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The President and First Lady touched down in Warsaw, Poland today for a visit before traveling to Hamburg, Germany. They ll be in Hamburg for the G20 Summit where Trump is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time and discuss the nuclear threat of North Korea with world leaders. As they stepped off of the plane, Melania appeared in a beautiful green coat . She never misses! GO TO THE 10:15 MARK FOR THEIR DEPLANING:THE FIRST LADY WAVES AFTER ARRIVING IN WARSAW, POLAND:Melania Trump waves after arriving in Warsaw, Poland. How can anyone not love our First Lady? pic.twitter.com/6821k3dH2T Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) July 5, 2017POLISH CROWDS CHEERING AS PRESIDENT TRUMP ARRIVES IN WARSAW: CROWDS LINED THE ENTIRE ROUTE!Polish Crowds Cheering as President Trump Arrives in Warsaw pic.twitter.com/TGCHfb7Blc Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) July 5, 2017A FULL MILITARY ESCORT IN POLAND:The First Couple will leave Germany for Paris and Bastille Day ceremonies next Friday. We re looking forward to watching President trump move amongst world leaders. We have to admit that it s also going to be fun to see what the First Lady is wearing each time she makes a public appearance. | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - If the United States withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal, this will have extremely negative consequences, and Iran is likely to quit the agreement as well, the Kremlin said on Friday. Certainly, this will damage the atmosphere of predictability, security, stability and non-proliferation in the entire world, President Vladimir Putin s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. He said Russia would continue its policy to ensure the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. | 0 |
It looks as though someone just finally had enough of looking at Donald Trump s face, because at a rally on Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia, while Trump was in the midst of speaking, the spotlight lighting up the stage went completely dark.According to the Associated Press: A protester at a Donald Trump rally in Atlanta, Georgia cut the spotlights Sunday, prompting a surreal scene in which Trump led his supporters in a chant of Turn off the lights! Lighting director Bob Hunter told The Associated Press that he stepped away from his booth near the front of the stage for a quick bathroom break.However, Trump being the Trumpiest Trump that he could be, played it of, saying, They didn t pay the electric bill. Even going so far as to say that he preferred the light being off. God forbid he be seen getting bested by a protester. Oh, heavens no. So, once the lights were restored he said, They re too bright, turn them off! and gets his minions to chant, Turn off the lights! It was then that the lighting director quickly obliged.Now, whether it was a protester or just a technical difficulty, that has yet to be fully determined, but either way, it is very true that Donald Trump looks much better with the lights off. Hell, even he agrees.Watch all the mayhem unfold below:Featured image via Screengrab from CNN | 0 |
What s a million dollars between friends? To hell with human rights violations Hillary s got a campaign to win!A major Clinton Foundation donor regularly arrests dissidents and brutally tortures them to extract confessions, according to a new report from Amnesty International.The New York Times reports that despite promises of reform, the Moroccan government continues to use violent interrogation tactics to crush dissent. Moroccan King Mohammed VI recently hosted Bill and Chelsea Clinton at a Clinton Global Initiative conference in Marrakech, where guests were chauffeured across the city to an opulent 56-room palace that boasts a private collection of Arabian horses, overlooks the snow-capped Atlas Mountains and serves a fine-dining menu of biolight cuisine, according to the Washington Post. During the conference Bill cited Morocco s longstanding friendship to my family, and thanked the king, who pledged as much as $500,000 toward the construction of the Clinton Library, as well as the OCP Corporation, a government-owned phosphate mining company that has donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. In interviews with POLITICO, former OCP miners described witnessing verbal and physical abuse doled out by the government against member of a minority advocating for independence in Western Sahara.Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty blasted the Moroccan government in a statement, saying: Morocco s leaders portray the image of a liberal, human-rights-friendly country. But as long as the threat of torture hangs over detention and dissent that image will just be a mirage. According to the report, Moroccan dissidents are repeatedly subjected to beatings, stress positions, asphyxiation, simulated drowning, psychological and sexual violence, as a means of securing confessions for alleged crimes against the state. One tactic, known as the roast chicken, involves suspending detainees from an iron bar by their wrists and knees. It is not known whether Bill Clinton met with any Moroccan detainees while hobnobbing at the Clinton Foundation event, which featured a lavish palm-tree-lined golf resort with a cocktail reception featuring Moroccan hors d oeuvres and a saxophonist serenading about 50 donors. Via: Washington Free Beacon | 1 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - The ruling Communist Party s flagship newspaper on Thursday provided more evidence that President Xi Jinping should be regarded as China s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after this week s party congress. Xi s official portrait dominated the People s Daily s front page report on the unveiling of the party s new top leadership. Below that was a smaller group photograph of the new top leadership - the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee including Xi. It is a stark