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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat said on Friday that the panel would discuss with the Justice Department and the Senate Intelligence Committee any request for immunity from prosecution from Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser. U.S. Representative Adam Schiff called such a request “a grave and momentous step,” noting the interests of the Department of Justice in the matter. | 1 |
Donald Trump has a cocaine problem. As Howard Dean pointed out, the recent sniffling episode at the first presidential debate is not necessarily a sign of addiction, but something funny was absolutely going on. On Saturday as Trump was having his morning coffee? blood of the innocent? cocaine? and stalking women who say mean things about him on Twitter, he surely was furious when he came across Bette Midler s profile.Referencing the latest of Trump s seemingly endless string of late-night Twitter meltdowns, Midler offered The Donald some advice stop doing coke:Trump suffers a Twitter meltdown in the wee hours of AM. You gotta stop doing coke after 4PM or you'll be up all night! Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016And, of course, she couldn t resist mocking Trump s failing poll numbers, joking that Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs a reference to his penchant for leveling stupid insults at women who stand up to him:#Clinton is seeing a post-debate bounce in the polls. Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs. Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016Naturally, Trump s deplorables came out to play:@BetteMidler I love the smell of liberal desperation in the morning GROSS NEGLIGENCE (@sea329) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler This is exactly what is wrong with "Hollywood" slander everyone that has a half a brain. To many years of the "Inquirer" WeCATS (@WeCatsCorp) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler but Hillary needs to wake up so she can stop people from dying unnecessarily while Benghazi is being attacked! Kathleen Hansen (@KathJHansen) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler You should try your hardest not to sound so ridiculous..desperate. Stick to selfies in front of your fancy dressing room mirror Karen Perez (@karrielynn88) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler I am a deplorable and I am voting Trump!!! Yvonne Manley (@ymjunction56) October 1, 2016Trump s treatment of women is disgusting from his attacks on Megyn Kelly after she fact-checked him or his insults leveled at Carly Fiorina s face. While he is surely seething over Midler s latest Twitter gut-punch, one thing is for certain: Sniffles isn t going to stop making a fool of himself or embarrassing America. Remember that on election day.Featured image via Getty Images(Craig Barritt)/screengrab | 0 |
Acclaimed horror writer Stephen King is no fan of Donald Trump and has been calling him and his administration out on Twitter every step of the way. The scathing callouts have a tendency to go viral as people relish the no-nonsense way King approaches condemning Trump.Finally Trump seems to have had enough of the mockery. He just blocked Stephen King on Twitter. King relayed the news to his fans with typical humor.Trump has blocked me from reading his tweets. I may have to kill myself. Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 13, 2017King has been outspoken about Trump and his Republican enablers for years. He recently described Trump s presidency as worse than any horror story I ever wrote. What drove Trump to finally block Stephen King? It appears to be this tweet, published shortly before King was blocked.Trump's cabinet offers a postgraduate-level course in ass-kissing. Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 13, 2017King was referring to a brutally awkward photo op Trump held at the White House yesterday in which he forced his cabinet members to publicly praise him. The moment stunned journalists accustomed to living in a democracy where this sort of cult-like worship of a Dear Leader isn t common.This interminable cabinet spray, where everybody pays tribute to Trump, is one of the most exquisitely awkward public events I've ever seen. Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) June 12, 2017The cabinet members, many of whom would be called upon to declare Trump mentally incompetent under the 25th Amendment, one-by-one groveled before Trump as he smiled and nodded. Reince Priebus, who is reportedly on the verge of being fired, laid it on thick by adding that it was a blessing to be working for Trump.Trump also may have seen this previous tweet, published the day before, where King knocked Ivanka Trump for disingenuously claiming her father is the victim of bullies in Washington.If Ivanka Trump had grown up in farm country, like some of us, she'd know her father is reaping exactly what he sowed. Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 12, 2017Whatever the reason, it is not a major surprise to see that Stephen King had finally been blocked. As his poll numbers continue to crater and whispers of impeachment grow louder, Trump has gone on a blocking rampage. It s his way of silencing his critics and there are a lot of them. On the same day King learned he had been blocked, Trump also blocked a veteran s organization, apparently for advocating for gay rights.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
In spite of Senator John McCain s promise to his constituents only 9 months ago when he was running for reelection, that he would fight to repeal and replace Obamacare, McCain voted late last night with two other liberal Republican senators, and every Democrat senator to keep Obamacare intact.But that s not what Senator McCain promised Arizona voters he would do only 9 months ago On October 10, 2016, John McCain faced off against his Democrat opponent Congresswoman Kirkpatrick in a televised debate. At the center of the debate was the disastrous Obamacare and what could be done to fix it. McCain responded: For the first time in history, a major entitlement reform was rammed through the Congress of the United States without a single vote from the other side. I fought for weeks, and weeks, and weeks against Obamacare and they would not allow us an amendment. There was not a single amendment allowed. No input from the minority party. We were the minority party. Now Congresswoman Kirkpatrick wants us to sit down and work together. Here s how we work together, we repeal and we replace it. McCain went on to argue that the majority of the American people have resoundingly rejected Obamacare. One of the debate moderators asked McCain if it was possible for Congress to try to improve Obamacare rather than to try to repeal it. McCain rejected the idea that it could be fixed and that the only solution is to repeal Obamacare: We have to scrap it entirely and start over. McCain went on to explain why Congress MUST repeal Obamacare, It s a scam and the problem is, that the cost is becoming prohibitive and we ve got to change it and fix it. Watch Senator John McCain as he arrogantly throws his thumb down in defiance of his own party and joins two of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate to thumb their noses at President Trump, as they jump across the aisle to join their friends who shut them out of the first Obamacare vote. | 0 |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Outlining a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, U.S. President Donald Trump chastised Pakistan over its alleged support for Afghan militants - an approach analysts say will probably not change Pakistan s strategic calculations and might push it in directions Washington does not want it to go. Trump s call for India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, in particular, will ring alarm bells for Pakistan s generals, analysts said. Trump s policy of engaging India and threatening action may actually constrain Pakistan and lead to the opposite of what he wants, said Zahid Hussain, a Pakistani security analyst. Trump criticised Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorist organisations and warned Islamabad it had much to lose by supporting insurgents battling the U.S.-backed Kabul government. It is kind of putting Pakistan on notice, said Rustam Shah Mohman, Pakistan s former ambassador to Kabul, predicting a bumpy road ahead for relations. Trump did resist some advisers calls to threaten to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism unless Islamabad pursued senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the allied Haqqani network. Pakistan should not be reassured by this speech, but it could have gone a lot worse for them, said Joshua White, a National Security Council director under former President Barack Obama. There were voices within the administration who wanted to move more quickly and aggressively to declare Pakistan not just a problem, but effectively an enemy. In Washington, a senior administration official said on Tuesday that significant measures were under consideration, including possibly sanctioning Pakistani officials with ties to extremist organizations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Pakistan s powerful military has not commented on Trump s speech, but the day before it denied any militants had havens in the country. The Pakistani government said Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif met with the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday and would speak in coming days with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the state of play in the bilateral relationship as well as the new U.S. policy on South Asia . Successive U.S. administrations have struggled with how to deal with nuclear-armed Pakistan. Washington fumes about inaction against the Taliban, but Pakistan has been helpful on other counterterrorism efforts, including against al Qaeda and Islamic State militants. The United States also has no choice but to use Pakistani roads to resupply its troops in landlocked Afghanistan. U.S. officials worry that if Pakistan becomes an active foe, it could further destabilise Afghanistan and endanger U.S. soldiers. Daniel Feldman, a special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan under Obama, said the Obama administration found it more effective to pressure Islamabad over safe havens in private than in public, and to keep the long-standing Indo-Pak rivalry from playing out in Afghanistan . Hussain, the security analyst, said Trump on Monday crossed a red line as far as Pakistan was concerned when he implored India to deepen its involvement in Afghanistan. Relations between Pakistan and the United States have endured strain during the 16-year war in Afghanistan, especially after al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces inside Pakistan in 2011. The Obama administration had already begun trimming military aid to Pakistan. Last year, the Pentagon decided not to pay $300 million in pledged military funding, and Congress effectively blocked a subsidised sale of F-16 jets to Pakistan. Analysts say Trump is likely to further curtail military aid to pressure Pakistan. But any effort to isolate Pakistan would face problems from China, which has deepened political and military ties to Islamabad as it invested nearly $60 billion in infrastructure in Pakistan. China on Tuesday defended Pakistan after Trump s remarks, saying its neighbour was on the front line in the struggle against terrorism and had made great sacrifices and important contributions in the fight. Mohman, the former ambassador, said if the United States kept putting pressure on Pakistan, then Islamabad would drift farther from the American sphere of influence. We have options, he said. We can go to China and Russia, and I think the U.S. can t afford that. | 1 |
How can my team make the N. F. L. playoffs? It’s a simple question, but answering it can be devilishly complicated. At this point in the season, when teams have six or seven games remaining, the playoff picture is delightfully foggy. For a normal fan — particularly one for whom sports are a blissful escape from, say, the tumultuous world of American electoral politics — it’s surprisingly difficult to figure out. And, more often than not, the television commentators don’t make things any easier. It’s always bothered us, too, so we built an interactive tool to help us understand. Our N. F. L. Playoff Simulator — now entering its third year of existence — is built for one purpose: to help you explore the paths to the playoffs for every team in the N. F. L. It works like this: We let you choose the outcomes of any game you select and simulate every other game remaining in the 2016 season. (In its first rendition, we considered each game a coin flip since then, we’ve used Sagarin ratings, which reflect the fact that, even though anything can happen on a given Sunday, not all teams are created equal.) What makes this tool more useful than other online calculators, like the ones at ESPN, Yahoo or NFL. com, is that we do the work for you: There’s no need to pick the outcomes of every game left in the season. Pick any outcomes — or none at all — and our tool will simulate the rest of the season for you, instantly identifying the most important games remaining for each team and turning you into a playoff scenarios expert. Consider the Minnesota Vikings, who started the season but have slipped, in Minnesotan fashion, to . At the moment, we give them just better than odds of making the playoffs. If they beat the Cardinals in Minnesota on Sunday, their odds move to 64 percent. If they lose, those odds drop to about 40 percent. But what if the Detroit Lions, who share the Vikings’ record, lose all their remaining games? That kind of thinking is precisely what this tool was made for. Our simulator also lets you explore specific and unrealistic paths, like one in which the Vikings finish the season with the N. F. C. ’s best record, a bye week and advantage throughout the playoffs (roughly a shot, but go for it). Finally, we’ve added a feature this year, for fans of teams like the Cleveland Browns, whose season is effectively over. We now let you use the simulator backward — to see how the Browns could have their best shot at a No. 1 pick in the 2017 N. F. L. draft. As the season comes to an end, figuring out who will finish last can get just as complicated as figuring out who will finish first. If you’re going to root against your own team, you might as well do it as intelligently as possible. | 0 |
Confusing different policies and different ideologies defines the modern Democratic Party Whether it s on domestic or foreign policy, you can count on the Democrats to confuse the heck out of the American people Andrew McCarthy says it best in his National Review column, Democrats Know the Election Was Legitimate but Persist in a Dangerous Fraud. Andy reminds us of the Democrats 180 on accepting the results of the election. Horrifying! inveighed an indignant Hillary Clinton at the last presidential debate, less than three weeks before Election Day. What so horrified her? Donald Trump s refusal to pledge that he would accept the legitimacy of the election.Trump speculated that the electoral process could be rigged. Until he saw how it played out, the Republican nominee said, he could not concede that the result would be on the up-and-up. *** A flabbergasted Clinton responded that she was shocked horrified! to hear Trump talking down our democracy. This was a top theme in her campaign s closing days: The election was absolutely legitimate; Trump was traitorously condemnable for refusing to say so.Of course, Clinton and the Democrats who parroted her would prefer that you forget that now.Ever since election day, the Democrats have tried to undermine the Trump administration by questioning the legitimacy of his victory. But until now, I don t recall any of them actually denying that Trump won the election. That is the position taken last night by the newly-installed Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez.Speaking to a Democratic rally in Newark, Perez said, among other things: Republicans don t give a shit about people and Donald Trump, you didn t win the election. According to Perez, the wrong candidate was inaugurated on January 20.And the knock on Perez when he ran for DNC Chairman was that he wasn t crazy enough! In today s Democratic Party, insanity isn t optional. It is mandatory.Via: Powerline | 1 |
(Reuters) - Green Party nominee Jill Stein is filing requests in Pennsylvania to start a recount of votes in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, Politico reported on Monday. Recount requests were filed on Monday in more than 100 precincts in the state, Politico said, citing her campaign. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. B-1 bombers carried out a training exercise on Tuesday with Japanese and South Korean military aircraft in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan, the U.S. military said, amid growing tension over North Korea s missile and nuclear programs. It was first time U.S. Pacific Command B-1B Lancers have conducted combined training with Japanese and South Korean fighter aircraft at night, the U.S. military said in a statement. | 1 |
Adolf Hitler isn t enthused about being compared to Republican front runner Donald Trump, according to comedian Sarah Silverman, who dressed up as the Nazi dictator and made an appearance on Conan. After being introduced, Silverman-as-Hitler said: Wow, look at that! I have to say, that s more applause than I expected. Don t get me wrong, Conan. I agree with a lot he says a lot. Like 90 percent of what he says, I m like, this guy gets it, but I don t like the way he says it. It s crass. In reference to a recent GOP debate when Rubio poked fun of Trump s hands and implicitly referred to the size of his penis, Silverman-as-Hitler had this to say: What kind of person talks about his penis size on national television? Oh yeah, I m so sure Donald Trump has a big penis. I famously have a micro penis. That s what makes a tyrant. Anyway, all these comparisons to Trump, it s like, it bums me out. You know what I mean? Sometimes I watch him and I m like, Is that how people see me?' Watch the clip here:Trump has received a barrage of criticism, some comparing him to the notorious dictator including Louis CK, who said, he is dangerous. Mexican President Enrique Pe a Nieto said Trump s campaign had similarities to the rise of the Nazi leader.In an interview with Good Morning America, Trump said of the comparisons:It s a terrible comparison. I m not happy about that, certainly. I don t want that comparison. But you know we have to be strong, and we have to be vigilant. People agree with that. We don t want to lose our jobs to China. And we don t want to lose our jobs to Mexico and Japan, If Trump doesn t want such comparisons, then he should stop propagating in ways that remind the world of the notorious Nazi dictator. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants Pakistan to move quickly to show good faith in supporting efforts to counter militants operating in Afghanistan and in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, the senior U.S. diplomat for South Asia said on Friday. Speaking after accompanying U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on a visit to the region, including Pakistan, Alice Wells said Washington looked forward to seeing practical steps from Pakistan over the next few weeks and months. The secretary stressed the importance of Pakistan moving quickly to demonstrate good faith and efforts to use its influence to create the conditions that will get the Taliban to the negotiating table, Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South Asia, told reporters. Wells said Pakistan s long-standing relationships with militant organizations was a threat to its own stability and said the Taliban leadership and the allied Haqqani network still retained the ability to plan and recuperate and reside with their families in Pakistan. She said Washington wanted Pakistan to show the same commitment it had made to defeat militant groups domestically to those threatening Afghanistan or India. It s up to them whether or not they want to work with us, Wells said. And if they don t ... then we ll adjust accordingly. Wells declined to elaborate on what action the United States might take or what specific actions it wanted Pakistan to take. Relations between uneasy allies United States and Pakistan have frayed in recent years, with Washington repeatedly accusing Islamabad of helping Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network militants who stage attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies doing so. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to get tough with Pakistan unless it changed its behavior, with U.S. officials threatening further reductions in aid and mooting targeted sanctions against Pakistani officials. On Monday, during a visit to Kabul, Tillerson urged Pakistan to act against safe havens on its soil. Pakistan needs to, I think, take a clear-eyed view of the situation that they are confronted with in terms of the number of terrorist organizations that find safe haven inside of Pakistan, he said. Pakistani officials bristle at the idea that the country is not doing enough against militants and say Pakistan has suffered more than 60,000 casualties in the war on terror since the Sept. 11 attacks in United States in 2001. | 0 |
OSLO (Reuters) - Norway offered on Friday to let Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu live in Oslo with his Norwegian wife, but she said it was unclear if Israel will allow him to travel. Vanunu, 62, married theology professor Kristin Joachimsen in Jerusalem in 2015 after first meeting in Israel almost a decade earlier. She applied for him to be allowed to come to Norway under rules for family reunification and a spokesman for the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration said permission had been granted. Vanunu was jailed and served an 18-year sentence after discussing his work at Israel s Dimona nuclear reactor with a British newspaper in 1986. The interview led experts to conclude the facility had produced fissile material for as many as 200 atomic warheads. After his release from jail in 2004, Israeli defense authorities imposed strict conditions on Vanunu, including from traveling abroad, alleging he was a security risk and might have new secrets to tell. Joachimsen said the Israeli restrictions were up for review in November and expressed hopes they would be lifted. We have waited long enough for the case to be solved on Israel s side, she said. The restrictions, upheld by Israel s Supreme Court, have been condemned by international human rights groups. | 1 |
Delta Air Lines and Bank of America became the first companies to announce they are pulling their sponsorships of a Manhattan-based theater company s portrayal of Julius Caesar as a Donald Trump look-alike in a business suit who gets stabbed to death on stage.Delta and Bank of America both announced their intentions on Sunday. No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer s Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines values, the company s statement said. Their artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste. Bank of America added it was withdrawing funding for the production. The Public Theater chose to present Julius Caesar in such a way that was intended to provoke and offend, the bank said in a tweet. Had this intention been made known to us, we would have decided not to sponsor it. Fox News American Express also took to Twitter and announced their sponsorship doesn t support the play.A Statement from American Express: pic.twitter.com/Ig0Ju3B2dP American Express (@AmericanExpress) June 12, 2017 We would like to clarify that our sponsorship of the Public Theater does not fund the production of Shakespeare in the Park nor do we condone the interpretation of the Julius Caesar play, the financial corporation tweeted.Customers of American Express responded on Twitter:I'm am considering not accepting AE cards at my business and reminding customers why just to clarify. rex prescott (@rex1956) June 12, 2017Sadly, we expect the New York Times to support a production of President Trump being assassinated, but Amex customers like myself who currently use an American Express card can just as easily switch to VISA or MasterCard. The fees are generally less and both alternatives seem to be more widely accepted by businesses. Seems almost like a no-brainer | 1 |
After the news broke that Trump is going to be investigated for possible obstruction of justice, Trump has taken to Twitter to whine.After his first couples of tweets claiming to be part of the single greatest witch hunt in American political history, he s now whining about Hillary isn t being investigated over dealing with the Russians.Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017Trump tweeted: Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017He then followed up with: Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, bleached emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction? What are we, five? Only kids try to throw others under the bus. Clinton was investigated, remember? She was investigated where you personally insisted she was investigated her private email server and anything and everything tied to it.Why are you pointing your finger at everyone else? What do you have to hide if it s untrue?This isn t about Hillary Clinton. This is about how the U.S. intelligence community concluded last year that Russia interfered in the presidential election to help Trump defeat Clinton.This is about investigating Russian election meddling, including possible ties between Trump s team and Russia.This is about possible obstruction of justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.It has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton or anyone else for that matter. If anyone else needs to be investigated, it will happen. As of right now, the spotlight falls on you. You deny everything with the Russians and fired Comey who was going to look into it. What did you expect was going to happen?You are the President of the United States, Mr. Trump. You need to start acting like an adult and learn to face reality. Not whine and point fingers at everyone else.Featured image via MANDEL NGAN,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images | 0 |
Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz seemingly planned to pay cyber-probe suspect and IT aide Imran Awan even while he was living in Pakistan, if the FBI hadn t stopped him from leaving the U.S. Monday. Public statements and congressional payroll records suggest she also appears to have known that his wife, a fellow IT staffer, left the country for good months ago while she was also a criminal suspect.In all, six months of actions reveal a decision to continue paying a man who seemingly could not have been providing services to her, and who a mountain of evidence suggests was a liability. The man long had access to all of Wasserman Schultz s computer files, work emails and personal emails, and he was recently accused by a relative in court documents of wiretapping and extortion.Imran Awan is seen here with Bill Clinton in February of 2017:Imran Awan and Bill Clinton Feb '17 pic.twitter.com/ZdWJvt9H2q archiebird (@archiebird) May 27, 2017Records also raise questions about whether the Florida Democrat permitted Awan to continue to access computers after House-wide authorities banned him from the network Feb. 2. Not only did she keep him on staff after the ban, but she also did not have any other IT person to perform necessary work that presumably would have arisen during a months-long period, according to payroll records.Wasserman Schultz employed Pakistani-born Awan and his wife Hina Alvi, and refused to fire either of them even after U.S. Capitol Police said in February 2017 that they were targets of the criminal investigation. She said police wouldn t show her evidence against the couple and, without it, she assumed they might be victims of anti-Muslim profiling.Heavy Awan, 37, was at Dulles International Airport trying to leave the country when he was arraigned and surrendered his passport, Chad Pergram of Fox News reported. Awan was charged with bank fraud, according to Fox. The U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, and Customs and Border Protection were all involved in the arrest. According to the complain, he had bought a ticket to fly to Doha, Qatar and then Lahore, Pakistan, and had a return flight booked for January.Awan pleaded not guilty to one count of bank fraud on Tuesday, and he was ordered to turn over his passports. A hearing is scheduled for August 21 at 1:45 p.m.Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, along with several other related IT staffers had been under investigation since February, Politico reported. Officials accused them of stealing equipment from House members offices, along with committing other possible violations. Details about the investigation were vague at first. Politico described the investigation in this way: The employees allegedly stole equipment from members offices without their knowledge and committed serious, potentially illegal, violations of House IT policies. In March, Fox News went into a little more detail, saying that at least five contractors, including Awan and his brothers Jamal and Abid Awan, were being investigated for possibly removing equipment from offices, including computers and servers. Fox News reported in March that the allegations included running a procurement scheme that involved buying equipment, then double-billing the House administrative office, and possibly having unauthorized access to the House computer system. Items that may have been double-billed included computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards, and routers.According to Politico, Awan earned nearly $2 million since 2004 as an IT support staffer for House Democrats. Alvi began working for House Democrats in 2007 and earned more than $1.3 million since then. Their salaries were split among multiple lawmakers offices. None of the staffers under investigation had access to classified information, Politico reported.Awan booked a round-trip ticket to Pakistan in July and planned to depart Monday, July 24 with a return ticket in six months. He was arrested at Dulles Airport during his attempt to leave.The Associated Press reported that Awan s lawyer, Chris Gowen, said Awan had informed the House of his plans to visit his family. Wasserman Schultz s spokesman cited Awan s Monday arrest as the reason for ending his employment on Tuesday: Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated. The office s insistence that his termination was prompted by the Monday arrest and not the House Sergeant at Arms banning him and his wife from touching congressional computers or his six months in Pakistan suggests that had he boarded the flight without incident he would still be on payroll.Awan s wife, Hina, left the country under similar circumstances March 5, after withdrawing the couple s three kids from school without telling Virginia education officials, packing up all of her possessions, and hiding $12,000 in cash, according to an FBI affidavit. She allegedly had hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting in Pakistan for her money the FBI says Awan had obtained partly through mortgage fraud and had wired overseas using a false explanation.Two days later, on March 7, House records show Hina was cut from Wasserman Schultz s payroll.Though Hina bought a round trip ticket with a return in six months, the FBI said it does not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States. Wasserman Schultz spokesman David Darmrom did not respond to a DCNF IG request to explain why Hina had been terminated two days into a trip she claimed was temporary, while her husband had not been terminated for a six-month move. Between the part-time nature of her work and the ban, her absence was unlikely to have been noticed in two days without someone telling the office her plans.Wasserman Schultz s office also didn t answer if the office knew Hina s round trip was a permanent move.Hina and Awan were both IT aides whose jobs required access to the network, but the House Sergeant-At-Arms banned them from accessing it beginning Feb. 2. Awan and Hina were her only IT staffers, and payroll records through the latest available period, March 31, indicate that no other IT staffer or vendor was added to the payroll after their ban.A House source said Awan was seen in the House office building multiple times after the network ban. Imran Awan is working in an advisory role for Wasserman Schultz, her spokesman said, providing advice on technology issues. The spokesman wouldn t say who did the office s computer work after the ban, if not Awan.As IT administrators, the suspects could read all emails sent and received by the lawmaker and see all files on the staff members computers, numerous House IT aides said. Wikileaks shows that Awan also had the password to Wasserman Schultz s iPad.In public court documents filed in Fairfax, Va., Awan s stepmother accused him of wiretapping and extortion. Imran Awan did admit to me that my phone is tapped and there are devices installed in my house and Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful and if I ever call the police again, [he] will kidnap my family members back in Pakistan, his stepmother, Samina Gilani, claimed in the documents (p. 21) filed April 14.Despite her professed concern of stereotyping, all other colleagues who employed Awan, Hina or their other relatives on House payrolls fired them, including Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, who is Muslim and has criticized Wasserman Schultz for blocking police from examining a laptop tied to Imran.That laptop was found in an unused crevice of a House office building and seized as evidence by the Capitol Police, but Wasserman Schultz appeared determined to not let police see its contents, threatening consequences for the police chief if he didn t release it. The exchange was captured on video. Daily Caller | 1 |
HARARE (Reuters) - The spectacular rise and fall of Zimbabwe s uncompromising First Lady, Grace Mugabe, had an unusual beginning: an office affair. It was the early 1990s when President Robert Mugabe s eye fell upon one of his shy young typists. She would become his wife, a ferociously ambitious politician and, more than two decades later, a contributor to the downfall of her 93-year-old husband. President Mugabe is trying to cling to power after the military took over this week in response to his purge of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, a liberation war fighter and Grace s sworn enemy. Mnangagwa s aides even accused her of trying to poison him with ice cream from her dairy farm this year. She denies this. Grace, now 52 and under house arrest in Harare, had been calling for Mnangagwa s removal for weeks as the two fought an increasingly bitter winner-takes-all contest to succeed the man who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. It wasn t the first time Grace had wielded influence over her husband. When it appeared former vice president Joice Majuru was in line to succeed Mugabe in 2014, he fired her following public rallies at which Grace derided Majuru. This time she appears to have gone too far. The purge of Mnangagwa and many of his comrades irked the military, who had no intention of allowing Grace and her youthful Generation 40 (G40) faction of the ruling ZANU-PF to take over the political reins. Deeply unpopular among much of the Zimbabwean public due to her alleged corruption and volatile temper, Grace does not have the liberation credentials the military believe are required to be a Zimbabwean ruler. The lavish lifestyle that earned her the nickname Gucci Grace and the political ambition that almost propelled her to the presidency were not evident when she met her future husband. He just started talking to me, asking me about my life, she told a South African journalist in 2013. I didn t know it was leading somewhere. I was quite a shy person, very shy. At the time, they were both married. President Mugabe s wife, Sally, was desperately ill and died in 1992. Grace and Robert were married in 1996 and have three children. DIS-GRACE At first Grace stayed out of politics and was better known for her spending habits, including buying mansions in South Africa, rare diamond jewelry, and Rolls-Royce limousines for her playboy sons. Then there are the repeated allegations of violence. In Singapore in 2009, photographer Richard Jones says Grace flew into a rage when he tried to take her picture. She ordered her bodyguards to hold his arms back while she punched him repeatedly in the face. Grace denies the assault. In August this year, Grace was accused of beating a young South African model who was partying with her sons. According to Gabriella Engels, Grace burst into a hotel room where she was talking with friends and whipped her with an electric cable as bodyguards looked on. Grace says she acted in self-defense after Engels tried to stab her with a knife. The reports of lavish spending and explosive temper earned her the title Dis-Grace back home in Zimbabwe, where an economic crisis had left most of the 16 million population mired in poverty and unemployment. Zimbabweans also question Grace s credentials. Eyebrows were raised in 2014 when she gained a PhD in three months. Her thesis, on the changing role of the family, has never been published. This hasn t stopped her trying to reach the political summit. When Majuru was removed, Grace became head of the ZANU-PF Women s League, giving her a seat at the party s top table. She used her political platform to take on Mnangagwa and his allies and made a push to succeed her frail husband. They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean? Grace said at a recent rally. | 1 |
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal inquiry into the fatal shooting of a deaf motorist by a state trooper last week. The death has raised questions about the use of deadly force by police officers and about how they interact with the disabled. The motorist, Daniel K. Harris, 29, was shot and killed by the trooper, Jermaine Saunders, just after 6 p. m. last Thursday after Mr. Harris failed to pull over during a traffic stop near Charlotte, Sgt. Michael Baker, a spokesman for the state’s highway patrol, said in a statement. “After a brief pursuit,” Sergeant Baker said, “the driver exited his vehicle, and an encounter took place between the driver and the trooper, causing a shot to be fired. The driver succumbed to his injuries at the scene. ” The authorities declined to provide any further information about the nature of the encounter between Mr. Harris, who was white, and Trooper Saunders, who is black, or to say whether the trooper believed his life was in danger before he opened fire. Investigators have not commented on what role Mr. Harris’s disability may have played, but his brother said he believed his death was the product of a police department that does not know how to interact with those who are deaf or hard of hearing. “Being shot by the police is just not acceptable,” the victim’s brother, Sam Harris, who is also deaf, said through an interpreter during a video interview with Reuters. “If the officer had known that he was deaf, it would have ended differently, and he would still be around with family, and life would be going on. He’d be happy. ” But on Tuesday, Frank L. Perry, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, urged the public to “refrain from making assumptions or drawing conclusions prior to the internal and independent reviews. ” “Any loss of life regardless of the circumstances is truly a tragic and sad event for all involved,” he said in a statement. “While the Highway Patrol, the State Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney’s office conduct their respective reviews, we are keeping all those affected by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers. ” Jay Ruderman, the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works for the rights of people with disabilities, said police departments needed to train officers to respond to the needs of the disabled. “People with disabilities will be safer the more the police are properly trained in this regard, and it needs to happen now before more tragedies occur,” Mr. Ruderman said in a statement. “Whether a person is deaf, autistic or has a chronic health problem, these disabilities are often not understood by police officers when encountering them on the streets. ” Investigators from the bureau of investigation interviewed Trooper Saunders on Tuesday night and planned to meet with Mecklenburg County’s district attorney, R. Andrew Murray, in the coming days, said Shannon O’Toole, a spokesman for the bureau. He said Trooper Saunders had been placed on administrative leave. The agency investigates 90 to 95 percent of the shootings in the state, Mr. O’Toole said, and when it “is requested to conduct an shooting investigation, we do so, with the intent that each and every case is going to trial. ” The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that since 2008 Mr. Harris had been charged with traffic offenses and other misdemeanors, including petty theft, in Connecticut, Florida and Colorado. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to speeding in Florida and also pleaded guilty to interfering with or resisting the police in Connecticut, The A. P. said. | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s top newspaper warned Communist Party officials on Thursday not to pray to God and worship Buddha , because communism is about atheism and superstition is at the root of many corrupt officials who fall from grace. China officially guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems like Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and are especially banned from participating in what China calls superstitious practices like visiting soothsayers. The party s official People s Daily said in a commentary it had not been uncommon over the past few years to see officials taken down for corruption to have also participated in feudalistic superstitious activities . In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha, it said. Some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternizing with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees. Chinese people, especially the country s leaders, have a long tradition of putting their faith in soothsaying and geomancy, looking for answers in times of doubt, need and chaos. The practice has grown more risky amid a sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption launched by President Xi Jinping upon assuming power in late 2012, in which dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned. The People s Daily pointed to the example of Li Chuncheng, a former deputy party chief in Sichuan who was jailed for 13 years in 2015 for bribery and abuse of power, who it said was an enthusiastic user of the traditional Chinese geomancy practice of fengshui. Another much more junior official, in the southern province of Jiangxi, wore charms to ward off bad luck, it said. As an official, if you spend all your time fixating on crooked ways, sooner or later you ll come to grief, it said. The founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, banned fortune telling and superstition in puritan, communist China after the 1949 revolution, but the occult has made a comeback since the still officially atheist country embraced economic reforms and began opening up in the late 1970s. In one of the most famous recent cases, China s powerful former security chief Zhou Yongkang was jailed for life in part due to accusations he leaked undisclosed state secrets to a fortune teller and healer called Cao Yongzheng, known as the Xinjiang sage after the far western region where he grew up. The People s Daily said officials must remember Marx s guiding words that Communism begins from the outset with atheism . Superstition is thought pollution and spiritual anesthesia that cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly purged, it said. | 0 |
That s the third suspicious death of a man tied in some way to Hillary. Does anyone in law enforcement have an accurate body count of suspicious deaths tied to Hillary? We recently questioned the suspicious murder of 27 year old Democrat Data Director Seth Rich, as he was walking home through his affluent Washington DC neighborhood. He was beaten and shot in the back, but apparently nothing of any value was taken from his body, which would likely mean robbery was not a motive. If robbery wasn t a motive and the police still have no clues what exactly was the motive for his brutal murder? In our previous article, we explored the possibility that he may have been about to blow the whistle on voter fraud. Does anyone have an actual tally of the number of people who had ties to the Clintons that ended up dead? Now Bernie Sanders supporter and activist Shawn Lucas is found dead.On July 3, 2016, Shawn Lucas and filmmaker Ricardo Villaba served the DNC Services Corp. and Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz at DNC s headquarters in Washington, D.C., in the fraud class action suit against the Democrat Party on behalf of Bernie Sanders supporters.Shawn Lucas was thrilled about serving the papers to the DNC before Independence Day.According to Snopes Lucas was found dead on his bathroom floor.We contacted Lucas employer on 4 August 2016 to ask whether there was any truth to the rumor. According to an individual with whom we spoke at that company, Shawn Lucas died on 2 August 2016. The audibly and understandably shaken employee stated that interest in the circumstances of Lucas death had prompted a number of phone calls and other queries, but the company had not yet ascertained any details about Lucas cause of death and were unable to confirm anything more than the fact he had passed away.An unconfirmed report holds that Lucas was found lying on the bathroom floor by his girlfriend when she returned home on the evening of 2 August 2016. Paramedics responding to her 911 call found no signs of life.** This was before Wikileaks released documents proving the DNC was working against the Sanders campaign during the 2016 primary.Shawn Lucas was found dead this week.This follows the death of 27 year-old Democratic staffer Seth Conrad Rich who was murdered in Washington DC on July 8. The killer or killers appear to have taken nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone. Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a lead saying that Rich was en route to the FBI the morning of his murder, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an ongoing court case possibly involving the Clinton family.Watch here:And on June 22, 2016, former UN official John Ashe accidentally crushed his own throat and died a week before he was scheduled to testify against the Clintons and Democrat Party.Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
By Hrafnkell Haraldsson on Mon, Oct 31st, 2016 at 7:59 am In Donald Trump "you have a candidate who is frequently saying 20 false things in a day, up to 37 on some days." Share on Twitter Print This Post
CNN’s Brian Stelter calls Donald Trump a “uniquely fact-challenged candidate,” which is a prelude to introducing Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star , who fact checks every single word Trump utters and tallies them up for his paper .
