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Posted on October 30, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn | 12 Comments
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that the agency is re-opening its criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s unsecured and illegal private email server, as a result of the FBI discovering 650,000 emails of Hillary’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, on a laptop computer that Abedin shares with her now-estranged husband, the disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner. See “ Weinered: FBI re-opens investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails “
Experts, such as Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, say that only the discovery of something truly awful would lead the FBI to reopen its investigation at such a late date, with just days to go before the election.
Now, a major U.S. newspaper — the Chicago Tribune that endorsed libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president — is saying what needs to be said: Democrats should ask Hillary Clinton to step down, or risk her being elected President who begins her term of office facing a criminal investigation. Note: Founded in 1847, Chicago Tribune is the 8th largest newspaper, by circulation, in the United States.
Below is Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass’ stunning article in its entirety.
Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside
by John Kass • October 29, 2016
Has America become so numb by the decades of lies and cynicism oozing from Clinton Inc. that it could elect Hillary Clinton as president, even after Friday’s FB I announcement that it had reopened an investigation of her emails while secretary of state?
We’ll find out soon enough.
It’s obvious the American political system is breaking down. It’s been crumbling for some time now , and the establishment elite know it and they’re properly frightened. Donald Trump, the vulgarian at their gates, is a symptom, not a cause. Hillary Clinton and husband Bill are both cause and effect.
FBI director James Comey’s announcement about the renewed Clinton email investigation is the bombshell in the presidential campaign. That he announced this so close to Election Day should tell every thinking person that what the FBI is looking at is extremely serious.
This can’t be about pervert Anthony Weiner and his reported desire for a teenage girl. But it can be about the laptop of Weiner’s wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and emails between her and Hillary. It comes after the FBI investigation in which Comey concluded Clinton had lied and been “reckless” with national secrets, but said he could not recommend prosecution.
So what should the Democrats do now?
If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would follow a simple process:
They would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately , and let her vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, stand in her place.
Democrats should say, honestly, that with a new criminal investigation going on into events around her home-brew email server from the time she was secretary of state, having Clinton anywhere near the White House is just not a good idea.
Since Oct. 7, WikiLeaks has released 35,000 emails hacked from Clinton campaign boss John Podesta release another 15,000 emails.
What if she is elected? Think of a nation suffering a bad economy and continuing chaos in the Middle East, and now also facing a criminal investigation of a president. Add to that congressional investigations and a public vision of Clinton as a Nixonian figure wandering the halls, wringing her hands.
The best thing would be for Democrats to ask her to step down now . It would be the most responsible thing to do, if the nation were more important to them than power. And the American news media — fairly or not firmly identified in the public mind as Mrs. Clinton’s political action committee — should begin demanding it.
But what will Hillary do?
She’ll stick and ride this out and turn her anger toward Comey. For Hillary and Bill Clinton, it has always been about power, about the Clinton Restoration and protecting fortunes already made by selling nothing but political influence.
She’ll remind the nation that she’s a woman and that Donald Trump said terrible things about women. If there is another notorious Trump video to be leaked, the Clintons should probably leak it now. Then her allies in media can talk about misogyny and sexual politics and the headlines can be all about Trump as the boor he is and Hillary as champion of female victims, which she has never been .
Remember that Bill Clinton leveraged the “Year of the Woman.” Then he preyed on women in the White House and Hillary protected him. But the political left — most particularly the women of the left — defended him because he promised to protect abortion rights and their other agendas.
If you take a step back from tribal politics, you’ll see that Mrs. Clinton has clearly disqualified herself from ever coming near classified information again. If she were a young person straight out of grad school hoping to land a government job, Hillary Clinton would be laughed out of Washington with her record. She’d never be hired.
As secretary of state she kept classified documents on the home-brew server in her basement, which is against the law. She lied about it to the American people. She couldn’t remember details dozens of times when questioned by the FBI. Her aides destroyed evidence by BleachBit and hammers. Her husband, Bill, met secretly on an airport tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch for about a half-hour, and all they said they talked about was golf and the grandkids.
And there was no prosecution of Hillary.
That isn’t merely wrong and unethical. It is poisonous.
And during this presidential campaign, Americans were confronted with a two-tiered system of federal justice: one for standards for the Clintons and one for the peasants.
I’ve always figured that, as secretary of state, Clinton kept her home-brew email server — from which foreign intelligence agencies could hack top secret information — so she could shield the influence peddling that helped make the Clintons several fortunes.
The Clintons weren’t skilled merchants. They weren’t traders or manufacturers. The Clintons never produced anything tangible. They had no science, patents or devices to make them millions upon millions of dollars.
All they had to sell, really, was influence. And they used our federal government to leverage it.
If a presidential election is as much about the people as it is about the candidates, then we’ll learn plenty about ourselves in the coming days, won’t we?
John Kass concluded his article with the observation that a presidential election is as much about the people as it is about the candidates .
So what do the comments from some of the readers of Kass’ article say about the people and this country? Below is a sample:
MerryPrankster: Real journalists should ask John Kass to step aside.
millekj61: Do you actually “think” before you write? There are 9 days to go before the election, who do you suggest they substitute for her?
pagewerks: Did you even do the slightest research? The email “scandal” you’re panting over is non-existent, and apparently has to do with another investigation. But don’t let that stop you from making a damn fool of yourself.
MChicago99: What is unfathomable about this column and the comments is how disconnected from reality and truth it and the comments are. There has been no reopening of the investigation. THE emails in question are probably all duplicates of emails the FBI has already examined. The FBI did not find anything illegal in Clinton’s use of the personal server. Just a desperate ploy to throw last minute obstacles into the election process.
Wavo: I believe it is time for you to retire from your “establishment” job at the Tribune John. Your shtick is tiresome and inflammatory. Maybe you should consider a second act over at Breitbart…they and their readers seem to love your work.
larry_wesbsite: You Trumpites actually want national socialism under a national socialist leader who will ride roughshod over the Constitution seeking what you think are simple fast answers to complex, difficult questions and problems. Maybe you will learn or just blame Trump and move on to the next demagogue. All of us will pay the cost for your mistakes.
dsm606: Sorry angry old white man. I’m still not voting for Trump. Nice try, though.
Jim Kaestner: I am tired of tribune columnists telling me how to vote, who to support. Go tell Trump to quit, he has admitted to sexual assault.
bluedemondan: Excuse me, you sure this isn’t The Onion? I usually confuse The Onion with the Trib’s editorials.
JNAlbukerk: Kass have you no shame sir? Convicting someone with no evidence? Clinton is the most vetted and experienced candidate in history. Until you have evidence otherwise it is you who should step aside as you have abused the power your employment has granted you.
You can reach reporter John Kass by email () or by Twitter (Twitter@John_Kass).
~Eowyn | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to Poland and Spain next month to attend the NATO Summit, including a bilateral meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss security issues, the White House said on Monday. Obama will attend his last NATO summit in Warsaw from July 7 to July 9, the White House said in a statement. He then travels to meet with leaders in Spain, a NATO ally, from July 9 to July 11, it said. | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting more serious by the day and cannot be allowed to spin out of control, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart, the state-run China News Service said on Thursday. A resolution to the North Korea issue cannot only rely on sanctions and not talks, Wang said, meeting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York on Wednesday, the report added. | 0 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy transport plane carrying 11 people crashed in the Philippine Sea south of Japan on Wednesday as it flew to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and three people were missing, in the latest Navy accident in the region. Eight other people were rescued and transferred to the carrier where they were in good condition, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said. Search and rescue efforts for three personnel continue with U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) ships and aircraft on scene, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a news release. The incident will be investigated, it added. The plane was conducting a routine transport flight carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to the carrier, which was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of an exercise with Japanese forces, it said. U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the crash at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, where he is spending the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. The @USNavy is conducting search and rescue following aircraft crash. We are monitoring the situation. Prayers for all involved, Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters the U.S. Navy informed him that the crash may have been a result of engine trouble. The propeller-powered transport plane, a C-2 Greyhound, carries personnel, mail and other cargo from mainland bases to carriers operating at sea. C-2 aircraft have been in operation for more than five decades and are due to be replaced by the long-range tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft. Two crashes in the Asia Pacific region involving U.S. Navy warships and commercial vessels this year have raised questions about Navy training and the pace of operations in the region, prompted a Congressional hearing and the removal of a number of officers. The guided missile destroyer Fitzgerald almost sank off the coast of Japan after colliding with a Philippine container ship on June 17. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in a flooded berthing area after that collision. In a separate incident in August, 10 sailors were killed when the guided missile destroyer John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker. The Navy has dismissed a number of officers, including the commander of the Seventh Fleet, as a result of the collisions involving its warships in Asia. | 0 |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Supreme Court more than doubled Oscar Pistorius murder sentence on Friday, accepting prosecutors argument that the original jail term of six years for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shockingly lenient . The gold medal-winning athlete, a double amputee known as the Blade Runner for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, was not in court to hear the new sentence of 13 years and five months handed down. Steenkamp s family were also absent but welcomed the revised term the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder, minus the time Pistorius has already served and said it showed justice could prevail in South Africa. This is an emotional thing for them. They just feel that their trust in the justice system has been confirmed this morning, Tania Koen, a family spokeswoman, told Reuters. Rights groups in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women say Pistorius, 31, received preferential treatment compared to non-whites and those without his wealth or celebrity status. Barry Steenkamp, the father of the slain model, told SABC television the family could now get on with their lives. I always, from the beginning, said justice had not been served, now it has, he said. In the same interview, her mother June Steenkamp said: We felt that we didn t have justice for Reeva by that too-lenient sentence but now we have justice for her. Pistorius elder brother Carl wrote on Twitter: Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted. The athlete s lawyers could not be reached for comment. The athlete was jailed in July last year after being found guilty on appeal of murdering model and law graduate Steenkamp on Valentine s Day 2013 by firing four shots through a locked bathroom door. The case attracted worldwide interest. He had originally been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail. That conviction was increased to murder by the Supreme Court in December 2015 and his sentence extended to six years by trial judge Thokozile Masipa in July last year. Masipa said in court that while the Steenkamps had suffered a great loss, fallen hero Pistorius life and career were also in ruins, and that a long prison term would not serve justice . Pistorius appearance during the trial without his prostheses had drawn gasps from the courtroom. In a scathing criticism, the appeals court said Masipa s ruling had erred in deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment for murder. The sentence of six years imprisonment is shockingly lenient, to a point where it has the effect of trivializing this serious offence, said Judge Willie Seriti, who read out the unanimous court decision. I am of the view that there are no substantial and compelling circumstances which can justify the departure from the prescribed minimum sentence. Seriti also censured Pistorius, saying his apology to the deceased s family during the hearing did not demonstrate any genuine remorse on his part and that he does not appreciate the gravity of his actions . State prosecutors led by advocate Andrea Johnson had told the appeals hearing this month that there were no mitigating circumstances to justify Pistorius six-year sentence. Defense lawyer Barry Roux argued that Pistorius did not deliberately kill Steenkamp and the appeal should be thrown out. Roux had said during the July 2016 trial that Pistorius disability and mental distress following the killing should be considered as reasons to reduce his sentence. Pistorius reached the semi-finals of the 400 meters at the London Olympics in 2012 and took two golds in the Paralympics. Even in prison, he has been in the news. In August, he was allowed out to attend his maternal grandmother s funeral and spent a night in hospital for what local media reports said was a suspected heart attack. In August 2016, the athlete denied trying to kill himself after he was treated in hospital for wrist injuries. On Pistorius birthday on Wednesday, his father Henke told local YOU magazine that although he was behind bars, it was still a special day for his family, full of love and tears . Legal analysts said Pistorius could still appeal to the Constitutional Court, South Africa s topmost legal authority but saw his chances of success as slim. I don t think it s over. He has one more option, said lawyer Ulrich Roux, who is not linked to the Pistorius defense. All the same there are few grounds of success in this venture, to be honest. Lawyer Zola Majavu said the Constitutional Court was unlikely to agree to hear the case. In my view, that will be a very tall order. It is pretty much the end of the road for Pistorius. | 0 |
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Legislators from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni s party on Tuesday agreed to introduce a law to remove an age limit from the country s constitution, potentially allowing him to extend his rule, two lawmakers told Reuters. The East African country s existing constitution bars anyone over 75 from standing as a presidential candidate. Museveni, 73, is already one of Africa s longest-serving rulers and has been in charge for more than three decades. The next elections are due in 2021. Oil-rich Uganda is a staunch Western ally and receives substantial aid and support for its security forces, partly for sending troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission. When he first came to power, Museveni was lauded for helping restore stability after two murderous dictators known to use torture and extrajudicial executions widely, and for directing the suppression of a brutal insurgency known for mutilating civilians and kidnapping children. But over the years, criticism has mounted over the suppression of the political opposition, widespread corruption and a poor human rights record. Simeo Nsubuga, a legislator from Museveni s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, told Reuters the move to amend the constitution was agreed in a special meeting of the party s House members. We agreed that a private member should come up with a constitutional amendment bill to remove the age limit, Nsubuga said, adding the bill would be introduced on the floor next week. In July, Uganda s deputy attorney general said cabinet was planning to introduce similar legislation. Most Ugandan laws are introduced by the government via cabinet ministers. But Kafuuzi Jackson Karugaba, another NRM legislator, told Reuters they had decided to take the option of a private member s bill because cabinet was moving too slowly. In 2005, NRM legislators changed the constitution and removed a limit of two five-year terms, allowing Museveni to extend his reign. Independent observers said that last year s presidential election lacked transparency and that the poll body lacked credibility. The ageing leader has himself not stated whether he intends to seek another term, and officials have said the proposed constitutional change was not specifically to benefit the incumbent but all of Uganda s future leaders. | 0 |
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar s foreign minister said on Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a death sentence for all who seek peace, Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television reported. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani called the move a dangerous escalation . Qatar s foreign ministry said earlier on Twitter that Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani had warned of serious implications from the decision in a telephone conversation with Trump. | 0 |
JUDGE NAPOLITANO was on FOX & Friends this morning discussing the Obama administration s efforts to spy on Donald Trump. Three intel sources have disclosed to the network that Obama went to British intelligence to get the goods on Trump, but we may never be able to prove it JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Three intelligence sources have informed FOX News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn t use the NSA, he didn t use the CIA, he didn t use the FBI and he didn t use the Department of Justice He used *GCHQ. *GCHQ is a British intel agency.@Judgenap: Three intel sources have disclosed that Pres. Obama turned to British spies to get surveillance on Trump pic.twitter.com/IghCFm7qhO FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 14, 2017 | 1 |
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a staunch pro-life Republican representing Pennsylvania s 18th District, has resigned after being caught in a scandal which involves adultery and encouraging his mistress to get an abortion. After Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) was caught being a hypocrite of the highest order, he announced his resignation on Thursday after announcing his plan to retire after 2018. This afternoon I received a letter of resignation from Congressman Tim Murphy, effective October 21, Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. It was Dr. Murphy s decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support it. Well, it wasn t exactly Murphy s decision really.House GOP leaders and senior Republicans pressured Murphy to step down, according to Politico.GOP sources familiar with Murphy s thinking said the married man initially believed he could weather the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story revealing he had encouraged an abortion in texts he sent to his girlfriend, a psychologist half his age.However, in contrast to what Murphy thought, many senior Republicans did not believe he could weather the scandal or should until the end of his term.Several top Republicans said that Paul Ryan, who met with Murphy on Wednesday evening to discuss his future, also wanted him to step down.So really, anti-abortion Republicans aborted him from office because he was caught. GOP insiders also worried that more damaging stories could surface. And stories, in fact, were surfacing with allegations of being abusive toward his staff for years by yelling at aides and throwing folders around. Murphy reportedly berated his staff members as worthless and stupid. Murphy s chief of staff Susan Mosychuk reportedly punished staffers by making them take the stairs instead of the elevator if she thought they underperformed.Republicans didn t request his resignation because he was such a hypocritical jerkwad:Republicans believed the matter could become an ethics issue that would trigger an investigation and distract from GOP messaging. With Murphy set to resign later this month, any ethics probes would die before even getting started.One of the texts the Gazette obtained was by Shannon Edwards, a married forensic psychologist half his age with whom he was having an affair. And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options, wrote Edwards. Mrs. Edwards is now going through a divorce following the affair.Photo via Wikipedia. | 1 |
The renewed criminal investigation into Hillary's misdeeds -- and how it could affect the election. November 1, 2016 Matthew Vadum
Democrats are in panic mode a week out from Election Day as they try to spin away the FBI’s newly announced discovery of a hoard of two-thirds of a million potentially sensitive emails apparently related to Hillary Clinton’s catastrophic tenure as America’s top diplomat.
Partisan hack James Carville is spewing wild conspiracy theories.
I think it is an outrage and I think the fact that the KGB is involved in this election is an outrage and I think the American people ought to take their democracy back regardless of what the press wants to do and the excuses they want to make for [FBI Director James] Comey. That’s what I think.
He added, “this is in effect an attempt to hijack an election. It ought to be called for what it is.”
Just this past July, Comey was praised by Democrats far and wide for his wisdom in opting not to pursue Clinton. There is evidence federal officials tried to hinder various investigations of Clinton and the endlessly corrupt Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which functions as a bribe processing center for would-be president Hillary Clinton.
But Democrats have suddenly flipped sides, denouncing Comey as an enemy of the republic now that he has opened an investigation into the newly discovered emails.
Carville, long known as the “Ragin’ Cajun,” is apoplectic because he thinks these emails could change the dynamics of the election.
The old Clinton hand may be right.
Investigators found 650,000 emails on a laptop computer they believe was used at home by disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) and his wife, longtime senior Hillary aide Huma Abedin. The computer is reportedly the same device serial pervert Weiner used to send sexual messages to an underage girl.
“Underlying metadata suggests thousands of those messages could have been sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter,” reports the Wall Street Journal . Some of the information emailed may have been classified.
Abedin, who has intergenerational ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, reportedly forwarded sensitive government information to her personal Yahoo email account and may have viewed them on her home laptop.
Over the objections of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Comey notified Congress of the information about the previously unknown emails at this late stage in the election cycle because after letting Hillary off the hook this summer he was facing a huge uprising among FBI employees, the overwhelming majority of whom are not unprincipled supplicants to power.
Lynch is doing her best to make sure the Department of Justice probe goes nowhere.
Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Peter J. Kadzik, whom Zero Hedge calls “the best friend” of John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign chairman and former White House chief of staff in Bill Clinton’s administration, is heading up the email probe.
So the fix is in.
In any event, the prospect of restoring his good name may also have prompted Comey to act.
People are upset at Comey because he took the coward’s way out in the email investigation and is viewed as helping the Clinton team and the Obama White House in their efforts to cover up wrongdoing.
It was back on July 5 Comey announced that despite the massive body of damning evidence accumulating against Clinton he would not recommend charges be brought against the former secretary of state for her use of hacker-friendly homebrew private email servers to conduct official business. Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified documents but there was no evidence of criminal intent, he said, even though the relevant national security statute does not require intent. The next day Attorney General Lynch confirmed no charges would be laid against Hillary. Lynch, as everyone now knows, had a clandestine meeting with former President Bill Clinton at a Phoenix airport a week before, at which a corrupt bargain was presumably made.
This internal rebellion in the investigative agency was serious enough that Comey felt he had to act immediately.
“I have some sources in the FBI and the former district attorney's,” commentator Larry Kudlow said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The FBI is in full revolt right now. The FBI has been in full revolt since the decisions made last summer.”
Ever the Hillary shill, host Chuck Todd corrected Kudlow.
“Not full revolt,” he said. “There's been a lot. I mean it's--there are agents--Let's not say full revolt.”
“All right, a semi-full revolt,” said Kudlow.
Because what I'm getting at is if Comey hadn't said what he said to Congress and the rest of the world, it would have leaked. It would have leaked. That whole building was ready to leak that they had discovered this new source with [Anthony] Weiner and [Huma] Abedin. So, I don't think Comey had much chance here. And I think the FBI is badly divided.”
Meanwhile, the trickle of bad news for Hillary Clinton has turned into a raging flood in the last few days.
Clinton has been directly implicated in a nasty false flag operation against the Donald Trump campaign. Top Democrat operatives Robert Creamer and Scott Foval were caught on undercover video describing their involvement in an elaborate criminal conspiracy involving the use of targeted political violence against political opponents. The euphemism employed was “conflict engagement” which means paying leftist agitators, the homeless and the mentally ill, to cause melees at Trump rallies.
Fomenting violence and physically attacking political opponents was what the fascist Third Reich did, using the Sturmabteilung or S.A., also called brown shirts and storm troopers.
Longtime Democrat pollster and campaign consultant Doug Schoen, a familiar face on Fox News Channel, announced he could no longer in good conscience support Clinton’s candidacy.
“I’m deeply concerned that we’ll have a constitutional crisis if she’s elected,” he said Sunday. “If the secretary of state wins, we will have a president under criminal investigation, with [top aide] Huma Abedin under criminal investigation.”
Republican Donald Trump is closing the gap in national polls of likely voters.
Clinton’s unfavorability rating in polls now exceeds Trump’s. She’s at 60 percent; he’s at 58 percent.
Former New York mayor and leading Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani said over the weekend that enough evidence has surfaced from WikiLeaks and the FBI to indict Clinton for racketeering. Bill Clinton “does the speeches, they put the money in the pocket, she does the favors in the government,” said Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor. “It all links up. Why did they destroy 33,000 emails? Because it shows the link.”
Influential liberal journalist Ron Fournier threw Hillary under the bus. Mrs. Clinton got “a secret server” to protect what the Washington Post called “the ‘circle of enrichment,’” he said.