departure from recent precedent, with Mao Zedong the last leader to be granted such status on the front page after the party conclave - which is held once every five years. The People s Daily did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Since Deng Xiaoping introduced collective leadership three decades ago to ward off the rise of another Mao-like cult of personality, the official portraits of all newly-selected Politburo Standing Committee members have been presented together on the front page in a grid. The portrait of the party s top leader, the general secretary, is usually only slightly more prominent; reflecting his position as the first among equals. Xi is the party s general secretary, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and president of the country. In Thursday s People s Daily, the portraits and biographical information of the six other standing committee members - Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng - were relegated to the inside pages. That s definitely the first time since Mao, said Ryan Manuel, a China expert at the University of Hong Kong, referring to Xi s oversized portrait on the front of the paper. The People s Daily is closely parsed by party cadres and others, and sets the tone for media coverage in state-run newspapers at the provincial level. Manuel said the paper closely followed regimented rules and norms and would have done so especially meticulously for its most important front page in five years . It s a strict system, he said. The rules of placement and the rules of what type of photos you put on there are incredibly tightly argued and defined. Xi s status as China s most powerful leader since Mao was underlined on Wednesday when the party, in another break with precedent, revealed a new leadership line-up without naming an obvious successor to him. There has been persistent speculation Xi could seek to stay on in some capacity beyond the end of the customary second five-year term in power, which ends in 2022. During the congress, Xi became the first leader since Mao to have a political ideology bearing his name enshrined in the party s constitution while in office. | 1 |
Pope Francis has joined Democrat legislators, along with a handful of RINO s and local mayors to work hand-in-hand with Obama to push immigration from Mexico and South America to the US. Every player in this scheme has their own agenda. Of course, Obama has only one desire, and that is to fundamentally transform America. Democrat legislators are working to secure a dependent voting base. The RINO s (Republicans In Name Only) are beholden to large corporations, whose only goal is to secure cheap labor. Finally, local mayors want the federal funding that comes with placement of each immigrant in their communities. Besides the obvious charitable aspect, what s in it for Pope Francis? What s in it for the Catholic church? Many Catholics (myself included) are wondering why we pass the collection basket more than once several times throughout the year to help subsidize churches, schools and orphanages in Mexico and South America if the ultimate goal is to bring them here? Make no mistake, Pope Francis is interjecting himself into the 2016 Presidential election by walking with illegal aliens on the Mexican side of the border who want to get into the US.This is a direct assault by the Catholic Church on Donald Trump and any other Republicans (including the Governor of Texas) who say they want to close the US border with Mexico.Yesterday, in Ciudad Juarez, one of the most violent cities in the Western Hemisphere thanks to the drug cartels, the pope walked up a ramp covered in flowers toward a cross erected in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone s throw away, according to Reuters.The pope then blessed three more small crosses, at which shoes of migrants who died were laid. We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis, Pope Francis intoned. Each step, a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of trafficking in human beings Injustice is radicalized in the young; they are cannon fodder, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs. Then there are the many women unjustly robbed of their lives. He concluded, Let us together ask our God for the gift of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask him to give us open hearts like the Ninevites, open to his call heard in the suffering faces of countless men and women. No more death! No more exploitation! They are not refugees! People escaping poverty or crime are not legally refugees, but the Pope and the NO Borders Left are purposefully confusing the terminology. They want all migrants-on-the-move to be called REFUGEES who are then entitled to protection and welfare. Why stop at the Mexican border? What about the Iraqi Christian population that s been almost completely wiped out? Why is the Pope standing on the Mexican border demanding we open the flood gates in the name of charity, while tens of thousands of Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East?Where is the outcry from the Pope as the Catholic Charities/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (CC/USCCB) are being paid BILLIONS to bring mostly MUSLIM immigrants, who are being vetted by the corrupt UN to the US from the Middle East, and strategically seeding them across the United States? The following map provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement identifies where the primary nine VOLAGs operate within America and where their affiliate sites are located:Here is the list of Charities who work with the US Department s Refugee Resettlement Program: CWS Church World Service ECDC Ethiopian Community Development Council HIAS Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society IRC International Rescue Committee LIRS Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services CC/USCCB Catholic Charities/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops USCRI U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants EMM