Dale says most fact-checkers look at two or three things Trump says, “meticulously fact-checks them and posts an article,” but “that doesn’t work when you have a candidate who is frequently saying 20 false things in a day, up to 37 on some days.”
For example, Dale tallied 35 Trump lies on Tuesday, October 25: Donald Trump said 35 false things yesterday. #TrumpCheck pic.twitter.com/EwfYFEDFx9
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 26, 2016
Which, as Dale pointed out , followed “his record-tying 37 false claims on Monday,” not coincidentally, a day on which Trump called fact checkers “scum.”
Watch courtesy of CNN’s Reliable Sources: "There is a massive imbalance in the frequency of dishonesty." @DDale8 says Trump lies a lot more than Clinton https://t.co/Kp6KvPNtmO
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) October 30, 2016
The mainstream media likes to play the false equivalence game but there is no equivalence between Trump and Clinton. As Dale told Stelter, “There is a massive imbalance in the frequency of dishonesty.” Trump, says Dale, “is not a normal political liar.”
For example, look at the presidential debates , in which Dale found 104 Trump false statements as opposed to 13 by Clinton.
Dale’s judgment is that “there is no comparison in her level of accuracy with her opponent.”
Trump also lies “pointlessly,” argues Dale, explaining to Brian Stelter that,
“He gets things wrong where there is no political advantage to be gained and in those cases, it is not clear whether he’s lying or confused or unwilling to take the time to learn the facts.”
This was Mark Cuban’s complaint, of course, that Trump has no interest in learning.
In the end, it matters less why Trump lies than that he does, especially since he is busily convincing his base that Hillary Clinton is the dishonest candidate. And it is working. This is a trope frequently repeated by Trump’s supporters. You can correct them as often as you want; it will have no effect.
The lie has taken hold – one of many – many more than you likely expected, and observational bias takes care of the rest. The Trump base is effectively lost to our shared reality, and as Dale tweeted last night,
“If Trump loses, the Smart Republican Excavation is going to have to involve some long, hard base re-education.”
Given the GOP’s history with facts, good luck with that.
Image: Screen capture Twitter | 1 |
House Republicans leaders on Monday embraced a legislative plan to replace the Affordable Care Act for the first time in the nearly seven years since Democrats enacted the transformative health-insurance law.Now, they have to sell it.That challenge ran into an immediate threat from key conservatives who criticized the new proposal for failing to fulfill the party s iron-clad promise to rip out the signature policy of former President Barack Obama. It s Obamacare in a different format, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said in a phone interview. Jordan cited three provisions that conservatives have complained about for weeks leading up to the formal release of the House GOP plan on Monday evening: its extension of Obamacare Medicaid expansion for another four years; its failure to immediately repeal all of the law s tax increases; and its call to provide refundable tax credits to help people buy insurance, which Jordan labeled a new entitlement. Earlier on Monday, another member of the Freedom Caucus, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, condemned the leadership bill in a two-word tweet: Obamacare 2.0. The full Freedom Caucus comprises about three dozen members of the 237 in the House Republican majority. If they voted as a bloc, they could sink the bill on their own. A spokeswoman for its chairman, Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, said members were still reviewing the legislation on Monday evening, and Jordan said the group planned to meet on Tuesday to discuss it.The reaction from conservative advocacy groups was no more favorable to the Republican leadership. FreedomWorks labeled the plan s requirement that people pay a 30 percent premium to insurers if they stop their coverage for more than two months the Republican individual mandate. And on Tuesday morning, two more staunchly conservative activist organizations, Heritage Action and the Club for Growth, came out against the proposal. Many Americans seeking health insurance on the individual market will notice no significant difference between the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) and the American Health Care Act, the group s president, Michael Needham said. That is bad politics and, more importantly, bad policy. Rather than accept the flawed premises of Obamacare, congressional Republicans should fully repeal the failed law and begin a genuine effort to deliver on longstanding campaign promises that create a free market health-care system that empowers patients and doctors. The Club for Growth pejoratively dubbed the new bill RyanCare and added a new threat, vowing to downgrade any Republican who votes for the bill in the group s closely-watched annual congressional scorecard.- The AtlanticThe introduction of the GOP s new healthcare bill has raised some definite ire among Republicans and Libertarians alike. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is one such politician who has now seen the bill and expressed his extreme dislike of it, calling the GOP plan Obamacare Lite. According to The Hill, Paul is not letting Obamacare Lite happen without a fight, and he has allies. The libertarian leaning senator is teaming up with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to release their own bill to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, and it s highly similar to the one that Republicans voted for unanimously in 2015. We voted on this last year, and every Republican voted for it, Paul said at a press conference alongside his House conservative colleagues. That s what we should do again. You have to get rid of ObamaCare completely, Jordan added. Paul stated in an interview earlier today that this GOP bill will not pass, and that conservatives aren t gonna to take it. However Paul and Jordan face an uphill struggle as GOP leadership, including that of President Donald Trump, seem to believe the bill to be a solid plan. We re going to do something that s great. And I am proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives, Trump said of the bill. It follows the guidelines I laid out in my congressional address. This will be a plan where you can choose your doctor and this will be a plan where you can choose your plan. And you know what the plan is. This is the plan. The Blaze | 0 |
[Graphic: Clinton vs Trump by DonkeyHotey .] Paul Jay interviews Henry A. Giroux Editor's Note The idea here that there politics is theater is not new; however, “political theater” has never taken on the connotations that embrace what this campaign has revealed. It is clear that there has been an agreement about what “story” is being played out, but that has gotten repeatedly derailed by two (now 3) sources of counter-story. One source, as noted in the following interview, are the wikileak materials. Another source has been Trump himself. While he may not understand politics, he is very adept with theater and controlling the media, and he has played them like a piano. Throughout this endless campaign I kept remembering “there is no such thing as bad press.” Trump has certainly proved the truth of that adage repeatedly. The third source is James Comey. His repeated breaching of judicial-political norms will likely reverberate well after November 8th.
Mentioned within this interview is the phenomenon of Americans seeming inability to maintain a long term memory. I believe this is a rich area to examine though this is not the focus of this discussion. Most people in the U.S. seem to live in the cultural equivalent of anteretrograde amnesia and lack the ability to make long term memories that extend beyond themselves. They remember their own histories, but their social memory is constantly being rewritten and little if anything seems to stick. Transcript PAUL JAY, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. Im Paul Jay in Baltimore. Im known for a documentary I made called Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows. It was about professional wrestling and a battle between Bret Hart and Vince McMann and we got a lot of behind the scenes coverage in that and I got to know the wrestling world some. It occurred to me that theres a certain kind of press that covers wrestling much the way a lot of press covers American politics. Now everyone that has any sense about them at all knows that professional wrestling is theater. In fact, the film I made helped kind of make that clear for everyone. But it is theater and everyone acknowledges its theater but there is still some press out there that plays along and covers the wrestling theater as if its real. Well I think much the same thing goes on in American politics. Much of the election campaigns are positioning, rhetoric, language, supposedly support this, oppose that, which is really all part of the theater. But because it does affect the horse race of the outcome of the elections, most of the corporate media covers all of this theater as if its real. Well somethings happening in this election which because of partly the bluster and in some ways weird honesty of Donald Trump, some of that theater is breaking down. The WikiLeaks about Hillary Clinton and behind the scenes machinations of the Clinton campaign, theres been somewhat of a tear in the fabric of this theater. Now joining us to talk about this is Henry Giroux. Henry joins us from Hamilton, Ontario. Hes a professor of scholarship in the public interest at McMaster University and author of his most recent book, America at war with itself. Thanks for joining us Henry. HENRY GIROUX: Its a pleasure to be with you. JAY: So, what do you make of the idea that wrestling and American politics have a lot in common? GIROUX: I think its a fabulous analogy. I think that in many ways what we see happening is the cultural celebrity which has never really been taken too seriously, although it confers a great deal of authority, has all of a sudden outed itself. Its out of the closet. I mean people realize that what were getting is not only an exercise in performance and showmanship but were also getting what I would call, an elimination of the truth. The truth is one of the great causalities of this particular election cycle. Its never been more visible than it is now. In one hand, what you have basically a celebrity who has no trouble lying because he believes that nobody will really take him too seriously because he thinks he really is a celebrity. On the other hand, you have the alternative press, you have the alternative media exposing all the nonsense that of course Hillary Clinton believes in and making it clear that she has no lock on honesty either. It seems to me that as the truth begins to disappear, questions are being raised about what are the conditions that produced this. What are the contradictions at work here? What does it mean for instance when Hillary Clinton says she believes in families and she believes in children and she worked for the Childrens Defense Fund when in actuality as the first lady, she had no trouble calling black youth super predators, she basically supported her husbands welfare program which did horrible things for pro minorities? She supported an educational system in part that had nothing to do with the imagination and real learning. Had everything to do with accountability and standardization. So, it goes on and on. I think that as this fabric gets torn, as the veil gets sort of taken away and as the mystic of theater begins to dissolve, a kind of shocking reality emerges. One steeped in corruption, despair, inequality, poverty, systemic violence, racism, that becomes increasing difficult for the American political, financial, and corporate elite to basically legitimize. JAY: I think the Clinton campaigns particularly interesting. First of all, you have a 74 senator from Vermont. If hed had maybe another month or two, might have actually might have won in terms of especially in his weakness in the south and amongst African Americans. Another month or two and he might have sorted some of that out. Its quite remarkable that someone at least in terms of mainstream media, someone who came from obscurity, I think people that followed progressive politics, he was certainly well known. But for most of the country, they barely knew his name. To go from there to almost winning and theres some suggestion, some of the specific state races he certainly didnt lose fairly. Now you have the majority of the country simply says they dont believe Hillary Clinton is a truth teller. They think shes a liar. They dont trust her. Yet shes the only candidate these elites got. Trump lies exposed. Even the republicans, the fact that the system couldn’t come up with better candidates within the republican party to actually take on someone like Trump that shouldve been an easy duck to shoot of anybody of any caliber. The whole caliber of these political candidates has just banal. GIROUX: I think whats interesting here is that the republican party, they couldnt come up with a decent candidate because they had no sense of the degree to which they had violated any principles that sort of [attaches] them to any notion of civic justice or to the economic issues that have caused enormous anger throughout the country, that they were unwilling to address. I think theres another issue here. I think the issue is something you mentioned earlier about Bernie Sanders, who I find very hopeful, in that people dont realize that language matters and I think what Bernie did, taking off from the Occupied movement which gave us a new language about inequality. Bernie gave us a language for economic and social justice and political justice in a way that we havent heard before because it was endlessly being replayed over and over again. I think that what you have there is you have the power of what I call a reimagination machine that attacks a disimagination machine. He took the disimagination machine which covers everything over in lies and false metaphors and indecent stories and corruption and he exposed them and I think that one of the great beginnings, one of the great movements for any form of insurrection of democracy is to make power visible. I think he did that. I think the black lives matter movement does that. I think theyre all driving liberals absolutely crazy because its becoming increasingly difficult for the liberals to basically defend this thing that they call democracy. Its not a democracy at all. They know it. But they don’t have a language to basically come back at this. I know. I was listening to a radio this morning and I don’t know if you know this but the alt-right, they’re responding to this by intimidating people, by attempting to ruin the lives of now I think its like 500 reporters throughout the United States attacking their families, putting stuff on twitter, putting pictures of their children up in ways that are utterly disgusting and vile. I think you see two moments here. You see a moment of impending fascism which is utterly violent and criminogenic. Then you see another moment which is criminogenic but not as violent. But its grappling at the same time with some way to rescue itself by pointing only to Trump without at the same time pointing to its own liabilities. JAY: I think the sort of mediocrity banality of these candidates, its not just a happen chance, and many of the presidents in the past and I would put both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama – theyre smart guys. I disagree with probably 98 or 99% of their policies and both of them were involved in what I think could be categorized as war crimes, including Bill Clinton and sanctions on Iraq and the drone policy and others and the development of the war on Syria with Obama and such and Libya of course. But that being said, these are smart guys. They speak in full paragraphs. They are articulate. They can crack jokes. Theyre knowledgeable. But it was under their watch that we had a great leap in this transfer of wealth to the top 1 or so percentile. A great leap in the parasitism of capital. Casino capitalism. Massive derivatives and speculative markets and this very parasitical, very degenerate you could say type of capital created this orgy of profits for this top tier at a level theyd never seen before and when you live in the bubble of those massive profits, perhaps they have no idea whats going on amongst the American people. So, all of a sudden they get this shock in the republican party and almost a major shock in the democratic party and I dont know if they really come back from this because I dont know if they can really get out of this bubble disconnect with whats going on in terms of daily life. GIROUX: They meaning the financial elite. Is that what youre saying? JAY: Well the financial and political elites, yea. GIROUX: Exactly. Well I dont want to underestimate the power of the cultural apparatuses that they control to basically normalize what appears to be unimaginable. I mean Im always shocked by that I think the real issue here is that we live in a country in which memory is very short. We live in a culture of the immediate. Im often shocked about what gets forgotten 5 days after the news cycle. So, the real question is, how do you keep the count of memories. These images. How do you keep this language up? This critical language that consistently reminds people of the contradictions and the crimes. The United States is a war culture. I mean there’s no other way to talk about it. Its primarily organized for the production of violence at almost every level. Of course, the punishing state is getting worse and the acceleration of police violence is getting worse. I think as long as the alternative media can focus on and sustain these images and these stories and these counter narratives, I think theyre fine. But its a hard fight because as you well know Paul the mainstream media controls most of the media and so the real question here is how do we take the question of culture and power and education and link it to everyday life in ways that allow it to travel across a variety of public spheres so that these memories and injustice and corruption can be sustained? JAY: Thanks very much for joining us Henry. GIROUX: My pleasure. JAY: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.