If Hillary Clinton wins next week, media outlets across America will have to hire extra investigative journalists to handle all the corruption exposes that will follow. | 1 |
You can blame the escalating debt on Obamacare and taxes We can thank Obama for this The federal government will be flirting with $30 trillion in debt within a decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, blaming an aging population, new spending and tax cuts approved on Capitol Hill, and the growing burden from Obamacare for erasing the progress Washington had made over the past few years.Analysts said Obamacare will chase more workers out of the labor force over the next five years, adding pressure to an economy still struggling to spring to life more than seven years into the Obama recovery.The Affordable Care Act itself is still struggling to attract a customer base, the CBO said, lowering its estimate for the number of people who will sign up for the exchanges from 21 million to 13 million a drop of nearly 40 percent in projections. Customers collecting taxpayer subsidies this year will be 11 million, down from the 15 million the CBO projected a year ago.The grim news comes with less than a year left for President Obama to put the law on firmer footing as he seeks to head off what is likely to be a last effort at repealing the act after November s elections.The economic front is somewhat brighter for Mr. Obama, who seven years into the recovery will finally see significant sustained growth of 2.5 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year, the CBO said.That will be followed by a cooling off, with growth dropping below 2 percent in 2019 and 2020. The economic gains will continue to go disproportionately to the wealthy, helping boost income tax revenue but limiting payroll taxes, which will put even more pressure on the entitlement programs that are driving up deficits.The biggest fiscal dent, however, was made late last year when Mr. Obama and the Republican-run Congress struck a deal. The president won significant spending hikes, and Republicans insisted on a new round of special tax breaks that, combined, reversed years of progress and added nearly $750 billion to projected deficits over the next decade. After six consecutive years in which the deficit has declined relative to the size of the economy, this year s deficit at 2.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) is anticipated to increase for the first time since it peaked at 9.8 percent in 2009, the CBO said.Deficits will continue to rise over the next 10 years, topping $1 trillion again in 2022 and reaching $1.4 trillion in 2026, the analysts said.The accumulation of those deficits will deepen the gross public debt from $18.1 trillion at the end of 2015 to $29.3 trillion in 2026. By contrast, the debt stood at $10.6 trillion when Mr. Obama took office in 2009.Looking decades into the future, the picture only gets worse, the CBO said.READ MORE: WT | 0 |
The discussion Bret Stephens had with his 10 year old son, is one every parent should be having with the very generation who has the most to lose if socialism really is implemented in America. As parents, we re asked countless times by our children to explain ghosts, scary shadows on the walls, or some other imagined childhood fear. How many times however, do our children ask us to explain something that every American should truly fear? How many times do we have the opportunity to explain the reality of Socialism to our children? We Applaud Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal for the brilliant way he explained Socialism to his son. We thank him for sharing it with his readers.Noah, my 10-year-old son, was reading over my shoulder a powerful story about the state of medicine in Venezuela by Nick Casey in Sunday s New York Times. We scrolled through images of filthy operating rooms, broken incubators and desperate patients lying in pools of blood, dying for lack of such basics as antibiotics. Dad, why are the hospitals like this? Socialism. What s socialism? I told him it s an economic system in which the government seizes and runs industries, sets prices for goods, and otherwise dictates what you can and cannot do with your money, and therefore your life. He received my answer with the abstracted interest you d expect if I had been describing atmospheric conditions on Uranus.Here s what I wish I had said: Socialism is a mental poison that leads to human misery of the sort you see in these wrenching pictures.The lesson seems all the more necessary when discredited ideologies are finding new champions in high places. When Venezuelan President Hugo Ch vez died in 2013, an obscure U.K. parliamentarian tweeted, Thanks Hugo Chavez for showing that the poor matter and wealth can be shared. He made massive contributions to Venezuela & a very wide world. The parliamentarian was Jeremy Corbyn, now leader of the Labour Party.Up north, Naomi Klein, Canada s second-most unpleasant export, treated Ch vez as heroically leading the resistance to the forces of dreaded neoliberalism. Jimmy Carter mourned Ch vez for his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments and for his formidable communication skills and personal connection with supporters in his country and abroad to whom he gave hope and empowerment. There are lesser names to add to this roll call of dishonor Michael Moore, Sean Penn but you get the point: Democratic socialism had no shortage of prominent Western cheerleaders as it set Venezuela on its road to hyperinflation, hyper-criminality, water shortages, beer shortages, electricity blackouts, political repression and national collapse. Ch vez and his successor, Nicol s Maduro, gained prestige and legitimacy from these paladins of the left. They are complicit in Venezuela s agony.And so to the U.S. election, specifically the resolutely undead presidential candidacy of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Sanders campaign is no stranger to accusations that its brand of leftism is cut from the same cloth that produced Chavismo. Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton s most prominent Super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously, Mr. Sanders complained in September, noting that they tried to link me to a dead communist dictator. The senator protests too much. As mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s, he boasted of conducting his own foreign policy, including sister-city relations with Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua and Yaroslavl in the Soviet Union. On a 1985 trip to Nicaragua, he lavished praise on Daniel Ortega s communist regime Chavismo s older cousin. In terms of health care, in terms of education, in terms of land reform . . . nobody denies they [the Sandinistas] are making significant progress in those areas, then-Mayor Sanders told one interviewer in 1985. And I think people understand that and I think the people of Nicaragua, the poor people, respect that. If Mr. Sanders ever rethought or recanted those views, I m not aware of it.But the point isn t what Mr. Sanders may have thought of the Sandinistas in the 1980s or the Chavistas in the past decade. It s that the type of socialism that the senator espouses $18 trillion in additional government spending over the next decade, accusations that Wall Street is a criminal enterprise and the continuous demonization of millionaires and billionaires is not all that different from its South American cousins.Democratic socialism whether Chavez s or Sanders s is legalized theft in the name of the people against the vilified few. It is a battle against income inequality by means of collective immiseration. It is the subjugation of private enterprise and personal autonomy to government power. Mr. Sanders promises to pursue his aims on the Scandinavian model, as if that was a success, and as if Americans are Scandinavians. It wasn t. We aren t. Bernie s Way paves the same road to serfdom that socialism does everywhere.That s a fact Americans might have learned after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. We didn t. Take the time to tell your kids what socialism is, and does, before they too feel the Bern.Via: Wall Street Journal | 0 |
OSLO (Reuters) - Backers of a global accord to fight climate change that formally comes into force on Friday say they are confident the deal can survive any legal challenges by U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump if he wins next week’s presidential election. Trump has threatened to reject the accord negotiated by nearly 200 governments, including that of U.S. President Barack Obama. Trump once tweeted that global warming was a concept invented by the Chinese to harm U.S. industry. By contrast, his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has strongly supported the plan, which enters into force after major greenhouse gas emitters the United States, China and India ratified it. The Paris Agreement aims to phase out man-made greenhouse gases in the second half of the century to avert floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels. Delegates from signatory nations meet in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Nov. 7-18 to start turning their many promises on tackling climate change into action and draw up a “rule book” for the sometimes fuzzily worded accord reached last December. Adding urgency, 2016 is set to be the hottest year since records began in the 19th century. The U.S. election, on Nov. 8, injects a large dose of political uncertainty into the gathering of environment ministers and senior officials in Marrakesh. The relatively speedy ratification of the climate pact, a year before many predictions, was partly driven by Trump’s threats to reject the accord. Some delegates played down the risk of a President Trump reneging on the deal. “The momentum is such that it would take a heck of a climate skeptic to back pedal,” said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who heads the group of 48 Least Developed Countries at the Morocco negotiations. “That’s really why we have had this strong mobilization (to ratify). If Trump wins I don’t think it will change anything.”‘ Moroccan Environment Minister Hakima El Haite, who will host the Marrakesh meeting, said he did not expect Trump, if elected, would challenge the agreement, saying the American people were generally supportive of climate action. And, as a businessman, “(Trump) will understand that climate change is an opportunity to create jobs and new technologies”, she told Reuters recently in New York. Its entry into force gives some protection for the Paris Agreement under international law. Its Article 28 says any government wanting to quit has to wait through four years of formalities - the length of a U.S. presidential term. If he wins, Trump is likely to focus his efforts domestically on undoing Obama’s plans to cut U.S. emissions, such as from coal-fired power plants. The Paris Agreement also helped to unlock U.N. accords this year to limit emissions from airlines and from powerful greenhouse gases used in air conditioners and refrigerators. “There has been astonishing progress” on climate change after years of deadlock, said Andrew Steer, head of the World Resources Institute think-tank. The global pacts contrast with more nationalist forces that helped Trump to win the U.S. Republican nomination for president and, on the other side of the Atlantic, Britain’s vote in June to leave the European Union. The Paris Agreement enters into force after passing a threshold last month of ratification by 55 nations representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The tally is now 87 nations representing about 60 percent of emissions. The United States alone accounts for 18 percent of global emissions. Under a Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Trump could not renounce the U.S. share and then argue that the entire entry into force was invalid. “Entry into force only goes one way. It can’t be reversed,” said Elliot Diringer, executive vice-president of the non-partisan Center for Climate and Energy Solutions in Washington. But there could be legal challenges. The U.S. Republican Party platform says Obama, a Democrat who used his executive powers to ratify the agreement, should have submitted it to the Senate, where it would almost certainly have been rejected. Governments in Marrakesh will try to bolster the pact, which sets many goals for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 or 2030. Governments are under pressure to spell out what they will do now rather than leave it to their successors. At its core, the Paris Agreement promises to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. But current pledges for limiting emissions are too weak and will allow temperatures to rise by perhaps 3C (5.4F) or more by 2100. Diplomats expect it will take two years or more to write a rule book for the accord. Among difficulties, the Agreement lets all countries set their own targets for emissions. That free-for-all design helped ensure wide support but is at odds with a need for a central set of rules to monitor and report greenhouse gas emissions from factories, cars, farms and power plants. Irrespective of the rules, the prices of renewable energies are falling sharply, prompting a shift from fossil fuels. U.S. climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said wind and solar energy accounted for two-thirds of all new electricity generating capacity installed in the United States in 2015. “The U.S. solar industry now employs more people than coal,” he said. Still, Trump says he will promote the U.S. coal and oil industries to safeguard domestic jobs and national security. He says a shift from fossil fuels would force the United States to be “begging for oil again” from Middle East suppliers. | 0 |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S. official on Friday said Washington is deeply concerned at the release from house arrest of a Pakistani Islamist accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai. Hafiz Saeed, who had been under house arrest since January, was ordered freed by a Pakistani court this week and preached on Friday at a mosque in the eastern city of Lahore. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saeed s organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, Nauert said in a statement. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that a new $38 billion aid package will help ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, commenting in a statement on the 10-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two nations. “Both Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a dangerous neighborhood,” Obama said. | 1 |
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A judge on Tuesday tossed out a legal challenge to a problem-plagued presidential preference election in Arizona, ruling that the woes at the polls were not due to fraud. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Gass said there were insufficient grounds for granting the request to void the results of the March 22 nominating election, which was marked by long lines and controversy. In a ruling from the bench, Gass said there were glitches and possible missteps by election officials but that the results would not have changed. “Elections are human endeavors. They are never, ever perfect,” Gass said. “Glitches are always something that we need to wary of and we need to work hard, and we need to fix them.... But they don’t rise to the level of fraud.” Gass issued his verbal decision following a two-day hearing on the lawsuit brought by Tucson resident John Brakey, who alleged that election officials committed misconduct. The lawsuit argued officials improperly handled voter registration requests and permitted illegal votes to be cast in the election. He also said erroneous ballots were counted and the number of polling locations were inadequate. He sought a repeat of the election, easily won by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Brakey’s attorney Michael Kielsky told Reuters on Tuesday night that he was disappointed in the ruling, but that it likely will not be appealed. The election brought widespread criticism to Arizona, which saw frustrated voters wait in line for as long as five hours to cast their ballots at a drastically reduced number of polls. In a cost-cutting move, county election officials slashed the polling locations to 60, compared with 200 in the election in 2012. Officials immediately took the blame for the mistake, saying the decision was based on past voter turnout and an increase in mail-in votes. The election also faces a separate federal court challenge by the state and national Democratic parties, along with the Clinton and Sanders campaigns. Justice department officials additionally have launched a probe into the handling of the election. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Californians are expected to pass a ballot measure on Election Day legalizing recreational marijuana, and the prospect has cities and counties seeing dollar signs. Proposition 64 would impose state taxes on the cultivation and sale of marijuana. But it also allows local jurisdictions to add taxes of their own, something many cities and counties said they plan to do. Economists warn that burdensome taxes and fees on the nascent industry could backfire, fueling the black market and pushing marijuana businesses to decamp for towns where it’s cheaper to operate. For many city and county officials across California, however, the promise of new revenue to fill budget gaps and fund services is too alluring to pass up. More than 60 local marijuana measures will appear on ballots across California in Tuesday’s election. In Monterey, a scenic county along the state’s rugged central coast, officials said new local marijuana taxes and fees, if approved, could bring in $30 million, nearly double the county’s $16 million budget deficit. In Coalinga, a Fresno County community of about 13,000, officials hope to solve a $3 million budget crisis with marijuana taxes. Central California’s King City anticipates new revenues of $1 million to $2 million, or almost 30 percent of the city’s general fund. Proposed marijuana taxes in Gonzales, population 8,400, are projected to hit $1.6 million, more than the city collects annually in sales and property taxes combined. “There is no other business that would generate this type of revenue,” Gonzales City Manager Rene Mendez said. “It’s easy to see why this is something that communities want to pursue.” Some California communities have gone further, announcing plans to reinvent themselves as hubs for the industry. Desert Hot Springs in Southern California, a town that narrowly skirted bankruptcy after the financial crash, was one of a few cities to pass a marijuana tax in 2014. It is eager for marijuana revenue. The city passed an ordinance to allow for growing and processing businesses to legally operate. Mayor Scott Matas said it’s already having an effect – real estate prices on vacant and dilapidated industrial parcels have skyrocketed as investors stand poised to build manufacturing sites and open nurseries. Forecasts for local marijuana taxes – which will be collected in addition to state taxes – are staggering. Desert Hot Springs’ current general fund is about $15 million. But city leaders project marijuana tax collections could reach $1 million next year and, eventually, climb to $50 million if all the available land gets fully built out. “If the industry takes off, the revenue could be life-changing for this community,” Matas said. For more on U.S. states and marijuana, see this graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2fBzYmV Many of the California communities hoping to cash in on recreational marijuana formed their plans after meeting with David McPherson of HdL Companies, a Southern California consulting firm specializing in revenue strategies for local governments. The former Oakland tax administrator said he believes marijuana provides a rare opportunity for new job growth and tax revenue that could help struggling communities keep pace with rising pension costs and infrastructure and school funding needs. “It’s almost like the next dot com,” he said. McPherson is working with 40 communities on marijuana issues and has helped draft a dozen local tax measures for Tuesday’s ballots. “Cities have really struggled to balance their budgets,” he said. “This is a new industry that’s going to increase significantly and create jobs and more employment in their communities.” Not all municipalities have embraced high marijuana taxes. Some said they hope to squash the black market by keeping taxes low, so legal businesses can better compete with the illicit supply. In Mendocino, a longtime marijuana-growing region in Northern California, county officials scoffed at initial projections by McPherson of up to $110 million in annual local taxes – a potential cash infusion equivalent to 60 percent of the county’s general fund. Instead, the county proposed a measure with a much lower tax rate. “These numbers are designed to make government drool and say,‘How much can we get out of our cultivators and farmers?’” said Jude Thilman, a Fort Bragg resident and member of the Mendocino Cannabis Policy Council at a May meeting of the Mendocino County Supervisors. “The farmers are not doing that well. People are barely getting by.” Nate Bradley, head of the California Cannabis Industry Association, worries that high taxes would encourage farmers to continue growing marijuana illegally. “We want to pull these guys out of the hills. But if you’re looking at them like they’re ATM machines, they are not going to come out of the hills.” Some cities want to avoid the whole issue by banning all marijuana farming and sales within their jurisdictions, something allowed by the ballot measure. In Orange County south of Los Angeles, Placentia Mayor Pro Tem Craig Green said the city has no plans to allow marijuana sales or cultivation. “There are problems with the cannabis business,” such as the increased costs to law enforcement, he said. “It ends up costing more in the end.” | 0 |
Yes, the New Hampshire primary was this week — and we found an especially wonky way to talk about it.
There's a paper that came out last year called "Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy." If you're a listener of The Weeds, you'll almost certainly find it fascinating.
Author Jonathan Rauch argues that deals, rewards, and favors are all essential parts of actually making the government work. If political parties were stronger — if individuals could donate lots of money, rather than a little — he thinks the government would be able to get even more done.
Listen to Ezra, Matt, and me dive into what this means for the 2016 election in this week's episode — which you can find, as always, below and on iTunes. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four conservative U.S. Republican senators said on Thursday they are not prepared to vote for the Senate Republican healthcare proposal unveiled on Thursday when it comes to the floor, probably next week. “Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor,” the senators — Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and Ted Cruz — said in a joint statement. The draft bill would not repeal Obamacare and lower healthcare costs, they said. If legislation is to prevail, Republicans can only lose the support of two of the Senate’s 52 Republicans, assuming all 48 Democrats and independents oppose the bill as expected. | 1 |
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A big slap in the face to an overreaching government who is more worried about protecting the reputations of our tyrannical president in public than our most basic right to free speech The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs in August 2014, challenging the enactment of the ordinance which restricted the plaintiffs right to demonstrate and display signs calling for the impeachment of President Obama and the end to illegal immigration on city overpasses over designated highways.U.S. District Judge David Godbey for the Northern District Court of Texas entered the consent judgment, marking the first time that the City of Dallas admitted its ordinance was an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.Erin Mersino, TMLC Senior Trial Counsel handling the case, commented, It is a good day for free speech. Overpasses for America and Valerie Villarreal may now resume their important demonstrations without fear of being fined or retaliated against by the City. We re asking our readers to consider making a donation (in any amount) to this amazing law firm who does so much to protect our freedoms from a tyrannical government: Donate to the Thomas More Law Center by clicking HEREIn November 2014, just three months after TMLC filed their initial lawsuit against the city, the Dallas City Council voted to repeal the ordinance. During the repeal process, however, the City refused to acknowledge that the ordinance unconstitutionally attacked Free Speech that criticized President Obama and the flood of illegal immigration encouraged by the Obama administration s complete disregard of federal immigration laws. The judgment entered by the District Court, however, specifically declares that the Dallas ordinance was a violation of Overpasses for America s First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly. The judgment also awarded nominal damages as requested by the Plaintiffs in recognition of the City of Dallas violation of the Overpasses members Free Speech and Freedom of Assembly rights, and provided a settlement amount for attorneys fees and costs.Before the enactment of the City s ordinance, the North Dallas Chapter of Overpasses for America had held over 75 demonstrations on the pedestrian overpasses in Dallas, without a single traffic incident. Nevertheless, the City Council moved forward with the restrictive ordinance under the guise that it was necessary for public safety.Overpasses for America is a nonpartisan grassroots movement that calls for accountability among our nation s leaders.Overpasses for America demonstrators frequently use pedestrian overpasses to spread their messages and to reach a large and diverse audience. Several cities, however, have sought to silence these concerned citizens.Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of TMLC, stated: The concerns of a majority of Americans on crucial public issues have little impact on the Washington political establishment.That s why it s so important to defend the free speech rights of grassroots organizations like Overpasses for America, whose members feel it s their patriotic duty to get their message out and mobilize their fellow citizens. TMLC is currently representing two plaintiffs in a case challenging a similar ordinance in the Town of Campbell, Wisconsin that case is currently pending before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.Here is the incident that took place in Campbell, WI:Here are members of the Overpasses For America group defending their free speech right in front of the Campbell, WI City Council:Via: Thomas More Law Center | 1 |
Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump s nominee for the Supreme Court seat that s sat empty since Antonin Scalia died a year ago, has joined the ranks of the outraged when it comes to Trump and his damned Twitter account. Gorsuch is specifically upset with Trump s statements about the judiciary branch of the government, and told Sen. Richard Blumenthal that in a meeting earlier today: He said very specifically that they were demoralizing and disheartening and he characterized them very specifically that way, Blumenthal said of Gorsuch. I said they were more than disheartening and I said to him that he has an obligation to make his views clear to the American people, so they understand how abhorrent or unacceptable President Trump s attacks on the judiciary are. For someone who sits on the bench, it s easy to see how that would be disheartening and demoralizing. An attack doesn t have to be directed squarely at you to still feel like an attack. Trump attacked our entire judicial system and insulted all the judges within it when he went off on Judge Robart for blocking his Muslim ban. Gorsuch told Sen. Chuck Schumer as much, too.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has been hearing arguments on the legality of the Muslim ban, and apparently the three judges hearing that case gave the lawyers arguing a really tough time. They grilled the lawyer representing the Department of Justice on whether the government even had evidence that the seven countries named in the ban are connected to terrorism.It s a pointed question because Saudi Arabia, which does have strong ties to terrorism and has exported terrorism to the U.S., is not included in the ban. When August Flentje refused to answer it and instead tried again to argue that Trump has broad authority in this area, Judge Michelle Friedland asked: Are you arguing then that the President s decision in that regard is unreviewable (by a court)? Flentje s answer was yes. In other words, Flentje argues that Trump can do what s necessary in his judgement to keep the U.S. safe, and a court can t say otherwise. That s part of what Robart weighed when he blocked the Muslim ban. The 9th Circuit will end up on Trump s radar here pretty quickly if they uphold Robart s decision.Then Gorsuch will have to determine whether he wants to serve on a court that s going to be the subject of juvenile attacks when they rule in a way that Trump doesn t like. His confirmation hearing is coming up. He probably won t withdraw, but he has a lot to think about right now.Read more:Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images | 0 |
(Reuters) - Donald Trump on Wednesday picked South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and wealthy Republican donor Betsy DeVos as education secretary. It was the latest move from the Republican president-elect as he works to fill administration positions before his Jan. 20 inauguration. His transition team said he might have another Cabinet-level announcement later in the day. Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles. See end of list for posts already filled. * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman * Jeb Hensarling, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee * Tom Barrack, founder and chairman of Colony Capital Inc * John Allison, former CEO of BB&T Corp * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor * Rudy Giuliani, former Republican mayor of New York City * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Republican President George W. Bush * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq * James Mattis, retired Marine general * David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired Army general * Tom Cotton, Republican U.S. senator from Arkansas * Jon Kyl, former Republican U.S. senator from Arizona * Duncan Hunter, Republican U.S. representative from California and early Trump supporter, member of the House Armed Services Committee * Jim Talent, former Republican U.S. senator from Missouri who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush * Tom Price, Republican U.S. representative from Georgia, orthopedic surgeon * Rich Bagger, former pharmaceutical executive and former top aide to Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie * Bobby Jindal, former Republican Louisiana governor * Michael McCaul, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee county sheriff and vocal Trump supporter * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state * Frances Townsend, homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to former Republican President George W. Bush * Jeff Holmstead, energy lawyer, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Leslie Rutledge, Republican Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. Representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor * Ray Washburne, chief executive of investment company Charter Holdings * Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and Republican Conference chair * Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor, chairman of Invesco Ltd subsidiary WL Ross & Co * Linda McMahon, former World Wrestling Entertainment executive and two-time Republican Senate candidate * Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, former Republican U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, former Republican mayor of New York City * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp * Andrew Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants * Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioner and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration * Elaine Chao, former labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary under Republican Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, respectively. Chao is wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell * Harold Ford, former Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee * Dr. Ben Carson, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon The Trump transition team confirmed he would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. * Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus * Steve Bannon, former head of the conservative website Breitbart News * Jeff Sessions, Republican U.S. senator from Alabama and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (subject to Senate confirmation) * Republican U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo from Kansas (subject to Senate confirmation) * Michael Flynn, retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency * Nikki Haley, Republican South Carolina governor (subject to Senate confirmation) * Betsy DeVos, Republican donor and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party | 1 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence assured the European Union in Brussels on Monday that the Trump administration will develop their cooperation in trade and security and backs the EU as a partner in its own right. A month after Donald Trump caused alarm by renewing his endorsement of Brexit and suggesting others may follow Britain out of the EU, Pence told reporters that he had come to “the home of the European Union” with a message from the president. Speaking of a “strong commitment ... to continue cooperation and partnership with the European Union”, Pence added: “Whatever our differences, our two continents share the same heritage, the same values and above all, the same purpose to promote peace and prosperity through freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” At a later meeting at NATO across town, he made clear that U.S. support for the Transatlantic defense alliance had a price, though; Trump, he said, “expects real progress” from European governments by the end of the year in increasing their spending on military budgets closer to a NATO target of 2 percent of GDP. Donald Tusk, who chairs the European Council of EU leaders, told reporters that Pence had given him affirmative answers to three questions on Trump’s support for: the current system of international law, NATO and “the idea of a united Europe”. “Reports of the death of the West have been greatly exaggerated,” Tusk said, in a nod to American writer Mark Twain. EU officials said they were encouraged by what they called Pence’s clear assurances, including on U.S. backing for holding the European Union together after Brexit, though they will watch closely to see how far Trump’s actions match his deputy’s words. “We got everything we were looking for,” one official said. Pence noted the building of common European institutions after World War Two and said: “With this union and in cooperation with the United States, history will attest that when the United States and Europe are peaceful and prosperous, we do advance the peace and prosperity of all the world.” Echoing comments he made over the weekend in Germany, Pence also addressed worries in Europe over Trump’s suggestion that the NATO defense pact was “obsolete”; Washington, he said, was committed to defending the sovereignty and territory of European states and holding Russia to account for its actions in Ukraine. Pence also repeated Trump’s belief that “common ground” could be established with Russia after years of confrontation. Tusk, a former Polish premier who was jailed in the 1980s for opposing Soviet control, seized on Pence’s personal memories of a youthful visit to divided Berlin to remind the new administration of the value that Europeans attach to Cold War support from an earlier Republican president, Ronald Reagan. Europeans are concerned that Trump may prefer bilateral ties with European powers rather than working with the Union. Pence spoke of cooperation, including against Islamist violence: “The safety and security of your union and our people depends on that increased collaboration on the global fight against terrorism.” EU officials said Pence, the former governor of Indiana, had seemed confident in his new role. One said he sought to assure them Trump’s “very American”, direct style should not be taken as hostile or reflect a push to isolate the United States. | 1 |