Episcopal Migration Ministries WRI World Relief Inc.Additionally, there are 350 subcontractors in 190 cities affiliated with the nine main refugee VOLAGs and the chart below lists the amount of money awarded by the federal government to these contractors since 2008.As you can see the amount of money that has been awarded to these non-governmental organizations is enormous with the total since 2008 amounting to over $4 billion.Simpson notes that because they are non-governmental organizations (NGOs), they can and do lobby for advantageous changes to law and build allies in Congress and the bureaucracy, all fertilized by an open spigot of taxpayer dollars. From this point, as an American, you should be absolutely stunned at what is going on behind the scenes without your knowledge nor your input in regards to the fact that your taxpayer money along with your elected officials are undermining your security by allowing these organizations operate without any oversight. The push by fourteen Senate democrats for 65,000 refugees along with the eighty-four mayors is only the beginning though, as seventy-two House democrats have also joined this coalition.In letter on September 11, 2015, initiated by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI.) and signed by seventy-one democrats, they urge Obama to resettle over three times the 65,000 refugees initially pushed for by the Senate democrats back in May. The House democrats cite Refugee Council USA, just as the fourteen Senators did, and recommend that the United States resettle a minimum of 200,000 refugees by the end of 2016, including 100,000 Syrian refugees. Neglecting the fact that the FBI has stated that they have no way of properly vetting the 2,500 Syrian refugees that we ve already accepted, it further goes to show how little these Senators, Representatives, Mayors, and VOLAGs care about the repercussions of admitting 100,000 into our country.In her book, Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America, Ann Corcoran explains that Refugee resettlement has become a major money-maker for what can only be described as the Religious Left, whose goal is to change the demographic make-up of the 180-plus cities and towns in which they presently work. Corcorans statement perfectly describes exactly what is happening as push for more and more refugees comes solely from the Left. Whether it be Mayors, Senators, or Representatives in the House, they re all seeking to change the demographic make-up of the United States by forcing the taxpayers to subsidize their own destruction.WATCH ANN CORCORAN S POWERFUL VIDEO explaining how the faith-based charities are working with the US State Department to flood our nation with MULSIM refugees HERE:There is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the willful destruction of the greatest and most generous nation on earth. Ann Corcoran of the Refugee Resettlement Watch has generously provided us with the list of democratic Senators, Mayors and Representatives who make up the coalition which has urged for the destruction of our country via the acceptance of hundreds of thousands of refugees. If your elected official is on this list, Ann highly suggests you contact them and moreover do what you can to make sure they are never elected into office again.Link to the Senate letter signed by 14 democrats on May 21, 2015 can be found here.Link to the House letter signed by 72 democrats on September 11, 2015 can be found here.Link to the list of 84 Mayors who are members of the Cities United For Immigration Action can be found here. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon was creating a list of Iraqis who had worked alongside U.S. troops, which will be passed to agencies implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry for people from Iraq and six other Muslim-majority countries, a spokesman said on Monday. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, said that over the weekend the White House had “provided the opportunity” to submit names. “There are a number of people in Iraq who have worked for us in a partnership role, whether fighting alongside us or working as translators, often doing so at great peril to themselves,” Davis told reporters. “We are ensuring that those who have demonstrated their commitment tangibly to fight alongside us and support us, that those names are known in whatever process there is going forward,” he added. It was unclear when the list would be complete and how many names it would include. Trump’s order suspending travel, which he signed on Friday, sparked anger in Iraq, where more than 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed to help Iraqi and regional Kurdish forces in the war against the Islamic State militant group. Iraq asked the United States on Monday to reconsider the travel ban on its citizens, taking a more diplomatic line than the Iraqi parliament, which demanded the government retaliate. The Iraqi parliament called on the government to impose “similar treatment” on U.S. nationals. | 0 |
“The Newshour” anchors to dubsmash Arnab Goswami’s voice to combat sinking TRPs Posted on Tweet
Faced with a sharp slump in viewership after the departure of their former editor-in-chief and star anchor Arnab Goswami, the makeshift anchors of Times Now’s prime-time debate, “The Newshour” have decided to dubsmash Goswami’s voice in a desperate bid to restore their TRPs. (Image via aisfm.edu.in)
Goswami’s loud, hard-hitting voice, one of the main reasons behind The Newshour’s catapult to dominance, will now be played in The Newshour studios, while the makeshift anchors move their lips to his statements. According to senior Times Now journalist Navika Kumar, their usual stand-in Newshour anchor Anand Narasimhan has been spending sleepless nights, hard at work, trying to move his lips to Arnab’s audio flawlessly. “It’ll be a while before Rahul Shivshankar joins us and does a more believable and buy-able impression of Arnab, but until then, we’ve got to do this much at least,” Navika told The UnReal Times .