Henry A. Giroux, Contributing Editor C urrently holds the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department and a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Ryerson University. His books include: American at War with Itself , Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism (Peter Land 2011), On Critical Pedagogy (Continuum, 2011), Twilight of the Social: Resurgent Publics in the Age of Disposability (Paradigm 2012), Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories and the Culture of Cruelty (Routledge 2012), Youth in Revolt: Reclaiming a Democratic Future (Paradigm 2013). Giroux’s most recent books are America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth (Monthly Review Press, 2013), are Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education, America’s Disimagination Machine (City Lights) and Higher Education After Neoliberalism (Haymarket) will be published in 2014). He is also a Contributing Editor of Cyrano’s Journal Today / The Greanville Post , and member of Truthout’s Board of Directors and has his own page The Public Intellectual . His web site is www.henryagiroux.com . [email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”] | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court has suspended a Catalan law that outlined a legal framework for an independent state, a court source said on Tuesday, the day after hundreds of thousands rallied in Barcelona to support secession from Madrid. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s government is increasing the pressure to prevent an independence referendum, scheduled for Oct. 1, from going ahead. It has declared the vote illegal and challenged laws linked to the ballot in the courts. The Constitutional Court, Spain s highest authority on such matters, suspended the law while judges consider whether it is against the country s constitution. It suspended a law approving the Oct. 1 vote last week. The Catalan parliament approved both laws on Wednesday in a move which brought a long-running tussle between the pro-independence regional government and the Madrid-based central government to a head. Rising tension between Madrid and Barcelona has prompted some investors to ditch Spanish sovereign debt. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who faces criminal charges for his role in organizing the referendum, only has the power to call an election not a referendum, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. If Puigdemont wants to consult the people, it s very simple, he should call an election, government spokesman and Minister of Education, Culture and Sport Inigo Mendez de Vigo told Antena 3 television. Polls have shown support for independence waning in recent years with those wanting a separate state in a minority. However, a majority of Catalans want to vote on the issue. Most of Catalonia s 948 mayors have pledged to permit use of public spaces for the vote, but Ada Colau, head of the region s biggest city Barcelona, has asked for assurances that civil servants involved will not risk losing their jobs. Justice Minister Rafael Catala on Tuesday warned the regional administration against coercing municipal leaders to take part. I trust they will be left in peace and not be obliged to do what they cannot, Catala told RTVE television. | 1 |
Sean Hannity was on fire with his opening comments on the Clinton-Uranium One deal bombshell last night. He ripped the Clintons and called on Trump s intelligence and law officials to investigate the scandal. It s a classic Hannity rant: After President Trump won in November, President Obama and his administration they were telling anyone who would listen, Russia! Russia! Russia! Russia interfered with our election. Russia was creating a direct threat to American democracy Hannity mocked. Well if that s the case, why when they have mountains of evidence that we will reveal tonight of Russian bribery going back to 2009, why then would the Obama administration and Hillary in particular sign off on the sale of 20% of America s uranium to Vladimir Putin and the Russians? Tonight, with this new evidence, what we have discovered is that the evidence against the Clintons is overwhelming, it is incontrovertible, Hannity continued. Hillary Clinton and her husband sold out America to the Russians while millions of dollars flowed to their family foundation. And in the process, Clinton created a massive national security risk for every man, woman, and child giving Vladimir Putin control over American uranium. IN CASE YOU HAVEN T HEARD ABOUT THE LATEST ON THE CLINTON-URANIUM ONE BOMBSHELL:Yesterday, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange sent a cryptic tweet that contained a series of number and letters. Someone out there knows what that code means, and they are very likely shaking in their boots today.4767 5774 6a7a 4d6c 6330 666b 314a 3453 0000 0907 84b4 f787 7616 86f7 a737 5707 5736 Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 15, 2017On another front, two writers from separate publications were set to publish what Sean Hannity was calling a huge bombshell story that was due to break today.Last night on Fox News Hannity show, Sean Hannity warned that a huge bombshell would be breaking today. Sean told his audience that Circa News Sara Carter and The Hill s John Solomon have HUGE BREAKING NEWS. Hannity told his audience, Let me put it this way, if I m Hillary or fake news, I won t be sleeping well tonight. Watch:.@seanhannity TICK TOCK Tonight Folks Get ready @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/PxbRCgyPwm 'GITMO' BAMA (@President1Trump) October 17, 2017Well, John Solomon and Alison Spann s story did indeed break first thing today in The Hill, and it s a doozy. Will justice finally be delivered to these corrupt, anti-American, self-serving and lying players? Not providing information on a corruption scheme before the Russian uranium deal was approved by U.S. regulators and engage appropriate congressional committees has served to undermine U.S. national security interests by the very people charged with protecting them. The Russian efforts to manipulate our American political enterprise is breathtaking. Former House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI)The Hill Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.They also obtained an eyewitness account backed by documents indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.The racketeering scheme was conducted with the consent of higher level officials in Russia who shared the proceeds from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefitting Putin s commercial nuclear ambitions.The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America s uranium supply.When this sale was used by Trump on the campaign trail last year, Hillary Clinton s spokesman said she was not involved in the committee review and noted the State Department official who handled it said she never intervened on any [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] matter. In 2011, the administration gave approval for Rosatom s Tenex subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants in a partnership with the United States Enrichment Corp. Before then, Tenex had been limited to selling U.S. nuclear power plants reprocessed uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program. The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions, a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials.The Obama administration s decision to approve Rosatom s purchase of Uranium One has been a source of political controversy since 2015.That s when conservative author Peter Schweitzer and The New York Times documented how Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees and his charitable foundation collected millions in donations from parties interested in the deal while Hillary Clinton presided on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI, in fact, had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee s decision that Vadim Mikerin the main Russian overseeing Putin s nuclear expansion inside the United States was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn t comment.Mikerin was a director of Rosatom s Tenex in Moscow since the early 2000s, where he oversaw Rosatom s nuclear collaboration with the United States under the Megatons to Megwatts program and its commercial uranium sales to other countries. In 2010, Mikerin was dispatched to the U.S. on a work visa approved by the Obama administration to open Rosatom s new American arm called Tenam.Between 2009 and January 2012, Mikerin did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire confederate and agree with other persons to obstruct, delay and affect commerce and the movement of an article and commodity (enriched uranium) in commerce by extortion, a November 2014 indictment stated.His illegal conduct was captured with the help of a confidential witness, an American businessman, who began making kickback payments at Mikerin s direction and with the permission of the FBI. The first kickback payment recorded by the FBI through its informant was dated Nov. 27, 2009, the records show. The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump s deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show.On August 6, 2017, The Washington Times questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein s fishing expedition aimed at digging up dirt on President Trump in his investigation in the Trump-Russia investigation. The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don t engage in fishing expeditions, Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox News Sunday. In his first Sunday show interview, Mr. Rosenstein added that special counsel Robert Mueller understands and I understand the specific scope of the investigation and so, it s not a fishing expedition. Mr. Rosenstein s comments come amid reports citing unnamed sources that the investigation has expanded into Mr. Trump s finances unrelated to possible Russian interference in last year s election.Mr. Rosenstein played down the reports: That s not anything that I ve said. That s not anything Director Mueller has said. We don t know who s saying it or how credible those sources are. Both men now play a key role in the current investigation into possible, but still unproven collusion between Russia and Donald Trump s campaign during the 2016 election.McCabe is under congressional and Justice Department inspector general investigation in connection with money his wife s Virginia state Senate campaign accepted in 2015 from now-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when McAuliffe was reportedly under investigation by the FBI.The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009 when Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still FBI director. And it ended in late 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired earlier this year.Bringing down a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme that had both compromised a sensitive uranium transportation asset inside the U.S. and facilitated international money laundering would seem a major feather in any law enforcement agency s cap.But the Justice Department and FBI took little credit in 2014 when Mikerin, the Russian financier and the trucking firm executives were arrested and charged.The only public statement occurred an entire year later when the Justice Department put out a little-noticed press release in August 2015, just days before Labor Day. The release noted that the various defendants had reached plea deals.The lack of fanfare left many key players in Washington with no inkling that a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme with serious national security implications had been uncovered.On Dec. 15, 2015, the Justice Department put out a release stating that Mikerin, a former Russian official residing in Maryland was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million.Ronald Hosko, who served as the assistant FBI director in charge of criminal cases when the investigation was underway, told The Hill he did not recall ever being briefed about Mikerin s case by the counterintelligence side of the bureau despite the criminal charges that were being lodged. I had no idea this case was being conducted, a surprised Hosko said in an interview.Meanwhile, Julian Assange is jumping on the bandwagon, as he teases that he has a major announcement of his own that is coming soon Russian nuclear bribery investigation reveals that Russia routed millions to the Clintons https://t.co/ti7ycn7auf Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 17, 2017 | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea, the United States and Japan started a two-day missile tracking drill on Tuesday, South Korea s military said, in preparation for any missile or nuclear threats from North Korea. The exercises will be held in waters off the coasts of South Korea and Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement. The drills have been taking place every few months following an agreement made during a Security Consultative Meeting between South Korea and the United States last year. | 0 |
When Jane Sanders visited one of known bigot and champion of racial profiling Sheriff Joe Arpaio s unconstitutional tent prisons, she was appalled. Arpaio doesn t understand the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. He forces prisoners to live in smoldering heat and eat expired foods. Since the majority of his inmates are Hispanic people, Arpaio and his racist freak constituents couldn t care less. They follow a doctrine that embraces prosecuting and jailing people simply for the color of their skin to begin with.Mrs. Sanders ended up in a heated argument with Arpaio, one her senator and presidential candidate husband simply couldn t ignore. According to The New York Times, Sanders railed against Arpaio at a campaign event, laying waste to the man he says ambushed his wife: She asked him about racial profiling, and he didn t have an answer, Sanders said, She asked him about conditions in Tent City and other abuses that he has perpetuated, and he didn t have an answer. You know what, he cannot have an answer, because what he is doing is un-American and uncivilized. If elected president, we are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship, whether Mr. Arpaio likes it or not. Sheriff Arpaio has been widely criticized, and rightfully so, for his tactics for keeping his jail stocked with minority inmates. He was even sued by the Justice Department for the illegal racial profiling of Hispanics that leads to traffic stops and arrests, often for misdemeanor offenses white people get tickets for. His intolerance and racism has made him a national spectacle on many occasions. Conservatives love him because he embodies all they aspire to be in life: openly hateful racists who are allowed to look down on people for no reason other than their accent.Senator Sanders had a stern warning for Sheriff Arpaio: It s easy for bullies like Sheriff Arpaio to pick on people who have no power. If I am elected president the President of the United States does have power. So watch out, Joe. Aside from everything we already know about Bernie Sanders we can add this very useful piece of information: Don t mess with his wife.Featured image from Gage Skidmore | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday accused rival Donald Trump’s campaign of taking a “banana republic approach” by complaining that party rules for selecting a nominee are rigged against him. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Texas senator’s delegate operations manager, said on ABC’s “This Week” that the Trump campaign is challenging the delegate selection process “because they’re getting beat on the ground.” Cuccinelli and Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as well as the third Republican candidate, Ohio Governor John Kasich, traded punches over the delegate selection process on Sunday news shows. Trump remains the front-runner in the race to be the Republican Party’s candidate in November’s general election. But it remains unclear whether the billionaire businessman will arrive at the party’s July 18-21 convention in Cleveland with the 1,237-delegate majority needed to clinch the nomination on the first ballot. The next big face-off is New York state’s primary on Tuesday, with 95 delegates at stake. Opinion polls show Trump, a New Yorker, well ahead of his rivals, with Kasich and Cruz trailing behind. The latest CBS News poll, released on Sunday, showed Trump ahead in New York, with 54 percent of those surveyed to 21 percent for Cruz and 19 percent for Kasich. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, a former New York senator and U.S. secretary of state, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will also face New York voters on Tuesday. Polls show Clinton is still favored to win, although Sanders, a New York City native who is hoping for an upset win to ensure the continued viability of his campaign, has managed to narrow the gap in recent days. Trump, meanwhile, has become increasingly agitated as the Cruz campaign outmaneuvers him in the complex art of securing delegates that are not simply allocated by a popular vote. At a news conference in New York City’s Staten Island borough on Sunday, he repeated his assertion that the system was “crooked.” “You’re basically buying these people,” he said, referring to convention delegates. “I could put them in the best planes and bring them to the best places in the world,” he added. But he said he was not interested in wooing delegates that way, describing it as undemocratic. The party rules for picking delegates vary by state. Cuccinelli said Cruz has been “winning elections. And when we win, Trump whines.” “This is a banana republic approach from the Trump team,” he said. “... They have a media campaign. But Ted Cruz has built a grassroots campaign.” On “Fox News Sunday,” Trump’s Lewandowski pointed to Florida, where the candidate won the primary in a landslide. But Trump can count on the support of only 69 of the state’s 99 delegates because the state Republican Party chairman is allowed to appoint 30. “Ted Cruz does well in places where party bosses get to set those rules and people don’t get to go and vote,” Lewandowski said. Another senior Trump adviser, delegate selection specialist Paul Manafort, told ABC the campaign will protest results in Missouri and Colorado. But in several interviews on Sunday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus again denied that the delegate selection rules are rigged against Trump. Kasich ridiculed Trump and his campaign for suggesting the delegate selection rules are fixed and that a “dirty trick” allowed Cruz to win Colorado’s nominating contest without a statewide vote. Kasich, interviewed by CNN, said Trump should “act like you’re a professional. Be a pro.” (This story corrects New York state poll numbers in 7th paragraph) | 1 |
(Reuters) - Britain holds a referendum on membership of the European Union on June 23. Following are details of how the referendum will work on the night. Sources: Electoral Commission, Reuters reporting. Voters will be given one piece of paper with the question: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?” They will be asked to put a cross beside either: “Remain a member of the European Union “Leave the European Union” All those who are entitled to vote in a UK parliamentary general election can vote in the referendum, including British, Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens over the age of 18 who are resident in the UK. UK nationals resident overseas who have appeared on a parliamentary election register in the past 15 years will also have the right to vote, as do Irish citizens who were born in Northern Ireland and registered to vote in Northern Ireland in the last 15 years. In addition, Peers and citizens of Gibraltar who were able to vote at a European Parliamentary election can vote. The deadline for registering to vote is midnight on June 7. Polling stations open at 0700 BST on June 23 and close at 2200 local time. There are currently no plans by broadcasters for an exit poll as the margin of error is deemed to be too large. Votes will be counted by hand and the count will begin as soon as polls close (apart from in Gibraltar when counting will begin at 2300 local time, or 2200 UK time). Each of 382 local counting areas will count the number of ballot papers and announce local turnout figures in each of the areas. Then each counting area will count the votes and announce local totals for each of the 382 areas. These will be collated into regional totals, and then a final, national, result. A final result will be announced in Manchester by Jenny Watson, who is the Chief Counting Officer. Reuters will provide full coverage of the results. | 1 |
Morgen neu am Kiosk: Postillon am Sonntag 45/2016 Außerdem in dieser Ausgabe: Nahleben-Erfahrung: Ein Toter berichtet, wie sein Herz für fünf Minuten anfing zu schlagen - Seite 30 Ratgeber Immobilien: So verkaufen Sie das Haus ihrer Nachbarn - Seite 71 Dossier USA: Trump oder Clinton – wer wird der unbeliebteste Präsident aller Zeiten? - Seite 96 Rezension der letzten Ausgabe auf Postillleaks: Rezension der PamS 44/2016 Artikel teilen: | 1 |
During his campaign, Donald Trump promised that he was a friend of the LGBTQ community. Of course, after watching him stack his campaign and now his cabinet with virulently homophobic and transphobic figures, we all knew that was a steaming pile. Trump proved us all right on Wednesday, when it was revealed that he and his bigoted administration rolled back the protections for transgender school children that were put in place by the Obama Administration.President Obama was, of course, a fierce champion for LGBTQ equality, and he made sure that transgender people would be protected in public spaces. Of course, the bigots in the Trump Administration have no intention of doing anything but pandering to the Religious Right, and therefore will be doing all they can to assault this same community. Well, there s one late night host who has had enough of Trump s bigotry: Late Show host Stephen Colbert.On Thursday night s edition of the show, Colbert employed the use of animated bathroom signs to give Trump and his administration a literal middle finger when it comes to policing genitals and bathrooms. Of course, it will be a cold day in hell before Trump or anyone on his team would watch such a show, but it sure is nice to have people in prominent positions on the side of those who are arguably the most vulnerable people in our society right now: LGBTQ youth.Watch the amazing clip below, via the Late Show Twitter:The brave souls who point the way to our nation s bathrooms are not taking Trump s rollback of transgender rights lightly. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/gBYiBIoPxf The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) February 24, 2017Featured image via Frederick M. Brown / Stringer/Getty Images | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No negotiations can be held with North Korea until it improves its behavior, a White House official said on Wednesday, raising questions about U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s offer to begin talks with Pyongyang any time and without pre-conditions. Given North Korea s most recent missile test, clearly right now is not the time, a White House official told Reuters. Tillerson said on Tuesday the United States was ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk, appearing to back away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would have to be about giving up its nuclear arsenal. The White House has declined to say whether President Donald Trump, who has taken a tougher rhetorical line against North Korea than Tillerson, gave approval for the overture. A day after Tillerson s comments at Washington s Atlantic Council think tank, the White House official, who declined to be named, laid out a more restrictive formula for any diplomatic engagement with North Korea. The administration is united in insisting that any negotiations with North Korea must wait until the regime fundamentally improves its behavior, the official said. As the secretary of state himself has said, this must include, but is not limited to, no further nuclear or missile tests. In his speech, however, Tillerson did not explicitly set a testing freeze as a requirement before talks can begin. He said it would be tough to talk if Pyongyang decided to test another device in the middle of discussions and that a period of quiet would be needed for productive discussions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Wednesday appeared to walk back part of Tillerson s proposal, saying there would have to be a suspension of North Korean nuclear and missile tests for an undefined length of time before any talks could take place. And we certainly haven t seen that right now, she told reporters, insisting Tillerson had not unveiled a new policy and was on the same page as the White House. Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea s weapons advances have grown this year and recent exchanges of bellicose rhetoric have fueled fears over the risk of military conflict. Tillerson s relationship with Trump has been strained by differences over North Korea and other issues, and he has seen his influence diminished within the administration. Senior administration officials said late last month that Trump was considering a plan to oust Tillerson, though the secretary of state has dismissed that. Tillerson said in his speech that Trump has encouraged our diplomatic efforts. Trump, however, tweeted in October that Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korea. Tillerson s overture came nearly two weeks after North Korea said it had successfully tested a breakthrough intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire United States mainland within range. North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations with the United States until it has developed the ability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, something most experts say it has still not proved. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said following Tillerson s speech that China welcomed efforts to ease tension and promote dialogue to resolve the North Korea standoff. Russia also welcomed Tillerson s statement, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying. Ahead of Tillerson s speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to develop more nuclear weapons while personally decorating scientists and officials who contributed to the development of Pyongyang s most advanced ICBM, state media said on Wednesday. Despite that, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tillerson s remarks followed speculation North Korea might be willing to talk having announced it had completed a major milestone with last month s missile test and suggested he was trying to take advantage of a potential opening. | 0 |
This is awesome! I watched the entire press conference and Gowdy just nails the lame stream media! | 0 |
If there s one thing about Donald Trump that pretty much everyone knows by now, it s that he s never wrong. Well, at least according to Donald Trump. He ll never admit a mistake, he ll double down on controversial statements, and heaven forbid he s asked a question he doesn t want to answer, or even worse, challenged on an answer on live television. The latter is exactly what Megyn Kelly did in the first GOP debate, and oh boy, has that thrown Trump into full tantrum mode, especially finding out she ll be moderating the next GOP debate to be held on Fox News. He literally told CNN s Wolf Blitzer: I mean, I don t like her. She doesn t treat me fairly. So, in turn, Trump is threatening to boycott the next debate because he thinks Kelly is a meanie.Trump even took his sophomoric toddler behavior to Twitter and Instagram and polled his followers:Should I do the #GOPdebate? https://t.co/cjTywwIl85 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016 Should I do the #GOPdebate?A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Jan 26, 2016 at 10:04am PSTAll of this led Fox News to issue a reply that was absolutely accurate. Probably one of the few times they ve said something that is completely true. A network spokesperson said: Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn t get to pick the journalists we re very surprised he s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly. They basically called Trump out for being terrified of Megyn Kelly. If he s terrified during a debate because he s asked questions he doesn t completely fancy, how is he going to deal with leaders around the globe who would inevitably call him out all the time for the decisions he would make as Commander-in-Chief?Fox also told Mediaite is a statement that was pure gold: We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings. Fox News had the perfect response to Trump s hissy fit over Megyn Kelly moderating the next debate. If you desire to be leader of the free world, you re going to have to realize people aren t going to kowtow to your every whim, and bullying really isn t an option with diplomatic relations. Trump needs to grow the f*ck up.Featured image: Gage Skidmore (flickr) | 0 |
DANVILLE, Pa. — The Geisinger Health Plan, run by one of the nation’s health care organizations, foresees medical costs increasing next year by 7. 5 percent for people buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act. So when Geisinger requested a rate increase of 40 percent for 2017, consumer advocates were amazed. And Kurt J. Wrobel, Geisinger’s chief actuary, found himself, along with other members of his profession, in the middle of the health care wars still raging in this political year. Actuaries normally toil far from the limelight, anonymous technicians stereotyped as dull and boring. But as they crunch the numbers for their Affordable Care Act business, their calculations are feeding a roaring national debate over insurance premiums, widely used to gauge the success of President Obama’s health care law. Health plans around the country have just filed proposed rates for 2017. State insurance commissioners are still reviewing them. But questions about the proposed increases are reverberating through the health care system and into the political campaign. “Historical experience is the lifeblood of what we do,” Mr. Wrobel said, in an interview at Geisinger’s headquarters here. “We take that experience, adjust it for the underlying growth of health costs and project it into the future so we can estimate the expected costs for a particular insurance policy. ” Such niceties may be lost in this scorching campaign season. “There is panic and anger as health care costs explode!” Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wrote in a recent Twitter post, seizing on increases of nearly 60 percent sought by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. Obama administration officials are more sanguine. Consumers, they say, should not worry. Proposed rate increases are often reduced by state officials. Federal subsidies will generally rise along with premiums, offsetting much of the additional costs, and consumers can, in any event, switch to cheaper health plans next year. But as they prepare for the fourth year of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, many insurers are struggling to find the best ways of providing care to their new customers. The giant UnitedHealth Group, having lost money on individual policies under the federal health law, is pulling out of many insurance exchanges next year. A number of health insurance cooperatives created under the law have shut down. Geisinger is different. During debate on the 2010 health care law, Mr. Obama and members of Congress repeatedly hailed it as a model providing “ care at costs well below average,” in the president’s words. Geisinger serves residents of rural central and northeast Pennsylvania, and its roots in the community are as deep as the coal mines that once flourished here. Dr. David T. Feinberg, the president and chief executive of the Geisinger Health System, said its health plan was losing $30 million a year on coverage sold on the federal exchange in Pennsylvania. But leaving the market here would be unthinkable. “For its shareholders, United made the right decision,” Dr. Feinberg said, “but we don’t answer to shareholders. We answer to the nice people of Danville, Shamokin and Bloomsburg. ” It would be difficult to find a health plan more aligned with the goals of the federal law. The Obama administration recruited a former chief executive of the Geisinger Health Plan, Dr. Richard J. Gilfillan, to be the first director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, created by the health law to test ways to improve care and cut costs. Geisinger has been a pioneer in the use of electronic health records and genomic medicine, recruiting 100, 000 patients for DNA sequencing studies in the last two years. It has embraced “pay for performance,” offering a warranty for major surgical procedures and promising not to charge extra if complications occur. But innovation has been no match for the actuarial surprises dealt out by the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Wrobel said Geisinger had simply underestimated how much care its new customers would need. “Our rates for Medicare, Medicaid and insurance have been relatively stable, but those products have to bear the cost of our losses on exchange business,” Mr. Wrobel said. Last October the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, headed by a former Obama administration official, approved a 20 percent increase in Geisinger’s rates, about half of what the company had requested. “But based on experience,” Mr. Wrobel said, “the 2016 premium rate is too low, so we want to correct it in 2017. ” Julia T. Philips, an actuary who worked 19 years for the state of Minnesota, said insurance regulators generally do not let a company make up for past losses with future rate increases. “But regulators often allow companies to catch up,” she said. “If you assumed that claims would average $400 per member per month in 2015 and the actual cost was $440, you can use the higher number as a starting point in predicting claims costs for 2017. ” Obama administration officials suggest that insurance companies seeking big rate increases have been slow to adapt to the new law. But Geisinger executives welcome innovation, and they have celebrated the reduction in the number of uninsured under the Affordable Care Act. Geisinger is not alone. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department says insurers have proposed premium increases averaging 23. 6 percent for individual coverage for 2017. “People with conditions are now getting treatment,” said Antoinette Kraus, the director of a statewide consumer group, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, “and it’s more expensive because they were shut out of the market for many years. ” But, she added, “we expect that they’ll eventually become healthier, so we won’t see these huge rate increases every year. ” Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, acknowledged that “ demand for health care is greater than people expected and is lasting longer than expected. ” In April, before most insurers had filed their rate requests for 2017, the Obama administration began a campaign to play down their significance. “Proposed rates aren’t what consumers pay,” the Department of Health and Human Services said. “Most people receive tax credits and can buy a plan for less than $75 per month. ” Moreover, the administration says that the health law created a competitive market in which consumers can shop for the best deal. As evidence that this market is working, the administration boasts that more than 40 percent of returning consumers switched to different plans for 2016. However, Mr. Wrobel said, such turnover is making it more difficult for insurers to predict costs. “The whole point of what we do, the foundation of good health insurance,” he said, “is to develop relationships with our members and to make investments in their health. It’s not like buying a book on Amazon. ” Besides, he said, substantial numbers of consumers do not receive subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 12 million people will receive subsidies, in the form of tax credits, next year. But it says that an equal number — three million on the exchanges and nine million buying insurance outside the exchanges — will have to pay the full unsubsidized price. “When we developed rates for 2014,” Mr. Wrobel said, “we had no historical data. It was basically an educated guess. ” Mr. Wrobel said rates were still being affected by a federal policy, adopted in late 2013, that allowed some people to keep and renew insurance that did not meet standards in the Affordable Care Act. “Healthier people chose to keep their plans,” he said, “so the collective cost of care for people buying insurance on the exchange was higher than expected. ” Many insurers hope to profit from the Affordable Care Act, but for Geisinger, the calculus is a little different. “Geisinger has been here for 100 years, and we expect to be here another hundred,” Mr. Wrobel said. “We are going to be taking care of the people in this community one way or another. So it’s really important for this program to be financially stable and sustainable. ” | 0 |
Watch Juan Williams make several attempts to shame Fox Five host, Kimberly Guilfoyle for speaking out against Obama s Black Lives Matter race war in America. Once he realizes he s losing the argument, he attempts to berate her, telling her she is uncomfortable about being a racist. His horrible accusation is followed up brilliantly when Guilfoyle responds by asking, Why would I be uncomfortable about it [racism] as a Puerto Rican woman? A heated exchange on the subject of identity politics took place on The Five between, Kim Guilfoyle accused co-host Juan Williams of becoming infamous and also ridiculous because you put words in people s mouths. Guilfoyle, praising a commencement speech by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, said, I like his emphasis on faith and belief. Because in my personal opinion, the past eight years, we have seen under the Obama administration, they have used class warfare and race and envy to divide the nation. They have, and communities when you see Ferguson and other places Oh, I see. President Obama did Ferguson? Williams interjected.https://youtu.be/3bRrDyacnP0 Their exchange continued:KG: I didn t say that, Juan. And you re really become infamous and also ridiculous because you JW: Because that was a ridiculous statement.KG: You put words in people s mouth and you paraphrase JW: I didn t say You said President Obama, Ferguson .KG: I didn t say that. I said the administration.JW: OkayKG: And it s true. Under Eric Holder and the Injustice Department.JW: Whoo.KG: This is part and parcel for what happened across this country. We did not come closer together as a country. We became more divided. And there was more loss of life and destruction of property from that race and identity politicsJW: I see, because people speak out against injustice, you don t like it and it makes you uncomfortable.KG: Well, it s no it doesn t make me uncomfortable.JW: You have to deal with reality.KG: No. I do deal with reality. The bottom line is they fostered an environment that was violence and that was not something that brought people together. Instead of using the opportunity as president to bring people together and blur race and gender lines it was more about divisiveness JW: Oh, I see you want to blur race and gender when it makes you uncomfortable, KimberlyKG: I m not uncomfortable by it at all. I m not uncomfortable by it at all.JW: People in this country who have to live with police aggression KG: Why would I be uncomfortable with that as a Puerto Rican woman? The only way to blur race and gender is with alcohol! Greg Gutfeld burst in, bringing the heated exchange to a landing. Everybody just go out and get drunk. Via: Mediatate YouTube | 1 |
Mexicans have been given a green light by Obama and his regime to enter our country. Why shouldn t the drug cartels capitalize on their expansive underground highways? Thanks to Obama s open borders and lenient policy on illegal aliens, it wouldn t make much sense for members of ISIS to bother with a passport or Visa Our southern border is long and U.S. border patrol agents work to fight illegal activity like illegal immigration, drugs and now according to an FBI consultant, the border could be an attractive region for ISIS thanks in part to powerful drug lords. Drug dealers have found a way to move money without it being followed, said Tyrone Powers, Former FBI Agent. They found a way to move people in and out and they found a way to move product. That product powers refers to is tons and tons of meth, heroin and pot transferred through a labyrinth of tunnels from Mexico.Drugs that are headed for the streets of the U.S.But these tunnels could easily be an underground highway for ISIS to spawn its brutality here.Sioux City KMEG 14, FOX 44, News, Weather, Sports The stronger they get over there, the more power they have so I can definitely see, in the future, collaboration between terrorist groups and drug dealers to our south, said Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, 2016 Presidential Candidate It s individuals they bring into this country, maybe at some point, suicide bombers which is really scary and then weapons of mass destruction, said Powers.Terrorist experts say the epidemic of unstable leadership in Mexico, combined with ruthless drug cartels creates a vacuum. What s been going on in Mexico creates an opportunity for any organization to try to take advantage of it, whether it s ISIS or Al Shabbab, said Brandon Behlendorf, Terrorist Targeting Strategist.Two major drug cartels that could attract ISIS cover a lot of land in Mexico. Both skirt the U.S. border.The Sinalos Federation takes up western Mexico and borders Texas to California.Los Zetas occupies eastern Mexico and hugs the southern Texas border.Experts say Al Qaeda already tried linking up with drug lords in Mexico roughly 15 years ago. But to no avail.But Isis is far more determined than Al Qaeda. It makes logical sense for ISIS to do this, said powers. But I do not think they ll be catching the intelligence agencies off guard, because this has been a persistent problem whether it was Al Qaeda or any other group. Via: Siouxland News | 1 |
If Donald Trump Wins The Election, It Will Be The Biggest Miracle In US Political History Posted on Home » Headlines » World News » If Donald Trump Wins The Election, It Will Be The Biggest Miracle In US Political History
Are we about to see the largest election day miracle of all time?
From Michael Snyder :
Because as I will show in this article, that is precisely what it is going to take in order for Donald Trump to win. Before I go any further, I want to make it exceedingly clear that I am not saying what the outcome will be on November 8th. As I recently told a national television audience, I do not know who is going to win.
In this article I am simply going to examine the poll numbers and the electoral map as they currently stand. But in this bizarre election things can literally change overnight, and it is entirely possible that we could still have another “October surprise” or two before it is all said and done. And without a doubt Donald Trump desperately needs something “to move the needle”, because if the election was held today Hillary Clinton would almost certainly win.
What we have witnessed so far during the 2016 election season has been absolutely unprecedented. Just consider some of the things that we have seen up to this point in time.
We have never had a bigger “October surprise” than the release of the lewd audio tape from 11 years ago in which Donald Trump claimed to grope women without their consent.
We have never seen the mainstream media openly attack a presidential candidate as much as they have attacked Donald Trump. In the past, the big mainstream news outlets at least pretended to be fair and balanced, but this year they have completely discarded all notions of objectivity.
They should be completely and utterly ashamed of themselves, and no matter who wins the election they will never be able to get their integrity back.
We have also never seen a major party at war with itself this close to a presidential election. It has been said that a house divided against itself will surely fall, and a whole host of prominent Republican leaders have been openly attempting to sabotage the Trump campaign.
If Donald Trump is able to overcome all of these factors, it truly will be a miracle of Biblical proportions.
As it stands at the moment, however, the numbers are looking quite ominous for Trump. Right now, the Real Clear Politics average of national polls has Hillary Clinton ahead by 6.2 percent. Most political experts consider that to be an insurmountable lead at this stage in the game.
But even if Trump can close that gap and pull ahead, that does not mean that he will win the election. In fact, Trump could beat Clinton by millions of votes nationally and still lose.
In order to win the election, one candidate has got to get to 270 electoral votes. And on the latest Real Clear Politics electoral map, 262 electoral votes are being projected to go to Hillary Clinton, 164 electoral votes are being projected to go to Donald Trump, and 112 electoral votes are in the “toss up” category.
So unless something dramatically changes, Donald Trump is essentially going to have to run the table in all of the closely contested states in order to win, and the mathematical odds of that happening are extremely slim.
Let’s take a closer look at this. The first thing that Donald Trump is going to have to do in order to get to 270 electoral votes is to win all of the states that Mitt Romney won in 2012. That would get him up to 206 electoral votes.
Unfortunately, it looks like that may be very difficult to do. Romney won North Carolina, but the six most recent polls all have Clinton ahead in that state. Romney also won Arizona, but the most recent poll to be taken there has Clinton ahead by five points.
But for a moment, let’s assume that Trump can win all of the states that Romney won. On top of that, there are four other states that Trump must win…
#1 Trump must win Florida’s 29 electoral votes. Without Florida, Trump has no realistic path to 270 electoral votes. So on election night if it is announced that Trump has lost Florida, you might as well turn off your television and go to bed because Trump is going to lose the election.
Unfortunately for Trump, four recent major surveys all show Trump down by four points in the Sunshine state.
#2 Trump must win Ohio’s 18 electoral votes. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, and the two most recent major surveys show that Trump and Clinton are tied in the state.
#3 Trump must win Iowa’s 6 electoral votes. Fortunately for Trump, most recent surveys show him actually leading in Iowa.
#4 Trump must win Nevada’s 6 electoral votes. At this point that is looking like it will be very tough to do, because all of the recent polls have Clinton leading in Nevada, including the most recent one that has her up by 7 points.
If Donald Trump can win those four states, that still does not get him to 270 electoral votes. Instead, it gets him to 265 electoral votes, and so he would still need one more medium-sized state to win.
The most likely candidates for that last state are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesota. Unfortunately for Trump, Clinton appears to have big leads in all four of those states right at this moment.
But even if Trump can somehow pull off a miracle and squeak past the 270 electoral vote mark, the truth is that Utah could still mess everything up.
Do you remember Evan McMullin?
He was the third party “conservative alternative” candidate that was hyped for a couple of days but that seemingly fell off the map afterwards.
He is only on the ballot in 12 states, but one of those states is Utah, and it turns out that Evan McMullin is a Mormon.
Many Mormons believe that a Mormon will be elected president someday when the U.S. Constitution hangs “like a thread“. According to this belief, this Mormon president will turn the country around and all sorts of wonderful things will start to happen. Many Mormons thought that Mitt Romney was going to be this president, but now Evan McMullin has become the target of these expectations.
So how in the world could Evan McMullin become president?
Well, their plan is to have Evan McMullin win Utah, and that could potentially keep both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton from both getting to 270 electoral votes if the election is super close. If that happens, the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives.
It is being projected that the House will still be controlled by the Republicans after this election, and so the choice would come down to either Trump or McMullin, and those backing McMullin believe that he would have a realistic shot in that scenario.
I know all of this sounds very strange, but this is actually being discussed around family dinner tables all over Utah tonight.
And in recent days Evan McMullin has been soaring in Utah. One recent survey shows Trump with a one point lead over McMullin, and another recent survey actually show McMullin leading Trump by four points in the state.
So Trump could pull off a miracle and do everything else that he needs to do to get to 270 electoral votes, and Utah could end up messing up everything for him.
In addition, it is also very important to keep in mind that Trump could actually get all of the legitimate votes that he needs to win and still have it stolen from him by election fraud. There was widespread evidence of “funny business” in 2012, and this is something that I detailed for a live studio audience down at Morningsideearlier this month…
Are you starting to see why I would consider this to be the biggest miracle in American political history if Donald Trump actually overcomes all of these factors and wins the election?
