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Republicans from the presidential ticket on down pounced Saturday on Hillary Clinton’s remarks that half of Donald J. Trump’s supporters fit into a “basket of deplorables,” saying it showed she was out of touch with an economically electorate. Mrs. Clinton’s comments Friday night, which were a variation of a sentiment she has expressed in other settings recently, came at a in Manhattan. “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” she said to applause and laughter. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. ” By Saturday morning, #BasketofDeplorables was trending on Twitter as Mr. Trump’s campaign demanded an apology. His supporters hoped to use the remark as evidence that Mrs. Clinton cannot connect to the voters she hopes to represent as president. “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. Speaking at the Values Voter Summit, a gathering of Christian conservatives in Washington on Saturday, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, said: “Hillary, they are not a basket of anything. They are Americans and they deserve your respect. ” By Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Clinton had acknowledged her stumble. “Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea,” she said in a statement. “I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong. ” She then used the opportunity to double down on her criticism of her opponent. “It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia,” she said, “and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. ” Mrs. Clinton’s remarks flipped, for a day at least, the familiar script of the 2016 campaign, in which Mr. Trump slights a large group of people and she quickly rebukes him. They were also out of character given her usual studied care in choosing words. Her campaign slogan is “Stronger Together,” and she has built her message around inclusiveness, in contrast to denigrating comments Mr. Trump has made about Mexicans, Muslims, women and other groups. Much of her ad campaign is built around using Mr. Trump’s comments to portray him as an unsuitable leader. But for all the policies she says would lift wages and alleviate income inequality, Mrs. Clinton has struggled with the perception by many voters that she is not on their side. Asked whether they thought Mrs. Clinton understands the needs and problems of people like themselves, 53 percent of registered voters said she did not, according to a CBS News poll from June. The Democratic National Convention in July and a bus tour in Pennsylvania and Ohio on issues seemed to help Mrs. Clinton. In an August ABC Post poll, 55 percent of Americans said Mrs. Clinton understood the problems of people like them better than Mr. Trump, compared with 35 percent who named him. But Mrs. Clinton devoted much of August to in the moneyed enclaves of the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard. At some of these events, which were closed to the press, she uses the “baskets” characterization of Trump voters. After barring the press from most the Clinton campaign has tried to be more open in the Day sprint. Aides allowed a small group of reporters in Mrs. Clinton’s regular press corps to cover the Friday event, which took place at Cipriani on Wall Street and for a contribution of $1, 200 to $10, 000 included performances by Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright. A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Jason Miller, said what made Mrs. Clinton’s comments particularly was that she made them “in front of wealthy donors” and that the setting and statement, “revealed just how little she thinks of the men and women of America. ” Mrs. Clinton made a similar remark on Israeli television on Thursday, saying “We’ve always had a kind of paranoiac, prejudicial element within our politic. ” But she did not specify how many of Mr. Trump’s supporters fit into that category. It was the characterization of “half of Trump’s supporters” on Friday that struck some Republicans as similar to the damning “47 percent” remark made by their own nominee, Mitt Romney, in his 2012 campaign against President Obama. At a private Mr. Romney, who Democrats had already sought to portray as a cold corporate titan, said 47 percent of voters were “dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims” and who “pay no income tax. ” “Romney’s 47% comment was bad. Hillary calling tens of millions of American men women ‘deplorable’ is inexcusable and disqualifying,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an adviser to Mr. Trump and the daughter of Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, wrote on Twitter. Mrs. Clinton’s remark, which she delivered lightheartedly, also harked back to Mr. Obama’s gaffe at a San Francisco in 2008 that economically struggling Americans “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who aren’t like them. ” That time, it was Mrs. Clinton who seized on her opponent’s comment to paint him as elitist as the two Democrats battled before the Pennsylvania primary, which she went on to win by nine percentage points. Her remarks on Friday were a more pointed version of her earlier criticisms of the movement her opponent has spurred. Last month in a speech in Reno, Nev. Mrs. Clinton devoted an address to criticizing Mr. Trump for “taking hate groups mainstream” and “helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. ” “She gave an entire speech about how the is using his campaign to advance its hate movement,” Nick Merrill, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, wrote on Twitter, using a loosely defined term that is often used to describe white nationalist and sentiment. Other aides and supporters jumped to Mrs. Clinton’s defense, noting that after describing the “deplorables,” Mrs. Clinton went on to sympathetically weave another rhetorical basket of Trump voters: “People who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures. And they’re just desperate for change. ” “Those are the people,” she said, “we have to understand and empathize with. ” In talking points given to surrogates on Saturday, and obtained by The New York Times, the campaign advised anyone speaking about the “deplorable” issue in the news media to reiterate that while Mrs. Clinton intended to say “some” instead of “half,” Mr. Trump, as she had pointed out in the past, “has clearly brought the ’s hate into his campaign and into the mainstream. ” The talking points advised that anyone who is pressed on the “deplorable” remarks should assert that the news media was holding Mrs. Clinton to a different standard than Mr. Trump, with this suggested rejoinder: “Are they going to make more out of this story than they made out of the racist, misogynistic Trump comments that got us here in the first place?” Prof. Jennifer Mercieca, an expert in American political discourse at Texas AM University, said in an email that the “deplorable” comment “sounds bad on the face of it” and compared it to Mr. Romney’s 47 percent gaffe. “The comment demonstrates that she (like Romney) lacks empathy for that group,” Professor Mercieca said. “To be fair, she has characterized the group as homophobic, xenophobic, racist, and etc. and those qualities are not ones that we celebrate in America. ” It sounded, Professor Mercieca said, as if Mrs. Clinton had written off a large chunk of Trump voters as ones who would never vote for her, a view that might be accurate. “It likely won’t help her ‘likability’ with undecideds, but it may help her to mobilize Clinton supporters to more actively participate in her campaign,” she said. “I think that was the goal. ” An excerpt from Mrs. Clinton’s remarks Friday night: | 0 |
Hillary may find out she needs more than black women drag her lying criminal ass over the finish line Actress and Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon recently received shock and criticism for suggesting she may not vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election. She s not alone. According to a recent McClatchy-Marist Poll conducted on March 29-31, 25 percent of Sanders supporters would not support her, while 69 percent would. Sanders voters are even more committed to him and perhaps against Clinton, McClatchy DC suggested that after Sanders s Tuesday win in Wisconsin.While voters under 45 are among the most likely to eventually support Hillary, they could play a role in her possibly losing to the Republican nominee. Even if they don t vote for a Republican, staying home could cause Hillary to come up short.Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, called the possibility potentially worrisome for Hillary. Age seems to be the most significant factor, he noted.Professor Carlos L. Yordan of Drew University made a similar point recently, noting the particular importance of young people in swing states. Hillary might also risk a loss if she faces off against Ted Cruz in November, as a recent Fox News poll found he s preferred by millennials.Via: Red Alert Politics | 1 |
Actor Jim Caviezel portraying Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is not the Republican nominee for president in this election cycle.
But if He were, Democrats would try to “destroy” Him in the same manner they’re attacking the 2016 GOP candidate, Donald Trump.
That’s according to radio host Rush Limbaugh, who hypothesized what this year’s race would look like if the Son of God were at the top of the Republican ticket.
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“It doesn’t matter who the Republicans would have nominated, they were gonna get the treatment Trump’s getting. It wouldn’t have mattered,” Limbaugh said Wednesday.
“They would go out of their way to find ways to destroy Jesus Christ if he could be nominated as a Republican. The Democrats would do everything they could, include calling Him a liar, the Bible a fake book, whatever it took.” Rush Limbaugh
And despite the fact the Bible never indicates Jesus was married or had sex out of wedlock, Limbaugh suggested Democrats would do their best effort in trying to find any of His offspring:
“They would scour the historical record looking for children He had fathered, anything they could do to disapprove the gospel to discredit Jesus. That’s who they are. That’s what they would do.”
Limbaugh said the point he was stressing was that Republicans would never escape “this kind of media assault based on who we nominate.” Donald Trump’s RNC acceptance speech (Photo: Screenshot from RNC live feed)
“I say this because a lot of you Never Trumpers are out there claiming that this is exactly what you get when you nominate a guy like Trump. No, it’s exactly what you get when you nominate a Republican. Whenever there is any opposition to the Democrats, this is what they do. It doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do it. They did it to Romney …
“I’ve made this point ’til I blue in the face. They turned Romney, who is mild-mannered Mr. Gosh, Can’t Even Get Noticed into the biggest walking Satan, El Diablo politics had ever seen at that time, and they made it stick So this is why I think Trump has so many people supporting him. He’s fighting back against it when most Republicans haven’t and don’t.”
As an example of how media treatment of Republicans has not changed, Limbaugh played an excerpt of 1980 election-night coverage from CBS. Commentator Bill Moyers characterized the race before it was known that Republican Ronald Reagan would easily defeat Democrat Jimmy Carter. Moyers stated:
“Those of you who might speak Spanish, who might be black, who might be women, remember,” said Carter, “who’s been your friend.” And there under the California sun in San Diego at a shopping center, Ronald Reagan was delivering himself of one of those patriotic soliloquies at which he’s been a master since his days at Eureka College. Suddenly hecklers in the crowd started shouting and waving their ERA signs. Reagan took his cue and snapped back, “Aw, shut up!”
And thousands of supporters roared their approval. Those are the people for whom Ronald Reagan is the apostle of the rollback, the knight who promises finally to slay the dragon of liberal government. Jimmy Carter won four years ago as an outsider, and, if he wins at all tonight, it must be as an insider defending the status quo. Reagan has cast himself as a sheriff who comes riding into town at just in the nick of time shouting, “Enough’s enough.”
“Does it sound like anything has changed in the way these people see the world?” Limbaugh asked. “Not an iota!”
Follow Joe Kovacs on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews | 1 |
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer appeared on Lou Dobbs tonight to give the first set of explanatory points around the President s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey: | 0 |
If there is anyone who is a thorn in the side of the Donald Trump administration, it s MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. She is relentless in her thorough and well thought out journalism, exposing Trump for the fraud that he is.In yet another report, while many think if Trump is impeached or forced to resign Mike Pence will take over the role of president, Maddow is letting America and the world know he may go down with the ship.Maddow reports: Mike Pence had been the head of the Trump transition. As such, he would have been intimately involved with the selection and vetting process for a job as important as national security adviser. Nevertheless, Vice President Mike Pence has professed absolute ignorance of any of the scandals of any of the foreign payments, contacts and all the rest of it surrounding Mike Flynn. Pence was the leader of the transition. As leader of the transition, he was notified in writing by members of Congress about Flynn s apparent financial ties to the government of Turkey. The transition was also apparently notified twice by Flynn s own lawyers about his financial relationship with the government of Turkey, but nevertheless, Vice President Mike Pence says he has no idea about any of that. Further: Vice President Mike Pence claims he had absolutely no idea about that despite him being notified about on the record multiple times and it being a matter of considerable public discussion. Mike Pence s role in the Mike Flynn scandal is flashing like a red beacon for anyone who sees him as the normal Republican in this setting. Maddow is absolutely correct. There is no way, with all this information coming out, that Pence was left completely in the dark with no knowledge of what has been going on. If Trump is going down, Pence will undoubtedly go down with him as he should.Watch Maddow here:Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images HT Politicus | 0 |
You may consider yourself the kind of person who is unflappable when those around you are losing their cool. But all that goes out the window when you call tech support. Then you fume. Your face turns red. You shout things into the phone that would appall your mother. It’s called tech support rage. And you are not alone. Getting caught in a tech support loop — waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again — is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most person. Worse, just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through. According to a survey conducted last year by the industry group International Customer Management Institute, or ICMI, 92 percent of customer service managers said their agents could be more effective and 74 percent said their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences. Moreover, 73 percent said the complexity of tech support calls is increasing as customers have become more technologically sophisticated and can resolve simpler issues on their own. Many organizations are running a model, which limits the time agents can be on the phone with you, hence the agony of transfers and continually being placed on hold, said Justin Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research and editorial at ICMI. “Don’t think companies haven’t studied how far they can take things in providing the minimal level of service,” Mr. Robbins said. “Some organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are on hold, you’re hearing messages like, ‘If you’d like premium support, call this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately. ’” The most egregious offenders are companies like cable and mobile service providers, which typically have little competition and whose customers are bound by contracts or would be considerably inconvenienced if they canceled their service. Not surprisingly, cable and mobile service providers are consistently ranked by consumers as providing the worst customer support. ATT, Comcast and Verizon Communications did not respond to requests for comment. Especially frustrating when talking to tech support is not being understood because you are trying to communicate with machines or people who have been trained to talk like machines, either for perceived quality control or because they don’t speak English well enough to go . “It’s utterly maddening because the thing about conversations is that when I say something to you, I believe I’m having influence on the conversation,” said Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and of the podcast “Two Guys on Your Head. ” “And when you say something back to me that makes no sense, now I see that all these words I spoke have had no effect whatsoever on what’s happening here. ” When things don’t make sense and feel out of control, mental health experts say, humans instinctively feel threatened. Though you would like to think you can employ reason in this situation, you’re really just a mass of neural impulses and primal reactions. Think fight or flight, but you can’t do either because you are stuck on the phone, which provokes rage. Of course, companies rated best for tech support often charge more for their products or they may charge a subscription fee for enhanced customer care so the cost of helping you is baked in, as with Apple’s customer support service, AppleCare, and the Amazon Prime subscription service. You can also find excellent tech support in competitive markets like domain name providers, where operators such as Hover and GoDaddy receive high marks. Also a good bet are hungry upstarts trying to break into markets traditionally dominated by large national companies. Take regional internet and phone service providers like Logix and WOW, which rank near the top in customer support surveys. But tech support veterans and mental health experts said there were other ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster. Probably just the opposite. “I definitely remember seeing parts of myself I didn’t know were there as far as getting irritated with people and using behaviors,” said John Valenti, a video producer in Rochester, who worked as a tech support agent at an internet phone company from 2007 to 2012 to put himself through graduate school. He made an absurdist film about it for his master’s thesis at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mr. Valenti, like several other tech support workers who have posted confessions online, said rudeness generally gets customers placed on hold for long periods or “accidentally” disconnected. It also may result in the agent fixing the immediate problem but not the root cause. So you’re only going to have call back when it happens again. Don’t bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either. You’re just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted ahead of time that you have come unhinged, Mr. Robbins said. Also, be aware that your words are being recorded and might be printed on posters in the call center. “I’ve seen companies make with the cruel, awful things people say,” Mr. Robbins said. He added the shirts might provide an impetus to improve because customers have been driven to such extremes, “but then it also may just show some people are truly from crazy town. ” Customer support experts recommended using social media, like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not met, as well as to praise them publicly when you are treated well, they said. To get better service by phone, dial the prompt designated for “sales” or “to place an order,” which almost always gets you an onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated language difficulties. You can also consult websites like DialAHuman. com and GetHuman. com for phone numbers and directions on what digits to press to bypass the automated system and get a live person. Failing that, apps like Lucy Phone and Fast Customer will wait on hold for you and call you when an actual person picks up. No need to stoke your rage listening to grating hold music. | 0 |
Americans tend to assume that polarization is bad for democracy. It is supposed to undermine compromise and contribute to gridlock. It’s furthermore thought to be linked to growing inequality.
But when we talk about polarization, we are usually talking about Congress and political elites. Ordinary citizens show very little polarization.
In a new article, we argue that this lack of polarization among the public isn’t necessarily a good thing. Indeed, it might be a sign of serious democratic failure.
Why does polarization decrease when there’s more economic inequality?
First, take a look at this puzzling graph. If we look at advanced democracies, we find that income inequality has a negative relationship with polarization (which we measure as the share of the population who think of themselves as being non-centrist on a scale of left to right). In general, as inequality increases, polarization decreases (and vice-versa).
This is surprising. When income inequality is higher, we would expect people to disagree more about issues such as government spending and redistribution (which we know are closely associated with whether people view themselves as being on the left or on the right).
Looking at the data more closely shows that the median member of the public tends to be further to the right when income is more unequal. Again, this is unexpected. Because the distribution of income favors the rich everywhere, the mean income is higher than the median (it is pulled up by those with very high incomes). If the majority are well-informed and self-interested, you would expect them to want more redistribution when inequality rises. Just the opposite is true. Why?
We think it’s because most people don’t examine public policies closely — and so drift to the center by default
We argue that the answer to these puzzles involves information. People are often not well-informed about politics, and they few have reason to be. Public policies affect large numbers of people, but as individuals we don’t have much power to change these policies, so why spend valuable time acquiring information about them?
As it turns out, this simple fact (sometimes called “rational ignorance”) has implications for polarization. The reason is that uninformed voters tend to place themselves in the center of the political space, which they see as “safe” compared to more extreme options.
Imagine that a voter can pick a left, center or right party, but doesn’t have enough information to know which has the best economic policy given her interests. She just assumes that there’s an equal chance that each of these parties has the best policy. The best strategy (if she doesn’t have much information) is to pick the center party, since it may actually have the best policy, and even it doesn’t, its policy is more likely to be closer to the best policy than either of the other two, because it’s located between them (for a step-by-step derivation see the original paper). This logic also applies to ideological self-placement, and we refer to it as the centrist bias.
The more people know, the less centrist they become
The centrist bias dissipates as people acquire information. Those whose interests would dispose them to identify with the center will still do so, but those who we might expect to identify with the left or the right will move away from the center. Information breeds polarization. So one way to think about why some countries have more non-centrist voters is to ask how and why voters acquire political information.
Most people get information through groups and networks — like unions, families or co-workers
We argue that most people get information through the groups and networks they belong to. One such group is unions, although unions, like other formal groups, have declined in importance in most societies. Unions often expose their members to political messages, and they also sometimes engage their members in political discussion.
When discussion is involved – say, when a union official brings up political issues around the workplace lunch table – it pushes people to look for information from papers, TV, the Internet and so on.
This logic also applies to political discussion in social networks of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. People are more likely to acquire political information when others around them care about such information and are evaluating them in part based on whether they seem well informed. Needless to say, it is easier for well-educated people to acquire political information, so educated people tend to respond more effectively to such social incentives.
So who tends to be well-informed?
This has partisan implications. Those with higher incomes tend to have better education and be better integrated into social networks with a lot of political discussion. These people are the natural constituents of center-right parties, which means that the centrist bias is less pronounced for the right.
Yet the extent to which this is true varies across time and space. Many different factors — union membership, membership in social networks with political discussion, and education — are associated with higher levels of information and therefore also with ideological polarization.
In countries with strong unions, the centrist and right biases are less pronounced. The same is true in countries with good public education systems and more pervasive informal discussion networks. The figure below shows the relationship between the frequency of political discussion in social networks and ideological polarization. The political discussion taking place at Parisian street cafes really does matter, and so does a blog like this! We should not be surprised.
Some public policies can lead to more or less general knowledge and public discussion — and therefore, whether there’s an informed left
This implies that countries with certain institutions and policies — strong unions, heavy investment in public education, and extensive social networks — end up with more politically informed electorates which are also more ideologically polarized and left-leaning than countries where these institutions are less well developed.
At the same time, unions, public education and network integration promote income equality for reasons that are well understood in economics.
Together this provides a plausible explanation for the pattern showed in our first graph, where there is a negative relationship between inequality and polarization.
Because governments of the left and right affect the income distribution though public policies — most obviously through redistribution and public education — these relationships may be self-reinforcing, producing distinct “varieties” of democracies. From this perspective, polarization may in fact be a sign of a well-functioning democracy — one that has well-informed electorates and governments that support the majority’s interests in pushing back against rising inequality.
Torben Iversen is the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy in the department of government at Harvard University’.
David Soskice is a professor in the department of government at the London School of Economics. | 0 |
Mark Steyn is dead on when he calls out the feds for wiretapping Paul Manafort since 2014 3 years! Think about that! The ruling party is using the cover of national security rules to get the goods on their political opponents. Steyn calls out James Clapper for lying It s pretty obvious that Steyn s on to Clapper and detests what he s done.Mark Steyn We re huge fans! Mark Steyn s previous commentary on the testimony regarding Russia is spot on: Mark Steyn is fantastic! He was on Tucker Carlson to discuss the intel hearing today on the Russia investigation. He sees through all of the total BS the Dems were throwing out in their testimony on Trump and Russia. Mark Steyn is the adult in the room when it comes to getting to the truth Awesome!Mark Steyn is a gifted guy. One of our favorites! | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The television audience for Thursday’s restrained Republican Party presidential debate on CNN was down from last week’s figures, according to preliminary Nielsen data on Friday. The debate got an average household rating of 8.3, according to overnight data supplied by CBS television. That’s well below the 11.5 rating garnered by the rowdy March 3 Republican debate, broadcast by the Fox News Channel, which translated to 16.9 million viewers. The size of the audience in millions is expected to be available from Nielsen later on Friday. The CNN-hosted debate at the University of Miami came days before votes in Florida and Ohio that will determine whether U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich will be able to continue with their increasingly long-shot candidacies.[L1N16I1RJ] With previous assaults on front-runner Donald Trump having failed to knock him down, Rubio and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas chose a more civil approach, raising questions about Trump’s policy positions without attacking him personally. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lawyer for former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn on Friday labeled as “outrageous” and “false” media reports suggesting his client may have been involved in an alleged plan to seize a Muslim cleric and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars. The rare statement from lawyer Robert Kelner came after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating an alleged proposal under which Flynn and his son would receive up to $15 million for seizing Fethullah Gulen from his U.S. home and delivering him to the Turkish government. The Journal cited people familiar with the investigation. NBC also reported on Friday about an alleged December 2016 meeting, saying Mueller’s team was investigating whether Flynn met with senior Turkish officials in the weeks before President Donald Trump’s January 2017 inauguration about a possible quid pro quo in which Flynn would be paid to do the bidding of Turkey’s government while in office. NBC cited multiple people familiar with the probe. “Out of respect for the process of the various investigations regarding the 2016 campaign, we have intentionally avoided responding to every rumor or allegation raised in the media,” Kelner said in an emailed statement. “But today’s news cycle has brought allegations about General Flynn, ranging from kidnapping to bribery, that are so outrageous and prejudicial that we are making an exception to our usual rule: they are false.” The Wall Street journal reported that the alleged plan involving Flynn and Turkish officials emerged during Mueller’s wider investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any collusion by the Trump campaign. Flynn was fired by Trump after just 24 days in the job for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with then Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year. Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr., declined to comment. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen of instigating a failed coup in July 2016 and wants him extradited to Turkey to face trial. Gulen has denied any role in the coup. A spokesman for Mueller’s team declined to comment on the report on Friday. Flynn is a central figure in Mueller’s investigation because of conversations he had with Kislyak and because he waited until March to retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for work he did for a Turkish businessman. The Journal reported that FBI agents asked at least four people about a December meeting in New York where Flynn and Turkish government representatives discussed removing Gulen, citing people with knowledge of the FBI’s inquiries. NBC also reported that investigators had questioned witnesses about an alleged December meeting between Flynn and Turkish officials where Gulen was discussed. The group also discussed how to set free a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, Reza Zarrab. Zarrab is in prison in the United States on federal charges that he helped Iran skirt U.S. sanctions, NBC said. A Reuters report on Oct. 26 said one of Flynn’s business associates, former CIA Director James Woolsey, pitched a $10 million contract to two Turkish businessmen to help discredit Gulen while Woolsey was an adviser to Trump’s election campaign. Woolsey was a member of Flynn’s firm, the Flynn Intel Group, according to a Justice Department filing by the firm and an archive of the company’s website. Mueller’s team has also interviewed White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, the highest-level Trump aide known to have spoken with investigators, CNN reported on Thursday. (This story corrects to Friday from Thursday in first paragraph) | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Pat Tiberi announced his retirement on Thursday from the House of Representatives, saying he will leave by Jan. 31 and not seek re-election in his Ohio district, becoming the latest in a string of Republican deciding to leave Congress. “I have been presented with an opportunity to lead the Ohio Business Roundtable that will allow me to continue to work on public policy issues impacting Ohioans while also spending more time with my family,” Tiberi said in a statement. | 1 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter “Adulthood” comes to all of us at different times in our life. It has nothing to do with the legal age we can drink, or drive a car, or get married, and it’s not signified by the job we have or the car we drive. It’s a state of mind, a way of operating in the world. Being a pretty well behaved teen, I often had people tell me from as young as 13 that I was incredibly mature for my age. In some respects, I could not argue with them. I would look at the behaviour of many of my friends and quite easily distinguish that I, for the most part, handled many things far more “responsibly” than they did. But even now, at the ripe old age of 28, I question when and if I ever truly matured. I may have always acted appropriately, taken school seriously, and respected those around me, but did that qualify me for full-blown adulthood? I certainly thought it did, until about a year ago, when I concluded that the true sign of maturity is when an individual takes full responsibility for their life. As part of identifying this conclusion (which I know is entirely subjective), I’ve reflected a lot on what comes with this fundamental step in life. Here is my list of 7 seemingly harsh realities that kick in when you decide to take full responsibility for your life : 1. The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You As much as we may like to think it does, the truth is, we are but a tiny fish in a massive soup of collective consciousness. Does this mean that we are ultimately powerless to create anything that will impact the masses? Absolutely not. But it does mean that we can no longer expect the world to cater to us. Keep Evolving Your Consciousness Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. Long gone are the days when parents, teachers, or any other caregiver is going to sit us down and remind us that everything is going to be okay. We need to find that strength within ourselves and go against the grain to create whatever it is that we are passionate about. 2. Your Reactions Are Everything In the moment, things may happen to us — some far more challenging, scary, or unwanted than others — but regardless of what that thing is, it’s our reaction to it that dictates how much it is going to impact our lives. For example, there is nothing intrinsically insulting about being called an asshole — we can choose to take it personally, or we can choose to let it roll off our backs. This is why some of us are able to let it go in one ear and out the other while carrying on with our day, while others take it as a punch to the gut and a reason to change their behaviour moving forward. 3. We Can’t All Be Famous We live in a time when instant fame has never seemed more attainable. The laughing mom in the chewbacca mask is all the evidence we need of this phenomenon. But fame still isn’t in the cards for all of us. While I’m not suggesting that we stop trying to achieve success, or even that kind of astonishing overnight success, it seems that with maturity we recognize it’s not only not worth pinning our hopes on, but also not really that desireable. 4. We’ve Been Distracting Ourselves a Lot We all have things to do — emails we avoid writing, conversations we avoid having, and issues we avoid addressing — yet we consistently choose to distract ourselves instead. Whether it be by glorifying how “busy” we are, or by choosing to turn to Netflix instead, part of taking responsiblity for our lives is acknowledging our tendency to distract ourselves. The more we acknowledge it, the more uncomfortable it becomes, and eventually, it will become so uncomfortable that we finally decide to just take action, and wonder why we didn’t do it before. 5. Haters Gonna Hate Even if you go out of your way to be a people pleaser (which I would never suggest), there will always be someone or many someones who do not support you. While this is certainly the case throughout all of our lives, it usually isn’t until we enter maturity that we acknowledge this as not only common but acceptable. In the end, it’s far better to be your true self and let some people hate that, than change who you are and have a bunch of different people hate you anyways. 6. Blaming Doesn’t Get You Anywhere “He/she did it!” It’s the infamous line we’ve heard so many children say while pointing their finger in the direction of the person they believe should take the fall for whatever happened. It may have worked, on occasion, throughout our childhood, but part of taking responsibility for your life is actually, you know, taking responsibility for your life . As much as we may feel like victims to certain things, playing the victim card rarely gets us anywhere and instead tends to prolong whatever situation or conflict we’re trying to escape. 7. You Are the Reason Why You Aren’t Where You Want to Be This one certainly goes hand in hand with the one before it, and is equally as true. If you want to own a multi-million dollar company that earns money for you even while you sleep, you have to start it and stick with it! Your life is what it is right now because of the collection of decisions you’ve made up to this point. So now is as good a time as any to start making ones that align with what you actually want. You just need to make sure you’re tough enough to handle the fears, challenges, and emotions that are bound to come along the way, and remember, no matter how hard things get, “this too shall pass.” | 1 |
The consequences of a failure to control immigration in America A foreign-born alien who sought help with his immigration papers has been arrested for the alleged brutal beating and rape of the woman who was helping him. Zenen Alvarez-Alguezabal, is behind bars in Seneca, South Carolina and has four previous felony convictions in the United States. It is currently unclear how the man had immigration papers, considering he had four felonies that spanned South Carolina, Texas, California, and Washington state. The victim told police she pretended to pass out, then when Alvarez passed out, she ran to her apartment without pants or shoes and called her son who reported the incident, reported local FoxCarolina.com. The victim had bruises on her face, along with scratches on her hands and the back of her neck. The victim was transported by ambulance to a hospital. Their report stated:Police said they arrived at Alvarez s home and found a handgun on the sofa. Police also located a gold earring and a pair of women s pants.The victim said she had tried to help Alvarez get his immigration papers in order, according to an incident report.The victim told police she went to the restroom and when she returned found Alvarez naked. She tried to leave, but Alvarez struck her in the face and assaulted her, according to police.The victim pushed the alarm on her car key and Alvarez threatened to kill her if she called the police, according to the police report.Via: Breitbart News | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will meet with fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing Democratic sources. The meeting in Congress will be Clinton’s first meeting with Democrats in the House since becoming the party’s presumptive nominee earlier this month, according to Politico. | 1 |
The medieval basilica of St Benedict in Norcia, the town closest to the epicentre, was among buildings destroyed. The Basilica of St. Benedict is destroyed, flattened by most recent earthquake. #Terremoto pic.twitter.com/GQDl64LhFn
— The Monks of Norcia (@monksofnorcia) October 30, 2016
An evacuation of buildings in the region deemed vulnerable to seismic activity last week, following strong aftershocks from August’s quake, may have saved lives.