Narasimhan has admitted to finding this task the most difficult thing he’s ever had to do in life. “To open your throat and try to scream the loudest, yet without screaming, to keep interrupting people correctly before they finish a couple of words, to keep uttering that you would bring in some panelist in to the debate and yet not bring him, to keep announcing ever 5 minutes that you would open the phone lines and yet not open them..Whew! This is as Herculean as it can get. I expect to be featured on Ripley’s Believe it or not, if at all I’m able to achieve this dubsmashing feat,” the anchor described, before going ahead to practice moving his lips to “THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW!”
Navika also added that the crew has a backup plan in place, should the dubsmashing go awry. “In the worst case, if no one is able to lip sync properly, we will try to get Dr. Manmohan Singh to do the job. He doesn’t have to dubsmash, he might as well speak and we can have Arnab’s voice as the voiceover,” the senior journalist added. The channel, however, soon had a reason to cheer, as Bollywood actor Anupam Kher volunteered to act as Arnab for free. “Dubsmashing Arnab is the least I can do for my country and our soldiers at the border. It is a role that I would be proud and privileged to accept, all for the sake of the jawans,” Kher exclaimed.
The move has, however, come in for sharp criticism from the channel’s bete noire s. “Dubsmash => Dumb smash. Enough said :)” tweeted Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha. The last word though, went to AAP spokesperson The Ashutosh. “Why the Times Now sud depend on lip sinking the Arnab’s voice !!! Will the Modi answer !!!” (sic) the former IBN7 editor tweeted. Tweet About Ashwin Kumar
1 of the proud columnists of URT, former co-editor of URT Tamil, amateur musician, Real Harris Jayaraj devotee, UnReal T. Rajendar fanatic, passionate about stopping female foeticide. View all posts by Ashwin Kumar → Related Posts | 1 |
Well that didn t take long at all did it? 2016 is only a few days old and already Republicans have vowed to do everything in their power to continue screwing America. Why? Because they re absolutely spineless and don t want to make the Tea Party mad. Seriously, that s the entire reason. One of the two major parties of the United States of America is so afraid of a tiny group of racist morons that they re willing to do or say ANYTHING to keep them happy.Speaker of the Mouse House Paul Ryan has already promised that Republicans are going to vote on repealing Obamacare again:Now it appears that Ryan earned the faint support of Congressional Republicans by promising to get back to the business of negation and legislative navel-gazing. This was evident in Ryan s statement about his plans for Congress in January: When we return in January, the House will put an ObamaCare repeal bill on the floor and pass it and put it on the president s desk We are going to keep working to give families relief from this law while we work to dismantle and replace it altogether. Yes, because millions of families that have never had health insurance before need relief from the burden of having health insurance. And someone please let me know when Republicans figure out exactly what the replace part of their big plan is.Salon s Sean Illing summed up the GOP s actions quite nicely when he pointed out that, each of these votes, like the recent Benghazi hearing, was a masturbatory exercise in political theater. In other words, Republicans are wasting the taxpayer s time and money for the sole purpose of creating anti-government Tea Party porn.Senate Republicans will be just as useless as Mitch McConnell has promised to keep persecuting refugees. Refugees, if you ll recall, are the Greatest Threat To America Of All Time because 1 of them might someday do something bad. Meanwhile, a group of armed white Christian extremists have seized a federal building and are threatening to shoot government officials. But, you know, McConnell is worried about those wascally refugees fleeing war and violence. Murika.Featured image via Cagle Cartoons | 0 |
Who can argue with this young lady’s speech?
I bet if Donald Trump had a brick for every lie Hillary has told he could build two walls.
…
As a thirteen year old even I know Hillary Clinton is working for her own success and ways to control my life, my family’s life and your lives… She wants to make it Hillary’s America… not The Peoples’ America.