And we don’t have to wait until November 8th to get some indications about how the vote is going to go. Early voting is already taking place is some states, and so far the signs are not encouraging for the Trump campaign. The following comes from CNN…
Democratic early turnout has stayed steady in North Carolina compared to 2012, while Republicans have dropped by about 14,500. In Nevada, Democrats have a smaller early voting deficit today than they did at this point in 2012. And Democrats are slightly ahead in Arizona in the early vote so far, though they are lagging Republicans in the tally of how many Arizonans have requested ballots.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Democrats improved their position in conservative and Mormon-heavy Utah, where recent polls have shown a tight race. At this point in 2012, Republicans led Democrats in early voting by more than 22,000 voters. But so far this year, the GOP advantage is only 3,509.
But if you do want Trump to win, the good news is that we still have more than two weeks before November 8th.
We have seen some extremely bizarre things happen already in this election, and a miracle is definitely not out of the question.
In fact, I am of the opinion that it is quite likely that some very strange events could take place between now and early November. So hold on to your hats, because the most interesting portion of the 2016 election may still be ahead of us. | 1 |
In response to the establishment media s contrived fake news crisis designed to marginalise independent and alternative media sources of news and analysis, 21WIRE is running its own #FakeNewsWeek awareness campaign, where each day our editorial team at 21st Century Wire will feature media critiques and analysis of mainstream corporate media coverage of current events exposing the government and the mainstream media as the real purveyors of fake news throughout modern history Join Patrick every Wednesday at Independent Talk 1100 KFNX and Alternate Current Radio for the very best in news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 12 This week we tackle the issue of fake news through a historical lens and from behind the media curtain In our main feature segment, host Patrick Henningsen is joined by special guest, investigative journalist, Mark Anderson from American Free Press and The Truth Hound, to talk about his experience covering the Bilderberg Group, as well as the faux crisis known as fake news where it came from and what it means in the context of today s political circus. Listen Listen to EP 13: Patrick Henningsen LIVE with Mark Anderson on Spreaker.This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm MST, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.com.LISTEN TO MORE INTERVIEWS AT PATRICK HENNINGSEN LIVE SHOW ARCHIVESPatrick Henningsen is editor of 21st Century Wire and also the host of the THE SUNDAY WIRE which broadcasts LIVE on Alternate Current Radio Sundays from 5pm-8pm GMT, 12pm-3pm EST, 9am-12pm PST. He is also the host of Patrick Henningsen LIVE on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX on terrestrial AM radio out of Phoenix, Arizona. READ MORE ABOUT MSM FAKE NEWS AT: FAKE NEWS WEEKSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Two women in New Jersey are suing the state for one horrific obstacle that is in their path to having children the women are lesbians, and they say the state is forcing them to have sex with men before they are allowed fertility treatments.According to the suit, the women were denied insurance coverage for their fertility treatments because of the wording of an N.J. law that requires women to prove their infertility not only through medical diagnosis, but through unprotected heterosexual sex. The law, the four women argue in the suit, discriminates against infertile gay couples trying to conceive.State law requires large insurance providers to cover costly fertility treatments for patients medically unable to have children. The couples take issue with how the law defines infertility, which includes the inability to become pregnant after one or two years of unprotected sex, depending on a woman s age. Insurance companies have been able to deny coverage to gay patients who, although they have been medically diagnosed infertile, do not fit the definition, the suit says.Source: New Jersey.comErin Krupas is infertile. Her doctor confirmed it, but that s not enough for New Jersey law. She needs to prove it by having sex with a man.You wouldn t think of a law like this existing in mostly blue New Jersey, but remember they did elect Chris Christie twice. He s still vehemently opposed to marriage equality, despite the fact that it s the law of the land. Christie didn t sign this archaic law, but you can bet he has no intention of making lives better for LGBT couples.I hate defending insurance companies, but they are caught in the middle here. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield vehemently maintains that they do not discriminate against LGBT couples, but they have to follow state law. They are not being named in the lawsuit.Here s the video:Let s all hope this law is overturned. This is state-mandated rape. There s no other way to describe it. | 1 |
The results of this town s gun ownership mandate shows what happens when there are armed civilians out there In 1982, the little town of Kennesaw, Georgia passed an ordinance that every able bodied family must own a gun. Here is the text of the ordinance:(a) In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore.(b)Exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who suffer a physical or mental disability which would prohibit them from using such a firearm. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who are paupers or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine, or persons convicted of a felony.An amendment to the gun ownership law grants exceptions to convicted felons, conscientious objectors and those who cannot afford a gun.In 2007, there was a follow up, showing the effects of the law on crime and the city. The liberals of course warned that Kennesaw would become the Wild West. Like all liberal predictions, this one belongs in the sewer. (Make sure you flush twice, it s a long ways to DNC HQ) In the 25 years that the law had been in place as of 2007 not one murder or defensive shooting took place. The first murder finally did occur in 2014, 32 years into the ordinance. The population soared from 5,242 to 28,189. The year prior to the passage of the ordinance, the city had a crime rate of (4,332 per 100,000). That was higher than the national average of (3,899 per 100,000). As of 2007, the crime rate had dropped to (2,268 per 100,000). The current crime rate for Kennesaw has dropped to (1,760 Per 100,000)In fact, Family Circle Magazine ranked Kennesaw as one of the ten best cities for families to live in. Kennesaw came in at Number 5. Kennesaw is far from being the one exception to the rule.The DOJ released a report that covered the years 1993 to 2011, a period in which gun ownership soared. What did they find? In 1993 there were 18,253 gun deaths. In 2011 there were just 11,101. Even more startling is that non fatal shootings dropped by 69%!!What about the liberal propaganda that gun shows are the case of most gun shootings because there are no background checks? The DOJ found that gun felons in federal prisons got just 2% of their guns from gun shows. 10 percent said they purchased their gun from a retail shop or pawnshop, 37 percent obtained it from family or friends, and another 40 percent obtained it from an illegal source.Concealed carriers also assisted in dropping crime rates during the years of the Obama caliphate. The number of concealed carry permits in 2007 was 4.6 million and has now soared to 12.8 million. That number is actually much higher since 8 states now do not require a concealed carry permit. During this same period, gun deaths dropped from 5.6 million to 4.2 million per 100,000.Harvard studied gun policies around the world and found to their astonishment that more guns mean less crime.One last item. What about the vaunted Gun free Zones? Are they working? Yes, but only for mass murderers. Since the 1950s, all but two mass shootings took place in gun free zones.Via: The PC Graveyard | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Taiwanese activist on trial in China confessed on Monday to attempting to subvert the Beijing government, according to videos of his hearing released by Chinese authorities, although his wife refused to recognize the court s authority. Lee Ming-che, a community college teacher known for his pro-democracy and rights activism, went missing on a trip to mainland China in March. China s authorities later confirmed that he was being investigated on suspicion of damaging national security. Lee said he accepted the charge of subversion and expressed regret in videos of his comments released on social media by the Yueyang City Intermediate People s Court in central Hunan province. I spread some attacks, theories that maliciously attacked and defamed China s government, the Chinese Communist Party and China s current political system, and I incited the subversion of state power, Lee said, referring to comments written in an instant messaging group. Taiwan s presidential office said in a news briefing on Monday afternoon that the government is engaged in an all-out effort to assist Mr. Lee Ming-che s family. His relief is our top priority. The position of this government has been very clear. Mr. Lee is one of our citizens, an office spokesman said, adding: We ll do everything in our power to ensure his safe return. Lee stood trial alongside Chinese national Peng Yuhua, 37, who confessed to creating instant messaging groups and founding an organization that sought to promote political change in China. Lee had been involved in both, Peng said in testimony released on video by the court. Taiwanese rights activist Xiao Yiming traveled to the mainland for the trial, but said he was barred from entering the courtroom. Xiao suspected Peng was being used by authorities to help strengthen the state s case against Lee, as he was unaware of any previous connection between the two men. Taiwan has democratic freedoms and Lee has the right to share his ideas, Xiao told Reuters by phone, describing Lee as a prisoner of conscience . Lee Ching-yu, Lee s wife, attended the hearing. Before leaving for China she had asked that Lee s supporters to forgive him for anything he might say that disappoints them during the hearing. She wrote a letter to her husband on Monday morning before the trial began, photographs of which were seen by Reuters. I do not recognize this court. I also did not hire any lawyers, she wrote. After the hearing, she tearfully repeated her request for forgiveness and unveiled what appeared to be two new tattoos on the underside of each of her forearms that read, Lee Ming-che and I am proud of you , videos sent to Reuters showed. No one answered the court phone when called by Reuters on Monday. Releasing videos and transcripts of court hearings has become increasingly common in China as part of a push for greater judicial transparency and oversight. But rights activists say that in sensitive cases holding open trials allows authorities to demonstrate state power and deter others, with statements and verdicts usually agreed in advance. Ties between Beijing and Taipei have been strained since President Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, took office last year. Tsai s refusal to state that Taiwan and China are part of one country has angered Beijing, as have her comments about human rights on the mainland. Beijing maintains that the island of Taiwan is part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control, while proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being governed by the Communist Party rulers in Beijing. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans have only themselves to blame for Donald Trump, a “monster” spawned by their constant partisan opposition to all major Obama administration initiatives, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday. “Republicans created him (Trump) by spending seven years appealing to some of the darkest forces in America,” said Reid. He spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate a day after presidential candidate Trump won a string of primary contests and consolidated his status as front-runner to be the Republican nominee in the November election. Trump’s rise has alarmed many establishment Republicans, who are both critical of his positions and skeptical he can win the White House. Reid, known for occasionally delivering controversial statements on the Senate floor, said Trump was now the Republican standard-bearer, but he could destroy the party. “The reality is that Republican leaders are reaping what they’ve sown,” Reid said, recounting seven years’ worth of staunch Republican opposition to Obama’s initiatives. Republicans had decided from the start of Obama’s presidency in 2009 that he was an “illegitimate” president, said Reid, who is retiring at the end of this year. Democrat Obama, the first African-American president, is in the final year of his second four-year term. His presidency has been marked by bitter battles with Republicans over fiscal affairs, a landmark law to expand healthcare coverage for the uninsured, immigration, banking reform and policies to tackle climate change. Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since 2011. And while they took control of the Senate in 2015, they previously used their minority status deftly to challenge Obama. Some Republicans, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, have been outspoken in their opposition to Trump as the prospective party nominee, saying the New York billionaire’ s inflammatory rhetoric will lead to defeat in the general election. Nonetheless, Trump, 69, now looks near unstoppable to be the Republican running against the eventual Democratic presidential candidate - most likely Hillary Clinton. Among Trump’s more controversial proposals have been his call for a wall along the entire southwestern U.S. border to keep out Mexican immigrants. When Congress was attempting to pass a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013 and 2014, many Republican lawmakers put the brakes on the measure, instead calling for tough border enforcement only. “Now it’s time for Republicans to undo what they’ve done by denouncing Donald Trump,” Reid said. “Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster. If the Republicans fail to stop Donald Trump, he’ll tear the party apart even more than it is now.” (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Eric Beech 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 |
As a college student, I know first-hand how quick liberals are to attack someone for expressing a political opinion that is different from their own. This is another one of the many examples of the hate young conservatives endure for simply doing what they believe is right.A Twitter user out of Wyoming with the handle makenna_mg posted the pictures on Wednesday and they proceeded to go mega-viral.Makenna, a girl from Wyoming posted pictures of herself cleaning graffiti off of Trump s star and was subsequently berated for her respect for the President. I m guessing her looks were also triggering to some of the angry girlsStopped to clean @realDonaldTrump Hollywood Star. Nothing but respect for MY President. #RaisedRight pic.twitter.com/jL4sqx4rlh Makenna (@makenna_mg) June 28, 2017Trump-haters responded by attacking her as a dumb white b*tch and saying they want to violently attack every white girl that looks slightly like her. Politics aside it's sad that our country criticizes and taunts a young lady who did what she thought was right. @makenna_mg I'm proud of you Paul Miller III (@pdmiller307) June 30, 2017Mike Cernovich nailed it:Two Americas which will you choose? pic.twitter.com/5UkmN15XOS Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 1, 2017 | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump called the controversy over Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential campaign a “political witchhunt” on Friday in an interview hours before he was to receive a U.S. intelligence briefing on the topic. “China, relatively recently, hacked 20 million government names,” Trump told the New York Times, referring to the Office of Personnel Management breach in 2014 and 2015. “How come nobody even talks about that? This is a political witch hunt.” He said hackers have infiltrated the White House and Congress. “We’re like the hacking capital of the world,” said Trump. | 0 |
The readers of Elena Ferrante are devoted — and fiercely protective — of that anonymous Italian author. That much was clear from the swift and unforgiving backlash after an investigative journalist used financial documents to suggest in an article published on Sunday that Anita Raja, an Italian translator, was behind Ms. Ferrante’s books. Many readers saw the story — which appeared simultaneously on the website of The New York Review of Books and in an Italian, a German and a French publication — not only as a violation of privacy but as an unprovoked aggression against an author known for female protagonists who use radical to exert power over their lives and fates. In his article, Claudio Gatti, a reporter for Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian financial daily, did not definitively name Ms. Raja as Ms. Ferrante, but he described financial records indicating that payments from Ms. Ferrante’s publishing house, Edizioni to Ms. Raja, a consultant there, had risen dramatically since 2014, when Ms. Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels became an international publishing phenomenon. His report drew broad condemnation in the literary world, with writers for The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere questioning whether an intriguing literary mystery needed to be resolved through tough investigative journalism techniques. “You do an investigation into property for tax evaders, not for those who want to preserve their anonymity,” the Italian novelist Erri De Luca wrote in an email. “It’s a serious violation of the right to privacy. I’m sorry for Anita Raja, who will now be forced into celebrity. ” Running through the conversation was the notion that Mr. Gatti’s exposé was a sexist violation — yet another example, critics said, at a moment of intense debate over gender inequality, of how successful women find themselves bullied and demeaned by men. “People really went there very quickly,” Elaine Showalter, a retired professor at Princeton University and the author of numerous works of feminist criticism, said of the charge of sexism against Mr. Gatti. “Here’s a woman who is not only extremely successful but explores women’s lives in a way that doesn’t depict men very favorably,” Ms. Showalter continued. People may be seeing Mr. Gatti’s unmasking of the author, she added, “as a kind of revenge. ” Mr. Gatti said in an interview that he did not understand the strong reactions. “I wasn’t going after a woman, I was going after a mystery,” he said. “I would like to ask the people who didn’t want to know, ‘Explain what work of art in the history of art has been ruined or damaged by knowing who the artist is?’ I can name many, many cases where the art is enhanced. ” Hugh Eakin, editor of The New York Review’s blog, which published the version of Mr. Gatti’s report, said the occasion for the piece was the forthcoming release of an expanded version of a book of Ms. Ferrante’s nonfiction writings, in which the author says she grew up in Naples as the daughter of a seamstress. “Now that an expanded version is about to be published in English, it seemed there was a legitimate occasion to inquire about the relation between the book and its author,” Mr. Eakin wrote. Ms. Raja was born in Naples, but grew up in Rome, the daughter of an Italian father and, as Mr. Gatti said in a deeply reported sidebar, a Polish Jewish mother who fled Nazi Germany for Italy. Ms. Raja’s husband, the novelist Domenico Starnone, has said in interviews that he grew up in Naples and that his mother was a seamstress. He has spent years saying that he is not Ms. Ferrante. Ms. Raja has also denied authorship of Ms. Ferrante’s books. Mr. Eakin added of Mr. Gatti’s reporting, “Though it amasses considerable evidence it’s also worth noting the article does not make a conclusive statement. ” (Mr. Gatti had approached The New York Times several weeks ago about possibly publishing his research, but the newspaper decided not to pursue the arrangement, which would have involved coordinating with multiple journalistic partners.) Over the years, there have been other attempts to unmask authors, such as Joe Klein, who wrote “Primary Colors,” a roman à clef about Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, or Anne Desclos, who used a pseudonym when she wrote the 1954 erotic classic “The Story of O. ” But the effort to unveil Ms. Ferrante seemed to hit a deeper chord, perhaps because she has said in interviews that anonymity was crucial to her writing process. And it seemed to reveal a clash of sensibilities — between the journalistic and the literary, between those who believe anyone who publishes is fair game and those who believe some secrets should be kept. In short, a clash between the world of reporting and the emotional truths of fiction. The publication in four languages simultaneously was “very aggressive — more appropriate to the capture of a criminal,” the novelist Alexander Chee wrote in an email. “She seems to have offended him by keeping herself private — it’s like the literary version of ‘How to Talk to a Woman Wearing Headphones,’” he added, referring to recent controversy over a blog post. Even some readers who admit they were curious to know say that they somehow didn’t want Ms. Ferrante’s identity to be made public. The editor of The Times Literary Supplement, Stig Abell, wrote a piece called “Why the TLS Would Not Have Named Elena Ferrante,” citing the author’s right to privacy. Salman Rushdie took to Facebook. “I am Elena Ferrante,” he wrote. “In the spirit of ‘I am Spartacus,’ in the wake of the New York Review of Books’ tawdry ‘exposé’ of her identity, every writer in the world should do this now. ” Not all writers shared that position. The critic Marco Roth said that Mr. Gatti’s reporting was valuable, even inevitable. “Conditions change for all writers once they’ve been published and it’s naïve to assume that Ferrante’s pseudonymity (had it been protected) would have allowed her to flower forever in the brilliant vein of ‘My Brilliant Friend,’” Mr. Roth wrote on Facebook, referring to the first of Ms. Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. “Anita Raja will now have to work this new twist in her life into the next stage of her work, whatever that may be. No writer can control or really has the right to control the conditions of her reception,” Mr. Roth added. Some writers invoked the rhetoric of sexual assault in condemning Mr. Gatti’s approach. Alexandra Schwartz, on the website of The New Yorker, blasted Mr. Gatti’s justifications for his unmasking — that Ms. Ferrante is a public figure and the public who buys her books has a right to know. “Certainly Gatti does not explain why he feels so free to interpret Ferrante’s ‘no’ as his ‘yes,’” Ms. Schwartz wrote. Some critics speculated on why readers were so protective of Ms. Ferrante’s anonymity. “By protecting her privacy, she protected ours,” the critic Dayna Tortorici wrote in a post on N+1. “More than Ferrante herself, her readers have benefited from her choice. ” “We are as invested in her anonymity — and her autonomy — as she is,” she added. “It is a compact: she won’t tell us, we won’t ask, and she won’t change her mind and tell us anyway. In exchange, she’ll write books and we’ll read them. ” Ann Goldstein, who translated Ms. Ferrante’s novels into English, said in an interview that she hoped the latest revelations, however inconclusive, would not change how readers approached Ms. Ferrante’s books. “I think people will read them the same way they’ve always read them,” she said. “I don’t know how important the author is. I’d take her position the books are in the world. They are what they are. ” | 0 |
i can hear msm somewhere using this as proof russia started isis. | 1 |
Email
The boat, along with other means of travel, are often undertaken as matters of freedom. Movement keeps one alive in times of peace, and in conflict. The Australian government, and those backing its practices, have wished over the years to limit, if not halt such movement altogether.
Since the last decade, extreme measures have been implemented that effectively qualify Australian sovereignty while singling out a particular breed of asylum seeker. The former aspect of that policy was specifically undertaken to excise the entire mainland from being qualified as territorially valid to arrive in.
The entire policy effectively assumed a military character, most conspicuously under the Abbott government’s embrace of a creepily crypto-fascist border protection force, equipped with uniforms and patriotic purpose. Operation Sovereign Borders effectively meant that the refugee and asylum seeker were fair game – not to be processed and settled equitably with a minimum of fuss, but to be repelled, their boats towed back to Indonesia, and people smugglers bribed.
An entire intelligence-security complex has also been created, fed by private contractors and held in place by the promise of a two-year prison sentence for entrusted officials in possession of “protected” information.
Such statements as those made today by Prime Minister Turnbull, announced with note of grave urgency at a press conference, tend to resemble a typical pattern in Australian politics since the Howard years.
The borders, even if supposedly secure, are deemed to be in a permanent state of siege, forever battered by potential invaders keen to swindle Parliament and the Australian people. Yes, boasted the Abbott, and now Turnbull government, the boats laden with desperate human cargo have stopped coming. Yes, all is well on the sea lanes in terms of repelling such unwanted arrivals. But for all of this, the island continent is being assaulted by characters of will, those keen to avail themselves of desperate people and their desire for a secure, safe haven.
The policy has also received international attention from such establishment institutions as The New York Times. “While that arrangement,” went an editorial this month, “largely stopped the flow of boats packed with people that set off from Indonesia weekly, it has landed these refugees – many from Iran, Myanmar, Iraq and Afghanistan – in what amounts to cruel and indefinite detention.”
As the editorial continued to observe, “This policy costs Australian taxpayers a staggering $US419,000 per detainee a year and has made a nation that has historically welcomed immigrants a violator of international law.”
While this obscenity has been powdered and perfumed as humanitarian, designed to halt the spate of drowning cases at sea, the latest announcements have abandoned the stance. “They must know,” claimed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “that the door to Australia is closed to those who seek to come here by boat with a people smuggler.”
Finally, an honest statement twinning two perceived demons in Australian refugee policy: the people smuggler and the asylum seeker, both equivalently horrible to Australian authorities. To that end, not a single asylum seeker arriving by boat will be permitted to settle in Australia. This policy will also affect arrivals from July 2013.
Such a stance of finality seems little different to pervious ones made by Abbott’s predecessor, Kevin Rudd. What is troubling about it is the element of monomania: never will any asylum seeker, who had arrived after a certain date, will be permitted to settle in Australia.
The intention there is to make sure that those designated refugees on Manus Island and Nauru, facilitated by Australia’s draconian offshore regime, will have the doors shut, effectively ensuring a more prolonged, torturous confinement. Absurdly, they will then be permitted to slum away indefinitely in such indigent places as Nauru, with a population hostile to those from the Middle East and Africa.
Turnbull’s stance may also suggest a degree of desperation. Not all has gone swimmingly with the offshore detention complex. The PNG Supreme Court rendered an aspect of the Australian refugee policy redundant in finding that detaining individuals indefinitely on Manus Island breached constitutional rights.
Peter Dutton, the hapless Minister for Immigration, has struggled in managing what can only be described by the border security obsessives as an administrative disaster. Rather than admitting to the realities that searching for refuge over dangerous routes will always find a market, the Australian government persists in a cruel delusion that continues to deny international refugee law while punishing the victims. | 1 |
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States diplomatic mission in Somalia has directed all non-essential staff to leave the capital Mogadishu, saying it had received a specific threat against its employees. The move came a day after Washington carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in the country, in raids it said killed several terrorists . Due to specific threat information against U.S. personnel on the Mogadishu International Airport, the U.S. Mission to Somalia has directed its non-essential U.S. citizen employees to depart Mogadishu until further notice, said a statement. It did not give further details. Islamic State has been gathering recruits in the region, but it remains a small player compared to the al Shabaab group. Last month, a group loyal to Islamic State seized a small port town in Somalia s semi-autonomous Puntland region. Al Shabaab is linked to Islamic State s rival al Qaeda and once controlled much of Somalia. The group aims to drive out international peacekeepers, topple Somalia s Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state. The United States has occasionally carried out strikes against al Shabaab. More than 350 people were killed in twin bombings in Mogadishu last month blamed on the group. | 0 |
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are at the top of Trump's VP shortlist, say sources, but both candidates may be less than ideal.
Presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is reportedly vetting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (l.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, both shown in this composite image, as potential running mates.
Donald Trump’s long-awaited vice president announcement is getting closer, say sources, as the Republican National Convention on July 18 quickly approaches.
There are reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are at the top of the VP shortlist and currently filling out paperwork for the vetting process. Other names include Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
The intense speculation around Trump’s potential running mate speaks to the high salience VP picks have had in previous election years. Vice presidential picks often serve as a unifying force for a party after a divisive contest for the nomination, a point Trump is likely considering as he tries to woo establishment Republicans onto his side. The right VP candidate could help bring party leaders, Republican voters, and big donors into the Trump fold, all people the campaign desperately needs ahead of the general election.
“Even if it doesn’t move the needle much, the vice presidential selection can help compensate for some of the problems and concerns that voters have about a nominee,” Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, writes for CNN. “In Trump’s case this is especially important given how unprecedented and unpredictable his candidacy is.”
The assumed VP frontrunners, Governor Christie and former Representative Gingrich, could help Trump work the legislative aspect of the presidency.
Gingrich has the experience. During his 20 years as a representative from Georgia, Gingrich served as House minority whip for six years and speaker for four. And Christie, who was appointed as US Attorney for the District of New Jersey by President George W. Bush in 2002 before becoming governor in 2010, has been crucial to the Trump campaign, shopping around for endorsements and donations.
“[Trump] is the first to admit that he doesn’t know all the ways of Washington,” Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor who has been close with Trump during his campaign, told The Washington Post. “So to actually push what he wants through, he’s willing to reach out and get somebody to lend a hand.”
With more than 60 percent of voters feeling unfavorable about Trump at the end of June, the right VP pick could help voters feel more positive about the Republican ticket.
However, Gingrich and Christie might not be the ones to do it.
When Gingrich withdrew from the presidential race in 2012, he had unfavorable ratings ranging between 56 and 67 percent. And even before his unsuccessful presidential bid, Gingrich had a less-than-perfect track record, as John Pitney Jr. explains:
Trump might be thinking that Gingrich could be his link to the Washington establishment that he has so long criticized. If so, he should think again. During his speakership, Gingrich alienated his colleagues through his impetuous leadership style. There was an abortive GOP effort to depose him in 1997, and in the following year, colleagues finally forced him to leave after the Clinton impeachment backfired politically. During his presidential race, few lawmakers endorsed him.
And Christie, who once seemed like a presidential contender himself, may not be that much better.
Christie’s approval ratings in his home state have tanked since he started supporting Trump. Regardless of age, gender, or education, 60 to 68 percent of New Jersey voters disapproved of Christie in May, the lowest rating ever for the governor. And when asked what they think of a VP role on Trump’s ticket, 72 percent of New Jersey voters said they disapprove.
“It’s a drastic decline in popularity for a governor who once looked like a strong choice for president,” Maurice Carroll, assistant director for Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a press release last month. “Christie-for-President was a flop, and, as far as the local folks are concerned, so is Christie-for-Vice President. Forget local pride, New Jersey voters say overwhelmingly; they don’t want their gov on a Trump ticket.” | 1 |
"It's like we're testing the proposition that candidates themselves don't matter, that the only thing that matters is their party affiliation. We're offering up people two totally garbage candidates and then saying, 'OK, what if we made it worse.'"
That's Reason magazine Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward kicking off a new Reason podcast hosted by me and featuring guest Eli Lake, who writes about national security for Bloomberg View.
In the 40 minutes of fast-paced, wide-ranging conversation, we talk about whether alleged past assaults by Donald Trump should disqualify him from the presidency, how Wikileaks is confirming everyone's lowest opinion of Hillary Clinton, and how Gary Johnson's lack of guile may make him unsuited to be commander in chief. Also: Does the United States need to bust Russia's lip to maintain international order and are we living in a fully post-fact world?
Produced by Ian Keyser. Listen by clicking below.
Subscribe to our audio podcast at iTunes.
Subscribe to our video podcast at iTunes.
Like us on Facebook. | 1 |
You re gonna love this!The left has been screaming for decades about the government interfering in their right to kill their babies. Because after all, even though it s a human life in its earliest stages of development; it s growing inside their womb, so the government has no business protecting the innocent life of that baby in THEIR bodies.Strangely enough, the left is angry about Trump s decision to let the states decide if they will or will not force its citizens to share a bathroom or public shower with a person who claims to be a certain gender contrary to what their genitals say they are. Clearly the hypocritical left can t make up their mind when it s okay, or when it s not okay for the government to tell citizens what they can or cannot do | 0 |
With only three clowns left in GOP clown car, Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination. During a segment on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert hilariously mocks Trump s victory tantrum and explains the only two ways to stop Trump from securing the nomination.Since the Republican primary race is being dominated by a has been reality TV star, Colbert appropriately likens the race to The Bachelor. Colbert lampoons Ohio governor John Kasich s claim that he can still win the nomination after his only win in Ohio. Colbert quips that Kasich would have to be made the governor of every remaining state in the U.S. in order for the candidate to have any real chance of winning the nomination.So, even though Kasich has not dropped out of the race, the only possible person left in the race who could defeat Trump is The Zodiac Killer Ted Cruz. That isn t good news for the GOP or the U.S. Cruz, while he has yet to start a race riot at a campaign event, is actually far worse than Trump in terms of policy. Cruz is also incredibly creepy. Colbert jokes at the idea of Cruz winning the Republican nomination, saying: If every single Trump voter unites behind him, he could get enough delegates to be the nominee. Then the GOP establishment can say, Goodbye, candidate we don t like! Hello, candidate, we can t stand! If Cruz cannot secure enough votes to secure the nomination, Republicans will have one final shot at defeating Trump a brokered convention. So if Trump doesn t get to 1,237 delegates in the first round of voting, they re all free to vote for whoever. Which is great news. The Republican campaign can start all over again, only this time it s all crammed into one week. You can binge watch the death of the GOP! You can watch the segment, in full, below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
DNC Renews Lawsuit Against RNC Over Voter Intimidation (VIDEO) By Lisa Bonanno on October 29, 2016
According to a document filed in federal court this past Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee is taking Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to task over their plans to “monitor” the polls.