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — In a mansion along the Congo River, with a collection of expensive watches, expensive motorcycles and a chimpanzee in a cage, Joseph Kabila, the president of this vast and troubled country, should be packing up. Instead, he is digging in. His second term is up in a few days, the Constitution forbids him to run for a third, millions of people are threatening to mobilize against him, and still Mr. Kabila shows no signs of leaving. The Democratic Republic of Congo is already one of the poorest, most volatile nations on earth. Countless young people are out of work, and the security forces are brutal and loosely controlled. Add to that dozens of armed groups operating in the hinterlands. Many people here are terrified that if Mr. Kabila clings to power at all costs, as some of his counterparts across Africa recently have, Congo could explode. But the paradox is that Mr. Kabila may not especially want to stay in power. Instead, former confidants say, he refuses to give up for a simple reason: He is afraid — for his family, for his safety and, not insignificant, for his wealth. “He doesn’t have an exit plan,” said Martin Fayulu, an opposition politician. It is an old problem with a new twist. According to forensic investigators, mining executives and officials in his own government, Mr. Kabila has looted millions of dollars in public assets. Recent troves of documents shared with The New York Times — whose authenticity has been verified by current and former Congolese officials — reveal a string of suspicious bank transfers totaling $95. 7 million, dubious mining rights sales that have generated millions more and possible schemes involving a bank executive widely described as Mr. Kabila’s adopted brother. Authoritarian leaders used to be able to steal with impunity. But today, a with an iPhone can be a dangerous foe. The Papers, WikiLeaks world is an uncomfortable place for an autocrat. In a sense, Mr. Kabila is trapped. As Jason K. Stearns, the author of a book on Congolese politics, said, “He’s in a labyrinth of his own making. ” And cornered, he has begun to lash out. Mr. Kabila’s forces and their supporters have arrested journalists, jailed opposition politicians, firebombed opposition headquarters and assassinated a Catholic priest who held workshops on the Constitution and its limit of a presidency. Scores of protesters have already been shot dead, turning more people against Mr. Kabila each day. Opposition leaders are now threatening to flood the streets with millions of protesters on Tuesday, the day Mr. Kabila is supposed to be out of office. Seeing chaos on the horizon, top Western officials have shuttled in and out of the capital, Kinshasa, trying to draw the reclusive Mr. Kabila out from his riverside residence, where he lives under heavy guard. This year, Secretary of State John Kerry and other American officials have met with Mr. Kabila several times. But several people who know the president well said Mr. Kabila was increasingly isolated, moody and antisocial. They said he had been keeping irregular hours, becoming irritable with his staff members and staying up late to play Sony PlayStation 4 or race his fancy motorcycles up and down the dark boulevards of Kinshasa to blow off steam. As Mr. Kabila plays for time, the information on corruption keeps streaming in, from many directions. In September, an American hedge fund, Capital Management Group, admitted in a federal plea agreement to participating in a bribery scheme involving mineral deals and Congolese officials. The officials were not named in the plea agreement, but several analysts said the information published by the Justice Department made it obvious that one was an adviser who was extremely close to Mr. Kabila — possibly one of the only men Mr. Kabila really trusted — before he died in a plane crash in 2012. Other investigations are in the works, and the American government is trying to delicately warn Mr. Kabila that his chances of being prosecuted for corruption would be lower if he left now. “No one can guarantee no prosecution, but in the real world, there are priorities,” said Tom Malinowski, an assistant secretary of state. “I don’t think one of them would be going after the former president of Congo who did the right thing. ” Still, no one has come up with an exit plan. Even the Western diplomats tasked with appealing to Mr. Kabila, pleading with him not to drive his country off a cliff, admit they are at a loss for what to offer. Mr. Kabila is still relatively young, 45, and if he is worried about keeping his wealth and avoiding jail after he leaves office, how does one guarantee that? All he has to do is look at Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president, who agreed to leave office under intense international pressure and was soon apprehended, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison. And what about his safety? Mr. Kabila has made many enemies in nearly 16 years as the leader of one of the world’s most violent states. As one mining executive who used to be close to Mr. Kabila argued, it is not as if the American government is going to assign SEAL Team 6 to guard him in perpetuity, even if he asks. Mr. Kabila is not your typical strongman. He was driving a taxicab in Tanzania not long before he was thrust into power. His father, a smuggler turned rebel leader turned president, was assassinated in 2001. The only person top advisers could agree on to lead the country, which was in the midst of a very confusing civil war, was the elder son, Joseph, at the time 29. Unlike Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea for the past 23 years, or Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (30 years) or Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence (36 years) Mr. Kabila has never tried to build a cult of personality. He is shy, mild and a careful listener. Confidants say he never wanted to be president and tried to turn down the job. But over the years, former aides and investigators say, he has amassed a fortune and developed a taste for the finer things. A former colleague said he sometimes wore two expensive watches at the same time — a Rolex and a Patek Philippe — one for each wrist. Mr. Kabila and his family own a network of homes and huge farms across Congo, sweeping up thousands of acres, analysts and former aides said. They also said Mr. Kabila was most at peace around animals. He is an avid breeder of cows, and he kept a menagerie of chimpanzees, a (a small antelope) birds of prey and parrots at his house in urban Kinshasa. A recent visitor said at least one chimp still lived there, screeching hoots from a cage as guests arrive. But these days, the stress of the job seems to be eating at him. Mr. Kabila has put on weight. The few times he was spotted in public he had huge bags under his eyes. More are coming forward, which may make him even less likely to quit if he believes that he can best protect himself and his assets by intimidating or neutralizing critics with his security forces. One Congolese government official said that on numerous occasions he had been instructed to take wheeled suitcases, stuffed with $100 bills totaling more than $7 million, to a minister’s office for “state’s use. ” The money came from a company. The official, along with several others, said it would be too dangerous for anyone but Mr. Kabila or his family to steal that blatantly. The Panama Papers — leaked confidential documents from a law firm in Panama — revealed that Mr. Kabila’s twin sister, Jaynet, using a different name, owned an indirect share in the nation’s largest mobile phone operator and through a company registered in Niue, in the South Pacific. Current and former Congolese officials described very complicated and suspicious business dealings involving foreign partners, joint ventures and lucrative mining concessions. One such deal recently attracted the attention of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, which is investigating Congo’s sale of mining rights through an Israeli tycoon who is a friend of Mr. Kabila’s. Because of Mr. Kabila’s lack of transparency, the International Monetary Fund halted a loan program worth hundreds of millions of dollars that Congo desperately needed. “It’s clear that the Kabila family has personally profited from the exploitation of natural resources and the manipulation of banks and companies,” said Sasha Lezhnev, a manager at the Enough Project, a nonprofit organization that recently reviewed thousands of pages of documents and conducted more than 100 interviews on corruption in Congo. In the past two decades, Congo’s wars over minerals, politics, ethnicity and land have killed millions, destabilizing a big chunk of the continent. But its history of gains goes back much further. Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo’s strongman during the Cold War, was one of Africa’s most notorious thieves, though back then it was easier to get away with corruption. None of the documents to emerge recently have Mr. Kabila’s signature on them, though the names of top aides and companies of Mr. Kabila’s associates are all over them. Lambert Mende, the chief government spokesman, said Mr. Kabila was “not a robber, not at all. ” “He has no account in Europe or the U. S. A. ,” Mr. Mende said. “He doesn’t have a single apartment outside of Congo. This is all storytelling. ” The most suspicious documents to emerge recently include a string of bank transfers to different accounts at different banks with the notation that they were “advance tax payments” from Gécamines, a struggling mining company, for Congo’s central bank. Starting late last year, the transfers reveal anomalies like instructions that $8 million be withdrawn from the teller — in cash — on behalf of the central bank. “That makes no sense,” said a former employee of Congo’s central bank who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he could be killed if he was identified. “We don’t get cash from a commercial bank. We import our own cash. We have a service in Switzerland that does that. ” Analysts at the Sentry, an investigative arm of the Enough Project, said that during the time of the supposed Gécamines transfer of $95. 7 million to the central bank, the central bank’s foreign reserves actually dropped — to $1. 17 billion from $1. 47 billion — pushing up inflation and causing issues for Congo’s economy. At the same time, Mr. Kabila’s government drastically cut spending on health care and the few services it provides. Sentry analysts said they were curious how Gécamines, a company with endless management problems, would have that much cash on hand for advance tax payments when thousands of employees had not been paid in months. Documents showed that Gécamines lost $82. 9 million in 2014. Mining executives said bigger, more profitable companies always paid much less in advance taxes. Some of the money apparently stolen in Congo may have moved through the American financial system, Sentry analysts say, and they are calling on the United States Treasury Department to take stronger measures to combat suspicious transactions from Congo. This past week, the Treasury Department sanctioned two Congolese officials close to Mr. Kabila, saying the officials were undermining democracy. Across Africa, term limits established years ago when democracy’s brand was stronger have been systematically dismantled, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Burundi exploded last year when its president plowed ahead with his plan to stay in office for a contentious third term. In October, Mr. Kabila’s aides struck a deal with a few opposition groups to delay the next presidential election until 2018 — the election was supposed to be held this year — but Congo’s major opposition groups, representing tens of millions of frustrated people, rejected that. Opposition leaders said they would never accept Mr. Kabila’s staying in office beyond Dec. 19. Congo’s political opposition, unlike Burundi’s, is not heavily armed. Most analysts say it would be difficult to overthrow Mr. Kabila. The security forces are still loyal to him, partly because he has made sure that soldiers and intelligence officers have been relatively well paid, no matter the dire straits of the national economy. In a recent meeting with delegates of the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Kabila remained characteristically cagey. According to a confidential United Nations report, he said that it was the “sovereign right of the Congolese people to decide in the next three or so years to amend the Constitution,” implying he may be considering another run. Mr. Stearns, one of the Congo analysts, argues that Mr. Kabila does not know how to get out of the corner he has put himself into. “That’s what makes this so difficult and volatile,” Mr. Stearns said. “My best guess,” he added, “is we’re headed into turmoil for several years to come. ” | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If Mitt Romney wanted to ignite a debate about Donald Trump’s suitability for the White House, he succeeded, at least on social media. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, lambasted Trump in a speech on Thursday in Salt Lake City, Utah, calling him “a phony, a fraud” and saying it is his “very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.” The speech was the latest illustration of how badly many mainstream Republican leaders want to stop Trump, the clear front-runner, from becoming his party’s nominee in November’s election to succeed President Barack Obama. Twitter users posted about Romney roughly 38 times per second following the speech, according to Zoomph, the social media analytics firm. Romney’s sentiment score, a measure of how positively users discuss a topic, was slightly higher than Trump’s following the speech, according to the firm. “Mitt Romney” quickly became one of the top-trending topics on Twitter in the United States. In a period of about four hours after the former Massachusetts governor’s speech, there were roughly 529,000 tweets about Romney on Twitter, according to the social media site’s own metrics. Trump’s response, a barrage of put-downs, also generated social media attention. During a campaign rally in Maine, Trump said Romney had begged him for an endorsement when he was running for the White House in 2012. Trump’s comments included what many on social media perceived to be a crude sexual joke. “I could have said ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ he would have dropped to his knees,” Trump said. “Is this a new @realDonaldTrump campaign slogan? ‘Drop to Your Knees, America ... and they did,’” tweeted Carl Spry (@CarlSpry). “His secret to getting so many endorsements?”. Romney said later he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement four years ago if Trump had spoken as he does now. “If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement,” Romney tweeted (@MittRomney), referring to the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. In his speech slamming both Trump’s policy proposals and his style, Romney did not endorse any of the candidates remaining in the Republican race. But one of them, Ohio Governor John Kasich (@JohnKasich), tweeted his support, saying “Well said, @MittRomney.” A photo of the presidential Oval Office accompanied the tweet, with the caption “The One Who Works Here Should Make Us Proud.” Other presidential candidates remained quiet on Twitter, but Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley offered her support for Romney. “A brilliant speech by @MittRomney. No one can ever question his love for our party and our country. #TrueLeadership #MittRomney,” she (@nikkihaley) tweeted. Haley has endorsed Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, for the Republican nomination. (Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Frances Kerry) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she wanted to see more talks next week between Northern Ireland s main parties, adding she believed an agreement to restore the devolved power-sharing government in the province could be reached. I believe that the differences between the parties, the issues that are dividing them, are very small ... issues around culture, identity, legacy, the future stability of the devolved institutions, she said. I believe a way forward can be found so agreement can be reached. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve did not raise its benchmark interest rate in June because officials worried that economic growth might be flagging, according to an official account published on Wednesday. And that was before Britain upset financial markets by voting to leave the European Union. The June meeting, and the fallout from the Brexit vote, continued what has become a familiar pattern: The Fed entered the year predicting stronger growth and a gradual return to higher interest rates. It has beat a slow retreat from both predictions as the data has disappointed its expectations. “This is not an economy that is running hot,” Daniel Tarullo, a Fed governor who advocated patience, said on Wednesday. He added that it would take time to assess the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union on the American economy. Financial markets are now betting heavily that the Fed will not raise rates again before 2017. The yield on the benchmark Treasury bond has fallen below 1. 4 percent, the lowest level in history. Fed officials insisted in the weeks before the June meeting that they were thinking seriously about raising rates for the first time since December. The meeting account, released after a standard delay, said the weak pace of reported job growth in May effectively ended that debate. “Almost all participants judged that the surprisingly weak May employment report increased their uncertainty about the outlook for the labor market,” the account said. The vote to do nothing at the June meeting was unanimous — a first for the Fed since January — but differences persisted over how long the Fed should wait. Some officials continued to argue for raising rates soon, while others saw little reason for urgency. Those in favor of moving argued that unemployment and inflation were close to levels the Fed regarded as healthy, and waiting could cause the economy to overheat. In their view, the minutes said, “taking another step in removing monetary accommodation should not be delayed too long. ” Stanley Fischer, the Fed’s vice chairman, said last week on the business cable news network CNBC that there was still reason for optimism about the economic outlook. “First of all, the U. S. economy since the very bad data we got in May on employment has done pretty well,” he said. “Most of the incoming data looked good. ” Others, however, were inclined to leave rates near zero for some time. These officials, the account said, “underscored they would need to accumulate sufficient evidence to increase their confidence that economic growth was strong enough to withstand a possible downward shock to demand. ” James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, announced after the June meeting that he now expected that the Fed should keep rates near the current low level through 2018. Rob Martin, an economist at Barclays, said the debate would be decided by job growth in the coming months. The government will release its June employment report on Friday. “If employment growth picks up this summer, members will become more optimistic over the outlook for activity,” Mr. Martin wrote on Wednesday, after the release of the meeting minutes. “Likewise, if employment growth disappoints over the summer, even the most hawkish member will begin to revise its outlook lower and no member would push hard for a September rate hike. ” Since the financial crisis, inflation has consistently failed to reach the 2 percent annual pace the Fed regards as healthy. Inflation expectations have declined sharply. And, as inflation sags in other developed nations, some economists warn that central banks are not doing enough. But the Fed remains officially sanguine. The account said most officials expected faster inflation in coming years. The global economy also remains a concern. The June minutes said that officials saw signs of improvement — but that was before the British vote. There is general agreement that Britain’s exit from the European Union will drag on growth, but the magnitude remains unclear. In the short term, that is another reason for the Fed to delay any rate increases. “We are still evaluating it,” Mr. Fischer said on Friday. “My guess is that it will be less important for the U. S. than the countries directly involved — almost just logically so. We will wait and see. ” | 0 |
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday while on a trip to Puerto Rico to observe hurricane recovery efforts that the island s massive debt will have to be wiped out. They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we re going to have to wipe that out. You re going to say goodbye to that, I don t know if it s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that, Trump said in an interview with Fox News. Puerto Rico, which earlier this year filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history, is struggling to regain economic stability in the face of a $72 billion debt load and near-insolvent public health and pension systems. | 0 |
Despite not having any time to attend critical press conferences, President-elect Donald Trump has more than enough time to devote to his weird Thank You Tour to celebrate his victory (which was really a loss if you count the millions of popular votes Hillary Clinton surpassed him with).Last night, Trump held one of his rallies in Pennsylvania, where he became the unhinged Trump we saw during his presidential campaign. As he ditched his teleprompter, what followed next was something only Trump would do.At one of the most insane parts of his speech, Trump told his supporters that they were crazed and wild beasts before he won the election. He totally insulted their intelligence, and they loved every second of it. Trump said: Before the election, you people are like wild beasts, wild animals They are screaming: Jail, jail, prison, going crazy. Before the election, they are brutal. They are so crazed. You are like crazy people, and that s good, I like that. And now you are laid back You ve won, you feel great about it and you don t have to go totally wild. Trump claimed that now that he d won, his supporters were more laid back (although most of us would disagree). You can watch Trump go off the rails below:Trump says Thank You rally crowd is laid back compared to crazed pre-election audience. It s much different https://t.co/RjDKCQCiEo ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 16, 2016Trump has a painfully skewed view of his supporters (like many other things) if he thinks they have gotten less crazed since he won the election. There was a dramatic increase in hate crimes and violence in the few days after Trump won, and those incidents continue to be reported over a month later. Trump s supporters now feel more entitled to their white privilege than ever, and will go ballistic if anyone crosses them. And of course, Trump only continues to feed the beasts.Trump is only 35 days away from the beginning of his term, and instead of using his rallies to talk about his policies, Trump is filling the space with nonsense like this.Featured image via Ethan Miller/Getty Images | 0 |
Thousands of Starbucks customers cut up their gold cards and boycotted their favorite coffee spot after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz stuck his foot in his mouth, when he defended immigration of unvetted Muslims from terror hotbed nations to the US. Schultz was hammered on social media after offering to hire Syrian immigrants before Americans to prove his point about how inclusive he is.Well, it appears as though the arrogant leftist CEO of Starbucks has done it again. Howard Schultz tweeted from the Starbucks account: I know we re better than this. The bigotry, hatred, and senseless violence against people who are not white cannot stand. Howard Schultz "I know we're better than this. The bigotry, hatred, and senseless violence against people who are not white cannot stand. Howard Schultz pic.twitter.com/JWpOmIV0H0 Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) August 16, 2017Who is we re Howard? Who exactly are you calling racists or bigots? Who has actually been committing the violence at pro-Trump and pro-freedom of speech rallies across America?Maybe it s these guys?Maybe he was referring to this white guy punching this black guy because he s supporting our president or because he s holding an American flag:Oops! Never mind that s a black guy punching a white guy.So tell us again Howard, what was it again you wanted your customers to know about violence against people who are not white?Here are just a few responses Schultz s ignorant and offensive tweet provoked:Howard Shultz violence against ANYONE can not stand! Anything less inclusive is bigotry. Anna-May Smith (@AnnaMaySmith1) August 17, 2017"against people who are not white cannot stand. Implies only whites are to blame. It is about a specific group, no backpeddaling. Michael (@wouldabeen) August 17, 2017Violence against whites is okay. No one cares about whites, they are just trash. White lives DON'T matter. So says Howard Schultz. Captain Skywarn (@n0jaa) August 17, 2017 | 0 |
To all the #NeverTrumpers: The ugly ride that you ve been on in support of a candidate who lost the primary election fair and square, is about to come to an end. Multiple sources close to Ted Cruz say the Texas senator is expected indicate his support for Donald Trump as soon as Friday. It is unclear whether Cruz will say only that he is voting for the Republican nominee, as other lawmakers have done, or offer a more full-throated endorsement, but the idea of throwing any support to Trump is controversial within Cruzworld. PoliticoTed Cruz was my choice until he blamed Trump for the violence at the Chicago rally. I withdrew my support for Cruz that horrible night and since then, he has done nothing to restore my confidence. Maybe the support for his Senate seat is eroding, or maybe he s just come to the conclusion that Trump genuinely loves his country and needs everyone s support if he s going to defeat Hillary in November. Cruz had an opportunity to do the right thing at the RNC convention, but he chose to take a different path. But unlike sour grapes Governor John Kasich, who can t seem to find it in his great big, illegal-immigrant-loving-heart to endorse Donald J. Trump, it appears that Cruz is about to do the right thing and for that, we offer him moderate applause | 0 |
Posted on October 27, 2016 by WashingtonsBlog
By Robert Parry, the investigative reporter who many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. Originally published at Parry’s Consortium News (republished with permission).
The United States is so committed to the notion that its electoral process is the world’s “gold standard” that there has been a bipartisan determination to maintain the fiction even when evidence is overwhelming that a U.S. presidential election has been manipulated or stolen. The “wise men” of the system simply insist otherwise.
We have seen this behavior when there are serious questions of vote tampering (as in Election 1960) or when a challenger apparently exploits a foreign crisis to create an advantage over the incumbent (as in Elections 1968 and 1980) or when the citizens’ judgment is overturned by judges (as in Election 2000). Presidents Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan photographed together in the Oval Office in 1991. (Cropped from a White House photo that also included Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.)
Strangely, in such cases, it is not only the party that benefited which refuses to accept the evidence of wrongdoing, but the losing party and the establishment news media as well. Protecting the perceived integrity of the U.S. democratic process is paramount. Americans must continue to believe in the integrity of the system even when that integrity has been violated.
The harsh truth is that pursuit of power often trumps the principle of an informed electorate choosing the nation’s leaders, but that truth simply cannot be recognized.
Of course, historically, American democracy was far from perfect, excluding millions of people, including African-American slaves and women. The compromises needed to enact the Constitution in 1787 also led to distasteful distortions, such as counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of representation (although obviously slaves couldn’t vote).
That unsavory deal enabled Thomas Jefferson to defeat John Adams in the pivotal national election of 1800. In effect, the votes of Southern slave owners like Jefferson counted substantially more than the votes of Northern non-slave owners.
Even after the Civil War when the Constitution was amended to give black men voting rights, the reality for black voting, especially in the South, was quite different from the new constitutional mandate. Whites in former Confederate states concocted subterfuges to keep blacks away from the polls to ensure continued white supremacy for almost a century.
Women did not gain suffrage until 1920 with the passage of another constitutional amendment, and it took federal legislation in 1965 to clear away legal obstacles that Southern states had created to deny the franchise to blacks.
Indeed, the alleged voter fraud in Election 1960, concentrated largely in Texas, a former Confederate state and home to John Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate, Lyndon Johnson, could be viewed as an outgrowth of the South’s heritage of rigging elections in favor of Democrats, the post-Civil War party of white Southerners.
However, by pushing through civil rights for blacks in the 1960s, Kennedy and Johnson earned the enmity of many white Southerners who switched their allegiance to the Republican Party via Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy of coded racial messaging. Nixon also harbored resentments over what he viewed as his unjust defeat in the election of 1960.
Nixon’s ‘Treason’
So, by 1968, the Democrats’ once solid South was splintering, but Nixon, who was again the Republican presidential nominee, didn’t want to leave his chances of winning what looked to be another close election to chance. Nixon feared that — with the Vietnam War raging and the Democratic Party deeply divided — President Johnson could give the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a decisive boost by reaching a last-minute peace deal with North Vietnam. President Richard Nixon with his then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in 1972.
The documentary and testimonial evidence is now clear that to avert a peace deal, Nixon’s campaign went behind Johnson’s back to persuade South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu to torpedo Johnson’s Paris peace talks by refusing to attend. Nixon’s emissaries assured Thieu that a President Nixon would continue the war and guarantee a better outcome for South Vietnam.
Though Johnson had strong evidence of what he privately called Nixon’s “treason” — from FBI wiretaps in the days before the 1968 election — he and his top advisers chose to stay silent. In a Nov. 4, 1968 conference call , Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor Walt Rostow and Defense Secretary Clark Clifford – three pillars of the Establishment – expressed that consensus, with Clifford explaining the thinking:
“Some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have a certain individual [Nixon] elected,” Clifford said. “It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country’s interests.”
Clifford’s words expressed the recurring thinking whenever evidence emerged casting the integrity of America’s electoral system in doubt, especially at the presidential level. The American people were not to know what kind of dirty deeds could affect that process.
To this day, the major U.S. news media will not directly address the issue of Nixon’s treachery in 1968, despite the wealth of evidence proving this historical reality now available from declassified records at the Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas. In a puckish recognition of this ignored history, the library’s archivists call the file on Nixon’s sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks their “X-file.” [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “ LBJ’s ‘X-File’ on Nixon’s ‘Treason. ’”]
The evidence also strongly suggests that Nixon’s paranoia about a missing White House file detailing his “treason” – top secret documents that Johnson had entrusted to Rostow at the end of LBJ’s presidency – led to Nixon’s creation of the “plumbers,” a team of burglars whose first assignment was to locate those purloined papers. The existence of the “plumbers” became public in June 1972 when they were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate in Washington. National Security Adviser Walt Rostow shows President Lyndon Johnson a model of a battle near Khe Sanh in Vietnam. (U.S. Archive Photo)
Although the Watergate scandal remains the archetypal case of election-year dirty tricks, the major U.S. news media never acknowledge the link between Watergate and Nixon’s far more egregious dirty trick four years earlier, sinking Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks while 500,000 American soldiers were in the war zone. In part because of Nixon’s sabotage — and his promise to Thieu of a more favorable outcome — the war continued for four more bloody years before being settled along the lines that were available to Johnson in 1968. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “ The Heinous Crime Behind Watergate .”]
In effect, Watergate gets walled off as some anomaly that is explained by Nixon’s strange personality. However, even though Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974, he and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, who also had a hand in the Paris peace talk caper, reappear as secondary players in the next well-documented case of obstructing a sitting president’s foreign policy to get an edge in the 1980 campaign.
Reagan’s ‘October Surprise’ Caper
In that case, President Jimmy Carter was seeking reelection and trying to negotiate release of 52 American hostages then held in revolutionary Iran. Ronald Reagan’s campaign feared that Carter might pull off an “October Surprise” by bringing home the hostages just before the election. So, this historical mystery has been: Did Reagan’s team take action to block Carter’s October Surprise? President Ronald Reagan, delivering his Inaugural Address on Jan. 20, 1981, as the 52 U.S. hostages in Iran are simultaneously released.
The testimonial and documentary evidence that Reagan’s team did engage in a secret operation to prevent Carter’s October Surprise is now almost as overwhelming as the proof of the 1968 affair regarding Nixon’s Paris peace talk maneuver.
That evidence indicates that Reagan’s campaign director William Casey organized a clandestine effort to prevent the hostages’ release before Election Day, after apparently consulting with Nixon and Kissinger and aided by former CIA Director George H.W. Bush, who was Reagan’s vice presidential running mate.
By early November 1980, the public’s obsession with Iran’s humiliation of the United States and Carter’s inability to free the hostages helped turn a narrow race into a Reagan landslide. When the hostages were finally let go immediately after Reagan’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981, his supporters cited the timing to claim that the Iranians had finally relented out of fear of Reagan.
Bolstered by his image as a tough guy, Reagan enacted much of his right-wing agenda, including passing massive tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, weakening unions and creating the circumstances for the rapid erosion of the Great American Middle Class.
Behind the scenes, the Reagan administration signed off on secret arms shipments to Iran, mostly through Israel, what a variety of witnesses described as the payoff for Iran’s cooperation in getting Reagan elected and then giving him the extra benefit of timing the hostage release to immediately follow his inauguration. Then-Vice President George H.W. Bush with CIA Director William Casey at the White House on Feb. 11, 1981. (Photo credit: Reagan Library)
In summer 1981, when Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Nicholas Veliotes learned about the arms shipments to Iran, he checked on their origins and said, later in a PBS interview:
“It was clear to me after my conversations with people on high that indeed we had agreed that the Israelis could transship to Iran some American-origin military equipment. … [This operation] seems to have started in earnest in the period probably prior to the election of 1980, as the Israelis had identified who would become the new players in the national security area in the Reagan administration. And I understand some contacts were made at that time.”
Those early covert arms shipments to Iran evolved into a later secret set of arms deals that surfaced in fall 1986 as the Iran-Contra Affair, with some of the profits getting recycled back to Reagan’s beloved Nicaraguan Contra rebels fighting to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftist government.
While many facts of the Iran-Contra scandal were revealed by congressional and special-prosecutor investigations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the origins of the Reagan-Iran relationship was always kept hazy. The Republicans were determined to stop any revelations about the 1980 contacts, but the Democrats were almost as reluctant to go there.
A half-hearted congressional inquiry was launched in 1991 and depended heavily on then-President George H.W. Bush to collect the evidence and arrange interviews for the investigation. In other words, Bush, who was then seeking reelection and who was a chief suspect in the secret dealings with Iran, was entrusted with proving his own guilt.
Tired of the Story
By the early 1990s, the mainstream U.S. news media was also tired of the complex Iran-Contra scandal and wanted to move on. As a correspondent at Newsweek, I had battled senior editors over their disinterest in getting to the bottom of the scandal before I left the magazine in 1990. I then received an assignment from PBS Frontline to look into the 1980 “October Surprise” question, which led to a documentary on the subject in April 1991. PBS Frontline’s: The Election Held Hostage, co-written by Robert Parry and Robert Ross.
However, by fall 1991, just as Congress was agreeing to open an investigation, my ex-bosses at Newsweek, along with The New Republic, then an elite neoconservative publication interested in protecting Israel’s exposure on those early arms deals, went on the attack. They published matching cover stories deeming the 1980 “October Surprise” case a hoax, but their articles were both based on a misreading of documents recording Casey’s attendance at a conference in London in July 1980, which he seemed to have used as a cover for a side trip to Madrid to meet with senior Iranians regarding the hostages.
Although the bogus Newsweek/New Republic “London alibi” would eventually be debunked, it created a hostile climate for the investigation. With Bush angrily denying everything and the congressional Republicans determined to protect the President’s flanks, the Democrats mostly just went through the motions of an investigation.
Meanwhile, Bush’s State Department and White House counsel’s office saw their jobs as discrediting the investigation, deep-sixing incriminating documents, and helping a key witness dodge a congressional subpoena.
Years later, I discovered a document at the Bush presidential library in College Station, Texas, confirming that Casey had taken a mysterious trip to Madrid in 1980. The U.S. Embassy’s confirmation of Casey’s trip was passed along by State Department legal adviser Edwin D. Williamson to Associate White House Counsel Chester Paul Beach Jr. in early November 1991, just as the congressional inquiry was taking shape.
Williamson said that among the State Department “material potentially relevant to the October Surprise allegations [was] a cable from the Madrid embassy indicating that Bill Casey was in town, for purposes unknown,” Beach noted in a “ memorandum for record ” dated Nov. 4, 1991.
Two days later, on Nov. 6, Beach’s boss, White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, convened an inter-agency strategy session and explained the need to contain the congressional investigation into the October Surprise case. The explicit goal was to ensure the scandal would not hurt President Bush’s reelection hopes in 1992. C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush.
At the meeting, Gray laid out how to thwart the October Surprise inquiry, which was seen as a dangerous expansion of the Iran-Contra investigation. The prospect that the two sets of allegations would merge into a single narrative represented a grave threat to George H.W. Bush’s reelection campaign. As assistant White House counsel Ronald vonLembke, put it , the White House goal in 1991 was to “kill/spike this story.”
Gray explained the stakes at the White House strategy session. “Whatever form they ultimately take, the House and Senate ‘October Surprise’ investigations, like Iran-Contra, will involve interagency concerns and be of special interest to the President ,” Gray declared, according to minutes . [Emphasis in original.]
Among “touchstones” cited by Gray were “No Surprises to the White House, and Maintain Ability to Respond to Leaks in Real Time. This is Partisan.” White House “talking points” on the October Surprise investigation urged restricting the inquiry to 1979-80 and imposing strict time limits for issuing any findings.
Timid Democrats
But Bush’s White House really had little to fear because whatever evidence that the congressional investigation received – and a great deal arrived in December 1992 and January 1993 – there was no stomach for actually proving that the 1980 Reagan campaign had conspired with Iranian radicals to extend the captivity of 52 Americans in order to ensure Reagan’s election victory. Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana.
That would have undermined the faith of the American people in their democratic process – and that, as Clark Clifford said in the 1968 context, would not be “good for the country.”
In 2014 when I sent a copy of Beach’s memo regarding Casey’s trip to Madrid to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, who had chaired the October Surprise inquiry in 1991-93, he told me that it had shaken his confidence in the task force’s dismissive conclusions about the October Surprise issue.
“The [Bush-41] White House did not notify us that he [Casey] did make the trip” to Madrid, Hamilton told me. “Should they have passed that on to us? They should have because they knew we were interested in that.”
Asked if knowledge that Casey had traveled to Madrid might have changed the task force’s dismissive October Surprise conclusion, Hamilton said yes, because the question of the Madrid trip was key to the task force’s investigation.
“If the White House knew that Casey was there, they certainly should have shared it with us,” Hamilton said, adding that “you have to rely on people” in authority to comply with information requests. But that trust was at the heart of the inquiry’s failure. With the money and power of the American presidency at stake, the idea that George H.W. Bush and his team would help an investigation that might implicate him in an act close to treason was naïve in the extreme.
Arguably, Hamilton’s timid investigation was worse than no investigation at all because it gave Bush’s team the opportunity to search out incriminating documents and make them disappear. Then, Hamilton’s investigative conclusion reinforced the “group think” dismissing this serious manipulation of democracy as a “conspiracy theory” when it was anything but. In the years since, Hamilton hasn’t done anything to change the public impression that the Reagan campaign was innocent.
Still, among the few people who have followed this case, the October Surprise cover-up would slowly crumble with admissions by officials involved in the investigation that its exculpatory conclusions were rushed , that crucial evidence had been hidden or ignored , and that some alibis for key Republicans didn’t make any sense .
But the dismissive “group think” remains undisturbed as far as the major U.S. media and mainstream historians are concerned. [For details, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative or Trick or Treason: The 1980 October Surprise Mystery or Consortiumnews.com’s “ Second Thoughts on October Surprise. ”]
Past as Prologue
Lee Hamilton’s decision to “clear” Reagan and Bush of the 1980 October Surprise suspicions in 1992 was not simply a case of miswriting history. The findings had clear implications for the future as well, since the public impression about George H.W. Bush’s rectitude was an important factor in the support given to his oldest son, George W. Bush, in 2000. President George W. Bush is introduced by his brother Florida Gov. Jeb Bush before delivering remarks at Sun City Center, Florida, on May 9, 2006. (White House photo by Eric Draper)
Indeed, if the full truth had been told about the father’s role in the October Surprise and Iran-Contra cases, it’s hard to imagine that his son would have received the Republican nomination, let alone made a serious run for the White House. And, if that history were known, there might have been a stronger determination on the part of Democrats to resist another Bush “stolen election” in 2000.
Regarding Election 2000, the evidence is now clear that Vice President Al Gore not only won the national popular vote but received more votes that were legal under Florida law than did George W. Bush. But Bush relied first on the help of officials working for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and then on five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to thwart a full recount and to award him Florida’s electoral votes and thus the presidency.
The reality of Gore’s rightful victory should have finally become clear in November 2001 when a group of news organizations finished their own examination of Florida’s disputed ballots and released their tabulations showing that Gore would have won if all ballots considered legal under Florida law were counted.
However, between the disputed election and the release of those numbers, the 9/11 attacks had occurred, so The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other leading outlets did not want the American people to know that the wrong person was in the White House. Surely, telling the American people that fact amid the 9/11 crisis would not be “good for the country.”
So, senior editors at all the top new organizations decided to mislead the public by framing their stories in a deceptive way to obscure the most newsworthy discovery – that the so-called “over-votes” in which voters both checked and wrote in their choices’ names broke heavily for Gore and would have put him over the top regardless of which kinds of chads were considered for the “under-votes” that hadn’t registered on antiquated voting machines. “Over-votes” would be counted under Florida law which bases its standards on “clear intent of the voter.”
However, instead of leading with Gore’s rightful victory, the news organizations concocted hypotheticals around partial recounts that still would have given Florida narrowly to Bush. They either left out or buried the obvious lede that a historic injustice had occurred. Former Vice President Al Gore. (Photo credit: algore.com)
On Nov. 12, 2001, the day that the news organizations ran those stories, I examined the actual data and quickly detected the evidence of Gore’s victory. In a story that day, I suggested that senior news executives were exercising a misguided sense of patriotism. They had hid the reality for “the good of the country,” much as Johnson’s team had done in 1968 regarding Nixon’s sabotage of the Paris peace talks and Hamilton’s inquiry had done regarding the 1980 “October Surprise” case.
Within a couple of hours of my posting the article at Consortiumnews.com, I received an irate phone call from The New York Times media writer Felicity Barringer, who accused me of impugning the journalistic integrity of then-Times executive editor Howell Raines. I got the impression that Barringer had been on the look-out for some deviant story that didn’t accept the Bush-won conventional wisdom.
However, this violation of objective and professional journalism – bending the slant of a story to achieve a preferred outcome rather than simply giving the readers the most interesting angle – was not simply about some historical event that had occurred a year earlier. It was about the future.