Tremors from this latest earthquake were felt in the capital Rome, where the Metro system was shut down, and as far away as Venice in the north.
The head of the national civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, said there had been extensive damage to many historic buildings but no deaths had been registered.
“About 20 people are injured. As far as people are concerned, the situation is positive, but many buildings are in a critical state in historic centres and there are problems with electricity and water supplies,” he added.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has promised that everything will be rebuilt, saying resources will be found.
“We are going through a really tough period,” he said. “We must not allow the profound pain, fatigue and stress that we have now to turn into resignation.”
Pope Francis mentioned the quake in his Sunday blessing in Rome’s St Peter’s Square.
“I’m praying for the injured and the families who have suffered the most damage, as well as for rescue and first-aid workers,” he said to loud applause.
According to Ansa the cathedral of Saint Maria Silver and the town hall were also reported to have been damaged along with the 4th century church in Rome commonly known as ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’.
The news agency reported that cornices fell and cracks appeared in the walls after the quake struck central Italy and shook many buildings in the capital. | 1 |
Daniel Greenfield s take on why Obama spied on Trump is the best yet. He takes you through the twists and turns to expose Obama and his cronies for the liars and cheats they are. We d love to know what you think about this take on why things happened the way they did:Last week, CNN revealed (and excused) one phase of the Obama spying operation on Trump. After lying about it on MSNBC, Susan Rice admitted unmasking the identities of Trump officials to Congress.ACKNOWLEDGED IN A LETTER FROM NUNES AND GOWDY:Rice was unmasking the names of Trump officials a month before leaving office. The targets may have included her own successor, General Flynn, who was forced out of office using leaked surveillance.SUSAN RICE LYING ABOUT THE UNMASKING IS ANYONE SURPRISED? I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today. What she says is a lie but who is surprised by this? We know that Susan Rice lied 5 times on 5 different morning shows the morning after Benghazi. Why wouldn t she try and cover this spying up to protect herself and others including Obama.Susan Rice is also giving conflicting stories on what she did so it might be a good idea for her to lawyer up right now. She claimed ignorance of the unmasking and spying but today she spoke about doing it. Yes, red flags are everywhere on this! The reality and truth is this was more of a political attack to destabilize the Trump presidency and embarrass him:Andrew McCarthy said it best: The national-security adviser is not an investigator. She is a White House staffer. The president s staff is a consumer of intelligence, not a generator or collector of it. If Susan Rice was unmasking Americans, it was not to fulfill an intelligence need based on American interests; it was to fulfill a political desire based on Democratic-party interests. GREENFIELD: LAWS WERE BROKEN The bottom line is that laws were broken when the names were unmasked Someone s in BIG trouble! While Rice s targets weren t named, the CNN story listed a meeting with Flynn, Bannon and Kushner.Bannon was Trump s former campaign chief executive and a senior adviser. Kushner is a senior adviser. Those are exactly the people you spy on to get an insight into what your political opponents plan to do.Now the latest CNN spin piece informs us that secret FISA orders were used to spy on the conversations of Trump s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort (SEE CLAPPER VIDEO BELOW). The surveillance was discontinued for lack of evidence and then renewed under a new warrant. This is part of a pattern of FISA abuses by Obama Inc. which never allowed minor matters like lack of evidence to dissuade them from new FISA requests. Its possible President Trump s voice was picked up in a wiretap of Paul Manafort, says former spy chief Clapper https://t.co/2ELM48axAa CNN (@CNN) September 21, 2017Desperate Obama cronies had figured out that they could bypass many of the limitations on the conventional investigations of their political opponents by laundering them through national security.If any of Trump s people were talking to non-Americans, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) could be used to spy on them. And then the redacted names of the Americans could be unmasked by Susan Rice, Samantha Power and other Obama allies. It was a technically legal Watergate.If both CNN stories hold up, then Obama Inc. had spied on two Trump campaign leaders.Furthermore the Obama espionage operation closely tracked Trump s political progress. The first FISA request targeting Trump happened the month after he received the GOP nomination. The second one came through in October: the traditional month of political surprises meant to upend an election.The spying ramped up after Trump s win when the results could no longer be used to engineer a Hillary victory, but would instead have to be used to cripple and bring down President Trump. Headed out the door, Rice was still unmasking the names of Trump s people while Obama was making it easier to pass around raw eavesdropped data to other agencies.Obama had switched from spying on a political opponent to win an election, to spying on his successor to undo the results of the election.RICE AND POWER WERE USED TO UNMASK TRUMP ASSOCIATES ALL THE PRESIDENT S WOMEN? Notice how uncomfortable Brennan is when asked about the Ambassador Power:Abuse of power by a sitting government had become subversion of the government by an outgoing administration. Domestic spying on opponents had become a coup.The Democrat scandals of the past few administrations have hinged on gross violations of political norms, elementary ethics and the rule of law that, out of context, were not technically illegal.But it s the pattern that makes the crime. It s the context that shows the motive.Obama Inc. compartmentalized its espionage operation in individual acts of surveillance and unmasking, and general policies implemented to aid both, that may have been individually legal, in the purely technical sense, in order to commit the major crime of eavesdropping on the political opposition.When the individual acts of surveillance are described as legal, that s irrelevant. It s the collective pattern of surveillance of the political opposition that exposes the criminal motive for them.If Obama spied on two of Trump s campaign leaders, that s not a coincidence. It s a pattern.A criminal motive can be spotted by a consistent pattern of actions disguised by different pretexts. A dirty cop may lose two pieces of evidence from the same defendant while giving two different excuses. A shady accountant may explain two otherwise identical losses in two different ways. Both excuses are technically plausible. But it s the pattern that makes the crime.Manafort was spied on under the Russia pretext. Bannon may have been spied on over the UAE. That s two different countries, two different people and two different pretexts.But one single target. President Trump.It s the pattern that exposes the motive.When we learn the whole truth (if we ever do), we will likely discover that Obama Inc. assembled a motley collection of different technically legal pretexts to spy on Trump s team.Each individual pretext might be technically defensible. But together they add up to the crime of the century.Obama s gamble was that the illegal surveillance would justify itself. If you spy on a bunch of people long enough, especially people in politics and business, some sort of illegality, actual or technical, is bound to turn up. That s the same gamble anyone engaged in illegal surveillance makes.Businessmen illegally tape conversations with former partners hoping that they ll say something damning enough to justify the risk. That was what Obama and his allies were doing with Trump.It s a crime. And you can t justify committing a crime by discovering a crime.If everyone were being spied on all the time, many crimes could be exposed every second. But that s not how our system works. That s why we have a Fourth Amendment.Nor was Obama Inc. trying to expose crimes for their own sake, but to bring down the opposition.That s why it doesn t matter what results the Obama surveillance turned up. The surveillance was a crime. Anything turned up by it is the fruit of a poisonous tree. It s inherently illegitimate.The first and foremost agenda must be to assemble a list of Trump officials who were spied on and the pretexts under which they were spied upon. The pattern will show the crime. And that s what Obama and his allies are terrified of. It s why Flynn was forced out using illegal surveillance and leaks. It s why McMaster is protecting Susan Rice and the Obama holdovers while purging Trump loyalists at the NSC.The left s gamble was that the Mueller investigation or some other illegitimate spawn of the Obama eavesdropping would produce an indictment and then the procedural questions wouldn t matter.It s the dirty cop using illegal eavesdropping to generate leads for a clean case against his target while betting that no one will look too closely or care how the case was generated. If one of the Mueller targets is intimidated into making a deal, the question of how the case was generated won t matter.Mueller will have a cooperative witness. And the Democrats can begin their coup in earnest. It will eventually turn out that there is no there there. But by then, it ll be time for President Booker.There s just one problem.If the gamble fails, if no criminal case that amounts to anything more than the usual investigational gimmick charges like perjury (the Federal equivalent of resisting arrest for a beat cop) develops, then Obama and his allies are on the hook for the domestic surveillance of their political opponents.With nothing to show for it and no way to distract from it.That s the race against the clock that is happening right now. Either the investigation gets results. Or its perpetrators are left hanging in the wind. If McMaster is fired, which on purely statistical grounds he probably will be, and a Trump loyalist who wasn t targeted by the surveillance operation becomes the next National Security Adviser and brings in Trump loyalists, as Flynn tried to do, then it s over.And the Dems finally get their Watergate. Except the star won t be Trump, it will be Obama. Rice, Power, Lynch and the rest of the gang will be the new Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell.Once Obama and his allies launched their domestic surveillance operation, they crossed the Rubicon. And there was no way back. They had to destroy President Trump or risk going to jail.The more crimes they committed by spying on the opposition, the more urgently they needed to bring down Trump. The consequences of each crime that they had committed spurred them on to commit worse crimes to save themselves from going to jail. It s the same old story when it comes to criminals.Each act of illegal surveillance became more blatant. And when illegal surveillance couldn t stop Trump s victory, they had to double down on the illegal surveillance for a coup.The more Obama spied on Trump, the more he had to keep doing it. This time it was bound to pay off.Obama and his allies had violated the norms so often for their policy goals that they couldn t afford to be replaced by anyone but one of their own. The more Obama relied on the imperial presidency of executive orders, the less he could afford to be replaced by anyone who would undo them. The more his staffers lied and broke the law on everything from the government shutdown to the Iran nuke sellout, the more desperately they needed to pull out all the stops to keep Trump out of office. And the more they did it, the more they couldn t afford not to do it. Abuse of power locks you into the loop familiar to all dictators. You can t stop riding the tiger. Once you start, you can t afford to stop.If you want to understand why Samantha Power was unmasking names, that s why. The hysterical obsession with destroying Trump comes from the top down. It s not just ideology. It s wealthy and powerful men and women who ran the country and are terrified that their crimes will be exposed.It s why the media increasingly sounds like the propaganda organs of a Communist country. Why there are street riots and why the internet is being censored by Google and Facebook s fact checking allies.It s not just ideology. It s raw fear.The left is sitting on the biggest crime committed by a sitting president. The only way to cover it up is to destroy his Republican successor.A turning point in history is here.If Obama goes down, the left will go down with him. If his coup succeeds, then America ends.Read more from Daniel Greenfield | 0 |
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while discussing President Donald Trump’s order halting immigrants from seven countries from entering the United States, newly elected Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called it an “ and frankly racist executive action against Muslims. ” Perez said, “We see no evidence, Chuck, of anything constructive from this president. Hours into his presidency he made it harder for homebuyers to buy a home. A few days later he tried to make it harder for people to save for retirement. He nominates someone to head the Labor Department who wants to gut overtime pay. He is continually talking one way, but I judge people by their actions. Look at the and frankly, racist executive action against Muslims. He has governed from the far right in everything he has done. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
Of course in their blind rage for the conservative Right, the media did everything in their power to blame this sick person s actions on who else the GOP frontrunner and one of the Tea Party favorites, Donald J. Trump The mainstream media are reporting that a Bay Area plumber who allegedly planned to bomb a California mosque was a Donald Trump supporter though he explicitly supported Hillary Clinton.On Sunday, police arrested 55-year-old William Celli on suspicion of possessing an explosive device and making criminal threats, CBS San Francisco reported. A bomb squad detonated a device at his house. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) cheered the arrest.CBS elaborated further: On Facebook, Celli repeatedly praised Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose plan to bar any Muslims from entering the United States has drawn criticism even as he continues to rise in the polls. The Huffington Post and other left-wing sites played up Celli s support of Trump, implying that Trump was responsible for propelling bigotry and white domestic terrorism into the mainstream of political debate.What the media left out, however, is that Celli also praised Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.In one post, Celli wrote: Hillary Would make a great president. If she would commit to what she is hiding. But she has to crucify the president. Then her run for the White house is over. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
House Speaker Paul Ryan has a critical choice to make in the next few days: Whether he will please company executives by allowing them to import more visa workers, or else please the GOP’s base of Americans by helping them get jobs at higher wages? [Business groups, led by the H2B Workforce Coalition, want him to include language in the 2017 supplemental budget which would allow companies to import another 100, 000 or more visa workers for summer work at low wages. The supplemental must be completed by April 28. But groups want the number of visas kept at 66, 000 for the year, which will force companies to raise wages and to recruit some of the millions of young Americans who have dropped out of the workforce. The group thinks Ryan has decided to back voters. “Speaker Ryan’s decision to exclude the returning worker exemption in the funding bill is a rejection of the business lobby’s desire for cheap labor and a signal that Americans will come first under the [Donald] Trump administration,” said a statement from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The statement continues: Speaker Ryan is showing he stands with American workers by refusing big business calls for more cheap labor. Keeping the worker exemption out of the government funding bill puts businesses on notice that Congress will no longer turn a blind eye to the harm mass immigration causes American workers. In December, Ryan decided to not include the “returning worker” exemption in the 2017 federal budget, after he supported it in the 2016 budget. The exemption in the 2016 budget allowed companies to exempt visas for new workers from the annual cap of 66, 000 visas if those workers had been an worker in the previous three years. That “returning worker exemption” effectively boosted the annual size of the program from 66, 000 up to a maximum of 264, 000. If that exemption is reestablished for 2017, the inflow would be larger than the annual inflow of roughly 110, 000 employees via the visa program, which is mostly used by information technology and medical industries. Ryan’s retreat from the program is a notable change. He has long been an avid supporter of companies seeking to hire “any willing worker” from overseas in place of Americans — but the resulting economic and civic damage to American communities allowed Trump to take over the GOP and get elected in 2016. However, aside from his turnabout, there’s little evidence that Ryan supports Trump’s successful populist campaign promise of lower immigration and higher wages. On the other side of the debate, business groups say they can’t get needed workers, despite offering somewhat higher wages. They’re short of seasonal landscape workers, bricklayers, kitchen crews, hotel maids, foresters, and fish processors, and even trainees for those jobs, say company executives. “We just don’t get applicants … [even thought] we do everything we can imagine” to recruit new season workers, said Glen Ellison, the owner of Ceres+ a landscaping and architecture company in Colorado. He offers his workers a starting wage of $15. 11 an hour and U. S. workers even more. “Nobody wants to do the hard labor … I have hired every single high school kid that comes to my company,” he said. There are too few vocational schools teaching skilled trades to teenagers as the older workers retire, and too few Americans are willing or even capable of manual outdoor work, say employers. Society grants little status to skilled work, and provides too much welfare for people who don’t want to work, employers say. The problem is worsened by the federal government’s refusal to penalize companies who hire illegals to undercut companies which hire Americans, said Gary Woodworth, chief executive officer at Gallegos, a building company in Colorado. Such hiring is “prevalent,” said Woodworth, who opened a apprenticeship program and pays new employees $16. 55 an hour, or $34, 000 a year. To sway Ryan and other legislators, company owners and executives from The Workforce Coalition flew into D. C. on Wednesday to lobby their members of Congress. The executives also tailor their argument for GOP leaders, saying the workers support additional jobs for Americans and will go home at the end of each season, unlike illegal immigrants. Business advocates have won partial support from roughly 40 House members, who asked agency officials in to minimize wastage in the distribution of the 66, 000 2017 visas. A similar letter was signed by 31 Senators, led by North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who strongly supported immigration programs when he was a state legislator. More importantly, 53 House members signed a March 30 letter to leaders in the appropriations committee asking for the “Returning Worker Exemption” to be reestablished. The House signers include Republicans Barbara Comstock from Virginia, Kristi Noem from South Dakota, Elise Stefanik from New York, Thomas Massie from Kentucky, Barry Loudermilk from Georgia, and Tim Murphy from Pennsylvania. Business requests to hire foreigners instead of Americans usually receive a warm welcome in the established media, such as the Wall Street Journal. However, supporters of the visa workers programs know they are pushing a rock uphill after Trump’s shocking victory in November, which was powered by voters eager for reductions in immigration. “Brave folks” are still willing to push for an amnesty and increased inflow of admitted Michele Stockwell, of public policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, at a March 2 meeting. Nationwide, “wages for the remain stagnant or in decline and well below what they were in 30 years ago,” despite company complaints, said Steven Camarota, the research director at the Center for Immigration Studies. That huge social and political problem will be solved if legislators let the domestic labor market work, as labor supply will rise to meet higher wages and better recruiting, he said. For example, roughly 10 percent of American “prime age” men, or 7 million men aged 25 to 54, have stayed out of the nation’s workforce of 160 million amid the glut of cheap immigrant labor. The Americans are not trying to get jobs, and are not participating in the nation’s labor force, largely because of low wage rates, according to an August statement by Jason Furman, the chief economic advisor to former President Barack Obama. The glut of workers is worsened by the federal government’s immigration policy. Each year, four million Americans turn 18 and begin looking for good jobs in an increasingly automated economy. But the federal government annually imports one million new legal immigrants plus one million new contract workers — including the and — who are used by companies as cheap workers, as customers, and as urban and suburban renters. However, there’s much anecdotal evidence that the growing economy — and the gradual reduction of illegal immigration — is forcing companies to solve their workforce problems by offering higher wages, by training unskilled workers and even by recruiting unemployed Americans in rural counties. The worker shortage has set off a “bidding war” for employees among Colorado landscaping companies, said Ellison. “We’re starting to see people get more competitive” by offering higher hourly wages, said Jeff Seifried, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Branson, Mo. “We’re seeing a buck, $1. 50, or sometimes $2 raises … [up to] the $11 plus range,” he said. The city’s seasonal employers need many people to clean hotel bedrooms, serve food and run entertainment facilities, but they can’t raise wages too high for fear of deterring customers, he said. Each year, the city offsets wage pressure by importing roughly 1, 000 and visa workers. But the cap on visa workers is forcing the companies to raise wages, broaden recruitment campaigns, to improve roads and regional bus services so that seasonal workers can commute from longer distances. Some companies are even considering providing weekday housing for seasonal workers who do not wish to move permanently from their distant homes, Seifried said. In Maine, the Bangor Daily News recently reported that employers have started recruiting former convicts: “Johnson, of the Somerset Economic Development Corp. has observed felony records to be ‘one of the big barriers’ to employment for Maine men, though employers are starting to be more open to hiring people with criminal records in response to the workforce crunch. ” But the national data shows no significant wage growth for workers: Politically, if GOP leaders reject business’ demands for more contract workers, “it would put the Democrats on the defensive because it would be a substantial and real way for [President Donald] Trump to be the champion of workers over employers,” said Camarota. “One of the challenges in the U. S. economy is to draw back in the many people [who are] out of the workforce and one of the best ways to do that is to let wages rise,” he said. But, he warned, “it will take several years of strong wage growth to get them back to what they used to get paid, and even then they would be poor. ” This year, he said 19 months before the 2018 election, “why not let their wages rise?” | 0 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday he agreed with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs were not permissible. Tillerson, a former oil executive, arrived in Japan late on Wednesday on his first trip to Asia and will also visit South Korea and China. Tillerson told a news conference with Kishida that they had affirmed a “strong and enduring” friendship between their countries, and U.S. commitment to Japan remained unwavering. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Macy s Inc (M.N), Kohl s Corp (KSS.N) and other U.S. retailers rose on Friday on early signs that consumers are on track to spend more this holiday shopping season than in previous years. Although there were few signs of the frenzy that had been a hallmark of the start to the crucial U.S. shopping season in years past, known as Black Friday, industry watchers were upbeat. The turnout this morning has been relatively slow but it is still the best we have seen in three years, said Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resources Group, citing improving consumer confidence, a strong job market and healthy housing prices. We expect it to pick up as the day progresses. Adobe Analytics forecast online Black Friday sales of $5 billion, which would be a record high. Online retailers will rake in an additional $6.6 billion on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe. Amazon, the world s largest online retailer, rallied 2.6 percent to a record high, bringing its gain in 2017 to nearly 60 percent. It offered its own Black Friday deals and revealed a preview of its Cyber Monday discounts. Brick-and-mortar stores and their investors are hoping that a strong labor market and rising home prices will increase the turnout between Thursday s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas, a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of total annual sales and make or break a retailer. [nL1N1NU0GH] Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), Macy s and others have beefed up their online sales platforms and boosted discounts for online orders in a bid to stem market share losses to Amazon. It s the big box retailers last stand against the digital revolution, said Jake Dollarhide, Chief Executive of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It s their last chance to say, This is still our season . Shares of Macy s, which has suffered from falling sales for several quarters, jumped 2.1 percent, while Gap Inc (GPS.N) added 1.6 percent and Kohl s rose 1 percent. Instead of curtailing spending, consumers are coming out of their bunker, said Chad Morganlander, a portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey. Nonetheless, the trend of retail preferences of the consumer is not going away. Retailers appeared to be discounting their products less than in previous years, said Thomson Reuters retail analyst Jharonne Martis after visiting a mall in New York. They are going into the holiday season more confident, knowing that consumers want their merchandise, Martis said. Not all retailers shared in Friday s holiday cheer: Target Corp (TGT.N) fell 2.8 percent, with analysts noting that it closed its stores for several hours overnight even while many rivals stayed open. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) slipped 1.9 percent. | 0 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which initially embraced Donald Trump and the populism that swept him into office last year, had a message for the U.S. president on Monday - he should tweet less, and govern more. Alice Weidel, one of the AfD s top two candidates in the Sept. 24 election in Germany, said Trump s response to a recent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, had been completely unnecessary and she had only a limited understanding for it. Donald Trump should focus more on policies and less on tweeting and Twitter, Weidel told journalists in Berlin. If I had a wish list, then I would wish that Donald Trump would focus ... more on cleaning up his own house, and being a little more devoted to his governing responsibilities. Trump was widely criticized for at first failing to condemn white supremacist groups after a man thought to have neo-Nazi sympathies drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring over a dozen other people. Trump had said both sides were to blame for the violence and there were very fine people at the rally. Weidel s comments came amid controversy over remarks made by a senior member of her own party, Alexander Gauland - the AfD s other top candidate - who said Integration Minister Aydan Ozoguz, a Social Democrat (SPD) politician born in Germany to Turkish parents, should be dumped in Turkey. Members of the SPD, and Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, rejected Gauland s remarks as racist. Gauland conceded on Monday that his choice of words was a little too tough but Weidel said she agreed with his general concern about what he said was Ozoguz s lack of respect for German culture. Weidel said that although her party opposed Merkel s 2015 decision which has allowed more than a million migrants into Germany over the past two years, it condemned extremism in any form, whether it came from left-wing, right-wing or Islamic groups. Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, the AfD shifted its focus after the euro zone debt crisis peaked to campaigning against immigration after Merkel s move to open the borders. It is expected to enter the German parliament for the first time after the September election, although its support has dropped to 7 to 10 percent from a height of around 15 percent in 2016, according to polls. Weidel, who is openly gay, chafed at a question about whether she was racist, noting that her partner of nearly 10 years, a Swiss filmmaker, also has a Sinhalese background. | 0 |
It s mind baffling that Donald Trump still hasn t learned not to make stupid comments on Twitter, especially since people like model Chrissy Teigen are always sure to fire back with some seriously epic burns.During the campaign, Teigen was an outspoken supporter of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and made sure to shoot Trump down on Twitter whenever she could. Now that Trump is in the White House, Teigen has decided to turn it up even more and The Donald isn t going to like it. Following General Michael Flynn s resignation last night, Trump took to Twitter this morning to whine about the illegal leaks coming out of Washington and he s going to wish he hadn t.It was a tweet that seriously lacked self-awareness, considering that just last weekend Trump held an impromptu national security meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinz Abe right in front of dinner party guests. While Teigen didn t bother pointing that out, she made sure to remind Trump that everyone hates him. She fired back: This is what happens when your staff hates you. Beyonce s staff are more leakproof than yours. Ouch! Twitter loved Teigen for pointing this out, because Beyonc s team has been known to be tight-lipped, having somehow kept a wedding, pregnancy and major albums completely secret in the past.Teigen is right Trump appointed several untrustworthy, unqualified people and now he s suffering for it. It is insane that just three weeks into his presidency, one of his administration members is resigning. The chaos and confusion (as well as overwhelming disapproval from the American people) has been unprecedented, and Trump seems to only make things worse for himself every time he complains about it on Twitter. There will always be people like Teigen who aren t afraid to hit back and expose Trump for the moron he is and we should be thankful for them.Featured image via Michael Buckner and Joe Raedle / Getty Images | 0 |
State Department officials under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton moved quickly when aides to Bill Clinton asked them in March 2010 to approve plans for the former president to address clients of a multinational British bank, Barclays. Within four days, the department's ethics office signed off on the request -- as it did for hundreds of others from the former president during his wife's four-year tenure leading the agency.
Its standard response, fired off in a short memo: "We have no objection."
That decision remained unchanged even after the Justice Department announced just months later, in August 2010, that Barclays Bank agreed to pay nearly $300 million in penalties for violating financial sanctions against Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Libya and Burma. The long-running case had hardly been a secret: Barclays had openly acknowledged in its annual reports -- as recently as the same month as Clinton's 2010 request -- that it was under investigation by the Justice Department and others for sanctions violations, and it cautioned that the impact on its profits "could be substantial."
In November, the former president mingled with top Barclays executives and clients at a bank-sponsored question session in Singapore. A little more than two months later, he again joined Barclays officers and clients at an exclusive dinner in Davos, Switzerland. The two appearances for Barclays netted Bill Clinton $650,000.
During Hillary Clinton's tenure as the top U.S. diplomat, lawyers and other ethics officials in the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser gave near-blanket approval to at least 330 requests for Bill Clinton's appearance at speeches, dinners and events both in the U.S. and around the globe. More than 220 paid events earned the family nearly $50 million, according to a review of State Department documents and Hillary Clinton's financial disclosure forms by The Associated Press.
Now, as Hillary Clinton moves forward with her presidential campaign, the ease with which her husband was repeatedly cleared to address companies and governments around the world highlights potential ethical complications that are likely to intensify if she becomes the country's next president.
"It's politically going to be very treacherous," said Jan Baran, head of the government ethics group at Washington law firm Wiley Rein LLP, who served as general counsel to the Republican National Committee. "It just becomes controversy all the time."
The potential "first dude" has said he intends to continue accepting speaking fees during the presidential campaign.
"I got to pay our bills," he said in an interview with NBC's "Today Show" last week.
Taken together, the State Department and financial disclosure documents show the agency sped through Bill Clinton's steady stream of requests for events while rarely raising concerns about potential conflicts. At the same time, the agency's ethics office, which had primary responsibility for the decisions, was hobbled by "strained program operations," according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the government's top ethics agency.
State Department ethics officials gave quick approval, for example, for the two Barclays appearances and events paid by other international banks under legal scrutiny. Bill Clinton's $200,000 appearance in Florida for British-based HSBC in 2011 was cleared despite an ongoing federal money-laundering investigation that led to a 2012 settlement with prosecutors.
Five U.S. events in 2011 and 2012 earned the former president $840,000 from the wealth management unit of UBS Bank less than two years after the Swiss bank had acknowledged a massive tax evasion scheme aiding American clients and paid $780 million in penalties. The banks declined to comment about their dealings with the former president.
The State Department also green-lighted requests by foreign governments to hire the former president for events, despite potential complications for his wife's diplomacy at the time and for a future Hillary Clinton presidency. Similar concerns about foreign influence have been raised about the millions of dollars donated by foreign governments over the past decade to the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton family's global charity.
The former president was paid $600,000 to appear at a government-sponsored event in the United Arab Emirates in December 2011. The State Department also approved a 2010 Clinton event in Bangkok co-sponsored by a Thai government energy ministry and state gas firm, but despite news coverage of the speech there is no record of payment in his wife's financial disclosure. An aide to Bill Clinton said the Thai speech fee was donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Not all appearances were approved: A request for Clinton to speak in Shanghai in 2009 was rejected because of State Department hesitation that a prospective host might be an agent of the Chinese government. The former president's team withdrew the request.
The Clinton campaign declined to comment, referring questions to the State Department and Bill Clinton's private office.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said last week the agency was not "aware of any actions taken by Secretary Clinton that were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation or its offshoots or by speech honoraria and consultancies of former President Clinton." Another spokesman, Alec Gerlach, declined to address specific cases such as the Barclays events.
The State Department's scrutiny, which went beyond the standard ethics requirements for all federal officials, was the result of a voluntary process agreed to by both Clintons to avoid "even the appearance of a conflict of interest," according to a January 2009 memo sent by David Kendall, Bill Clinton's personal lawyer, to Jim Thessin, who oversaw the vetting in the State Department. Clinton's office agreed to provide the names of organizations hosting the former president at least 14 days before the event, according to the memo. Lawyers at the agency would then aim to complete their review within five days.
While most internal emails between State Department ethics officials about Bill Clinton's proposed appearances were redacted to protect internal legal considerations, snippets that survived the censoring depict a vetting process that appeared both strained by the workload and rushed by the former president's deadlines.
"This is overdue and our host needs a signed contract today," wrote Terry Krinvic, Clinton's director of scheduling, in a March 2, 2011, email to State Department officials. A State Department official working on a speech request described herself in a February 2011 email as "totally stressed out, but will do it this afternoon."