The filing says that the RNC is violating a consent decree by: “… Supporting and enabling the efforts of the Republican candidate for President, Donald J. Trump, as well as his campaign and advisors, to intimidate and discourage minority voters from voting in the 2016 Presidential Election. Trump has falsely and repeatedly told his supporters that the November 8 election will be ‘rigged’ based upon fabricated claims of voter fraud in ‘certain areas’ or ‘certain sections’ of key states. Unsurprisingly, those ‘certain areas’ are exclusively communities in which large minority voting populations reside.”
The document goes on to name some of the specific quotes and directives that Donald Trump has given supporters. It also mentions that: “Following the third presidential debate, Trump’s campaign manager told a reporter that the campaign was working to combat purported voter fraud by ‘actively working with the national committee, the official party, and campaign lawyers to monitor precincts around the country.'”
This shows that the RNC is involved in this effort, which has already begun . Trump ally Roger Stone organized “Vote Protectors,” who are instructed to conduct “exit polls.” Initially, the volunteers were asked to upload video of voters, create ID badges and wear red shirts at specific polling places. After journalistic inquiry , Stone said he would change his tactics. He simply created a new website, but that’s another story.
The Democratic National Committee is going after Trump and the RNC for violation of a consent decree signed in 1982. At that time, the RNC was involved in voter suppression in targeted areas known to vote predominantly Democrat. They hired off-duty sheriffs and police officers to go to polling places in those areas displaying a sign stating “This area is being patrolled by the National Ballot Security Task Force.” There were other activities, such as the challenge of individual voter registrations in certain communities.
The consent decree forcing the RNC to cease its 1982 “ballot security” activities resulted from a successful DNC suit. The decree expires next year. In the current suit, the DNC seeks to renew it for another eight years.
34 years later, we have an old tactic re-branded by the same party to do the same thing: intimidate minority voters. The DNC opens fire against RNC voter intimidation tactics
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video Connect with me | 1 |
(Reuters) - Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Tuesday urged state legislators to approve a plan to increase taxes and tap reserves to plug the largest budget shortfall in state history. Louisiana faces a projected shortfall of $750 million this fiscal year and the gap is expected to grow to $1.9 billion in the next fiscal year beginning July 1 from deteriorating tax revenues and a drop in oil prices. Edwards, a Democrat who took office earlier this month, wants to add 1 cent to the state’s existing 4-cent sales tax, excluding the purchase of groceries, prescription drugs and residential utilities. The proposed measure is expected to raise $216 million by late June. The plan also taps $128 million from the state’s rainy day fund and $200 million paid by Plc to reimburse cleanup efforts following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The state would also cut some discretionary funding. If enacted, the governor’s plan would reduce but not eliminate the deficits the state faces. “The days of using budget gimmicks that helped us limp along are over,” said Edwards, the first Democrat to hold the office of governor in Louisiana since 2008. “This administration will remove the smoke and mirrors and provide the facts of where we are and where we are going.” Edwards warned that if leaders did not act quickly, universities could struggle, distressed hospitals could close, and public education could suffer severe cuts. “Raising taxes is not my first, second, or even third option when seeking to fill the state’s budget shortfall,” said Edwards. “Unfortunately, those cuts will not be enough to bridge the enormous shortfall we face today.” The state’s overall budget problems stem from the drop in oil prices, but much of the shortfall also comes from previous excessive use of one-time money and lower-than-expected revenues, the governor’s office reported. Louisiana is now contending with years of unresolved structural budget deficits that have collided with a weakening state economy and a sharp drop in revenues from oil and gas extraction taxes, Moody’s Investors Services said in December. Moody’s rates Louisiana Aa2 with a negative outlook. During Edwards’ inaugural address last week, he pledged to begin accepting federal funding to expand healthcare to residents through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. | 1 |
CNN employees have resigned for their role in pushing fake news about the Trump-Russia story that claimed a member of the Trump transition team was under investigation.Reporter Thomas Frank, editor Eric Lichtblau and executive editor Lex Haris all resigned from their positions following a company-wide investigation into the single-sourced story that was quickly debunked, The Washington Post first reported. CNN quickly followed up with a story of their own on the resignations. Lichtblau reportedly oversaw the false story, while Haris headed up CNN s investigative unit. In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story s publication, CNN s coverage quotes a company spokesman as saying.The retracted story, which relied upon a single unnamed congressional source, claimed that Senate investigators were probing Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci and whether or not he discussed lifting sanctions during a meeting with a Russia banker just days before Trump s inauguration. CNN later retracted the story and apologized to Scaramucci | 0 |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday intensified his accusations that NATO allies were not spending enough on defense and warned of more attacks like this week’s Manchester bombing unless the alliance did more to stop militants. In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump said certain member countries owed “massive amounts of money” to the United States and NATO — even though allied contributions are voluntary, with multiple budgets. His scripted comments contrasted with NATO’s choreographed efforts to play up the West’s unity by inviting Trump to unveil a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the new NATO headquarters building in Brussels. “Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to Monday’s suicide bombing in the English city that killed 22 people, including children. “These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct ... in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share,” Trump said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg defended Trump, saying that although he was “blunt” he had “a very plain and clear message on the expectations” of allies. But one senior diplomat said Trump, who left the leaders’ dinner before it ended to fly to Italy for Friday’s Group of Seven summit, said the remarks did not go down well at all. “This was not the right place or time,” the diplomat said of the very public harangue. “We are left with nothing else but trying to put a brave face on it.” In another unexpected twist, Trump called on NATO, an organization founded on collective defense against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks. And Trump did say that the United States “will never forsake the friends who stood by our side” but NATO leaders had hoped he would more explicitly support the mutual defense rules of a military alliance’s he called “obsolete” during his campaign. Instead, he returned to a grievance about Europe’s drop in defense spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to NATO’s founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all. “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defense,” Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers. “This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years,” Trump said as the other leaders watched. Nicholas Burns, a former long-time diplomat and ambassador to NATO from 2001-2005, now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said every U.S. president since Harry Truman had pledged support for Article V and that the United States would defend Europe. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was “100 percent” committed to collective defense. “We are not playing cutesie with this. He is fully committed,” Spicer said. Praise was always going to be in short supply after Trump’s sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism. Last year, Trump threatened to abandon U.S. allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defense, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia’s border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. Although he has since softened his tone in phone calls and meetings with Western leaders, Trump’s sharp words on Thursday recalled his awkward meeting with Angela Merkel in March, when he pressed the German chancellor for Germany to meet NATO’s military spending target. NATO diplomats planned to placate Trump with a pledge on Thursday to agree to national plans by the end of this year showing how NATO allies will meet a promise to spend 2 percent of economic output every year on defense by 2024. But Trump increased the pressure, calling that agreement made at a summit in Wales in 2014 “the bare minimum”. “Even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient ... 2 percent is the bare minimum for confronting today’s very real and very vicious threats,” Trump said. He also made his presence felt at his first NATO summit, literally, pushing his way past Montenegro’s prime minister, Dusko Markovic, whose country joins the organization next month, in footage that went viral. Spicer said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot. NATO nonetheless strived to impress Trump with allied jets flying overhead and a walk through the new glass headquarters, which replaces a 1960s prefab structure. Trump, a real estate magnate, called the building “beautiful” and joked that he did not dare ask how much it cost. | 1 |
Forget fake news the real issue is fake “hate. ”[Has there been one (1) documented hate crime committed by white people against any hue in the Rainbow Coalition since Nov. 8? That’s out of the 9, 456, 723 hate crimes alleged by America’s leading hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is to “hate” what Rolling Stone is to rape. It is the biggest peddler of fantasies since Walt Disney. I’ve read through dozens of SPLC “hate crimes” and they are all lies. The Muslim girls in particular seem to be very spirited liars. Since the election, there have been vivid stories from across the nation of Trump supporters tearing off Muslim girls’ hijabs — at the University of Michigan (since retracted) Louisiana State University (also retracted) San Diego State University (that too was retracted) the New York City subway (again: retracted) and the University of New Mexico (no witnesses, won’t reveal attacker’s name or report the incident for investigation). The main from all these stories is: We sure have taken in a lot of Muslims! They seem to have trouble assimilating to American laws about not committing mass murder, but the good news is, when it comes to America’s culture of victimhood, they assimilate like fish to water! This isn’t mass psychogenic illness, like when cheerleaders at the same high school all develop tics. It’s not even the Salem witch trials. At least the Salem believed in witches. The Muslim hoaxers are lying, and they know they’re lying. Otherwise, they’d leave the country. If Muslims want to convince me that they’re living in abject fear in Trump’s America, instead of rushing to the media, somebody’s got to leave. I’ve heard endless stories about the reign of terror against Muslims, but have yet to hear of one single Muslim — much less a wave of Muslims — moving out of the United States. It’s not as if they get depressed at the thought of abandoning the old ancestral home, where their are buried. They just got here! If any Muslim were at risk of so much as a dyspeptic look from white Americans, there’s emigration as well as immigration. But to the contrary, we can’t keep them out! They get huffy and give indignant speeches at the Democratic National Convention at the suggestion of a mere pause in Muslim immigration. The greatest fear of Muslims these days is that they won’t be home when the “Today” show calls and will miss the opportunity to regale credulous hosts with stories about their victimization at the hands of white American men (whose areburied here). The left has gone so insane that the SPLC, the main propagator of fake hate crimes, is the media’s expert on hate. SPLC spokesmen appear on TV and defame all the people they hate: whites, Christians, Trump supporters, cops, frat boys and so on. The SPLC is like the cult awareness groups taken over by Scientologists. Terrified parents would call for help in rescuing their kids from Scientology and be told, No, Scientology is not a cult. With the SPLC, the “hate watch” group is the hater. Unlike some toothless nobody claiming to be a member of the KU KLUX KLAN, the SPLC’s slanders are instantly amplified by the media megaphone in somber interviews conducted by the most easily fooled people in the universe, American journalists. Breitbart, Daily Caller and others have done a great job collecting the hoax hate crimes since the election, but we need a central clearinghouse to keep up with the volume. How about someone found the Northern Poverty Law Center (NPLC) to document actual hate crimes and expose the hoaxes being spit out on an assembly line by the SPLC? Maybe the Koch brothers could get back in Trump’s good graces by funding this service. The NPLC ought to be in the Rolodexes of every media organization, so they can stop reporting fake news and start covering the real hate crimes currently ignored by the press. The only incidents of actual “hate” since the election have been entirely in one direction: against (mostly white) Trump supporters. This isn’t surprising given the climate of hate being spread by the media. As illustrated on the website of the NPLC (coming soon!) we aren’t dealing with a Reichstag fire designed to generate hate toward white male Trump supporters. It’s been Reichstag fire after Reichstag fire. At this point, any claim of “hate” directed at Muslims, blacks, gays or Hispanics by Trump supporters should be treated as if it’s a UFO sighting: presumed false, unless documented with irrefutable evidence. But until the NPLC is up and running, here are some tips for journalists: — Real hate crimes do not begin with laughably implausible scenarios. Try to use a modicum of common sense. — They are almost always captured on videotape or at least are seen by actual witnesses who give statements to the police. Lachrymose accounts posted on Facebook do not constitute evidence. — They generally result in medical treatment and arrests. The Trump Justice Department needs to create an office that will serve as a liaison with this new civil rights organization, the Northern Poverty Law Center. Because eradicating hate is Job No. 1! COPYRIGHT 2017 ANN COULTER, DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION | 0 |
Donald Trump Is The Candidate For Americans, Not Special Interests Donald Trump Is The Candidate For Americans, Not Special Interests Luke Stranahan
Luke Stranahan is an engineer by trade and an armed patriot by inclination. He writes for Return of Kings as a leisure pursuit and an attempt to do his part to help reverse the slide into moral decrepitude of modern society. Follow him on Twitter. November 2, 2016 Politics
Next Tuesday is the American election, and, for better or for worse, we’ll pick the next President at that time (assuming we don’t get mired in voter fraud and recounts), and we’ll either brace for government mandated SJW enemas or bask in a temporary setback of those evil people. But, today, I want to talk on Trump once to match an article from last week, and I intend to focus on how he is the American candidate, as opposed to the special interest groups’ one.
I had a conversation last week with some people who acted as SJWs, but were later presented by a mutual friend as libertarian. The discussion immediately went nasty, with my opposition painting Trump (and anyone who supported him) as a racist and a bigot. Upon trying to determine why two of the left’s ubiquitous labels were applied to me this time, I learned that their perspective was, unless you were universally for all special interest groups, you were a bigot or a racist. False Dichotomy And The American Nightmare
The problem, I found out, was that these people have distilled the political spectrum down into a black or white situation. Either you want all refugees here from the Middle East, all the Hispanics from any country south of the border to come here freely and citizenship for those already here, and that any black people shot by police are just misunderstood and were turning their lives around, or you’re a racist. There’s simply no middle ground.
They don’t understand that Trump is not a special interest candidate, by which I mean that he is not going to put any minority group ahead of the rest of us at our expense, but he is not racist towards minorities, or sexist towards women.
It is possible to be against illegal immigration, but treat Americans of Hispanic ancestry as valued citizens whom you will represent. It is possible to be against feminism, Affirmative Action, and the persecution of men for the profit of women, yet still value American women as Americans themselves. It is possible to note that some black people cause a disproportionate amount of crime, yet note that some police are racist, and see that there are bad and good cops AND bad and good black people.
The American Dream is that all men are created equal, and that’s men as in humanity, not just males. It is not that all men are equal, and there’s a big difference to note here. You have the same opportunities as everyone else when you are born with the exception of disability, and I do not know anyone, myself included, that is against governmental aid for the disabled.
What we have, instead, is the American Nightmare, where the left uses government and taxes for the most inane of causes, trying to fix any disadvantaged group’s lot, real or imagined, so that things will be better. They take from the producers, and give to the non-producers so that, according to their idealistic vision, they will suddenly become productive members of society (or become addicted to the welfare tit and vote Democrat for the rest of their lives.) The Good Of The Country Over That Of The Individual
Long gone are responsible Democrats like Kennedy who told us to ask what you can do for your country. Every recent Democratic President, from Carter to Obama, and most of the Democrat Congressmen, view the working middle class of the country as simply a group to exploit for their pet special interest groups. Trump is the first candidate in a long time who isn’t for the blacks, or the gays, or the Muslims, or the feminists, or whatever, and that matters a lot.
The reason why not being for a special interest group (which is ALL that Hillary is for, with her youth vote, black vote, women’s vote, gay vote, etc.) is so important is that these groups, even put together, do not matter when it comes down to the good of the country. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good, hardworking black people, just like there’s the same for women, and for gays, and for young people, but these hardworking folks from all these groups aren’t going to be part of the BLM, or La Raza, or Lamda, because they’re too busy being productive Americans. Activism is for unemployed people.
What’s going to happen if we don’t placate BLM and just ignore them? They riot a bit more and some get arrested? What if we told them that people that commit crimes to protest being treated like they commit a lot of crimes is ass-backwards thinking and counter-productive to their goals? They’d quit rioting.
What would happen if we shut the Mexican border down to illegal immigration, but made a straightforward, but strict, path to citizenship for Hispanics that wanted to be citizens? What if we said, this is America, we appreciate your culture and encourage to preserve it and your language in your children, but the national language IS English, and all business and schooling will be done in it, and in it only, and it’s your choice to not learn it, but the difficulties that will arise from that choice are all on you? They’d be Americans, proud of their heritage and their legal immigration and citizenship as well.
What would happen if we told gay people that it’s cool if they have civil unions under the law, and have the same rights as everyone else, but it’s not cool trying to pick a fight with a Christian bakery to make the government hall monitor come drive them out of business just because their belief in their God and that you’re sinning makes you uneasy and worried that they might actually be right?
What if we told them it’s ok to do whatever you want with another consenting adult, but you don’t have to try to make five-year-olds decide if they’re gay or straight when they shouldn’t be wondering about that till puberty hits? They’d be normal Americans who just happen to like sex with the same gender, and they’d quit pushing their agenda and being obnoxious and in the rest of our faces.
What would happen if we talked to Muslims and said that there is a huge, deafening, silence when it comes to the subject of Islamic Terrorism from them that makes it hard to trust any of them? What if we told them that we needed their help to bring the religion out of its tacit acceptance and support of terrorism, and part of that help means supporting us vetting Muslims coming here more strictly until they are no longer statistically more likely to be terrorists than people of other religions and ethnicities? They’d go along with that and maybe realize we’re fixing a problem, not hating a people.
What would happen if we told women that feminism has all but killed modern marriage due to universal punishment of divorced men and that no punishment for false-rape accusers both makes men not trust women and insults any real rape survivor? What would happen if we told them that giving them jobs for their genitalia over their skills is destroying industries by lowering the only standard that matters, that of merit; that of excellence?
What if we told them that gender ratios and quotas may fix the macro view of sexism, but make the man passed over for the position solely because you were female pissed as all hell towards women and, when you do that to the majority of men, you’ll be just as successful, and just as hated by men as men were and were hated by you in years past? They’d realize that it’s not a competition, it’s a cooperation, and maybe skill should be valued over sex.
What would happen if we stopped all these divisive issues that really don’t do anything other than tear us apart and work on a better economy, on rights for all, on border security? What would happen if we simply looked at each other as Americans, and put us, all of us, first? What would happen if we ripped out the crap in the Federal government that overtaxes people, or deploys armed forces against our own countrymen? What would happen if we made the Supreme Court Constitutional again, and made term limits a reality for Congress? Maybe we could get a government for, by, and of the people again. Maybe America can indeed by great again like the man says. Conclusion
I’m not in a special interest group. No President, outside of George W. Bush right after the September 11th attacks, that I can recall since my childhood, has been for me as an American. I’ve always been someone to be taxed, to be disarmed, to be hated, to be blamed. It’s not racism or bigotry to want us all to be treated as equals and not be penalized for real and imagined wrongs that occurred in the past before I was born, or more recently yet with which I had nothing to do.
I’m not part of the problem. I’m an American; the people who say I am part of the problem are the problem. Their candidate, mired in scandal, corruption, and treason, is Hillary Clinton. Mine, with a message of hope for the country, not just some groups in it, is Donald Trump. | 1 |
(Reuters) - Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc and SpaceX on Monday joined a legal brief filed by businesses opposed to President Donald Trump’s order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, according to a court filing. Musk agreed to become part of Trump’s business advisory council in December, and has advocated discussing issues directly with the president. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick quit the council last week amid mounting pressure over Trump’s immigration policies. (This story corrects to Muslim-majority ‘countries’ instead of ‘companies’ in first paragraph.) | 1 |
The ‘Two-Party Racket’ Is Incapable of Dealing With Our Present Crises Ian Sane / (CC-BY-2.0)
“Indications that Clinton is heading towards a solid win” might suggest that 2016 is “the safest year ever to vote Green, right?” No, say Democrats.
“Dems will never admit it’s a good time to go Green,” writes Scott McLarty, media coordinator for the Green Party, at The Hill. “They want a field permanently limited to two parties of war and Wall Street.”
To understand what we’ve lost under the two-party racket, compare the cringeworthy Clinton-Trump debates with Green nominee Jill Stein’s rebuttals.
Stein addressed issues that were either touched on superficially or absent from the bipartisan bicker-fest. She proposed solutions — especially the Green New Deal. Progressive ideas, the kind advanced by Bernie Sanders in his call for political revolution, are effectively censored in the debates.
Marginalization of alt-parties in the late 20th century is one of the unmentioned reasons for the triumph of the right wing in both major parties. It explains the disappearance of big progressive ideas like FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society.
The Green New Deal is a vision of how we can improve the lives of millions of people and rescue the planet from climate chaos.
Today’s Democrats give us no such vision. All they’ve offered is modest reforms, ideas that pretended to be progressive but aren’t (e.g., Obamacare, originally Romneycare), and slogans like “Change We Can Believe In.” The vision Hillary Clinton evokes is “I’m not Trump.”
The two-party racket is incapable of dealing with the crises of the 21st century: climate change; creeping corporate oligarchy and economic inequality; the national-security/mass-incarceration state; endless war.