By misleading Americans into thinking that Bush was the rightful winner of Election 2000 – even if the media’s motivation was to maintain national unity following the 9/11 attacks – the major news outlets gave Bush greater latitude to respond to the crisis, including the diversionary invasion of Iraq under false pretenses. The Bush-won headlines of November 2001 also enhanced the chances of his reelection in 2004. [For the details of how a full Florida recount would have given Gore the White House, see Consortiumnews.com’s “ Gore’s Victory ,” “ So Bush Did Steal the White House ,” and “ Bush v. Gore’s Dark American Decade. ”]
A Phalanx of Misguided Consensus
Looking back on these examples of candidates manipulating democracy, there appears to be one common element: after the “stolen” elections, the media and political establishments quickly line up, shoulder to shoulder, to assure the American people that nothing improper has happened. Graceful “losers” are patted on the back for not complaining that the voters’ will had been ignored or twisted. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Al Gore is praised for graciously accepting the extraordinary ruling by Republican partisans on the Supreme Court, who stopped the counting of ballots in Florida on the grounds, as Justice Antonin Scalia said, that a count that showed Gore winning (when the Court’s majority was already planning to award the White House to Bush) would undermine Bush’s “legitimacy.”
Similarly, Rep. Hamilton is regarded as a modern “wise man,” in part, because he conducted investigations that never pushed very hard for the truth but rather reached conclusions that were acceptable to the powers-that-be, that didn’t ruffle too many feathers.
But the cumulative effect of all these half-truths, cover-ups and lies – uttered for “the good of the country” – is to corrode the faith of many well-informed Americans about the legitimacy of the entire process. It is the classic parable of the boy who cried wolf too many times, or in this case, assured the townspeople that there never was a wolf and that they should ignore the fact that the livestock had mysteriously disappeared leaving behind only a trail of blood into the forest.
So, when Donald Trump shows up in 2016 insisting that the electoral system is rigged against him, many Americans choose to believe his demagogy. But Trump isn’t pressing for the full truth about the elections of 1968 or 1980 or 2000. He actually praises Republicans implicated in those cases and vows to appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Trump’s complaints about “rigged” elections are more in line with the white Southerners during Jim Crow, suggesting that black and brown people are cheating at the polls and need to have white poll monitors to make sure they don’t succeed at “stealing” the election from white people.
There is a racist undertone to Trump’s version of a “rigged” democracy but he is not entirely wrong about the flaws in the process. He’s just not honest about what those flaws are.
The hard truth is that the U.S. political process is not democracy’s “gold standard”; it is and has been a severely flawed system that is not made better by a failure to honestly address the unpleasant realities and to impose accountability on politicians who cheat the voters. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Security Agency risks a brain-drain of hackers and cyber spies due to a tumultuous reorganization and worries about the acrimonious relationship between the intelligence community and President Donald Trump, according to current and former NSA officials and cybersecurity industry sources. Half-a-dozen cybersecurity executives told Reuters they had witnessed a marked increase in the number of U.S. intelligence officers and government contractors seeking employment in the private sector since Trump took office on Jan. 20. One of the executives, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said he was stunned by the caliber of the would-be recruits. They are coming from a variety of government intelligence and law enforcement agencies, multiple executives said, and their interest stems in part from concerns about the direction of U.S intelligence agencies under Trump. Retaining and recruiting talented technical personnel has become a top national security priority in recent years as Russia, China, Iran and other nation states and criminal groups have sharpened their cyber offensive abilities. NSA and other intelligence agencies have long struggled to deter some of their best employees from leaving for higher-paying jobs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. The problem is especially acute at NSA, current and former officials said, due to a reorganization known as NSA21 that began last year and aims to merge the agency’s electronic eavesdropping and domestic cyber-security operations. The two-year overhaul includes expanding parts of NSA that deal with business management and human resources and putting them on par with research and engineering. The aim is to “ensure that we’re using all of our resources to maximum effect to accomplish our mission,” NSA Director Mike Rogers said. The changes include new management structures that have left some career employees uncertain about their missions and prospects. Former employees say the reorganization has failed to address widespread concerns that the agency is falling behind in exploiting private-sector technological breakthroughs. A former top NSA official said he had been told by three current officials that budget problems meant there was too little money for promotions. That is especially important for younger employees, who sometimes need two jobs to make ends meet in the expensive Washington D.C. area, the official said. “Morale is as low as I’ve ever seen it,” said another former senior NSA official, who maintains close contact with current employees. Asked about the risk of losing talent from NSA and other agencies, White House spokesman Michael Anton said Trump had sought to reassure the intelligence community by visiting the CIA headquarters on his first full day in office. Anton also pointed to the military spending increase in Trump’s budget proposal released on Monday. It will likely take more than a visit to the CIA to patch up relations with the intelligence community, the current and former officials said. Trump has attacked findings from intelligence agencies that Russia hacked emails belonging to Democratic Party operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign to help him win, though he did eventually accept the findings. In January, Trump accused intelligence agencies of leaking false information and said it was reminiscent of tactics used in Nazi Germany. The breadth of any exodus from the NSA and other intelligence agencies is difficult to quantify. The NSA has “seen a steady rise” in the attrition rate among its roughly 36,000 employees since 2009, and it now sits at a “little less than six percent,” according to an NSA spokesman. NSA director Michael Rogers said last year that the attrition rate was 3.3 percent in 2015, suggesting a sharp jump in departures since then. Several senior NSA officials who have left or plan to leave, including deputy director Richard Ledgett and the head of cyber defense, Curtis Dukes, have said their departures were unrelated to Trump or the reorganization. Some turnover is normal with any new administration, government and industry officials noted, and a stronger economy has also improved pay and prospects in the private sector. “During this time the economy has been recovering from the recession, unemployment rates have been falling and the demand for highly skilled technical talent has been increasing,” an NSA spokesman said, when asked to comment on the reports of employee departures. In a statement, Kathy Hutson, NSA’s chief of human resources, said the agency continues “to attract amazing talent necessary to conduct the security mission the nation needs.” Some NSA veterans attribute the morale issues and staff departures to the leadership style of Rogers, who took over the spy agency in 2014 with the task of dousing an international furor caused by leaks from former contractor Edward Snowden. Concern about Rogers reached an apex last October, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recommended to then-President Barack Obama that Rogers be removed. The NSA did not respond to a request for comment on the recommendation last fall that Rogers be replaced. Rogers is now expected to retain his job at NSA for at least another year, according to former officials. Rogers acknowledged concerns about potential morale problems last month, telling a congressional committee that Trump’s broadsides against the intelligence community could create “a situation where our workforce decides to walk.” Trump’s criticism of the intelligence community has exacerbated the stress caused by the reorganization at the NSA, said Susan Hennessey, a former NSA lawyer now with Brookings Institution. The “tone coming from the White House makes an already difficult situation worse, by eroding the sense of common purpose and service,” she said. A wave of departures of career personnel, Hennessey added, “would represent an incalculable loss to national security.” | 1 |
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior member of Israel’s government welcomed on Wednesday White House spokesman Sean Spicer’s apology for saying Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons, comments that overlooked the killing of millions of Jews in Nazi gas chambers. “Since he apologized and retracted his remarks, as far as (I) am concerned, the matter is over,” Intelligence and Transport Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, citing the “tremendous importance of historical truth and remembrance” of the victims of the Holocaust. Spicer made the assertion at a daily news briefing, during a discussion about the April 4 chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed 87 people. Washington has blamed the attack on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said when asked about Russia’s alliance with the Syrian government. The Nazis murdered six million Jews during World War Two. Many Jews as well as others were killed in gas chambers in European concentration camps. When a reporter asked Spicer if he wanted to clarify his comments, he said: “I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.” Later on Tuesday, Spicer apologized and said he should not have made that comparison. “It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it and I won’t do it again,” Spicer told CNN in an interview. “It was inappropriate and insensitive.” Spicer’s assertion, made during the Jewish holiday of Passover, sparked instant outrage on social media and from some Holocaust memorial groups who accused him of minimizing Hitler’s crimes. Katz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, had tweeted late on Tuesday that Spicer’s comments at the news briefing were “grave and outrageous”, and he said the White House spokesman should apologize or resign. There was no immediate comment from other Israeli leaders, during a Passover holiday period when government business is largely at a standstill and many in the country are on vacation. It was not the first time the White House has had to answer questions about the Holocaust. Critics in January noted the administration’s statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which omitted any mention of Jewish victims. At the time, Spicer defended that statement by saying it had been written in part by a Jewish staff member whose family members had survived the Holocaust. Despite these difficulties, relations between Trump administration and the Israeli government have been more cordial than under the Obama presidency, although differences remain over the scope of Israeli settlement-building. | 1 |
Protesters in Arizona briefly blocked access to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally Saturday morning in Arizona, kicking off a full day of campaign events in the border state, which holds key primaries Tuesday.
The protesters blocked a highway leading to Trump’s outdoor rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona, near Scottsdale, before sheriff's deputies removed them and towed their vehicles.
“We’re not going to let demonstrators intimidate this forum and this sheriff. Now we’re going to have a nice, nice rally for Donald Trump,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who led the effort to remove the demonstrators and who has endorsed the GOP front-runner.
Arizona has long been ground-zero for the politically-charged illegal immigration debate, with roughly 368 miles of border with Mexico and more border fence than any other state.
Roughly 30 percent of Arizona’s population is Hispanic. And in 2010, the state passed one of the strictest anti-immigration laws in American history.
“So much crime and drugs passing through the border. You know what? We’re going to build a wall, and we’re going to stop it,” Trump said at the rally, returning to his early and oft-repeated campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border and have Mexico pay for it.
Arpaio – the self-described “America’s toughest sheriff” – said at least 10,000 people were kept waiting in the Arizona heat for about an hour as a result of the roadblock, which resulted in three arrests.
Trump supporters and protesters exchanged words at the rally, but there were no initial reports of physical violence.
Trump, who early in his campaign visited the border, leads the GOP field in Arizona with 34 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 21 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 13 percent.
Trump held a larger rally later Saturday at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Trump said protesters at his rally are "taking away our First Amendment rights" and vowed to take the country back if he's elected president.
He called one protester at his Phoenix rally, who wore the Klu Klux Klan hood, "disgusting." Another group, carrying a "Black Lives Matter" sign were also kicked out.
The rallies and protest follow a local border patrol union of Friday supporting Trump.
Local 2544 said Trump asked for the endorsement and that officials responded by saying he is the only 2016 White House candidate to “publicly expressed his support” of the Border Patrol’s mission and it agents and that he has been “an outspoken candidate” on the need for a secure border.
However, Art Del Cueto, president of the Tucson-based union, made clear that he would adhere to the larger National Border Patrol Council’s practice of not endorsing presidential candidates.
The Supreme Court later upheld the most controversial part of Arizona’s 2010 law -- commonly referred to S.B. 1070 and that allows police to try to determine the immigration status of anybody arrested or detained if they have “reasonable suspicion” the suspect is in the U.S. illegally.
However, the law also sparked widespread opposition including businesses threatening to leave the state.
Trump and Cruz essentially call for those living illegally in the United States to return to their home country, while Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders want to allow them to stay.
Several thousand miles away in New York, demonstrators also took to the streets to protest the Republican presidential hopeful.
The protesters gathered Saturday in Manhattan's Columbus Circle, across from Central Park, with a heavy police presence. Demonstrators chanted: "Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay."
They marched across south Central Park to Trump Tower, the Fifth Avenue skyscraper where Trump lives. Then they marched back to Columbus Circle for a rally. | 1 |
This latest move by America s notorious Transportation Security Authority (TSA) seems to be step one in a move towards a national ID Card, complete with biometrics and embedded RFID technology.By forcing residents of nine states to get passports in order to board domestic flights, the TSA is de facto pushing those states towards the implementation of a new state-of-the-art ID card system.This will help to give real teeth to the The Real ID Act It s just the next phase in the further militarization of US society.Forbes reports You may have thought you don t need a passport because you don t travel outside the United States. But for residents of nine states, that will change at the beginning of 2018 for any commercial flight, whether international or domestic.Nine states will no longer allow travelers to board an airplane with just their state issued driver s licenses as of January 22, 2018. To get past TSA security checkpoints, another form of identification will be required: passport, permanent resident card/green card or a military ID.The Real ID Act of 2005 states that state-issued IDs from these nine states do not meet the minimum security standards of the federal government:With just a few months until the Real ID Act goes into full effect, it is time to start planning now and look into getting your passport. Here is the airport signage, placed around the security checkpoints in airports to remind U.S. travelers of what;s to come (with my emphasis): Starting January 22, 2018, you will need a driver s license or ID from a state compliant with the REAL ID ACT, a state that has an extension for compliance, or an alternate ID to fly. For REAL ID information, and a list of acceptable IDs, visit tsa.gov. Some states have started working on offering federally approved issued IDs that would not require a passport for domestic air travel. Check with your local government office to see if there is a different type of ID you can apply for, and the TSA website to clarify this situation. Because on January 22, 2018, the enforcement for those nine states will go into effect, and by 2020, even more people will end up needing a passport, as confirmed by the official website of the Transportation Security Administration.To repeat, if you re going to take a flight and you have a state-issued ID from one of those nine states listed above, unless your state has made federally approved changes before January, you should use a passport to go anywhere across the country, as all domestic travel is included in these new standards. (States other than those nine will not be affected.)Continue this story at ForbesREAD MORE TSA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire TSA FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1 |
Okay, let s address this Hillary might win the popular vote, isn t that Electoral College situation just awful thing head on.No, it s not awful. It s great, and it protects the importance of your vote. It s also uniquely American and demonstrates yet again the once-in-creation brilliance of the Founding Fathers.First of all, she s probably not going to win the actual number of votes cast. She may win the number of votes counted, but not the votes cast.States don t count their absentee ballots unless the number of outstanding absentee ballots is larger than the state margin of difference. If there is a margin of 1,000 votes counted and there are 1,300 absentee ballots outstanding, then the state tabulates those. If the number of outstanding absentee ballots wouldn t influence the election results, then the absentee ballots aren t counted.Who votes by absentee ballot? Students overseas, the military, businesspeople on trips, etc. The historical breakout for absentee ballots is about 67-33% Republican. In 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote nationally by 500,000 votes and the liberal media screamed bloody murder, there were 2 million absentee ballots in California alone. A 67-33 breakout of those yields a 1.33- to 0.667-million Republican vote advantage, so Bush would have gotten a 667,000-vote margin from California s uncounted absentee ballots alone! So much for Gore s 500,000 popular vote victory. (That was the headline on the N.Y. Times, and it was the lead story on NBC Nightly News, right? No? You re kidding.)Getting back to the win the popular vote/lose the Electoral College scenario: Thank G-d we have that, or else California and N.Y. would determine every election. Every time.But the Electoral College brilliantly smooths out the variances in the voting proclivities among states and regions. Farmers in the middle of the country and importers and exporters on the shore get roughly equal say, as do Madison Ave. execs and factory workers in Tennessee.Shortcomings? Sure. The E.C. can make an R vote meaningless in a very few heavily D states or vice versa. But without the Electoral College, the country s entire population is subject to the disproportionate voting preferences of the few most populous states. American Thinker | 0 |
During a town hall event in South Carolina, which was televised live on February 18, Donald Trump yet again promised would-be-voters that if he s elected president, he s going to crack down on China.During the town hall, Trump told host Anderson Cooper that if he s elected president he will send cease and desist letters to China and Mexico, telling the two countries to stop ripping off the U.S. Yeah, maybe to China, to stop ripping us off. I d be sending them to other countries to stop ripping us off. I d send them to Mexico. And when I say cease-and-desist orders, maybe it d be equivalent. Maybe I ll do it with my mouth. Trump s comments came in response to questions regarding a cease and desist letter sent to his campaign earlier this week, by Republican challenger Ted Cruz.Typical of Trump, instead of addressing the question, he diverted the attention of the crowd away from the issue, talking instead about how the U.S. is being ripped off by the evil foreign people his supporters love to hate.The day before the South Carolina town hall, Trump told a different audience, China has been one of the great thefts of all time, what they ve done to the United States. We can t let China continue to get away with what they re doing to our country. While China bashing has been a major theme of the Trump campaign since day one, there s no shortage of evidence to show what a bloviating hypocrite he is on this subject.Back in 2012, former talk-show host David Letterman hilariously humiliated the Donald by exposing his China hypocrisy on The Late Show.Just as Trump was about to go off on one of his signature anti-China rants, Letterman started reading the tags from a line of goods sold under Trump s name at Macy s Department Stores.Of course the products are made in places like China and Bangladesh, where workers are paid pennies an hour, to produce goods sold which are then sold at high end department stores in the U.S.If you re one of the many Americans who has longed to see someone just make Trump shut his mouth, then watch the video below.You won t be disappointed:Image via Wikimedia | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - Decorated by Pyongyang but blacklisted abroad, two scientists pictured with North Korea s leader ahead of Sunday s nuclear test play vital roles in the reclusive country s pursuit of a powerful weapon capable of striking the United States, experts say. North Korea s sixth nuclear test on Sunday showed the country has either developed a hydrogen bomb - which has vastly more destructive power than atomic bombs - or was very getting close to obtaining one. Photos released by the official KCNA news agency just hours before the test showed two men standing alongside leader Kim Jong Un as he inspected a new peanut-shaped warhead: Ri Hong Sop, head of North Korea s Nuclear Weapons Institute, and Hong Sung Mu, deputy director of the ruling Workers Party of Korea s munitions industry department. Several North Korea leadership experts say they are part of a cadre of weapons experts at the frontline of the young leader s stated ambition: Developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can carry a nuclear weapon to the United States. Compared to his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung who preferred small working groups and middle managers to deal with weapons programs, the 33-year-old leader has been more personally involved with these scientists, the experts say, citing his frequent appearances with the technocrats at state events, weapons tests and field inspections. It appears that Hong is spearheading the nuclear development program as a senior party official and Ri is in charge of nuclear tests such as hydrogen bombs on a working level, said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, who monitors the country s hierarchy and leadership. Reuters could not independently confirm the precise role of the two men. The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment. The two scientists have become increasingly high profile as Pyongyang s weapons programs have advanced at a rapid pace under Kim s leadership, a Reuters review of North Korean state media showed. In January 2016, Hong and Ri were the first and second in line to receive medals personally awarded by Kim at a ceremony to mark the country s fourth nuclear test, state TV footage showed. Two months later, they accompanied a smiling Kim inspecting a silver-colored sphere, which the North said was a miniaturized warhead capable of being fitted to an ICBM. The wider group of weapons technocrats includes a trio of rocket scientists who have accompanied Kim on several crucial missile launches, including two July ICBM test launches that showed much of the U.S. mainland was now within range. Experts say Kim s hands-on approach may have contributed to faster development of its nuclear weapons and missiles, while allowing the scientists to develop personal links to the leader. (Kim) Jong Un goes out of his way to show they have a personal closeness to him, said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership, pointing to Kim s frequent appearances with cadres engaged with its weapons program. It s likely linked to the fact that (the scientists) are making huge accomplishments in this area, and thus making big accomplishments for Kim Jong Un as leader of North Korea. Like the three rocket scientists, Ri and Hong have been blacklisted in recent years by the United Nations, the United States or South Korea for their roles in North Korea s weapons programs. The United Nations blacklisted Ri in 2009 citing his involvement in the production of weapons-grade plutonium , while an expert UN panel this year noted Hong s key role in the country s nuclear program as it recommended he also be sanctioned. Ri is a former director of Yongbyon Nuclear Research Centre, North Korea s main nuclear facility north of Pyongyang. Yongbyon operates the country s first nuclear reactors and its only confirmed uranium enrichment facility. Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear science professor at Stanford University and one of the last Americans to visit Yongbyon, recalled meeting Ri during his several visits there between 2004 and 2008. In one of these visits, Ri showed Hecker around the plutonium reactor and the radiochemical lab there. Ri stated with pride that North Korea s nuclear researchers have mastered plutonium production with no outside help, Hecker said in a 2006 report about his Yongbyon visit to Standford s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Hecker did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Ri or the North Korean nuclear program. In a statement carried by KCNA hours before the sixth test, Kim said all components of the hydrogen bomb were homemade , allowing North Korea to produce nuclear weapons as many as it wants. Hong is a former chief engineer at Yongbyon and has been at the ruling party s munitions department since the mid-2000s. He rose to prominence after Kim Jong Un took power in December 2011 following the death of his father, according to South Korean government database. Hong, 75, has been seen accompanying Kim on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches since 2012, the South Korean database and pictures released by KCNA show. He was educated in central and eastern Europe and possibly in Russia as well, while Ri attended seminars abroad, North Korea leadership expert Madden said. They are top-level officials and the last generation of those who studied in the old Communist world in the good old days, he said. | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow s ambassador to the United Nations said the United States and Ukraine have told Russia they will not work on a Russian proposal to deploy United Nations peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, the TASS news agency reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin this month suggested armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to help end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. Putin originally said the peacekeepers should be deployed along the line of contact between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists, but later said they could also be deployed in other areas where OSCE inspectors work. However, Washington and Kiev also want peacekeepers to be deployed along those parts of Ukraine s border with Russia which Kiev does not control. TASS cited Vasily Nebenzia, Moscow s U.N. ambassador, as saying on Monday the United States and Ukraine had formally told Russia in the United Nations Security Council that they were unwilling to work on Moscow s draft resolution on the subject because they had too many objections to it. The U.S. and Ukrainian delegations said after the first discussion that they were not ready to work on the (Russian) text in future, Nebenzia was cited as saying. (They said) they had significant objections and that, possibly, the Ukrainians would have a counter proposal to deploy peacekeepers to Donbass (eastern Ukraine). Moscow was not abandoning its own proposal, however, said Nebenzia, saying it would continue to advance it when the conditions were right. Ukraine has advocated an alternative plan that would ban any Russian nationals from taking part in a peacekeeping mission which it wants deployed along the part of its border with Russia which it does not control, an idea Moscow has so far baulked at. | 1 |
DOUALA, Cameroon (Reuters) - A military court in Cameroon sentenced an opposition leader on Monday to 25 years in prison, his lawyer and Amnesty International said and denounced the trial as politically motivated. The court convicted Aboubakar Siddiki, the president of northern Cameroon s main opposition party, of hostility against the homeland as well as revolution and contempt of the president over accusations he plotted to destabilise the country. We are going to appeal this decision, which does not seem to us to be at all just, Siddiki s lawyer, Emmanuel Simh, told Reuters. In a statement, Amnesty said the prosecution was part of a government campaign to stifle its critics. The government denies the charges are political. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in a crackdown in recent months on protests in Cameroon s English-speaking regions. Residents there say they suffer social and economic marginalisation in the predominantly Francophone country. The protests have become a lightning rod for opposition to President Paul Biya s 35-year rule. Besides Siddiki, the court sentenced Abdoulaye Harissou, a well-known notary, to three years in prison for failure to denounce a crime. The court also dropped charges against three journalists arrested in connection with the same case. | 1 |
The Texas Bar Association is stepping up to the plate to nail Ken Paxton for violating legal ethics.After the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal across the nation last summer, some red states threw a collective hissy fit over the decision. In Alabama, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered county judges to disobey the highest court in the land.Texas Republicans also threw a temper tantrum, especially Attorney General Ken Paxton, who told county clerks to defy the Supreme Court ruling as well. I will do everything I can from this office to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights, Paxton vowed a day after the ruling came down. But unlike Moore, Ken Paxton could end up losing his status on the bar.Because he told clerks to violate the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court, the Texas Bar Association has launched an investigation against Paxton for ethics violations.The new investigation against Paxton comes on top of his indictment for committing securities fraud. If convicted, he faces up to 99 years in prison.Houston lawyer Eddie Rodriguez said that the Board of Disciplinary Appeals is looking into whether or not Paxton should be disbarred, which would prevent him from practicing law in the state, provided being thrown in prison doesn t do the trick first. Attorney General Paxton has a right to disagree with a ruling of the Supreme Court, Rodriguez told Reuters. Lawyers do that every single day. What makes a difference is that you cannot encourage people to violate that ruling and that law. Of course, Paxton denies being an unethical slug. This complaint has always lacked merit, and we are confident the legal process for resolving these complaints will bear that out, a statement from his office said.As usual, it will take time for the investigation to run its course before a decision is made, but it s hard to believe a legitimate bar association would allow Paxton to continue being a lawyer since it is clear that he defied federal law and the order of the Supreme Court to let same-sex couples legally marry. If they don t remove him from the bar, what does that say about the ethics of the Texas Bar Association itself?Featured image from texasattorneygeneral.gov | 0 |
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan and China need to drop historical baggage to seek a breakthrough in relations, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in her first public comments since China s ruling Communist Party unveiled a new leadership line-up. Relations nose-dived after Tsai, who leads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office last year, with China suspecting that she wants to push for the island s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Beijing has suspended a regular dialogue mechanism with Taipei established under Taiwan s previous, China-friendly government, and there has been a dramatic fall in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan under Tsai s administration. Right now is a turning point for change. I once again call on leaders of both sides to ... seek a breakthrough in cross-straits relations and to benefit the long-term welfare of people on both sides and to forever eliminate hostilities and conflict, Tsai told a forum. While acknowledging the changes in China s leadership announced on Wednesday, Tsai did not comment specifically on the composition of Xi s core team. But she reiterated that while the island s goodwill towards China would not change, Taipei would not submit to pressure. Responding to Tsai s speech, China s Taiwan Affairs Office said the political basis for relations across the Taiwan Strait was the one China principle, which states that the mainland and Taiwan are part of one China. As long as that is recognized, there are no obstacles to any talks between the sides, the office said in a statement carried by state media. China has been stepping up the pressure on Taiwan. This year, China s air force has carried out several rounds of drills near Taiwan, prompting the island s air force to scramble fighters. Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Taiwan was a part of China and the military exercises would continue as normal, adding that China was sincere in seeking peaceful reunification . At the same time, we have the ability, confidence and means to protect the country s unity, sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, he told a monthly news conference in Beijing later in the day. Chinese President Xi Jinping drew strong applause at last week s start of the Communist Party Congress when he said any attempt to separate Taiwan from China would be thwarted. Taipei s Mainland Affairs Council delivered a swift response, saying it was absolutely the right of Taiwan s 23 million people to decide their future. China regards self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as a wayward province, to be brought under Beijing s rule by force if necessary. | 0 |
21st Century Wire asks The sensational reporting by US corporate media has almost fallen off the edge of reality in this new divise, post-election partisan media envirnoment. As evidenced by the latest engineered fake news crisis, the establishment are desperate to recoup its lost credibility. Not surprisingly, the media are refusing to critque themselves, not aksing the real question America would like to know: who are the real fake news culprits? It is called fake news and we are told it is dangerous. Maybe we can agree on this. But let there be no mistake, it is governments and mainstream media that have peddled fake news for decades. And this is being challenged. CrossTalking with host Peter Lavelle are Patrick Henningsen, Vladimir Golstein, and Marcus Papadopoulos.Watch this fantastic discussion: | 0 |
Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ingrid Carlqvist and I was born in Sweden in 1960, when the Social Democrats were gonna rule forever and ever and our country was the nicest and safest and most progressed in the world. Now I live in Absurdistan a country that has the highest figure of reported rapes in the world, hundreds of so called exclusion areas where people live outside the Swedish society and with newspapers that hide all these horrible facts [from] the people.I feel just like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz a tornado came and blew me miles and miles away from home and dumped me in a country I don t know. Toto, I have a feeling we re not in Sweden anymore. Like Dorothy I m searching for a way to find my home, but on my path I only meet lions without courage, scarecrows without brains and tin men without hearts.When I grew up our prime minister was Tage Erlander, a Social Democrat. In 1965 he said in parliament, after violent race riots in America: We Swedes live in a so infinitely happier situation. The population in our country is homogeneous, not just according to race but also in many other aspects. Now I live in a nation that is not homogenous in any respect. Olof Palme that came after him decided that homogeneous was a bad thing and opened up our borders for people from all over the world. And from right to left the politicians told us that there was no such thing as a Swedish culture, no Swedish traditions worth mentioning and that we Swedes should be grateful that so many people with REAL culture and REAL traditions came to us.Mona Sahlin, a later leader of the Social Democrats, said in an interview [in] 2002 with the magazine Euroturk, when asked what Swedish culture is:I ve often had that question, but I can t think of what Swedish culture is. I think that is what makes us Swedes so envious of immigrants. You have a culture, an identity, something that ties you together. What do we have? We have Midsummer s Eve and such corny things.She also said: The Swedes must integrate into the new Sweden. The old Sweden is not coming back.In this New Sweden we have more reported rapes than any other country in the European Union, according to a study by professor Liz Kelly from England. More than 5 000 rapes or attempted rapes were reported in 2008 (last year it was more than 6 000). In 2010 another study reported that just one country in the world has more rapes than Sweden, and that is Lesotho in South Africa. For every 100,000 inhabitants Lesotho has 92 reported rapes, Sweden has 53, The United States 29, Norway 20 and Denmark 7.In 1990 the authorities counted 3 exclusion areas in Sweden, suburbs where mostly immigrants live, where very few have a job to go to, almost all of them live by welfare and the children don t pass their exams. In 2002 they counted 128 exclusion areas. In 2006 we had 156 and then they stopped counting. In some cities, like Malm where I live, a third of all inhabitants live in an exclusion area.What did Tage Erlander mean when he said that the Swedish population was homogeneous, not just according to race but also in many other aspects? I think he meant things like norms, values, culture and traditions. A feeling of fellowship. That we all, in the Old Sweden, had a similar view of what a good society is and how we solve conflicts. He KNEW what the Swedish culture was all about, in contrast to Mona Sahlin.In the New Sweden we need armed police officers at our hospitals because rivalling families fight each other in the hospital rooms. They gun each other down in open streets and they rob and beat old people up. The crime rate grows by the minute, but the Swedish politicians and journalists tell us that it has absolutely nothing to do with immigration. The fact that our prisons are full of foreign people is just a coincidence or is explained by socio-economic factors.For many years I was a journalist in the mainstream media. But I was always a bit of a troublemaker, always suspicious of what people said was THE TRUTH. When everybody ran in one direction, I turned around in the other direction to see what was there.In January 2011 something happened to make me loose my last hope about Swedish journalists. I was the vice chairman of The Society of Publicists in Malm and had invited the Danish journalist Mikael Jalving to talk about his coming book Absolute Sweden a Journey in the Country of Silence. One day the chairman phoned me and said: We must cancel Mikael Jalving because he is going to talk at a meeting arranged by a newspaper called National Today.It didn t matter to him, or to anyone else on the board of this society for journalists that Jalving was going to talk about his book. If he went to that meeting he would be infected by nationalist ideas and probably he would become a Nazi.You see, everyone with a different opinion in Sweden really IS a Nazi!That s the way it works in the New Sweden, the country I call Absurdistan. The country of silence.I was furious and left the board of that society. That led to my being invited to The Danish Free Press Society to talk about the strange country of Sweden and that led to my founding of The Swedish Free Press Society.That is how Lars Hedegaard and I found each other. But we didn t settle for running one Free Press Society each; since we both have a solid background as journalists we decided to start a newspaper. A good old, old-fashioned printed newspaper. We decided to call it Dispatch International because our vision is that this newspaper will become worldwide one day. But first we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin. Or rather first we take Scandinavia and then we take the world!Dispatch will be printed in two versions one Danish and one Swedish but all the stories are the same. And on the internet you will be able to read our stories in English and German as well. We will write about politics in our countries and in the world. We will write about all those things that mainstream media have been hiding for so many years now. We will distinguish between news stories and commentaries and the tone will be subdued. We will let the facts talk, the facts that mainstream journalists hide from people.The situation in Sweden is far worse than in Denmark. In Sweden NOBODY talks about immigration problems, the death of the multiculti project or the Islamisation/Arabisation of Europe. If you do, you will immediately be called a racist, an Islamophobe or a Nazi. That is what I have been called since I founded the Free Press Society in Sweden. My name has been dragged through the dirt in big newspapers like Sydsvenskan, Svenska Dagbladet and even my own union paper, The Journalist.So now I need you all to be my Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and help me find my home again! I don t think it will work to tap the heels of my ruby slippers together three times as Dorothy did to wake up in her bedroom in Kansas. But if you support Dispatch by taking a subscription or become a shareholder or just donate money to us, you will take me one step closer to home. To the Sweden that once was, the Sweden I want back.Via: Frontpage Magazine | 1 |
