination. AccuWeather in 2005 worked with then-Senator Rick Santorum to back an unsuccessful proposal that would have limited dissemination of National Weather Service forecasts on websites. “Many Americans have come to rely on forecasts issued daily by the National Weather Service,” Nelson said. “From storm tracking to drought forecasts, this information is critical to protecting life, property and livelihoods. Any nominee who has a history of trying to undercut the National Weather Service for financial gain should raise serious questions.” The Center for American Progress, a think thank associated with the Democratic Party, on Wednesday criticized the choice of Myers, noting that unlike 11 of the previous 12 NOAA administrators, he lacks an advanced scientific degree. Myers has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business and also holds a law degree. “President Trump has responded to NOAA’s remarkable work ... by nominating an administrator who has a history of trying to block the agency from issuing weather forecasts to the American public,” Michael Conathan, the center’s director of ocean policy, said in a statement. Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal in June, saying the accord would cost America trillions of dollars, kill jobs and hinder the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries. This week, the Trump administration began the process to undo the Obama administration’s clean power plan. Trump and Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, have both expressed doubts about whether climate change is caused by human activity, something that has been agreed upon by an overwhelming majority of scientists. | 0 |
Washington (CNN) The stakes of Bernie Sanders' take-it-to-the-convention strategy are rapidly rising as fresh polls underscore Hillary Clinton's vulnerabilities and predict a tight race between her and Donald Trump in the fall.
After months of talk about the potential of a contested Republican convention, Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, is quickly consolidating his party's support -- something Clinton is unable to do with Sanders still in the race.
With only a few major nominating contests left, including California and New Jersey on June 7, Sanders lacks a credible mathematical path to overhauling Clinton's wide lead in pledged delegates. And with polls showing Clinton's general election advantage over Trump evaporating, a lingering fracture in the Democratic party could be perilous for its chances to keep the White House.
Still, Sanders is not heeding calls from some Democrats to get out of the race -- or at least cool his rhetoric during the final weeks of the primary season. Instead, he kept up his blistering criticism of Clinton over the weekend and deepened his feud with the party establishment, including endorsing the primary challenger to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
"The last I heard is that we are a democratic country, and that elections are about vigorous debates over the issues. Secretary Clinton and I disagree," Sanders told Jake Tapper Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "What the Democratic leadership has got to understand is that not all of my supporters go to these fancy fundraising dinners. They're working people who are hurting now, who want real change in the economy."
He added: "I hope the Democratic leadership understands they have to open up the process, bring those people in."
Sanders acknowledged in the interview that he has a "very, very uphill fight" in his quest to overtake Clinton, given that he has won 46% of pledged delegates so far and she has won 54%. But he rebuked Democratic superdelegates -- party office holders and lawmakers who can vote however they choose at the convention -- for overwhelmingly coming out for Clinton early on in what he said was an "anointment" by the establishment and big money interests.
Clinton's failure to finally put away the Sanders campaign is grating on the former secretary of state.
"I will be the nominee for my party,'' Clinton told CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview last week. "That is already done, in effect. There is no way I won't be.''
On Sunday, she said there will be an "obvious need of us to unify the party" once she becomes the presumptive nominee.
"I will certainly do my part, reaching out to Sen. Sanders, reaching out to his supporters," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And I expect him to do his."
The internal conflict comes at a time when polls show that Trump is getting a dividend from closing out the Republican primary race, and setting up what could be a close election against Clinton in November.
A Fox News poll last week showed Trump leading Clinton 45% to 42%, findings that were within the survey's margin of error. Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News national survey released Thursday had Clinton up by six points.
Quinnipiac University polls in swing states Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania this month also had the rivals effectively neck-and-neck.
Polls this far out from a general election cannot offer a reliable picture of what will happen in November. But they can shape the political environment in which the early stages of the race evolves and, if they continue to show Trump gaining in strength, are likely to increase pressure on Sanders to bring the Democratic Party together.
But Sanders does not see such polls as an argument that he should get out of the race or dial back attacks on Clinton. In fact, he sees them as proof that he would be a superior general election candidate to the former first lady -- most polls show him leading Trump.
In the NBC interview, Clinton suggested Sanders simply hasn't been subjected to the rough and tumble of politics the way she has.
It's "fair to say that I have been vetted and tested, and I think that that puts me in a very strong position," she said.
Referring to Sanders, she said, "let me say that I don't think he's had a single negative ad ever run against him."
Sanders disputed the notion that he is only doing better than Clinton because he has not had to endure the years of partisan warfare that have shredded her approval ratings.
"Any objective assessment of our campaign versus Clinton's campaign, I think, will conclude we have the energy, we have the excitement, we have the young people, we have the working people, we can drive a large voter turnout, so that we not only win the White House, but we retain, regain control of the Senate, do well in the House and in governor's chairs up and down the line," Sanders told Tapper.
Latest polls clearly show that the lingering Democratic Party divisions are a challenge for Clinton.
The Washington Post/ABC poll released Sunday showed that in a match-up equation with Trump, Clinton currently gets 86% of Democratic voters, meaning that a slice of the party coalition that is not yet sold on her as nominee.
Making a decision to leave a primary race or to tone down attacks on a rival who appears headed for victory is the toughest choices any candidate faces. It is a particularly acute dilemma for Sanders, given that he has won millions of votes, ignited a populist uprising in the Democratic Party that no one saw coming and is basking in an unprecedented reception to his democratic socialist ideas that left him in the political wilderness for years in the Senate.
He and his campaign team have dismissed the idea that he could wreak lasting damage on Clinton if she becomes the nominee, saying he will do whatever it takes to ensure that Trump does not win the presidency. But if his arguments about the process of the Democratic primary race leave the impression that he has been unfairly treated and that Clinton is somehow not the legitimate nominee, the task of uniting the party becomes far more difficult.
That's where Sanders' clash with Wasserman Schultz is particularly concerning to some Democrats. The Vermont senator's campaign has consistently accused the DNC chairwoman of tilting the race in favor of Clinton and criticized the scheduling of debates on Saturday nights when television audiences are lower, and the closed primaries that bar independents in big states like New York.
Sanders is now backing Wasserman Schultz's primary opponent in her Florida district, Tim Canova, and left no doubt about the strengths of his feelings about her on Sunday.
"Well, clearly, I favor her opponent," Sanders told Tapper. "His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz's." "In all due respect to the current chairperson. If (I was) elected president, she would not be reappointed to be chair of the DNC."
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver also sent out a fundraising email to supporters Sunday seeking contributions for Canova.