Hattip Gateway Pundit
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The next time someone asks you for your cellphone number, you may want to think twice about giving it. The cellphone number is more than just a bunch of digits. It is increasingly used as a link to private information maintained by all sorts of companies, including money lenders and social networks. It can be used to monitor and predict what you buy, look for online or even watch on television. It has become “kind of a key into the room of your life and information about you,” said Edward M. Stroz, a former crime agent for the F. B. I. who is of Stroz Friedberg, a private investigator. Yet the cellphone number is not a legally regulated piece of information like a Social Security number, which companies are required to keep private. And we are told to hide and protect our Social Security numbers while most of us don’t hesitate when asked to write a cellphone number on a form or share it with someone we barely know. That is a growing issue for young people, since two sets of digits may well be with them for life: their Social Security number and their cellphone number. Nearly half of all American households have given up their landlines and have only wireless phone service — a figure that has risen more than 10 percentage points in just three years. Among people ages 25 to 29, the share of homes that have only wireless phone service stands at 73 percent, according to government statistics. Taylor Gallanter, a hair stylist in San Francisco, has had her cellphone number since she was 15. She has never had a landline and doubts she ever will. She knows how valuable her cellphone number is. She does not provide it on online forms unless it is required. Using her email address as contact information, she said, seems less invasive and risky. “With just your cellphone number and name, I know they can get all sorts of information about you,” Ms. Gallanter said. In fact, investigators find that a cellphone number is often even more useful than a Social Security number because it is tied to so many databases and is connected to a device you almost always have with you, said Austin Berglas, a former F. B. I. agent who is senior managing director of K2 Intelligence, a private investigator. “The point is the cellphone number can be a gateway to all sorts of other information,” said Robert Schoshinski, the assistant director for privacy and identity protection at the Federal Trade Commission. “People should think about it. ” The use of the cellphone number in new, unanticipated ways has echoes in the history of the Social Security number, which was created in 1936. Its original purpose was to enable the nation’s nascent social insurance system to maintain accurate records of workers covered under the program. It was never meant as a identification number. Gradually, the simplicity of using a unique number to identify people encouraged the widespread use by other government agencies and corporations. That took off starting in the 1960s, when mainframe computers made it possible to create huge digital files on citizens and customers. The spread of the Social Security number as a quick and easy identifier, found in all kinds of corporate and government databases, has smoothed the way for commerce. But there have been unintended consequences. “That Social Security numbers are so broadly used and often so poorly protected is a major cause of the current epidemic of identity theft,” said Alessandro Acquisti, a computer scientist and privacy expert at Carnegie Mellon University. The total losses in the United States from stolen identities used in crimes like credit card and loan fraud were $15 billion last year, Javelin, a research and consulting firm, estimated. And 11 percent of American adults say they lost money last year in a telephone swindle, according to a Harris Poll survey sponsored by Truecaller, a Swedish maker of a cellphone app with features like caller ID and spam blocking. But if a cellphone number and the intimate computer behind it open a door to new risks, technology, as is so often the case, can also be employed to combat those risks. Take fraud prevention. When shoppers use Affirm, a that offers an alternative to credit cards for online purchases, the company’s software mines many data sources and approves or rejects a loan within a minute or so. To perform that feat of technical wizardry, Affirm asks borrowers for a few pieces of personal information, including their names and dates of birth. But the strongest identifier and conduit to useful information is the cellphone number, which acts like “the digital equivalent of the Social Security number,” said Max Levchin, chief executive of Affirm. When a customer of Affirm wants to get an installment loan to buy, say, an $850 mattress or a $3, 000 mountain bike, the company sends the person a temporary personal identification number in a text message. The same form of authentication is widely used by banks, payment systems like PayPal and other companies before certain transactions are approved. The temporary ID numbers typically remain valid for only 30 seconds to 180 seconds, increasing the odds that the person trying to borrow or buy is indeed the same person who owns the phone with that number. It’s not foolproof, but if a cellphone is lost or stolen, it is typically locked. It can be hacked into, but that takes a separate set of skills. By contrast, a stolen Social Security number is a permanent pathway to identity theft. “What you can do with the cellphone number and mobile technology represents a pretty substantial advantage in the ongoing war against fraud