In another memo from June 2010, an agency official dashed off a memo warning: "URGENT RE: Clinton Foundation Issue." The official told a State lawyer: "I'd very much appreciate a turnaround this afternoon as former President Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Tanzania tomorrow and (diplomatic) Post needs to run out these details." The issue, not identified in the redaction, was left unresolved overnight. "Former POTUS Clinton is on the ground in Tanzania," the agency lawyer wrote the next morning. "We need guidance fairly urgently to still be relevant." The censored emails do not indicate whether the State officials resolved the issue in time. POTUS means "president of the United States."
As State Department officials processed Clinton's event requests in September 2012, the Office of Government Ethics warned that the State Department's office "has extremely limited capacity to respond to the increased demands on its program." It said it was "concerned about the lack of compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements in the areas of financial disclosure, annual training and ethics agreements."
Gerlach, the State Department spokesman, said the department's review of former President Clinton's speeches and consultancies was not within the scope of the review by the government-wide ethics agency.
A former senior State Department official familiar with the vetting process in the early months of Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state described the department as often shut out from both relevant internal department information and ongoing investigations at other federal agencies that might have aided their reviews. The former official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the department's ethics work.
On all sides, the process involved lawyers with long ties to the Clinton family -- and each other. Cheryl Mills was Hillary Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department and was frequently included on the other end of emails during the State Department review of the requests. Mills was a former White House deputy counsel who collaborated with Kendall on Bill Clinton's impeachment legal defense before working for Hillary Clinton at the State Department.
Less than a month after Hillary Clinton was confirmed, a request to approve some of Bill Clinton's proposed private consulting work was sent by his long-time personal aide Doug Band, prompting Mills to prod the agency's deputy legal adviser to review the arrangement. Approval for the former president to enter into a consultancy arrangement with Band's corporate advisory firm, Teneo, came in 2011, allowing Clinton to offer "services regarding geopolitical, economic and social trends" for three years.
Only a handful of proposed arrangements appear to have been rejected. A consulting contract with Saban Capital Group Inc., a firm headed by major Clinton donor Haim Saban, was rejected because of what the State Department deemed Saban's active involvement in foreign affairs, particularly the Middle East.
Two other consulting contracts -- one with longtime friend Steve Bing's Shangri-La Industries and another with Wasserman Investments GP -- raised no such concerns. A corporate entity for Wasserman Investments GP could not be found, but California's Wasserman Media group is run by entertainment and sports executive and Democratic donor Casey Wasserman.
On Thursday, Saban hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's campaign at his Beverly Hills home, raising at least $1.2 million from 450 attendees.
Occasionally, the agency offered guidance to avoid a clear conflict. In the case of White & Case, an international law firm based in New York, a department lawyer signed off on the speech but noted for "situational awareness" that the firm was representing the 1979 U.S. hostages seeking damages from Iran -- a case the State Department was trying to have dismissed. "We think it would be best to avoid being drawn into any discussion of the litigation," the lawyer wrote.
Bill Clinton's November 2010 appearance for Barclays in Singapore was one example of the potential for conflict posed by the frenetic stream of requests.
In March 2010, Krinvic forwarded a Clinton proposal to appear at two bank events, a Barclays Asia Forum in Singapore in November and Barclays dinner in Davos in January 2011. In Singapore, the plans called for Clinton to speak during a moderated question-and-answer session before 650 Asian investors and pose for photos. In Davos, Clinton would attend a similar session before 20 Barclays senior executives and 140 clients and their spouses.
Thessin replied on March 23, telling Krinvic that "we have no objection."
It was widely known by then that Barclays was under investigation by federal prosecutors for repeated illegal transactions with banks in Iran, Libya, Cuba, Sudan and Burma and for violating U.S. financial sanctions against those governments.
Barclays had voluntarily disclosed four illegal banking transactions to federal and New York financial authorities in 2006. That led to an internal inquiry by the bank and investigations by federal and New York state prosecutors. The scrutiny resulted in Barclays' acknowledgement in federal court in August 2010 that it had violated U.S. sanctions. The bank also agreed to cooperate with the government under a deal that deferred prosecution for two years under supervision of a federal judge. Barclays agreed to pay $298 million in fines.
The same week in November 2010 that Barclays' lawyers submitted a status report to the trial judge overseeing their case, Bill Clinton appeared at the Barclays forum in Singapore and mingled with clients who also attended a golf tournament sponsored by the bank. There is no documentation in State Department files whether officials had reconsidered their approval after Barclays acknowledged violating U.S. laws. Barclays declined to comment about Clinton's appearances or the investigation.
"People admire the way he can take complex issues and break them down for a global audience," Barclays Plc CEO Robert Diamond said in an interview with Bloomberg News two days after Clinton addressed bank clients in Davos.
While the Treasury Department administers oversees the administration of U.S. financial sanctions, the State Department has its own Office of Economic Sanctions Policy, which is responsible for developing foreign policy-related sanctions to counter threats to national security.
The criminal case against Barclays also noted that the presidential orders for sanctions against Iran were authorized by the treasury secretary in consultation with the secretary of state.
While the State Department's lawyers concluded that most of Clinton's speeches did not violate foreign policy interests, some of his appearances could pose political risk for his wife's presidential bid by giving Republican opponents an opening to depict the couple as beholden to powerful interests.
Over a three-day period in November 2011, the Swedish telecom company Ericsson paid $750,000 for Clinton to address industry leaders in Hong Kong; Chinese executives paid $550,000 for a speech in Shanghai; and he made $260,000 addressing the annual meeting of HCL, an Indian outsourcing giant, at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. His total haul: $1.56 million.
While the former president traveled the world, efforts to assure the ethics of his itineraries bounced around the State Department. A request to speak at a climate change summit organized by an Abu Dhabi government environmental group prompted an email to the UAE desk officer asking whether "potential affiliation with it by high-level officials" would pose "any harm to foreign policy." The response: "No concerns here." Bill Clinton was paid $600,000 by the group, the Abu Dhabi Global Initiative.
When Clinton was invited to participate in the China Philanthropy Forum in November 2012, an event aimed at promoting Chinese charitable giving, the State Department raised concerns that the event's sponsor was an association made up of former and current senior Chinese government officials. "We will need to further consider this one," it said.
Clinton eventually spoke at the forum's annual conference -- nine months after his wife left office. | 0 |
The NYT allegedly wouldn t run Alan Dershowitz s op-ed because of his views on President Trump pic.twitter.com/gXgNzGpI1H FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 19, 2017Mr. Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday that he s tried to get in touch with the The New York Times editors, to no avail. He said he wanted to publish an op-ed last month arguing that President Trump likely didn t attempt to obstruct justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey. I said that I thought the readers of the New York Times were entitled to hear or read the other side of the issue whether there were crimes committed, he said. And I really do think The New York Times does not want its readers to hear an alternative point of view on the issue of whether or not Trump administration is committing crimes. A Times spokesperson declined to comment, telling the Examiner that the paper does not discuss the editorial process for op-ed submissions.Dershowitz lays out his case on Anderson Cooper s 360 show on CNN, as he attempts to explain the constitutionality of President Trump s actions in how he handled former FBI director James Comey. Watch leftist legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin attempt to argue the protections afforded to our president in the Constitution don t matter if you hate Trump and that he should be impeached:Mr. Dershowitz has made headlines recently for arguing that there was likely no crime committed by Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 when he met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in order to get potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Mr. Dershowitz has stuck by his claim that the younger Mr. Trump s conduct was likely protected by the First Amendment. Washington Times | 0 |
Forcing employees in a mostly Hispanic area of a very liberal city to speak English seems like a bit of a risk. It appears however, that Mr. Schneider is unconcerned about the spotlight on his English only policy and is standing firm on his convictions. It s going to get disruptive if we have to become bilingual, trilingual or anything else. Ron Schneider, Leon s Frozen Custard ownerMILWAUKEE Leon s Frozen Custard has an English-only policy a policy some are questioning, and others are applauding.Ron Schneider, the owner of Leon s, says there s nothing wrong with his policy, and that it doesn t appear to be hurting his business.Leon s is located near 27th and Oklahoma on Milwaukee s south side.Leon s Frozen Custard is a Milwaukee institution but the custard isn t good enough for everyone to overlook the controversial policy. Most people that live here are Latino, Jorge Maya said. I don t think I m going to be back anytime soon. This all started on Tuesday, May 17th, when Joey Sanchez overheard one of Leon s employees interacting with a Spanish-speaking customer. She whispered to him in Spanish I m not allowed to speak Spanish to you,' Sanchez said.Sanchez was next in line. He also placed his order in Spanish. The employee gave him the same response. I m trying to understand or find the why. I need to hear from him, to hear why he has this policy, Sanchez said.Schneider told WITI his employees can only speak English on the job. Hey, c mon! It is America. We ve spoken English for a long, long time, Schneider said.Schneider says the policy has been in place for a decade, and it has never been an issue. Any foreign language is going to be a problem. What I m trying to avoid is when people come up here, get waited on in a different language because there happens to be an employee who speaks that language, Schneider said.Sanchez said he feels Leon s policy is just bad business. If they have the people who can speak Spanish and communicate with the customer better, why not? Sanchez said.Other customers said they side with Schneider. We do live in America, you know? Ryan Schmidt said.Schneider, who points out that his wife is Hispanic, says no customer has ever been turned away at Leon s. Via: FOX 2 Now | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s outgoing prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, made a brief visit to the United Arab Emirates from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday despite a deepening crisis back home and a rise in regional tensions triggered by his surprise resignation. Hariri announced his resignation on Saturday during a visit to his ally Saudi Arabia and has not yet returned to Lebanon. He said he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accused Iran, Saudi Arabia s arch-rival, and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. His resignation has thrust Lebanon back into the frontline of the regional rivalry that pits a mostly Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia and allied Gulf monarchies against Shi ite Iran and its allies. Hariri s office said he had flown to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and then returned to Riyadh, but it gave no reason for the trip. It also did not say when he would return home. Hariri s Future TV channel said he would also visit Bahrain but gave no reason. Hezbollah has accused Riyadh of forcing Hariri to resign. Riyadh and aides to the Lebanese leader, whose family made their fortune in the Saudi construction industry, have strongly denied reports that he has been detained or was forced to quit. On Monday Riyadh accused Lebanon of declaring war against it because of aggression by Hezbollah, dramatically escalating the crisis and threatening to destabilize Lebanon. On Tuesday Lebanese politicians and Hezbollah remained silent about the escalation in Saudi rhetoric after a series of consultations with President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally. A rocket fired from Yemen was intercepted on the outskirts of Riyadh hours after Hariri s resignation on Saturday. On Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN the rocket was an Iranian missile launched by Hezbollah . Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Aoun on Tuesday to discuss developments, telling him that unity among the Lebanese people would ensure that external strife and regional problems could be overcome, Iran s state news agency IRNA reported. Iran will do all it can to bolster the stability of Lebanon, IRNA quoted Rouhani as saying. Hariri s resignation has triggered the collapse of a national unity government agreed last year in a political deal that united Lebanon s opposing sides. This had led to Lebanon s first budget since 2005 and to agreement on a new law for a parliamentary election, which could now get derailed. Aoun has said he will not accept Hariri s resignation until he returns to Lebanon to explain his thinking a move widely seen as a stalling tactic. Hezbollah and its allies will struggle to form a government without Hariri or his blessing. The post of prime minister must be filled by a member of Lebanon s Sunni community, among which he is the most influential politician. The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday that Hariri was placed under house arrest hours after arriving in Riyadh last Friday , that a Saudi security team was supervising his movements and that he had only limited access to his phones. Fouad Siniora, a former prime minister and member of Hariri s Future Movement, said he had spoken to him on Monday and added that Hariri would return to Lebanon. The political crisis has alarmed investors. On Tuesday Lebanon s dollar bonds fell and the cost of insuring exposure to its debt reached its highest since late 2008, and Moody s ratings agency warned of damage to its credit rating. Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) for Lebanon LBGV5YUSAC=MG jumped 51 basis points from Monday s close to 588 bps, according to IHS Markit data. Lebanon s 2022 issue dollar bond LB055923779= fell 3.4 cents to 92 cents in the dollar, trading at its lowest ever level, Thomson Reuters data showed. The finance minister, central bank governor and head of the banking association all issued statements on Monday stressing Lebanon s financial and monetary stability. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Getting more Americans to enroll for health insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law known as Obamacare is a top priority of his administration until President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Thursday. “We would be focused on ... maximizing the opportunity that currently is available for millions of Americans to go to healthcare.gov during the open enrollment period and sign up for healthcare,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing. Sylvia Burwell, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted on Thursday that Nov. 9 was HealthCare.gov’s best day with 100,000 sign-ups since it began selling the 2017 Obamacare plans on Nov. 1. The government’s goal is for more than 13.8 million sign-ups initially. Trump has said that he plans to repeal Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Insurers have said that 2017 Obamacare plans will remain in place and that any changes would affect 2018 plans. Earnest said that people should not worry about what could happen to the healthcare exchanges under the Trump administration. “These are benefits that are available to them today. We certainly would encourage people to sign up and capitalize on the good opportunity that’s there,” he said. Obama met with Trump on Thursday for the first time in a one-on-one, 90-minute meeting in the White House Oval Office. Trump also released a review of his goals to overhaul healthcare on his website, reiterating that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump’s pledge to repeal Obamacare may not be easy. He does not have the votes in Congress for an outright repeal and will have to cut away at its financing first, health policy experts say. | 0 |
In light of Republican failure to pass the American Health Care Act, Charles Krauthammer dismissed the idea that Chuck Schumer would try to work with Republicans at all, since the Democrats are moving toward a single-payer system as the country increasingly expects coverage to be an entitlement:Read more: CNN | 1 |
Dissidents participating in what Venezuela’s opposition dubbed the “mother of all protests” Wednesday faced gang attacks, tear gas, and other repressive tactics by state police and civilian militias alike. [Dictator Nicolás Maduro announced a plan Monday to arm as many as one million chavistas seeking to join gangs on Tuesday in anticipation of the protest. Addressing a socialist rally on Monday, Maduro announced he would begin expanding the ranks of the National Bolivarian Militia, a creation of late dictator Hugo Chávez meant to arm radical socialists in a nation where legally owning firearms outside of such groups is banned. According to the Fox News report on the rally, Maduro said he was seeking to quadruple the militia’s size from its current 100, 000 membership in the short term. The Spanish newspaper El País reported that Maduro was seeking to build a militia as soon as possible but ultimately sought a army of socialists to intimidate the opposition into silence. “We will advance towards the organization and training of one million organized militiamen, trained and armed to defend peace, sovereignty, and the independence of the nation,” Maduro reportedly said. To calm the military, which the opposition has been actively courting into participating in the resistance, Maduro has also announced something he is calling the “Zamora Plan,” which Presse (AFP) describes as “a military, police and civilian operation aimed at combatting a supposed coup attempt” organized by America. Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States generally, and former Vice President Joe Biden specifically, of organizing a coup against him. He has never produced proof of such a conspiracy. Maduro has faced growing protests since the Supreme Court attempted to impose itself as the nation’s legislative body last month, nullifying the power of the National Assembly. After a wave of protests, the Supreme Court backed down on the ruling, but the government nonetheless prevented legislators from entering the assembly for some days. Following this move, the government also banned Henrique Capriles Radonski — the governor of Miranda state and opposition presidential candidate in the past two elections — from holding public office for 15 years, with little explanation. Capriles is among the leaders organizing Wednesday’s “Mother of All Protests,” meant to bring together the opposition throughout the country to demand Maduro step down. According to the AFP, the opposition plans “to march from 26 rally points toward central Caracas, a bastion and the seat of government. ” “We’re scared but we’ve got to do this,” one protester, Carmen Medina, told Reuters. “We’re marching for the freedom of our country. ” Speaking to the outlet, Capriles added that he sees the Maduro regime as being “terminal” and protests pivotal to holding “free and fair democratic elections. ” The protest appears to have taken its first victim, a student identified as Carlos José Moreno, either 17 or 19 years old. Moreno was shot in the head in the San Bernardino neighborhood of Caracas, and reports indicate he was not participating in the protest. Witnesses say he was shot in the head by colectivos, unofficial roving gangs who attack protesters on behalf of Maduro. Warning: Graphic Images, #URGENTE: Momento en que se llevan al borde de la muerte a joven de 19 años herido de bala en Plaza La Estrella en San Bernardino #Caracas pic. twitter. — Yusnaby Pérez (@Yusnaby) April 19, 2017, VIDEO FUERTE, Ejecutado Carlos José Moreno de 19 años, recibió un disparo en la cabeza en San Bernardino pic. twitter. — Venezolano en pie (@venezolanoenpie) April 19, 2017, #URGENTE: Herido de bala manifestante en la plaza La Estrella en San Bernardino #19AVzlaContraLaDictadura #Caracas pic. twitter. — Yusnaby Pérez (@Yusnaby) April 19, 2017, La mancha de nuestra bandera. .fue muerto un manifestante opositor en plaza la estrella de san bernardino.. pic. twitter. — TODOS ala CALLE (@JaimeOlarte13) April 19, 2017, In addition to colectivo attacks, police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters. Capriles himself posted video of a tear gas attack on himself on Twitter. Continúa la fuerte represión en la autopista https: . — Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) April 19, 2017, Among the prominent dissidents protesting was also Lilian Tintori, wife of political prisoner Leopoldo López, who sported a gas mask to protect from tear gas attacks. “We want freedom for all political prisoners, and the people should decide their destiny with a vote. We want to vote,” Tintori said in a statement. “We want elections now. Presidential, gubernatorial, and mayoral elections. ” Tenemos 45 minutos resistiendo. Nos reprimen con bombas la guardia nacional. Seguimos, no nos cansamos, Vamos Venezuela! pic. twitter. — Lilian Tintori (@liliantintori) April 19, 2017, Lilian Tintori acompaña la movilización desde la avenida Paéz en El Paraíso, #19AxVIVOplay https: . pic. twitter. — VIVOplay (@vivoplaynet) April 19, 2017, | 0 |
21st Century Wire says A greater percentage of people are willing to vote to stop Hillary than Trump.Watch a video of this report here:Reuters has released a shocking poll along with an accurate description saying that, the U.S. presidential election may turn out to be one of the world s biggest un-popularity contests .Almost half of all supporters of both Trump and Hillary will be voting mainly to try and block the other side from winning.While Trump is lacking slightly in the popularity contest, he boasts greater support for his political positions among voters and 1% more voters willing to try and block the other candidate.Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia s Center for Politics says: This phenomenon is called negative partisanship, If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn t have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton. With the on-going drama concerning Hillary Clinton s allegedly illegal use of a personal email server for transferring sensitive material, it is possible that the number of people willing to vote just to stop her will continue to grow.GET THE FULL STORY ON THE 2016 ELECTION: 21st Century Wire Election Files | 0 |
If the Obama regime is allowed to wrest control of our elections from the states America better get used to the idea of a President #CrookedHillary Even before the FBI identified new cyber attacks on two separate state election boards, the Department of Homeland Security began considering declaring the election a critical infrastructure, giving it the same control over security it has over Wall Street and and the electric power grid.The latest admissions of attacks could speed up that effort possibly including the upcoming presidential election, according to officials. We should carefully consider whether our election system, our election process, is critical infrastructure like the financial sector, like the power grid, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said. There s a vital national interest in our election process, so I do think we need to consider whether it should be considered by my department and others critical infrastructure, he said at media conference earlier this month hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.DHS has a vital security role in 16 areas of critical infrastructure and they provide a model for what the department and Johnson could have in mind for the election.DHS describes it this way on their website: There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof. A White House policy directive adds, The federal government also has a responsibility to strengthen the security and resilience of its own critical infrastructure, for the continuity of national essential functions, and to organize itself to partner effectively with and add value to the security and resilience efforts of critical infrastructure owners and operators. At the time, Johnson did not mention specific security issues, but the FBI has since cited one hack and another attempt.Johnson also said that the big issue at hand is that there isn t a central election system since the states run elections. There s no one federal election system. There are some 9,000 jurisdictions involved in the election process, Johnson said. Washington Examiner | 0 |
Pope Francis was asked about Donald Trump, and the famously compassionate religious leader could only barely hold back his disgust.Currently, Francis is finishing up an historic visit to Mexico. Needless to say, the issue of Donald Trump inevitably came up. When a reporter asked the pope to weigh in on Trump s potential candidacy, he unloaded on the Republican front-runner. A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt. Consider the benefit of the doubt put to rest. Trump has spent the last seven months campaigning heavily on the idea that he can block both Hispanics and Muslims from ever coming to the United States. His policies, such that they are, have been organized around attacking minority groups and advocating for the return of torture. At his essence, Trump s campaign is the exact opposite of Pope Francis message of tolerance and compassion.Trump holds the distinction of having both pissed off the pope and also the entire country of Mexico. He infamously criticized the Catholic leader by dismissing him as just a politician. Francis didn t seem to mind, and in fact turned the tables on the attempted dig. Thank God he said I was a politician, because Aristotle defined the human person as animal politicus. So at least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn well, maybe, I don t know. I ll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people. Trump is also deeply unpopular in Mexico following his repeated attacks against the Mexican people. He kicked off his presidential campaign by claiming the Mexican government was sending rapists across the border to sell drugs and attack American women. He s never walked back those ideas. He also claimed he would build a massive concrete wall across the entire southern border at a cost estimated to be in the billions and get Mexico to pay for it.The pope s criticisms of Trump come at a time when the candidate is desperately trying to prove that he is a very good Christian with humiliating results. Trump, who once told shock jock Howard Stern that having unprotected sex with as many women as he had was his personal Vietnam, hasn t fooled very many people with this false change of heart.It takes a whole lot to get the pope to spend time taking you down a peg. Trump, for all of his hate speech and vile ideas, falls into that rare category of absolutely deserving it.Featured image via Flickr/Flickr | 0 |
The American Legislative Exchange Council, otherwise known as ALEC, is a corporate-funded project whose agenda is to give Republicans even more of an advantage, starting at the very top and working their way down. Part of their right-wing agenda now is to go 104 years back in time and get rid of an elected Senate, instead reverting to Senators being decided by deals between wealthy campaign donors, corporate lobbyists, and legislators.Trying to bring an end to representative democracy in the US isn t a particularly new idea, it s one that has been getting proposed for decades, however, nobody has come as close to making it a reality as ALEC. In fact, last year they circulated a document entitled Draft Resolution Recommending Constitutional Amendment Restoring Election of US Senators to the Legislatures of the Sovereign States, something that will most likely be discussed at great length at ALEC s annual meeting this week. If the article is approved by ALEC members, becomes part of their official agenda and is eventually instated, it will take a step backward and return the US to the corrupt and undemocratic practice of state legislators bartering off Senate seats, which was ended in 1913.When you take a look at that document you can tell these guys aren t fooling around, as it goes almost immediately to their ultimate goal:Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.Section 2. Senators shall be elected exclusively by the State legislature, upon a majority vote of legislators present and voting in a joint session. If a vacancy shall exist for more than one hundred-eighty days, then the Governor shall appoint the Senator to serve the remainder of the vacant term. This procedure may not be modified by state initiative or referendum.Section 3. State legislatures may issue instructions to, or recall, their Senators at any time.By doing this, Congress will become more representative of corporations than citizens of the United States and also the imbalance in the upper chamber would almost certainly grow. Fortunately, overturning the Seventeenth Amendment would be no easy task, but it is a terrifying prospect that there are organizations trying to stifle democracy in the United States of America.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1 |
Catherine R. Squires is a professor of communication studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is also the director of the Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality Studies Initiative.
Facebook is a for-profit company that makes money packaging its users' information to sell to advertisers and other entities. The company's goal is not to produce a "balanced" information diet for its users. People who are shocked that Facebook might be skewing their newsfeed probably shouldn't have trusted them with their news diet in the first place, given its history. Remember those confusing and ever-changing privacy settings, and that experiment to see whether users' moods could be manipulated by changing the newsfeed? This is not the company I'd trust to tell me what's important in the world.
But the uproar over the role of human editors at Facebook — or at least, in the "Trending Topics" section — does revive an important question: In an information age when people can customize their news diet, how should Facebook editors decide what issues, opinions or events deserve prominence?
Given their newfound reliance on social media companies like Facebook, traditional media editors have been grappling with the same question. Any news publication with a website makes ad revenue off of popular articles, but that can be a dangerous incentive. Though important news can also be popular, all of the major publications are guilty of publishing dumbed down "clickbait" to attract wider audiences.
So then, perhaps the question is whether Facebook, or even the news media, is narrowing the field of news so that we, as citizens, are unable to engage in effective political and social discussions.
A Facebook newsfeed that was completely dictated by algorithms without human interference wouldn't be any better. Algorithms reflect the imperfect biases of the humans that build them. Algorithms rely on data sets, which are structured by the decisions of data gatherers guided by particular goals. For example, as most of the people who work in computing are male, it's not surprising that scholars found a gender bias in the Google's Image search: In searches for C.E.O., 11 percent of the people depicted were women, compared with 27 percent of U.S. C.E.O.s who are actually women.
Data and news can be skewed on many levels on the Internet, but competent editors could explain how they and their algorithms work. Then, at least, the public would know how and why news sites elevate certain stories.