For all the sudden handwringing in Democratic circles, it's still likely that Clinton will enjoy her own boost in the polls once she finally becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee similar to the one Trump is enjoying now.
For now, veteran Democrats appear to be ready to give Sanders some room. But the clock is ticking.
"After (Clinton) has actually won, after she actually has enough delegates to win the nomination, I think Bernie needs to think about his legacy," said Mark Alderman, a top Democratic Party donor who was part of President Barack Obama's transition team. "Bernie is in the middle of the tsunami -- he doesn't have any perspective yet. It will take a little time. Unfortunately, he only has a little time. He has got to get it together by July." | 0 |
The Obama s have convinced Black communities across America they are victims. It s true they are victims, but they re victims of a fatherless culture, and not of the White man or cops as Barack Obama would like Americans to believe. When will the men in these communities start taking responsibility for raising their children? Until these grown men start taking an active role in raising their own children, these lawless (and sometimes innocent kids who get caught in the line of fire) will never have the opportunity to grow up and realize their full potential. You can t have entire communities of boys and girls growing up without dads and expect a different result than the one we re seeing today. We think this street artist hit a HOME RUN with their powerful message to this community FOX 2 Detroit There were mixed reaction to the controversial tagging of a contentious catchphrase in Highland Park. The slogan is on an apartment building on Woodward and Pilgrim. The message is cogent to today right now especially this particular area because there are not a lot of black dads who are actually being fathers, one person said.Stacey Calwise spoke about her 8 and 4-year-old children. Their dads are black but they re not around. So as far as black dads matter, not in their case, she said.WATCH: | 0 |
So basically the Obama administration is making it easier for Central American illegals to come to America without just sneaking in. John Kerry and Obama should be called out on this effort to totally flood America with Central Americans and Muslims. YOU ARE PAYING FOR THIS! I cannot stress enough how bad this is for America. Entire towns have been broken with the influx of refugees . Now, by expanding the definition of refugee to include the illegal aliens from Central America, we re going to be INCREASING the number on the dole to nearly 100,000. PLEASE make the effort to contact ANY or ALL of your elected officials to raise heck about this. WE CANNOT AFFORD THIS!The United States will increase the number of refu gees it admits to allow in more people fleeing violence in Central America, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday.In a speech at the National Defense University, Kerry said the expansion of the Refugee Admissions Program will be directed toward people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, to offer them a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits. The United States already plans to admit 85,000 refugees from around the world in the fiscal year that began in October, but only 3,000 spaces are set aside for Central Americans. The total allotment is 15,000 more refugees than in the previous year and includes 10,000 Syrians referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees under a special vetting process that typically takes 18 to 24 months. The ceiling for refugees is even higher for 2017, when it will rise to 100,000.Kerry did not say how many more Central American refugees would be admitted and when the expansion would take effect.The State Department said refugees will be selected for resettlement in the United States in collaboration with the UNHCR and a number of nongovernmental agencies it works with to orient and relocate new refugees around the country. Among those who will be considered in need of refu gee protection are people targeted by criminal gangs, human rights defenders and those who may be at imminent risk of harm. Since the Syrian crisis began with peaceful anti-government protests in 2011, the United States has donated more than $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid related to Syrians alone. Most has gone directly to help shelter, feed and clothe refugees, but some has helped governments in neighboring countries that are burdened with massive numbers of refugees. Officials say that helping refugees near the countries they have fled will prevent them from going to other countries, as has happened in Europe when humanitarian aid to Syrians dried up.Read more: WaPo | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Friday s speech laying out his strategy toward Iran and his decision not to certify it is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of statements that analysts questioned. Trump said he might terminate the deal under which Iran agreed to curb its disputed nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions, and laid out a more aggressive approach to counter Iran s ballistic missile programs and its support for militant groups. Below are some of Trump s controversial comments, along with analysis of their basis in fact. TRUMP: The previous administration lifted these sanctions, just before what would have been the total collapse of the Iranian regime, through the deeply controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Several foreign policy analysts said there was no reason to believe that the government of Iran, whose economy suffered from economic sanctions that targeted its oil industry, was close to falling apart. There is no evidence that I aware of that would suggest that regime was on the verge of collapse, said Michael Singh, an expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served on Republican President George W. Bush s National Security Council staff. The sanctions were having a pretty strong impact on the Iranian economy. Especially because of the oil sanctions, you had a real contraction of Iranian economy, he said. But saying anything beyond that is a matter of speculation. In fact, Singh argued, the pressure brought on Tehran from international sanctions could actually help to unite factions within Iran and thereby strengthen its rulers. TRUMP: The nuclear deal threw Iran s dictatorship a political and economic lifeline, providing urgently needed relief from the intense domestic pressure the sanctions had created. It also gave the regime an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion its government could use to fund terrorism. The $100 billion, in fact, already belonged to Iran and represented foreign assets blocked by sanctions. It was unfrozen with the lifting of international sanctions under the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But, experts said that Tehran would see only a fraction of that sum because of debts it owed, including $20 billion to China for infrastructure projects. Various estimates put the actual amount Tehran received at between $60 and $35 billion. In addition, roughly $1.7 billion was handed over to Iran that stemmed from an uncompleted arms deal between the United States and the government of the late Shah, which paid a $400 million deposit before being toppled in Iran s 1979 revolution. The remaining $1.3 billion represented interest owed on the $400 million, according to U.S. officials, who used the money as leverage to obtain the release of five U.S. citizens held in Iran. The Obama administration repaid the deposit with pallets of cash delivered by aircraft. ON IRAN HAVING MADE MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS OF THE NUCLEAR DEAL TRUMP: The Iranian regime has committed multiple violations of the agreement. For example, on two separate occasions, they have exceeded the limit of 130 metric tons of heavy water. Until recently, the Iranian regime has also failed to meet our expectations in its operation of advanced centrifuges. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog charged with monitoring the deal, says that Tehran is in full compliance a judgment the Trump administration twice previously affirmed - and that nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented. At present, Iran is subject to the world s most robust nuclear verification regime, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement after Trump s speech. Iran has exceeded the 130-metric-ton cap on its heavy water stockpile and run more advanced centrifuges the devices that purify uranium than permitted by the deal and arguably exceeded the limits on its low-riched uranium supply. But experts say that Iran quickly corrected all of the infractions and, most importantly, argued that Iran had not committed a deal-rupturing material breach. Multiple violations is an exaggeration. There are very few actual violations, said Robert Einhorn, a nonproliferation expert who worked at the State Department under former President Barack Obama and is now at the Brookings Institution think tank. They sought to exploit any ambiguity in the text, but when they did that the United States pushed back and a reasonable outcome was reached in every case, he said. | 0 |