and identity theft,” said Rajeev Date, a venture investor and former banker, who was previously deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But a life presents problems for many independent professionals and workers at and small businesses, who make business calls on their personal cellphones. So Ms. Gallanter, a partner in a mobile barbershop in a van, became one of the five million people who have installed the new app Sideline this year to add a second number to their cellphones. The service is free for individuals and $10 a month a number for groups of workers in a business, who get extra features like a company directory and voice mail transcription. One of Sideline’s ad mottos is: “Keep your personal number private. Add a second number to your smartphone. ” “This gives you a second mobile identity, which more and more people need today,” said Greg Woock, chief executive of Pinger, a in San Jose, Calif. that created the Sideline software and service. | 0 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — Now that the Rio Olympics are finally over, you can imagine how the organizers of these Games might celebrate. On the soft, wide sands of Copacabana Beach, looking out at the Atlantic. In one hand, a newspaper declaring Brazil the Olympic champion in men’s soccer and volleyball, a perfect ending. In the other, a pen. It’s to write letters to naysayers who said these Games would be a disaster. The concerns about these Games were myriad, and many of them stemmed from the water. One fear was that the polluted water in the ocean, the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon and Guanabara Bay would sicken the athletes competing in it and on it. A bigger fear was that standing water would allow mosquitoes to multiply, increasing the chances that visitors would get the Zika virus and causing a global health crisis. But look how everything turned out: Mosquitoes were few because it’s winter. And as far as we know, at least so far, zero athletes were affected by dirty water. Still, the water here played a leading role in how these Games will be remembered — for reasons good and bad. At the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Michael Phelps blessed the pool water with his greatness. Competing in his fifth Summer Games, he won his 23rd gold medal and, with his 13th gold from an individual event, passed a guy named Leonidas of Rhodes in the record books. How momentous was that? Leonides won his 12th event in 152 B. C. At 31, Phelps said he finally — no, really this time — had swum his last Olympic race. Now he’s a dad to a baby boy, Boomer. He’s got another life to live, and this one’s on land. When “The Banner” played as he stood atop the medals stand for the final time, he wept. “I feel fulfilled,” he said. “It was what I wanted. ” Katie Ledecky, on her way to her freshman year at Stanford, poured some of her own magic into the pool water. She set world records in the and freestyles, finishing so far ahead in the 800 that she was practically showered, dressed and ready to cheer for her competitors when they finally touched the wall. Fine, she wasn’t that fast. She did win by more than 11 seconds, though. The pool was also a place for firsts, and for inspiration. Simone Manuel, in the freestyle, became the first woman to win an individual swimming event at an Olympics. She said she had gone into the race with “the weight of the black community” on her shoulders. “I would like there to be a day when there are more of us, and it’s not ‘Simone, the black swimmer,’” Manuel said. Lilly King also used the pool as a lectern, as one of several swimmers who spoke out against doping. These Olympics, after all, began under a cloud of doping. The Russians were caught in a doping scheme, and about a third of their 400 or so athletes were eventually barred from Rio. The International Olympic Committee’s president, Thomas Bach, in all of his spineless glory, could have and should have barred the whole Russian delegation but punted to the sports federations to decide. That’s how Yulia Efimova, a Russian who served a drug suspension in 2013, managed to get a pass for the Games. When she finished a swim in the breaststroke semifinals, she waved her index finger in a No. 1 sign. That didn’t sit well with King, who responded by wagging her finger at Efimova. King told NBC: “You know, you’re shaking your finger No. 1, and you’ve been caught for cheating. I’m not a fan. ” Later, King said she wanted to bar any athlete who had been caught doping. She was accused of being a poor sport. But you know what’s really being a poor sport? Taking drugs to win. King said what so many clean athletes, for years, had wanted to. Good for her. Rio’s water hosted some imperfect moments, too, and also the Games’ most embarrassing ones. Two pools used for diving, water polo and synchronized swimming mysteriously turned green. Games organizers had several different explanations, including too many people in the water, before saying it was hydrogen peroxide mistakenly added to the water. Neither was a good excuse. Nearby, in the Olympic Park, the swimming pool — the gleaming blue water in which the Americans had dominated during the Games’ first week — had also gone bad. Albeit metaphorically. Ryan Lochte, an American gold medalist now reviled by Brazilians and Americans alike, lied about being robbed at gunpoint when he and three teammates were out partying in Rio. He said the robber had impersonated a police officer, held a cocked gun to his forehead and demanded money. Turns out that was not exactly true. “Not exactly” meaning not at all. After causing an international incident, Lochte