But bias in the media is not new. These basic questions have to be worked out by each generation, confronted by each new development in media technology. They are ethical and practical questions that require a human touch. | 0 |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan prosecutors said on Sunday they indicted a man for his alleged involvement in the theft of a police helicopter and association with the pilot who led an attack on government offices in June. The state prosecutor s office said via Twitter that it had charged Frank Cabana with complicity and association with terrorism. It offered no additional information. The government has said that investigative police officer Oscar Perez stole a helicopter with an unidentified companion and used it to fire shots and drop grenades on the Supreme Court and Interior Ministry, which President Nicolas Maduro called a coup attempt. After the attack, during four months of violent street protests against Maduro that left at least 125 dead, Perez appeared in videos calling on Venezuelans to rise up against Maduro. Authorities have not found Perez despite having launched a nationwide manhunt to track him down. Some opposition critics have suggested that the government staged the attack to justify persecution of opposition leaders. | 0 |
An interracial couple in Olympia, Washington, was stabbed by a man sporting white supremacist tattoos and markings. The attacker appeared to have racist feelings and spoke out against Black Lives Matter, according to an account of his questioning by police.The accused, 32-year-old Daniel Rowe, had tattoos on his body reading skinhead, white power, and in the shape of the Confederate flag. The man in the couple he went after sustained non-life threatening injuries while the woman was grazed by his knife in the attack.Upon his arrest, Rowe allegedly told police that he had gone downtown after hearing about anti-police graffiti that had been put up Sunday night, according to court documents. He reportedly told police that if he were let go, he would head to a Donald Trump rally and stomp out more of the Black Lives Matter group. This has all the hallmarks of a hate crime, said Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler. This black-and-white couple was simply expressing their love for one another, he added.Black Lives Matter has been demonized both by conservative politicians and right-wing media like Fox News Channel, where host Bill O Reilly has compared the movement to the Ku Klux Klan.This is not the first apparent hate crime to be connected to Trump s campaign. In addition to various non-criminal incidents around the country, a Latino man in Massachusetts was beaten up by Trump fans as they cited the candidate and discussed deporting him.Trump himself has directed his rally attendees to be violent towards protesters, including those there on behalf of Black Lives Matter. Trump publicly offered to pay the legal bills for one man who punched a protester, and cheered on the idea of punching people who disrupt his events.By comparison, Hillary Clinton has said black lives matter, and has featured mothers who have lost a child as a result of police brutality as part of her campaign as the Mothers of the Movement. They spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
Charlie LeDuff is legend in Detroit but this is a classic: | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Anderson, a former Republican congressman who challenged the party’s conservative drift by taking on its chief symbol, Ronald Reagan, and ran for president as an independent in 1980, died on Sunday. He was 95. Anderson had been ill for some time, family friend Dan Johnson told Reuters in a telephone interview. Anderson’s wife, Keke, and his daughter Diane were at his side when he died in Washington, Diane Anderson said by phone. Anderson finished a distant third with almost 7 percent of the vote in the 1980 presidential election but gave almost 6 million voters an alternative to the conservative Reagan - who won the election - and the unpopular Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. But Anderson did not win a single precinct and political analysts said he ultimately may have contributed to Reagan’s electoral landslide by taking votes from Carter. Anderson’s first venture into politics came in 1956 when he was elected as a state attorney in Illinois. In 1960, he won the first of 10 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives running as a conservative. He later moved to the left, breaking with conservatives in 1968 by voting for a bill to outlaw racial discrimination in housing. Anderson served as chairman of the House Republican Conference for the next 10 years even as he became more critical of Republican President Richard Nixon, especially on his handling of the Vietnam War. He was one of the first Republican House members to call for Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal. “He’s the smartest guy in Congress, but he insists on voting his conscience instead of party,” Republican U.S. Representative Gerald Ford, who later become president, said of Anderson in 1973. In 1980, with Carter low in the opinion polls and his administration mired in the Iran hostage crisis, many Republicans, including Anderson, jumped into the party’s presidential primaries for a chance to oppose the Democrat in the November election. Reagan, who had come close to winning the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, quickly moved to the front of the race, with his main opponent being former U.N. Ambassador George H.W. Bush. Anderson dropped out of the Republican primaries in the spring of 1980 and announced he was running as an independent. When he entered the race, he was enthusiastically greeted as an alternative to the major parties, getting around 25 percent support in at least one poll. But his poll numbers began sliding, even though he was seen as having bested Reagan in surveys after a televised debate with the Republican presidential nominee. Carter boycotted that debate and refused to face Reagan if Anderson was included. Carter finally agreed to a debate with Reagan shortly before the election, when the sponsoring League of Women Voters agreed not to invite Anderson. Four years later, Anderson’s break with conservative Republicans was complete and he supported Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, who lost to Reagan in a landslide. Born in Rockford, Illinois, on Feb. 15, 1922, Anderson was educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Harvard Law School. He served in the Second World War and joined the foreign service, stationed in Germany, his family said in a statement. After his presidential defeat, Anderson became a visiting professor at various universities, wrote extensively and served on many boards including FairVote, a voting rights organization formerly known as the Center for Voting and Democracy. In the 2000 presidential election, Anderson was seen as a possible presidential candidate for the Reform Party founded by Texas billionaire Ross Perot, but he ended up endorsing Ralph Nader. Diane Anderson said her father believed the two-party system was broken and was appalled by what happened with the Republican Party. “Everything he wanted to prevent unfortunately came to pass,” she said. | 0 |
Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, and Amy Adams are among the many movie stars who joined in to sing Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 hit “I Will Survive” ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. [The cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones, and Taraji P. Henson, all trade verses on the disco hit, with some their own lines. While Donald Trump’s name is never mentioned, the video is apparently intended to serve as a rallying cry for those still grieving Trump’s election. Directed by W magazine editor Lynn Hirschberg, the video also features vocals from Matthew McConaughey, Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, Chris Pine, and Naomi Harris. The “I Will Survive” video is the latest of its kind. Last week, Jerry Seinfeld, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Leonardo DiCaprio and many other celebrities starred in an emotional “Yes We Can” farewell tribute video for President Barack Obama. And of course, during the 2016 presidential race, numerous celebrities contributed to political PSAs aimed at discouraging voters from voting for Donald Trump. Perhaps the most of these was director Joss Whedon’s “Important” video, which featured Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle reminding Americans to vote on Election Day. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0 |
Former Senate President of Haiti, Bernard Sansaricq, shocked a large crowd at a Trump campaign event in Little Haiti, FL. Sansaricq exposes all of the dirty dealings of the Clinton s in Haiti while he was still in office. Donald Trump to his credit, allowed him to speak his mind and expose to the world what kind of criminals are attempting to scratch and claw their way back into our White House.Sansaricq also claims he begged the Clinton Administration not to invade Haiti. His request was followed up with a visit by an anonymous messenger from the White House who encouraged him to side with the Clinton Administration and he would be the richest man in Haiti. He also suggests that Hillary Clinton disclose the audit of all money related to the Haiti earthquake crisis, as he claims they scammed the poorest citizens of Haiti out of BILLIONS of dollars through the Clinton Foundation. Not even 2% of that money went back to Haiti. So Mr. Trump, we are asking you, begging you, the Haitian community will side with you if one day, you ask Hillary Clinton publicly to disclose the audit of all of the money they have stolen from Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake. Haiti is a very poor country. Haiti needs defenders. You said you would champion our cause. We welcome you sir and we will work with you. Ask Hillary Clinton publicly, during your next debate for an audit of all of the money they have stolen from Haiti. Watch this stunning confession of bribery, and threats during the Clinton presidency when Bill tried to oust the regime in Haiti. | 0 |
DORTMUND (Reuters) - A German-Russian man suspected of detonating three bombs targeting the Borussia Dortmund soccer team bus in a plan to profit from a plunging share price appeared in a German court on Thursday charged with 28 counts of attempted murder. The team was heading to the club s stadium for a Champions League match against AS Monaco on April 11 when the explosions went off, wounding Spanish defender Marc Bartra and delaying the match by a day. Letters left at the scene had initially suggested Islamist militants were behind the bomb attack, but prosecutors later said the 28-year old suspect, a dual German and Russian national identified as Sergei V., was motivated by greed. The attack near the Signal Iduna Park stadium, the largest in Germany, holding more than 80,000 fans, nonetheless revived memories at the time of the November 2015 attacks in Paris that targeted entertainment venues including the Stade de France where France were playing Germany in a soccer friendly. The start of the trial also comes only days after the anniversary of a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market, which killed 12 people and put the issue of security at the heart of political debate in Germany. Sergei V., who was led into a courtroom at the Dortmund regional court in handcuffs on Thursday, may face a life sentence in prison if he is found guilty. No plea was entered. In addition to the attempted murder charges, he is accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm and of causing an explosion. Prosecutors have said that he bought about 44,000 euros ($52,000) worth of options on the day of the attack entitling him to sell shares in Borussia Dortmund at a pre-determined price. His goal was allegedly to push the price of the shares down through the attack and earn a high profit of around 500,000 euros through the options, a spokesman for the regional court in Dortmund said. But shares in BVB rose after the attack and are up 16 percent so far this year. Defence lawyer Carl Heydenreich declined to comment on the allegations against his client on Thursday, saying the matter was complicated by what he said was a smear campaign ahead of the trial. The Dortmund court has set trial dates through March for now. | 0 |
DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States said it launched its first attack on Islamic State s deadly Yemen branch on Monday with a series of nighttime airstrikes that residents said targeted two villages and killed several people. Unmanned U.S. drones launched around 12 missiles at militant positions in Yakla and al-Abl in southern al-Bayda province, according to local people living nearby, who declined to be named due to safety concerns. They said the number of casualties caused by the attack was not immediately clear because locals were too afraid to approach the site as U.S. aircraft hovered over the area for hours. The Pentagon said in a statement that U.S. forces had killed dozens of Islamic State members in a strike on two camps where fighters trained in using machine guns and grenade launchers. Residents disputed that account, saying the fighters targeted actually hailed from a powerful al Qaeda affiliate who deployed in the area to fight Iran-aligned Houthi militiamen as part of Yemen s civil war, which began in 2015. The complex conflict pits a kaleidoscope of tribes, military units and political factions against each other in chaotic rivalries that have allowed hardline Sunni Muslim militant groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State to thrive. The United States provides arms and logistical support to a Saudi-led military coalition that has launched almost daily air strikes against the Houthis to try to restore Yemen s internationally recognized government. Al Qaeda in Yemen, one of the fiercest branches of the global network, has plotted to down U.S. airliners and claimed responsibility for the 2015 attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. It has been targeted by U.S. air strikes for a decade. Islamic State, which only launched its first bombing in Yemen as it careered toward civil war in March 2015, has claimed responsibility for a series of spectacular attacks on military and civilian targets which have killed hundreds of people. (reut.rs/2ghdNRx) Yakla, one of the sites targeted in the strike, was the site of a U.S. raid in January targeting suspected al Qaeda militants which local medics said killed 30 people including 10 women and children, and also left a Navy SEAL dead. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump can hire his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior White House adviser without breaking federal anti-nepotism laws, the U.S. Department of Justice said. In a letter dated Jan. 20 posted on its website, the department’s Office of Legal Counsel said the president has special hiring authority that exempts White House positions from laws barring the president from naming a relative to lead a federal agency. The New York Times first reported the decision, saying it was posted to the department’s site on Saturday. Questions about Kushner’s role emerged as voters and lawmakers questioned potential conflicts of interest for Trump, given his wide-ranging business interests, history of employing family members, and the influence of his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is married to Kushner. The office of White House counsel had asked the Justice Department for a definitive opinion on Kushner’s role. The Justice Department said that if Trump chooses to officially hire Kushner and give him security clearance usually granted for White House staff, then conflict-of-interest laws would apply and Kushner would have to abide by their restrictions. “Congress has not blocked, and most likely could not block, the president from seeking advice from family members in their personal capacities,” the department wrote in its 14-page opinion. “Consequently, even if the anti-nepotism statute prevented the president from employing relatives in the White House as advisors, he would remain free to consult those relatives as private citizens,” it said. | 0 |
By Stephen Lendman
Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy suffers greatly from low crude oil prices and US economic warfare – waged to destabilize the country, create enormous hardships, mobilize majority opposition to President Nicolas Maduro’s leadership, and end nearly 18 years of economic and social progress. The collapse in the price of crude oil was the result of a carefully designed speculative operation.
Neocons in Washington want control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, among the world’s largest. With full US support and encouragement, the right wing opposition which controls the National Assembly want Maduros ousted – its latest tactic by recall referendum as constitutionally permitted.
On October 18, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ruled valid signatures of 20% of voters in each of the nation’s 24 states must be collected to proceed with a process against Maduro.
“(F)ailure…will render the call for the presidential recall referendum as nullified,” the High Court said in its ruling.
On October 21, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) suspended the referendum until further notice, following Supreme Court allegations of fraud. Over 30% of signatures collected had irregularities – including listing over 10,000 deceased persons.
A previous article explained how Venezuela’s recall referendum works. Article 72 of Venezuela’s Constitution states “(a)ll magistrates and other offices (including the president) filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.”
“Once half (their) term of office…has elapsed, 20% of (registered) voters (by petition may call for) a referendum to revoke such official’s mandate.”
“When a number of voters equal to or greater than the number of those who elected the official vote in favor of revocation (provided the total is 20% or more of registered voters), the official’s mandate shall be deemed revoked…”
Signatures collected must be verified for authenticity before proceeding further with the recall process. If achieved, it’ll be organized within 90 days. Removing Maduro requires support from more than the 50.6% of voters supporting his 2013 election.
Timing is important. If held by January 10, 2017, a new election will be called if Maduro loses. If things go against him after this date, Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz will serve as president until January 2019, when his term expires.
In response to CNE’s suspending the recall process, the factions controlling the National Assembly barely stopped short of urging coup d’etat action to remove Maduro forcefully.
Last Sunday, they said they’ll impeach him for “violating democracy.” The body has no legal standing after ignoring the Supreme Court’s October 18 ruling.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leader Hector Rodriguez mocked them, saying parties violating the “rules of the game come and talk about democracy…There will be no recall referendum in 2016 because of fraudulent signatures collected.”
Violent demonstrations may follow, similar to what occurred in 2014 – perhaps another US coup attempt.
On October 24, WaPo editors disgracefully headlined “How to derail Venezuela’s new dictatorship.” What followed was a disgraceful litany of misinformation, exaggeration and Big Lies.
WaPo: Maduro “made clear (he and his government are) prepared to shred what remained of the country’s constitutional order…(They) stripped the opposition-controlled national assembly of its powers, imprisoned several top leaders and tried to slow” the recall process.
Fact: Maduro and Venezuela’s CNE observe the letter of constitutional law. No opposition powers were “stripped.” Their imprisoned officials plotted to remove Maduro by coup d’etat.
Collecting fraudulent signatures “slow(ed)” the recall process, not administration officials.
WaPo: Opposition National Assembly members “issued a declaration saying Mr. Maduro had staged a coup. That is accurate – and it ought to provoke a consequential reaction from the United States and Venezuela’s Latin American neighbors.”
Fact: No Maduro “coup” occurred, nor is one in prospect. WaPo calling for “consequential” action sounds ominously like urging Washington to oust him forcefully.
WaPo: “The recall referendum the opposition was pursuing offered a democratic way out of what has become one of the worst political and humanitarian crises in Latin America’s modern history.”
Fact: US dirty tricks and economic manipulation leading to disruptions in the distribution of food, bear much responsibility for hard times in Venezuela. Real problems exist. Hunger isn’t one of them. WaPo lied claiming “(t)he vast majority of low-income families say they are having trouble obtaining food.”
Venezuelans changed their dietary practices because of the scarcity of commonly eaten foods, at times consuming less than earlier. Profiteers hoarding and diverting foodstuffs for resale are responsible, along with high inflation resulting economic manipulation.
WaPo: “(T)he United States should be coordinating tough international action.”
Fact: Neocon WaPo editors want Maduro toppled and replaced. Do they mean by coup d’etat by calling for “tough international action?”
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected] . His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com .
Source: Global Research
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WASHINGTON — As the Central Intelligence Agency was setting up its secret prisons overseas 15 years ago to interrogate terrorism suspects, a Defense Department unit was considering a proposal to establish a secret military prison abroad, according to previously undisclosed government documents. The proposal was presented in a 2002 memo written in part by Bruce Jessen, one of two psychologists who eventually helped create the C. I. A. ’s “enhanced interrogation” program. The memo, obtained by The New York Times, recommended opening at least one secret overseas site where prisoners would be subjected to “constant sensory deprivation” and develop “ a profound sense of despair. ” The military, though, did not act on the proposal for an “undisclosed . S. unsuspected, secure location” to “hold, manage and exploit detainees. ” The Department of Defense, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the extent to which the plan, which originated in the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, was considered. Aside from sensory deprivation, the memo suggested that additional pressure tactics be permitted against prisoners, including those that “maximize cultural undesirability,” but it did not mention the brutal physical coercion techniques, such as waterboarding, later approved for use in the C. I. A. prisons. The memo is included among several government documents provided during the discovery process in a lawsuit brought in federal court in Spokane, Wash. against Dr. Jessen and the other psychologist, James E. Mitchell, by two former C. I. A. prisoners and the representative of a third man, who died in custody. The documents, along with others previously released, are helping to fill in gaps in the historical record about the interrogation program of the George W. Bush era. Their disclosure comes soon after the Trump administration drafted an executive order calling for reviving the C. I. A. “black site” prisons, though the White House has since appeared to back off from the idea after lawmakers and cabinet officials objected. Also disclosed in the lawsuit were a series of PowerPoint training slides for American personnel apparently headed to the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, discussing how they could defeat efforts by terrorism suspects to resist questioning. Those slides — or a similar set — were used in a training course by Dr. Jessen and a colleague in March 2002, and excerpted in a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report. Among the potential methods listed are “psychological torture” through “isolation, threats against self or family” and “the use of drugs. ” When Dr. Jessen’s memo was written in April 2002, he was the chief psychologist at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, a Defense Department unit overseeing training programs in which military personnel are subjected to simulated torture tactics and mock interrogation to prepare them for possible capture by regimes violating the laws of war. Dr. Jessen and most of his colleagues had no experience in conducting actual interrogations, but the Department of Defense legal counsel sought information from the agency on detainee “exploitation” beginning in late 2001. Dr. Jessen soon left his military position to help set up the C. I. A. interrogation program, along with Dr. Mitchell. The two men eventually created their own company, Mitchell, Jessen and Associates, which received $81 million from the C. I. A. to manage the program. The existence of the 2002 memo was mentioned in the Senate report on detainee abuse published in 2008, but the document itself had not previously been made public. The memo recommended practices similar to those later used at C. I. A. sites, such as holding only one or two “subjects” at a time and having an “operational team” that included a psychologist, interrogators, interpreters, guards, a physician, an intelligence officer and other support personnel, including video technicians. The plan called for “ feed between interrogation rooms, confinement cells and control room. ” It also described ethically conflicting roles for the physician — both advising interrogators and treating the subject. The memo was written at a time when Pentagon officials were deeply divided over the military’s role in detention and interrogation in the new war on terrorists. Many officials were already uneasy about interrogation procedures being used at the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay. The memo’s solution to the mounting internal criticism was to have a small team led by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency run a smaller, more efficient prison. The memo also insisted that secrecy be paramount and that the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors prisoners of war to ensure they are treated humanely, be kept out of the proposed prison. “No press, IRC, US or foreign observers,” the memo states. “These documents reveal some of the earliest planning for the systematic torture and abuse that Jessen and others would inflict on U. S. prisoners,” said Dror Ladin, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the former detainees. The emphasis on keeping the prisons hidden showed, Mr. Ladin said, that those involved in the plans “knew that what they were doing was wrong. ” Asked about the documents, a lawyer for Dr. Jessen distanced him from them. “While Dr. Jessen was the original author of the JPRA report, the document that the government produced in discovery is the final version that was modified by other government officials for specific purposes,” said the lawyer, James Smith, who also represents Dr. Mitchell. “Dr. Jessen had no role in creating that final version,” he wrote. Mr. Smith also asserted that “every action taken by Drs. Mitchell and Jessen was approved and directed by the C. I. A. after the Department of Justice and the Office of the President advised that the contemplated action was legal. ” He said the two men had no involvement in activities alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaint, which claimed the psychologists had designed and administered the C. I. A. ’s brutal interrogation program. According to the Senate report, Dr. Jessen drafted his memo and sent it to the senior civilian leadership and commander of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, Col. John R. Moulton, who is known as Randy. He requested that Dr. Jessen prepare a briefing to “take up for approval. ” When interviewed by the Senate committee, Colonel Moulton testified that he did not recall any subsequent briefings for United States Joint Forces Command on the proposal. Lawyers for Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have sought to depose several former C. I. A. officials in an effort to buttress the defense’s argument that the psychologists’ actions were approved by the C. I. A. Lawyers for the A. C. L. U. working with the Gibbons law firm of Newark, have said that they were trying to avoid asking the government to release classified information in the case, and instead were relying heavily on public records. Their strategy is to avoid demanding any information that might lead to the imposition of the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to prevent information from being made public in court cases by claiming it could damage national security. That could shut down the case. If it goes forward, a trial is expected to take place in June. In a filing in the case last week, Chad A. Readler, the acting United States assistant attorney general, and other government lawyers indicated that the government would seek to invoke the privilege to block testimony by James Cotsana, a former C. I. A. operations officer who Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have said supervised them at one time. The Justice Department requested additional time to invoke the state secrets privilege, it said, because the new C. I. A. director will need to assess whether to do so, and the attorney general will have to approve the plan. The multiple levels of review, the government added, “present unique challenges in this case given the recent change of administration. ” Subpoenas to depose John A. Rizzo, a former acting general counsel of the C. I. A. and Jose A. Rodriguez, a former deputy director of operations, were recently canceled by the defendants, who received statements from the two men instead. The A. C. L. U. is now seeking to depose them. | 0 |
OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THIS: How scary is this to anyone who thinks the government can t spy on them: The justification for requesting unmasking (revealing your identity) can be as simple as claiming the identity of the United States person (you) is necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance . It does sound far-fetched but just ask FOX News reporter James Rosen who was spied on by Obama. Yes, Barack Obama spied on Americans by using the excuse that it was necessary to expose the name of the person the NSA was spying on. In other words, the use of intelligence information was mishandled for political purposes by a dirt bag president who only knows Chicago politics So Obama spied on Trump, right? Well, if he spied on James Rosen then you know damn well he spied on Trump. Yes, this backdoor form of political espionage by an outgoing administration trying to monitor its successor on the world stage is as bad as it gets IT S BANANA REPUBLIC BAD As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obama s top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agency s incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats, Circa has learned.Dozens of times in 2016, those intelligence reports identified Americans who were directly intercepted talking to foreign sources or were the subject of conversations between two or more monitored foreign figures. Sometimes the Americans names were officially unmasked; other times they were so specifically described in the reports that their identities were readily discernible. Among those cleared to request and consume unmasked NSA-based intelligence reports about U.S. citizens were Obama s national security adviser Susan Rice, his CIA Director John Brennan and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.Some intercepted communications from November to January involved Trump transition figures or foreign figures perceptions of the incoming president and his administration. Intercepts involving congressional figures also have been unmasked occasionally for some time.The NSA is expected to turn over logs as early as this week to congressional committees detailing who consumed reports with unmasked Americans identities from their intercepts since the summer of 2016.Read more: Circa News | 0 |
MUNICH (Reuters) - Senator John McCain, defending the media against the latest attack by President Donald Trump, warned that suppressing the free press was “how dictators get started”. The Arizona Republican, a frequent critic of Trump, was responding to a tweet in which Trump accused the media of being “the enemy of the American people”. The international order established after World War Two was built in part on a free press, McCain said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that was released in advance of the full Sunday morning broadcast. “I hate the press. I hate you especially,” he told interviewer Chuck Todd from an international security conference in Munich. “But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital.” “If you want to preserve - I’m very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started,” he continued. “They get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I’m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history,” McCain said. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, told the conference on Sunday she was also concerned about Trump’s comments. “The real danger is the president’s criticism of the media,” Shaheen told the conference. “A free press ... is very important to maintaining democracy, and efforts on the part of a president to undermine and manipulate the press are very dangerous.” The comments from U.S. lawmakers followed Trump’s tweet and came days after the president held a raucous news conference at which he repeatedly criticized news reports about disorder in the White House and leaks of his telephone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized the importance of a free press at the conference on Saturday, saying, “I have high respect for journalists. We’ve always had good results, at least in Germany, by relying on mutual respect.” | 0 |
Just a few days after she made the decision to let an investigation of Donald Trump s Trump University slide, the former reality TV star held a fundraiser for Florida attorney general Pam Bondi at his palatial Mar-A-Lago compound.News of the cash-fueled party comes as Trump faces renewed criticism after being fined by the IRS after it came to light that the Trump Foundation illegally funneled money into Bondi s re-election campaign.In March 2014, Donald Trump opened his 126-room Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, for a $3,000-per-person fundraiser for Pam Bondi. The Florida attorney general, who was facing a tough re-election campaign, had recently decided not to investigate Trump University.Trump did not write a check to the attorney general that night. The previous fall, his personal foundation had given $25,000 to a pro-Bondi PAC. But by hosting her fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and bringing in some of his own star power, Trump provided Bondi s campaign with a nice financial boost.The Huffington Post also reports that while Trump has billed the RNC $140,000 per event to use his mansion, he only charged the Republican Party of Florida $4,855.65. That means that Trump stands to make a windfall simply by controlling the flow of campaign donor money to his own enterprises.News of the interlocking relationship between Trump and Bondi (she has done campaign rallies for him) underscores how the national media has ignored or played down actual stories of Trump and his involvement with corruption. Instead they have banged the drums on the Clinton Foundation, making allegations of wrong-doing based on the potential and optics of the far-reaching charity the Clintons put in place.Trump is also implicated in similar behavior in Texas. The attorney general there dropped looking into Trump University a little after he gave him a financial donation.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
The religious right movement is not the same movement anymore.And Frank Schaeffer would know. After all, he helped his father create it.The movement originally began as an anti-abortion organization specifically designed to bring angry Christians to the voting booth. But has since become something even more insidious.In recent years, conservative Christians have become one giant hate group that supports Nazism and rape while working to strip women, minorities and gay people of their constitutional rights.During an appearance on AM Joy on Saturday, Schaeffer roundly condemned the Christian Right and the Republican Party in a smack down of Biblical proportion taking particular aim at Roy Moore and Donald Trump, whom conservatives are supporting despite several sexual abuse and assault allegations against them and Trump s own refusal to condemn Nazis. Back in the day when my dad and me were going around the country establishing the religious right based on our anti-abortion stand, one I ve moved a long way from since, the whole idea was bringing America back to some moral stand, Schaeffer began. Think about the Republican Party now, Schaeffer continued. Throw some words out that are associated with them: mass shootings, Milo, Trump, Moore, Bannon, rape, child molesting, neo-Nazis, white supremacy. What the hell is going on with the Republican Party? I m not shocked by Donald Trump, he s an ass. I m not shocked by Roy Moore. he s a loud mouth, a gun-toting fool. What I m shocked by is the complicity. We are in a political climate that s built on one lie after another. I just want to say for the record, by the way, I believe a woman who stands up, which is very difficult to do and comes forward with a story like that. She was a Trump voter. She s a Republican. I believe her. I just want to say that as a father and grandfather and someone that respects women that I believe her. Here s the video via YouTube.Conservative Christians and Republicans should pay attention to what Schaeffer says. Clearly, the movement he helped create has turned into a monster that is far removed from the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. That is evidenced by the fact that conservatives are perverting the Bible to defend Moore s predatory behavior.It s time for the American people to wake up and put an end to the Christian Right. They have never represented the values of the American people and they work every day to undermine our nation in an effort to turn it into their perverted and hateful version of a Christian utopia. Their insanity must be stopped.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
This is not supposed to be a danger to the general population but raises lots of questions about security when dealing with anthrax. The Pentagon revealed Wednesday that live anthrax was shipped, apparently by accident, from a lab in Utah to as many as nine states.Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren assured there is no known risk to the general public and said an investigation is under way. But precautions are being taken for potentially exposed workers in labs where the samples were sent. A U.S. official told Fox News that four people in three companies are being treated for post-exposure and being prescribed prophylaxis.All samples are in the process of being collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The material in question was prepared at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, as part of what was described as a routine research process. It was then sent out to Defense Department and commercial labs in nine states the shipments were supposed to include only inactive, or dead, anthrax when they were transferred. These were supposed to be dead spores anthrax, called AG-1, a defense official said.But a private lab in Maryland, on May 22, informed the CDC that they thought the samples contained live anthrax. The CDC then informed the Defense Department. According to the Associated Press, the government has confirmed the Maryland lab got live spores, and it is suspected the others did as well, though not yet confirmed.Fox News also was told that one sample was sent to a South Korean base. The Department of Defense is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their investigation of the inadvertent transfer of samples containing live Bacillus anthracis, also known as anthrax, from a DoD lab in Dugway Utah, to labs in nine states, Warren said in a statement. There is no known risk to the general public, and there are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers, he added. The DoD lab was working as part of a DoD effort to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats in the environment. | 1 |
It s hard not to notice the liberal media gushing all over Hillary Clinton. CNN defends her every move while hammering Trump on just about everything. Even Obama has said he s not endorsing a candidate but it obvious his best hope for continuing his legacy of far left ideology is with Clinton. They are both students of well known radical Saul Alinsky. MSNBC is another news outlet that loves Hillary and is always pushing her agenda. The only problem is that the Dems didn t get the memo that Bernie Sanders is the guy for the voters and some lefty organizations. Oops! It s clear that Bernie Sanders has taken a rather large lead in the NH polls (14 percent) and that lefty organization Moveon.org just endorsed Sanders. Yes, the writing is on the wall for all to see except the liberal media this should be interesting!CNN had this gushing article today:Obama hopes to pave way for Clinton with farewell State of the UnionThough the White House says Obama will not endorse a candidate in the 2016 primary race, there is no doubt that he has long seen Clinton as the best hope for preserving his legacy.In fact, that belief was one reason many people in the administration s inner circle were wary of a run by Vice President Joe Biden. I think Barack Obama believes that it is incredibly important that Hillary Cinton succeeds him, said a former close aide to Obama who is still connected with the White House. The only way that we have an economy where people aren t losing their health care is if Hillary Clinton becomes president. Jeff Shesol, who is familiar with the dynamic between a president and his preferred successor after working in the final years of the Clinton White House as a speechwriter, including on the State of the Union address, highlighted Obama s reliance on Clinton for his place in history. The single most important thing that could happen from here on out for the Obama legacy is the election of Hillary Clinton, he said. | 0 |