During a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, Harvard Professor and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers criticized a paper written by Trump economic officials Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” Summers said the transition to a new administration is a matter “of enormous uncertainty, and I don’t think that’s fully recognized by markets. ” Summers also criticized a paper written by White House National Trade Council head Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” And, “The logic of it, the arguments made, are so far out of the mainstream of any kind of responsible economic thinking that they’re the economic equivalent of creationism. ” He also compared the paper to scientists who don’t believe in global warming. ( Business Insider) Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 0 |
One has to wonder why in the world people would support Ted Cruz. His policies are the essence of Republican backwardness and even members of his own party don t like him. In addition, he s lied throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination. Yet, Cruz is still hanging in there for the nomination. In fact, he s actually enjoying a surge as of late as Republican voters try to figure out who is less worse, Donald Trump, or creepy Ted Cruz. Cruz appears to have found a niche as Republicans have to vote for Cruz as the alternative to Trump.Yet, who are these voters that are now siding with Cruz as he surges in the polls? Samantha Bee sums it all up when she took down Ted Cruz s appalling group of supporters on her show Full Frontal. First, there s Colorado pastor Kevin Swanson, who appears in a video clip (see below) saying, Homosexuals are worthy of death to which Bee commented, Wow, For a guy who hates gay people, Swanson s got some fabulous dance moves. Then there s the reverend Flip Benham, who was convicted of stalking an abortion doctor and was part of a protest where people chanted, Jesus hates Muslims. Bee declared, In your face Donald Trump, Cruz supporters hated Muslims before it was cool. Not to be outdone, there s pastor Mike Bickle, who is the poster child for anti-Semitism. Bickle declared: The lord said I m going to give all 20 million of them the chance to respond to the fisherman and if they don t respond to grace, I m going to raise up the hunters and the most famous hunter in recent history is a man named Adolph Hitler. Bee s segment was funny but she sends an important message: Ted Cruz and his supporters are dangerous.Watch video here: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXkEeTfdQeA] Featured image via video screenshot. | 1 |
Time will tell how serious the House Republicans are about keeping our nation safe. Goodness knows it s the furthest thing from our Climate Change Promoter In Chief s mind Following the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, House Republicans are proposing to block federal funding for resettling Syrian refugees until a series of new conditions are met, Foreign Policy has learned.The growing momentum behind new legislation, still being drafted, sets up a future clash between the White House and Congress as the Obama administration seeks to offer residency to 10,000 Syrian refugees who currently live outside the conflict zone. Currently, 60 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes or are otherwise considered refugees higher than at any other time in recorded history. An estimated six million to eight million displaced people are still in Syria, and more than four million Syrian refugees are in Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon.The draft legislation, a copy of which was obtained by FP, is backed by Reps. Brian Babin, Lou Barletta, Diane Black, Mo Brooks, Jeff Duncan, John Duncan, Blake Farenthold, Louie Gohmert, Frank Guinta, Gregg Harper, Walter Jones, Steve King, Mike Pompeo, Mark Meadows, and Bill Posey. It would prevent funding for the resettlement of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa until authorities adopt processes to ensure that refugee and related programs are not able to be co-opted by would-be terrorists. Once those processes are in place, details of the security checks must be given to Congress in both classified and public forums, and the administration must establish a longer-term monitoring process to track refugees in the U.S.The 15 Republican lawmakers pushing the legislation aren t the only politicians looking to slam the brakes on Obama s resettlement program. The governors of 15 U.S. states have already said they would not allow Syrian refugees to live in their states. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) has proposed legislation to restrict U.S. funding for refugee resettlement and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) has said he will introduce legislation to prevent Syrian refugees from obtaining U.S. visas.Additionally, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul plans to raise the issue of blocking Syrian refugee resettlement at a Tuesday meeting with fellow Republicans, according to two congressional sources.In a Monday letter to President Barack Obama, McCaul called on the White House to immediately suspend the admission of all additional Syrian refugees. The high-threat environment demands that we move forward with greater caution in order to protect the American people and to prevent terrorists from reaching our shores, McCaul wrote.The rising opposition to assisting Syrian refugees is already alarming humanitarian organizations, which say that doing so defies America s long tradition of helping individuals fleeing persecution. A senior Obama administration official, speaking to FP on condition of anonymity, said security concerns about incoming refugees were unfounded in large part because they undergo the highest level of scrutiny by intelligence and security government agencies. All refugees, including Syrians, are admitted only after successful completion of this stringent security screening regime, the official said.Fears about taking in refugees spiked after a Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the assailants in the deadly Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people. Questions remain, however, over the identity of the attacker: French officials on Monday said he used a fake Syrian passport to travel to Europe through Greece and the Balkans. While his actual identity is unknown, the attacker is believed to have posed as a Syrian refugee to enter Europe through the Aegean Sea. Via:Foreign Policy | 0 |
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas will not seek re-election, his office said in a statement on Thursday, in a decision he made after a nude picture of him appeared on the internet earlier this month. Barton’s announcement reverses his Nov. 2 announcement of plans to run for an 18th term in the U.S. House. He was first elected to Congress in 1984 and had been considered a favorite to win re-election in his heavily Republican district until the photo surfaced on Nov. 22. Barton, 68, has told media the nude photograph came when he was separated from his second wife, prior to a divorce, and was part of a consensual sexual relationship. Barton’s genitals were obscured in the version of the photo that was posted on the internet. Barton, who belongs to the party’s right-wing Freedom Caucus, issued the statement saying he would not seek re-election on Thursday shortly after an exclusive interview with the Dallas Morning News in which he went into more detail about his decision. “There are enough people who lost faith in me that it’s time to step aside and let there be a new voice for the 6th district in Washington, so I am not going to run for re-election,” he told the newspaper. The source of the photo and how it appeared on the internet are still unknown. Some Republicans in the state have called for Barton to step down and many criticized him for his behavior. “Ellis County Republicans are deeply grieved and embarrassed by the conduct of Congressman Joe Barton,” Randy Bellomy, the head of the party in the county that borders Dallas and is Barton’s constituency, said in a statement on Wednesday. Barton, vice chairman of the House Energy Committee, has shown strong support for the energy industry and drawn the ire of environmentalists for his dismissive views on climate change. “We’re thankful that Representative Barton chose to not seek re-election after reports of his deeply inappropriate actions and disturbing display of