on Saturday apologized for his “immature behavior” and said he “overexaggerated the story,” without seeming to realize that his knuckleheaded tall tale was the seed that grew into these Olympics’ biggest scandal. Not easy to do, considering that the Games began with potential scandals ready to sprout from every corner. Back at the swimming pool on Friday, though, it was time for a cleansing. Give thanks to the United States women’s water polo team for accomplishing that. The American players started their Games in the pool before moving to the swimming venue for the final week. They dived into the Olympic Aquatics Stadium’s pool for the gold medal match against Italy. On the deck was their coach, Adam Krikorian, whose Olympics hadn’t gone as planned. Two days before the opening ceremony, Krikorian received a text from his father. Call me now, it said. Krikorian’s brother Blake had died of a heart attack while surfing. The next day, at 7 a. m. Krikorian gathered his team to break the news. He said they shouldn’t worry about him or act differently around him. He said it would be unfair for his grief to distract them. “He was telling us to enjoy the moment, enjoy opening ceremonies, don’t worry about me, you be you,” the team captain, Maggie Steffens, said. “‘This is your dream live it. ’” She added, “We wanted to be strong for him, but he was strong for us. ” Krikorian went home and returned three days later, struggling to focus. He and his brother, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, were close. All three Krikorian brothers — Blake, Jason and Adam — had grown up in the pool and played water polo. Little things would make Adam crack: a song that reminded him of Blake, a memory of a moment they had spent together. In the mornings, he would stand at a pond in the athletes’ village and try to empty his emotions. But so much remained: Thursday would have been Blake’s 49th birthday. “I just keep coming back to how my brother, who was the coolest dude in the world, would want me to be,” Adam Krikorian said. “Anytime I was losing focus or getting too emotional, I would think about him and what he would tell me: ‘Man, you are wasting this moment. Go have a blast. Kick some butt. Go compete. Never give up.’ When I started thinking about that, that’s what gave me peace. ” In the final minutes of Friday’s final, though, Krikorian couldn’t hold back. His team was about to win, and he cried. These Olympics were hard, so hard, and so very long. Somehow, he had made it to the end to see the United States win, and celebrate. Steffens and another player, Rachel Fattal, ran at him and tackled him into the pool. The rest of the players and coaches followed. There they were, in a giant wet huddle, letting the water wash over their teary faces as they bobbed up and down, cheering and hugging. For them, the end of these Summer Games came as such a joy. And in so many ways — actually, for so many people — the end was also a relief. | 0 |
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Homeland Security chief John Kelly will attend the Munich Security Conference in February, and the event’s organizers said on Wednesday they expect other senior U.S. officials to attend also. Mattis and Kelly were confirmed in their posts just days ago, following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. “All signs point to a particularly strong participation of both the new administration, as well as Congress,” the group said in a statement. Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer had invited Trump to visit Munich - and possibly the annual security conference - shortly after his election in November, although U.S. presidents have not attended the event in the past. U.S. vice presidents, by contrast, have frequently attended the annual event in Munich, which draws leaders and diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and the United States. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has been invited but it was not yet clear if he would attend, a spokesman said. Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German envoy to Washington and the conference’s chairman, said participants would address issues such as the future of transatlantic relations, NATO and the EU, the Ukraine crisis, ties with Russia and the war in Syria. On Jan. 15, Trump said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks but that the military alliance was still very important to him. “I hope that we will not mince words and speak honestly about our disagreements as well as about our common interests and values,” Ischinger said in a statement. Other confirmed participants include U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, European Council President Donald Tusk, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the presidents of Poland, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, and the prime ministers of Norway, Hungary and Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will participate, as well as Sigmar Gabriel, who will take over as German foreign minister on Friday. Many business leaders, defense and foreign ministers, lawmakers and representatives of non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch also take part. | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British gamblers believe U.S. President Donald Trump is now more likely to leave office before the end of his first term than not, British bookmakers said on Wednesday, after a week of tumult at the White House. Betfair said that punters had bet more than 5,000 pounds ($6,470) on an early departure for Trump in the hours after it was reported he had asked his