Hillary Clinton’s bout of pneumonia and the criticism of how little she and her opponent, Donald J. Trump, have made public about their medical histories thrust questions of transparency about health to the center of the presidential campaign this week, with both candidates promising to release more detailed records in the coming days. While the public scrutiny of modern campaigns has made speculation about the health of presidential candidates more relentless, concerns about the fitness of candidates for office have long been a hallmark of American politics, with many hopefuls trying to conceal their maladies and opponents doing their best to exploit signs of weakness. From brushing off gunshot wounds to working through paralysis, presidents, and those seeking the office, have been no strangers to challenging ailments. Here are a few of history’s most prominent examples. The revelation that Mrs. Clinton had pneumonia instantly drew comparisons to William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, whose tenure was the shortest in the country’s history. Harrison died from pneumonia, according to his doctor, in 1841, a month after delivering a inaugural address on a blustery day. Being underdressed in bad weather was blamed for causing an illness that quickly spiraled out of control. Doctors treated him with opium and other medications that proved to be useless. Historians continue to debate the true cause of Harrison’s death, and some scholars have wondered whether his history of dyspepsia, rather than pneumonia, was really to blame. According to one theory, the White House’s lack of a proper sewage system may have contaminated its water supply with pathogens that poisoned the president. _____ Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said that she had wanted to push through her pneumonia after it was diagnosed last Friday. For Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian, the urge to put politics before health echoed Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912, Roosevelt, a former president, was running again with the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party when he was shot in the chest before he was to deliver a speech in Milwaukee. The manuscript of the speech, which was in his coat pocket, cushioned the blow and saved his life. Gritting through the pain, he delivered a shortened version of the speech anyway, declaring, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose. ” “He thought if he went to a hospital and seemed infirm, it would lower his chances of winning,” Mr. Brinkley said of Roosevelt, who ultimately lost the election. _____ President Woodrow Wilson had a debilitating stroke in 1919, leaving him incapacitated and raising questions about who was really running the executive branch. Scholars such as Edwin A. Weinstein, a neuropsychiatrist, spent years studying Wilson’s old correspondence to determine that he had experienced smaller strokes dating back to 1898, which might have foreshadowed his health problems later in life. Transparency was particularly problematic at the time, as Wilson’s wife, Edith, and his doctor allegedly orchestrated a to prevent the public from learning about his deteriorating condition. _____ Health was always something of a concern for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was partly paralyzed and was vigilant about keeping his wheelchair hidden from the public. But it was when he sought his fourth term as president in 1944 that his opponents seized on his diminished strength and failing faculties in hopes of finally defeating him. Documents in Roosevelt’s presidential library show how the “whispering campaign” of his rival Thomas E. Dewey tried to paint Roosevelt as a “tired old man,” and how Roosevelt campaigned more aggressively to demonstrate that he still had vigor. Privately, Roosevelt’s doctors had warned that he had high blood pressure and was at a high risk of heart failure. In April 1945, Roosevelt collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage. _____ In 1960, John F. Kennedy declared himself the “healthiest candidate for president in the country. ” But despite his youthful good looks, Kennedy was battling a variety of ailments, including Addison’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the adrenal glands. Despite efforts by his family to hide the disorder, which can be pathologists who conducted his autopsy revealed in 1992 that Kennedy, who was assassinated at the age of 46, had been taking hormone replacement supplements to control the rare condition. Some suggested that he might have lost the 1960 election to Richard M. Nixon if the extent of his health problems had been known. A more extensive batch of medical records made public in 2002 showed that Kennedy also lived in considerable discomfort, taking painkillers, agents, stimulants and sleeping pills. He was also hospitalized for back and intestinal problems and had osteoporosis. _____ The oldest president ever to take office, Ronald Reagan endured an assassination attempt and the removal of cancerous polyps from his colon. Some historians have blamed the colon surgery, in 1985, for poor decisions Reagan made related to the scandal while he was recuperating. Reagan transferred power briefly to Vice President George Bush, but rushed back to work. “Reagan made a serious mistake in taking back his powers and duties,” said Robert Gilbert, an emeritus professor of political science at Northeastern University and an expert on illness in the White House. According to Mr. Gilbert, Reagan’s aides prevented people from seeing him because he was unwell, and he made decisions while hospitalized that he later did not remember. | 0 |
Remember when illegal aliens, students, and residents of Berkeley took to the streets to march in solidarity, and publicly affirm that President Donald Trump is Not my President! ? It s really not surprising to see ILLEGAL ALIENS boldly chanting He s not my President! after our former president promised them unconstitutional citizenship rights. Should anyone really take an illegal alien seriously who shouts that President Trump is not my President, when in fact, their president is actually in another country? But then again, what difference does law and order make to students and non-citizens who are used to living under a president, like Barack Obama who openly defied both?Conservative Twitter user Brooks Brown hit the nail on the head with his tweet to Dreamers standing on our soil belching that Trump s NOT MY PRESIDENT' by reminding them that their dreams have gladly come true. https://t.co/9ZLjdyRFSEAll you "Dreamers" standing on our soil belching that Trump's "NOT MY PRESIDENT" your dreams have gladly come true! brooks brown (@bbusa617) September 5, 2017The photo Brown used in his tweet was taken from a video that was filmed during the 2016 campaign season. A group of illegal aliens gathered together to protest Trump on a corner in advance of his arrival at a campaign event in Arizona. | 1 |
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Former soccer star George Weah leads in early presidential election results in 11 of Liberia s 15 counties, National Elections Commission Chairman Jerome G. Korkoya said on Thursday. The two top vote-winners from the field of 20 candidates will advance to a run-off in November in the event that no one wins an outright majority. (Corrects number of counties Weah leads in to 11 from 10) | 0 |
James Kallstrom is the former Assistant Director of the FBI who is no fan of former FBI Director James Comey. We ve reported several times on Kallstrom s very blunt take on the politicization of the intelligence community (see below). Check out his awesome take on how Comey folded Wow!Kallstrom tells it like it is in his latest interview: James Comey, the notion that Barack Obama was going to let Hillary Clinton was going to be indicted that was obvious to anybody who knows anything at the very beginning Unfortunately, it turns out he was a political hack I think he maybe started out in an honorable way. His opinion of himself is sky high. Unbelievable guy. Just an arrogance about him I think he thought he was Superman and found out he wasn t. The dogs are always going to bite you on your heels when you re dealing with the Clintons. Look how long the American people have been dealing with the crime syndicate known as the Clinton Foundation We got all these major crime things bubbling All of which are 20 times bigger than Watergate! And nothing seems to be happening The Attorney General is in a coma! James Kallstrom, former FBI Assistant Director, said he is glad it happened. Daily CallerKallstrom endorsed Donald Trump for president He said he feels like America is going down the tubes . We should listen to this man! He s been in the belly of the FBI beast and knows the truth. | 0 |
Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/10/clintons-are-under-multiple-fbi-investigations-as-agents-are-stymied/
The post Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Nigeria s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has served as acting president for much of this year, said on Monday he had not given any thought to contesting the country s next presidential election in 2019. Nigeria has faced heightened uncertainty over whether President Muhammadu Buhari plans to contest the next election. Buhari, 74, took power in 2015 but has been absent for much of this year due to illness. Osinbajo, a 60-year-old law professor, served as acting president during Buhari s absences, succeeding in calming tensions in the oil-producing Delta region and pushing small steps to improve the business climate, including foreign currency reforms. Some business leaders say he could provide stability by running for president himself in Feb 2019. Asked at the FT Africa Summit in London if he had considered running, Osinbajo said he hadn t thought about it, adding: None of that is on the cards . Osinbajo also said that militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta region no longer posed a significant threat to oil production. He said Nigeria had lost as much as 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production last year amid militant attacks on oil and gas infrastructure, which is concentrated in the southern Delta region. It was now pumping roughly 1.85 million bpd and climbing toward 2 million bpd. That is closer to its top production of around 2.2 million bpd. Still, he added that Nigeria needed to diversify its oil-dependent economy and take advantage of the resource while it was still in high demand. We don t have all the time in the world with oil, he said. We have to use oil while it makes sense to do so. | 1 |
Hey President Trump how s that Hillary email investigation going? A message from @HillaryClinton: "Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our Party and our country." #DNCFuture pic.twitter.com/smbxQZQfpV The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) February 24, 2017Can someone tell this crazy b*tch America s over her? Like waaaayyy over her! | 1 |
America is at the end of her rope. Never before in the history of the country have the forces between good and evil been so clearly delineated.
There are great changes going on in America right now. They are happening so quickly that nobody can keep up with what is happening.
Disinformation abounds everywhere. War and rumors of war, all false. Coup’s and and counter coups. Much of what is written on these topics are totally false and unintelligent speculation. Later today, I am going to bring out what I have known for three days and they don’t match much of the idle speculation. Stay tuned, soon all will be revealed.
Anonymous speaks so eloquently about the choices that lie ahead for all of us. The following video should be viewed by all.
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The National Rifle Association (NRA) is opposed to any and all sensible legislation when it comes to purchasing firearms. They want there to be no background checks, no questions and definitely no waiting periods whatsoever. According to this nutty group, anyone and everyone should be able to have as many guns as they want, whenever they want, and however they want. This is most curious, though, considering that they are much more strict with how difficult they make it to dress up as their mascot, a large bird-like creature known as Eddie Eagle.Investigating this phenomenon is Full Frontal host Samantha Bee. You see, this awesomely hilarious lady wanted to dress up like the mascot, only to find that the NRA forces a 20-day waiting period for dressing up as Eddie Eagle, and bans resales of the costume on the interwebs. Bee says of the experience: There s something about that costume so mockable. So asinine. I had to have one. Bee soon discovered that she d be better off just trying to get a gun online than trying to dress up as that silly bird: But you know what I could buy online without a big hassle? A used shotgun on armslist.com from a random guy down the road from the TBS headquarters in Atlanta. So I had one of my employees buy it from him in a parking lot without a background check from the trunk of his car. This just goes to show how ridiculous the NRA s stances are. They d rather you be able to buy a killing machine than dress up in their precious bird costume. None of the people running that organization need to have firearms or any sort of weapons whatsoever, because they clearly lack basic sense.Bravo, Ms. Bee for exposing this absolute insanity.Watch the video of Samantha Bee and Eddie Eagle below, via Raw Story:Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
21st Century Wire says This week s documentary film curated by our editorial team at 21WIRE. By August 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project had successfully detonated an atomic device in the New Mexico desert and subsequently produced atomic weapons based on two alternate designs. The 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces was equipped with a Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAsnaEM_Q8U . Run time: 40 min Director: Pamela Caragol Wells Distribution: National Geographic ExplorerSEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HEREREAD MORE WWII NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire WWII FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A [email protected] | 0 |
The Ohio Republican will travel to Israel this week, while Congress is on recess. He said his plans were made before the rift between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama over how to deal with Iran and Palestine burst into the open.
"There are serious issues and activities going on in the Middle East and I think it's critically important for members of Congress to hear from foreign leaders, other governments, other parts of their government, to get a real handle on the challenges that we face there," Boehner told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" Sunday.
Republicans are using the congressional recess to visit Israel. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, was there Sunday, and met with Netanyahu.
Boehner said Netanyahu -- who's been lambasted by Obama for his comments in the lead-up to Israel's election that a two-state solution to Israel and Palestine's divide is impossible -- didn't cross any lines. "Well, he doesn't have a partner," Boehner said. "How do you have a two-state solution when you don't have a partner in that solution, when you don't have a partner for peace, when you've got a -- when the other state is vowing to wipe you off the face of the earth?" And he promised to move "very" quickly toward imposing steep new sanctions on Iran if Obama doesn't strike a deal with the country to avert its nuclear ambitions -- a deal that Netanyahu opposed during a high-profile speech to Congress during an early-March trip to Washington. Boehner also defended Netanyahu from criticism from Obama and the White House that has mounted over the last month. "I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible," Boehner said. "And I think that the pressure that they've put on him over the last four or five years have frankly pushed him to the point where he had to speak up." "I don't blame him at all for speaking up," he said. | 1 |
I just want people to know, the CIA was hacked, and a lot of things taken that was during the Obama years. That was not during us, Trump recently told Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson during an interview. That was during the Obama situation. Mike Pompeo is there now doing a fantastic job. In saying those words, it appears that The Donald did something against which he has been railing ever since his administration began leaking more than two Russian prostitutes in a certain orange man s Moscow hotel room: he leaked classified information.Now as President, Donald Trump can declassify any information he wants, but Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California points out that Trump did not make a purposeful decision to do that. He just talked. In his effort to once again blame Obama, the President appeared to have discussed something that, if true and accurate, would otherwise be considered classified information, Schiff said in a press release. The president has the power to declassify whatever he wants, but this should be done as the product of thoughtful consideration and with intense input form any agency affected. For anyone else to do what the President may have done, would constitute what he deplores as leaks, Schiff says. He also took to Twitter to rail against Mr. Number 45 for applying a different set of rules to himself than others:.@POTUS appears to have discussed something that, if true & accurate, would be classified. Had it been anyone else he would call it a "leak" pic.twitter.com/XedWH4CTNF Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 16, 2017Interestingly, Trump doesn t consider little things like his administration s ties to Russia to be matters of public interest. Or his tax returns. Or anything else that could expose him for exactly what he is.But if Trump is in the business of declassifying information, he could easily answer any questions Americans have about Russia with a stroke of his pen.Do it, Donald.Featured image via Getty Images (Pool) | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may conduct additional missile tests this year to polish up its long-range missile technology and ramp up the threat against the United States, South Korea s spy agency said on Monday, adding that it was monitoring developments closely. North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan. The reclusive state appears to have carried out a recent missile engine test while brisk movements of vehicles were spotted near known missile facilities, Yi Wan-young, a member of South Korea s parliamentary intelligence committee which was briefed by Seoul s National Intelligence Service, said. No sign of an imminent nuclear test had been detected, Yi noted. The third tunnel at the Punggye-ri complex remained ready for another detonation at any time , while construction had recently resumed at a fourth tunnel, making it out of use for the time being. The agency is closely following the developments because there is a possibility that North Korea could fire an array of ballistic missiles this year under the name of a satellite launch and peaceful development of space, but in fact to ratchet up its threats against the United States, the lawmakers told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the spy agency. North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention. Pyongyang is also carrying out a sweeping ideological scrutiny of the political unit of the military for the first time in 20 years, according to Kim Byung-kee, another lawmaker in the committee. The probe was led by the ruling Workers Party s Organisation and Guidance Department and orchestrated by Choe Ryong Hae, who once headed the General Political Bureau of the Korean People s Army himself until he was replaced by Hwang Pyong So in May 2014. As a result, Hwang and Kim Won Hong, who Seoul s unification ministry said was removed from office in mid-January as minister of the Stasi-like secret police called bowibu , had been punished, the lawmaker said. He did not elaborate. Choe, who was subjected to political reeducation himself in the past, appears to be gaining more influence since he was promoted in October to the party s powerful Central Military Commission. The National Intelligence Service indicated that Choe now heads the Organisation and Guidance Department, a secretive body that oversees appointments within North Korea s leadership. Under Choe s command, the Organisation and Guidance Department is undertaking an inspection of the military politburo for the first time in 20 years, taking issue with their impure attitude toward the party leadership, the lawmaker, Kim, said. Separately on Monday, South Korea approved a request by a South Korean to attend an event in the North marking the anniversary of the death of his mother who formerly led the Chondoist Chongu Party, a minor North Korean political party. The son, identified only by his surname Choi, will be the first South Korean to visit the North since liberal President Moon Jae-in took office in May. He is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang via China on Wednesday and return on Saturday, according to Seoul s unification ministry. A senior Chinese official wrapped up a four-day visit to North Korea on Monday, apparently without meeting the country s leader, Kim Jong Un. Song Tao, head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, met senior officials from the Workers Party of Korea and exchanged views on the Korean peninsula issue , China s official Xinhua news agency said. The ruling parties of China and the Democratic People s Republic of Korea on Monday pledged to strengthen inter-party exchanges and coordination, and push forward relations, it added, using North Korea s official name. Song had been in Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing. | 1 |
As an immigrant myself, having grown up in a communist society, I know all too well the value and importance of freedom and equal opportunity. Ideas which this great nation was founded and has continued to strive towards throughout its history. It was all women except when the President and Vice President walked in to say a few words: A few of the women attending were: Second lady Karen Pence: Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway:Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, Monaco s ambassador to the U.S. Maguy Maccario Doyle and first daughter Ivanka Trump:Read more: Daily Mail | 0 |
DAKAR/BAMAKO (Reuters) - Five soldiers from Niger and three U.S. Army Special Forces troops were killed and two wounded in an ambush on a joint patrol in southwest Niger on Wednesday, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials. The five Green Berets were attacked while on a routine patrol in an area known to have a presence of insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Islamic State, a U.S. official told Reuters. It was unclear who fired on the U.S. and U.S.-backed forces, the official said. Those forces were not patrolling the area with any specific objective, such as a high-value target or rescuing a hostage, the official added. A spokesman for U.S. Africa Command confirmed the attack after Radio France International (RFI) reported a lethal ambush near the Niger/Mali border. We can confirm reports that a joint U.S. and Nigerien patrol came under hostile fire in southwest Niger, said the spokesman. Namatta Abubacar, an official for the region of Tillaberi in Niger, said five Nigerien soldiers were among the dead. A Niger diplomatic source said the attackers had come from Mali and had killed several soldiers, without saying whether any of the U.S. troops stationed in the West African country were among the victims. U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed by telephone on the attack by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly while Trump flew back on Air Force One from Las Vegas, where he had been visiting victims and first responders affected by Sunday s mass shooting. RFI said earlier on Wednesday a counter-attack was underway. African security forces backed by Western troops are stepping up efforts to counter jihadist groups forming part of a growing regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of the Sahel. A relatively new militant group called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has claimed some of the attacks. Geoff D. Porter, head of North Africa Risk Consulting, said that any confirmation of Islamic State s role in Wednesday s strike would lead to a strategic shift from Libya toward the Sahel band, stretching eastwards from Senegal to Chad. The emphasis ... will now shift south, he said. The U.S. Africa Command has hundreds of soldiers deployed across the region, including at an air facility in Agadez, and offers training and support to Niger s army in aspects such as intelligence gathering and surveillance. | 1 |
Earlier today, it was reported by TMZ that an adult actor has revealed that Academy award-winning actor and House of Cards star, Kevin Spacey attempted to sexually assault him when he was 14-years-old and Spacey was 26-years-old.From Spacey s tweet: I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years. Spacey s remarks were not well received in either the gay or straight community.The smug anti-Trump actor once told CNN s Dana Bash that his role as President of the United States on the House of Cards T show would have killed Donald Trump before the election. Spacey then went on to mock the President calling him a reality President. Based on the recent allegations against Spacey, we re thinking he wishes he could trade past s with Donald Trump today.Watch:Netflix has just announced that they are canceling the 6th season of House of Cards. Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night s news concerning Kevin Spacey, the companies said in a joint statement today. In response to last night s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time. | 1 |
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A Papua New Guinea court has given hundreds of asylum-seekers who were held for years in a controversial Australian detention center the right to sue the PNG government for compensation, Australian media reported on Saturday. Papua New Guinea s Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the PNG government to stop the asylum-seekers seeking compensation on Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The government had tried to argue that the time frame for such attempts to sue for compensation had passed but the court rejected its application. The finding opens the way to a major compensation and also for consequential orders against both the PNG and Australian governments, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told Australian Associated Press. The decision comes two months after the PNG government closed the detention center on remote Manus Island, which had housed about 400 male asylum-seekers. Conditions in the camp, and another on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, have been widely criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups. The two camps have been cornerstones of Australia s contentious immigration policy, under which it refuses to allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores. The policy, aimed at deterring people from making a perilous sea voyage to Australia, has bipartisan political support. The closure of the Manus island camp, criticized by the United Nations as shocking , caused chaos, with the men refusing to leave the compound for fear of being attacked by Manus island residents. Staff left the closed compound and the men were left without food, water, power or medical support before they were expelled and moved to a transit camp. Papua New Guinea s Supreme Court declared in 2016 that the detention of asylum-seekers on behalf of the Australian government was illegal and that it breached asylum-seekers fundamental human rights. The asylum-seekers will now go back to court in February to seek orders from Australia and Papua New Guinea for them to be settled in a safe third country. The United States announced on Friday that it had agreed to accept about 200 more refugees from Manus island and Nauru under a deal struck between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former U.S. President Barack Obama. Another 50 refugees had already been accepted as part of the deal, under which Australia agreed to accept refugees from Central America. U.S President Donald Trump has called the deal dumb . | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - During the eight years of the Obama administration, business lobbyists often found the gates to the White House closed tight. They are open now under President Donald Trump. That is not altogether unexpected as the New York real estate developer did campaign during the 2016 presidential election on a promise to elevate the needs of business, which he argued would fuel economic growth. What does surprise lobbyists, however, is the sheer number of wins in getting the Trump administration to roll back or delay unfavorable regulations in its first 10 months. And it is occurring despite White House dysfunction and distraction. The lobbyists say it is a stark departure from the approach of the Obama administration, which had a reputation for aloofness toward business and sought to limit the influence of lobbyists, whom it saw as beholden to special interests. The Trump White House is listening to them, they say. It is returning their phone calls. And it is working to eliminate regulations they view as detrimental to the ability to prosper. When 15 lobbyists and business leaders recently held talks with Trump administration officials on energy infrastructure and climate change, they were surprised by the officials' opening question: "Do you have a regulation that we could put on a list to try to eliminate? Is there something that is impeding you from growing?" In that moment, one of the lobbyists at the meeting knew it was a new era. “That as an opening was not the way the Obama administration approached meetings,” she said. “It’s night and day,” between the Trump and Obama administrations, said James Thurber, a professor in the public affairs school at American University, who studies lobbying and its effects. Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” an oath that came with plans to curb lobbying and end a “culture of corruption.” The campaign stump speech line had a populist appeal, but one person’s swamp dweller is another’s job creator. Some of the 16 lobbyists spanning nine different industries interviewed by Reuters acknowledged that many people view them as part of the problem in Washington, not the solution, and that their growing influence may be seen by those as a negative. Spending so far this year on lobbyists is on pace to exceed spending in 2016, according to the OpenSecrets website, with $2.43 billion spent over the first nine months compared to $2.38 billion at the same point in 2016. After taking office in January, Trump quickly made it easier to get into the White House. He reversed President Barack Obama’s restrictions that sought to keep lobbyists at bay by physically barring many of them from the White House - a rule that critics said did nothing more than move meetings with lobbyists to coffee shops across the street. And Trump has stopped the public disclosure of White House visitors’ logs, so now lobbyists come and go with less concern that their presence at the White House will be scrutinized. Most lobbyists refused to speak on the record because they did not want to reveal anything about their private discussions with the administration. Lobbyists are also acutely aware that anything they say will be used by critics who think Trump has tilted too much toward corporate interests. The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article. The coal, steel, oil and gas industries are some of the clear winners, with easier access to the Trump administration and more deregulation of their industries, said Stan Veuger, a fellow at the conservative thinktank American Enterprise Institute who studies politics and the economy. That business has been given more access and even more control of certain regulatory issues is “fair criticism and praise if you want to call it that,” said Veuger. There are big losers, too. Consumer advocacy and environmental groups warning about the perils of climate change, who enjoyed easy access to the Obama White House, have largely been shut out of a Trump White House that is more skeptical of climate change and believes Obama over-reached with some of his measures to protect consumers. It was no secret that Trump wanted to greenlight the Dakota Access Pipeline to move oil from North Dakota to Illinois despite the fierce opposition of environmentalists and American Indian tribes whose land was being used. He spoke about it frequently during the campaign. Then Trump gave the energy industry more than they had hoped for. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents all the large refiners, had asked the administration to speed the permitting process for drilling and building new facilities. When Trump signed his executive order authorizing the pipeline only four days after taking office, he also granted this wish. A number of business trade groups asked the Trump administration to suspend a rule, created during the Obama years, that would require companies to disclose to the government any communications they have with employees during union disputes. In June, the Trump Labor Department did just that, citing the opposition from business. Among the other wins for business, the Labor Department delivered on a top priority of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business lobbying group and Wall Street brokerages when it reversed an Obama-era rule aimed at brokers who recommend inappropriate retirement investments. The administration also side-stepped the process to repeal regulations by implementing delays and holds on rules. For instance, in the final months of the Obama administration the Bureau of Land Management created a rule governing methane and waste prevention over the strong objections of groups representing oil and gas companies. API wrote to Ryan Zinke, Trump’s secretary of the interior, in May asking him to postpone implementation of the rule. The Trump administration announced it would and even cited the lobbyists’ objections as the reason. Of course, it is not perfect harmony between Trump and business. Dozens of corporate leaders abandoned advisory business councils set up by Trump after he appeared to side with white supremacists following a white nationalist rally in Virginia that resulted in the death of a protester. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent the past few weeks ringing alarm bells over Trump’s various positions on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. And yet, said Neil Bradley, one of the top lobbyists for the chamber, “I have even found in times when we may not see eye to eye with the administration on something, we have cordial, timely discussions that are substantive.” | 1 |
Ben Carson s professional but hard hitting approach with the progressive media is a breath of fresh air. The Republican party should have been taking it to the media for years. It s really kind of sad that it took this long for the men and women in our party to fight back against their leftist agenda The American people are waking up to your games https://youtu.be/m7X-QOSn0TwListen here to brilliant analysis of attacks by media of Dr. Ben Carson, followed up by an awesome interview with Carson:Another example of the media (in this case CNN) attempting to disparage Carson: | 1 |
The global warming hucksterism in the Obama administration has been going on since the beginning. The former EPA director was big on the environmental justice for minorities. It s a made up term just like environmental racism. I can t tell you just how important it is for Americans to pay attention and follow the money on this. Here s a video from the last EPA director that s full of pretty alarming lingo and propaganda: It [climate change] is an issue of justice, and it is an issue of human rights. African-Americans are at a higher risk of being close, or predisposed to areas of carbon, as well as other poisonous pollution in the air. And we have a disproportionate interest because we suffer disproportionately, Sharpton continued. You cannot, not deal with climate change as a health issue, as a moral issue, and as a civil rights issue. Aka: federally subsidize black communities because they are victim of geo-racism. | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday held a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and the two leaders agreed to meet in the first half of November, the Kremlin said. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit to be hosted by Vietnam, it said. | 0 |
REFUGIO, Texas — A local restaurateur has been charged with human smuggling after allegedly using his business to hide illegal aliens and providing them with firearms. [Federal agents with the help of local police raided two local restaurants and two mobile homes where they arrested 16 illegal aliens and found multiple firearms. At one of the restaurants, Taqueria Guadalajara, agents arrested Alfredo Plascencia Leon five illegal immigrants from Mexico and one from Honduras who were working at the restaurant. The other raids took place at the properties behind the store and at a second restaurant, Gumbo Seafood, owned and operated by Plascencia. Refugio is approximately 44 miles from Corpus Christi. Court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed that Plascencia would allegedly house illegal aliens in various mobile homes and collected rent. During the raids, authorities seized an “assault rifle” a shotgun, a . 45 caliber pistol, and a . 22 caliber rifle. Mario Rizo Melendez, one of the illegal aliens, told authorities that the . 22 caliber weapon was given to him by Plascencia and that the shotgun was loaned to him also. Breitbart Texas reached out to Gregory Palmore, a spokesman for U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who stated that the raid was part of a criminal investigation and not an immigration action, as some local outlets incorrectly reported. Alfredo Plascencia Complaint by ildefonso ortiz on Scribd, Tony Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | 0 |
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Texas Republican Ted Cruz on Saturday brushed off the most recent poll results showing him behind businessman Donald Trump in Iowa by 5 points.