judgment,” Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Crystal Perkins said in a statement. Barton has not been accused of sexual harassment. | 0 |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President-elect Donald Trump returns to this factory town on Friday for a victory celebration, he will find a region that is already experiencing the manufacturing renaissance he promised on the campaign trail. With local factories employing more workers than any time since the late 1990s, assembly line jobs are not hard to find. Those that pay a decent wage, however, are harder to come by. “We can barely make ends meet and we’re stuck going nowhere,” said auto parts worker Michael Baum, 22, as he smoked a cigarette in the parking lot of a Family Dollar discount store. Trump won the White House thanks to strong support from workers in Midwestern cities like Grand Rapids who have seen their living standards erode as the United States shed manufacturing jobs. He beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by a margin of 14 percent in the four counties that make up the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, helping him carry Michigan by a margin of 0.27 percent. Trump has promised to punish companies that shift work overseas, pressuring manufacturers like United Technologies Corp. to reverse their outsourcing plans. “Our jobs are being stolen like candy from a baby,” Trump said at a rally here the night before the Nov. 8 election. Grand Rapids, a hub of furniture makers and auto parts suppliers, has not been immune to outsourcing. At least 488 people have lost their jobs over the past year as two manufacturers, Dematic Corp and Leon Automotive Interiors, have shifted work to other countries, U.S. Labor Department filings show. But new hiring has more than made up for those losses. The number of factory jobs in the region has grown by 40 percent since the depths of the recession in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and unemployment stands at 2.9 percent, well below the national average of 4.6 percent. Local businesses now say their top concern is finding qualified workers, according to Rick Baker, president of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. Even as jobs have returned to Grand Rapids, earnings remain low. At $846 per week, average weekly wages in the region rank 46th among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, BLS data show. The Heart of West Michigan United Way, a local charity, said demand for its services has remained steady over the past several years even as the economy has picked up. While manufacturing helped lift millions of unskilled workers into the U.S. middle class in the 20th Century, that is no longer the case, said Lou Glazier, president of Michigan Future, a think tank that focuses on the state’s economy. Factories still pay good wages to workers who have specialized skills, such as welding or computer programing, but routine work no longer pays enough to cover living expenses, he said. Grand Rapids is “participating in the old economy and doing well in it, in terms of jobs. It’s just that the economy is no longer producing high wages,” Glazier said. While Trump and others blame global competition for the decline in factory work, automation has played a large role as well, economists say. The U.S. manufacturing sector has more than doubled output over the past 35 years even as it had shed one-third of its work force, according to the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. “We’re doing more today with the same amount of people that we had eight years ago,” said Bob Roth, chief executive officer of RoMan Manufacturing, which make glass and electrical components. At RoMan, assembly line workers start at $13 per hour but skilled workers can earn up to $30 an hour, Roth said. The company pays community college tuition for those who wish to upgrade their skills, but those who fail to improve their productivity enough to justify a higher wage within two years are fired, he said. Such prospects come as little consolation to workers like Baum, who are trying to figure out a way to boost their earnings on their own. For now, they are pinning their hopes on Trump. “If he can bring good paying jobs back to America,” he said, “I’ll vote for him again.” | 1 |
The 2014 IRS filings for the Clinton Foundation were recently released and the numbers were absolutely sickening. Out of $91.3 million spent in 2014, the organization s IRS filings show that only $5.2 million of that went to actual charity. That s because the candidate who says she represents the everyday American can t be bothered with helping the poor she needs to focus on providing a lifestyle for her and her lovely daughter Chelsea that only 1% of Americans can enjoy. The Clinton s have mastered the art of getting rich in politics It s not quite the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, but Bill and Hillary Clinton are expanding their Westchester spread by buying the house next door, The Post has learned.The Clintons shelled out $1.16 million for the three-bedroom, 3,631-square-foot, ranch-style home set on 1.51 leafy acres on Old House Lane in Chappaqua.Westchester County land records and tax records from the town of New Castle where Chappaqua is located list William and Hillary Clinton as owners of the property.A source said the home could be used as a weekend retreat for their daughter, Chelsea, her hubby, Marc Mezvinsky, and their children, Charlotte and Aidan. Rumor has it that the Clintons plan to use this as a mother/daughter house for Chelsea and her kids to visit on the weekends when they want to escape the city and their Flatiron digs since the Chappaqua house has a nice pool and plenty of rolling green lawn for kids to play on, the source said. NYP | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit minister David Davis called on parliament on Thursday to back legislation to sever Britain s political, financial and legal ties with the European Union, saying that opposing the bill would lead to chaos. At a rowdy session of parliament, Davis accused the opposition Labour Party of pursuing a cynical and unprincipled path by challenging the repeal bill, or EU withdrawal bill, designed to disentangle Britain from more than 40 years of EU lawmaking. Labour, in turn, said the government was using the bill to give itself wide-ranging powers and a blank cheque to do away with laws if ministers did not like them, threatening the rights of ordinary Britons. The legislation is a vital stepping-stone towards Britain s departure from the EU in March 2019. It faces stormy debate and a likely barrage of attempted amendments as Prime Minister Theresa May, weakened by the loss of her majority in a June election and criticized by Brussels over her Brexit strategy, attempts to steer it through parliament. Without this legislation a smooth and orderly exit is impossible ... To delay or oppose the bill will be reckless in the extreme, Davis told lawmakers, describing support for a proposed amendment by Labour as a vote for a chaotic exit . Labour s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said several clauses in the bill amounted to a power grab by government. He said it would prevent Britain from remaining in the EU s single market and customs union during a transition phase, as Labour now argues should happen. That we are leaving (the EU) is settled, how we leave is not. This bill invites us to surrender all power and influence over that question to the government and to ministers. That would betray everything we have been sent here to do, Starmer said. Unless the government makes a very significant concession before we vote on Monday Labour will table, and has tabled, a reasoned amendment and will vote against the bill. The legislation seeks largely to copy and paste EU law into British legislation to ensure the UK has functioning laws and the same regulatory framework as the bloc at the moment of leaving it, something that may offer some reassurance for companies. Davis said it would allow the British government and parliament to become masters of our own laws , and promised concerned lawmakers that ministers would not use the wide-ranging powers to make substantive changes to law. To vote down the bill, Labour would need to convince EU supporters in May s Conservatives to side with them, but some more vocal pro-EU Conservative lawmakers have now said they will vote with the government after asking for reassurance that parliament will be able to scrutinize any changes to the law. May has also promised to listen to the concerns of lawmakers, but warned that delaying or hindering the bill with amendments would slow vital legislation. The repeal bill helps deliver the outcome the British people voted for by ending the role of the EU in UK law, but it s also the single most important step we can take to prevent a cliff-edge for people and businesses, because it provides legal certainty, she said in a statement. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort to remain under home arrest and wear an electronic monitoring device for now as he awaits a tentative trial date on money-laundering and other charges. Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, and his associate Richard Gates pleaded not guilty on Monday to a 12-count indictment. The charges include conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. They are part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian efforts to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor and into potential collusion by Trump’s associates. The investigation has cast a shadow over the first nine months of the Republican’s presidency. Another top Trump former campaign advisor, Sam Clovis, withdrew his candidacy for an administration job, apparently as a result of Mueller’s probe. For Manafort and Gates, a conviction on conspiracy to launder money alone could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Both men appeared in court in Washington on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said initial bail terms for the pair would remain in place for now, and set a bail hearing for Monday to consider changes. Manafort and Gates are under house arrest, under unsecured bonds of $10 million and $5 million respectively, which means they do not have to post the bail unless they fail to show up for court or violate other conditions. Prosecutors have argued there is a risk the men would flee. They are also subject to electronic monitoring. Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, argued that while his client is willing to comply with a daily curfew, he would like to have the GPS monitoring lifted. Jackson expressed reservations about the idea, saying she would “need to see some good reasons” and that he must articulate those in writing. “I am concerned - very concerned ... that an unsecured appearance bond in and of itself is not sufficient” without some sort of monitoring, she said. “If they leave and don’t come back, we need to know where they went.” In a filing with the court, Downing said the government’s case against his client is flimsy and that the bail conditions should be softened because Manafort does not pose a flight risk. Gates’ attorneys made a similar request. Manafort and Gates remained quiet throughout the proceeding. Jackson set a bail hearing for Monday morning, and said she would aim to set a tentative trial date next week. She sharply warned lawyers for the duo about speaking about their case outside of court. “This is a criminal trial and not a public relations campaign,” Jackson said during a hearing. “I expect counsel to do their talking in the courtroom and in their pleadings, and not on the courthouse steps.” Mueller’s team is probing allegations that Russia interfered in the election to undercut Americans’ faith in their democracy, damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump. The inquiry also is meant to determine whether there was any coordination between Russians and associates of the Trump campaign. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied meddling. Trump has denied collusion between his associates and Russia, calling the investigations a witch hunt. Trump had nominated Clovis, his campaign’s national co-chairman, to a post as chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture. In a letter to Trump describing his decision to withdraw from consideration, Clovis made no mention of the Russia controversy, but cited “the political climate inside Washington.” “The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases in intensity each day,” Clovis wrote in the letter. “As I am focused on your success and the success of this Administration, I do not want to be a distraction or negative influence.” A source familiar with Mueller’s investigation identified Clovis as the unnamed campaign supervisor in a court filing who had discussions with Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos about efforts to improve U.S.-Russian relations and setting up meetings between senior Trump campaign and Russian officials. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about his dealings with Russians. Clovis has not been charged with wrongdoing. “Mr. Clovis’ nomination was only withdrawn because that would certainly have been a topic during his upcoming testimony, under oath, before the Senate Agriculture Committee,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, a member of the committee, said. “I know because I was going ask him all about it to get more facts on the record and before the American people.” | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not ready to support the policy agenda being advanced by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the nation’s top elected Republican, who said earlier he was not ready to endorse Trump. “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda,” Trump said in a statement. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people.” | 1 |
(Before It's News)
A singer decided to kneel during her performance of the national anthem prior to an NBA preseason game in Miami.
As Denasia Lawrence approached midcourt, she unzipped her jacket, revealing the “Black Lives Matter” shirt she has underneath and dropped to her left knee as she began to sing. Her stated intention was to protest racial oppression.
If the anthem is a symbol of racial oppression, then why would she sing it at all?
“We’re being unjustly killed and overly criminalized,” Lawrence explained in a Facebook post from Saturday night. “I took the opportunity to sing and kneel to show that we belong in this country and that we have the right to respectfully protest injustices against us.”
According to Miami Heat staff, there was no advanced warning that Lawrence was wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt nor that she had plans to kneel.
“I didn’t get paid to sing the national anthem nor was this moment about any sort of fame,” Lawrence wrote. “Black Lives Matter is far larger than a hashtag, it’s a rallying cry.”
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Polls are not accurate quantifiers of public opinion when leftists savagely attack voters for supporting President Donald Trump, New York author Ann Coulter told Breitbart News on Sunday. [CNN had unveiled a push poll on Friday claiming voters support amnesty for illegal aliens and oppose President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law in a blatant attempt to warp public opinion. One of the poll’s “findings” showed allegedly 90 percent want to give illegal aliens citizenship if they agree to hypothetical requirements. “I only read through the first 3 or 4 poll questions and noticed that the percentage of poll respondents opposed to enforcing our immigration laws has SKYROCKETED in the last year,” Coulter said. “In that same time period, the hysteria and violence on the left has reached epic proportions. ” “We just had a presidential election where the polls were useless because poll respondents were afraid to admit — even to computerized telephone polls! — that they were voting for Trump,” she continued. In a poll surveying 1, 025 adults from Mar. 1 to Mar. 4 (margin of error plus or minus three percentage points) pollsters asked which of three options should be the government’s top priority: 1) “Deporting immigrants already in the U. S. illegally,” 2) “Developing a plan to stop immigrants from entering the U. S. illegally,” or 3) “Developing a plan to allow those in the U. S. illegally who have jobs to become legal residents. ” Sixty percent chose amnesty, while 26 percent said the government should work to halt illegal immigration, and 13 percent said the government should deport all illegals. In a attempt to manipulate public opinion, pollsters asked: “Do you think the government should attempt to deport all people currently living in the country illegally or should the government not attempt to do that?” Given the choice of rounding up tens of millions of illegals at gunpoint and loading them into the back of black SUVs heading to the Mexican border or not, 71 percent said they would not like the government to do that. ( percent are open to the idea after years of violent mayhem and suppressed wages.) CNN used this false dichotomy to blast the headline: “ poll: Americans break with Trump on immigration policy. ” But no one will honestly answer pollsters as long as leftists are beating, egging, and terrorizing anyone open to the idea of enforcing immigration laws, Coulter told Breitbart News. “As long as we live in a country where liberals are going to violently attack anyone who disagrees with them, what is the point of polling?” Coulter asked. “The left’s recent eruptions of rage, lies and fascistic violence has resulted in a populace where no one wants to upset the little darlings. We may as well admit that in the current environment, public policy polls are useless. ” “The