CLARK FREEPORT ZONE, Philippines (Reuters) - The threat from North Korea has grown to a critical and imminent level and the United States, Japan and South Korea must address the matter, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told his U.S. and South Korean counterparts in talks on Monday. Onodera s remarks underscored the deep concern in Tokyo after North Korean weapons tests, including test firing missiles over Japan, as Pyongyang seeks to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States. His comments broke from more measured language on Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-Moo, as the three men met on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian defense chiefs in the Philippines. (The) threat posed by North Korea has grown to the unprecedented, critical and imminent level. Therefore, we have to take calibrated and different responses to meet with that level of threat, he said, speaking through a translator, at the start of talks in the Philippines. South Korea s Song also acknowledged that North Korea s provocative behavior is becoming worse and worse, in public remarks before reporters were escorted out of the meeting room. Mattis renewed sharp criticism of North Korea s tests, saying they threaten regional and global security. Mattis, who kicked off a week-long trip to the region on Monday, has been eager to emphasize diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully as escalating tension between Washington and Pyongyang stoked fears of armed confrontation. Asked about his conversation with Onodera after the two met earlier in the day, before joining South Korea s Song, Mattis said they discussed maintaining stability and peace in support of the diplomats. Meanwhile, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said he is willing to travel to North Korea on behalf of the Trump administration to help diffuse the situation, the New York Times reported. Mattis has been more cautious in his public remarks than U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been locked in a war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatening to destroy North Korea if necessary to defend the United States and its allies. Kim has blasted Trump as mentally deranged. Mattis is at the start of a week-long trip to Asia and will attend meetings hosted by defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Philippines. ASEAN defense ministers, in a joint statement, expressed grave concern over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs and urged the reclusive country to meet its international obligations and resume communications. They underscored the need to maintain peace and stability in the region and called for the exercise of self-restraint and the resumption of dialogue to de-escalate tensions in the Korean peninsula. Mattis trip, which will include a stop in Thailand, comes before Trump s first visit to Asia next month, including a stop in China. Trump has been pressuring China to do more to rein in North Korea s missile and nuclear program. China is North Korea s neighbor and biggest trading partner. Mattis, while in the Philippines, said he will commend the military for defeating insurgents in Marawi City on the islandof Mindanao. The Philippines said on Monday it has ended five months of military operations in Marawi after a fierce and unfamiliar urban war that marked the country s biggest security crisis in years. Some experts see the Marawi insurgency as a prelude to a more ambitious bid by Islamic State loyalists to exploit Mindanao s poverty and use its jungles and mountains as a base to train, recruit and launch attacks in the region. It was a tough fight, Mattis told reporters on his flight to the Philippines, adding he thought the Philippines military had sent a very necessary message to the terrorists. On Thursday, Mattis will lead the U.S. delegation inThailand for the cremation rites for the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. | 1 |
President Obama is so disciplined that his wife has teased that he eats precisely seven lightly salted almonds each night. George W. Bush was an exercise buff, obsessed with staying trim by mountain biking and clearing brush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. But Donald J. Trump is taking a different approach: A junk food aficionado, he is hoping to become the nation’s fast food president. “A ‘fish delight,’ sometimes, right?” Mr. Trump told Anderson Cooper at a CNN meeting in February, extolling the virtues of McDonald’s. “The Big Macs are great. The Quarter Pounder. It’s great stuff. ” Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign is improvised, undisciplined, rushed and . And so is his diet. In an era of gourmet dining and obsession with healthy ingredients, Mr. Trump is a throwback to an earlier, more carefree time in American eating, when nobody bothered to ask whether the tomatoes were locally grown, and the first lady certainly didn’t have a vegetable garden, complete with a bee hive, on the South Lawn of the White House. But in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts, Mr. Trump has broadcast his culinary preferences to the nation — devouring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (while reading The Wall Street Journal) feasting on a McDonald’s burger and fries (to celebrate clinching the Republican presidential nomination) and chowing down on a taco bowl (in an effort to woo Hispanic voters). He is a lover of diner fare and fast food grub, of overcooked steaks (“It would rock on the plate, it was so well done,” his longtime butler once observed) and the bland nourishment of Americana. He prefers burgers and meatloaf, Caesar salads and spaghetti, See’s Candies and Diet Coke. And he shuns tea, coffee and alcohol. But his highbrow, lowbrow image — of the mogul who takes buckets of fried chicken onto his private plane with the seatbelt buckles — is also a carefully crafted one. If President George Bush revealed his patrician upbringing by requesting “a splash” more coffee at a truck stop in New Hampshire, and John Kerry helped reinforce his image as a New England blue blood by trying to order a cheese steak with Swiss in South Philadelphia, Mr. Trump’s diet also telegraphs to his base that he is one of them. “There’s nothing more American and more than fast food,” said Russ Schriefer, a Republican strategist and ad maker. “It is the peculiarity of the brand that he’s able to be on his jet with the gold and black branding and colors, and at the same time eat KFC — and what makes it perfect is he does it all with a knife and fork, while reading The Wall Street Journal. ” Or, as Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser and pollster on the Trump campaign, put it, “It goes with his authenticity. ” “I don’t think Hillary Clinton would be eating Popeye’s biscuits and fried chicken,” she said. Last April, Mrs. Clinton did, indeed, visit a Chipotle near Toledo, Ohio, stopping into the chain restaurant unrecognized, in black sunglasses, and ordering a chicken burrito bowl. And President Bill Clinton was perhaps the nation’s first fast food commander in chief, famous for ending his jogs at McDonald’s. (Mr. Clinton now adheres to a largely vegan diet.) Still, Mr. Trump seems to come by his appetite for fast food genuinely. While junk food has long been a staple of campaign trail life — Mitt Romney’s 2012 press corps coined the term “slunch” to refer to the unhealthy phenomenon of the “second lunch” — Mr. Trump’s reliance on fare is driven more by a combination of speed, efficiency and, above all else, cleanliness. Though he often orders from the Trump Grill when working out of Trump Tower in Manhattan, he eats fast food several times a week while on the road because “it’s quick,” as he told The Daily Mail last year while munching on Burger King on his Boeing . Mr. Trump has even suggested doing away with state dinners, in a fit of cost and time savings. “We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table, and we should make better deals with China and others and forget the state dinners,” he said. A man always prone to distraction and uninterested in small details, he has never approached food as anything other than a problem to be solved, quickly, as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, an occasional dining partner, once told The Washington Examiner. As the two men ate at in Manhattan in 2002, Mr. Trump ordered briskly and imperiously from the head chef and owner, Mr. Christie recalled. “ remember the appetizer you made for me last week when I was here?” Mr. Trump asked the owner. “We’ll take two of those. And remember that main course you made, the special thing you made for me? We’ll take two of those, too. ” Mr. Christie watched with confusion and a bit of awe, he recalled in the interview. Mr. Trump looked at him and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll love it. ” But Mr. Trump, who frets about germs and prizes cleanliness, also loves fast food because of its consistency and the promise, at least, of a basic level of hygiene. “One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald’s. One bad hamburger, you take Wendy’s and all these other places and they’re out of business,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Cooper of CNN. “I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard. ” Still, he added, “I think the food’s good. ” Mr. Trump’s dining habits also bespeak a certain lack of creativity, and parochialism — the kid from Queens who made it across the river to Manhattan’s glistening skyline, but never cottoned to the city’s haute cuisine. He once praised the “imagination” of his wife, Melania, in the kitchen — before citing, as examples of her culinary spaghetti and meat sauce, salads and meatloaf. (He still keeps a copy of his mother’s meatloaf recipe.) Along with McDonald’s, his favorite fast food joint, a family member said, is Jackson Hole Burgers. He is also a stickler for manners, attacking his primary race rival, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, for scarfing down meals during impromptu news conferences. “I’ve never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion!” Mr. Trump told a crowd. And Mr. Trump, who sometimes sips his Diet Coke through a straw, once caused Manhattan foodies to weep into their quinoa when he took Sarah Palin to a Famous Famiglia pizza restaurant in Times Square — and then proceeded to cut his oversize slice with a plastic knife and fork. He has other pretensions, as well. Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist, recalled traveling on Mr. Trump’s plane and watching him rip the buns off his McDonald’s patties before plying the burgers with ketchup. (“Do you know how many calories you save that way?” Mr. Trump asked Mr. Carr.) And Mr. Trump also told US Weekly that he tries to save calories on pizza. (“I scrape the toppings off my pizza — I never eat the dough,” he said.) So pronounced are Mr. Trump’s fast food preferences that Philip E. Beshara, a lawyer, joked on Instagram that, as president, his cabinet would probably be staffed by Colonel Sanders, the Hamburglar and the Taco Bell Chihuahua. And, of course, the Republican nominee’s dining whims also keep his team on its toes, with staff members worrying not just about the backdrop for his speeches — but also where to find the nearest . “There’s never any real planning for food,” said one, between events on Friday. “It’s always just whatever he is craving, which is more often than not McDonald’s. ” | 0 |
Is Disney officially admitting they re in the business of indoctrinating our children to become good little progressives? For anyone who says this book has nothing to do with Disney or their philosophy, Disney Publishing Worldwide s company overview claims to publish books that are in support of the franchises :Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc. publishes children s books, comics, and magazines. The company publishes titles in support of the franchises.Disney is selling a new Feminist Baby children s book so parents can teach their toddlers to grow up to be progressive thinkers who smash the patriarchy and believe gender is a social construct.Loryn Brantz, the author and illustrator behind Feminist Baby, told TIME that her 22-page children s book aims to make children liberal and progressive thinkers. Here s an example of Brantz s liberal propaganda: They re not going to take away all the nuances and important parts of feminism necessarily, but it s important just to have it be in their vocabulary and part of their life rather than discovering it when they re older, Brantz explained. It s so that they re aware of feminism and see it as a good thing and not a bad thing. They need to grow up with feminism and not be scared of it, and not think that it means they re going to be overpowered by women someday, Brantz said. It just means wanting equality for everyone. It s not something they think they need to fight when they re older. Huffington Post In the comics, Feminist Baby serves as an underage heroine bent on smashing the patriarchy and subverting tired traditions like the gender reveal. The panels provide both political commentary (she punches Steve Bannon who is dressed as a Nazi) and silly comic relief. But while they re aimed at different audiences, both the comics and the book express the same basic message. Feminism is for everyone including babies! Brantz says. Here are some examples of Brantz s feminist baby cartoons: The publisher for the book is Disney Publishing Worldwide. Disney s website claims the book is targeted for children the 0-2 age range.Disney s description for the book states the Feminist Baby likes pink and blue. Sometimes she ll throw up on you! Feminist Baby chooses what to wear and if you don t like it she doesn t care! The book hit online stores and bookshelves on April 11. According to the Amazon listing for the book, as of the 13th, the book is No. 7 in best sellers for children s books new baby.For entire story: MRCTV | 0 |
Published on Oct 29, 2016 Hearts and Mines: The US Empire’s Culture Industry From Katy Perry training alongside US Marines in a music video, to the global box-office mastery of the US military-supported Transformers franchise, it’s clear that the US national security state is a dominant force in global media culture. How and why is this so? This book covers the production, profit and power of US Empire’s culture industry — a nexus between the US state and globalizing media firms and the source of entertainments that promote US Empire as a way of life around the world. With: * Tanner Mirrlees, Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and * Scott Forsyth, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Arts, York University. The launch was co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice, the Global Labour Research Centre, the Socialist Project, and Union for Democratic Communication. Recorded in Toronto, 20 October 2016. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: [email protected]
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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 1 |
syria , cinema , movies Russian filmmaker Maria Ivanova. Source: Elena Kern / press-photo
Where did you find the courage to go to the Middle East to make a film on migrants?
Maria Ivanova: I began making my film in Berlin, in a camp for refugees. I was searching for a female protagonist. But when I arrived, I was told that girls do not flee Syria alone, only with their husbands or relatives.
In the end I visually began "capturing" interesting faces. I found my protagonist – 14-year-old Muhammad, who was sent by his parents to Germany alone. He did the whole journey alone so that later, he could get his relatives out of Syria through the legal process of family reunification.
During the shooting I understood that I needed to go to Damascus, where this boy's parents stayed. Because of the hassle in obtaining a Syrian visa my cameraman and I travelled to Syria through Beirut. In Lebanon you don't need a visa.
U.S. needs Russia in Syria: Russian analysts
As we were driving along the road I knew that ISIS was only 10 kilometres [6 miles] away, very near. We were driving incredibly fast, at 200 kilometres per hour, when the driver saw a motorcycle coming. So our car quickly turned around and headed in the opposite direction. “Why?” I asked the driver later. Because terrorists often drive around at night on motorcycles, he said.
That’s how we got to Damascus. There was no heating in the apartment we were taken to. No electricity and hot water. We slept on something similar to a couch. There are no real beds there. And at three in the morning, I heard bombing.
Is all of Damascus in this state?
M.I.: I was in the south and there it was frightening to walk out on the street. People have fear in their eyes, the atmosphere is very heavy.
Did you meet the parents of your protagonist Muhammad? How did you contact them?
M.I.: They welcomed us with open arms. They fed us. They have all means of communication, they use social networks. After meeting with them we returned to Beirut and went to the refugee camps in Lebanon's mountains, filming there for two weeks.
Were the Lebanese camps different from the German ones?
M.I.: Of course. Lebanon doesn’t have special conditions. There’s a character in our film, a man who has 17 children. He lives in a tent that he has divided into several parts. He patches up the holes. They all sleep on the floor. Despite their horrible position, these people offered us food and played the oud [an Arabian musical instrument – RIR] for us. They joked… Their life is based on the hope that they will return home. Of course, many want to go to Europe. They fill out applications. But Europe does not accept everyone.
Lebanon is an unusual country. Just think, there are 18 religious confessions on a territory that is smaller than the Moscow Region. There are four million residents and one and a half million Syrian refugees. And yet, I never saw a conflict between, say, Christians and Muslims. They all go to the same restaurants, the same movie theatres, everyone is friendly.
Which films are you taking to the festival in Lebanon?
M.I.: We finished this documentary film just a few days ago and I decided to hold the premiere in Lebanon, where we shot most of the material. Moreover, our partner, the TV channel RT, is producing two documentary films: Women against ISIS and Sector of Contradiction . The directors of these films are coming to answer questions and hold master classes.
How much is Russian culture present in Lebanon? Do people speak Russian there?
M.I.: Many Lebanese studied in the Soviet Union. There is even an association of Soviet university graduates. These people speak Russian, many even married Russian citizens. Furthermore, there are 30,000 Russians living there. There are Lebanese who attend classes and study Russian. Sure, you mostly hear Arabic, English and French. Russian culture is not well known. So we sort of filled a vacuum.
A common film market for Russia, India and China?
Is the war in the neighbouring country felt in Lebanon?
M.I.: You still feel the previous war, the civil war. There are buildings scarred by bombings. There are many military personnel, roadblocks, armoured personnel carriers, patrols. But next to a destroyed building you can find a modern art gallery, which is followed by soldiers again, and then a modern theatre. This is a patchwork country, it is very heterogeneous.
Once I was at the Sarajevo Film Festival, which had a really heavy atmosphere. There were no stadiums there. They had turned into cemeteries since there was no space for burying people. While in Lebanon you feel very light. You want to live, despite certain moments… The presence of soldiers, on the contrary, creates the feeling of security.
I travelled there by car with a driver, saw beautiful cities, mountains, wine production. I went to an apple festival. I wasn’t afraid. The country has a modern airport, taxis, hotels, wonderful restaurants, beaches and movie theatres. The thing is that no one anywhere will give you 100-percent guaranteed security, including when you're driving through France or Germany. In terms of security, Lebanon is no different than Europe.
The full interview can be found on RIA Novosti . Facebook | 1 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China s most-wanted overseas fugitives, a manager in a real estate company sought on charges of corruption and bribery, turned himself in on Tuesday after fleeing to Canada seven years ago, the anti-graft agency said. He Jian, a manager in the northern province of Hebei who had fled in September 2010, becomes the 49th on a list of 100 most-wanted individuals to return, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on its website. Reuters could not immediately reach He, his family, or a legal representative to seek comment. He s assets were frozen after he fled and Interpol issued a red notice for his provisional arrest, the agency said, but it did not make clear where He lived after his flight to Canada, nor from which country he had returned. The widely-publicized Fox Hunt and Sky Net operations to repatriate overseas fugitives suspected of corruption and economic crimes constitute a key plank of President Xi Jinping s sweeping anti-graft campaign. China published its list of most-wanted suspects believed to be hiding overseas in April 2015. But it has had limited success in securing cooperation from Western countries, including Australia, Canada and the United States, where many of the most wanted live, largely because of what those governments see as a lack of transparency and due process in China s judicial system. | 1 |
Mass Live Ayyadurai, who announced his Republican U.S. Senate bid in February, said that while he may not be the GOP establishment s candidate, his track record of overcoming barriers and fighting big institutions makes him the best person to take on the high-powered incumbent. I know that Warren in spite of (what) people think she is is extremely weak, he said in an interview. She s a formidable enemy, but weak in the sense that where she s fundamentally coming from, her basis of where she s coming from, has massive weakness and I know how to expose that weakness. Ayyadurai, 53, moved to the U.S. from India as a child. He compared the Democratic senator and former Harvard University professor to those at the top of India s caste system a social structure in which he said his family held a low position. If you look at what we have today, we have a neo-caste system and at the top of that heap is people like Warren, he said. They are the academics, career politicians and lawyer/lobbyists. And that clan is extremely spineless, they never expect to be challenged. And I ve challenged them. Last month, Ayyadurai made news when he sent Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren a DNA kit for her birthday (which she rejected) after Warren was caught lying about being a Native American on a application for a teaching position at Harvard University, allegedly hoping that her fake minority status would place her ahead of other applicants for the job.Senator Elizabeth Warren is not only a liar, she s also not very bright. Warren sent out an email today that was clearly designed to appeal to women. In the email, Warren names the very unpopular Hillary Clinton, not only once, but twice. Warren starts out the email by mentioning Hillary s name in the first sentence:Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. Warren used Hillary s name again near the end of her email:Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.Apparently, Warren missed the dreadful polls showing how the wildly unpopular Hillary Clinton s like ability continues to plummet, even after the race.If Warren stays the course and continues to align herself with Crooked Hillary, the very successful entrepreneur and President Trump supporter Shiva Ayyadurai will no doubt be able to use her embarrassingly bad decision to his advantage.Mass Live- If elected, Ayyadurai said he hopes to bring a sense of innovation to the Senate when it comes to addressing hot-button issues, as well as to look at problems from an engineering and science perspective.Casting himself as a Lincoln Republican, the entrepreneur said his campaign platform will largely focus on three areas: immigration, education and innovation.As an immigrant, Ayyadurai said he believes it is important that the U.S. secure its borders, root out so-called sanctuary cities and ensure people enter the country legally.He added that he also supports ensuring parents and students have choices when it comes to public education, and argued that more must be done to address what he called pay-to-play academic science research.Ayyadurai, who holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the founder and chairman of CytoSolve, a startup that has developed a computational platform for scalable integration of molecular pathway models used in drug development.He is one of three Republicans who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for the Massachusetts Senate seat in 2018.To donate to Shiva Ayyadurai s senate campaign, click HERE.Here is Warren s email:Friend Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. I ve seen what a village, a community, and a movement can do, one action at a time. And I ve seen how women can help women especially when we run for office.I sure remember what it was like running for the Senate as a first-time candidate in 2011. I had to learn everything it took to raise money, build a grassroots organizing operation, and stand up to a Republican incumbent with $10 million in the bank and I had to do it fast.And here s what I know: I absolutely, positively couldn t have done it on my own.So when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told me they wanted a strong launch of the Women s Senate Network for the 2018 cycle, to help women run and make sure more voices like mine and Hillary s are in the Senate, I immediately told them:I m all in.Today, I m asking you to join me in becoming a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network. Because you were there for Hillary, I m hoping you ll add your name to help us build a community to support women who run for office.Now let me be blunt: 2018 is going to be a hard year for Democrats. We ve got 10 women who are up for reelection to the Senate, including me more than ever before in history. And many are in some really tough races.That s why the DSCC s Women s Senate Network is ramping up its 2018 efforts early to elect and protect smart, tough, and experienced candidates to fight for what s right senators who understand that being a woman is not a pre-existing condition, that we deserve equal pay for equal work, and that we sure as heck need Planned Parenthood and affordable health care for hardworking families.Let s continue our fight and get more women in leadership in this country.I m counting on you to keep fighting for what we all started: become a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network today. You ll even get your very own Nevertheless, She Persisted sticker when you do!Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.And with your help, we can be there for the women who need help defending their seats now and for the next generation of women candidates ready to move into leadership. Early help makes all the difference.Thank you for owning a piece of this.Elizabeth | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An obscure Trump campaign adviser pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about contacts with people who claimed to have ties to top Russian officials, in the first criminal charges alleging links between the campaign and Moscow, said court documents released on Monday. George Papadopoulos, who joined the Trump presidential campaign in March 2016, lied in January about communicating with those individuals to arrange a meeting between then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in the documents. The documents said an unidentified campaign official advised Papadopoulos around May 2016 that Trump himself “is not doing these trips” but that “it should be someone low-level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” While not mentioned in the documents, top Trump campaign advisers, including Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and Campaign Manager Paul Manafort met at Trump Tower in New York in June 2016 with Russians claiming to have derogatory information on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. It was not known whether that meeting resulted from Papadopoulos’ efforts. The special counsel said Papadopoulos - a Chicago-based international energy lawyer - lied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about when he learned from an unnamed foreign professor that Russia claimed to have “dirt” in the form of “thousands of emails” on Clinton. Prosecutors said Papadopoulos told agents he had been in contact with the professor before he joined Trump’s campaign. In fact, they said, Papadopoulos met with the professor after joining the campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Monday played down Papadopoulos’ campaign role, saying it was “extremely limited” and that he was a volunteer. “He asked to do things (and) he was basically pushed back or not responded to in any way,” she told a news briefing. “Any actions that he took would have been on his own.” Papadopoulos’ lawyers said in a statement it was “in the best interest of our client .... that we refrain from commenting on George’s case.” The documents were released just after indictments charging Manafort and business associate Rick Gates with multiple offenses, including money laundering, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents. None of the charges against Manafort and Gates, however, directly relate to Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a Russian bid to boost Trump’s candidacy. The prosecutors said Papadopoulos had been emailing with a “Campaign Supervisor,” “Senior Policy Adviser” and a “High-Ranking Campaign Official.” An official familiar with congressional investigations into alleged contacts between the campaign and Russia said the Senate Intelligence Committee already had copies of an extensive file of Trump campaign emails that included emails between Papadopoulos and the campaign. One email shows Manafort had been discussing Papadopoulos’ efforts to arrange a Trump visit to Russia with at least one other campaign official. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, according to a court statement by Mueller’s office. As part of a plea deal, Papadopoulos agreed to plead guilty to making a “materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement” to FBI agents. “Through his false statements and omissions, defendant Papadopoulos impeded the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” a court document said. The FBI arrested Papadopoulos on July 27 after he arrived at Dulles International Airport near Washington. In an Oct. 5 letter to the Chicago man’s lawyer, Mueller and his team noted that Papadopoulos faced up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $9,500. But they agreed “to bring to the court’s attention at sentencing the defendant’s efforts to cooperate with the government” on condition that he continued providing information on to prosecutors, the document said. Court documents said Papadopoulos lied to the FBI shortly after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, when the law enforcement agency had an open investigation into the alleged Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 campaign. In addition to lying about the timing of his contacts with the professor, prosecutors said Papadopoulos mischaracterized his contacts with that individual as “inconsequential.” “In truth and in fact, however, defendant Papadopoulos understood the professor to have substantial connections to high-level Russian government officials and that the professor spoke with some of those officials in Moscow” before telling Papadopoulos about the “dirt” on Clinton, said the prosecutors. The prosecutors said Papadopoulos also lied to the FBI in saying that a meeting the professor arranged for him in London with an unidentified Russian woman with ties to senior Russian officials occurred before the Chicago man joined the campaign. The meeting took place on or about March 24, 2016, and the Russian woman was introduced to Papadopoulos as a relative of Putin, although it turned out that she was not related to the Russian leader, according to the documents. Papadopoulos then worked with the professor and the Russian woman to set up the Putin meeting, and kept other Trump foreign policy advisers appraised of his contacts, they said. In one email, the documents said, the Russian woman told Papadopoulos that “The Russian Federation would love to welcome him (Trump) once his candidature would be officially announced.” The prosecutors said that on or about March 31 Papadopoulos attended a “national security meeting” in Washington with then-candidate Trump and other campaign foreign policy advisers. When he introduced himself to the group, the prosecutors said, “he stated, in sum and substance, that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then candidate Trump and President Putin.” In mid-April, the professor introduced Papadopoulos via an email to an individual in Moscow who the documents dubbed the Russian MFA Connection - MFA being the initials for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The pair had multiple conversations over the proceeding weeks about setting the “groundwork” for a Trump-Putin meeting. | 0 |
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According to Twitter page Jil al HorriyavalTanweer, @jil_ht, the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has claimed in his official twitter account that Turkey is pursuing a revival of Ottoman Empire by deploying military forces to Syria and Iraq, while Saudi Arabia is remaining silent against the disintegration and plundering of the Arab countries by the Erdogan regime, only because of strategic issues and its own hostility toward Bashar Assad. | 1 |
PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone attack along the Pakistani-Afghan border killed an Islamist militant commander from the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network, a Pakistani official and two members of the Haqqani group said. The Pakistani official said it was not immediately clear whether the missile struck on the Afghan or Pakistani side of the border. The members of the network and an eyewitness reached by Reuters said the incident took place inside Pakistan. There have been multiple suspected U.S. drone strikes in the mountainous border region separating Pakistan s Kurram Agency from Afghanistan since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump has taken a hardline stance on Pakistan, which he says provides safe haven to terrorists including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network carrying out attacks in Afghanistan. Tuesday s suspected drone attack targeted the vehicle of a militant commander named Jamiuddin, said the Pakistani official, who is based in the area, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that it also killed an associate of the commander. A senior member of the Haqqani network told Reuters: Maulvi Jamiuddin was our trusted man. He was part of our organization and used to facilitate our fighters during their movement inside Afghanistan. He added that Jamiuddin was traveling in his car in Pakistan s Kurram region and that none of his associates were killed in the attack. Jamiuddin stopped the car ... for conversation on his cellular phone when the drone fired two missiles and killed him on the spot, another Haqqani member said. Rehmanullah, a resident of the area who uses only one name, said he saw the strike near the Mata Sanghar area of Kurram agency, across from the Afghan province of Paktia. I saw two missiles hit the vehicle and the people inside were killed, he told Reuters by telephone. An increase in drone strikes that hit inside Pakistani territory is one of the steps U.S. officials have said could be taken if Islamabad does not end safe havens for militants. Pakistan has sought to play down several recent drone strikes inside the border, with officials saying they were on the Afghan side even though local residents said they were in Pakistan. In October, three suspected strikes in two days killed 31 people who officials said belonged to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, allied to the Taliban. Those attacks came days after a Canadian-American couple held hostage by the Taliban were freed from the area in Pakistan s northwest, striking a rare positive note in the country s often-fraught relations with the United States. | 0 |
Home / #Solutions / Robert De Niro to Produce Documentary Exposing Corruption Within the Vaccine Industry Robert De Niro to Produce Documentary Exposing Corruption Within the Vaccine Industry Jay Syrmopoulos May 24, 2016 78 Comments
Cannes, France – Hollywood superstar Robert De Niro dropped a bombshell recently when he revealed that he is working on producing a documentary about the highly controversial topic of vaccines. However, he remained tight-lipped, noting that “when he talks about it, something happens,” seemingly implying that some power from above could potentially stifle his planned project.
In an interview with pop culture/entertainment site Vulture from the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, De Niro was asked about the controversy surrounding the planned screening of the documentary film “Vaxxed: From Catastrophe to Coverup” at his Tribeca Film Festival, and subsequent decision to not screen the film.
Well, what I learned, first of all, there was a big reaction, which I didn’t see coming, and it was from filmmakers — supposedly, I have yet to find out who it was. I wanted to just know who they were, because to me there was no reason not to see the movie. The movie is not hurting anybody. It says something. It said something to me that was valid. Maybe some things were inaccurate, but if the movie was 20 percent accurate, it was worth seeing. And they were saying it’s because of the filmmaker and he was discredited, but how was he discredited? By the medical establishment? There’s a lot going on that I still don’t understand, but it makes me question the whole thing, and the whole vaccine issue is a real one. It’s big money. So it did get attention. I was happy about that. And I talked about another movie called Trace Amounts that I saw and spoke about it a lot, that people should see it, and it’s there. Something is there with vaccines, because they’re not tested in some ways the way other medicines are, and they’re just taken for granted and mandated in some states. And people do get sick from it. Not everybody, but certain people are sensitive, like anything, penicillin.
When asked whether he would try and screen “Vaxxed” again if given the opportunity, De Niro said he wouldn’t be interested in doing so, but hinted that he and the mega-producer Harvey Weinstein were planning to create a new documentary film potentially focused on the massive financial incentives underpinning the vaccine manufacturing industry, as well as dubious ties between pharmaceutical companies and governmental agencies.
Yeah, and you always say, you’re not against vaccines, you’re against what they put in vaccines that can hurt certain people who are allergic. It can kill them sometimes. And there’s such an industry. There’s big, big money in vaccines that the CDC will put…
…I’m working on something else. Harvey Weinstein and I are working on doing a documentary, but I don’t what to talk much about it, because when I talk about it, something happens. But that’s what we plan to try to do.
After “Vaxxed” was pulled from Tribeca, the Hollywood legend went on the Today show to defend his original stance of wanting to screen the documentary, noting that there was “no reason” to pull the film. The documentary was allegedly pulled due to threats from other filmmakers, which De Niro believed could negatively impact the film festival.
When Today host Willie Geist attempted to point out that there is an overwhelming amount of scientific research that has found no link between vaccines and autism, De Niro quickly responded.
“I believe it’s much more complicated than that. There is a link and they are saying there isn’t and there are…. other things there. I don’t know, I’m not a scientist but I know because I’ve seen so much reaction of just ‘let’s find out the truth.’”
De Niro went on to explain that he believes there is a potential link between autism and the ingredients in vaccines, highlighting a documentary called “ Trace Amounts .” The film star pointed out that he isn’t anti-vaccine, but simply wants safe vaccines, noting that he is the father of an autistic child.
“I, as a parent of a child who has autism, am concerned. And I want to know the truth. And I’m not anti-vaccine; I want safe vaccines,” De Niro stated.
De Niro obviously realizes the power residing within the industry, as he pointed out that even talking about this conceptual project could make “something happen.” The vaccine industry has a vested financial interest in not allowing a broad public discussion to be had about vaccines. The “something happens” De Niro nebulously refers to would most likely consist of the large financial powers at the root of big pharma leaning on any movie studio bold enough to take on De Niro’s vaccine project — similarly to what happened to “Vaxxed” at Tribeca. Jay Syrmopoulos is a geopolitical analyst, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jay’s work has been published on Ben Swann’s Truth in Media, Truth-Out, Raw Story, MintPress News, as well as many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu. Share Google + rose528
don’t believe it. you already know that your beliefs are wrong. you act just like the nazi fascist party of NO (repugs) lie and keep lying you’ll change some people minds. But IT IS STILL A LIE Neo
If you’re referring to Robert Di Nero,i think you’re delusional! If the industry has nothing to hide than there is no problem right! But there is a huge problem…..it’s all lie from the industry. You can only suppress the truth of the dangers of vaccines especially for so long before people wake up to the corruption. Vaccines kill and damage children everyday and that’s a fact! Vaccines kill more people and children than any diseases…another fact. There are no facts that vaccines work,prevent or eradicated any disease. Have a good day!
wrong tamarque
I sure hope you don’t ever have a child go regressive autistic after a vaccine, but I fear that will be the only thing to get you to look as your belief system that blindly trusts the lies of govt agencies that are bought and bolstered by drug corporations. Karyn Abbey Chase
Please elaborate. What does “”wrong”” actually mean, and where are you in Canada Karyn? gingercake5
And there are so many peanut allergies today because in the 1990s they were using peanut oil as an adjuvant. Those guys are so brilliant, aren’t they? ang
shes a paid t r o l l read above. ang
Go easy on rose528, these people are paid to post, and English is not their first language, that is why the posts are weird. Translation software isn’t always good. They work out of I n d I a. Seriously, P r o p a g a n d a that desperate? Mike Cooney
Great Article! I think it is very important that a high profile celebrity is putting his name out there next to an issue such as this.