"If you had told me a year ago that two days out from the Iowa caucuses we would be neck and neck, effectively tied for first place in the state of Iowa, I would have been thrilled," Cruz told reporters.
The latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll, released hours before Cruz held a rally here, showed Trump retaking his lead in Iowa. Cruz previously held the poll's top spot.
The latest Iowa Poll showed Trump at 28% support among likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers and Cruz at 23%.
Even so, Cruz considers himself in a "dead heat" with Trump for the top spot. Cruz pointed to an increase in attacks against him as proof that he still has strong political standing in Iowa.
"Everyone in the field is running millions of dollars in attack ads. We saw it in the last debate where everyone lined up to toss their attacks. That’s fine. That goes with the territory," Cruz said. "I’ll tell you I’d be a lot more worried right now if nobody was attacking me. Then that would be concerning: What do they know that we don’t?"
The U.S. senator and presidential hopeful was ending a five-stop day. Cruz had set the rally here as the location for a one-on-one debate he challenged Trump to earlier in the week. Trump did not show up.
Throughout the day, Cruz gave a version of his usual stump speech, laying out his agenda for what he'll do if he makes it to the White House. It includes repealing Obamacare and Common Core, opening an investigation into Planned Parenthood, instituting a flat tax, and eliminating the IRS and a slate of other federal agencies.
Linda Imsland, of Hubbard, said she supports Cruz, during his stop in her town 25 miles north of Ames.
"He believes with all his heart that the Constitution needs to be upheld," she said.
"I believe he’s a very patriotic man. I believe that he cares about the country, and I think it scares him to death to see where we’re headed, and it does me, too."
Cruz has been making his final pitches throughout Iowa while counting down the hours to caucus night.
“This is now your time. This is the men and women of Iowa, the time to look candidates in the eyes and make the judgment: Who do I trust? Who do I know is going to defend the Constitution, is going to repeal Obamacare, is going to stop amnesty, is going to kill the terrorists and keep this country safe?” Cruz said. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Brexit minister David Davis said on Monday it was vital that European Union negotiators agree to move the talks on to discuss trade, saying it was of huge value to all members of the trading bloc. It s an important day... Everybody understands that the decision to move on to trade talks is vital, it s vital to everybody, it s of huge value to the 27 members and to ourselves, he told Sky News. British negotiators were locked in last-minute talks with their European Union and Irish counterparts on Monday, trying to put together a Brexit deal that Prime Minister Theresa May might agree over lunch in Brussels. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to facilitate humanitarian aid for people affected by the violence in Rakhine State and to address deeply troubling human rights abuse allegations, the State Department said. In a call with Suu Kyi, Tillerson welcomed Myanmar s commitment to allow the return of refugees who have fled the violence that has roiled the country in recent weeks, the State Department said. | 1 |
The SPLC’s Libelous New Report on 'Anti-Muslim Extremists' Equating counter-jihadists with jihadists. Robert Spencer
The objective of this libelous new report from the hard-Left money-making and incitement machine the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is made plain within it: “Before you book a spokesperson from an anti-Muslim extremist group or quote them in a story, research their background — detailed in this in-depth guide to 15 of the most visible anti-Muslim activists— and consider the consequences of giving them a platform.”
They wish to silence those who speak honestly about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, blaming us for a supposed rise in “Islamophobia.” If they really want to stamp out suspicion of Islam, of course, they will move against not us, but the likes of Omar Mateen, Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik, Nidal Malik Hasan, Mohammed Abdulazeez, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the myriad other Muslims who commit violence in the name of Islam and justify it by reference to Islamic teachings.
The SPLC doesn’t do that because its objective is not really to stop “Islamophobia” at all, but to create the illusion of a powerful and moneyed network of “Islamophobes,” who can only be stopped if you write a check to the SPLC. That’s what this is really all about.
In constructing this illusory edifice, the SPLC labels me and fourteen others “anti-Muslim extremists.” We are, of course, no more “anti-Muslim” than foes of the Nazis were anti-German, but note the word “extremists.” That’s the mainstream media and Obama administration’s term of choice for jihad terrorists. In what way are we “extremists”? Has anyone on the SPLC’s hit list (and given the SPLC’s track record of inciting violence against its targets, that is exactly what it is) ever blown anything or anyone up? Beheaded anyone? Boasted of our imminent conquest of any territory and the massacre of or enslavement of its people? No, all we have done is speak critically about jihad terror and Sharia oppression. The SPLC is trying to further the libel that we are the other side of the coin, the non-Muslim bin Ladens and Awlakis. Until we commit any terror attacks or conspire with others to do so, however, the SPLC’s libel is only that: a libel.
It’s also passingly ironic that the SPLC list includes several people who are doubtless horrified to be in this company, as they have endeavored for years to distinguish their message from that of those whom they themselves would smear as “Islamophobes.” But their temporizing and pandering didn’t work: they ended up on the Index of Prohibited Thinkers anyway, as will, ultimately, anyone who dares to note that Islam just might have something to do with the acts of murder committed in its name and in accord with its teachings.
The “report” as a whole stands as an example of the Left’s strange tendency to present true statements as if they were self-evidently false, without bothering to explain why. Apparently the SPLC knows its supporters and is aware that it doesn’t need to bother with troublesome things like, you know, facts.
The SPLC’s hit list recurrently excoriates people for making true statements that it apparently regards as self-evidently false. For example, it says that Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch “accuses immigrant-run stores of illegally trafficking in food stamps.” This is a case that Corcoran makes with evidence – evidence that the SPLC doesn’t bother to try disproving. It says that Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism “has claimed that the Obama administration ‘extensively collaborates’ with the Muslim Brotherhood.” That he actually has done so doesn’t seem to bother them. As Andrew C. McCarthy has noted , “Barack Obama has spent his presidency cultivating Islamists, particularly from the international Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates in the United States.” The SPLC also hits Emerison for having “asserted that Europe is riddled with ‘no-go zones.’” Regarding “no-go zones,” here are some news articles from just the past few weeks:
Germany: Police “sick” of citizens’ no-go zone fears
The SPLC excoriates Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America for saying that any “practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah … who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day — this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States.” Yet it says nothing, of course, about the many teachings of the Qur’an that contradict American Constitutional principles: the denial of the freedom of speech, the death penalty for apostasy, the devaluation of women, and more. How to reconcile these teachings with U.S. citizenship, the SPLC did not bother to explain.
The SPLC quotes David Horowitz saying: “There are only a couple of degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists — and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are anti-terrorist.” Here again, no refutation is offered – yet the Left’s dalliance with Palestinian jihad groups and overall anti-Americanism make it impossible to dismiss Horowitz’s assertion.
Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, we’re told, “is gripped by paranoid fantasies about Muslims destroying the West from within.” The SPLC doesn’t bother to mention the Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America , the captured Muslim Brotherhood internal document that explained that Brotherhood members “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
In attacking Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the SPLC descended to outright fabrications. Notes Geller : “Their claim that I insist that Obama is the ‘love child’ of Malcolm X is patently untrue. The SPLC also states that I ‘have spoken to a neo-fascist group in Germany,’ when in fact I have never even been to Germany.” It characterizes former FBI agent John Guandolo’s claim that CIA director John Brennan was a convert to Islam as an “outlandish accusation,” when in fact “a U.S. asset assigned overseas with Brennan in Saudi Arabia when he was station chief confirmed years ago their firsthand account that Brennan was indeed the target of a Saudi intelligence influence operation that led to his conversion. Brennan has also stated publicly that he visited Mecca, which is impossible for a non-Muslim to do unless he is a special guest of the Saudi King.”
Even more strangely, the SPLC targets Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman who grew up as a Muslim in Somalia, suffered genital mutilated at the hands of Muslims, is under death threats from Muslims, and lives in exile from her homeland because of Muslims. Instead of trying to discredit her, the SPLC should be honoring her for her stand for human rights against Sharia oppression. But the SPLC has other priorities.
Of me, the SPLC concedes that I am a “real intellectual” but complains that I am “entirely self-taught in the study of Islam.” An odd objection. One cannot be both “self-taught” and a “real intellectual”? In any case, it’s false: I am indeed mostly self-taught in the study of Islam, and make no secret of or apologies for it; every day’s headlines proves me correct. Nonetheless, the fact is that I did first read the Qur’an and began studying Islam in earnest while at the University of North Carolina. My claims, says the SPLC, are “provably false,” but then only offers a number of them that are demonstrably true, without any attempt to refute them.
It even says that I have “referred to Barack Obama as ‘the first Muslim president.’” This one epitomizes the dishonesty of the SPLC. The quote comes from an article I wrote in 2007 discussing how Obama was not a Muslim, stating that his obvious affinity for Islam and the Muslim world could make him into “our first Muslim president” the way Bill Clinton was called “our first black president.” After eight years of Obama, I’d say I was proven correct in rather spectacular fashion.
The SPLC, finally, hits me for having “even suggested that the media may be getting money to depict Muslims in a positive light.”
The facts are once again deeply unfortunate for the SPLC: George Soros funded a report on “Islamophobia” on Twitter and gave $200,000 to the Center for American Progress for a defamatory report on alleged “Islamophobes.” He also spent $600,000 for favorable coverage of the Muslim migrant inundation, bought favorable coverage of the Iran deal , and bought “Islamophobia” propaganda after the San Bernardino jihad massacre.
But what need does the SPLC have of facts? It knows its readers won’t check up on the veracity of its claims, but will accept them at face value, since the SPLC is of the camp of the saints, the enlightened and tolerant Left. Those who are outside that camp clearly have no rights that the SPLC feels bound to respect. | 0 |
Donald Trump has been a thorn in Senator Bob Corker s side for quite some time, but especially since the mess that was The Donald s disgraceful response to the deadly racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. After Trump offered a defense of the neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists, Corker said:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla via Getty images | 0 |
Basketball players suffer an array of injuries on the hardwood ranging from bumps, bruises, pulled muscles and even broken bones. But one player’s injury was more gruesome than all those combined when his eyeball popped out of its socket during a game. [Playing for the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian NBL, Akil Mitchell fell to the floor after a player from the opposing team bopped him in the head. That slap presented just enough force to knock Mitchell’s eye right out of his head. During the ambulance trip to the hospital, Mitchell’s eyeball slipped right back into place leaving the player blinking in shock but otherwise uninjured. “My eye was out of my head — it was a little painful,” Mitchell said in an interview the next day, according to CNN. The video is shocking. It shows Mitchell hitting the deck and as he gets to his knees his eye is seen out of its socket. In fact, one of his teammates runs away from the scene clearly distressed by the injury. Even with the eye out of place, Mitchell reported that he could still see, and it felt as if someone had poked him in the eye. “I don’t know if it was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt,” he said, “but it was just weird. Just a weird sensation, a weird feeling. ” With the eye back in place one he arrived at the hospital, emergency room doctors were skeptical that the whole incident even happened. Mitchell notes that doctors asked for video of the incident to prove that it occurred. “The specialist on call — I don’t think he believed me. He was asking to see video,” Mitchell said the next day. “He didn’t see any damage and he was just trying to validate that it had come out of place. Everybody there was like ‘yes, it came out. ’” Doctors say they aren’t sure if there will be any damage. Mitchell has since said he’s taken a lot of ribbing from his teammates over the event, including talk of goggles and lots of jokes. Mitchell himself even put a pair of googly eye emojis on his Facebook page to tell fans and friends that he is OK. “The best healing for me is laughing,” Mitchell said. Unfortunately, while he was having his strange injury treated his team went on to lose their game to the Cairns Taipans. “I’m not happy with the way it ended,” Mitchell insisted. “I really wish they had won, and they’ll be hearing about it for sure. But there was no need to stop for me. ” This isn’t the first time a basketball player had his eye knocked out of his head on the court. Back in 2013 Villanova player Allan Ray had his eye poked out of its socket, when his eye lid pushed behind his eye during a game. Ray returned to the court a week later. Medical professionals say that if a distended eyeball is quickly pushed back into its place, damage is less likely. But the longer an eye is left out of place the greater possibility of permanent damage. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0 |
Two avid Democrats took to Twitter this week to bring a little more public exposure to an issue far too many people are beginning to ignore: party infighting. Susan Sarandon and Deborah Messing, women well-known for being champions of liberal causes, ended up in a Twitter battle that could only be referred to as unfortunate.The incident occurred when Sarandon, in an interview with MSNBC, seemed to come out in support of the Bernie or Bust movement that has huge numbers of Bernie Sanders supporters vowing to either stay home or support Donald Trump if Sanders loses the Democratic nomination:Susan Sarandon backing Bernie Sanders is no secret, and certainly there s nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately, the growing movement inside the Sanders support base to take such a harsh stance of another Democrat to the point that you would cut off your own nose to spite your face by allowing a Republican especially Donald Trump into the White House just doesn t make sense. The language Sarandon used seemed to say she would go so far as to support Donald Trump, which fellow actress Jamie Lee Curtis just couldn t let slide:I respect but disagree with @SusanSarandon. A possible support of Trump over @HillaryClinton is dangerous 2 women, minorities & immigrants. Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) March 29, 2016Sarandon cleared that up immediately, tweeting back:Of course I would never support Trump for any reason. If you watch the interview you'll see that's not what I said. https://t.co/wQk0cMmeyp Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) March 29, 2016No, it isn t. What she said is that Trump would cause a revolution, and when asked what she would do is Bernie lost, she said she would wait and see. Deborah Messing, another avid Democrat and political activist, chimed in at that point and engaged in a back and forth with Sarandon that highlights the Democratic party s issues with unity, something we re supposed to be better at than Republicans:Susan Sarandon muses tht Trump prezcy wud b better 4 the country thn Hillary.Wonder if she'd say that if she were poor,gay,Muslim or immgrnt Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016LOL that I would ever vote Trump. https://t.co/pnENMgmbvm Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) March 29, 20161-What kind of revolution?! A WALL?! #ImWithHer but if it's Bernie/Trump I will ABSOLUTELY support BS. https://t.co/nqPGCDStCX Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 20162- the idea that Susan Sarandon wud say that NOT supporting Hillary in a HRC/Trump race is a legitimate choice for Democrats, is insane. Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 20163- There are people who need protections, and B Bernie or Hillary have that as a priority. Trump does not. https://t.co/oLueAHCaUe Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016To be fair, Messing makes excellent points, but is she attacking an ally? From the video it seems that Sarandon is only an ally if Bernie Sanders wins, but she again clarifies her position:.@DebraMessing if it weren't for Sanders & whose interests HC doesn't represent, it is a dilemma. (2/2) Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) March 30, 2016And again Messing fires back:1-You are not a first time voter.Your position,as a life long advocate 4 the underepresented,is what matters to me. https://t.co/oLueAHCaUe Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 20162-Your voice is powerful and influential. You not clearly disavowing Trump implies that u consider him (vs Hillary) https://t.co/oLueAHCaUe Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 20163- There are people who need protections, and B Bernie or Hillary have that as a priority. Trump does not. https://t.co/oLueAHCaUe Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 30, 2016Both of the Democratic candidates for president have loyal followings. Sarandon is suggesting that Bernie supporters aren t necessarily Democrats but Independents and even Republicans. Her support for her candidate is unwavering. It s unfortunate that she felt the need to attack Secretary Clinton the way she did, but she is entitled to her opinion. Messing was also sticking to her convictions, which seem to be more consistent with putting a Democrat in the White House regardless of the nominee.#BernieOrBust is perhaps the most absurd political movement considering if the senator loses the primaries he will undoubtedly throw his support behind Clinton. Clinton has already proven what she will do if she loses when she not only supported Barack Obama in 2008 but called for a quorum call nomination at the Democratic National Convention that both ended the voting and united the party around a single candidate.The candidates will continue their battle because that s what candidates do. Their supporters will continue to support them because that s what they do. If Hillary Clinton should win the nomination and Bernie Sanders supporters make good on their promise to stay home, polish off your passport; you ll have a brighter future in Canada.Featured images by Alberto Rodriguez and Bravo/Getty Images | 1 |
Nothing good can come out of a protest over a thug who was shot to death by a cop defending his own life in a town that was ravaged, looted and burned by more out-of-control thugs. All of these acts were inspired by our racist President and his former, lawless Attorney General Eric Holder. How many more innocent lives will be lost or businesses destroyed over the lie that Michael Brown was innocent and had his hands up when he was shot? Gunfire broke out after a car mowed down a protester in Ferguson, Missouri on the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Several people were injured, at least one person seriously.***WARNING***Extremely Graphic Video***The Tuesday night protest took place near and in the street, and the demonstrators sometimes impeded traffic, but retreated from the roadway when warned by police.The man was reported to be badly injured, and was taken by a private car to a hospital, Cowan told The Chicago Tribune.Police responded to reports of gunfire, but found no evidence that anyone had been hit by a bullet, said Ferguson PD spokesman Jeff Small.The 2014 death of Brown at the hands of Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, was the catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. Via: RT | 1 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik, who returned home from the United Arab Emirates in mysterious circumstances after announcing his bid for Egypt s presidency, told Reuters on Monday he was fine but was prevented from saying much more. A Reuters reporter approached Shafik at a Marriott Hotel in a Cairo suburb, where he was accompanied by men in civilian clothes who refused to let him talk and quickly sent the reporter away. I m fine, thanks to God, he replied when asked how he was, before three men shouted at the reporter to stop talking to him. It is okay, leave it at that, Shafik told the reporter. Reuters was unable to establish the identity of the three men. The former air force chief and government minister told a private Cairo television station on Sunday that he was still considering contesting next year s election, although Shafik was less categorical than his previous declaration of intent. Today, I am here in the country, so I think I m free to deliberate further on the issue, he told TV channel Dream. There s a chance now to investigate and see exactly what is needed ... to feel out if this is the logical choice. Some of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi s critics consider 76-year-old Shafik to be the strongest potential challenger to the incumbent, who is widely expected to run for a second term next year. On Saturday, Shafik s family said he had been taken from their home in the Emirates and deported back to Egypt, where they said they had lost contact with him until late on Sunday. In Sunday s interview, he dismissed reports that he had been kidnapped. I hadn t had a chance to prepare the house myself, so all I thought was I d go to one of the hotels. I was surprised - suddenly I m in the car and it s taking me to one of the nicest hotels in my area, he said. Here I am talking to you and I am not kidnapped. What are the requirements for being kidnapped? Shafik s lawyer met him on Sunday at the hotel, saying only that he was in good health, but not whether he was able to leave the hotel or not. A source at the hotel said Shafik s reservation had been made by Egypt s armed forces, when asked for his room number to contact him. After announcing his intention to run for president, the former aviation minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak and later prime minister during Egypt s 2011 revolt, began receiving indications of support from some on Cairo s streets. Pro-state media quickly painted him as a corrupt old regime hand with ties to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. An interior ministry official said there were no criminal charges pending against Shafik and there had been no order to deport him from the UAE or detain him in Cairo upon his arrival. But a general intelligence official and a national security official at the hotel said Shafik was not entirely free , without giving details or further explanation. A Reuters witness and airport sources said Shafik had been accompanied in a convoy by Egyptian authorities after his arrival in Cairo. Sisi is an ally of UAE and Saudi Arabia and his supporters say he is key to Egypt s stability. Critics say he has eroded freedoms gained after a 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak and jailed hundreds of dissidents. Sisi has won backing from Gulf states and has presented himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants since, as army commander, he led the overthrow in 2013 of former president Mohamed Mursi of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. After four decades in the military, Shafik touted his military experience as one of his strengths in a 2012 election, which he narrowly lost to Mursi. Shafik fled to UAE to escape corruption charges in June 2012. He dismissed the charges as politically motivated and was taken off airport watchlists last year. Sisi has yet to announce his own intentions for the election. His supporters dismiss criticism over rights abuses and say any measures are needed for security in the face of an Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers. His government is struggling to crush the insurgency in the North Sinai region and has enacted painful austerity reforms over the last year which critics say have eroded his popularity. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Financial firms are sounding alarm bells and dusting off contingency plans over fears an increasingly dysfunctional U.S. Congress may fail to reach a deal to raise the country’s debt limit. Several lobbyists, representing dozens of bankers, investors and credit rating agencies, told Reuters they are worried that dynamics at play in Washington – a bitterly divided Republican party and unpredictable President Donald Trump – could rule out a deal before an October deadline. Policymakers have vowed to provide disaster relief to areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, boosting hopes the debt limit battle could be included in an agreement on a legislative package. But the acrimonious atmosphere following Trump’s remarks about the Charlottesville protests this month, which cost him key backers in the business community and raised worries about his ability to broker a deal, still lingers. The debt ceiling is a legal cap on how much money the government can borrow to fund its budget deficits and meet debt obligations. Failure to raise it from the current $19.8 trillion could lead to default, sending shockwaves across global markets. “The stakes here are incredibly high. The economic impact associated with debt default is so immense,” said Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), one of the country’s key financial lobby groups. “We’re monitoring this extremely closely and we will mobilize as needed throughout September.” While leading lawmakers and the administration have pledged it will get done, some corners of financial markets are already on edge. After all, Goldman Sachs estimated that failure to lift the cap would force a government spending cut equal to between 3 and 4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, which would have crippling economic consequences. Moreover, previous debt limit negotiations went down to the wire, and the now-notorious 2011 standoff led S&P Global Ratings to downgrade U.S. sovereign debt for the first time. The episode wiped $2.4 trillion off U.S. stocks. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a trade group representing hundreds of financial firms, said it had reprised contingency plans drawn-up during the previous showdowns and was working with firms to prepare for extreme volatility in the event of a default. These plans aim to ensure firms have enough technology capacity, staff and cash to handle high trading volumes. A separate plan being reviewed by another trade organization, the Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG), includes protocols for trading in defaulted Treasuries, according to information on its website. SIFMA is also planning for that. “We want to make sure we’re on the same page and prepared, should anything happen,” said Robert Toomey, SIFMA’s managing director and associate counsel. “We believe this will get done, but we still have to prepare for it notwithstanding.” A spokesman for the TMPG was not immediately available for comment. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged Congress to raise the cap by Sept. 29 and said last week he was “100 percent confident” this would happen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have also promised the United States would not default But Wall Street players, who are highly exposed to any potential market mayhem, are worried Mnuchin and McConnell will not be able to get a divided Republican party to play ball. Many conservative Republicans have indicated they will only vote for a debt limit bill that contains promises of federal spending cuts, meaning Trump, Mnuchin and McConnell will likely need Democrat votes to get the bill through. The president is also seen as a wild card after he failed to denounce Nazi sympathizers at protests in Charlottesville. This, combined with his attacks on members of his own party, has raised questions over Trump’s ability to build consensus on the debt limit, one bank lobbyist said. “Everyone is very worried,” he added. Trump last week tweeted that the ceiling was “now a mess” blaming Ryan and McConnell. “He took the two people he has to count on for this, and smack[ed] them around. It’s going to make it harder,” said Steve Bell, a former Republican director of the Senate Budget Committee and now director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, referring to Trump’s tweet. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Industry executives also point to an understaffed Treasury, which has yet to hold meetings with banks and investors - a tactic used by the Obama administration to calm Wall Street jitters. Lobbyists said they expected to hear from the administration after Labor Day, when they would also attempt to persuade skeptics in Congress to pass the limit. “Treasury routinely reaches out to market participants to foster a steady dialogue on key issues, including the debt limit,” said a Treasury spokesperson. “The government intends to pay its debts.” | 0 |
It s a shame Barbara Boxer is leaving the Senate. A fierce defender of working families and minority communities, Boxer is the kind of firebrand progressive we need in the Senate. She s also one of the funniest, apparently.In 2010, when Republicans swept the House of Representatives and picked up six seats in the Senate, Boxer faced Carly Fiorina, who mounted a tough and controversial campaign to unseat Boxer in California.In the end, Boxer prevailed, garnering 52 percent of the vote to Fiorina s 42 percent. After that, Fiorina, a sore loser, packed up and moved to Virginia, leaving California behind.Now she s Cruz s vice presidential choice (should he win the nomination). Well, with this rather unusual and obviously pandering move Cruz admitted he needs Fiorina to win California Boxer wasn t going to hold back.Taking to Twitter, Boxer took Fiorina and Ted Cruz to task in the most brilliant way possible:.@TedCruz talks tough on Iran, but his running mate was soft on Iran when she skirted the law to sell them computer parts. Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) April 27, 2016 Slogan idea for the Cruz/Fiorina ticket : Mean & Meaner Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) April 27, 2016Cruz/Fiorina= a perfect match. He wants to ship immigrants out and she s a champion at shipping jobs out. Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) April 27, 2016 Cruz thinks Fiorina will help in California. Maybe he doesn t know Carly left after she lost by a million votes? Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) April 27, 2016And this last one is quite possibly the best commentary on the subject:I predict that the latest @CarlyFiorina merger will be as successful as her last one. Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) April 27, 2016John Dingell is the king of Twitter, and now it appears Barbara Boxer is the queen. If Ted Cruz thinks his new Hail Carly move will secure a win in California, maybe he should have considered just how much of a loser she is in California.If Boxer s prediction is correct, Cruz s merger with Fiorina will be as successful as her last one, and Donald Trump will be the nominee, thus giving us President Hillary Clinton.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty | 0 |