big announcement of the meaningless results are intended to make people think they must be nuts if they disagree with La Raza (‘the race! ’) and the NYT editorial page. Which is weird, since DONALD TRUMP WAS JUST ELECTED PRESIDENT,” she said. Indeed, the open borders lobby and its media allies seized on the poll and began spreading CNN’s headline on Twitter: New poll: Americans break with Trump on immigration policy: https: . — Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) March 17, 2017, NEW: poll: 71% say government should NOT attempt to deport all people currently living in the U. S. illegally https: . https: . — David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) March 17, 2017, NEW: poll: 60% say top priority in dealing with illegal immigration should be plan to allow legal residency https: . pic. twitter. — David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) March 17, 2017, Democratic and Republican voters agree: Mass deportation doesn’t make sense. #HeretoStay https: . — Nat’l Imm Law Center (@NILC_org) March 17, 2017, 90% of Americans support pathway to citizenship for immigrants who have long ties to U. S. have a job and pay taxes: https: . — FWD. us (@FWD_us) March 17, 2017, Poll: 60% say US government’s top priority should be plan to legalize undocumented immigrants: https: . #twill #p2 pic. twitter. — Luis V. Gutierrez (@RepGutierrez) March 17, 2017, Poll: 90% overall (87% of GOPers) support bill to allow certain undocumented immigrants to become citizens: https: . pic. twitter. — Luis V. Gutierrez (@RepGutierrez) March 17, 2017, While one side of the debate is quite literally beaten into submission and silence, the other side pretends they have won. Coulter said that the Left explodes with violence as soon as the slightest limits on immigration are proposed: Who could have imagined that a temporary travel ban on immigrants from 7 countries would incite liberals to engage in nationwide protests — and then celebrate when courts intervene to continue the flow of immigrants from 7 countries. Apparently the only answer that won’t get you punched or your business burnt down is: YES PLEASE DESTROY AMERICA ASAP! I ALWAYS WANTED TO LIVE IN GUADALAJARA — AND ALSO UNDER SHARIA LAW! DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH! “And yes, the [CNN poll] Qs are silly, but still, the recent alleged change in public opinion, and the complete failure of polls having anything to do with Trump, is even more striking,” she said. | 0 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court ordered the detention of a man on Saturday on suspicion of trying to intimidate cinemas into not showing a new film about the country s last tsar, Russia s news agencies said. Police said earlier they had opened a criminal case following a series of arson attacks in protest over the film Matilda by award-winning director Alexei Uchitel. The film tells the story of a love affair between the tsar, Nicholas II, and half-Polish ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, who described the relationship in her memoirs. Interfax cited the court s spokeswoman as saying the man detained was Alexander Kalinin, leader of a radical religious group called Christian State - Holy Rus , on suspicion of pressuring the cinemas not to screen the movie. The court ordered that he be held in custody until Nov. 22, without charge. Christian State vowed to set cinemas on fire if they screened Matilda and a series of arson attacks connected with the film have been reported across the country. Matilda is to be released internationally in late October despite protests from religious conservatives who are offended by what they regard as a disrespectful depiction of a man the Russian Orthodox Church regards as a martyr. Some cinemas have said they will not be showing the film because of threats that they had received. A criminal case has been opened in connection with the fact (the cinemas) were forced not to show the film under the threat of violence against the spectators and causing harm and damage to the cinemas owners , the police said in statement, not naming the film or those detained or charged. The police opened the case in connection with the arson attacks related to Matilda , TASS news agency reported, citing a police source. On Thursday police said they had detained four men, including Kalinin, in connection with an arson attack related to the film. Three of the men had been charged with arson, including their alleged role in setting fire to two cars parked outside the office of Uchitel s lawyer. Other violent acts of protest against the film have included an arson attack on Uchitel s studio and a man driving a car into the facade of a cinema. | 0 |
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer is expanding his political agenda beyond climate change to embrace issues ranging from immigration to income inequality, which he expects will be critical to mustering votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election. Steyer, who four years ago left the hedge fund firm he co-founded in order to devote himself full-time to environmental activism, said he hoped the broader agenda for his NextGen Climate organization would help undermine Republican nominee Donald Trump. He derided the New York real estate magnate’s policies as “dangerous” and “delusional.” Steyer has directed NextGen, his main advocacy arm, to delve into immigration, racial justice, wealth inequality and education instead of just environmentalism to better drive youth and minority voter turnout for the Nov. 8 election. “We’re talking about a broader group of connected issues, and we don’t think any of them stand without the others,” Steyer told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, explaining the shift. NextGen has already produced ads in California attacking Trump on immigration and his temperament. In one, a group of young people are filmed listening to Trump describe Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers and promising to wall off the border. In another, women look into the camera as Trump’s voice is heard calling women fat, disgusting, and ugly. Steyer said he hoped the broader agenda for NextGen would help undermine Trump. “I show him no respect,” Steyer said. A Trump spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. NextGen’s shift into new issues began a few months ago, Steyer said, and was inspired by his work on California’s progressive Fair Shake commission, launched last year by a group of high-profile activists, academics and former politicians focused on wealth inequality in the state. “That was the genesis to some extent. It allowed us to look deeply at all the related issues,” he said. NextGen has spent about $20 million so far on the U.S. election, and is likely to spend at least another $55 million by election day. Steyer, who has earned a reputation as America’s most influential environmental advocate, has had mixed results in his crusade on climate change, despite the money he has poured into mobilizing voters around the issue. Steyer has battled large-scale oil industry infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, which was rejected by the administration of President Barack Obama last year, and has sought to bolster climate-friendly politicians. In 2014, NextGen pumped around $75 million into efforts to support six climate-friendly Democratic candidates in mid-term elections, but only two of whom won their contests. In the current presidential contest, NextGen has fallen short of its aim make climate change a critical issue, eclipsed by voter rage over issues including immigration, the economy and national security. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows only about 25 percent of likely American voters will make a choice on the basis of a candidate’s views on climate change, although most agree that the United States should act to combat it. Steyer endorsed Clinton last month after she clinched the Democratic nomination following a heated battle against Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Clinton has said she would seek to advance renewable energy use, boost regulation and reduce U.S. consumption of oil and coal if elected. “I can take them at their word that they are going to prioritize this,” Steyer said. Trump has called climate change a hoax and has vowed to cut U.S. environmental regulation to expand U.S. drilling and coal mining, part of his bid to win over blue collar voters. Steyer called that position dangerous. “It would be funny if it weren’t so serious,” he said. | 1 |
Videos Amnesty Intl: Western Backed Syrian Rebels Must End Unlawful Attacks In W. Aleppo Up to 48 people including 17 children have been killed in civilian areas of government-controlled western Aleppo since the offensive began, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. Be Sociable, Share! A screenshot showing Syrian rebels using an American made BGM-71 TOW missile.