I have a 5 month old daughter and when she was given her first round of shots I felt horrible! I felt that I had failed her because I didn’t have all of the knowledge of what they were injecting her with.
I have been very skeptical of vaccines for a long time and obviously because of stories such as this. I think it’s very sketchy that there seems to be some new illness floating around every year and the establishment wants us all to run out and get some new vaccine that has been concocted. The fact that there is big money involved in pushing these vaccines just takes away more credibility.
We are finally seeing some of the long term effects of these vaccines as well such as the 1970’s Swine Flu Vaccines where people who received those shots are having Central Nervous System problems.
DiNero is obviously invested in this because of his own child and sometimes that is what it takes for these issues to reach the light of day. When someone important is personally being affected, they want to speak out.
I love the site and the stories that The Free Thought Project has to offer and I commend you guys for really touching on the “uncomfortable” topics that the mainstream ignores. I am starting my own blog, The A.D.D. Theory and I hope to integrate the same kind of stories. I will be happy with a fraction of the success that you guys are having! Karyn Abbey Chase
What happened to your child after the first round? Nothing? Oh
My kid has all his vaccinations! Why would bring back diseases and illnesses that our countries havnt seen for decades!. Maybe pesticides are responsible for autism. Read that article. ang
Are you sure your kid is OK? They lose 10 IQ points every shot of aluminium/glyphosate or thimerosol. And vaccines never got rid of disease, they cause it. Here is the chart for whooping cough Australia, DTP either worked or didn’t, but didn’t spread whoopinig cough, at least. Look what happened when we switched to Dtap notice the rise? Dtap vaccinated catch carry and spread, over and over, no symptoms. The ones on this chart ARE ONLY THE ONES WHOSE VACCINE FAILED. AND THEY GOT SYMPTOMS. Thank GOD! Simples solution, known since 2010, stop vaccinating, and our whooping cough would go back to 400 a year, and no baby deaths. Instead they keep using this useless vaccine, that is spreading whooping cough and killing babies, Australia now has 1 in 25 children, aged 6-12 with whooping cough cough, cough cough each year (all fully vaccinated!). 5 jabs for what? Just so they can carry and spread it everywhere with no symptoms, for bloody 6 years? So what do they do to hide this abysmal failure instead of just banning the vaccine in 2010? Jab more, jab babies before birth, in utero, with a vaccine that KILLS THEM IF GIVEN AT BIRTH> Seriously what did CDC expect would happen? 400 times the baby deaths inside the mother? And if the babies survive, 1 in 50 have sever brain damage called microcephaly? How evil can CDC be? How fucking corrupt can they be? Protecting a useless vaccine, and its pharma and trying to cover it, by killing and maiming MORE BABIES? ang
USA is currently at the second peak, 2003 , UK is currently at the 2008, ready to launch off! All caused by Dtap, an acellular vaccine, that is abysmally useless, and during an outbreak, which is now CONSTANT IN AUSTRALIA< ALL THE DTAP KIDS, catch carry and spread pertussis. so the ones meant to be protected, the newborn babies, are now ALL INFECTED FROM SYMPTOMLESS DTAP VACCINATED SIBLINGS. Oh the chart is for pertussis in Australia/ Western Australia, Australia, lucky US! got Dtap first in the world 1996. UK 2004, USA 2008. The graphs are identical, adjusted for time since introduction of Dtap. In 2012, we had double the number for 2011. Now we don't even bother to report whooping cough, Out of my grandchildrens two classes, 60 kids with whooping cough 4 reported it, and bothered to get tested. Yes that long lasting cough your kids have, if it lasts 6-8 weeks, yes its whooping cough. Not serious at all, the kids here still go to school., they are allowed to THEY ARE VACCINATED! ROFL XX Besides the ones coughing, are the ones we know to keep away from newborn babies, it is the Dtap vaccinated, that are not coughing that are the menace! Karyn Draper
And yes I’m sure! He’s amazing and in perfect health. You’ll just have to admit you don’t know everything and take my word on it. ang
So are you Karyn Abbey Chase, or Karyn Draper, you trolling skills are appalling, at least try and remember which alias you are damn using! Hilarious stuff! Karyn Draper
I’m not trolling. Suck it up I have 2 id’s and this site decided it wouldn’t log me in through fb with the one I originally used. I tried several times but it kept catching this one so I said fuck it I’ll post using this one then. ang
OK then I apologise. Disqus is notorious for blocking people, so why did they block your first alias? Karyn Draper
Couldn’t tell you. This is the first article of theirs I’ve ever commented on. And the last. Worse than fb for sure. ang
I agree Disquis is terrible. Anyway if you are in Canada, do you know when they switched completely to DTap, the old one, that worked was called DTP. So the important bit is the aP a meaning acellular, instead of whole vaccine. It is more of a GMO type vaccine, I was chatting on line to someone just like you in UK, and he sent me the raw stats, ie number of whooping cough reports per year, for last 20 years. I told him, that they introduced Dtap in 2004, and was spot on. The correlation is that clear. Do you have the stats, yearly for whooping cough in Canada? Our vaccination rate is 93% in Australia, do you know the rates in Canada. Oh, had an aunty in Canada, Ontario, right near Niagra falls. ang
Hello Karyn, is you alter ego, another Karyn, weird you have two different surnames, did you just get married in the last 5 minutes or something weird? Karyn Draper
You really wanna change the subject? That all your facts are wrong. K goodnight psychopath ang
Posting in a few threads, nice to meet you Karen, you did explain the other thread why you have multiple aliases, I accept that. Did you know there is no polio in India, but Bill Gates has just crippled 40,000 by using a live vaccine, that is proven to spread polio. Why did he do this? ang
Yes the latest is called z ika Brazil All pregnant women got T dap mandated 2014, vaccines were ready and begun My 2015. Women even 20 weeks pregnant in outlying areas got the jab. Look what happened 20 weeks later. Out of 5,000 sick babies, 5.000 got the jab while still in utero. Out of those 5,000 sick micro babies, 4 (FOUR) had zika, weird how CDC think people will believe it was a mossie? As for USA, they have more sick vaccine damaged babies than Brazil, they used to have 400 a year, after pregnancy jabs, they now have 25,000 a year since 2013. There is no zika in USA, so what are they trying to blame now, pesticides? Or are they going to say, oh, must have had that mossie in USA, also, but we just didn’t know? Centres for Disease Corrution…………. the latest paper they put out claiming OH ITS ZIKA, could have been written by a two year old. The real scientists in this world, cringe, at their BLANTANT FRAUD. ang
Seems the troll cant remember what alias he/she is using, weird that? I write to a Karyn Abbey Chase, yet she forgets which alias, and replies as Karen Draper? Oh well they only have to have High School certificate, work out of India and get paid Rs7000 a month, yeah $20 a week! Karyn Draper
Your an idiot… ang
Add some information there, please, any reason why you believe MMR vaccine is safe? Any reason why you believe pollution, and contaminated with pesticides etc, food is the only reason for autism? I agree it could be one, but surely injecting a baby with aluminium, glyphosate, and all the other things, besides three different diseases, all in one shot, possible could be dangerous? None of my kids got the MMR, different vaccines then, they are all fine, all my grandkids got the MMR< now I have 4 out of 9 autistic grandchildren. Good on Robert De Niro for asking the right questions. Yojimbo
okay there is a fucking article on the man RIGHT up top, how are you spelling his name wrong you fucking tards? lemonfoundation
Learn more about WMDs: chem/bio-warfare, depleted uranium (DU), vaccine contamination, and multi-trillion $$$ Holocaustal government cover-up it is, join us on FB –> https://www.facebook.com/groups/230128710353922/
Everyone is welcome. We are veterans, military family, civilians, concerned citizens, and researchers. If its happening in the general public, I can assure you that it was tested on the military, first. Please feel free to add your friends to the group too.
KNOWLEDGE=POWER. UNITY=STRENGTH! WE THE PEOPLE MUST UNITE! ang
Hi lemonfoundation, is difficult for me to post on facebook, they keep blocking me, but thanks for accepting me into the group. [email protected] email seems to be working fine still. ang
People are not allowed to be pro fact, because that costs the corrupt, lots and lots of money. Here is the graph for whooping cough Australia, first to get Dt aP ie part vaccine in 1996. Look what happened, 93% vaccination rate. Yeah, those vaccinated are the ones catching and spreading it now, over and over. So bad now, that these Dtap vaccinated people are just reinfecting the whole herd, so full of whooping cough, but they don’t get symptoms themselves until around 3 years after last vaccine. 5 jabs 5 years ….. So by 6-12 all the vaccinated kids are finally getting the symptoms themselves, coughing for 8 weeks, just annoying, not deadly, and then they are 100% protected with REAL IMMUNITY FOR LIFE. The problem is now, the herd is so damn constantly infected, the vaccinated symptomless siblings are the ones infecting the newborn babies, usually their newborn brother or sister. There is no unvaccinated lurking coughing person hiding in maternity ward corridors at all! That is pure fiction, siblings, no symptoms because of their vaccine, are spreading it to their little babies. CDC know this, Australia has known this since 2010. All they had to do was stop vaccinating, in about 3-5 years, ie yes by now, no more symptomless carriers, infecting babies. INSTEAD CDC DECIDED TO VACCINATE BABIES BEFORE BIRTH, WITH A VACCINE THAT KILLS THEM IF GIVEN AT BIRTH? That is why babies are so vulnerable, cant be vaccinated as it kills them…………. So what a logical person would assume would happen HAS HAPPENED. Babies after the jab die in utero, at 400 times the normal unlucky event. If they survive, they have a 1 in 50 chance of brain damage, called microcephaly. The mandated Tdap in Brazil in all pregnant women in 2014, the vaccine was produced locally under licence from GSK and they began jabbing pregnant women from 20 weeks gestation in May 2015, 20 weeks later look what happened? 5,000 of 5,000 deformed babies, had Tdap given in utero, and 4 (four) had zika. Now it is believed they got the zika, as they were already brain damaged in utero. Yet for some reason Centres for Disease and Corruption, seem unable to see this direct, and totally obvious 100% correlation, and have spent millions trying to prove a mossie done it. The only problem with the CDC theory, is that Dtap of pregnant women began in 2013 in USA< and USAs microcephalic births, went from 400 a year, to 25,000 YES TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND A YEAR. But apparently CDC missed this? ang
See comments below, tried once, said not allowed to comment, tried again a different way, seems to have worked, hope so! Doran Zeigler
It’s good that DeNiro is taking this stance. But, he still could have used his influence in keeping “Vaxxed” in the TriBeca Film Festival. He caved in to industry pressure and took a lot of heat for it. So, it is good that he has clarified his position on vaccines.
But, I would like to tell him, that if the manufacturers could remove the “harmful” ingredients to make what he calls a “safe” vaccine, doesn’t he think they would have done it and end the controversy? The fact is that preservatives, which are harmful to humans, are needed in the vaccines so they do not spoil.
What would be a better topic to discuss is the entire premise of the vaccine theory which met a lot of opposition when it was first stated by Pasteur, and still is questioned to this very day. Tom Bowshall
Are you sure about this? Only today’s West Australian 25/05/2016 authoritatively states that all vaccines are safe, and babies immune systems can cope with thousands of vaccinations and Gardasil is one of the safest vaccines ever produced. Mind you they also said GMO’s were safe and quoted two scientific studies funded by Monsanto to back up their statement. They also said TPP’s are good for our economy and we will all benefit, that was all no quotes or sources to back that up. Wonder if the West Australian newspaper is trying to do a head job on us? ang
Well they been trying hard to get me from posting, Disqus more corrupt than even facebook, god help us! Karyn Draper
Maybe cuz you talk to much. Your kinda spamming this comment section. I especially like the zero deaths from measles. Did you read the wiki pediatric site. I especially love how there were appx 2.6 million in 1980. And vaccines have decreased this by 85% so now only a outlet hundred thousand people die from it. ang
Hello Karyn, nice to meet you. Am I not allowed to have an opinion, even though I am a pathologist, specialising in microbiology, and haematology, also a chemical analyst, and yeah I know my stuff. I don’t read wiki rubbish, that is all been damn trolled out by pharma, so much it is now just pure rubbish. Why should I talk about measles in the world? I live in Australia, we have decent sewerage systems, decent water, food, and hygienic living conditions. Where do you live that you have had measles deaths? Mumbai? Karyn Draper
I live in canada. And you are mistaken again. Someone in California died in 2015 from measles and it was the first death since 2003 ang
Ok one measles death in 12 years. That death, was a lady in hospital, who was fully vaccinated, and she had measles, with no spots, she infected others in the hospital, they were not aware she actually had measles until the autopsy. She had measles, and they didn’t even know until she died and did an autopsy? Fully vaccinated. 0101
we’re lucky you live in Straya keep the harness tight don’t let go ang
Hello staff member 0101 what you posted makes no sense, get a supervisor to check your English. Translation software just doesn’t make sense all the time. 0101
the US I guess, because of people like you Dee Pol
Hi Angela Coral Eisenhauer – you have now been reported to AHPRA for falsely claiming you are a pathologist…
Go ahead and remove your comments – not to matter – screenshots have been taken and sent… 😀
Have a great day!!!! | 1 |
21st Century Wire says While you were watching the presidential reality show, the Pentagon was busy putting boots back on the ground in Iraq and threatening to invade Syria.Watch a video of this report here: CNN reports that the unit has been setting up safe houses, establishing informant networks and coordinating operations with Iraqi and Peshmerga units in the past few weeks.Defence Secretary Ash Carter said: The only thing I ll say is the Expeditionary Targeting Force (Delta) is in position, it is having an effect and operating, and I expect it to be a very effective part of our acceleration campaign, Carter explained that the deployment of special forces was to make ISIS fear that anywhere, anytime, it may be struck. Delta Force is 200-men strong in Iraq, and will be carrying out raids on targets, recovering hostages, eliminating terrorist commanders and gathering intelligence from enemy locations.Carter also said: This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations in Syria. What Carter is really saying is that Delta Force may be used illegally in Syria, as they have no mandate from the sovereign Syrian government, or the UN for that matter, to conduct any operations at all on Syrian territory.Some might even say this is an American threat to invade Syria.Russian actions, on the other hand, are absolutely legal under international law, as they are fully sanctioned by the Syrian government.Earlier this week we learned that the Russian special forces unit Spetznaz was infiltrating ISIS with undercover operatives, which enabled airstrikes to hit within just three meters of their targets.Do you think Delta Force will have a real effect on the fight against ISIS?GET THE FULL STORY ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1 |
Donald Trump s number one fan still believes in him but her support is beginning to waver.Ann Coulter really thought Trump was the right candidate to take over the presidency. After all, he said mean things about Muslims and Mexicans and threatened to blow up the entire government. But despite the fact that Trump has already caused significant damage and issued executive orders targeting Muslims and Latinos, Coulter is apparently moving closer toward saying that Trump s opponents were right. I m not very happy with what has happened so far, Coulter told the Daily Caller. I guess we have to try to push him to keep his promises. But this isn t North Korea, and if he doesn t keep his promises I m out. This is why we voted for him. I think everyone who voted for him knew his personality was grotesque, it was the issues. Indeed, even what Trump said about grabbing women by their genitals without their consent was not enough to turn Coulter against him. All the sexual assault allegations, the business fraud, and the complete lack of knowledge about how government and the world works did not sway Coulter at all. She voted for Trump and sang his praises by writing books in support of him.Even the evidence that Trump is not even close to being the deal maker he bragged to be was not enough. Yet, Coulter is now whining about how terrible Trump is at negotiating as if she wasn t previously warned. Where is the great negotiation? she asked. Where is the bull in the china shop we wanted? That budget the Republicans pushed through was like a practical joke Did we win anything? And this is the great negotiator? Coulter then conceded that things don t look good and compared Trump s presidency to a road trip gone wrong.It s not like I m out yet, but boy, things don t look good. I ve said to other people, It s as if we re in Chicago and Trump tells us he s going to get us to LA in six days. But for the first three days we are driving towards New York. Yes, it is true he can still turn around and get us to LA in three days, but I m a little nervous.Coulter even admits that at least one thing Trump has done is fascist.I have from the beginning been opposed to Trump hiring any of his relatives. Americans don t like that, I don t like that. That s the one fascist thing he s done. Hiring his kids.Yeah, never mind the deportation force that is literally rounding up Latinos like the Nazis did to the Jews. Never mind the fact Trump has signed executive orders targeting people just because of their religious beliefs. Never mind the fact that Trump is aligned with the interests of corporations. Never mind that he treats women like shit. Never mind that he has repeatedly attacked the free press and uses Fox News as his personal propaganda machine. Coulter thinks Trump has just done one fascist thing by giving his daughter an office in the White House. Somebody needs to give Coulter a refresher course on what fascism is.Trump s poll numbers continue to drop and his policies are set to destroy millions of lives and put the world on course for World War III but Coulter still isn t ready to turn against him just yet despite using words like nightmare and disaster to describe Trump s tenure thus far.I ll say we had no choice, but the Trump-haters were right It s a nightmare. I can t even contemplate that. Right now I m still rooting for him to turn around and take us toward LA It s just that it has been such a disaster so far.But Coulter did have a choice. The Republican field of candidates in 2016 was bigger than it ever has been. She literally had over a dozen choices. But she chose a whining loudmouth ignoramus over candidates like Jeb Bush or John Kasich, who would have been far better and saner than Trump. She just wants to watch the world burn and she is disappointed that Trump hasn t destroyed it fast enough.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
DUBAI (Reuters) - A day before they killed Yemen s former president, gunmen from the Iran-aligned Houthi militia group overran one of Ali Abdullah Saleh s fortified compounds in Sanaa. Ransacking the villa, they snapped photos of liquor flasks and vodka bottles and posted them online. This is how the traitor (Saleh) and his family lived during a time of war, siege and cholera, Hamid Rizq, a senior Houthi official, said on his official Twitter account. The Houthi gunmen acted fast and mercilessly to punish the 75-year-old Saleh for having appeared to switch sides in Yemen s three-year civil war - a proxy battle for influence between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia. Allied with the Houthis for three years, Saleh had called on Saturday for a new page in relations with Saudi Arabia. The murder is a setback for Riyadh, which had hoped the backing of Saleh and his loyalist army units in northern Yemen - would help close a war that has killed 10,000 people and caused one of the world s most acute humanitarian crises. Saudi Arabia fears the Houthis will become as powerful a force in the Middle East as Lebanon s Iran-backed Hezbollah. The Houthis are holding their ground despite air strikes by Saudi Arabia and its allied forces and a naval blockade that has prevented food, medicine and fuel from arriving in Houthi-controlled northern areas, bringing the region to the brink of famine. Last month, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile into Riyadh. Now, the Saudis are turning their hopes to Saleh s son Ahmed Ali and his good ties with Saudi ally United Arab Emirates to do the job his father couldn t. Photos of Ahmed Ali, a military leader admired by thousands of soldiers in Houthi-run lands, appeared on the front page of UAE newspapers on Wednesday meeting the UAE s de-facto leader Mohammed bin Zayed. Saleh s death caps a 40-year political career that charts Yemen s tragic modern history. A country with few natural resources, awash in weapons and fractured along tribal and religious lines, Yemen has long been buffeted by its powerful neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia. Saleh was the first leader of a unified Yemen in 1990. But he shifted loyalties various times - fighting the Houthis in the 2000s, for example - as the plates of influence shifted in the Middle East. In this latest geopolitical drama, the UAE is emerging as playmaker in the Yemen crisis. The UAE has been financing and training armed groups that have been pushing toward the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a Houthi stronghold and entry point for supplies getting to millions of civilians in northern Yemen. The Saleh family has long enjoyed good relations with the wealthy Gulf state, which had over the decades funded infrastructure projects in Yemen before becoming a key member of the Saudi-led coalition. Hamza al-Houthi, a top Houthi leader, said the Houthis had suspected the Saleh family s allegiance to the Saudi-held coalition for some time and that tensions had been brewing since August. Al-Houthi said his troops had intercepted UAE arms shipments bound for Saleh s family late last month. As punishment, the Houthis killed his nephew Tareq on Monday. Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group said the latest events mean the war in Yemen is likely to escalate. The Houthis, while an important military force, are not particularly adept at politics or governance. Their reach...in the population is limited, and over time that will play into their opponents hands. But that won t happen anytime soon, so it looks like the conflict will worsen. Saleh s relationship with Saudi Arabia and its allies has been marked by politics and prayer. Over the past few decades, Riyadh has tried, in succession, to quash an anti-royalist revolution, Marxism and al Qaeda militancy in Yemen. Riyadh backed Saleh, an Arab nationalist strongman, between 1978 and 2012 to help him quash those ideologies before they could seep next door to Saudi Arabia. But as Arab Spring protests rocked Yemen swept through the Middle East, Riyadh realized Saleh was no longer strong enough for the job and backed a transition to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. When the Houthis attacked Sanaa in 2014 and swept Hadi into Saudi exile, Riyadh began the bombing campaign that continues today. At that time, Saleh took one of the riskiest gambles of his turbulent career, allying himself to the Houthis, heirs to a theocratic sect that ruled Yemen for a thousand years. Saleh s Yemeni military which had jets, tank brigades and long-range missiles had fought the Houthis in six wars over ten years at the time Saleh had allied himself with Saudi and Western powers. With Saleh s experience administering the country and cultivating a strong military, the Houthis made major military gains around the country and together their forces withstood thousands of Saudi-led air strikes. But the Houthi-Saleh entente cracked in August when a Houthi leader passed over a trusted Saleh confidante for a key military position, according to people in the General People s Congress Party, the grouping of technocrats and tribal grandees that did Saleh s bidding throughout his rule. Saleh loyalists itched for revenge, they said. Fearing disloyalty, the Houthis restricted Saleh to his fief in Sanaa s political district. Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen of the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the Houthis then waged their war largely without him. Saleh was largely a spent force by the time he died in a weekend s fighting, wrote Feierstein in a policy brief. On November 29, tensions exploded. Rumors swirled in the city of Sanaa that the Houthis were planning to paint the domes of a giant mosque and palace that Saleh had built and named after himself in their trademark green. When Houthi militia neared the palace, Saleh s guards fired. The Houthis, experts in mountain guerrilla warfare, overran the palace with grenades and seized it. The Houthis wanted Saleh to hand over his weapons and disarm his fighters, a senior Saleh party official told Reuters. He refused. Another party official said that, contrary to reports that Saleh was in his car trying to flee when he was killed on Dec. 4, the former president had been executed with a gunshot to the head after making a last stand at his house. Now, the Saleh associate says he and his colleagues are afraid the Houthis will turn against all of them. The Houthis want to kill us all. For a graphic on Yemen's stalemated war, click tmsnrt.rs/2zqGyq9 | 0 |
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump on Sunday of scapegoating the parents of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, after the Republican nominee took issue with remarks the soldier’s father made at the Democratic National Convention. Trump, in an ABC interview that aired on Sunday, questioned why Ghazala Khan, mother of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, stood quietly by her husband, Khizr Khan, as he took the stage at last week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Trump suggested the mother might not have been “allowed” to speak. Speaking at a church service, Clinton said Trump had been insulting to a family who had sacrificed so much. She also used the episode to contrast her own religious faith with that of Trump, who has spoken of religion on the campaign trail infrequently. “I don’t begrudge anyone of any other faith or of no faith at all, but I do tremble before those who would scapegoat other Americans, who would insult people because of their religion, their ethnicity, their disability,” Clinton said in remarks at the Imani Temple Ministries, an African-American church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. “It’s just not how I was raised, that’s not how I was taught in my church,” said Clinton, who grew up as a Methodist. “Tim Kaine and I are people of faith,” she said, referring to her vice presidential running mate, who is a Catholic. Top Republican lawmakers House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also condemned Trump’s remarks in separate statements, although they did not mention their presidential candidate by name. “Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example,” Ryan said. “His sacrifice - and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan - should always be honored. Period.” he said. Earlier on Sunday, Ghazala Khan took up her own defense in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, saying her husband had asked her in advance whether she would want to speak at the convention but that she had decided she would be unable to do so on stage because of her pain over the 2004 death of her son. “Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true,” she wrote. “When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant.” In a statement issued on Sunday evening by the Trump campaign, Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said that he and the Republican nominee “believe that Captain Humayun Khan is an American hero” that his family, like other families of fallen soldiers, “should be cherished by every American.” But Pence added that Captain Khan had died defending the country against terrorism and that Trump’s policies would reduce the likelihood that other families would face the kind of heartbreak the Khans had. Khizr Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin and a Muslim, spoke about his war hero son at the Democratic convention and took issue with Trump’s call for a temporary ban on the entry of Muslims into the United States. Khizr Khan invited the Republican nominee to read the U.S. Constitution and visit the graves of American soldiers from many backgrounds at Arlington National Cemetery. In the interview aired on Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump cast doubt on why Khan’s wife did not speak. “She was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said. Trump on Sunday tweeted that Khan’s son had died 12 years ago: “Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our “leaders” to eradicate it!” Trump also tweeted that he had been “viciously attacked” by Khan at the convention. “Am I not allowed to respond?” he asked. The candidate also tried to change the subject to the war itself: “Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!” On Twitter, Republican strategist Ana Navarro called Trump’s comments about the Khans “gross” and labeled him a “jerk.” Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, said he sympathizes with the Khan family but that their loss is not the issue at hand. “The issue really is radical Islamic jihad and the risk to the American homeland,” he said on CBS, defending Trump’s proposal to suspend immigration from some geographic regions. | 0 |
One of the most tedious moments of any presidential campaign is when everyone in the country decides they are better campaign strategists than the professionals. It’s like watching the World Series at a bar full of drunken fans in the losing team’s hometown. They all know more than the experts, or so they think, because they’ve watched a lot of baseball. This time it’s more tiresome than usual because it’s pretty much tied going into the ninth inning, and both team’s supporters are yelling their advice at the TV screen.
In recent days we’ve seen most prescriptions directed at the Hillary Clinton campaign, as the always nervous Democrats are waking up the startling reality that the flamboyant, white nationalist demagogue on the other side might just pull this off. And they have as many different ideas as there were GOP all-stars Donald Trump smoked in the primaries. These range from “She needs to take the fight to Trump and call him out” to “She should attack the Republican officials who endorse him” to “She should stop attacking him and lay out a positive policy agenda so people have a reason to vote for her” — which, to be fair, sounds like a good idea.
But the question is, if someone lays out a positive policy agenda and nobody hears it, did it really happen? Let’s take Wednesday as an example, when Clinton gave a big speech about something that is important to millions of Americans. She went to Orlando, a major city in a crucial swing state, and spoke about disability rights, expressing her plans in terms of American values of equality and inclusiveness. This is the fourth in a series of “Stronger Together” speeches the Democratic nominee has given recently about faith, community service, families and children, designed to display her values and vision for the future and show how her policies will achieve them.
Clinton also published an Op-Ed in the New York Times on Wednesday called “My Plan for Helping America’s Poor,” in which she discussed a comprehensive policy including one modeled on Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan, “directing 10 percent of federal investments to communities where 20 percent of the population has been living below the poverty line for 30 years,” putting “special emphasis on minority communities that have been held back for too long by barriers of systemic racism.”
Did you know about any of that? Has the press asked her questions about those issues in the now-frequent press avails she’s given over the last few weeks? Did you see any of those speeches in their entirety? Probably not. And that’s not the campaign’s fault. I get inundated with notices and press releases from the Clinton campaign, its surrogates and outside groups promoting her public speeches and other appearances. There’s no coverage of this “good news” stuff. Unless she’s thumping Trump the media is basically not interested.