These crises promise an era of deteriorating quality of life, increasing personal debt, eroded rights and freedoms, lawless militarism, and social breakdown. The danger they pose can be compared with the rise of totalitarian states and the Cold War’s nuclear menace during the 20th century. | 0 |
During an interview on MSNBC s Hardball with Chris Mathews on Friday, Trump surrogate Jack Kingston claimed that Hillary Clinton was the person who started the birther movement. Mathews did not hold back when he pressed Kingston on the accusation that is, frankly, as absurd as the claim the birther movement originally put forth.Already sounding a bit peeved at the assertion, Mathews asks Kingston, Where did you see this? Kingston claims that he saw an inter-party email from 2008 that was put out by the Clinton campaign: From the Clinton campaign itself? You ve seen this? Kingston says that he has seen a copy of the e-mail. No, you can t say Hillary Clinton is the mother of the birther movement and not have evidence, Mathews says. You knew you were coming on the show, why didn t you bring it with you? I may even have it my briefcase, Chris I don t know. Mathews tells Kingston that the show is live and they have enough time for him to find it if it is. This is a live show. We ve got an hour. Find it. Congressman, dead serious, if you can find something from the Clinton campaign not some blogger out there but somebody who actually worked for Hillary Clinton under her direction who said that the president wasn t born in this country that would be news. If you can produce it Now, of course, Kingston cannot produce any evidence because it is a lie. Should such an e-mail exist, it wouldn t just be news, it would be a bombshell that would severely cripple the Democratic Party. It probably would not convince many Democrats to start buying red hats and voting for Trump, though it would certainly make even her most die-hard supporters cringe.Kingston is merely trying to deflect from the fact that Trump still has not apologized for perpetuating the birther conspiracy theory. The allegations that Trump put forth about President Obama during the early years of Obama s administration were Trump s first foray into the political spotlight. His allegations were what built his base of radical right-wing conservatives. He cannot apologize for fear of alienating that base of supporters.Trump would love for most of the world to forget that he ever was a birther. We won t. It s important. No matter how many surrogates Trump s campaign throws out there to try and change the narrative surrounding the controversy, we won t forget.You can watch the interview below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ISJaqJt_VMFeatured image from video screenshot | 1 |
Democrats are in panic mode since Hillary Clinton s been coughing, barking and screeching on the campaign trail. This video from Rush Limbaugh is pretty darn funny:Health questions have been raised since Hillary has been having repeated coughing fits. The funny thing is that CNN covered for her by saying she was choked up during her speech.HILLARY HAS A COUGHING FIT DURING NEW YORK SPEECH: | 0 |
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Randy J and Stewart Howe from 21Wire, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis and Jamie Hanshaw (host of Happy Hearts) for the 81st episode of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in a Halloween Special broadcast of Boiler Room with the crew. This week we re boiling up some media maniac conversation with blend of topics that ONLY the Boiler Room can pull off.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #81 Halloween Fireside Book of Suspense Vol. 1 on Spreaker.Reference Links: | 1 |
VIENNA (Reuters) - The chief of the U.N. atomic watchdog reiterated on Friday that Iran was under the world s most robust nuclear verification regime after U.S. President Donald Trump struck a blow against a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in defiance of other world powers. The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said. He referred to the Iran nuclear by its proper name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A veteran CIA clandestine service officer who ran one of the agency’s “black site” prisons set up after the 9/11 attacks was named deputy director of the U.S. spy agency on Thursday by U.S. President Donald Trump. Gina Haspel, who will serve under new Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, was the first woman spy to reach the CIA’s second-highest position, and her selection won applause inside the agency’s Virginia headquarters and from many longtime U.S. intelligence professionals. However, Haspel once ran a secret CIA prison in Thailand where two suspected al-Qaeda members were waterboarded, intelligence and congressional officials said on condition of anonymity. She helped carry out an order to destroy videotapes of the waterboarding, which simulates drowning and is considered a form of torture, these people said. Her promotion, combined with the possibility Trump could seek to reopen black site prisons and has endorsed waterboarding, may be controversial, despite the fact Pompeo and defense secretary James Mattis have rejected so called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” A draft executive order requesting a review of whether the U.S. should reopen CIA prisons in other countries and revisit other interrogation methods not considered torture has been circulating within the White House, but it is not clear if it will be issued, and if it is, whether any nations would agree to host such facilities again, the officials said. “I appreciate Ms. Haspel’s many years of service at the CIA, yet I want some reassurance from her that she intends to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law, like Director Pompeo testified that he would during his confirmation process,” said Democrat Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee. Christopher Anders, the deputy director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was “gravely concerned” about Haspel’s appointment. Haspel has served in a number of overseas posts, including as chief of a major CIA station, and although she was briefly acting head of the National Clandestine Service in 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking minority member of the intelligence committee, opposed her permanent promotion to that job. Other veteran officials, though, praised Pompeo for choosing her. “It speaks well of him for picking a seasoned veteran of the agency who is widely and deeply respected by the workforce as well as those outside the agency,” said former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who resigned on January 20 after 50 years of military and intelligence service. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for America to fix its political system to stop the practice of gerrymandering congressional districts, reduce the influence of money in politics, and make voting easier. “Democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter, that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest,” Obama said, according to his prepared remarks. “Too many Americans feel that way right now. It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency - that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” he said. | 1 |
21st Century Wire says Does Hollywood do anything other than comic book remakes any more? The latest over-budget chimera, Batman V Superman, cost around $410 million to make. You d think they could squeeze a decent film out of that. You d think. He hasn t felt this low since Gigli , said the Huff Post. Movie star Ben Affleck may have just beaten Chris Christie for this year s most vacant stare. Watch: READ MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood Files | 1 |
The corrupt covering for the corrupt. Chicago politics at its best Hillary Clinton could be prosecuted in federal court for failing to tell President Barack Obama about her private email server at the time she was running it, according to a veteran FBI agent. Obama said flatly during a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that No, he did not know Clinton sidestepped security protocols with her a home-brew email setup while she was his secretary of state.The FBI agent who spoke with DailyMail.com has had a 20-year career in federal law enforcement and serves in a supervisory capacity in a domestic FBI field office.He said on Friday that failing to put Obama in the loop could be enough to send her to prison for ten years. Via:Daily MailEver since he opined that the police had acted stupidly prior to the infamous and embarrassing beer summit , Obama has shown himself eager to interfere with ongoing investigations for political reasons. When thuglet Trayvon Martin provided an good example of why jumping and beating down a stranger is a bad evolutionary strategy, Obama jumped on the race-baiting bandwagon saying if he had a son, that son would look like Martin. When the Justice Department was looking into the illegal use of the IRS to harass opponents of the administration, Obama said there is not even a smidgen of corruption. When deserter and failed turncoat Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban, Obama had his hippie parents over for a Rose Garden ceremony even though he was known at the time to be a deserter. Now Obama has interjected himself into the investigation into the fate of top secret documents illegally stored on Hillary Clinton s private server. From his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft on October 11:Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem?President Barack Obama: I don t think it posed a national security problem. I think that it was a mistake that she has acknowledged and you know, as a general proposition, when we re in these offices, we have to be more sensitive and stay as far away from the line as possible when it comes to how we handle information, how we handle our own personal data. And, you know, she made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it s been ginned-up is in part because of in part because of politics. And I think she d be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. But Steve Kroft: What was your reaction when you found out about it?President Barack Obama: This is one of those issues that I think is legitimate, but the fact that for the last three months this is all that s been spoken about is an indication that we re in presidential political season.Steve Kroft: Do you agree with what President Clinton has said and Secretary Clinton has said, that this is not not that big a deal. Do you agree with that?President Barack Obama: Well, I m not going to comment on Steve Kroft: You think it s not that big a deal President Barack Obama: What I think is that it is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public. And they can make their own judgment. I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America s national security was endangered.Steve Kroft: This administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their private computers.President Barack Obama: Well, I there s no doubt that there had been breaches, and these are all a matter of degree. We don t get an impression that here there was purposely efforts on in to hide something or to squirrel away information. But again, I m gonna leave it to This can only be seen as an attempt by Obama to tell the federal prosecutors who will ultimately decide what, if any, charges should be made in this case that there is nothing to see here:Those statements angered F.B.I. agents who have been working for months to determine whether Ms. Clinton s email setup had in fact put any of the nation s secrets at risk, according to current and former law enforcement officials.Investigators have not reached any conclusions about whether the information on the server had been compromised or whether to recommend charges, according to the law enforcement officials. But to investigators, it sounded as if Mr. Obama had already decided the answers to their questions and cleared anyone involved of wrongdoing.The White House quickly backed off the president s remarks and said Mr. Obama was not trying to influence the investigation. But his comments spread quickly, raising the ire of officials who saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation and not for the first time.A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. But Ron Hosko, a former senior F.B.I. official who retired in 2014 and is now the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said it was inappropriate for the president to suggest what side of the investigation he is on when the F.B.I. is still investigating. Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I. s mouth and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president s signal and not bring a case, said Mr. Hosko, who maintains close contact with current agents.Several current and former law enforcement officials, including those close to the investigation, expressed similar sentiments in separate interviews over several days. Most, however, did so only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.Contrary to what Hillary s campaign is saying, we now have it on pretty good authority that the FBI is conducting an investigation under the part of the Espionage Act that pertains to gross negligence in the handling of Defense information. That information, at a minimum, is the two Top Secret Keyhole satellite derived documents discovered by the Intelligence Community IG though it could be any of the over 400 emails containing classified information that have been uncovered so far.(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. Via: Red State | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran, the same day at least 12 people were killed in attacks in Tehran, as lawmakers planned to add a package of sanctions on Russia to the measure. The vote was 92-7 on a procedural motion to end debate on the Iran sanctions bill, clearing the way for a vote later on passage of the legislation. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said most members of his party supported the Iran bill, but that they would only agree to let it go ahead because they expected it would be amended to include “a strong package” of new sanctions on Russia as well. Many lawmakers have been clamoring for new sanctions on Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for Syria’s government in that country’s six-year-long civil war. Schumer said he was negotiating with the Senate’s Republican leaders on the Russia sanctions. Some senators had urged that Wednesday’s procedural vote be delayed, arguing that the timing was inappropriate because of the attacks in Iran. “The country has just suffered from two significant terrorist attacks after electing a moderate government with 57 percent of the vote — we need to give Iran the opportunity to recover and set a new course,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. A senior Senate aide said the Iran sanctions measure could come up for a vote as soon as next week. The legislation would impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile development, arms transfers, support for Islamist militant groups and human rights violations. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed it 18-3 last month. To become law, the measure would also have to pass the Republican-led House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump. | 0 |
It s time to shut them down. Permanently.On Sunday evening, 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock poured gunfire on a concert at the Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay.22,000 people were in attendance. 50 were killed and over 400 were wounded.Paddock fired clip after clip after clip from his assault rifle and the carnage stopped when police shot him dead.In Nevada, machine guns are legal and can be openly carried.Stricter gun laws might have prevented Paddock from acquiring the weapon he used to kill so many people.But the National Rifle Association has continued defending gunmen like Paddock for years by arguing that guns of any kind should be in the hands of every American.Thousands of Americans have died because of this irresponsible stance, and you can bet that the NRA will say that now is not the time to discuss our gun laws while at the same time only offering thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families instead of doing something that will actually prevent future mass shootings.It s a script that we have witnessed time and time again, and it has to be stopped.The NRA has become nothing more than a for-profit terrorist organization that makes money every time an American is killed by a gun. The NRA claims that good guys with guns will stop the bad guys from killing us. Tell that to the 50 human beings who were killed.They were just attending a concert when a man started firing from a hotel window. No good guy with a gun could have stopped him, but stricter gun laws could have kept the gun he used out of his possession in the first place. The NRA andThe NRA and their bought and paid for Republican lawmakers, including Donald Trump, will claim that stricter gun laws won t prevent such shootings. They are lying, pure and simple.Thus far, the NRA has remained silent about this mass shooting, and Americans across the country are severely pissed off at them.Ya. Fuck you if you ever once opened your mouth against gun control. Fuck you GOP. Fuck you NRA. Fuck ALL you old white terrorists #lasvegas Katharine Isabelle (@Katie_Isabelle) October 2, 2017ONLY in America: GOP offering condolences to victims of gun violence while lining their pockets with NRA s blood money. Mark Schweitzer (@MarkSchweitzer) October 2, 2017The NRA is a terrorist organization. Robot Steve (@RobotSteve2016) October 2, 2017Come on @DLoesch and @NRA let s see another one of your Call To Arms Videos today. #LasVegas (((NotMyAmerica))) (@S1PPi) October 2, 20174) Don t let the @NRA or lawmakers tell you this week that more guns and fewer guns laws are the answer. It s a lie. pic.twitter.com/tBkg5cgOZn Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 2, 2017The NRA s silence on Las Vegas is almost as deafening as the roar of automatic gunfire. Unconscionable. Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) October 2, 2017Americans are sick of political hacks talking about condolences and sympathy while stuffing NRA blood money in their pockets. Do sonething. Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) October 2, 2017Don t call him a Lone Wolf . He had plenty of help from the NRA & their republican politicians who passed laws allowing automatic guns Cheri DelBrocco (@cdelbrocco) October 2, 2017Hey @NRA ! Waiting for your coments, you cowardly crew of right wing arrogant paranoid white men. Blood on your hands. SHAME! Brenda Iannucci MD (@bjimd) October 2, 2017The bottom line is that it s time to end the NRA and its influence on our government and laws. They put the gun in Paddock s hands. They have repeatedly had the chance to support common sense gun control laws that would not have infringed on their gun rights. Now they need to pay the price.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A man was jailed for 10 years for rape by a Swedish court on Thursday for forcing 27 children from the United States, Canada and Britain to perform sex acts on themselves or with other children that he viewed over the internet. The case, heard in Uppsala, marked the first time in Sweden that a person has been convicted of rape without having met the victim - setting a precedent for such crimes over the internet to be treated as seriously as if they were committed in person. The district court makes a very important assessment here. It states clearly what is required for an act performed by a girl on her own body to be regarded as rape when the perpetrator is not in the same room, prosecutor Annika Wennerstrom told TT news agency. This may lead to a different level of priority and status from the police in criminal investigations with these types of crimes. The 41-year-old Swede found the girls via social media and threatened to rape them and kill their families unless they committed the sex acts on themselves, on other children or with animals. The children, most under the age of 15, either streamed the acts to the man over the internet or recorded them and sent them later. The man was also sentenced for a large number of acts of online sexual abuse of children and child pornography. As a result of this case, Wennerstrom said the means of investigation and the penalties could change. We will be given the opportunity to use other types of methods with this legal classification, penalties will be longer and the chances for compensation for victims will increase, she said. | 1 |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s government has named Johannes Bhekumuzi Magwaza as chairman of loss-making state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA), replacing Dudu Myeni, who was an ally of President Jacob Zuma, the finance minister said on Thursday. In all six board members were replaced, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said in a statement without giving reasons for the clear-out, but adding that the new board brings in-depth knowledge of business in both the private and public sectors . Myeni had been reappointed in September 2016 for a year, alongside 11 other board members. The national carrier received state funds to repay loans in September and has been given until the end of October to settle 5 billion rand ($374 million) of maturing debt to domestic lenders. Credit ratings agencies have said SAA should be reformed and cite the cost of propping it up as a threat to South Africa s credit rating. S&P Global Ratings and Fitch have downgraded South Africa s credit to junk status. Magwaza, also known as JB, will be joined by Nolitha Fakude as deputy chairperson, Ahmed Bassa, Tinyiko Mhlari, Martin Kingston and Geoff Rothschild. Magwaza s appointment comes a day after the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), one of the continent s largest asset managers, said it has not ruled out investing in SAA. The PIC manages South African government employee retirement funds and has been in the spotlight recently after media reports that the finance ministry requested money from the pension fund to bail out struggling state firms. Gigaba said in September South Africa was not planning to raid the government pension fund to bail out struggling state firms. The opposition Democratic Alliance s shadow deputy minister of finance, Alf Lees, welcomed the decision. Make no mistake, this reported restructuring of the SAA board and the removal of Myeni is far too little, too late to save the airline. There is no saving SAA, Lees said in a statement. | 1 |
Yesterday, we reported that the FBI has found “ tens of thousands of emails ” belonging to Huma Adein on Anthony Weiner’s computer, raising questions how practical it is that any conclusive finding will be available or made by the FBI in the few days left before the elections.
Now, according to the WSJ , it appears that Federal agents are preparing to scour roughly 650,000 emails that, as we reported moments ago were discovered weeks ago on the laptop of Anthony Weiner , to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, as metadata on the device suggests there may be thousands sent to or from the private server that the Democratic nominee used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter.
As the WSJ adds, the review will take weeks at a minimum to determine whether those messages are work-related emails between Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide and the estranged wife of Mr. Weiner, and State Department officials; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe, which FBI officials call “Midyear .”
And, as we further reported earlier today , the FBI has had to await a court order to begin reviewing the emails, because they were uncovered in an unrelated probe of Mr. Weiner, and that order was delayed for reasons that remain unclear.
More stunning is just how many emails were found on Weiner’s computer. And while one can only imagine the content of some of the more persona ones, the WSJ writes that the latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a minor, they had recovered a laptop with 650,000 emails. Many, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter.
Those emails stretched back years, these people said, and were on a laptop that both Mr. Weiner and Ms. Abedin used and that hadn’t previously come up in the Clinton email probe. Ms. Abedin said in late August that the couple were separating.
The FBI had searched the computer while looking for child pornography , people familiar with the matter said, but the warrant they used didn’t give them authority to search for matters related to Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement at the State Department. Mr. Weiner has denied sending explicit or indecent messages to the teenager.
As reported yesterday, it appears that there are potentially tens of thousands of Abedin linked emails on Weiner’s computer:
In their initial review of the laptop, the metadata showed many messages, apparently in the thousands, that were either sent to or from the private email server at Mrs. Clinton’s home that had been the focus of so much investigative effort for the FBI . Senior FBI officials decided to let the Weiner investigators proceed with a closer examination of the metadata on the computer, and report back to them.
The WSJ then connects the dots between how the Weiner emails were linked to the Clinton reopening of the Clinton probe, despite Loretta Lynch’s and the DOJ’s vocal urges not to do so :
At a meeting early last week of senior Justice Department and FBI officials, a member of the department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop, the people familiar with the matter said. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant, these people said.
Mr. McCabe then instructed the email investigators to talk to the Weiner investigators and see whether the laptop’s contents could be relevant to the Clinton email probe, these people said. After the investigators spoke, the agents agreed it was potentially relevant.
Mr. Comey was given an update, decided to go forward with the case and notified Congress on Friday, with explosive results . Senior Justice Department officials had warned Mr. Comey that telling Congress would violate well-established policies against overt actions that could affect an election, and some within the FBI have been unhappy at Mr. Comey’s repeated public statements on the probe, going back to his first press conference on the subject in July.
But wait – it gets better.
Recall that this is the same Andrew Mcabe whose wife the Wall Street Journal reported last week received $467,500 in campaign funds in late 2015 from the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of the Clintons and, until he was elected governor in November 2013, a Clinton Foundation board member.
Mr. McAuliffe had supported Dr. McCabe in the hopes she and a handful of other Democrats might help win a majority in the state Senate, giving Mr. McAuliffe more sway in the state capitol. Dr. McCabe lost her race last November, and Democrats failed to win their majority.
FBI officials have said Mr. McCabe had no role in the Clinton email probe until he became deputy director, and there was no conflict of interest because by then his wife’s campaign was over.
Which brings us to the second big topic: the Clinton Foundation, and how the DOJ made sure that particular probe never made the light of day. At the same time as the Clinton server was being investigated, other Clinton-related investigations were under way within the FBI, and they have been the subject of internal debate for months.
Early this year, four FBI field offices—New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Little Rock, Ark.—were collecting information about the Clinton Foundation to see if there was evidence of financial crimes or influence-peddling, according to people familiar with the matter.
The WSJ touches on something fascinating: Los Angeles agents had picked up information about the Clinton Foundation from an unrelated public corruption case and had issued some subpoenas for bank records related to the foundation, these people said . So where did that trail go? Apparently nowhere.
The Washington field office was probing financial relationships involving Mr. McAuliffe before he became a Clinton Foundation board member, these people said. Mr. McAuliffe has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer has said the probe is focused on whether he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity.The FBI field office in New York had done the most work on the Clinton Foundation case and received help from the FBI field office in Little Rock, the people familiar with the matter said.
In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the Justice Department, according to these people. By all accounts, the meeting didn’t go well.
Some said that is because the FBI didn’t present compelling evidence to justify more aggressive pursuit of the Clinton Foundation, and that the career public integrity prosecutors in the room simply believed it wasn’t a very strong case. Others said that from the start, the Justice Department officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case.
“That was one of the weirdest meetings I’ve ever been to,” one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.
Needless to say, the probe into the Foundation faded.
But back to the Clinton probe, according to a person familiar with the probes, on Aug. 12, a senior Justice Department official called Mr. McCabe to voice his displeasure at finding that New York FBI agents were still openly pursuing the Clinton Foundation probe, despite the department’s refusal to allow more aggressive investigative methods in the case. Mr. McCabe said agents still had the authority to pursue the issue as long as they didn’t use those methods.
At this point a question emerges: did McCabe seek to defend or press on with a Clinton probe:
Mr. McCabe’s defenders in the agency said that following the call, he repeated the instruction that he had given earlier in the Clinton Foundation investigation: Agents were to keep pursuing the work within the authority they had.
Others further down the FBI chain of command, however, said agents were given a much starker instruction on the case: “Stand down.” When agents questioned why they weren’t allowed to take more aggressive steps, they said they were told the order had come from the deputy director—Mr. McCabe. Others familiar with the matter deny Mr. McCabe or any other senior FBI official gave such a stand-down instruction.
At this point the two probes, into Hillary’s email and the Clinton Foundation converged:
For agents who already felt uneasy about FBI leadership’s handling of the Clinton Foundation case, the moment only deepened their concerns, these people said. For those who felt the probe hadn’t yet found significant evidence of criminal conduct, the leadership’s approach was the right response to the facts on the ground.
Things accelerated over the past two months, when in September, agents on the foundation case asked to see the emails contained on non-government laptops that had been searched as part of the Clinton email case, but that request was rejected by prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn. Those emails were given to the FBI based on grants of partial immunity and limited-use agreements, meaning agents could only use them for the purpose of investigating possible mishandling of classified information.
Some FBI agents were dissatisfied with that answer, and asked for permission to make a similar request to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. McCabe, these people said, told them no and added that they could not “go prosecutor-shopping.”
Not long after that discussion, FBI agents informed the bureau’s leaders about the Weiner laptop, prompting Mr. Comey’s disclosure to Congress and setting of the furor that promises to consume the final days of a tumultuous campaign.
While much of the latest developments are known, or could have been inferred assuming more corruption within government agencies, the punchline is that the weeks if not months of upcoming work means that if Clinton wins the White House, she will likely do so amid at least one ongoing investigation into her inner circle being handled by law-enforcement officials who are deeply divided over how to manage such cases . It also means that Trump will be hounding Hillary for the remainder of the campaign as being the only presidential candidate to seek election with a recently reopened criminal probe hanging over her head. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Zero Hedge of www.zerohedge.com . | 1 |
Every time Donald Trump lashes out at Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, he gets his ass handed to him.For instance, when Trump threw a petty temper tantrum because Corker criticized him, Corker responded thusly:It s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning. Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 8, 2017Corker didn t even have to say another word. He just sat back and watched as the world laughed at Trump. Trump even continued throwing a hissy fit by relentlessly attacking and insulting Corker, but to avail. Corker had already kicked his ass.On Tuesday morning, Trump took aim at Corker once again for criticizing Trump s massive tax cuts for the wealthy.Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017 Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017Isn t it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn t get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017Corker could probably get re-elected in Tennessee. It s just that he has decided to retire rather than run again.But while Trump required three tweets to attack Corker, Corker only needed one.Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 24, 2017Indeed, where is the adult day care staff? Clearly, General John Kelly has utterly failed to regulate Trump s social media usage. Like a child, Trump needs serious supervision. Every time he rage tweets he embarrasses himself and the nation.If Trump thinks he is winning this little feud with Corker he should think again. Because Corker has zero f*cks left and he ll burn Trump s tiny-handed ass to the ground every single time.Featured Image: Ron Sachs Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
ANKARA (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani s decision not to postpone an independence referendum later this month is very wrong , Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Speaking in an interview with broadcaster A Haber, Erdogan said Turkey would announce its official position on the referendum after its National Security Council and cabinet have convened on Sept. 22. Earlier on Friday Barzani said the vote would not be delayed, despite pressing requests from the United States and other Western powers worried that the tensions between Baghdad and Erbil would distract from the war on Islamic State militants, who continue to occupy parts of Iraq and Syria. | 1 |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned home on Thursday to face trial in an anti-corruption case he calls political revenge but which opposition leaders have termed as accountability for the rich and powerful. Sharif, who had been in London with his wife who is undergoing cancer treatment, is due to appear in court on Friday over allegations linked to London properties the family owns, charges that could see the former premier jailed. Allies of Sharif, who has served as prime minister twice and was toppled in a military coup in 1999, have called the proceedings a political vendetta and hinted at intervention by elements of the powerful army. Sharif, 67, denounced the process in an interview on Wednesday in London before flying home. This case in the National Accountability Bureau is highly bogus and fake, which doesn t have links to corruption, he told Geo TV, comparing the process to charges laid against him after General Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999. There is no kickback or misappropriation of the national exchequer, he added. The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from office in July over unreported sources of annual income of about $10,000, a salary the former premier denies ever receiving. The high court also ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate and conduct a trial into the Sharif family s wider finances, including the London properties. Sharif maintains control of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, which elected close ally Shahid Khaqi Abbasi as prime minister after Sharif was disqualified. Also facing trial before the NAB court is Sharif s daughter Maryam and her husband, Muhammad Safdar. They have all pleaded not guilty. The allegations stem from the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 that appeared to show that Maryam and her two brothers owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy upscale flats in London. A Supreme Court-appointed investigatory panel deemed that the family s wealth did not match its income, and accused Maryam and her brothers of signing forged documents to obscure ownership of companies used to buy the properties. The Supreme Court has ordered the NAB investigation and trial to be concluded within six months, which would probably bring a verdict before general elections due next year. Maryam Sharif, who has increasingly played a prominent role in the PML-N, has been seen as her father s political heir. This week, however, two party insiders said the leadership had decided that Shahbaz Sharif, the former premier s brother, was likely to be the party s candidate for prime minister next year. | 0 |
Donald Trump never runs out of new ways to disgust and offend people. Ever since the first day of his presidential campaign, the presumptive Republican nominee has created controversial moment after controversial moment behavior that has unfortunately won over the hearts of America s most racist, bigoted citizens. However, now that he s beat out all of his conservative rivals and has a more clear view of the White House, he wants America to forget all of the ways he s tarnished his chances of appearing presidential. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Trump tried to reframe a horrific incident that happened last November, in which he made a disgusting mockery of a New York Times reporter s physical disability. It was a cringe-worthy moment that was heavily circulated, and Trump got rightfully blasted for it after it happened but now, he s trying to deny it. And as expected, any time Trump tries to defend himself, he only makes it worse. Here s what he said: I would never say anything bad about a person that has a disability. I swear to you it s true, 100 percent true Who would do that to [the] handicapped? I ve spent a lot of money making buildings accessible. Is he serious? For Trump to act like he makes his buildings accessible for people with disabilities is absolutely ludicrous because that kind of accessibility is required BY LAW. This is also coming from a guy who posted a picture of himself eating a taco bowl to show how much he loves Hispanics a particular minority that he has insulted and made racist comments toward during his entire campaign. So obviously, just because Trump s buildings are accessible to people with disabilities, that doesn t mean he wouldn t mock or be prejudiced against them.But it gets worse. The Washington Post also reported that after Trump bragged about how his buildings were so accessible, Trump then satirically reenacted the scene, his arms jerking all around, and said he was trying to show a guy who grovels Oh, oh, I didn t say that. I didn t say that. That was the imitation I was doing. Now is that a believable story? What an idiot. If you need a refresher, here s the original video where Trump made fun of the reporter. Watch this, and see if you think Trump s latest pathetic excuse for his behavior is a believable story. Corey Lewankowski, Trump s campaign manager (who physically assaulted a female reporter a few weeks ago) has spoken on Trump s effort to rebrand himself: This is deeply personal for Mr. Trump. He will do anything he can to correct the narrative. He wants to point to specific things that are absolutely false about him and go out and talk about them. Well, he s doing a really shitty job so far.Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
All the progress that s been made with race relations in America since the civil rights era has been ignored by so many angry blacks who ve bought into the carefully orchestrated Obama, Sharpton and Holder race war funded by their friend, George Soros. Since the liberal mainstream media wants to use the horrific massacre in Charleston to attack conservatives, disparage white people and act as if Dylann Roof s actions represent a normalcy, I thought it only fair to bring up the case of a black woman from Charleston, Sista Solove, who this week essentially asserted that white supremacy is leading us towards a race war against crackas. She made the statement on Wednesday while speaking with Breitbart Texas editor Brandon Darby outside the Mother Emmanuel American Methodist Church in Charleston.When he asked her what she thinks will ultimately result from Roof s actions, she replied, The real question is if it were the other way around, what would that be? https://youtu.be/_o-rzGRSu8sIf a black person if a nigga killed nine crackas, he would be dead. We wouldn t even be talking about his raggedy ass. Okay. But this cracka is, Oh, he s mentally ill. Oh, ya know, pray for him. Oh, they ve got support systems for him.No, it s an agenda, and there s going to be a race war because it continues to happen. You cannot go pray. You can t be a child at a playground. You can t wear a hoodie with Skittles. You can t be black.What s a good nigga supposed to do, Massa? What s a good nigga supposed to do not to get shot? That s a good question, ain t it?The reason Roof happens to be alive to this day is because he complied with police orders and did not resist arrest. This places him in stark contrast to the likes of, say, Mike Brown and Eric Garner.The comment about a child at a playground referred to 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who died in an unfortunate incident after a bystander reported a male sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people. The gun turned out to be fake, though according to reports, Rice reached for it when the cops told him to put his hands up.And as for the comment about how you can t wear a hoodie with Skittles, that referred to Trayvon Martin, who was justifiably shot by George Zimmerman after he attacked the guy for no legitimate reason whatsoever.Anyway. Sista Solove then delivered what Breitbart contributor Lee Stranahan accurately described as the academic Marxist message of white privilege that underscores the current Black Lives Matter movement :It s called white privilege. You don t understand where our anger comes from. No one gets it. Our history comes from our family telling us, Oh, you can t be black. Don t do this, don t go to that fountain, don t do this and we re still dealing with this shit. What are we going to do with the anger? What are we going to do with the anger? What do we do?Via: DownTrend | 1 |
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Just in case anyone might be tempted to defend their denial by latching onto the now-laughable proposition that the US Army going with an openly lesbian general was a fluke or that the US Navy naming a new warship after famed gay rapist Harvey Milk was an anomaly or that Army Cadets being pressured into crossdressing was a weird little mistake that somehow slipped through the cracks of an otherwise honorable and good approach to reality, we keep getting wave after wave after tsunami after avalanche of crystal clear confirmation of the US military’s proud, headlong plunge into oblivion (and oblivion advocacy, of course).
The latest example of God-given uber-clarity on the matter comes in the form of a lovely little article entitled First transgender soldiers seek formal Army recognition , wherein AP reports (with bold emphasis added):
Within weeks of the Pentagon allowing transgender service members to serve openly, Army officials said 10 soldiers have formally asked to be recognized as their new, preferred gender. The small number represents only those who have publicly said they are transgender, and doesn’t include soldiers who may be considering or beginning gender transition or those who don’t yet want to make an official paperwork change. Gen. Mark Milley, chief of staff of the Army, said the key now is to educate the force, particularly commanders who will have to make decisions about soldiers in their units who request a gender change. “Is the army ready? Well, we are educating ourselves, and we are trying to get ready,” Milley said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re well-past the issue of debating and arguing about transgender. We are now into execution, to make sure the program is carried out with diligence, dignity, respect.” Dignity and respect, eh? Do tell. So the US military is now of a mind that the Christian worldview is inherently anti -dignity and anti -respect. Anti-kittens, anti-rainbows, and anti-love, too, I’m sure. That’s how anti-Christ perspectives roll: They tar the Christian worldview (and the God whose Nature it reflects) as mean and evil. They make good evil and evil good. At least they try to anyway. [insert “ U! S! A! ” chant here] Now back to the AP article: The Pentagon policy took effect Oct. 1, and Army Secretary Eric Fanning approved the service’s new transgender guidelines earlier this month. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in June that he was ending the ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the military. Transgender troops are now able to receive medical care and begin changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon’s personnel system. Next year, the military services will begin allowing transgender individuals to enlist, as long as they meet required standards and have been stable in their identified gender for 18 months. “We’re monitoring implementation closely, and everything we’ve seen so far points to a military organization fully committed to treating everyone equally and providing medically necessary care to all troops, not just some,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center, an independent research institute. “My conclusion, so far, is that implementation has proceeded smoothly and successfully.” . . . Milley said the Army numbers so far are low, but the service doesn’t track the number of soldiers who may be starting the gender transition process. “We may not know the full scope yet,” said Milley. “Others that may consider themselves as transgender but haven’t self-identified publicly may be holding back because they want to see how things progress.”
Progress.
That’s the name of the game, isn’t it?
The US Army is committed to progress.
Explicitly anti-Christian progress, of course.
The US Army is at war.
With God.
And His people.
That’s how these fights always end in God’s cosmos.
That’s how they always unfold in His creations of time and history.
So take heart, Christian.
Either way – whether through the beauty of a repentant and restored America being spared judgment and finding life again in loving, willful subjugation to Christ as King, or by way of King Jesus breaking yet another in a long line of unrepentant, proud, God-hating cultures to pieces under the weight of His unbreakable Law , His people always win and His Kingdom always advances…all by His grace and all for His glory.