The fierce offensive on western Aleppo city launched by armed opposition groups on 28 October has been marked by indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas that cannot be justified as a way to break the relentless siege that has sparked a humanitarian crisis in eastern Aleppo, Amnesty International said.
Up to 48 people including 17 children have been killed in civilian areas of government-controlled western Aleppo since the offensive began, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. The goal of breaking the siege on eastern Aleppo does not give armed opposition groups a license to flout the rules of international humanitarian law by bombarding civilian neighbourhoods in government-held areas without distinction Samah Hadid, Deputy Director of Campaigns at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office
“Armed opposition groups have displayed a shocking disregard for civilian lives. Video footage shows they have used imprecise explosive weapons including mortars and Katyusha rockets, whose use in the vicinity of densely populated civilian areas flagrantly violates international humanitarian law. Armed opposition groups must end all attacks that fail to distinguish between military targets and civilians.”
On 30 October an alleged “toxic gas” attack took place in al-Hamdaniyeh and al-Assad areas of western Aleppo causing dozens of injuries according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.
“Chemical weapons are internationally banned and their use is a war crime. Such weapons cause immense suffering and health damage. Their use can never be justified and regardless of who is behind this attack all parties to the conflict must halt the use of all prohibited weapons of war,” said Samah Hadid. Be Sociable, Share! | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - Just one in seven people from Catalonia believe the current standoff between Barcelona and Madrid will end in independence for the region while more than two thirds think the process has been bad for the economy, a survey showed on Monday. Spain s central government took control of the region after local leaders staged a poll on secession, slated as illegal by the Constitutional Court, and then passed a unilateral declaration of independence through the parliament. In response, Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the government, stripped the region of its autonomous status and called a regional election for Dec. 21. On Sunday, the first part of the GAD3 survey showed that pro-independence parties would win the election but may not gain the parliamentary majority needed to continue with secession. Fifteen percent said they believed the process would end in an independent state, according to part two of survey of 1,233 people conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3 and published in La Vanguard newspaper on Monday. Optimism that a negotiated solution would be found was low, with just over a fifth thinking the crisis would lead to talks between regional authorities and Madrid. The push for independence has dragged Spain in to its worst political crisis since its return to democracy four decades ago and has deeply divided the country, fuelling anti-Spanish feelings in Catalonia and nationalist tendencies elsewhere. The uncertainty has prompted more than 2,000 companies to relocate their legal headquarters out of the region since Oct. 1, while the Bank of Spain said if the conflict persists it could lead to slower growth and job creation. According to the poll, 67 percent said they believed the process had hurt the economy and almost 40 percent said the company exodus would have a negative affect on growth in the short term. | 1 |
Leave it to Obama to politicize our money some think the past presidents should be on the money but now Obama s made our money like a postage stamp. He s made this political and racial which really is what you d expect from this pitiful man.Abraham Lincoln will not be the only person depicted on the $5 bill much longer.The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will overhaul the design of the $5 note, a move overshadowed by its decision to revamp the back of the $10 bill to include women and to feature Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20.Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt will be depicted on the back of the updated $5 bill.All three will be portrayed in historical moments in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which is currently pictured on the back of the bill. King will be shown delivering his 1963 I Have a Dream speech. Anderson will be shown performing in 1939, when concert halls were still segregated and she was banned from singing in Constitution Hall, supported by Roosevelt.In redesigning the $5 bill, a previously unannounced step, the Treasury will disrupt Lincoln s long-running tenure on both the front of the bill, in a portrait, and on the back, captured as a statue within the Lincoln Memorial. The basic layout of the note hadn t changed since 1929.Read more: WE | 1 |
The Cuban flag is flying over the Cuban Embassy in the United States for the first time in 54 years after the two countries restored diplomatic relations in December, but not everyone is celebrating the renewed flow of mojitos from the embassy's Hemingway Bar.
Presidential hopefuls Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, who both call the heavily Cuban-American Miami area home, denounced last Monday's new step in U.S.-Cuba relations.
"History will remember July 20, 2015, as Obama's Capitulation Monday, the day two sworn enemies of the United States were able to out-maneuver President Obama to secure historic concessions," Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, stated, also referencing the U.N. Security Council's endorsement of the Iran deal, which happened last week.
"Monday's events at the U.N., Washington and Havana leave no doubt that we have entered the most dangerous phase of the Obama presidency in which the president is flat out abandoning America's vital national security interests to cozy up to the world's most reprehensible regimes," Rubio said.
"Better judgment is called for in relations far and near. Ninety miles to the south, there's talk of a state visit by our outgoing president," Bush said when he announced his candidacy. "But we don't need a glorified tourist to go to Havana in support of a failed Cuba. We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I'm ready to be that president."
Bush currently leads Rubio among Cuban-American Republicans by double digits. In a poll published July 18 of registered voters in Miami-Dade County, Bush led Rubio in Cuban-American GOP votes by 12 percentage points, 43 to 31 percent. Ted Cruz, whose father emigrated from Cuba, received 7 percent of support in the polls.
Florida, a swing state, is an important part of any presidential candidate's electoral vote calculus, and Cuban-Americans have long been a powerful group within Florida, especially in Miami-Dade County. The Miami area is home to the largest population of Cuban heritage outside Cuba.
Bush's relative success among Cuban-Americans in the polls with his slightly softer stance reflects a larger trend: Cuban-Americans are not as opposed to normalization as they were in the past.
Once a community known for standing in solidarity in support of the trade embargo, steering U.S. policy toward Cuba, the Cuban-Americans of Miami-Dade are showing rifts in their political views.
In a poll conducted in March, 51 percent of Cuban-Americans approved of Obama's plan to normalize relations with Cuba; 40 percent disapproved. Another poll, conducted in the spring of 2014 by Florida International University pollsters, found that 52 percent of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade favored ending the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
That's quite different from the past.
In the 1993 version of the same Florida International University poll, 87 percent of Cuban-American respondents in Miami-Dade favored increasing international economic pressure on Cuba, and 80 percent favored having no diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The changing Cuban-American demographic may serve as a window into the group's changing opinions. The number of Cuban-Americans born in Cuba dropped from 68 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2013, according to the Pew Research Center.