Friday at a Boeing manufacturing facility in North Charleston, SC, President Donald Trump gave a speech that promoted the “America first” theme that was also a part of his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump’s stop in North Charleston was part of Boeing’s rollout of the aerospace manufacturer’s aircraft. Transcript as follows: TRUMP: USA. AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! TRUMP: Thank you, Dennis (ph). And I have to say, I love South Carolina. I love it. (APPLAUSE) Remember we came down all together. We came down, and this was going to be a place that was tough to win, and we won in a landslide. This was a good one. (APPLAUSE) So I want to thank — I want to thank the people of South Carolina. And your governor, tremendous guy. He supported us right from the beginning. So I’d like to thank Governor McMaster for the incredible job, he’s right here someplace. Thank you very much. You have been fantastic. And I have to say also, that is one beautiful airplane. (APPLAUSE) Congratulations to the men and women here who have built it. What an amazing piece of art. What an amazing piece of work. Thank you, Dennis (ph) for the invitation to be with you today. You know, the old days when I made this speech, I got paid a lot of money. Now I have to do it for nothing. (LAUGHTER) So, not a good deal, but that’s OK, we love it. It’s wonderful to be back in South Carolina, especially with your new governor. Where is Henry? He’s around here someplace. Where is he? Stand up, Henry. Proud of you. He helped us so much. (APPLAUSE) And I want to also thank your former governor, Nikki Haley, who’s doing an awfully good job for us. (APPLAUSE) She’s representing America very well as our ambassador to the United Nations. She is doing a spectacular job. It’s early, but she has just been really great. We’re here today to celebrate American engineering and American manufacturing. We’re also here today to celebrate jobs, jobs. (APPLAUSE) This plane, as you know, was built right here in the great state of South Carolina. Our goal as a nation must be to rely less on imports and more on products made here in the USA, right here in the USA. (APPLAUSE) It’s amazing to think that a little over 113 years ago, next door in North Carolina, Orville Wright was the first man to sail the skies in a very little airplane. The 1903 Wright Flyer was made of mostly wood and cloth. It was so small that Orville’s brother Wilbur could not join him on the flight. He was always very upset about that. The flight lasted all of 12 seconds, but it was incredible. That flight was a testament to the American spirit. I see that same spirit everywhere I travel in the country. I saw that spirit all throughout the campaign. We have the greatest people anywhere in the world. We have the greatest spirit, and you just look at what’s going on today in our country, you look at what’s happening with jobs, you look at what’s happening with plants moving back into our country. TRUMP: All of a sudden, they’re coming back and they’re gonna be very happy about it, believe me. (APPLAUSE) They’re gonna be very, very happy. As your president, I’m going to do everything I can to unleash the power of the American spirit and to put our great people back to work. (APPLAUSE) This is our mantra, “buy American and hire American. ” We want products made in America, made by American hands. You probably saw the keystone pipeline I approved recently and the Dakota. And I’m getting ready to sign the bill I said where is the pipe made? They told me, not here. I said, that’s good, add little sentence that you have to buy American steel. And you know what? That’s the way it is. (APPLAUSE) That’s the way it is going to be. We are going to fight for every last American job. We’ve come a long way since the Wright brothers and their first flight more than a century ago. Your plane is made of carbon fiber. It seats 330 passengers. Its 18 feet longer than the previous version of the 787, and this airplane can fly for half away before it touches the ground. The name says it all “Dreamliner,” great name. Our country is all about making dreams come true. Over the last number of years, that hasn’t been necessarily the case, but we’re going to make it the case again. (APPLAUSE) That’s what we do in America. We dream of things and then we build them. We turned vision into reality, and we will be doing a lot more of that believe me, in the months and years to come. (APPLAUSE) I also want to say a word to all of the members of the armed forces who are here with us today in this record crowd. (APPLAUSE) South Carolina has a long, very, very proud military tradition and history. We salute all South Carolina military families, and we salute all of the men and women who wear the uniform. (APPLAUSE) We are going to fully rebuild our military — by the way, do you care if we use the Super Hornet or do you only care about — what do you think? (APPLAUSE) Well — I thought that was Super Hornet. We are looking seriously at big order, and we will see how that — you know, the problem is that Dennis is a very, very tough negotiator. But I think we may get there. We’re also working on the Air Force One project which was a difficult project for previous administrations, but it looks like we are getting closer and closer. And we’re going to ensure … (APPLAUSE) … that our great service members have the tools, equipment, training, and resources they need to get the job done. (APPLAUSE) As George Washington said, “being prepared for war is the best way to prevent it. ” And that’s really what it is. The best way to prevent war, being prepared. Peace through strength. We build a military might so great, and we are going to do that, that none will dare to challenge it, none. (APPLAUSE) We will ensure our men and women in uniform have the latest, the most cutting edge systems in their arsenal. Right now, it’s not that way. It will be that way very, very soon, believe me. You will be an important player in this effort. TRUMP: Boeing has built many important aircraft including, as I said, the Super Hornet, the Strike Eagle, and the Apache helicopter, just to name a few. (APPLAUSE) And I am being very, very serious, the new Air Force One, that plane, as beautiful as it looks is 30 years old. Can you believe it? What can look so beautiful at 30? An airplane. (LAUGHTER) I don’t know. Which one do we like better, folks, tell me. AUDIENCE: ( ) TRUMP: On every front, we are going to work for the American people. No where in our focus is — and I mean this so strongly, and our focus has to be so strong, but my focus has been all about jobs, and jobs is one of the primary reasons I am standing here today as your president. And I will never, ever disappoint you, believe me. I will not disappoint you. (APPLAUSE) I campaigned on the promise that I will do everything in my power to bring those jobs back into America. We wanted to make much easier — it has to be much easier to manufacture in our country and much harder to leave. I don’t want companies leaving our country. Making their product, selling it back, no tax, no nothing, firing everybody in our country. We’re not letting that happen anymore, folks, believe me. There will be a very substantial penalty to be paid when they fire their people and move to another country, make the product and think they are going to sell it back over what will soon be a very, very strong border. It’s going to be a lot different. It’s going to be a lot different. (APPLAUSE) Already, American industry is roaring back. And believe me, if we — not me, I’m a messenger — if we didn’t have this victory, we wouldn’t even be talking about it. To achieve that goal, we are going to massively reduce job crushing regulations — already started you’ve seen that — that sent our jobs to those other countries. We are going to lower taxes on American business so it’s cheaper and easier to produce product and beautiful things like airplanes right here in America. (APPLAUSE) We are going to enforce, very strongly, enforce our trade rules and stop foreign cheating — tremendous cheating, tremendous cheating. We want products made by our workers, in our factories, stamped with those four magnificent words, made in the USA. (APPLAUSE) AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! TRUMP: Since November, jobs have already begun to surge. We’re seeing companies open up factories in America. We’re seeing them keep jobs at home. Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, just to name a very, very few, so many more already. They are keeping and bringing thousands of jobs in our country because the business climate they know, has already changed. In Arizona, Intel announced it will open a new plant that will create 10, 000 American jobs. They’re spending billions of dollars. (APPLAUSE) We will see more and more of that across the country as we continue to work on reducing regulations, cutting taxes, including for the middle class, including for everyone and including for business, and creating a level playing field for our workers. When there is a level playing field — and I’ve been saying this for a long time — American workers will always, always, always win. But we don’t have a level playing field. Very shortly, you will have a level playing field again. (APPLAUSE) Because when American workers win, America as a country wins big league, wins. That’s my message here today. America is going to start winning again, winning like never, ever before. We’re not going to let our country be taken advantage of anymore, in any way, shape, or form. We love America and we are going to protect America. We love our workers, and we are going to protect our workers. We are going to fight for our jobs, we are going to fight for our families and we are going to fight to get more jobs and better paying jobs for the loyal citizens of our country. Believe me. (APPLAUSE) You have heard me say it before and I will say it again. From now on, it’s going to be America first. (APPLAUSE) Working together as a unit, there is nothing we cannot accomplish, no task too large, no dream too great, no goal beyond our reach. Just like you built this incredible airplane behind me, both of them when you think about it, we are going to rebuild this country and ensure that every forgotten community has the bright future it deserves. And by the way, those communities are forgotten no longer. The election took care of that. (APPLAUSE) And we will pass onto our children the freedom and prosperity that is their American birthright. Our children will inherit from us a nation that is strong, that is proud and that is totally free. And each of you will be part of creating that new American future. I want to thank you, South Carolina. I want to thank the great people of South Carolina. God bless you. May God bless the United States of America and God bless Boeing. (APPLAUSE) Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s legislature on Monday released the first public draft of a law giving a nascent super-ministry powers to detain, investigate and punish public servants, widening President Xi Jinping s signature war on graft. A National Supervision Commission that combines several anti-graft bodies, set to be launched next year, will spearhead Xi s campaign and expand its scope beyond the ruling Communist Party to any civil servant. At last month s five-yearly party congress, Xi pledged to continue the campaign to root out deep-seated corruption in the party, which has ensnared more than 1.3 million officials. The public has a deadline of Dec. 5 to comment on the draft, but the largely rubber-stamp legislature did not say when the final law would be implemented. The new commission will be empowered to investigate, interrogate and detain government workers, besides freezing their assets and seizing property, the draft released by the parliament, the National People s Congress, shows. The new law would further centralize the power of anti-graft investigations and apply to bureaucrats, including teachers at government schools and managers at state-owned enterprises. The draft gave new details of a detention system to replace a controversial practice of questioning suspects at undisclosed sites without legal representation, known as shuanggui , which rights activists say carries the threat of torture and abuse. The new measures can be used when the case is major or sensitive , when a subject is at risk of fleeing or suicide, when there is danger of collusion or evidence tampering or other forms of obstruction to the investigation, the draft said. Detained suspects must sign off on all confessions and their family or work unit should be notified within 24 hours, it added, with a three-month limit on the interrogation that can be doubled in special circumstances , which it did not specify. The draft includes measures to monitor the finances of those suspected of graft, to avoid their fleeing overseas. Separately, the Party s official People s Daily on Monday provided frontpage details of trial commissions launched in January in the capital, Beijing, and the eastern province of Zhejiang and northern Shanxi. In Zhejiang, the commission handled than 24,000 cases from January to August, more than double the number handled by the authorities during the year-ago period, Xinhua said. In Shanxi, the total number of people overseen by anti-graft authorities jumped to 530,000 from 131,500, it said. | 0 |
The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Dems failed in Kansas and are now failing in Georgia. Great job Karen Handel! It is now Hollywood vs. Georgia on June 20th. [0843 EST] - Despite major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG “R” win with runoff in Georgia. Glad to be of help! [0009 EST] -#MAGA #VPinASIA bit.ly/2oMuzv1 [0129 EST] - #BuyAmericanHireAmerican #MAGA [0736 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 0 |
Donald Trump s wife Melania has made some shocking comments in regards to a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks that Trump supporters directed towards a reporter. After Julia Ioffe did a profile of Mrs. Trump for GQ magazine, her life was threatened and numerous hateful comments were sent her way on social media.Now in an interview, Ms. Trump alleges that Ioffe brought the hate barrage on herself. I don t control my fans, Melania said in an interview with DuJour. But I don t agree with what they re doing. I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. She provoked them. Ioffe, who is Jewish, received calls from people playing Hitler speeches, told that she should be burned in an oven, be shot in the head, and was sent photoshopped images of her in a concentration camp uniform.The Trump campaign has received overt public support from anti-Semites and white power groups who believe that the candidate will further their goals of racial purity. One white nationalist paid for robocalls for Trump s campaign and was recently selected as a Trump delegate for the Republican Convention in Cleveland, only stepping down when national media began reporting the story.In the same interview, Melania Trump claims that Donald Trump is not Hitler, but he has pushed rhetoric about tracking and barring Muslims that come right out of the same playbook that Hitler utilized against Jewish people.Trump s rhetoric on Mexicans comes from the same place, calling them criminals and rapists, rhetoric which inspired supporters to beat up and urinate on a Latino man in Massachusetts. Those assailants are now headed to prison.Despite the hate from his campaign, Republicans are now stuck with Trump. He turns off many of the voters the party said it needed to be viable nationally, but did enough to blow out all the other nominees. Oh well.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee raised nearly $51 million for his presidential campaign in June, after he launched his first aggressive effort at raising cash, Trump’s organization reported on Wednesday. The most recent haul dwarfed the $3.1 million the Trump campaign raised in May. That low number prompted widespread concern among Republicans that the New York businessman, a newcomer to politics who largely bankrolled his primary campaign, would be unable to compete with Democrat Hillary Clinton’s massive fundraising operation. For June, fundraising emails circulated by the Trump campaign attracted $26 million, in addition to more than $25 million raised in conjunction with the RNC through joint fundraising events in June and the last week of May. The joint funds are intended to help both Trump and candidates in other races, such as people running for Congress, in the Nov. 8 election. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, personally contributed $3.8 million in June, the campaign said, bringing the total contributions for the month to about $55 million. “We just started our fundraising efforts in the last week of May and we are extremely pleased with the broad-based support in the last five weeks for the Trump Campaign and Trump Victory,” the campaign said in a statement. In June, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, raised $68.5 million, including $40 million for her campaign and $28 million for the DNC and state victory funds. She began July with $44 million in cash on hand. While Trump’s June total far eclipsed the candidate’s past hauls, Lisa Spies, a Republican fundraiser who worked for Mitt Romney in 2012 and raised money for Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, said the dollar count was much lower than the $106 million that Romney, the party’s standard-bearer in 2012, brought in during the same month four years ago. “This is his low-hanging fruit, and it’s good, I’m not putting it down. But it needs to get much better than this quickly. He’s playing a game of catch-up right now,” Spies said. Clinton’s fundraising advantage has allowed her to build a vastly larger campaign infrastructure. Clinton already has extensive staff operations in the most important battleground states and has begun to run paid advertising. Trump has only a handful of staffers and has made no large television ad purchases. Trump beat 16 rivals in the Republican presidential race, but his free-wheeling style and some of his campaign pledges, such as his plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, have long worried some in the party establishment and he has struggled to unify Republicans behind him. The Super PACs supporting Trump, which are permitted to raise and spend unlimited sums but are not allowed to coordinate directly with the campaign, have also struggled to get organized. While there was once a constellation of more than a dozen Super PACs backing him, most of his support has consolidated around Great America PAC, which is being run by veteran political operative Ed Rollins. The PAC is on target to raise $10 million before the July 18 start of the Republican National Convention, said Eric Beach, a top PAC official. They have already seen an uptick in fundraising, bringing in $5 million in June, doubling the May haul of $2.5 million. Great America PAC is using that money to run television ads, and plans to attack Clinton over her use of personal email servers during her time as secretary of state. The Super PAC supporting Clinton, Priorities USA, had raised $88 million by the end of May and had $51 million to spend. The group is already running ads attacking Trump. Trump got off to a slow start in fundraising, funding much of his primary campaign with his personal wealth in loans that totaled about $50 million. He announced last month he would forgive the loans to his campaign, intending to signal to potential donors that he would not use their funds to repay himself. He held his first fundraiser in late May and had several in June, including a high-dollar event in New York City and several fundraisers in Texas. Trump continues to promise to make contributions to his own campaign. In June, he launched an online fundraising effort by promising to match donations up to $2 million. Trump and Clinton both use joint fundraising agreements with their respective parties. The agreements allow the candidates to accept checks larger than the $5,400 limit that an individual can give to a campaign. Instead, the larger donations are divided up among the campaign, the national party and various state victory funds. All the money is then used to help elect the presidential candidate as well as other candidates. The campaigns and the political parties are permitted to coordinate how they spend that money. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Puerto Rico, struggling to recover from hurricane damage, could receive $1 billion in additional funding for the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor under a proposal from a U.S. House of Representatives panel, a congressional aide said on Tuesday. Republicans who lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee included the request for more Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico as part of a separate bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It is scheduled to be considered and voted on in committee on Wednesday. The U.S. territorial island, hard-hit by Hurricane Maria, already had faced a drop-off of Medicaid funding at the end of the year, according to the Washington Post, which first reported Republicans’ plan. Now Puerto Rico also faces massive damage from Maria that wiped out much of its infrastructure, left hospitals struggling and residents without clean water, electricity and cellphone service. Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Sherman said the panel would take up the bill on Wednesday as part of its effort to renew funding for the larger U.S. children’s insurance program, which saw its funding expire during the weekend. Under the proposal, Puerto Rico would receive $880 million through 2019. It also would get another $120 million if its financial oversight board certified that the joint federal-state program there had taken steps to prevent fraud and abuse and improve efficiency, among other oversight steps. Lawmakers sought to pay for the additional Medicaid funding by charging higher premiums on wealthier people in the Medicare health insurance program for seniors, and redirecting some prevention health funding from community-based health centers, among other changes, according to a copy of the plan. Republican U.S. President Donald Trump visits the island on Tuesday amid criticism over his administration’s response to the storm. [nL2N1ME09T] About 3.4 million people live in Puerto Rico, which in recent years had faced recession and, in May, bankruptcy. | 1 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The new prime ministers of Poland and the Czech Republic vowed not to give any ground on the divisive issue of hosting refugees as they arrived in Brussels on Thursday for their first summit of European Union leaders. More than two years after a massive influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa created deep divisions in the EU, members are still feuding over how to share the burden of caring for asylum seekers. The row pits frontline countries Italy and Greece, and rich destination countries like Germany, against four ex-communist states on the EU s eastern edge - Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia - that have refused to welcome refugees. Poland s Mateusz Morawiecki and the Czech Republic s Andrej Babis, who both took office this month and said they wanted good and pragmatic ties with the EU, made clear that they would maintain the hard line of their predecessors on migration. It is worth investing considerable amounts of money in helping refugees in (regions) they are fleeing from. The help on the ground there is much more effective, said Morawiecki, explaining Warsaw would do that instead of accepting refugees. The four eastern prime ministers offered 35 million euros to Italy on Thursday to support EU-backed migration projects in Libya aimed at curbing immigration to Europe. [L8N1OB30J] Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, arriving at the summit, welcomed the financial contribution but said the four still needed to accept refugees. I think it was a very important decision, he said of the money pulled together by the four easterners. Differences, however, remain. We will continue to insist that a commitment on the relocation of refugees is needed. Two years after the biggest influx of refugees and migrants into Europe since World War Two, an EU deal with Turkey has shut the main eastern Mediterranean route through Greece and across the Balkans used by more than 1 million people in 2015. The biggest remaining route is from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy. Hundreds of thousands have been making the trip each year and thousands have died at sea. New efforts to curb smuggling from Libya s coast have reduced the numbers in recent months, but human rights groups say thousands of African migrants are now stuck in squalid conditions in Libyan camps. The southern EU countries where most migrants first arrive, and the wealthier northern countries where many seek asylum, want all EU states to accept at least some refugees. The ex-communist eastern states say this amounts to bullying them to help solve political problems for their wealthier neighbors. All EU leaders will discuss the issue over dinner in Brussels on Thursday, though no decisions are expected, with a French source stressing the controversy would take much more time to untangle. [L8N1OD360]. The dispute reopened this week when Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who now chairs the summits, came out against obligatory relocation quotas, ruffling feathers in many EU states and the bloc s executive Commission. Divisions on migration...are accompanied by emotions which make it hard to find common ground. We should work even more intensively to keep our unity, Tusk said ahead of the summit. But his intervention upset Italy, Germany and other proponents of the quotas, who warn they could force the waverers to accept refugees in a majority vote if no compromise is found by June. It won t happen, Babis told reporters ahead of the summit, highlighting that any attempt to impose nonsensical quotas in a majority vote would only widen the divisions in the EU. Slovakia s Robert Fico also said unanimity must prevail in the EU, especially on such thorny issues. | 0 |
LANY, Czech Republic (Reuters) - Czech election winner Andrej Babis will attempt to form a minority government after being shunned by other parties, Babis said on Tuesday after meeting the president. The country faces the possibility of months of political wrangling which could put approval of the 2018 budget approval at risk, potentially curbing investments that would help the economy keep growing at least at its current rapid pace. Babis said he hoped to have a new government put together by the Christmas holiday. His ANO party won a parliamentary election this month by a large margin, convincing voters it could deliver a more effective state, weed out corruption and distribute the fruits of economic expansion more fairly. Other parties have refused to back a government that includes billionaire businessman Babis, who is facing fraud charges regarding a 2 million euro EU subsidy. Babis denies any wrongdoing, calling the charges politically motivated. After meeting President Milos Zeman, Babis said he was very sorry the other parties had not given ANO a chance in coalition talks. We will try to form a minority government and will try to convince lawmakers ... of other parties with our programme, he told a news conference alongside Zeman. Zeman said he would give Babis a second attempt if his first try fails a confidence vote in the lower house. Forming a minority government would require support from other parties as ANO s 78 seats do not make up a majority in the 200-member lower chamber. Only the Communists have said they could tolerate a minority government. Babis can be appointed prime minister only after Nov. 20, when the newly elected lower chamber of parliament opens its session. It has to elect a speaker before current Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka can vacate the position for his successor. This process could take long as some parties may try to prevent Babis appointment by blocking the speaker s election. In 2013, Zeman rejected a majority coalition in parliament after a centre-right cabinet had collapsed, and appointed Jiri Rusnok, the current Governor of the Czech National Bank, as prime minister. His government ruled for half a year without winning a confidence vote. Babis dismissed a suggestion by the head of the conservative TOP 09 party to block the speaker as destructive and reckless . The worst thing which could happen is that we would have a blocked parliament and a provisional budget, he said. If a budget is not approved by the end of the year, a provisional arrangement kicks in, meaning the state would run with the previous year s budget, imposing severe limits on investments and other non-mandatory spending. Czech markets have taken the political uncertainty in their stride, with the crown trading near multi-year highs as the central bank looks set to continue raising interest rates this week. The country of 10.6 million has a history of shaky coalition governments. The outgoing centre-left coalition, led by the Social Democrats and including ANO, is the first in 15 years to finish its four-year term. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump suggested challenging licenses for NBC and other broadcast news networks following reports by NBC News that his secretary of state had called him a “moron” after a discussion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” Trump, a Republican, wrote in a post on Twitter on Wednesday. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on media reports critical of his administration, often without providing any evidence to support their case that the reports were untrue. Trump kept up his criticism of the media in an appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying: “It is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.” In a tweet late on Wednesday, Trump said: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” Any move to challenge media companies’ licenses, however, would likely face significant hurdles. The Federal Communications Commission, an independent federal agency, does not license broadcast networks, but issues them to individual broadcast stations that are renewed on a staggered basis for eight-year periods. Comcast Corp, which owns NBC Universal, also owns 11 broadcast stations, including outlets in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and Chicago. A Comcast spokeswoman referred questions to NBC, which did not immediately respond. ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment. Shares in media companies fell, potentially reflecting concerns the war of words could worsen. Comcast was down 0.8 percent, while Disney shed 1.4 percent. CBS Corp fell 1.2 percent and Twenty-First Century Fox slid 2.8 percent. Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner called the market response a “short-term irrational knee-jerk reaction” and said Trump faced essentially insurmountable hurdles to getting licenses pulled. A spokesman for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did not immediately comment. Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, defended the media’s free speech rights. “It is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a disagreement with the reporting of a journalist,” Smith said in a statement. ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment. Numerous Democrats criticized Trump and urged Pai to denounce Trump’s comments. Senator Ed Markey wrote Pai on Wednesday asking him to “withstand any urges from President Trump to harm the news media and infringe upon the First Amendment,” a reference to the U.S. Constitution’s free speech and press freedom guarantee. Democratic U.S. Representative Frank Pallone said Trump “seemed to threaten broadcasters’ licenses only because he disagreed with their reporting. This threat alone could intimidate the press and lead to skewed and unfair reporting.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel responded to Trump by tweeting a link to an FCC fact sheet. “Not how it works,” she said on Twitter. When reviewing licenses the FCC must determine if a renewal is in the public interest, according to an agency fact sheet on its website. The FCC said in the fact sheet it expects “station licensees to be aware of the important problems and issues facing their local communities and to foster public understanding by presenting programming that relates to those local issues.” The agency does not issue similar licenses for cable networks such as CNN and MSNBC, or regulate internet news or other websites. The FCC has said the First Amendment “expressly prohibits the commission from censoring broadcast matter” and that its role “in overseeing program content is very limited.” In the early 1970s, then-President Richard Nixon and his top aides discussed using the FCC’s license renewal process as a way of punishing the Washington Post for its coverage of the Watergate burglary that ultimately brought down his presidency. NBC News has reported on tensions between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and has said Trump sought a dramatic increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a meeting with national security advisers in July. NBC reported Tillerson made his “moron” comment after that meeting. Trump on Saturday also suggested he should get “equal time” because of what he described as late-night television hosts’ “anti-Trump” material. The FCC’s equal time rules apply in limited cases to air time for political candidates and not to criticism of elected leaders. Trump may have been referring to the “Fairness Doctrine” that was designed to ensure broadcasters present opposing viewpoints about public issues. Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration eliminated it in 1987. | 0 |
The NYT allegedly wouldn t run Alan Dershowitz s op-ed because of his views on President Trump pic.twitter.com/gXgNzGpI1H FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 19, 2017Mr. Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday that he s tried to get in touch with the The New York Times editors, to no avail. He said he wanted to publish an op-ed last month arguing that President Trump likely didn t attempt to obstruct justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey. I said that I thought the readers of the New York Times were entitled to hear or read the other side of the issue whether there were crimes committed, he said. And I really do think The New York Times does not want its readers to hear an alternative point of view on the issue of whether or not Trump administration is committing crimes. A Times spokesperson declined to comment, telling the Examiner that the paper does not discuss the editorial process for op-ed submissions.Dershowitz lays out his case on Anderson Cooper s 360 show on CNN, as he attempts to explain the constitutionality of President Trump s actions in how he handled former FBI director James Comey. Watch leftist legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin attempt to argue the protections afforded to our president in the Constitution don t matter if you hate Trump and that he should be impeached:Mr. Dershowitz has made headlines recently for arguing that there was likely no crime committed by Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 when he met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in order to get potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Mr. Dershowitz has stuck by his claim that the younger Mr. Trump s conduct was likely protected by the First Amendment. Washington Times | 1 |
While the amount of Trump s ahem charitable giving is under investigation courtesy of the Washington Post, his political contributions are coming under even worse scrutiny than that. In addition to his giving $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at the same time she was considering investigating Trump U. (which we re sure is just a coincidence), he s given donations to several other attorneys general who were weighing investigations into his businesses, too.There s a word for that. It s called bribes, and at least some of them are catalogued in the Wall Street Journal, which isn t exactly the most liberal publication out there. Trump and his associates have donated to the campaigns of attorneys general in New York for 30 years or more, up to and including Eric Schneiderman.Schneiderman is the attorney general who s ordered the Trump Foundation to stop soliciting donations immediately, and he s involved in one of the fraud cases against Trump U. WSJ discovered that the contributions to these campaigns all just happened to coincide with pending investigations into Trump s business dealings.Clearly, the bribes to Schneiderman didn t work in fact, he returned them. Trump didn t like that and claimed that Schneiderman asked for the donations.One of those donations a $15,000 pledge to Robert Abrams back in 1985 came just as Trump needed to get Abrams permission for three apartment-building conversions. While Abrams was unable to return that money, another former attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, returned them twice. The first time, it was because Trump had plans in Spitzer s office that were pending approval.The second time, however, it was because Trump was involved in a dispute with potential condo buyers who wanted their deposit back. Spitzer s office had jurisdiction over that case.Trump donated something like $60,000 to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, while she was considering investigating Trump U.Trump freely acknowledges that political donations buys influence, and puts himself out there as an outsider candidate. You can t be an outsider when you bribe politicians like this. When Rand Paul called him on that, he whined that Paul was taking him out of context.Oh, please.Featured image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images | 1 |
The irony in this entire cancellation of a tradition in Portland, Oregon is that now the Antifa (Anti Fascists) have pissed off the more moderate lefties. One group was going to speak at the parade event against white supremacy but now they won t get the chance. It s turning out that the Antifa group is more violent than any other radical group we ve known. They re even selling knives on their website! A threatening email has derailed one of the Portland Rose Festival s signature events, and spurred new debate about the ongoing political protests in Portland.Organizers of the 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade announced Tuesday that the event will be canceled, for fear that the east Portland parade could be disrupted by the type of riots which happen in downtown Portland. (see video below)Originally scheduled this Saturday, April 29, the parade is meant to highlight the local community and businesses along Southeast 82nd Avenue, aiming to turn around the negative perception many people have of the area. It started in 2007 and has since become a popular event on the Rose Festival calendar.This year s parade was once again set to feature the Multnomah County Republican Party as one of the many groups slated to march, but that inclusion drew ire from some of the city s left-leaning protest groups.At least two protests were planned for the day of the parade, one by Oregon Students Empowered and another by Direct Action Alliance. Both events were mentioned in an email sent to parade organizers on Saturday, threatening to shut down the event with hundreds of protesters in the street. You have seen how much power we have downtown and that the police cannot stop us from shutting down roads so please consider your decision wisely, the anonymous email said, telling organizers they could cancel the Republican group s registration or else face action from protesters. This is non-negotiable. The parade is organized by the 82nd Avenue of Roses Business Association, a part of the neighborhood business organization Venture Portland. Representatives from neither organization returned calls for comment.The cancelation isn t necessarily a win for the protest groups. Jacob Bureros, an organizer with the Direct Action Alliance, said the organization which intended to speak out against fascism and white supremacy during the parade is sad to hear the news. We are disappointed that the parade was canceled, he said. We re members of this community and this is an awesome parade. James Buchal, chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party, said his group was ready to march despite the protesters. He said the party had no hand in cancelling the event, and was taken by surprise when they heard the news. After seeing the email last weekend, they had no plans to back out. We weren t willing to just walk away quietly, he said. The next thing we knew the whole thing was canceled. The problem is the police said they couldn t offer additional security for the parade so the organizers backed out. We know the Portland Police Department can move to stop this type of activity.Check out this recent shut down of protesters blocking a bus in downtown Portland:Portland protesters were doing the usual idiotic tactic of blocking the street and not letting traffic proceed What they didn t realize is that the police aren t taking this anymore Watch the takedown of these punks Awesome!Check out the lady with the thumbs up! Haha! Read more: Oregon Live | 0 |
— Caroline Grueskin (@cgrueskin) October 27, 2016 Fire spreading through the straw bales pic.twitter.com/7AzsZM3UKJ
— Caroline Grueskin (@cgrueskin) October 27, 2016 How does burning tires at #NoDAPL #StandingRock promote your cause?