Article reposted with permission from Fire Breathing Christian shares | 1 |
Kid Rock, aka Robert (Bob) Ritchie, a native of Michigan who was born and raised in my hometown of Romeo, just announced on Twitter that he s running for US Senate. As a kid, I remember frequently sitting across from the Ritchie family in our local Catholic church. Kid Rock is a philanthropist who s done so much to help those in need in the city of Detroit. He s also very passionate about supporting our troops. Ritchie s made several overseas trips to play for our troops, and even donated specially designed homes for disabled veterans. Ritchie (Kid Rock) has not yet announced which party he ll be aligning himself with. He s been a staunch supporter of Republican presidential candidates in the past like Mitt Romney, Ben Carson and after he won the GOP primary, Kid Rock got behind Donald Trump. In 2013, Ritchie told Rolling Stones that he considers himself more of a libertarian. Stay tuned I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq The answer is an absolute YES. pic.twitter.com/uYCUg6mjW1 Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 12, 2017Rock is one of the most prominent right-leaning voices in music, but he s also a somewhat irregular Republican: I don t like the hardcore views on either side and I m not in bed with anybody, he told Rolling Stone in 2013. I d probably be more libertarian, but I m a firm believer you have to pick a side. I can t be playing the middle. If Rock runs as a Republican, he ll be up against Trump s Michigan Campaign Chair, Lena Epstein for the GOP nomination.Lena is a candidate the left will have a very hard time defeating. She s Jewish, she s a Harvard grad, and she s a tough-minded, successful business woman who wasn t afraid to jump in and support Trump from the moment he announced he was running. Rock may have his hands full with the very popular Lena Epstein, who we believe has the ability to defeat the very liberal Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow. Rock has the star power, but many will question if he s really got what it takes to run for US Senate.CBS Sunday Morning attempts to find out who badass rocker Kid Rock really is in this interview:And for those who might be saying (or thinking) Kid Rock running for Senate is crazy or ridiculous. Keep in mind that Al Franken has been a Senator for 9 years:Democrats on Twitter right now: "Kid Rock can't be a Senator that's ridicolous!" pic.twitter.com/WS1z8dlQxq Ken Webster Jr (@ProducerKen) July 12, 2017Nancy Pelosi has been a Congresswoman for 30 years:And Maxine Impeach Trump Waters has held a political position since 1977 and has been serving in the US House of Representatives since 1991! | 1 |
Barack Hussein Obama has not exactly done a stellar job convincing America he s a Christian. He spent his entire career as Christian in a church that preached hate against America and the white man. His own preacher, the racist Reverend Wright admitted that Obama only became a Christian to help himself become better integrated with the people who he was trying to embed himself with as a Community Organizer. Even the casual observer couldn t help but notice that while Obama s been in office, he s done everything but backflips to defend the Islamic faith, while bashing Christianity. Bill O Reilly shared photos of Barack Obama in traditional Islamic dress on his program Wednesday night claiming they were from his half-brother Malik s wedding.The Fox News host said it was very difficult to verify the exact location of the photographs a similar set of which were first released back in 2004 by Malik and previously published on DailyMail.com but claimed they were taken in Maryland in the early 1990s. According to his half-sister, Barack Obama attended his half-brother s wedding in the early 1990s. Malik Obama was a Muslim, said O Reilly. The Factor has obtained pictures allegedly from that wedding, which we believe was held in Maryland. Malik was married in 1981 for the first time and President Obama was his best man at that ceremony. He now has multiple wives.O Reilly used the photos in a monologue alleging the President s deep emotional ties to Islam have stopped him effectively combating ISIS while also saying he believes the photos prove that President Obama is not a devout Christian. He did this while attacking President Obama hours after he revealed he would not be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, saying: President Obama, as we all know, will not even use the words Islamic terrorism. Again today when telling the nation that America will maintain eight-thousand troops in Afghanistan, the president did not accurately describe the situation there, putting forth that it was more about politics than Islamic terror. O Reilly claims the President Obama s failure to identify the terrorist threat facing America has allowed ISIS to run amok in the Middle East, a mistake he claims the Commander-in-chief will not acknowledge. There is no question the Obama administration s greatest failure is allowing the Islamic terror group ISIS to run wild, murdering thousands of innocent people all over the world, including many Muslims, said O Reilly. Mr. Obama has never, never acknowledged that mistake, nor does he define the ISIS threat accurately. That group is killing innocent people in order to impose a radical version of Islam on the world. The jihad is solely based on theology, perverted as it may be. Obama s refusal to use the phrase Islamic terrorism , preferring instead to say militants or simply terrorists has long been a sore spot for his Republican detractors, including Donald Trump.O Reilly also said of Obama after sharing the photos: I believe he s a Christian. I m not one of these guys who says he s a Muslim. But I don t think he s a devout Christian. He went on to say during the program: I base my analysis on the fact that in my opinion and I could be wrong, but I m not President Obama s sympathetic treatment of Muslims put the country in danger because he has not elevated the risks that we have to the level it should be. And he allowed ISIS to be created because of his foolish decision to withdraw troops in Iraq and to pretty much run wild for five years. So another president, angry about the jihad, would not have done that. O Reilly s guest, Obama: From Promise to Power author David Mendell, jumped in at that point to say: I think President Obama is very sympathetic to all cultures, all religions. He grew up in a multiplicity The host cut him off though to ask: Is that good for a commander in chief to be very sympathetic to all cultures and all beliefs when thousands of people are being murdered? O Reilly then closed out the segment by stating: He s the commander in chief of the United States, and his main charge is to protect us. It s not main charge as to be touchy-feely to all different cultures. Via: Daily Mail | 1 |
You didn’t think she’d go down without a fight did you?
The Clinton campaign is clawing it’s way to what they hope may land Hillary in the White House. Though Clinton officially conceded the race to Trump on Wednesday morning, a concession is not legally binding. During the 2000 election Al Gore conceded to George Bush on the night of the election, only to begin court proceedings a few short hours later to contest the results and initiate recounts.
According to Jim Stone , the race between Trump and Clinton may not be over just yet:
They may be trying to steal Arizona and Michigan, and then use special powers to flip 9 electoral votes away from Trump. THERE IS A REASON WHY THEY HAVE REFUSED TO MAKE THEIR TOTALS OFFICIAL. THIS IS NOT OVER YET
…
Trump won Arizona. Why has it not been made official? Trump won Michigan. Why has it not been made official? They are calling the counts “unofficial,” WHY?
Election officials in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and New Hampshire are still counting votes. The vote differentials while the counts conclude are so close that Clinton could potentially inch out a win with early voting ballots and provisional ballots. The small difference in votes in most of these states could trigger recounts. And given what we know about the Clinton campaign, we suspect that any recount would bring with it the real possibility of “uncounted votes” being discovered in back closets, much like we saw in Florida during the 2000 election debacle.
Newsweek confirms that Clinton still has a chance:
AP analyst Michael McDonald says he is skeptical that Trump won Wisconsin, as the AP projected. If that state flips for Clinton and she wins the other toss-up states, she and Trump could be in a tie at 269 votes each .
“Maybe Clinton actually wins Wisconsin,” McDonald says. “Look, just because the media calls something does not mean that that’s actually the outcome of the election.”
In that event that neither candidate hits the 270 electoral vote threshold, the vote for President would be passed on to the Repoublican controlled House of Representatives and the vote for Vice President would be put before the Senate, also controlled by Republicans.
One might say this is a no-brainer, except we have two words: #NEVERTRUMP.
The NeverTrump movement, started by conservatives and championed publicly and privately by sitting U.S. Congressional leaders, could potentially steal the win right out from under Donald Trump.
Though unlikely, it remains a distinct possibility.
And never to go without a Plan B, as John Podesta hinted on election night , Clinton has a second option, which involves targeting the electoral college directly.
Change.org has already filed a petition that includes 361,000 signatures as of this writing asking members of red States’ Electoral College to turn on the will of the people of their state and cast a vote for Hillary instead of Trump. The situation would not be unprecedented, as there have been 157 “faithless electors” since the inception of the College in 1787. None of those faithless votes ever resulted in a significant shift in the election. Electors are bound by most states to cast the vote for their pledged party and failure to do so comes with fines and, in some cases, jail time.
What it boils down to is that Hillary could conceivably flip 10 Electors to her side, however unlikely of a scenario that is:
Petition Excerpt:
On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots. If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay!
We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton. Why?
Mr. Trump is unfit to serve. His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic.
Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.
Hillary won the popular vote. The only reason Trump “won” is because of the Electoral College.
But the Electoral College can actually give the White House to either candidate. So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?
We can fully expect Hillary Clinton to push, even if she does so from behind the scenes.
We expect that within hours or days the push from the liberal media will be widespread and the thousands of protesters taking over major cities across America will be calling for recounts, faithless electoral votes and revolution.
It’s definitely not over until the electoral votes are cast on December 19.
Also See: We Finally Know Why Hillary Disappeared On Election Night: “She Was Crying Inconsolably… It Was Hard To Understand What She Was Saying”
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Ever since his GOP rivals dropped out of the presidential race and he became the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump has stopped attacking his fellow Republicans and focused his childish attacks on his biggest competition Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton. And of course, he s doing it the only way he knows how by being a misogynist and attacking her marriage. The only problem is, Trump is too stupid to fully grasp the full hypocrisy of what he s doing.It s been widely reported that in the past, Trump was somewhat close to the Clintons he even invited them to his (third) wedding. But what many don t realize is that the very attacks Trump is making on the Clintons are things that Trump previously defended the political power couple against.No one pointed this out better than Chuck Todd on Wednesday morning, when he appeared on NBC s Today to call Trump out for being a walking contradiction. It was already an amazing segment, with Today showing some footage of Trump calling Paula Jones, a woman who accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual harassment years ago, a loser. The show also aired an old video of Trump saying that the way HE treated women would prevent him from being president if he were to run. In a statement that has come back to haunt him, Trump had said, Can you imagine how controversial I d be? You think about (Bill Clinton) with the women, how about me with the women? Can you imagine? In the past, Trump had also downplayed Bill s Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying, Look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into, with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. But now that the stakes are high and Trump needs to defeat Hillary, his attitude has done a complete 180 and Todd isn t letting him get away with it. To show just how insane it is that Trump has continued to slide by with voters despite his lies, Todd said: I don t know why people give him a pass on this. I mean, I asked him, I said what Trump do we believe? What you said about Hillary Clinton five years ago, or what you say about her now?He has contradicted every single attack he s made on the Clintons. You can find sound to contradict it. It doesn t touch him. Todd also encouraged Hillary to start fighting back against Trump s attacks, and to leverage Trump s own mistakes to destroy his chances of getting the White House. I think he s counting on this, that the Clintons don t want to engage him on this. So he thinks he s got free rein to do it.If (Hillary Clinton) can make the case that, you know what, he s just like every other politician. That is the most dangerous description you can have if you re Donald Trump it just hasn t taken hold. You can watch Todd take down Trump below:Featured image is a screenshot | 1 |
2 cups carrots, roughly chopped 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice 1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled 3⁄4 cup ice cubes
Directions:
Add all ingredients and blend it.
Enjoy. Health Benefits of Drinking Carrot Juice Prevents Cancer
Eating antioxidant-rich foods helps in fighting against these free radicals and thereby preventing the possibilities of the development of cancerous cells. Studies reveal that carrots juice is great sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin B, which collectively help in the fight against free radicals. Protects Brain Health
Carrots and carrot juice benefits brain health by helping to prevent against Alzheimer’s disease, improving memory, and defending against other types of cognitive decline. This is due to carrot’s ability to lower oxidative stress in the brain that can weaken nerve signaling capacity. Increases Metabolism
Phosphorous in carrot juice boosts the body’s metabolic rate, ensures optimal use of energy in the body, and decreases pain after a workout. Carrot juice contains a large amount of vitamin B complex, which helps in breaking down glucose, fat, and protein. It helps in building muscle and increasing metabolism, thus helping in weight loss. Cleanses The Liver
Carrot juice can cleanse and detoxifies the liver. The regular consumption of this tasty juice can help in releasing toxins from the liver. The bloodstream cannot rid the body of toxins and bile through the kidneys. They have to be ejected from the skin. Carrot juice aids this process and ensures that the harmful bile is removed from the body. Prevents Aging
The beta-carotenoid in carrots instantly turns into vitamin A once it enters the body. Therefore, drinking carrot juice can help in reducing cell degeneration, and it can also slow down the aging process. Control Cholesterol & Blood Sugar
Carrot juice works like a miracle in maintaining cholesterol and blood sugar levels, thanks to its potassium content. It is low in calories, and sugar content, and the essential vitamins and minerals present in it collectively work to prevent diabetes. Treats Macular Degeneration
Drinking carrot juice regularly can help elderly people avoid the risks of macular degeneration. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, which splits itself via an enzymatic reaction that leads to the formation of provitamin A. Strengthens the Bones
The vitamin K present in carrot juice contributes in the protein building process of the body. Aside from that, it also supports the binding of calcium, that can result in faster healing, especially if you have broken bones.
Sources: | 1 |
2016 presidential campaign by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Barack Obama tried to woo Republicans into a “Grand Bargain” that would have gutted Social Security. Bill Clinton let loose the banks. But Donald Trump’s destruction of the Republican Party will allow Hillary Clinton to “gather the whole of the ruling class under the same party banner, in one Big Tent, where the grandest of bargains can be conceived and achieved without crossing an aisle.” The rich are about to get their best deal yet. Hillary’s “Big Tent” is Obama’s “Grand Bargain” on Steroids by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“ The exodus from the GOP has suddenly transformed the Democratic Party into the primary political instrument of the ruling class.”
When Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the Republican Party he provided the unexpected catalyst for completion of the corporate project begun by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and other white Democrats in the 1980s, with the founding of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). To counter relentless attrition of whites to the GOP in their home states, these beleaguered, mostly southern Democrats sought national corporate funding to turn their party decisively to the right. They reckoned, correctly, that a steady stream of corporate capital would allow them to control the new wave of Black voters and politicians that had been mobilized by Rev. Jesse Jackson’s two presidential campaigns, while strengthening the hand of the South in national Democratic Party calculations.
Bill Clinton became the first DLC president in 1992, and moved swiftly and methodically to narrow the ideological differences between the duopoly parties. He completed much of Ronald Reagan’s agenda, claiming it as his own; destroyed welfare “as we knew it”; vastly expanded the mass Black Incarceration regime; pushed NAFTA through Congress over the objections of majorities in his own party; engineered the corporate monopolization of broadcast media; and removed the last safety straps from Wall Street banks.
“Clinton arranged the deployment of thousands of foreign jihadists to Bosnia and Kosovo.”
In foreign affairs, Clinton initiated what was to become the doctrine of “humanitarian” military intervention, dismantling and partially occupying the socialist nation of Yugoslavia. In the process, Clinton arranged the deployment of thousands of foreign jihadists to Bosnia and Kosovo, thus keeping operational the network created by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan during the previous decade in Afghanistan. In Africa, Clinton conspired with Uganda and exiled Tutsi rebels to overthrow the Hutu majority government in Rwanda, setting off a bloodbath in 1994, followed two years later by an invasion of Congo that has killed more than six million people -- and still counting.
Barack Obama was the second DLC president (although he lies about his membership). He, too, moved with unseemly haste to reach a “Grand Bargain” with the GOP -- not of necessity, since he had won a huge electoral mandate with the overwhelming financial backing of Wall Street, but as a matter of ideological principle. In January of 2009, before even taking the oath of office, Obama told the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Washington Post that all “entitlements,” including Medicare and Social Security, would be “ on the table ” for cutting in his administration. Obama’s first project, now considered the centerpiece of his legacy, was to resurrect the rightwing Heritage Foundation’s corporate health insurance scheme, adopted by Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole in 1996, and made into state law by Republican Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in 2006. Obama’s Affordable Care Act was, literally, written by lobbyists for the insurance and drug industries, and is now collapsing like a poorly constructed house at the end of its mortgage.
“For the better part of two years Obama debased himself, all but begging the Republicans to consummate his ‘Grand Bargain.’”
With the Democratic majority in Congress in no mood to tamper with Social Security and Medicare, Obama tried to maneuver the targeted entitlements into a financial crisis trap. He named two dependable reactionaries, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, as co-chairmen of his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, also called the Commission on Deficit Reduction. They dutifully recommended $4 trillion in budget cuts, mostly to social programs, including cuts to Social Security. Although the full commission did not endorse the chairs’ recommendations, and the Congress failed to pass bills modeled on the document, Obama used the Simpson-Bowles formula as a basis for negotiating what he hoped would be a “bipartisan” (GOP plus Obama and a minority of Democrats) massacre of entitlements. For the better part of two years Obama debased himself, all but begging the Republicans to consummate his “Grand Bargain.” Congressional Black Caucus chairman Emanuel Cleaver, of Kansas City, called the deal a “ Satan’s Sandwich ,” but Obama continued to pursue a political marriage made in hell until the 2012 reelection campaign clock called a halt to the spectacle.
“A de facto super-party of the bourgeoisie.”
The quest for a Grand Bargain was Barack Obama’s failed attempt to best Bill Clinton in erasing the distinctions between the two major parties – to create a de facto super-party of the bourgeoisie. It was the Republicans who ran away from the altar. And the Democrats did eat much of the Satan’s Sandwich, through sequestration and austerity that ravaged social programs by other means.
Why did the Republicans reject the deal? Although both halves of the duopoly ultimately answer to Wall Street, the Republicans, like any other party, have an institutional interest in winning office. It is true that Obama had crafted a deal that any Republican would love, but it was still his deal, and he planned to run for reelection as an historical dealmaker. Probably just as importantly, the Republican Party is the White Man’s party, meaning, white supremacy is its organizing principle, central to its identity among much of the masses. To embrace Obama, no matter how advantageous to their big business patrons, was a hug too far for the GOP. Racism doomed the Grand Bargain – Hallelujah!
A New, Bigger Bargain
Recently released Wikileaks emails reveal Hillary Clinton speaking to bankers at Morgan Stanley in 2013, a year after the debacle. “The Simpson-Bowles framework and the big elements of it were right,” she said.
Thanks to Donald Trump’s demolition of the Republican Party, the conditions have been created for Hillary Clinton, as DLC President #3, to achieve what #1 and #2 could not: gather the whole of the ruling class under the same party banner, in one Big Tent, where the grandest of bargains can be conceived and achieved without crossing an aisle. With most of the ruling class and its attendants having vacated the building, the Republican Party has been reduced to Donald Trump and his “deplorables,” as Hillary calls them. Trump’s opposition to corporate trade deals violated the Holy Grail against prohibiting capitalists from moving money and jobs around the world as they see fit, and his reluctance to support regime change as an inherent right of American exceptionalism has frightened and outraged the military industrial complex, the national security establishment, and all sectors dependent on the maintenance of empire.
“An inherently unstable arrangement.”
Clinton’s Big Tent is not a temporary, election season dwelling. It is how she plans to govern. The exodus from the GOP has suddenly transformed the Democratic Party into the primary political instrument of the ruling class, while at the same time the party nominally represents most of the folks who are abused and misused by that ruling class. It is an inherently unstable arrangement, and will soon be wracked by splits, as a post-Trump GOP attempts to lure its fat cats back and the darker and poorer constituencies consigned to the latrine area of Hillary’s high class tent break to the Left for air.
But in the interim, Clinton will have a unique opportunity to cut grand austerity deals with all the “big elements” of Simpson-Bowles, to renege on her corporate trade promises, and to wage war with great gusto in the name of a “united” country. Ever since the Democratic National Convention it has been clear that the Clintonites are encouraged to consider everyone outside of their grand circle to be suspect, subversive, or depraved. Their inclusive rhetoric is really an invocation of a ruling class consensus, now that Trump has supposedly brought the ruling class together under one banner. In Hillary’s tent, the boardrooms are always in session. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected] . | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Tuesday that the defense relationship with the Philippines was a “strong” and “longstanding” one, when asked about the Philippines’ president’s insult toward U.S. President Barack Obama. Carter, speaking to reporters as he was landing in London, also described the Philippines’ new defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, as someone who was “very knowledgeable about all the things that we do together”. President Rodrigo Duterte called Obama a “son of a bitch” and said he would not be lectured over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines’ drug war. Duterte later voiced regret for his language. The two had been scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos but Obama canceled the meeting. | 1 |
The New World Order elite want to steal Russian land, they don't care how many Americans or Russians die in the process. Vote Trump! | 1 |
Something about this decision really stinks of favoritism and cronyism. We d love to know who made the decision to punish the American viewers with yet ANOTHER painful appearance by John Kasich on the debate stage over Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina have been booted to the undercard in Thursday night s Republican primary debate as the number of main-stage candidates was cut to seven by stricter polling criteria.Paul, who is struggling to gain traction in the presidential race, immediately cried foul, and vowed to not participate in the event.Fox Business Network, which will televise the sixth GOP presidential debate this week, announced the debate fields on Monday evening, after weeks of speculation that Paul would for the first time not make the cut for the primetime event. The seven candidates who will appear on the main stage in North Charleston, S.C., are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. Kasich qualified as a result of his strength in New Hampshire. Paul and Fiorina are set to join Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the undercard if Paul decides to participate. The Kentucky senator told CNN Monday evening, just before the official announcement, that Fox Business had made a mistake, and he wouldn t attend. We will not participate in anything that s not first-tier, Paul said. His campaign confirmed to POLITICO that he will sit out Thursday s debate.His campaign elaborated in a statement that multiple polls showed him well within the network s criteria for qualifying, and contended that the margins of error in polls make them a poor tool for determining who makes the main stage. To exclude candidates on faulty analysis is to disenfranchise the voter, the statement said. Creating tiers based on electoral results of real votes might make sense but creating tiers on bad science is irresponsible. Regardless of whether he takes part in the undercard debate, the downgrade could be a crippling blow for Paul who has insisted that he would remain in the race through the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, even though he also faces a reelection campaign this year for his Senate seat.In an interview with POLITICO last week, Paul called for organizers to abolish the earlier undercard debate. I m not sure what the purpose is anymore, if there ever was one, Paul said. The Paul camp has fought hard to keep its candidate on the main stage, where he has appeared for the prior five debates. Earlier Monday, the campaign released a memo stating that multiple national polls have the Kentucky senator in 5th or 6th place even though he s in seventh place in the average nationally and in both early states. By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top-tier campaign and has qualified for the stage, the memo said.But it was clear that Paul didn t meet the criteria Fox Business had outlined prior to Monday s qualification deadline. The network said it would average the five most recent polls nationally, and in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The top six candidates nationally would qualify and if any other candidate appeared in the top five in either early state, they would be added.Paul was in seventh place nationally and in both early states, according to POLITICO s calculations.Fox Business outlined specifically which polls were used in a subsequent statement to reporters, saying the outlet used the most recent national and state polls from non-partisan, nationally-recognized organizations using standard methodological techniques. Via: Politico | 0 |
Why should armed civilians have to protect and defend our US military recruitment centers? Muslim terrorists have made it clear that they intend to target these brave men and women who defend our nation. Is it really too much to ask that we allow them to defend themselves?Civilians, with semi-automatic carbines, eating Chick-fil-A, guarding Marines. Up yours, @WhiteHouse. pic.twitter.com/o5FVTpSqeG Bob Owens (@bob_owens) July 21, 2015h/t Weasel Zippers | 1 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sluggish forecast for U.S. economic growth as well as an increase in U.S. states’ Medicaid and pension contribution costs is creating a budgetary squeeze in many state capitols, according to a research report issued by S&P Global Ratings on Monday. While the risk of a recession within the next 12 months has fallen into a 15-20 percent range from 20-25 percent, the rate of economic expansion “is expected to remain fairly anemic at 1.8 percent over the longer term (roughly 10 years), well below the 3.0 percent average growth rate that prevailed from 1980 to 2000,” the report said. “And while the risk that federal policy could trigger a recession has eased, the potential for a dramatic scaling-back of federal aid for Medicaid has never been greater,” the report said. The slow-growth economy is producing sluggish revenue trends for the states, said Gabriel Petek, an analyst at S&P, in a telephone interview. S&P does not expect Washington will enact a federally funded public infrastructure package in the next two years, which will put further stresses on state budget management. Addressing deferred maintenance and inadequate capacity in public infrastructure will depend heavily on state and local government solutions, the report said. Without a possible bump in growth from a federal infrastructure package, projected GDP growth for 2017 was lowered to 2.2 percent from 2.3 percent, the report said. “Anything that is done at the federal level would imply that more of the burden has to be picked up by the state and local government level in the area of infrastructure investment,” Petek said. The report added that the U.S. mid-Atlantic region (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) will have the slowest growing economy compared to other regions. Real GDP growth for the region is projected at 1.25 percent for 2017, the report said. The best performing region forecast for the current year, with an economic growth forecast of 2.88 percent is the Mountain region (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming). Overall, regional economies growth rates are expected to peak in 2018 before some of those gains ebb, the report’s data showed. The best performing region forecast for 2018 are the states in the West South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) with a combined growth rate of 3.36 percent, followed closely by the Mountain region at 3.29 percent and Pacific region at 2.93 percent. | 1 |
The debate may be in the books, but the spin goes on. Kellyanne Conway, Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager, accused Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia of having an “obsession” with Mr. Trump. For his part, Mr. Trump, who repeatedly interrupted Hillary Clinton during the first debate, said that Mr. Kaine’s constant interruptions of Mr. Pence should not have been allowed but that his running mate “won big” anyway. Mrs. Clinton’s team seized on Mr. Pence’s strategy of appearing to forget much of what Mr. Trump has said on the campaign trail and criticized Mr. Pence with a video featuring him denying statements that his running mate has made publicly. While pundits generally agreed that Mr. Pence was the winner of the debate, he was careful on Wednesday not to take too much of the limelight, and he took to Twitter to dispel concerns that he had not sufficiently defended Mr. Trump. The early favorite for most memorable debate moment was Mr. Pence’s use of the phrase “that Mexican thing. ” In a rare moment of frustration at Mr. Kaine’s barrage of attacks on Mr. Trump’s contentious statements on Hispanic immigrants, Mr. Pence shot back, “Senator, you’ve whipped out that Mexican thing again. ” The line #ThatMexicanThing quickly became a popular hashtag on social media, where Mr. Pence was criticized for showing a lack of sensitivity. Mr. Pence went on to make the case that Mr. Trump’s focus has been on immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Recent polls of Ohio voters have shown that the Buckeye State might be slipping away from Mrs. Clinton’s grasp, but a Monmouth University survey released on Wednesday shows that the Democratic nominee still has a chance there. A poll of likely voters showed that 44 percent back Mrs. Clinton and 42 percent support Mr. Trump. Mrs. Clinton had a advantage in August. (The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4. 9 percentage points.) After showing signs of struggling in Ohio, it appeared that Mrs. Clinton might be giving up in the crucial swing state. However, she is making another push and plans to campaign with President Obama in Cleveland on Friday. According to the Monmouth poll, she is not doing as well as Mr. Obama did in 2012 with minority voters, so their joint appearance could help her solidify that base of support. The next pivotal moment in the race arrives on Sunday night, when Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton hold their second debate. Republicans have been on edge since Mr. Trump’s uneven first debate and his erratic behavior in the aftermath of that performance. The Times reported on Wednesday evening that Mr. Trump is slipping in several swing state polls and that members of his party could start to distance themselves from him if he falters again on Sunday out of concern that their hopes of maintaining control in Congress could be on shaky ground. Independents, in particular, have been especially turned off by Mr. Trump in the last week and there is growing concern about an exodus of female voters. Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Vladimir V. Putin for months, calling him a strong leader and a potential ally. Mr. Pence struck a different note on Tuesday night, describing the Russian president as a “small and bullying” leader who the United States should not hesitate to confront. The remarks made it appear that the Republican ticket might not be on the same page when it comes to Russian policy, and in an interview Wednesday with CNN, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, was careful not to shed much light on the campaign’s official line on the matter. “We have to be able to stand up to foreign leaders,” Mr. Miller said. “There’s also no reason why we can’t work with foreign leaders, for example to defeat ISIS. ” New data from Nielsen showed that the debate drew 37 million television viewers, the smallest audience since Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman debated in 2000. Although that does not capture people who viewed the proceedings online, it paled when compared to the first presidential debate between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton. That drew 84 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Mr. Pence and Mr. Kaine are both relatively candidates who are not overly combative and their showdown lacked the fanfare that the top of the ticket has received. The most watched debate remains the one from 2008, when Sarah Palin took on then Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. Russia appears to be taking advantage of the period of uncertainty before the American presidential election to deepen its presence in Syria and its support of President Bashar ’s government. | 0 |
SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson arrived in Seattle last Saturday after a trip to Florida, public outrage over the immigration order issued the previous day by President Donald Trump was quickly growing. He went home, greeted his family and then went to work. By late Monday afternoon, just minutes before the court closed for the day, Ferguson, a Democrat, and his team of lawyers were ready to file the first state lawsuit seeking to block the order. On Friday, they won a dramatic courtroom victory when U.S. District Judge James Robart put on hold the travel ban for refugees and citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries. The lawsuit emerged out of a chaotic 48-hour period in which the need for immediate action held sway over the kind of carefully thought-out strategizing that usually leads up to a major legal complaint being filed, according to Ferguson and other attorneys involved in actions against the order. “We knew we had one shot,” Ferguson said in an interview, in reference to the bid for a temporary restraining that would immediately overturn Trump’s executive order. The lawsuit is one of several now filed against the executive order around the United States, but it was the first case leading to a broad decision that applies nationwide. The fight over the immigration order is just the first of what is likely to be a series of court battles between Democratic attorneys general, the top legal officers in liberal-leaning states, and the administration. Several attorneys general have already said they expect to sue Trump on various issues if he oversteps his authority, including on the environment and consumer protection. President Trump on Saturday ridiculed Judge Robart, a George W. Bush appointee, and his decision. The Justice Department filed a formal appeal. The Washington state lawyers worked around the clock last Saturday and Sunday against the backdrop of turbulent scenes at U.S. airports, where immigrants were detained by federal officials unprepared to implement the president’s directive. There was little time to coordinate with other states, though ultimately one other state, Minnesota, joined the effort. Additional states, including Virginia, New York and Hawaii, have filed their own lawsuits or sought to intervene in cases brought by individuals affected by the ban. State attorneys general did not collectively decide to let Washington file first for any strategic advantage, Ferguson said. Rather, Washington was able most quickly to marshal evidence of the harm Trump’s order caused to the state, which is crucial to establish legal standing. Ferguson called the general counsels at major Washington employers Amazon.com Inc. and Expedia Inc. for their support. The companies eventually filed sworn statements in court saying the ban hurt their businesses. The state lawyers also gathered information on the harm to state residents and institutions such as the university system, which the judge appeared to find persuasive. The legal assault on the order has involved Ferguson and other Democratic lawyers taking a leaf from the play-book followed by Republican states that successfully challenged actions taken by Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama. Washington state’s claims rely in part on the same legal arguments that Texas and 25 other Republican-led states made when they challenged Obama’s November 2014 plan to protect up to four million immigrants from deportation. In that case, the Republican states argued that Obama overstepped his constitutional powers by infringing upon the authority of Congress. Washington and other states say Trump has violated the Constitution too, albeit on different grounds. They say he has violated protections against discrimination on the basis of religion by targeting Muslims. The state has a responsibility to protect the “health, safety, and well-being” of all its residents, the lawsuit said. In the 2014 case, Texas, like Washington state in the Trump case, asked for a nationwide injunction. Where the fight against Trump’s order differs from the Texas challenge to Obama is that various lawsuits have been filed around the country by states and civil rights groups. The Texas case was a single lawsuit that the other states joined. ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said there was little time to talk strategy among the many states and advocacy groups opposing the order, as would normally happen. “It’s moving too quickly,” he said. That sense of urgency was all too clear to Washington state lawyers on Monday as they feverishly gathered the required documents to file with the lawsuit, including the motion for a temporary restraining order. Unlike other court papers filed electronically, a paper copy of that motion had to be delivered to the clerk’s office in person. So Noah Purcell, the solicitor general, led a race to the Seattle courthouse with others from the office just as the building was about to close. They pulled up to the courthouse, jumped out of the car and ran up the steps to the doors before they were locked. They arrived just in time. | 0 |
By Michael Shrimpton on October 30, 2016 Some Battleship Myths Busted
The comments on last week’s column (Aberfan – Disaster Or Attack?) threw up some unexpected comments about battleships, and the causes of World War I. As you can tell, it was a wide-ranging discussion! It also showed that that a number of myths about battleships, not to mention the causes of World War I, are still prevalent. First however, some comments on the exciting presidential race. Trump or Clinton?