The decrease in share of the Cuban-born Cuban-American population matters because of the two groups' differing political views: In 2014, 45 percent of those born in Cuba supported normalization, compared with 66 percent of those born in the U.S.
The emerging differences in views among the Cuban-American community may also play a role in Democrats' increasing ability to court its members. While 70 percent of Cuban-Americans polled in Miami-Dade County were registered as Republicans in 1991, that number had fallen to 53 percent by May 2014. Another 25 percent in 2014 were registered as Democrats.
In the months since the Obama administration announced its policy change toward Cuba in December, nearly every GOP presidential candidate has come out with a statement denouncing normalization. Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee have joined Bush and Rubio in denouncing the restoration of full diplomatic ties.
Rand Paul has been the only outlier, a position that caused a scuffle with Rubio earlier this year.
"After 50 years of conflict, why not try a new approach?" Paul wrote in a Dec. 19 Facebook statement. "The United States trades and engages with other communist nations, such as China and Vietnam. Why not Cuba?"
Paul continued his statement to make a dig at Rubio's strong stance against the president's policy.
"Seems to me, Senator Rubio is acting like an isolationist who wants to retreat to our borders and perhaps build a moat. I reject this isolationism," Paul wrote. "Finally, let's be clear that Senator Rubio does not speak for the majority of Cuban-Americans. A recent poll demonstrates that a large majority of Cuban-Americans actually support normalizing relations between our countries."
Rubio replied, "He has no idea what he's talking about," on Fox News' The Kelly File.
Democratic presidential hopefuls have openly praised the president's steps toward normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations.
"As I have said, the best way to bring change to Cuba is to expose its people to the values, information, and material comforts of the outside world," Clinton said when Obama announced his plan on Dec. 17. "The goal of increased U.S. engagement in the days and years ahead should be to encourage real and lasting reforms for the Cuban people. And the other nations of the Americas should join us in this effort."
"I applaud the president for beginning discussions to establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba, just like most of the rest of the world. This is a major step forward in ending the 55-year Cold War with Cuba," Sanders said in a statement.
With Cuban-Americans' shifting opinions on normalizing relations, the Democrats' stance might just gain them a few more votes. And the popular Republican opinion may not stand for many more election cycles. | 0 |
When will the media report on this nice group of illegal aliens and racist American thugs | 1 |
By now, we all know that upon having emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye last week, it was discovered that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Of course, Senator McCain is a giant in the Senate and around the world who wields massive amounts of influence and for very good reason. Few in Washington right now have served more valiantly than he has. This is true regardless of whether one agrees with the man s politics. Therefore, he deserves our well wishes, and he and his family should be left in peace to deal with his illness in peace and privacy. This is not true, though, when it comes to the vultures in the Senate GOP Conference.Instead of leaving Senator McCain and his family alone, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with such a slim majority in the Senate, has decided to drag the ailing Arizona Senator back to Washington just days after his devastating diagnosis and surgery. McConnell needs John McCain s vote on his disastrous healthcare legislation. Without McCain, McConnell could only lose one vote before the whole thing goes down in flames again for the umpteenth time, dealing yet another blow to the Republican Party and to the Trump Administration.Of course, since John McCain is such a fighter and a great American public servant, he has released a cordial statement saying that he will be looking forward to returning to work, even though it is obvious that the Senate is the last place he should be at such a critical time for his health. McCain s office released the following statement regarding the matter after getting medical clearance to go help McConnell out: Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. The Senator himself tweeted:Look forward to returning to Senate tomorrow to continue work on health care reform, defense bill & #RussiaSanctions https://t.co/VQBtovnwF1 John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 25, 2017Of course, this is being spun as John McCain s own choice, made without pressure by those in the ranks of elected Republicans. However, considering the fact that there is enormous pressure for them to pass something anything on healthcare after campaigning for seven years to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, it s hard to believe that all the media attention to McCain s precious vote and the political risk of failure to McConnell didn t play a role here. Further, you can bet your bottom dollar McConnell himself probably told McCain to get his ass back to Washington come hell or high water in time for this vote.This is a new low, even for that vulturous turtle Mitch McConnell. He needs to leave John McCain and his family be. It also says a hell of a lot about the level of desperation he and his GOP Senate colleagues are feeling that they would pull a stunt like this in order to take healthcare from millions while giving massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.John McCain is a better human than I, because if it were me, I d have told Mitch McConnell to go f*ck himself, and announced my retirement all in the same breath.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
CAIR knows what it s doing in Tulsa, OK but as usual pretends it s no big deal. We ve dealt with the CAIR, Michigan leader who s been on Twitter, along with others in the organization, bashing our military. We took screen shots of the Tweets that are included in this article. The organization is trying to taunt our veterans on a day when we should be saluting them. If you live in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, please go and protest this float.The Islamic hate group CAIR is taunting our veterans and military personnel with this latest stunt. Yesterday, veterans gathered at the Richard L. Jones, Jr. Airport to protest the terror-tied float. The group is asking parade goers to literally turn their backs on the float for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.The U.S. front group for a UAE-designated Islamic terrorist group will have a float in one of the largest Veterans Day parades in the country.The subversive organization known as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, continues to try to burnish its unsavory image and obscure knowledge of its true nature.Adam Soltani, executive director of CAIR Oklahoma, insists that his organization is pure as the driven snow: Any claim that CAIR is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, or any other terrorist organization is absolutely preposterous. CAIR was founded in 1994 in Washington, D.C., as a national organization to be a civil rights advocate for American Muslims, to stand up for constitutional rights, for religious freedom, for pluralism, and for every right that we value as American citizens. A Memorial Day Tweet From CAIR, Michigan Director And Retweeted by the San Francisco CAIR Director:Soltani s words are far from the truth. The reality is that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refusedtodenounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. Its California chapter distributed a poster telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI. CAIR has opposed every anti-terror measure that has ever been proposed or implemented. According to a captured internal document entered into evidence in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation s history, the Islamic Association of Palestine, which is the parent organization of Hamas-tied CAIR, was a Muslim Brotherhood entity, working toward eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within, and sabotaging its miserable house CAIR operatives attack and dismantle America s greatest freedoms through litigation jihad. They smear and destroy the voices of freedom via their well-paid hacks in the media. Over the past decades, they have expended untold amounts of money to buy influence among media and elected officials.Michigan Director of CAIR: A Muslim nation with ties to 9/11 (Qatar) made a major endowment to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Saudis have funded them with at least $50 million. Post-9/11, they worked furiously to defeat the Patriot Act, and they continue to undermine counter-terror programs here at home.Read more: Pam Geller | 0 |
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