— Marcus Norvell (@MrNorvell) October 27, 2016 @ Dakota Access #Pipeline : Stupid SJWs set tires on fire sending toxic fumes into the air. Oh ya, save the environment — more b.s. by Left. pic.twitter.com/yVx5MqAxkV
— Raven*H⚓️U*Wolf (@RavenHUWolf) October 27, 2016 @NoDakTrav really makes sense to protest an oil pipeline and protecting the water/environment by setting fire to tires. SMH.
— Nate Heinrich (@NateDH78) October 27, 2016 Hey #NoDAPL protestors. I appreciate you standing up for environment but you see the irony in setting rubber tires ablaze right? Burning tires at #NoDAPL Smh
Smart guys. You just made yourselves look stupid.
— II 501 II (@Theycallme501) October 27, 2016
Ruffalo missed out on the fumes, instead appearing on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Thursday to point out the aggressive attitude emanating from police at the scene, compounded not only by their AR-15s but also — their black sunglasses. . @MarkRuffalo speaks about police being 'aggressive' at pipeline protests: "I met a girl who had her arm broken" https://t.co/kd0JKhQMug
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 27, 2016
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There is chatter within the White House that Kellyanne Conway is being looked at as the next communications director, a source within the White House told The Daily Caller.Anthony Scaramucci was ousted Monday as communications director following a week of publicly feuding with former chief of staff Reince Priebus. Scaramucci called Priebus a paranoid schizophrenic in an interview President Trump viewed as inappropriate, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Kellyanne Conway would be a perfect choice for President Trump s new communications director. Conway is no stranger to dealing with the press. She is also no pushover. Conway has taken on almost every liberal hack at every leftist network in America, and each time she s walked away holding her head high, as she make her points in an eloquent but no holds barred way.Chris Cuomo of fake news network CNN interviewed Kellyanne Conway on Sunday. You would have thought by now, these hacks at CNN would have figured out they are no match for the brilliant Kellyanne Conway. At the opening of his interview with Conway, Cuomo attempted to convince the few viewers who still watch CNN that President Trump was very squishy on his meeting with Vladimir Putin. Kellyanne Conway snapped back in her usual calm but witty way, Chris, let s back up. So you re saying you used the word squishy which, itself, is unusual to describe the president s state of mind. So somehow that makes people on CNN insist that the president is never going to raise this with Putin? Why are they still in there? Cuomo responded, It s not about CNN. It s about what the president said, Kellyanne. Kellyanne immediately landed a right hook to fake news host Chris Cuomo when she asked him, Aren t you the least bit reluctant, if not embarrassed that you now talk about Russia more than you talk about America? Watch the brilliant exchange here:Conway, currently a counselor to the president, served as Trump s campaign manager and was previously a Republican pollster. She currently is a visible face of the Trump administration through her frequent appearances on cable news and is often relied on by the White House to deliver its message to the press. Daily Caller | 1 |
Former FBI Director James Comey admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that he asked a Columbia professor friend to leak a memo he kept regarding his conversation with President Trump to the press.The memo was leaked to one of the key players in the witch hunt for a Russian connection with President Trump Russia, the New York Times, the leftist media arm of the Democrat Party. The New York Times ran with the story that Trump was pushing Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.GP: Comey also told the Senate Intelligence Committee he knew The New York Times was publishing leaked reports that were not accurate. But James Comey said he would not tell the NY Times about their fraudulent report because that would not be right (?).Jame Comey s priorities are a bit confusing.Zero Hedge For those of you who continue to consume anonymously-sourced news from the likes of CNN, NYT, WAPO, etc, as pure fact and a perfect substitute for actual, unbiased journalism, while blindly ignoring the overwhelming evidence which continues to suggest these outlets are simply pushing a sensationalized narrative aimed at bringing down an administration of which they disapprove, please consider Comey s testimony from earlier today in which he describes a February NY Times story, which alleged numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russia, as almost entirely wrong Meanwhile, in earlier testimony with Senator Risch, Comey further explained why anonymously sourced stories can often be pure nonsense. Comey: In the main it was not true. And, again, all of you know this, maybe the American people do not, the challenge, and I m not picking on reporters, about writing stories about classified information is, the people talking about it often don t really know what s going on and those of us who actually know what s going on are not talking about it.And we don t call the press to say hey, you got that thing wrong about his sensitive topic.' I mentioned to the chairman the nonsense around what influenced me to make the July 5th Statement. Nonsense, but I can t go explaining why it s nonsense. As a special reward for publishing FAKE NEWS about President Trump, he offered the New York Times a special seat in the back row of his press conference right next to Univision!The White House has put the New York Times in the last row at today's joint press conference with Trump and Romania's president pic.twitter.com/ChFGMDpGti Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) June 9, 2017According to Gabby Morrongiello, a reporter for the NYP, President Trump also made answering the questions of the fake news US reporters a low-priority:Romanian reporters have gotten 5 questions at this press conference so far. American reporters: 2 Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) June 9, 2017 | 1 |
JUCHITAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Anguished mourners lined the streets of the southern Mexican city devastated by the most powerful earthquake to strike the country in 85 years, coffins raised on their shoulders as they advanced slowly to a crowded cemetery on Saturday. More than half of the 65 known victims of Thursday night s 8.1 magnitude quake died in Juchitan, a picturesque, historic city near the coast where more than 5,000 homes were destroyed and many more left without running water or electricity. In the Eighth Section neighborhood, a working-class area where nearly every home was damaged, a loud drum and horn band played traditional music before the funeral of one of the 37 dead so far recovered from the wreckage of the somber city. The piercing blasts of the burly horn section at times were drowned out by the plaintive wailing of mourners for Maximo Zuniga, a little boy whose distraught relatives said was fond of his spiky black hair and bright red tennis shoes. The three-year-old boy was asleep when the force of the quake brought his brick bedroom walls crumbling down on top of him, his mother and an older brother. The boy died shortly after he was pulled from the rubble; the other two survived. I could barely see a little bit of his hair peeking out and his forehead, said neighbor Alejandro Sanchez, who was the first to come to the stricken family s aid. There was a heavy wooden beam on top of all three of them and lots of dirt, he added, as the dead boy s uncle sobbed uncontrollably nearby. The long, juddering tremor was felt some 500 miles (800 km) away in Mexico City and as far south as Honduras, but unlike the 8.0 magnitude quake in 1985 that killed thousands in the capital, outlying areas of Mexico were left relatively unscathed. By contrast, much of the hot, muggy city of 100,000 near the Pacific coast looked as though it had been turned upside down. Piles of rubble lay scattered across town, chunks of roofs littering the ground, and more than 300 locals were receiving care for injuries in area hospitals. Many residents refused to stay indoors for fear that badly damaged structures might yet come tumbling down. Neighbors of the Zuniga family handed out red tulips and others set off fireworks. Then the assembled crowd of about 200 mourners set out for the local cemetery, four men carrying the boy s small white coffin draped in thin sheets of bright blue paper as the band led the procession. Snaking through narrow streets, the colorful flower-bearing train of people in T-shirts and caps had to step over piles of debris and masonry from collapsed walls as neighbors turned out to line the route, bowing their heads as the coffin passed. In the midst of a frantic search for a missing police officer, President Enrique Pena Nieto made a brief appearance on Friday afternoon in Juchitan s devastated downtown. Pledging help to rebuild and attempting to soothe raw nerves, Pena Nieto declared three days of national mourning. But his words were cold comfort for Alma Alverez, Maximo s 48-year-old grandmother, who crossed her arms as men shoveled dirt over the small coffin. Pena Nieto was able to make it here in his helicopter super fast. That s how help should be arriving, right? Exactly how he got here. But it hasn t, Alvarez said, reflecting a belief that Mexico s south has long been ignored by the richer north. Two other funerals of quake victims were underway in the same cemetery as Fernando Lopez, a cousin of Maximo, stood near the back, his head bandaged from cuts suffered protecting his grandmother from falling tiles when the disaster struck. This is what you re going to see the next few days, he said, pointing to the other funeral services taking place. The whole town will be here in the cemetery or in the hospital. We ll tidy up what we can clean, but we won t be celebrating anything on September 15th, said Lopez, referring to the start of Mexico s independence day festivities. We don t have anything to celebrate. Juchitan s mayor, Gloria Sanchez, agreed. A great sadness overwhelms us, she said. The situation in Juchitan is critical, unlike anything we ve ever seen before. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The nation's most powerful labor leader, vowing to defeat President Obama's key trade legislation in the House next month, warned Hillary Clinton of serious political consequences if she fails to take a stand against the Pacific trade pact that the president is campaigning for as a major part of his legacy.
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, predicted that no more than 20 House Democrats would vote for Trade Promotion Authority, the "fast-track" bill that on Friday passed the Senate.
"Thirteen Democrats left their base," he said of the Senate vote in an interview with Capital Download. "They decided to pass something that was going to cost jobs and lower wages, and they're going to have to answer to their constituencies for that." He added: "They'll be held accountable; there's no question about that."
Organized labor has been waging a fierce battle against the legislation, which would require Congress to approve or reject without amendments the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal among the United States and 12 other Pacific Rim nations. Many labor unions have frozen campaign donations as they lobby against it.
The battle between two customary allies — a Democratic president and the country's biggest labor federation — underscores the complicated politics of Obama's attempts to pass legislation through a Republican-controlled Congress during the final two years of his tenure. It also exposes challenges ahead for Clinton, who praised the emerging Pacific pact as "the gold standard" in her memoirs as secretary of State but has avoided declaring her view of it since becoming a presidential candidate.
"Unfortunately, it falls far short of being the gold standard," Trumka told USA TODAY's video newsmaker series in an interview at AFL-CIO headquarters, just across Lafayette Square from the White House. "It's not silver. I'm not sure it's copper or some other form of metal, but it's not gold, because it's going to cost us jobs and it's going to lower wages in this country."
Trumka said he didn't know where Clinton now stood on the issue.
"She's going to have to answer that," he said. "I think she won't be able to go through a campaign without answering that and people will take it seriously and it will affect whether they vote for her or don't vote for her."
If Clinton backs the trade pact and the fast-track authority, there will be costs, he cautioned. "It will be tougher to mobilize working people. It'll be tougher to get them to come out excited and work to do door-knocking and leafleting and phone-banking and all the things that are going to be necessary if she is the candidate and we endorse her to get elected. It will make it far more difficult."
It even is "conceivable" that the AFL-CIO wouldn't endorse a presidential candidate, he said, "if both candidates weren't interested in raising wages and creating jobs."
Asked whether Obama's presidency had been good for working Americans, Trumka paused.
"The president's been seriously handicapped in his ability to deliver things for the American public, because you've got a determined opposition in the Republican Party that will actually hurt the country to deny him a victory," he began. But he added, "I wish he would have fought for some of the things that are needed as hard as he's fighting for fast track and TPP."
In the Senate vote, Trumka said he was surprised to have lost the support of Democratic senators Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware and Patty Murray of Washington state. When the interviewer commented that it's hard to defeat a president, he replied: "We'll see." | 1 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that she would prefer new elections to leading a minority government after talks about forming a three-way coalition collapsed overnight. My point of view is that new elections would be the better path, Merkel told ARD television in an interview to be broadcast later in the evening. She added that her plans did not include being chancellor in a minority government. | 0 |
Kevin Matthews, a 35-year-old Black man from Detroit, Michigan, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Even so, Matthews had never committed a felony offense in his life.On December 23, a Dearborn police officer shot Matthews multiple times, ending his life. Two days later, the coroner ruled his death a homicide.Since the shooting, police have made every attempt to make it appear that Matthews was a hardened criminal. During an interview with the press, Detroit Police Chief James Craig claimed that Matthews had a crime problem. During an interview with WXYZ, Police Chief Craig also called him a chronic problem in this area. In case we need more proof that cops believe they have a right to act as judge, jury and executioner, police have repeatedly stated that Matthews committed larceny earlier in the day. Note that the words accused of larceny or suspected of larceny aren t used in association with this officer-involved shooting. Instead, with their words, Detroit and Dearborn police make it clear that they ve assumed the role of the courts; trying, convicting and sentencing Matthews all on their own, without the aid of a bothersome justice system.Police have not provided any evidence that a larceny took place, or that Matthews was implicated as the suspect.Police state that Matthews was wanted on a misdemeanor probation violation, and that the officer recognized him from the earlier larceny.Voice of Detroit did a thorough records search and found that no such warrant exists.The search showed that the 35-year-old man had one misdemeanor conviction in 2013, and no other convictions.Dearborn police chief Ronald Haddad wants the public to know that he stands by the officer who shot Matthews. And in the very same sentence he said there will be a full investigation into the shooting. I stand behind the officer, and we re going to have a full investigation with Detroit police. It should go without saying that an impartial investigation cannot begin with a biased premise.Many details about what happened that day are not available. It appears that an unidentified Dearborn police officer spotted Matthews walking on the sidewalk at the border of Detroit and Dearborn. The Dearborn officer placed a call to dispatch stating that he was approaching one on foot. Three minutes later the officer placed a shots fired call.It is clear that the officer crossed the boundary between Detroit and Dearborn to approach Matthews.They claim that Matthews fled on foot into a nearby backyard. Police also claim that a struggle ensued and that Matthews reached for the officers gun. This is why he was shot at least six times.According to family members, Matthews was disabled. Aside from being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a recent car accident had left one of his arms virtually unusable. Voice of Detroit reports that a cast had just been removed from his arm, and that his fingers remained clenched up. The officer, who is described as a white male with five years on the force, pursued Matthews out of his own jurisdiction, and away from the area where his vehicle s dashcam would record what took place. Police have not stated whether there is any video or audio evidence in this case.Social justice advocates are calling for an independent investigation into the shooting.Detroit police commissioner, Ricardo Moore, also called for an independent investigation into the shooting. Moore expressed concern about Police Chief Craig s statements to the press, criticizing him for escalating tensions in the community, rather than increasing public trust. Because of Craig s biased statement against the deceased suspect, this situation would warrant an independent investigation from the Michigan State Police, solely. Craig should be trying to give the public trust in this investigation, as opposed to creating tension between the community and the police. Both Craig and Dearborn police chief Haddad have worked hard to demonize Matthews in the press. Although he has no felony criminal record, both the Detroit and Dearborn police chiefs want the public to believe that Matthews had a crime problem. According to Reverend Charles Williams II, chair of the National Action Network (NAN) Matthews was both well-loved and well-respected in the community, in spite of the challenges he faced. He was one of those folks in the community who was definitely a respected person. Not only did they know him well, they knew his challenges well. Police officers on the Detroit side knew him also. When they saw him wandering, they would give him a ride to his mother s house. It is concerning to me that the officer claimed he felt threatened. Not only did Kevin have a broken arm, but he was a very small guy. Here s more on the story from WXYZ.*Featured image credit: video screen capture WXYZ | 0 |
In its latest move to quell outrage over its price increases, the maker of the EpiPen has resorted to an unusual tactic — introducing a generic version of its own product. The company, Mylan, said on Monday that the generic EpiPen would be identical to the existing product, which is used to treat severe allergic reactions. But it will have a wholesale list price of $300 for a pack of two, half the price of the EpiPen. The raging debate over EpiPen pricing has offered a surprisingly wide window into the complicated world of prescription drug pricing, in which powerful drug companies, pharmacy benefit managers, insurers and federal health programs all play major roles. However, the system remains opaque. Last week, the company announced steps to increase the financial assistance for the branded EpiPen, for both commercially insured and uninsured patients. Those measures, however, did not stem the public furor, in part because the company kept the list price the same. So now, the company will essentially sell the same product under two names at two price points, in competition with each other. The new move did not mollify critics, either. Some noted that even at $300, the generic would still be triple the price of the EpiPen in 2007, when Mylan acquired the product and began steadily raising its price. The increases have accelerated in recent years. Even the generic, expected to be available in several weeks, should provide a nice profit to Mylan because its manufacturing costs are believed to be far less than $300. Several consumer advocacy groups, unhappy with Mylan’s handling of the drug’s pricing, said that on Tuesday they would deliver petitions signed by over 600, 000 people to the company’s American corporate headquarters in Canonsburg, Pa. In addition, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said that it had started an investigation and had asked the company for information about the product. Robert Weissman, president of the consumer group Public Citizen, said Mylan should just cut the price across the board. “The weirdness of a generic drug company offering a generic version of its own branded but product is a signal that something is wrong,” he said in a statement. “In short, today’s announcement is just one more convoluted mechanism to avoid plain talk, admit to price gouging and just cut the price of EpiPen. ” While drug companies sometimes start selling authorized generic versions of their own products, it is usually to undercut an outside generic competitor. In this case, Mylan faces no immediate generic threat. So why is it acting? And why did it not announce the move last week with the other measures? The company suggested in its news release that its action required an agreement from its manufacturing partner, Pfizer. It also has said that merely reducing the list price of the drug would not necessarily lower the prices for patients, because the costs are set by pharmacy benefit managers and insurers. The generic should mean savings for insurers and federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to some patients. “Because of the complexity and opaqueness of today’s branded pharmaceutical supply chain and the increased shifting of costs to patients as a result of health plans, we determined that bypassing the brand system in this case and offering an additional alternative was the best option,” Heather Bresch, chief executive of Mylan, said in a statement. Mylan has repeatedly pointed to health plans, which leave patients with more costs, as the main reason patients are suddenly noticing higher prices for EpiPens. Adam J. Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting, who studies the drug distribution industry, said that if Mylan had simply lowered the price it would have risked angering all parties in the distribution network, including pharmacy benefit managers, wholesalers and pharmacies, which take a piece of the total amount spent on the drug. Introducing a generic “is a way to do it without making enemies with a bunch of Fortune 25 companies who control your fate,” he said. Still, by selling both a generic and a branded version of the drug, one Mylan product is now battling another for sales. Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Company, estimated in a note on Monday that Mylan’s overall revenue per epinephrine prescription would be reduced by around 25 percent, to about $280, because of the introduction of the generic. A couple of factors are expected to limit that revenue decline. The term EpiPen is so familiar that many doctors write prescriptions for it by name, rather than for a generic epinephrine . While pharmacists in many states will be able to substitute the generic version, some are almost sure to sell the branded version instead, leaving Mylan with higher revenue. In addition, Mr. Fein said, insurers might have negotiated deals with Mylan that make the version less expensive for them than the generic. “It’s going to depend on your particular insurance plan, and the kind of deal they have negotiated,” he said. Consumers might also have incentives to use the drug in some cases because most of them would have no if they use a savings card being offered by Mylan. They might face a albeit a relatively small one, for the generic product. Despite the lower revenue from releasing the generic, Mr. Gal said the move could be good for Mylan shareholders by easing the downward pressure on the company’s stock. After falling more than 10 percent last week, Mylan shares were up slightly on Monday. It is not uncommon for companies to introduce a generic version of their own product — known as an authorized generic, in part to try to retain some sales once generic competition arrives. But the generic industry and some other critics say the practice undermines the economics of the generic business and ultimately can lead to higher costs for consumers and insurers. A study by the Federal Trade Commission several years ago found that some generic manufacturers agreed to delay the introduction of their generic product by years if the company promised not to introduce an authorized generic. Mylan settled litigation with Teva in 2012 allowing Teva to introduce a generic EpiPen in 2015. It is not known if part of that agreement was for Mylan to withhold any authorized generic. If not, then Mylan might have been planning to introduce this authorized generic when Teva introduced its own product. But Teva disclosed earlier this year that its application had been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration. Still, it might be only a matter of time before Mylan faces new generic or nongeneric competition. Other companies, sensing opportunities, are looking at developing less expensive products that, like EpiPen, provide a rapid injection of epinephrine to counter anaphylaxis that can occur from a bee sting, peanut allergy or other cause. And pressure is mounting on the F. D. A. to be more accommodating in allowing alternatives on the market. Epinephrine, the drug, is already generic. The challenge has been developing an that can reliably deliver the right amount of drug when used by the patient or caregiver under emergency circumstances. Sanofi removed a nongeneric competitor to EpiPen, called from the market last year because of dosing problems. | 0 |
Banana Republic Election in the United States? 07.11.2016 Print version Font Size Nothing is more hypocritical than to hear that the US government is going to send "election observers" to other countries. For nowhere on the planet are elections more easily rigged than in the United States of America. In "Votescam: The Stealing of America" (1992) the late Collier brothers summarized the alarming state of affairs, which still prevails today. In Chapter one, "Electronic Hoodwink", they begin by quoting the first words spoken by President-elect, George Bush in his Nov. 8, 1988 victory speech in Houston, Texas. Bush said: "We can now speak the most majestic words a democracy can offer: "The people have spoken . . . " The Colliers comment in the following brilliantly written passage: "It was not "the People" of the United States who did 'the speaking' on that election day, although most of them believed it was, and still believe it. In fact, the People did not speak at all. The voices most of us really heard that day were the voices of computers strong, loud, authoritative, unquestioned in their electronic finality . . . It only makes common sense that every gear, every mechanism, every nook and cranny of every part of the voting process ought to be in the sunlight, wide open to public view. How else can the public be reasonably assured that they are participating in an unrigged election where their vote actually means something? Yet one of the most mysterious, low-profile, covert, shadowy, questionable mechanisms of American democracy is the American vote count . . . Computers in voting machines are effectively immune from checking and rechecking. If they are fixed, you cannot know it, and you cannot be sure at all of an honest tally." In fact, according to the Nation Magazine article published in August, 2005, "How They Could Steal the Election This Time," by veteran reporter Ronnie Dugger, only four mega-election vendors, ES &S (Election Systems & Software), Hart, Diebold and Sequoia processed 96% of the USA vote on election night. Circa 2013, a company named Dominion acquired Diebold and Sequoia. Privately owned computer software And the processing of the nation's ballots are done, in 1988, in 2004, and in 2016, on secret, privately owned computer software which election officials in the USA agree by contract not to inspect. In other words, the vote in America is utterly unverifiable on these machines. America processes over eighty percent of the presidential vote on secret computer programs owned by only three mega-election vendors. This is at the very least an unholy concentration of power. If the three mega-vendors are working together behind the scenes, then it is the few that own this election software that selects the President. As Joseph Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." This issue of computerized election fraud simmered sub rosa from 1988 until August 1, 2016, when Donald Trump stated at a Columbus, Ohio Rally that he was afraid the "November election is going to be rigged against me." The nation's national press went into a frenzy. Jonathan Chait screeched in his headline for nymag.com, "Donald Trump, Discovering New Way to Undermine Democracy, Calls Election Rigged." In fact, it was NOT the raising of healthy questions by Trump that was undermining democracy. It was so-called reporters like Chait who didn't like anyone raising any concerns at all. On C-Span on August 21, 2016, best-selling author Roger Stone asserted that is was dangerous NOT to ask questions about how the vote was counted. After all, the Founding Fathers did encourage a healthy skepticism of government, including the part of the government that runs the elections. The situation in the United States is absurd. The fact that the public has no guarantee that the vote is actually that of the people is insane, and tears at the very fabric of democracy. Press concern is so grave about Trump's charge of a possibly rigged election, that in the last two of the three Presidential debates, NBC's Lester Holt and FOX's Chris Wallace both asked Trump if he would accept the election results. In the third debate, Trump stunned Wallace by saying he'd wait and see after he looked at the evidence, and that he was going to keep everyone in suspense. No way votes can be verified Three Supreme Court cases stated that the US voter's right to vote consisted of two parts: 1) the right to cast a ballot; and 2) the right to KNOW that one's ballot is counted accurately. With secret computer counts, there is simply no way to verify the vote. None. This is the first major election in America where the people are learning just how compromised the computer based vote has become. On October 18, 2016, computer expert Ethan Pepper appeared on the Sean Hannity radio show and noted that any election computer can be hacked; that if you get in you can switch a million votes as easy as switching one vote; and he also raised the question of WHO owns the election computer software by noting that George Soros was closely associated with those who provided 16 states with the Smartamatic voting machines. This highlights the greatest danger: that the election vendors themselves OWN the election software and that THEY are the prime suspects for rigging elections. After all, they don't have to hack in, they ARE in as the programmers of the software. And with local election officials signing contracts not to inspect the source code of the computer software, these same election vendors know that no one is looking over their shoulder. On October 26th, FOX Cable News discussed the computer voting machines in Texas that were caught by numerous voters switching their Trump vote to a Hillary vote in early election voting. This phenomenon also surfaced in Maryland. Trump has tweeted and facebooked his 21 million followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram about the computerized "vote-flipping" from Trump to Hillary in Texas. The issue of computerized election fraud was now planted in the public mind as a serious issue for the first time since election computers were introduced into the USA circa 1973. On October 31, 2016, the Drudge Report led with two links on how election computers were hacked. He linked to the new video by Bev Harris on youtube and on blackboxvoting.org entitled, "Fraction Magic." The Big TV Networks have been playing defense ever since. Rigging the election Every few hours one of the big Networks are running a story about how it would be almost "impossible" to rig a national election. But the networks had to report between airing these stories about a week ago that Ebay, Twitter, and the New York Times websites had been hacked, thus totally undermining their stories about the safety of election computers. The situation can be fixed in the USA, or prevented in other countries, by throwing the computer systems out altogether, and counting the paper ballots by hand, in public with all invited to observe, BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight. On November 5, 2016, FOX news carried commentary that whichever side wins in the Presidential race, the other will cry "computer votefraud." So the issue has finally become front and center in the Presidential campaign. Dr. David Dill of Stanford University is quoted in a 2004 Nation Magazine article, "How They Could Steal the Election This Time": "Why am I always being asked to prove these systems aren't secure? The burden of proof ought to be on the vendor. You ask about the hardware. 'Secret.' The software? 'Secret.' What's the cryptography? 'Can't tell you because that'll compromise the secrecy of the machines.'... Federal testing procedures? 'Secret'! Results of the tests? 'Secret'! Basically we are required to have blind faith." People of the USA act like citizens of Banana Republic Blind faith? That's what the subjects and slaves of Banana Republics and tin-horn dictatorships are reduced to. And that's what the people of the United States have now been reduced to since at least as far back as 1988, even though most Americans don't know it. 2016 has been a year of awakening on the election fraud issue. Will that awakening continue to grow so that the United States of America and all other nations? Will the United states and other nations replace easily-rigged election computers, and restore transparent, honest elections with hand-counted paper ballots at the neighborhood polling place once again? As it stands, there is absolutely no way to know who really won the upcoming presidential election in America. The power elite can rig their voting machines to whatever outcome they want. One of the ways the cabal in the United States can be stopped is by a verifiable vote where the America people can be assured they live in a democracy where their vote actually counts and that the will of the people is carried out in the elections. Nancy O'Brien Simpson Ms. Simpson was a radio personality in New York. She was a staff writer for The Liberty Report. A PBS documentary was done on her activism for human rights. She is a psychotherapist and political commentator. | 1 |
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