Harvard’s Shorenstein Center has been tracking media coverage throughout this campaign and yesterday released a fascinating study of the four weeks around the political conventions in the middle of the summer. The study’s author, Prof. Thomas E. Patterson, wrote about it for the Los Angeles Times, and its conclusions are depressing. Clinton’s so-called email scandal was the single most important story of that period, and the coverage of it was overwhelmingly negative and without context. In fact all the coverage of Clinton was overwhelmingly negative:
How about her foreign, defense, social or economic policies? Don’t bother looking. Not a single one of Clinton’s policy proposals accounted for even 1 percent of her convention-period coverage; collectively, her policy stands accounted for a mere 4 percent of it. But she might be thankful for that: News reports about her stances were 71 percent negative to 29 percent positive in tone. Trump was quoted more often about her policies than she was. Trump’s claim that Clinton “created ISIS,” for example, got more news attention than her announcement of how she would handle Islamic State. Even with the email story that dominated Clinton coverage, of course, journalists largely failed to provide the context that would allow voters to put the issue into proper perspective. The Shorenstein study was backed up by an ongoing Gallup survey that asks people to give them the first word that comes to their minds when they hear a candidate’s name. Since July 11, the words most commonly cited for Clinton are “email,” “lie,” “health,” “speech,” “scandal” and “foundation.” Trump, by contrast, brought to mind the words “speech,” “president,” “immigration,” “Mexico,” “convention,” “campaign” and “Obama.” As you can see, the Clinton words are loaded with negative judgment. Trump’s, not so much. Clinton has given prepared remarks on 22 occasions since the end of the Democratic convention. Some of these were standard stump speeches, while others were major policy addresses. She has dozens of positive ads running in media markets all over the country. But the only Clinton speech that garnered the full and interested attention of the press corps was her “alt-right” speech in Reno, Nevada, in late August. Almost all her speeches are covered the way the New York Times covered the disability speech on Wednesday: Clinton’s remarks are framed as a political ploy designed to evoke Trump’s ugly comments about a disabled reporter (which she did not discuss in the speech at all.) At the very end of the article, the reporter mentions that “some of [Clinton’s] most affecting moments on the campaign trail” come when she speaks with disabled people and their families, and that she often spontaneously brings up the subject in informal settings. There’s no reason to think she isn’t sincere about the issue, even if the campaign is subtly trying to highlight Trump’s cretinous attitudes by contrast. It’s an old truism that negative campaigning works, so it’s no surprise that Clinton’s campaign would try to leverage Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric against him. But there is plenty of positive material out there as well. It’s just the press isn’t interested, and there isn’t a lot of evidence that the voters are either. This doesn’t seem to be that kind of election. The armchair strategists who think a more positive, uplifting message is what Hillary Clinton needs to put this election away may be right. But the question is whether anyone could hear such a message above the din of cynicism and negativity that characterizes the coverage of this campaign. | 1 |
By CHARLIE BAYLISS
The migrant, known only as Ghazia A, fled Syria last year along with his family.
He has since resettled in Germany with his four wives and 22 of his children. One of his daughters has since moved to Saudi Arabia where she has married.
The family could be receiving more than £320,000 a year in benefits according to a financial manager on the Employers’ Association website.
There is no official confirmation on this figure.
Under Islamic tradition, the 49-year-old can have up to four wives – as long as he can support them financially.
Germany does not legally recognise polygamy, meaning that Ghazia A was forced to choose a “main wife” so the rest of the family could claim benefits. The other three wives are categorised as “friends” of the Syrian migrant.
But a local official in the town of Montabaur described the situation as an “exemption”.
Ghazia A now lives with his “main” wife Twasif and their five children in Montabaur, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate – while the other three wives and children have been moved into neighbouring communities up to 31 miles away.
The man used to work in a garage and car hire service in his homeland but has not worked since resettling in Germany.
He expressed an interest in working again but noted his commitments to his family made this difficult.
He told German | 1 |
GCHQ director Robert Hannigan is stepping down after only two years as chief of the cyber spy agency for personal reasons, the intelligence service has announced. Recall also that Judge Napolitano said three sources told him the British spy agency had something to do with the witch hunt on Trump: JUDGE NAPOLITANO was on FOX & Friends discussing the Obama administration s efforts to spy on Donald Trump. Three intel sources have disclosed to the network that Obama went to British intelligence to get the goods on Trump, but we may never be able to prove it JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Three intelligence sources have informed FOX News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn t use the NSA, he didn t use the CIA, he didn t use the FBI and he didn t use the Department of Justice He used *GCHQ. *GCHQ is a British intel agency.@Judgenap: Three intel sources have disclosed that Pres. Obama turned to British spies to get surveillance on Trump pic.twitter.com/IghCFm7qhO FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 14, 2017 Grassley began his investigation after the Washington Post reported on February 28 that the FBI, a few weeks before the election, agreed to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate Trump.Prior to that, supporters of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign had paid Steele to gather intelligence on Clinton s Republican rival. In the end, the FBI did not pay Steele, the Post reported, after the dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials. It is not clear whether Steele worked under agreement with the FBI for any period of time before the payment deal fell through. The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for president in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends, Grassley wrote in a letter to Comey dated March 28.MCCABE HAS BEEN ON THE HOT SEAT BEFORE:BREAKING: CROOKED VA GOVERNOR, Close Hillary Friend Gave Wife Of FBI Official Overseeing Hillary Email Investigation $467,500The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton s email use.Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI.The Virginia Democratic Party, over which Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to Dr. McCabe s campaign in the form of mailers, according to the records. That adds up to slightly more than $675,000 to her candidacy from entities either directly under Mr. McAuliffe s control or strongly influenced by him. The figure represents more than a third of all the campaign funds Dr. McCabe raised in the effort.Mr. McAuliffe and other state party leaders recruited Dr. McCabe to run, according to party officials. She lost the election to incumbent Republican Dick Black.A spokesman for the governor said he supported Jill McCabe because he believed she would be a good state senator. This is a customary practice for Virginia governors Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous. Among political candidates that year, Dr. McCabe was the third-largest recipient of funds from Common Good VA, the governor s PAC, according to campaign finance records. Dan Gecker received $781,500 from the PAC and $214,456 from the state party for a campaign that raised $2.9 million, according to records; and Jeremy McPike received $803,500 from the PAC and $535,162 from the state party, raising more $3.8 million that year for his candidacy.The governor could recall only one meeting with Mr. McCabe when he and other state Democrats met with the couple on March 7, 2015, to urge Dr. McCabe to run, according to the spokesman. Via: Washington Examiner | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday added a second case to its docket on a contentious issue that could have major consequences for American elections, agreeing to decide whether Democratic lawmakers in Maryland unlawfully drew a congressional district in a way that would prevent a Republican candidate from winning. The court’s agreement to take up an appeal by Republican voters in Maryland regarding the U.S. House of Representatives district came two months after the justices heard arguments in a high-profile challenge by Democratic voters to Republican-drawn state legislative districts in Wisconsin. Both cases target a practice known as partisan gerrymandering that aims to entrench one party in power and that critics have called a distortion of the democratic process. The justices have not yet issued a ruling in the Wisconsin case. Each case presents a different legal theory as to why limits should be placed on partisan gerrymandering, and the court’s decision to take up a second case on the issue hints that at least some of the nine justices are seriously considering cracking down on it. Gerrymandering, a practice dating back two centuries in American politics, involves manipulating boundaries of legislative districts to benefit one party and diminish another. Legislative districts around the United States are redrawn every decade after the national census to reflect population changes. The “redistricting” in most states is done by the party in power though some states assign the task to independent commissions. The Supreme Court for decades has been willing to invalidate state electoral maps on the grounds of racial discrimination but never those drawn simply for partisan advantage. In the Maryland case, the Republican voters targeting the Democratic-drawn electoral map appealed a 2-1 ruling in August by a panel of three federal judges sitting in Baltimore rejecting their challenge. Maryland’s sixth congressional district, the focus of the case, was previously held by a Republican and now is held by Democrat John Delaney. When the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Wisconsin case on Oct. 3, the justices appeared closely divided, with conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy likely to cast the deciding vote. The Republican challengers in Maryland take aim at a single electoral district, not the whole state as in the Wisconsin case. They argue that the district should be struck down because it was drawn by Democrats as a form of retaliation on the basis of past party affiliation based on the Constitution’s guaranteed rights of free association and free speech. The challengers in the Wisconsin case argued that the Republican electoral map violated Democratic voters’ rights to equal protection under the law as well as free speech and association. In the Wisconsin case, the legal argument advanced by the Democratic challengers was that an electoral map would be unlawful if the intent was to discriminate against minority party voters, the map had a sizable effect in accomplishing that goal and that there was no other justification for the map. The theory was based in part on measuring the number of “wasted” votes in each district cast for a losing candidate and comparing each party’s total wasted votes on a statewide basis. The results, plaintiffs said, show whether one party’s votes are more likely to be wasted than the other party’s, which would show evidence of unconstitutional extreme partisan gerrymandering. | 0 |
KIEV (Reuters) - Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday a U.S. decision to suspend visa services in Turkey was upsetting, adding that Turkish foreign ministry officials had contacted their U.S. counterparts over the issue. “Above all, the decision is very upsetting. For the embassy in Ankara to take such a decision and implement, it is upsetting,” Erdogan told a news conference during a visit to Ukraine. | 0 |
WIKILEAKS : Hillary Receiving Donations from Radical Muslims in Turkey WIKILEAKS : Hillary Receiving Donations from Radical Muslims in Turkey Breaking News By Amy Moreno October 29, 2016
We have learned through Wikileaks released emails that Hillary and her team are actively disenfranchising American voters by accepting foreign donations.
We also know that Hillary LOVES Middle Eastern countries who ABUSE WOMEN and TOSS GAY PEOPLE off buildings.
She and her husband take MILLIONS from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Now, we can add Turkey to that list.
Hillary is a disgusting, greedy little pig.
Do you really think THIS WOMAN would fight Islamic terror?
They FUND her. | 1 |
Could this be the biggest FAKE NEWS story of 2016?An anonymous intelligence officer told NBC no direct link was found between PEOTUS Donald Trump and Russia.Nothing.The Screaming headlines were all Fake News.Senior news editor and writer, NBC Nightly News Brad Jaffey tweeted this video interview of Cynthia McFadden saying that Trump was NOT briefed on the addendum to the dossier originally generated as part of anti-Trump Republican opposition research.:https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/819215244601991169https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/819208142164754432NBC reported:A senior U.S. intelligence official with knowledge of the preparation for the meeting with Trump told NBC News that the president-elect was not briefed on the so-called two-page addendum to the dossier originally generated as part of anti-Trump Republican opposition research.Multiple officials say that the summary was included in the material prepared for the briefers, but the senior official told NBC News that the briefing was oral and no actual documents were handed to the Trump team.Intel and law enforcement officials agree that none of the investigations have found any conclusive or direct link between Trump and the Russian government period, the senior official said.We all got punched And the intelligence community was behind this assault on Trump. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper describes Russia s multi-faceted hacking campaign during the 2016 election:Gateway Pundit | 1 |
Representative Adam Schiff is clearly fed up with Donald Trump s lies. This is especially true of Trump s latest lie, which is the insane accusations he made on Saturday morning about President Obama wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 election. Of course, this is the most outrageous statement ever made by a sitting president, but it s Donald Trump, so of course he did it. Well, there are hearings coming up regarding ties between the Trump campaign and Russian hacking, so Rep. Schiff is looking forward to getting to the bottom of all of this.Appearing on Tuesday night s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said that he intends to ask FBI Director James Comey directly about Trump s wild Twitter accusations against the former President. Schiff said of the upcoming March 20 hearings: The president has asked our committee to investigate this and I would say, Mr. President, we accept. We will investigate this. We should be able to determine in fairly short order whether this allegation is true or false. Rep. Schiff went on to say that if (as we all know they will) the allegations turn out to be false, it s just as huge of a scandal, if not more so, as it would be if they were true, since it would be the scandal of a sitting U.S. president alleging that his predecessor engaged in the most unscrupulous and unlawful conduct. Adam Schiff is right. Further, if and when it comes out that Trump flat-out lied, that really should be an impeachable offense. And if that isn t enough, the House Intelligence Committee has an all-star line-up of people who will be testifying, including National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers, former CIA director John Brennan, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, among others.Pop your popcorn, folks. The testimony is sure to be damning.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1 |
Be safe and enjoy the 4th! Homeland Security and our wonderful police officers all around the U.S. are looking out for us.The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have issued an alert asking local authorities and the public to remain vigilant for possible threats following recent calls for violence by Islamic State leaders. DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT 4TH OF JULY TERROR THREATS: In New York City, the nation s biggest police force assigned about 7,000 officers and nearly all its counterterrorism personnel to handle security around Independence Day events. We re constantly seeking to be creative, to be proactive and not just be preparing to respond if something happens, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said this week. The name of the game is to prevent it. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to flood the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for a parade, concerts, and a fireworks display that uses 6,500 shells. The National Park Service is installing 3.4 miles (5.47 km) of chain link fencing, 14,000 feet (4,270 meters) of bike racks and almost 350 portable toilets to cope with the crowds.Read more: Yahoo | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives, working against a Friday midnight deadline, approved legislation on Thursday to fund a wide range of federal programs through Dec. 22 and avoid a partial government shutdown when existing money expires. By a vote of 235-193, the House approved the stop-gap spending bill, sending it to the Senate for passage, which is expected by Friday. | 0 |
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Security Question: What is 5 + 13 ? Please leave these two fields as-is: IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-) Doom and Bloom | 1 |
"One should not insist on nailing [Trump] into positions that he had taken in the campaign," he said. | 0 |
DENMARK, South Carolina (Reuters) - Betty Odom-Bell, a 47-year-old entrepreneur, took a financial risk last year when she opened a restaurant in Denmark, a small town in the middle of a deeply depressed part of rural South Carolina. So when Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visited Denmark earlier this month promising to transform the region into a “Corridor of Opportunity,” Odom-Bell felt reassured. “It’s almost like we’re a forgotten town,” she said, describing her surprise at Clinton’s visit to the town of 3,500. “With her, there’s a connection. I don’t have that with Bernie,” she said, referring to Clinton rival Bernie Sanders. Clinton is poised to win big over the U.S. senator from Vermont in South Carolina’s primary contest on Saturday, in part because of her outsized support among the state’s rural black poor - a bloc that Sanders has struggled to impress. Interviews with residents in Bamberg and Allendale counties show her appeal is not just about the differences in her social policies, or her widespread name recognition. It also results from her up-close campaigning style. Over the past several weeks, she has stumped in parts of the state that are off the beaten-path, reinforcing connections with audiences that stretch back decades, and peppering her speeches with the names of local leaders. Sanders in contrast, has focused his visits on South Carolina’s big cities and universities, rallying large audiences with his self-styled Democratic socialist platform, while relying heavily on surrogates to do his work elsewhere. Plans offered by Sanders to address wealth inequality and improve access to education and healthcare have attracted interest, but many complain they do not feel they know him well enough to vote for him. “Both of them are good candidates, but I’m leaning Hillary,” said Marion Roberts, a 65-year-old retiree having coffee at a fast food restaurant on Allendale’s main street, where many storefronts are shuttered. “Sanders talks good, but I know more about her.” Allendale County’s 10,000 residents are nearly three-fourths black, and its unemployment rate, at about 9 percent, is nearly double the national average. About a third of the county’s population lives below the poverty line, making it fertile ground for candidates shopping progressive social policies. Clinton’s campaign has said South Carolina will act as an early “firewall” against Sanders, who beat her in New Hampshire’s primary and posted strong showings in Iowa and Nevada, but is expected to do worse as the race shifts south. Nationwide, Sanders has built on his popularity with young and liberal voters to narrow the race to a statistical dead heat. But Clinton still holds a massive 40 percentage point advantage among black Democrats, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Clinton’s advantage results in part from her husband Bill Clinton’s outreach to black voters during his presidency. Some voters also like that Hillary Clinton has promised to build on President Barack Obama’s agenda. Allendale City Mayor Ronnie Jackson, for example, says he is backing Clinton in part because Allendale, a town of about 3,800, depends on money under an Obama administration stimulus program for impoverished communities. He hopes Clinton would continue the support. “That’s the only way we can survive,” he said. But he also points to differences in the way she and Sanders have campaigned. Sanders supporters have contacted him repeatedly by phone, he said, but he saw Clinton in the flesh at Denmark town hall on Feb. 12, just half an hour away. Over the summer, Clinton also hosted a listening session for local leaders, many from rural areas, and she recently won the endorsement of U.S. congressman Jim Clyburn, the only South Carolina Democrat in the House of Representatives. Sanders, meanwhile, has touted his college civil rights activism, met with black civil rights leaders and hosted an event at a historically black college. Some of those efforts have shown signs of success among young blacks. But his campaigning in rural areas has been mainly by proxy - including a visit on Monday to Allendale by campaigners organized by National Nurses United. Sanders himself moved on to other states in the run up to Saturday’s primary, while Clinton continued to campaign daily there. James Fitts, an 80-year-old Allendale resident, said he likes Clinton’s approach. “She’s been in it a long time.” (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Steve Orlofsky) 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 |
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Posted on October 28, 2016 by Jay Syrmopoulos
Portland, OR – The group of men who seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge , in rural Oregon were found not guilty late Thursday, vindicating brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy after the 41-day standoff that brought nationwide focus to long-running dispute over federal control of rural land in the Western United States.
According to a report in by the Associated Press :
A jury found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty a firearm in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the 300 miles southeast of Portland where the trial took place. Five co-defendants also were tried one or both of the charges. Ammon Bundy has a house in Emmett.
Despite the acquittal, the Bundys were expected to stand trial in Nevada early next year on charges stemming from another high-profile standoff with federal agents. Authorities rounding up cattle at their father Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014 because of unpaid grazing fees released the animals as they faced armed protesters.
The Bundy family initially made headlines in 2013 when the Bureau of Land Management brought armed agents in to seize rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle after his refusal to pay federal authorities a massive debt – which he claims is illegitimate.
In response to the militarized response in Nevada by the BLM, militia from across the U.S. mobilized and coordinated a response which saw hundreds of armed Americans stand up to what they perceived as vast federal overreach.
What the government thought would be an open-and-shut case was anything but. The group never denied they seized the refuge while armed or that they made demands of the government.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this case is not a whodunit,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said in his closing argument, making the argument the group illegally commandeered a federal building.
The AP reports:
On technical grounds, the defendants said they never discussed stopping individual workers from accessing their offices but merely wanted the land and the buildings. On emotional grounds, Ammon Bundy and other defendants argued that the takeover was an act of civil disobedience against an out-of-control federal government that has crippled the rural West.
Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found.
Ammon Bundy spent three days testifying in his own defense, focusing on the fact that federal overreach is destroying rural Western communities that have relied on the land — for generations in many cases. Bundy made clear that the plan was to simply take control of the refuge by occupation, while eventually returning it to local control.
Originally, 26 occupiers were charged with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, while another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants have not yet been tried. Their trial is scheduled to begin February 14, according to the AP.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, an Oregon-area reporter posted to Twitter that Ammon Bundy’s attorney Marcus Mumford was tackled by U.S. Marshals after insisting that Bundy should be allowed to be released from custody, with the judge subsequently ordering the courtroom cleared.
The armed occupiers took control of the remote bird sanctuary on January 2, in response to the prison sentences given to two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, after being convicted of arson in relation to an ongoing dispute with the BLM. Upon occupying the refuge the group demanded that the father and son be freed and that federal officials cede control of publicly held lands to local control.
Ultimately, the Bundy brothers and a number of their fellow occupiers were arrested in an ambush style attack, while on the way to negotiate with a Sheriff. It ended with officers gunning down Robert “LaVoy” Finicum – a charismatic group spokesman. Currently, numerous federal SRT agents are under investigation for lying about firing at the occupiers’ vehicle during the ambush.
The majority of the remaining occupants left the refuge in the wake of Finicum’s killing , with four holdouts negotiating their surrender until February 11.
In the wake of the verdict, both the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office also expressed disappointment.
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said his office “respects the verdict of the jury and thanks them for their dedicated service during this long and difficult trial.”
“For many weeks, hundreds of law enforcement officers — federal, state, and local — worked around-the-clock to resolve the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge peacefully. We believe now — as we did then — that protecting and defending this nation through rigorous obedience to the U.S. Constitution is our most important responsibility. Although we are extremely disappointed in the verdict, we respect the court and the role of the jury in the American judicial system.” – Greg Bretzing, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Oregon
Regardless of the sentiments of those in government and law enforcement, the jury carried out justice — with this verdict solidifying that the killing of LaVoy Finnicum was nothing less than criminal .
Revealing exactly why the 2nd Amendment is so important to a free people, Bundy testified that the reason occupiers chose to carry guns was because they understood that they would be immediately arrested otherwise and needed to protect themselves against possible government violence.
There is no mistaking the difference in law enforcement’s response to unarmed protestors — versus those that exercise their right to bear arms. One need look no further than the ongoing protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock – which has been met with numerous militarized and violent crackdowns on non-violent water protectors – to see exactly how differently armed protesters are treated. Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 1 |
synchronized makeup | 1 |
Tesla's Solar Roof To Cost Less Than Normal Roof Says Elon Musk Nov 18, 2016 23 0
Wonderful news for the solar and renewable energy industry keeps coming in. Yesterday, Tesla and SolarCity shareholders approved Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, with 85% of the voters in favor. Depiction of a solar roofed home.
However, the big news of the day came when Elon Musk said that the cost to install their solar roofs will likely be less than a normal roof, even before adding in the electricity savings that will be gained from the homeowner:
“It’s looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take in the value of electricity into account. So the basic proposition would be, ‘Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, lasts twice as long, costs less and by the way generates electricity?’ It’s like, why would you get anything else?”
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s plan for their solar roofs which he presented a couple weeks ago. The plans include four different types, which can be seen in detail here . The solar cells are tucked in behind the glass so that the roofs look appealing, sharp and clean.
Musk also said that the glass tiles can incorporate heating elements that melt snow while still generating electricity. He stated further that such a process wouldn’t be energy intensive to do so, but would be extremely net positive.
The four types of roofs are expected to be available in 2017, starting with 1-2 of them from the beginning. Tesla is also planning to unveil the Model 3 in 2017 , which will be much less expensive than the Model X and Model S. Tesla’s goal with the Model 3 is to make this type of vehicle available to a wider audience.
With good reason too, as renewable energy is experiencing much momentum right now in the world. As we reported four days ago, Tesla made more money in one quarter this year than all U.S. oil companies made together last year. Jointly due to falling oil prices and the global awakening to the need for renewable energy, these oil companies actually lost over $67 billion last year.
Additionally, it was announced in the UK recently that for the first time ever, solar power supplied more energy to the UK this summer than coal-generated electricity.
Also, back in September, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea announced plans to create the Asian Super-Grid , which will consist of wind and solar energy to help power those countries, as well as places in Europe, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia.
2017 is shaping up to be quite a year in many different regards. For renewable energy, the year and years ahead look extremely bright. If Tesla can indeed get their solar roof price below regular roofing prices, this will catalyze humanity’s transition into clean, sustainable and renewable energy very quickly. Let’s intend for the best!
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and does health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information and other inspiring articles. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said on Monday a special counsel should be appointed to investigate Democrats over a uranium deal during the Obama administration and a dossier compiled on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. “I think probably as a layman looking at this kind of thing we need to find someone who is very, very objective who can get to the bottom of these accusations,” Kelly said in an interview on Fox News. A special counsel would be appointed by the Justice Department. Republicans in Congress last week launched an investigation into an Obama-era deal in which a Russian company bought a Canadian firm that owned some 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies. Some Republicans have said Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the deal after her husband’s charitable foundation received a $145 million donation. The New York Times has reported that Clinton, a Democrat who lost to Republican Trump in the 2016 election, did not participate in the decision. Republicans have also raised questions about whether Democrats funded a dossier put together during last year’s presidential campaign that detailed accusations about Trump’s ties to Russia. The Washington Post reported last week that Marc Elias, a lawyer for Clinton, used campaign funds to hire Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier. Kelly’s call for a special counsel to investigate Democrats comes as a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians produced its first charges and a guilty plea. A grand jury impaneled by Mueller indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates on Monday. A third former Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty in early October to lying to the FBI, it was announced on Monday. | 0 |
Home | World | Angry Vegetable Lib Dem Tim Farron Fights Back Angry Vegetable Lib Dem Tim Farron Fights Back By Buster Speculum 22/11/2016 11:18:16
LONDON – England – An ode to the political meanderings of wayward Lib Dem treacherous angry vegetable, Tim Farron.
When it comes to turnips, one imagines the permanent angry scowl of Tim Farron as he vacillates to and fro across the vegetable patch, a spitting noxious veggie, this piece of putrid detritus they call Tim Farron.
As annoying as his predecessor, Farron is the epitome of Marxism at work, his politics stuck in a swamp of excrement, out dated and spoiling, rotten to the core.
Here is a turnip that wants to scupper Brexit, and he is going on tirade after tirade trying his best to justify disallowing the vote of 52% of the electorate to leave the EU.
We say to you and your ilk Farron, you are to be served up on the dinner plate of ineptitude, festering aggressive pustulence and swine.
Fed to the pigs, your rotting marrow will be excreted out of their puckered arse holes and spread across the sty where you wholeheartedly belong. Share on : | 1 |
Posted on October 29, 2016 by Baxter Dmitry in News , US // 0 Comments
Hillary Clinton proposed rigging a foreign election in a 2006 meeting with Jewish Press editors, and now the leaked audio has been posted on the web to prove it.
Speaking to the editorial board of the Jewish Press at their office in Brooklyn, Clinton also said it was a mistake to allow Palestinians to hold a democratic election.
“ I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake ,” said Senator Clinton. “ And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win. ”
The audio tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. According to Eli Chomsky, an editor and writer, his audiocassette is the only recording of the meeting.
Nobody had heard it since 2006 – until today when he released it to the world. However mainstream media have attempted to blacklist the story, and Control The Record employees have been actively working to remove it from internet forums and social media.
The tape is 45 minutes and contains much that is no longer relevant, but Clinton’s casually delivered comments about denying Palestinians democratic elections – stating that if they must have them, they should be rigged – has taken on new relevance in the midst of persistent allegations from Republicans that the Clinton camp is attempting to rig the Nov. 8 election.
Fixing foreign elections
Recalling the 2006 meeting, Chomsky says he was taken aback that “ anyone could support the idea—offered by a national political leader, no less—that the U.S. should be in the business of fixing foreign elections .”
Clinton also discussed the problem of global terror, and articulated phrases that Trump has accused her being reluctant to use publicly.
“ I think you can make the case that whether you call it ‘Islamic terrorism’ or ‘Islamo-fascism,’ whatever the label is we’re going to give to this phenomenon, it’s a threat. It’s a global threat. To Europe, to Israel, to the United States…Therefore we need a global response. It’s a global threat and it needs a global response.
Chomsky is then heard asking Clinton a question about potential conflict in Syria – and Clinton gives him an entirely different answer to the public position she is pushing now. In fact, she sounds just like Donald Trump does in 2016.
“ Do you think it’s worth talking to Syria—both from the U.S. point [of view] and Israel’s point [of view]? ”
Clinton replied, “ You know, I’m pretty much of the mind that I don’t see what it hurts to talk to people. As long as you’re not stupid and giving things away. I mean, we talked to the Soviet Union for 40 years. They invaded Hungary, they invaded Czechoslovakia, they persecuted the Jews, they invaded Afghanistan, they destabilized governments, they put missiles 90 miles from our shores, we never stopped talking to them.”
The conversation moves on, but then Clinton returns to the topic. “ But if you say, ‘they’re evil, we’re good, [and] we’re never dealing with them,’ I think you give up a lot of the tools that you need to have in order to defeat them…So I would like to talk to you [the enemy] because I want to know more about you. Because if I want to defeat you, I’ve got to know something more about you. I need different tools to use in my campaign against you. That’s my take on it. ”
Chomsky said that he held onto the tapes for all of these years due the Jewish Press’s reluctance to “ say anything offensive about anybody, ” but in the current election rigging climate he considered the contents of the tape to be in the national interest.