I’m still predicting a win for Trump. The polls have tightened, which is not good news for Hillary, and the first straws in the wind suggesting a landslide for Trump have appeared. Some polls are still showing a lead for the Democrat, but the most reliable ones seem to be showing Trumpy ahead by 1 or 2 points.
A delighted Washington Post predicted this week that Trumpy has “next to zero” chance of winning. I’m not sure that’s true even if you accept the polls as accurate. The polls are suggesting a tight race. However pollsters have a history of getting it wrong when it comes to races involving conservatives. The margin of error in favor of liberal positions differs from one pollster to another, but between 2.5 and 5% seems about right.
Since the last two Republican candidates were scarcely conservatives, the reasonably good performance of most polling organisations in 2008 and 2012 has to be viewed with reserve. Polling performance breaks down when you have serious conservative opposition. They can be still an indicator, however, of momentum. The FBI (Photo credit: Hurricane Bianca)
I have heard of October surprises , indeed the Democrats sprang one over Bimbogate, or at least gave it the good old college try. It might have been better choosing bimbos who had actually met the Republican candidate, or at least met him without witnesses present, but there it is.
Having the FBI act with integrity when the suspect is the Democratic candidate for president and polling day is less than two weeks away wasn’t so much an October surprise as an October shock, no offense to the Fibbies intended.
Assuming – just assuming – that this wasn’t part of a deal between Mr O and Mr T, whereby Mr T agreed to keep quiet about Mr O’s Kenyan/Zanzibari origins in exchange for Mr O backing off the FBI, the timing of the FBI’s move was extraordinary. They are saying that it was due to fresh evidence coming into their possession, so it can’t have been that.
It is just possible that the boys in the Hoover building (that’s Hoover as in J Edgar, BTW, not as in the vacuum cleaner) were not aware of the large sums of money slushing, sorry finding, its way to the wife of their Deputy Director from the Clintons. It’s a bit of a mystery, and I don’t pretend to know the answer. Astonishing as it may sound, with respect, it may even be that the FBI have finally started to act with integrity and good faith. If so, that would be a positive development, although don’t expect the CIA to follow suit! If they did, the world really will have turned upside down. The CIA and Wikipedia WWI
People sometimes ask me why I write for VeteransToday, given the lousy pay (!) The short answer is that they are good people and don’t interfere with my freedom of expression. VT is also something of an intelligence clearing house, however. I hope readers learn something from my weekly columns (that’s why I write ‘em), but I also learn things.
One of the things I learnt this week via VT is that the CIA have a thing going with Wikipedia. I thought I was dealing with operatives – it was strange that so-called volunteer editors responded within minutes to any attempt by me to balance the Wikipedia attack piece on me. Turns out the CIA have an active interest in about 10% of Wiki sites, including mine.
Given that Director Brennan is an enemy of mine, with Jesuit connections, I helped expose the role of the Jesuit Order in providing the pretext for World War I and the Agency are heavily penetrated by my bitter enemies the DVD, via the Correa/COREA Group in Frankfurt, that would make sense.
The next installment in my WikiWar should be mediation. Goodness knows who they’ll suggest as a mediator – Angela Merkel probably, or the President of the European Commission. The mediator will definitely be driving a Volkswagen. The Naval Race Rear Admiral Sir Christoper Cradock
I’m inter alia an intelligence historian , so it’s nice to turn to an historical topic. It is incredibly important to get history right – otherwise we just repeat the same mistakes.
A number of commenters last week seemed to be laboring under the delusion, no offense intended, that World War I was started by the naval race between the British and German Empires. This nonsensical view, widely propagated since 1918 by German Intelligence and their allies, is still recycled on the BBC and by liberal faculty members, i.e. just about all of them.
World War I was not started by the British Admiralty, nor by accident. It was started by the Germans, who set up the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his lovely wife Sophie on June 28th 1914. The German army was already mobilising, implementing a war plan drawn up years before.
The build-up of the Imperial German Navy had similarly been underway for years, for purely offensive purposes. The German Navy was not designed to protect German interests abroad – its capital ships lacked the range and the habitability for that. It was aimed at bringing the Royal Navy’s Atlantic and Channel Fleets to battle in the North Sea (the famous Grand Fleet was only formed on the outbreak of war).
There is no way the German Navy could have matched the rapid, hemispheric deployment of a battlecruiser squadron to the farthest reaches of the South Atlantic in 1914, e.g., after the destruction of a weak British squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock at the Battle of Coronel. Vice-Admiral Sturdee’s great victory in the Battle of the Falkland Islands was of course made possible by the Naval Intelligence Department.
The boys had spotted that the First Sea Lord, von Battenberg, was a German spy and had deliberately refused to reinforce Cradock’s squadron. Von Battenberg was left in place and fed false position reports – no wonder the sight of the fighting tops of a British battlecruiser squadron in Port Stanley harbor so rattled the Hun commander, Graf von Spee, who was the runner-up in the battle which followed. The true position was stated millennia ago by the Roman general Vegetius: si vis pacem, para bellum. If you wan’t peace, prepare for war. Great Britain did not encourage the First World War by taking the limited steps that she did to prepare for it.
We needed more battleships and battlecruisers, not fewer. Sadly, the Liberal government decided to encourage German aggression by holding back spending on the Royal Navy. Had we been stronger, the Hun would not dare have invaded Belgium and Luxembourg in a flanking attack on the French army. Next Myth HMS Barham
The next myth propagated last week was that battleships were vulnerable to U-Boats. The truth is that the only British battleships sunk by U-Boat in both world wars, HMS Barham and HMS Royal Oak, were betrayed.
Royal Oak was sunk because the First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound was being blackmailed by Jerry and agreed to hold up the badly-needed block-ships requested for Scapa Flow by the C-in-C Home Fleet.
Had the block-ships been in place, as requested, Gunther Prien wouldn’t have got within five miles of Royal Oak. It is not even clear that the dear old Barham was actually sunk in November 1941 by U-331. It is more likely that her magazines were detonated by a radio-controlled IED set off by a German agent on the battleship ahead, which happened to have a cameraman ready to film the sinking.
All battleships after the turbine-powered Dreadnought were too fast for submarines, which until the advent of the first true submarine, the German Type XXI, had limited underwater speed and endurance. Forget the headline figure for underwater speed – at top speed a U-Boat’s batteries would be drained quickly. This made achieving a firing solution difficult. Battleships were also usually too well screened by destroyers.
They were such difficult targets that in practice only a U-Boat lying in wait could torpedo them. Then there was the difficulty in sinking them. Older battleships could indeed be sunk by a single submarine, even a single torpedo, ditto battleships whose design was held back by the absurd limitations in the Washington Treaty, designed to make the next world war winnable for the Bad Guys.
It is, however, intellectually dishonest to compare the latest subs with older battleships, or battleships, like the King George V class, designed to artificial limits. In World War II modern battleships designed without reference to the Washington Treaty, such as the wonderful Iowa class, incorporated excellent anti-torpedo protection. A single Jap sub, e.g. would have had trouble hitting an Iowa class fast battleship with enough torpedoes to sink her.
The King George V classic were a classic illustration of the dangers posed by the Washington Treaty. To save weight their outer prop-shafts weren’t armored, a weakness which proved fatal when HMS Prince of Wales was struck by a Japanese aerial torpedo in December 1941. In practice battleships were much less vulnerable to torpedo attack than any other type of warship. That is why all Japanese submarine attacks on American battleships in World War II failed, indeed the Japs only ever managed to sink American battleships in harbor in peacetime, and even then they only actually sank two. The other battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor were repaired, modernised and went on to avenge their sisters. Third Myth HMS Repulse
The vulnerability of battleships to air attack in World War II has also been greatly overstated. They were of course invulnerable to air attack in World War I, as no aircraft could carry an armor-piercing bomb heavy enough to sink them. No German or Italian battleship was sunk at sea by airpower in the whole of the war.
No American battleship was sunk at sea in either war, period. Only one British battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, was sunk by airpower in World War II, and she was betrayed. HMS Indomitable, the carrier designated as her escort, had been run aground, on Pound’s orders, whilst working up out of Kingston Harbour in Jamaica.
Attacking as they did outside fighter range, without combat equipment such self-sealing tanks, the Jap bombers would have been very vulnerable to Indomitable’s cannon-equipped fighters.
As I explain in Spyhunter, Force Z’s course had been betrayed to the Japanese in Saigon, via radio, by the German spy Rear-Admiral Palliser. Had Palliser not betrayed the British squadron it’s unlikely that the Japs would have found them. They had poor air reconnaissance, limited fuel reserves and could not just stooge around the South China Sea trying to find them.
HMS Repulse was a battlecruiser, not a battleship. Unlike her sister Renown, she had not been modernised. In particular, she lacked Renown’s modern 4.5” Dual Purpose (DP) battery, much more effective in the AA role than Prince of Wales’s DP fit. Bismarck firing at HMS Hood
HMS Hood , blown-up during the course of the Battle of the Denmark Strait, was also a battlecruiser and, like Repulse, she had not been modernised. The Chamberlain government and the Treasury denied the Admiralty the funds for her much-needed modernisation, precisely in order to make her easier for Jerry to sink.
As I explain in Spyhunter, it is very doubtful that Hood was actually sunk by KMS Bismarck and much more likely that she was blown up by an IED in either a 4” magazine, leading to secondary detonation of a main magazine, or a main magazine.
None of the broadsides fired by either Bismarck or her accompanying heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen is a good candidate for the alleged fatal shot. Prinz Eugen’s main battery was only 8”/60 caliber – her 270 lb shells were too small to have penetrated Hood’s heavy belt armor.
For decades, we have been favored with nonsense from pro-Germans about Hood’s main deck armor being much weaker than Bismarck’s (the true figures are 3” over the magazines for Hood and 4.7” for Bismarck) and Bismarck sinking her with plunging fire at long range. Bismarck, however, was photographed firing at Hood from the Prinz Eugen. As you can see from the photo, Bismarck’s main battery is nowhere near maximum elevation.
The Hun-loving editors of Wikipedia, BTW, still cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that the Bismarck was sunk by the Royal Navy. She was in fact finished off by torpedoes from the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, sinking shortly after the last torpedo hit, which Wikipedia would have us believe was a strange coincidence. HMS King George V
As I have mentioned, the King George V class , of which Prince of Wales was a member, suffered from design limitations imposed by the Washington Treaty. They also suffered from several design flaws, which would not have been repeated in later classes and partly flowed from the lack of cash given to the Admiralty in the 1930s.
They sacrificed AA firepower for spotter aircraft. Whilst the planes were well-protected in an armored hangar, it would have been better to rely on more powerful spotter/recon aircraft flown from escorting carriers.
The 5.25” DP secondary armament was an excellent anti-destroyer weapon, probably the best ever deployed on a battleship, but had too poor a rate of fire (around 12-16 rounds per minute) to be an effective weapon against aircraft. The dedicated AA gun, the multiple 2-pounder ‘pom-pom’, was the best in the world when it came into service in the late 1920s, but had been overtaken by the 40-mil Bofors. The mounts were not tri-axially stabilized and the class lacked tachymetric AA fire-control. These specific weaknesses however afford no grounds for saying that battleships generally were unduly vulnerable to aircraft. So far to the contrary, they were better able to stand up to bombs and torpedoes than carriers, were more stable gun platforms, had better firing arcs (this was particularly true of the US Navy – the Iowa class had superb firing arcs for their secondary and AA armament, e.g., whereas the firing arcs on the Essex-class carriers were limited) and better fire-control. Unsurprisingly, US fast carrier task forces in the Pacific used battleships to protect carriers against aircraft. HMS Inflexible
Of the five British capital ships sunk during World War II, two were unmodernised battlecruisers, two were probably sunk by IEDs and all five were betrayed in one way, shape or form. Without the assistance of the Abwehr, including interference by political assets in Number 10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury with their design or modernisation, probably none of them would have been sunk at all.
The US Navy had the right idea. What was needed was balanced all-arms task forces, combining battlewagons, carriers, cruisers and destroyers. Admiral Henderson of the Royal Navy had in fact come up with the idea of fast carrier task forces protected by capital ships in the Mediterranean in the 1930s, but the Royal Navy lacked enough fast battleships and carriers to really make it work until 1945, with the British Pacific Fleet
Oh yes, we were in the Pacific alright , although the lack of defense expenditure and serious planning for war by pro-German weanies in Downing St before the war meant that it took three years for us to get there. Apart that is from our fine armored carrier HMS Victorious, which served briefly in the Pacific in 1943, flying USN squadrons, an episode which would make a fine war movie, if a movie-maker could be found with the guts to make it.
President Reagan also had the right idea in reactivating the Iowa class in the 80s. Had the Royal Navy not been forced to scrap HMS Vanguard, our last battleship, by the German asset Harold Macmillan, it is doubtful that General Galtieri would even have started the war. HMS Vanguard Falklands War
The very thought of that elegant and powerful fast battleship , virtually immune from the Exocet sea-skimming missiles (her belt armor was too strong for an Exocet to penetrate) emerging from the gloom of the South Atlantic to pulverise the Argentine Fleet or smash up Argentine forces ashore, would have given the Argies the willies. Vanguard’s deck armor, BTW, would have been too strong for any bomb the Argentine Air Force could carry.
No ship in the Argentine Navy could have remained operational after a single accurate broadside from HMS Vanguard, and she had fully-synthetic fire-control, i.e. could land her main battery guns on target whilst maneuvering. She was a formidable surface combatant. This Week’s Movie Review: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, dir. Edward Zwick)
This movie is huge fun . The first Jack Reacher movie, also starring Tom Cruise, was also huge fun, with the Bad Guys getting whacked all over the place. It’s always nice to see dirty cops getting their come-uppance! We could do with Jack Reacher in Thames Valley. No jury would convict.
Unusually for a sequel, this movie is as good as the original. If anything, it’s even better. Tom Cruise is excellent as the lead, although it was a disappointment for me that Robert Duvall was not retained. He’s one of my all-time favorite actors. Robert Knepper, as General Harkness, provides strong support, however, as does Cobie Smulders, who I think we’ll be seeing again.
The plot, based around bent military contractors, is more believable than most of the anti-military, anti-American rubbish emerging from liberal Hollywood, and the heroes come from the military. The movie moves at a cracking pace, and you are kept in suspense until the end about whether Jack is a father or not. I’m not going to spoil it for you by revealing the plot! It’s well worth going to see. | 0 |
(Reuters) - Shares of Florida home insurers, including Heritage Insurance Holdings, tumbled on Tuesday and many extended losses later in the day as Hurricane Irma appeared set to hit Florida on Saturday, causing investors to brace for losses. HCI Group shares posted their biggest-ever one-day percentage drop, falling 20.0 percent at $30.94 and hitting the lowest level since November. Trading volume was 11.6 times the stock s 10-day moving average. Heritage shares hit record lows and closed down 17.0 percent at $9.35 with trading volume 7.0 times the stock s 10-day moving average. Universal Insurance Holdings Inc shares tumbled 14.6 percent in the biggest one-day percentage drop since November 2015. Irma strengthened to a highly dangerous Category 5 storm, with winds of 185 mph, as it barreled toward the Caribbean and the southern United States, threatening deadly winds, storm surges and flooding. If Irma continues its current path it will create significant insured damage, said Sandler O Neill analyst Paul Newsome. It s quite easy for them to wipe out all their earnings for the year. Shares of United Insurance Holdings fell 7.2 percent, hitting their lowest point since February. Trading volume was 8.1 times the 10-day moving average. Larger insurance companies with a broader geographic exposure were also lower after tumbling last week on expectations of massive losses from Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana. Travelers Co was down 3.7 percent after a 5 percent drop last week, and Progressive Corp was down 3.4 percent after falling 5.7 percent last week. Chubb Ltd fell 2.6 percent. Another big hurricane in the same year adds another level of financial losses even for the big companies with enormous capital bases, Newsome said. A second hurricane strains the system as insurers will have a harder time getting enough people to do loss adjustments in order to settle claims as quickly as possible, he said. | 0 |
Anderson Cooper decided it would be a good idea to roll his eyes numerous times during his interview with Kellyanne Conway Not smart!The cameras caught his eye rolls Classless move! Conway responded by calling his move sexist . We have to agree because you know he wouldn t pull this move with anyone else. Conway has been just one more person the left has targeted with their slings and arrows. It s not professional critique but nasty and very sophomoric comments about anything from the way Conway dresses to her physical appearance. It s been brutal but she s such a strong woman that she just keeps bringing great commentary. We say BRAVO!The disrespect is unbelievable! | 1 |
WASHINGTON — A retired United States Navy admiral and eight other officers were indicted on Tuesday in a widening bribery scandal in which prosecutors say a foreign contractor traded luxury travel, lavish gifts and prostitutes for inside intelligence. A total of 25 military officers and executives have now been prosecuted in one of the worst corruption scandals to hit the military in years. Prosecutors, laying out in unsparing detail a plot that stretched from Singapore to Washington, accused the officers — all with the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, the Navy’s largest — of betraying the public trust for bribes from a military contractor in Singapore, Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard. The scheme cost the Navy “tens of millions of dollars” in overbillings to Mr. Francis’ firm, as he relied on sensitive and sometimes classified information the officers had given them to game the system, according to the indictment. The yearslong bribery scheme “amounts to a staggering degree of corruption by the most prominent leaders of the Seventh Fleet,” said Alana W. Robinson, the acting United States attorney in San Diego, where the charges were brought. The officers “actively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the interests of a greedy foreign defense contractor, and not those of their own country,” Ms. Robinson said. The most prominent official charged on Tuesday was Bruce Loveless, a retired rear admiral who was taken into custody that day at his home in Coronado, Calif. outside San Diego. The admiral was knocked down a rank after he came under investigation in 2013 with two stars before the demotion, he was the officer to be charged in the scandal. Another admiral, Robert Gilbeau, was charged earlier in the case. The indictment dates Admiral Loveless’s involvement in the scheme to 2007, when he was a Navy captain involved in assessing foreign intelligence threats for the Seventh Fleet. In one of many lavish events cataloged in the indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Francis, the military contractor, took Admiral Loveless and another defendant, Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Shedd, out for a $5, 000 night of wining and dining in Singapore and gave Commander Shedd and his wife $25, 000 watches at the end of the night. Prosecutors contend that Commander Shedd then gave classified intelligence about Navy contracts and fleet movements to Mr. Francis, who was chief executive of a contractor called Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which had extensive United States military contracts. At the contractor’s behest, Commander Shedd passed on “cigars and fine wine” to Admiral Loveless and other Navy officers involved in the exchange, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, after a night of fine dining and prostitutes in Bangkok, Commander Shedd emailed Mr. Francis to say that Admiral Loveless and two other officers who were hosted for the event “were all smiles on the drive home over their ‘one night in Bangkok.’ ” The indictment also accuses Admiral Loveless of obstructing the bribery investigation by denying knowledge of the scheme. Asked by Navy investigators in 2013 whether he had ever received anything of value from Mr. Francis, Admiral Loveless responded “never,” prosecutors said. And he said he did not recall ever staying in a hotel room that he had not paid for, the prosecutors said, despite evidence that Mr. Francis had paid the bill for numerous stays for him and others at lavish hotels around Asia where ships from the Seventh Fleet were docked. Mr. Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 in San Diego, as have 10 former military officers previously charged in the case. | 0 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Top United Nations officials warned the Security Council on Monday that its sanctions on North Korea over the country s nuclear and missile programs may be harming the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished, isolated Asian state. The 15-member Security Council held its fourth annual meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea, despite objections by China, who said it was not the right forum and warned the move could further escalate tensions in the region. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein said U.N. agencies and aid groups were literally a life-line for some 13 million vulnerable North Koreans, but sanctions may be adversely affecting this essential help. Zeid and deputy U.N. political affairs chief Miroslav Jenca said aid groups were facing difficulties accessing international banking channels, transporting goods into the North Korea, and rising fuel prices hindering delivery of aid. In an Oct. 27 letter to the council sanctions committee on North Korea, seen by Reuters, the top U.N. official in Pyongyang, Tapan Mishra, also said there were customs problems. Crucial relief items, including medical equipment and drugs, have been held up for months despite being equipped with the required paperwork affirming that they are not on the list of sanctioned items, Mishra wrote. Zeid asked the Security Council on Monday to assess the impact of the sanctions on human rights and take action to minimize their adverse humanitarian consequences. In a statement on Friday, the council sanctions committee reiterated that the nine sanctions resolutions adopted since 2006 are not intended to have adverse humanitarian consequences for the civilian population of North Korea. North Korea has repeatedly rejected accusations of rights abuses and blames sanctions for the humanitarian situation. The North Korean U.N. mission condemned Monday s meeting as a desperate act of the hostile forces which lose the political and military confrontation with the DPRK (North Korea) that has openly risen to the position of nuclear weapon state. Japan s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters on Monday: The humanitarian situation and human rights situation in North Korea is very dire and that s because of the authorities. For the fourth time, China unsuccessfully tried to stop the public meeting by calling a procedural vote. A minimum of nine votes are needed to win such a vote and China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France cannot wield their vetoes. Ten members voted in favor of the meeting, China, Russia and Bolivia voted against, and Egypt and Ethiopia abstained. Council members and relevant parties should engage themselves with finding ways to ease tensions on the Peninsula. They should avoid mutual provocation and words or actions that might further escalate the situation, China s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Wu Haitao told the council. He said the discussion of human rights in North Korea was counterproductive. The systematic human rights violations and abuses of the North Korean government are more than the cause of its people s suffering. They are a means to a single end: Keeping the Kim Jong Un regime in power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council. The Security Council is due to hold a ministerial meeting on North Korea s nuclear and missiles programs on Friday. | 0 |
Torture is illegal in this country and the United States is bound by the United Nations and the Geneva Convention to not commit such a war crime.But Donald Trump intends to sign an executive order that would open the door for the CIA to use torture on detainees and reopen secret black sites that are used to make people disappear.According to the New York Times, the sweeping executive order would clear the way for the Central Intelligence Agency to reopen overseas black site prisons, like those where it detained and tortured terrorism suspects before former President Obama shut them down. Republicans have been defending the use of torture since it was revealed that former President George W. Bush authorized waterboarding during his presidency. It s a form of torture that simulates drowning. Even Senator John McCain says that waterboarding is torture. He would know. He was tortured in Vietnam while Trump dodged the draft and spent his days womanizing and spending his daddy s money.Most tellingly, conservatives who say waterboarding isn t torture, like Trump propagandist Sean Hannity, cowardly refuse to be waterboarded themselves even though they claim it s not torture.The only thing standing in Trump s way is a 2015 law that Republicans can easily repeal now that banned American officials from torturing detainees.Of course, it really doesn t matter what the law is since Trump will likely ignore it anyway like he ignores everything else such as facts and reality.The United States Constitution expressly forbids the use of cruel and and unusual punishment. Furthermore, torture does not work as an information gathering technique because the victim will say anything to make the torture stop. So if the CIA tortures an innocent person, they would get false information no matter what they do. And such bad information is a threat to the lives of our soldiers in the field and can lead to disastrous decisions by government. This country should not be making decisions based on what a torture victim is telling their torturer.Using torture also opens the door for other nations to use torture against us and we would be no better than the nations that currently do use it.Donald Trump is not making America great. He s an embarrassment who is only weakening this country every single day he is allowed to continue being president. Our power and reputation in the world is becoming a joke that nations like Russia and China are laughing at because our loss is their gain. America is not only losing international prestige and respect, we are being destroyed from within as Trump continues to take a jackhammer to the foundation of this country, which will destroy lives both inside and outside our nation.Resistance to Donald Trump s regime is no longer enough. If we want to save America s soul it will take something more. Because waiting for four years will be too late.Featured image via Wong/Getty Images | 0 |
Will Austria s new mandates help to save their nation or is it already too late? Have they already allowed political correctness to destroy their once unique culture and identity and replace it with radical Islam?Muslim students, according to new statistics, now outnumber Roman Catholic students at middle and secondary schools in Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria.The data which show that Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools reflect an established trend and provide empirical evidence of a massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country.The Muslim population in Austria now exceeds 500,000 (or roughly 6% of the total population), up from an estimated 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990. The Muslim population is expected to reach 800,000 (or 9.5%) by 2030, according to recent estimates.A controversial integration law that will fine women for wearing face-concealing Islamic dress from October, and deprive of benefits migrants who fail to take language lessons has officially been enacted, after being rubber-stamped by the President. Those who are not prepared to accept Enlightenment values will have to leave our country and society, reads the text of the law that drew thousands of protesters to the streets earlier this year, before it was passed by a centrist coalition last month.Women who will wear Islamic veils either the burqa or the niqab in public places, will face a fine of 150 ($168).They will also be expressly forbidden from distributing incendiary radical materials, and are encouraged to volunteer before they can get their work permits, so that they are better prepared for life in the workplace.More than 90,000 people have arrived in the Central European country since the start of the migrant crisis in 2015, most of them from Muslim-majority countries outside of Europe.The law was opposed by the left-leaning Green Party, which said that it scapegoated refugees, and the nationalist Freedom Party, which called it a window-dressing for deeper integration issues and said it had been designed to stop its rise in the polls.The centrist coalition promised that the legislation would offer a holistic approach. It has since collapsed, triggering an early election in October. Work is one of the most important factors for successful integration, which is why we are not only breaking down language barriers with this policy we are also creating a continuous integration concept for the first time, said Social Democratic politician Alois Stoger back in May.France was the first EU state to introduce a similar ban in 2010, levying an identical 150 fine. It has since been copied in other countries, including Germany, which has also pushed through a prohibition of face coverings for state employees. RT | 0 |
In his tweet, President Trump mentioned that he spoke South Korea s President Moon and that he informed the President that long gas lines are forming, indicating that the sanctions are working.I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017In a brilliant, no-holds-barred speech, President Trump made it clear to every leader in the UN assembly that America will not sit back and allow its citizens or its allies to be threatened by the rogue nation of North Korea. Trump told the UN assembly: No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself, and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully, this will not be necessary. That s what the United Nations is all about. That s what the United Nations is for. Let s see how they do.THE MAD MANHe did it!#Trump calls Kim Jong Un #RocketMan at United Nations pic.twitter.com/HGfxs4a8Qw#MAGA #UNGA U.N. General Assembly Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) September 19, 2017The North Korean delegation was sitting in the front row of the UN assembly while President Trump blasted the reckless actions of their unhinged leader Kim Jong Un or Rocket Man. The North Korean delegation is sitting in the front row for Trump's UN speech..interesting. Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) September 19, 2017 | 1 |
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