“ I went to my bosses at the time, ” Chomsky said. “ The Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody—even a direct quote from anyone—in a position of influence because they might need them down the road. My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time. I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years .” | 1 |
MONTPELIER, Vt. (Reuters) - Still sifting through the wreckage of the Nov. 8 election, Democratic leaders nationwide are struggling to find a new message to claw back support and avoid years in the political wilderness. Not only do Republicans control the White House and both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, they now hold 33 governor’s offices. New England, long considered reliably Democratic, is a prime example of the party’s demise. Republican Phil Scott won in Vermont over Democrat Sue Minter who was criticized, like presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for failing to develop an economic message that resonated with voters worried about good-paying jobs. Considered a liberal bastion, Vermont has a tradition of sometimes choosing a Republican governor to keep one party from having too much control. Elsewhere, Republican Chris Sununu will replace a Democratic governor in New Hampshire while Maine and Massachusetts already have Republican governors. “We lost the governorship of freaking Vermont,” lamented Washington-based Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis. “We didn’t just lose an election. This was a national rebuke. This was biblical.” Republicans also command 32 state legislatures and have full control — meaning they hold the governor’s office and both legislative chambers — in 24 states, including swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. When President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, they controlled just nine. “There are more Republicans at the state legislative level than there have ever been,” said Tim Storey, an analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Republicans scored a major coup when they seized the Senate in traditionally liberal Minnesota, giving it full control of the legislature, and they gained full control of next-door Iowa. “The party’s message, structure and apparatus are broken,” said Kofinis, who was chief of staff to moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “We haven’t acknowledged it for years because we had the White House.” Obama’s two terms masked a crumbling party infrastructure. During Obama’s tenure, Democrats lost over 800 state legislative seats, at least 13 governorships and both houses of Congress. Party insiders are reluctant to blame the popular Obama but cite plenty of reasons for the decline. These include a muddled economic message; an overemphasis on emerging demographic groups such as minorities and millennial at the expense of white voters; a perception the party is elitist and aligned with Wall Street; a reluctance to embrace the progressive populism of Senator Bernie Sanders, the former presidential hopeful; and failure to field strong candidates in key states. There is an emerging consensus, they add, that the party has been too focused on winning national races and has not invested enough in local campaigns, along with a grudging admission that Republicans have done a better job of competing on the ground. As a result, a poor performance by the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections gave Republicans control of statehouses across the country, allowing them to redraw legislative maps to fashion districts that would help ensure their long-term electoral success. “I think the foundation was built back in 2010,” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker told Reuters. “There was a big wave and then for many of us that were elected in ‘10, we got reelected in ’14 in battleground states - Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Michigan. You look at the states that were key to the presidential win, were states where Republicans did well in ‘10 and then sustained it.” “UNDER-RESOURCED” Democrats are working to recover and looking ahead to governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia next year to make up lost ground. Governor’s offices have become crucial for another reason: Republican governors signed voter suppression measures in states such as North Carolina that Democrats believe damaged turnout. Sununu has said that as one of his first acts as governor in New Hampshire, he would like to end the state’s practice of allowing same-day voter registration. As with redistricting, it is another lever of power that Republicans can wield to make sure they remain in the majority for a long time. Obama has said he will actively support a new party initiative, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, that seeks to restore state-level Democratic power. Mark Schauer, a former Michigan congressman who is a senior adviser to the effort, said the goal is to have a central organization direct resources into critical local races. Schauer, who lost his congressional seat after Republican legislators excised his home county from his district, said deep-pocketed Democratic donors have not always appreciated the need to support state races. “A state senate race isn’t as sexy as a presidential or big U.S. Senate race,” Schauer said. Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the party arm charged with overseeing state races, agreed. “We have felt under-resourced.” When Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, ran the Democratic National Committee, he adopted a “50-state strategy,” investing funds in every state, even ones perceived to be hostile to Democrats, in an effort to identify viable candidates for local office. While Dean’s plan was not the sole reason, Democrats had election successes in 2006 and 2008. When Dean left the DNC, his strategy faded and the party’s fortunes at the state level began to decline. Dean is a candidate to run the DNC again and has said he will revive the strategy if elected to the post. “What is happening is a result of decades of smart organizing by conservatives who have very simply poured resources, talent and energy into creating an infrastructure at the state, local, and now national level,” said Bill Lofy, a long-time Democratic strategist in Vermont. He said Governor-elect Scott “was very effective at making this, in a generic sense, about kitchen-table economic issues in a way that paralleled with the presidential race.” And like Trump, he said, Scott “spent very little time talking about how is going to implement the policies he was proposing. It was more about Scott telling voters: ‘Trust me. I’m on your side.’” | 1 |
(Reuters) - U.S. Republicans made progress on Tuesday in addressing the demands of some key senators in the party about their tax legislation, improving the outlook for the bill’s passage. President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress want to pass a tax bill by the end of 2017. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin, leaving little room for defections in the face of Democratic opposition. Here is a list of Republicans whose votes are pivotal to the bill’s fate. Senator Bob Corker said on Tuesday he had the outlines of a deal satisfying his concerns that the tax cuts could add too much to the national debt. As a deficit hawk, Corker’s main concern about the plan has been red ink - the tax bill is expected to add $1.4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. Republicans say that gap would be narrowed by additional economic growth. Under the deal that Corker said he had reached with Senate leaders, the bill would be modified to automatically raise tax revenues if growth targets were not reached. The Tennessee lawmaker, a Trump critic who is not running for re-election, voted to advance the tax plan on Tuesday in the Budget Committee. He also spoke to Trump at a Republican lunch. The two feuded recently, with Corker calling the White House an “adult day care center” after Trump attacked Corker repeatedly on Twitter. The moderate senator from Maine has said she has qualms about Senate leaders’ plan to include repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate in the tax bill. The mandate requires people to buy health insurance or face a penalty. But Trump appears to be making a clear bid for Collins’ vote. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday that Trump backed a Collins proposal to set aside money to help health insurers cover the most expensive patients. Graham said that provision would probably go into an upcoming government funding bill, along with another measure Collins favors to continue Obamacare subsidy payments for low-income people for two years. Collins told reporters she would offer an amendment to the tax bill to include a deduction of up to $10,000 in property taxes. Collins was among three Republicans who voted in July to block a Republican attempt to dismantle Obamacare, Democratic former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. The senator from Alaska wanted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil and gas drilling. Provisions to do that were attached to the tax bill as it passed the Budget Committee. Murkowski told reporters on Tuesday she was “feeling better” about the tax bill. She voted against three attempts to dismantle Obamacare earlier this year. But a week ago, she wrote an opinion piece saying she supported repealing the Obamacare individual mandate. Murkowski also wrote that she supported legislation to continue Obamacare subsidy payments for low-income people. Senator Ron Johnson also voted to advance the tax bill in the Budget Committee on Tuesday, although he has been demanding more favorable treatment for “pass-through” businesses as a condition of support. The Wisconsin lawmaker surprised colleagues earlier this month by becoming the first Republican to announce opposition to the tax plan. That earned him a call from Trump. Johnson, formerly chief executive of a polyester and plastics manufacturer, says the legislation unfairly helps corporations over small enterprises organized as non-corporate “pass-throughs.” Those include partnerships and sole proprietorships and account for most U.S. business. The senator from Montana said in a statement on Monday he opposed the current version of the tax bill because it helped corporations more than other kinds of businesses. “I want to see changes to the tax cut bill that ensure Main Street businesses are not put at a competitive disadvantage against large corporations,” he said. “Before I can support this bill, this improvement needs to be made.” The Arizona maverick and former presidential nominee said on Monday he was still undecided and concerned about “a lot of things” in the tax plan, according to the Wall Street Journal. The war hero infuriated Trump when he joined Collins and Murkowski in voting against the Senate bill last summer to repeal Obamacare. McCain, who is still working after a diagnosis of brain cancer, has said he has almost no working relationship with Trump. The senator from Arizona, a vocal Trump critic who is not seeking re-election in 2018, has issued a statement saying he was worried about the tax bill’s impact on the national debt. Trump has tweeted that he expects Flake to be a “no” on the tax bill “because his political career anyway is ‘toast.’” Like Corker, Oklahoma conservative Lankford questions whether tax revenues from economic growth will compensate for the expected increase in the national debt under the tax plan. He has been working with Corker to “trigger” more revenues if needed. “We’re still trying to lock in exactly how we would do it,” he told reporters on Tuesday. The Kansas lawmaker is also wary of the impact on the national debt, pointing to his own state’s recent experience of fiscal problems following tax cuts. A spokesman for Moran said the senator was “determined to pass tax reform” and was working with colleagues to do so. | 0 |
John Kerry and Al Gore are jubilant that we ve struck a deal (sort of) to limit carbon emissions what a couple of jokesters these guys are. It s really embarrassing that all these important people came together to discuss the weather and NOT our most pressing topic of what to do about terrorism. This is what happens when you let the liberals rule unicorns and rainbows:John Kerry told fellow negotiators, it will help the world prepare for the impacts of climate change that are already here and also for those that we already know are on our way inevitably. He added the pact would prevent the worst most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening. A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C has been agreed at the climate change summit in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations. The pact is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions. The agreement is partly legally binding and partly voluntary. Earlier, key blocs, including the G77 group of developing countries, and nations such as China and India said they supported the proposals. President of the UN climate conference of parties (COP) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: I now invite the COP to adopt the decision entitled Paris Agreement outlined in the document. Looking out to the room I see that the reaction is positive, I see no objections. The Paris agreement is adopted. As he struck the gavel to signal the adoption of the deal, delegates rose to their feet cheering and applauding.John Kerry told fellow negotiators, it will help the world prepare for the impacts of climate change that are already here and also for those that we already know are on our way inevitably. He added the pact would prevent the worst most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore says years from now, our grandchildren will reflect on humanity s moral courage to solve the climate crisis. And they will look to December 12, 2015, as the day when the community of nations finally made the decision to act. South African environment minister Edna Molewa calls the pact the best we can get at this historic moment. She says it can map a turning point to a better and safer world but she added that developed countries still have to cut emissions more and help poorer nations to counter the effects of global warming.READ MORE: BBCRead more: AP | 1 |
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A Colombian peace deal that the president and the country’s largest rebel group had signed just days before was defeated in a referendum on Sunday, leaving the fate of a war suddenly uncertain. A narrow margin divided the vote, with 50. 2 percent of Colombians rejecting the peace deal and 49. 8 percent voting in favor, the government said. The result was a deep embarrassment for President Juan Manuel Santos. Just last week, Mr. Santos had joined arms with leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, who apologized on national television during a signing ceremony. The surprise surge by the “no” vote — nearly all major polls had indicated resounding approval — left the country in a dazed uncertainty not seen since Britain voted in June to leave the European Union. And it left the future of rebels who had planned to rejoin Colombia as civilians — indeed, the future of the war itself, which both sides had declared over — unknown. Both sides vowed they would not go back to fighting. Mr. Santos, who appeared humbled by the vote on television on Sunday, said the that his government had signed with the FARC would remain in effect. He added that he would soon “convene all political groups,” especially those against the deal, “to open spaces for dialogue and determine how we will go ahead. ” Rodrigo Londoño, the FARC leader, who was preparing to return to Colombia after four years of negotiations in Havana, said he, too, was not interested in more war. “The FARC reiterates its disposition to use only words as a weapon to build toward the future,” he said in a statement. “With today’s result, we know that our challenge as a political party is even greater and requires more effort to build a stable and lasting peace. ” The question voters were asked was simple: “Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and construct a stable and enduring peace?” But it was one that had divided this country for generations, as successive governments fought what seemed to be a war without an end and the Marxist FARC rebels dug into the forest for a hopeless insurgency. To many Colombians who had endured years of kidnappings and killings by the rebels, the agreement was too lenient. It would have allowed most fighters to start lives as normal citizens, and rebel leaders to receive reduced sentences for war crimes. “There’s no justice in this accord,” said Roosevelt Pulgarin, 32, a music teacher who cast his ballot against the agreement on a rainy day at an elementary school in Bogotá, the capital. “If ‘no’ wins, we won’t have peace, but at least we won’t give the country away to the guerrillas. We need better negotiations. ” María Fernanda González, 39, an administrator at a telecommunications company who voted against the deal, said she simply did not trust the FARC. “Why didn’t they turn in their arms and tell the world what happened to the people they kidnapped, as a gesture during the talks?” she asked. Her household seemed to reflect the deep divides in Colombia, with her husband, Carlos Gallon, 42, an engineer, voting for the deal. Mr. Gallon said the country had no choice but to stop fighting. But still, he admitted, “I understand why she is voting no. ” The referendum result overturned a timetable intended to end the FARC insurgency within months. The rebels had agreed to immediately abandon their battle camps for 28 “concentration zones” throughout the country, where over the next six months they would hand over their weapons to United Nations teams. Under the agreement, fighters were expected to be granted amnesty. Those suspected of being involved in war crimes would be judged in special tribunals with reduced sentences, many of which were expected to involve years of community service work, like removing land mines once planted by the FARC. On Sunday, the government said it had sent negotiators to Havana to begin discussing the next steps with the rebels. After the president’s statement that he was reaching out to opposition leaders in the Colombian Congress like former President Álvaro Uribe, experts predicted a potentially tortured process in which Mr. Uribe and others would seek harsher punishments for FARC members, especially those who had participated in the drug trade. “Everyone has said, including those who sided ‘no,’ that they could renegotiate the deal, but obviously that would have political challenges,” said César Rodríguez, the director of the Center for Law, Justice and Society, a nongovernmental organization in Colombia focusing on legal issues. “It was a small majority, but a valid majority, and that has consequences. ” On Sunday night, politicians who had strongly opposed the deal were already signaling that it was time to negotiate more stringent terms with the rebels. “We want to redo the process,” said Francisco Santos, a vice president under Mr. Uribe, who was against the deal but supports an eventual peace with the FARC. “In democracy, sometimes you win, but sometimes you lose. ” The war left brutal scars in Colombia. About 220, 000 people were killed in the fighting, and six million were displaced. An untold number of women were raped by fighters, and children were given Kalashnikov rifles and forced into battle. Unable to put down the insurgency, the government turned in the countryside to paramilitary groups run by men who became regional warlords. The state seemed swept aside in the fighting. In the end, the war lasted so long that it might have been difficult for many Colombians to forgive the FARC. “The adults that were born before the war now number very few,” said Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a novelist who voted for the deal. “As a society, we are a massive case of stress, because we have grown up in the midst of fear, of anxiety, of the noise of war. ” Many people lost because of the outcome. Among them was President Santos, who had staked his legacy on the peace deal and had been rumored as a possible contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. FARC members, who had been on the run in the jungle for decades, saw their hopes of rejoining Colombia as political leaders, including 10 seats in Congress, suddenly dashed for the time being. Perhaps the biggest winner on Sunday was Mr. Uribe, the former president, and the Colombian far right, which had vowed to defeat the deal at the ballot box. Mr. Uribe had argued that the agreement was too lenient on the rebels, who he said should be prosecuted as murderers and drug traffickers. “Peace is exciting, the Havana agreement disappointing,” Mr. Uribe wrote on Twitter on Sunday after casting his “no” vote. In the end, a small majority of Colombians agreed with him. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, who has said he wants to be a bridge between the British government and the new U.S. administration, will attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month. Farage, who will attend the event as a guest of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, spoke at a Trump rally in Mississippi during the U.S. presidential campaign and was the first British politician to meet the president-elect after his victory, ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May. Farage spent decades campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union and helped to force then Prime Minister David Cameron to call the June 2016 referendum that resulted in the Brexit vote. Trump has said Farage - the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) - would be great as Britain’s envoy to Washington, but the British government has dismissed the suggestion. Asked if he would be attending Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Farage told Sky News: “I certainly am, I can’t wait.” “The governor of Mississippi has invited me and I’m there for a few days and it’s going to be a great, historic event. In America they’ve had a political revolution and it’s complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge.” | 1 |
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The Red Cross has halted operations across a third of South Sudan after gunmen shot dead a staff member, in what the U.N. said on Wednesday was the biggest such suspension during the country s four-year civil war. Kennedy Laki Emmanuel, a driver for the Red Cross, died on Sept. 8 when gunmen fired on a 10-vehicle convoy delivering aid in South Sudan s restive Western Equatoria state. In response, the International Committee of the Red Cross shut down activities across Equatoria, a region roughly the size of Britain that borders Congo and Uganda and has seen some of the heaviest fighting over the last year. The suspension affected more than 22,000 people about to get aid deliveries from the Red Cross. That included more than 5,000 farmers due to receive seeds in an area teetering on the edge of famine. The ICRC will not resume anything until we have a clear picture of exactly what happened and until we receive the necessary security guarantees, spokeswoman Mari Mortvedt told Reuters. The security of the ICRC staff is top priority. The U.N. s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters that no aid group had shut down its operations over such a large area since South Sudan s civil war began in 2013. The conflict began after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer. The U.N. says ethnic cleansing has taken place and warned of genocide, amid reports of murder, rape, and torture of civilians. More than two million South Sudanese have now fled the country, creating Africa s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and more than half of those remaining need food aid. The country s original population was 12 million. At least 85 aid workers have been killed, according to the U.N., including 18 this year, making it the deadliest country for aid workers in the world. That number did not include a staff member for aid group World Vision, killed in the Western Equatoria town of Yambio on September 3. It was not clear whether that death was related to his work as an aid worker, so it was not included in the total, the group said. (This story corrects to make clear World Vision aid worker not included in total of 85) | 1 |
The Antifa thugs and anarchists decided to show up today for a Rally Against Hate which we could all be a part of Who isn t against hate, right? Making Trump supporters out to be hateful is what they want so desperately but THEY repeatedly show up to be the ones causing the violence and chaos.Antifa in Berkeley trying to murder a Trump supporter with pipes and sticks. pic.twitter.com/XgMcki9jXV Hector Morenco (@hectormorenco) August 27, 2017They want to hijack the narrative and say that all those who don t believe what they do are white supremacists and Nazis . Note the very professional banners they had out today wonder who paid for those?The problem is that we re on to these rent-a-mob domestic terrorists but why aren t the mayor, cops and those who are in charge in Bereley smart enough to put a stop to the violence and bullying by the Antifa terrorists? Can you answer that question? If you can, you ve been paying attention to what s happening all across America. Democrat Mayors and other leaders see it as an advantage when the cops are told to do nothing When they stand down then the crowd gets more and more violent and then the media finishes the job by lying about who started the violence and who was behind it from the beginning. See the pattern now?ONLY A HANDFUL OF TRUMP SUPPORTERS AND THEY GOT BEAT UP FOR WHAT?Where are the police? A masked terrorist army has invaded #Berkeley pic.twitter.com/OIdVSVRmRE Mark Dice (@MarkDice) August 27, 2017LOOK WHO JOINED ANTIFA TODAY THE SOCIALISTS!Antifa greet @DSA arrival to MLK park in Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/9MOTo18OGd Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) August 27, 2017Why are the Berkeley cops standing down and letting the Antifa thugs run them out of MLK Park in Berkeley?Antifa chase cops out of MLK plaza in Berkeley. Police fire teargas. pic.twitter.com/tz5kQWFWD0 Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) August 27, 2017 A woman attacked my photographer and I This is typical of Antifa. They re all about violence and shutting down the media. Scary times A woman attacked my photographer and I. #BerkeleyProtest #berkeley .@KTVU pic.twitter.com/LlzG9dBN4n Leigh Martinez (@LeighMartinezTV) August 27, 2017 | 1 |
The victim of the angry Bernie Sanders supporter has an amazing attitude. It s the civility many of us have come to expect from Trump supporters who ve been unjustly attacked by uncivil and in many cases, unlawful Bernie Sanders supporters. A politically-motivated vandal in Washington State admittedly vandalized a Trump supporter s car, slashing its tires and dumping rotten yogurt through its sun roof, according to a police report filed last Monday.The suspect, named in the report as one Riley M. Silva of Gig Harbour, Washington, confessed his crime to the police. Showing no sign of remorse, he claimed his victim was an ignorant bigot and that he improved the community by vandalizing the car. According to the report, the culprit became angry after noticing that the car sported a Donald Trump sticker.His full confession to the police, which was originally posted on the blog of lawyer and author Mike Cernovich, reads as follows:I on the 11th day of the 4th month of 2016 did maliciously attack a hate symbol protected by the first amendment. After disabling the vehicle and dumping rotten food into the interior I feel I have improved the community and supported our nation s values by stopping a promoter of hate speech. I do not wish to have ignorant bigots in my town and in a just world the person deserved what was received and the situation is made whole.As America is far from just, I expect the bigot will want to be made whole. With this I declare he is owed nothng. But as the situation is what it is, I intend to make the individual whole provided he cease to promote ignorance and hate. I do not expect the law to recognize damage to tools of hate or fascism. Such things need to be destroyed so good people may remain and become free.The victim, Nathan Elliot, later posted pictures of the damage to his vehicle. In his statement to the police, he said that the damage to the tire alone would cost $500 to repair.Bernie Sanders supporter didn't like my Trump bumper sticker, so he vandalized my personal property. Cool. pic.twitter.com/QghClfl2ak Nate (@pulsarVision) April 10, 2016The police report describes Riley Silva as a skinny white male in his 20s, with long blond hair. The victim saw him while he was in the process of vandalizing his car, at which point he yelled at and ran towards the culprit, who fled in his own vehicle. In the report, Elliot claims that the culprit almost hit two other cars as he drove away from the scene. In addition to vandalizing the victim s car, Silva has been charged with reckless driving. -Breitbart NewsEven though I have amazing @USAA insurance, all costs will come out of my own pocket. That's a $400 tire by the way. Nate (@pulsarVision) April 12, 2016USAA Insurance tweeted an awesome reply to Nathan:@pulsarVision We are here to help. Is this a claim related need ? Please DM us your full name, claim# if applicable and you phone# . Thank u USAA (@USAA_help) April 12, 2016UPDATE on Nathan s new tire:@BreitbartNews @Cernovich @DanScavino @realDonaldTrump @Nero Update: new tire came in today can't tread on me!!! pic.twitter.com/AlVPDLym85 Nate (@pulsarVision) April 16, 2016Nathan has the perfect response to the violent Bernie Sanders supporters:It was only through learning how much others don t like the truth exposed, that I learned for myself how much I crave its very existence. Nate (@pulsarVision) February 14, 2016 | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former top U.S. intelligence official rejected President Donald Trump’s accusation that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped him even as the White House on Sunday urged Congress to investigate Trump’s allegation. The New York Times reported on Sunday that FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department this weekend to reject Trump’s wiretapping claim because it was false and must be corrected, but the department had not done so. The report cited senior U.S. officials. The White House asked Congress, controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, to examine whether the Obama administration abused its investigative authority during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as part of an ongoing congressional probe into Russia’s influence on the election. Trump on Saturday alleged, without offering supporting evidence, that Obama ordered a wiretap of the phones at Trump’s campaign headquarters in Trump Tower in New York. “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate or against his campaign,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who left his post at the end of Obama’s term in office in January, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Under U.S. law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an “agent of a foreign power” in order to approve a warrant authorizing electronic surveillance of Trump Tower. Asked whether there was such a court order, Clapper said, “I can deny it.” Democrats accused Trump of trying to distract from the rising controversy about possible ties to Russia. His administration has come under pressure from FBI and congressional investigations into contacts between members of his campaign team and Russian officials. Attorney General Jeff Sessions bowed out last week of any probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election after it emerged he met last year with Russia’s ambassador while serving as a Trump campaign advisor. Sessions maintained he did nothing wrong by failing to disclose the meetings. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump and administration officials would have no further comment on the issue until Congress has completed its probe, potentially heading off attempts to get Trump to explain his accusations. “Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Spicer said in a statement. U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, Republican head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee examining possible links between Russia and Trump’s campaign, said in a statement that any possible surveillance on campaign officials would be part of the probe. Trump made the wiretapping accusation in a series of early morning tweets on Saturday amid expanding scrutiny of his campaign’s ties to Russia. An Obama spokesman denied the charge, saying it was “a cardinal rule” that no White House official interfered with independent Justice Department investigations. The White House offered no evidence on Sunday to back up Trump’s accusation and did not say it was true. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said Trump has “made very clear what he believes, and he’s asking that we get down to the bottom of this. Let’s get the truth here.” Trump, who is spending the weekend at his Florida resort, said in his tweets on Saturday that the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump Tower office and apartment building in New York, but there was “nothing found.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Trump had either made a false accusation, or a judge had found probable cause to authorize a wiretap. “Either way, the president’s in trouble,” Schumer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that if Trump was spreading misinformation, “it shows this president doesn’t know how to conduct himself.” Clapper said “there was no evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in a January intelligence report concluding Russian interference in the 2016 election, but “this could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left government.” Trump’s allegations echo charges made in recent days by several conservative news and commentary outlets, all without offering any evidence. Trump should immediately turn over any evidence he has to support his allegation, said U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “What we need to deal with is evidence, not just statements,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding she also had not seen evidence of collaboration “but we are in the very early stages of our investigation.” Trump fired his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in February after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary under Obama, said the president did not have the authority to unilaterally order a wiretap of a U.S. citizen. “The president was not giving marching orders to the FBI about how to conduct its investigation,” Earnest said on ABC’s “This Week.” | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a series of meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting next week in New York, the White House said on Friday. Trump will meet with the leaders of France and Israel on Monday before holding a dinner with Latin American leaders that evening, Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters. On Tuesday, he will meet Qatar’s emir, and on Wednesday, he will meet with leaders from Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the United Kingdom and Egypt, McMaster said. Trump will meet on Thursday with leaders from Turkey, Afghanistan and Ukraine before holding a lunch with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, he said. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic U.S. senator pressed Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) on Wednesday to release information about issues including President Donald Trump’s debt and any bank meetings with Trump administration officials, saying he had “great concern” about possible conflicts of interest. “I write to you with great concern regarding conflicts of interest between Deutsche Bank and the President of the United States and how these conflicts may impact ongoing investigations and regulatory oversight of your institution,” Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote in a letter addressed to the chief executive of Deutsche Bank USA, which he released to the public. Van Hollen is a member of the Senate Banking Committee. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined comment. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment. Van Hollen’s letter said prior financial disclosures listed two loans and two mortgages for which Deutsche Bank was the lender and Trump the borrower. Those loans amounted to about $340 million, with another $950 million extended to a venture in which Trump owns a 30 percent stake, he wrote. The letter also noted that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, holds a multimillion-dollar line of credit at Deutsche Bank. Van Hollen asked for a response by May 12. | 1 |
If there s one thing we do know to be true about Barack Hussein Obama, the safety of the American people is not one of his priorities If [the Obama administration is] not capable of making honest and prudent decisions in securing our borders, how can we trust them to make the right decision on the release of prisoners who may return to a life of crime? Local sheriffs across America are voicing concern for the safety of the citizens they ve sworn to protect after the biggest one-time release of federal inmates in U.S. history though advocates of criminal justice reform maintain the release is being handled responsibly.The 6,112 inmates were released from federal prison at the beginning of November in response to a decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce sentences for most drug trafficking offenses and apply them retroactively. It coincides with a broader and bipartisan push for rethinking federal sentencing.But the mass release raises immediate practical questions about how the ex-inmates can adjust. There s no transition here, there s no safety net. This is the biggest sham they are trying to sell the American people, Sheriff Paul Babeu of Arizona s Pinal County told FoxNews.com. On average these criminals have been in federal prison for nine years you don t have to be a sheriff to realize that a felon after nine years in jail isn t going to be adding value to the community. A third are illegals and felons so they can t work. What do we think they are going to do? said Babeu, also a congressional candidate.The government is in fact trying to guide the transition for many. The Justice Department says 77 percent of exiting inmates are already in half-way houses or home confinement.But local law enforcement officers have deep reservations, as the initiative ramps up quickly.The November inmates are the first of approximately 46,000 who may have their cases reviewed. Of those released in the first round, the Department of Justice says 1,764 were to be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation proceedings.Sheriffs on the border front-lines were skeptical of the deportation claim. The promise is they re going to be turned over to ICE and deported. Anyone who thinks there s any likelihood of them leaving the U.S. think again, Babeu said, before saying the president should be held responsible for any crimes committed by those released.Other sheriffs also challenged the claim that those being released are not a risk to communities. If [the Obama administration is] not capable of making honest and prudent decisions in securing our borders, how can we trust them to make the right decision on the release of prisoners who may return to a life of crime? Sheriff Harold Eavenson of Rockwall County, Texas, told FoxNews.com. I d be amazed if the 6,000 being released are non-violent. Sheriff Harold Eavenson While the average number of inmates being released to any one state is 80, Texas is slated to receive 597 inmates.The inmates in question had been incarcerated on drug offenses, but the severity of the cases ranged broadly. An Associated Press review last month found while many were low-level drug dealers, some had prior convictions for robbery or were involved in moving serious drugs like cocaine and heroin. WGME in Maine also reported that the group includes a former drug kingpin previously listed as one of America s Most Wanted, after his 20-year sentence was reduced. For them to tell me or tell citizens that they re going to do a good job and these inmates are non-violent, when in many instances drug crimes, drug purchasing, drug trafficking are related to other, violent crimes I d be amazed if the 6,000 being released are non-violent, Eavenson said.A Justice Department official told reporters at an October briefing that the DOJ was conscious of public safety when granting each inmate early release, adding that every prisoner who applied under these new guidelines underwent a public safety assessment. The DOJ says that the reductions were not automatic, and that as of October, judges denied approximately 26 percent of total petitions. Via: FOX News | 0 |
Speaking at a security forum in Slovakia on Sunday, a member of the Russian parliament suggested his country’s military would resort to nuclear weapons to repel a U. S. or NATO incursion into Crimea or eastern Ukraine. [“On the issue of NATO expansion on our borders, at some point I heard from the Russian military — and I think they are right — if U. S. forces, NATO forces, are, were, in the Crimea, in eastern Ukraine, Russia is undefendable militarily in case of conflict without using nuclear weapons in the early stage of the conflict,” said parliamentarian Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Nikonov, as quoted by Defense One. He added that Russian military leaders have “discussed Moscow’s willingness to use nuclear weapons” with their counterparts in NATO, during the course of “broader and increasingly contentious conversations about the alliance’s expansion. ” Russia supports, and chronically denies supporting, separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine outright in 2014. Patrick Tucker of Defense One notes these comments are in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s doctrine of allowing the limited use of nuclear weapons against “ aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security of the Russian Federation. ” That is not mere rhetoric. Newsweek points out that it is actually written down in the official Military Doctrine of Russia. Analysts disagree over what the Russians would actually regard as a crisis serious enough to justify a nuclear first strike, how much their doctrine has truly changed since the Soviet era, and how much it differs in practice from the posture of other nuclear nations, including the United States. Nikonov would certainly be making news by revealing that mere deployment of NATO forces to eastern Ukraine would prompt nuclear retaliation. Nikonov cited the size and power of the NATO alliance, which he described as accounting for “ of the global defense money,” as justification for Russian paranoia about Western encroachments. Conversely, Baltic states look at Russia’s actions in Ukraine and wonder when they might expect a visit from the mysterious unidentified troops that presaged the annexation of Crimea, widely known as Putin’s “little green men. ” The Russians, of course, view the military buildup by those nervous nations as provocative, rather than a response to Russian provocation. Newsweek notes that Nikonov also complained about the strained relationship between Russia and the United States, which he blamed in part on the career destruction of American officials who reach out to Russia with too much enthusiasm. | 0 |
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