then-FBI Director James Comey to shut down an investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia. Concerns that businessman and former reality TV star Trump’s economic reforms could be slowed and he might even face the threat of impeachment has dented demand for the dollar. On UK betting markets, the odds on Trump failing to see out his four-year term dropped to 5/6 from evens on Betfair, implying a 55 percent chance that he will leave. Betfair was also offering odds of 12/5 percent that Trump would leave office this year, implying a 27 percent chance that he would depart. Betfair said that the odds for such an early departure had never been shorter. Fellow bookmaker Ladbrokes said its odds on the president leaving office via impeachment or resignation before the end of his first term had also shortened in the last week to 4/5 after a flurry of bets. Spokeswoman Jessica Bridge added that Ladbrokes had taken close to 50,000 pounds on various wagers over Trump’s future, including whether he would be impeached and the year he might be replaced. “Barely a day goes by without a Trump scandal, but money talks, and punters are becoming increasingly convinced the president could be impeached sooner rather than later,” Bridge said. UK political betting markets have exploded in recent years, with millions wagered last year ahead of surprising results of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership and Trump’s election which was the most bet-upon political event ever. Bookmakers also saw their biggest market for a French election earlier this year, buoyed by growing enthusiasm for political betting, an unpredictable result and a ban on betting on politics in France. | 0 |
These are shocking revelations that have essentially taken place while America and our elected representatives slept.ALL Of A Sudden Before Obama there was virtually no outlandish presence of Islam in America. Only 7 years later, here are some observations made by a 75 year old American:1. All of a sudden, Islam is taught in schools. Christianity and the bible are banned in schools and in our military.2. All of a sudden we must allow prayer rugs everywhere and allow for Islamic prayer in schools, airports and businesses.3. All of a sudden we must stop serving pork in prisons.4. All of a sudden we are inundated with law suits by Muslims who are offended by American culture.5. All of a sudden we must allow burkas to be worn everywhere even though you have no idea who or what is covered up under them.6. All of a sudden Muslims are suing employers and refusing to do their jobs if they personally deem it conflicts with Sharia Law.7. All of a sudden the Attorney General of the United States vows to prosecute anyone who engages in anti-Muslim speech .8. All of a sudden, Jihadists who engage in terrorism and openly admit they acted in the name of Islam and ISIS, are emphatically declared they are NOT Islamic by our leaders and/or their actions are determined NOT to be terrorism, but other nebulous terms like workplace Violence. 9. All of a sudden, it becomes policy that Secular Middle East dictators that were benign or friendly to the West, must be replaced by Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.10. All of a sudden our troops are withdrawn from Iraq and the Middle East, giving rise to ISIS.11. All of a sudden, America has reduced its nuclear stockpiles to 1950 levels, as Obama s stated goal of a nuke-free America by the time he leaves office continues uninterrupted.12. All of a sudden, a deal with Iran must be made at any cost, with a pathway to nuclear weapons and HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars handed over to fund their programs.13. All of a sudden America APOLOGIZES to Muslim states and sponsors of terror worldwide for acts of aggression, war and sabotage THEY perpetrate against our soldiers.14. All of a sudden, the American Navy is diminished to 1917 Pre-World War I levels of only 300 ships. The Army is at pre-1940 levels. The Air Force scraps 500 planes and planned to retire the use of the A-10 Thunderbolt close air support fighter. A further draw down of another 40,000 military personnel is in progress.15. All of a sudden half of our aircraft carriers are recalled for maintenance by Obama rendering the Atlantic unguarded, NONE are in the Middle East.16. All of a sudden Obama has to empty Guantanamo Bay of captured Jihadists and let them loose in Jihad-friendly Islamic states. He demands to close the facility.17. All of a sudden America will negotiate with terrorists and trade FIVE Taliban commanders for a deserter and Jihad sympathizer.18. All of a sudden there is no money for American poor, disabled veterans, jobless Americans, hungry Americans, or displaced Americans but there is endless money for Obama s Syrian Refugee Resettlement programs.19. All of sudden there is an ammunition shortage in the USA.20. All of a sudden, the most important thing for Obama to do after a mass shooting by two Jihadists, is disarm American Citizens.21. All of a sudden, the President of the United States cannot attend the Christian funerals of a Supreme Court Justice and a former First Lady because of previous (seemingly unimportant) commitments.Finally And all of a sudden, I m sick to my stomach. I m not sure the majority of Americans recognize the seriousness of the situation and how much progress has been made by Islam these last 7 years, a very brief time compared to a 75 year lifetime!This was sent to 100% FED UP! by a fan of our Facebook page. | 0 |
Reasons to Risk Nuclear Annihilation latest neocon/liberal-hawk scheme is for the U.S. population to risk nuclear war to protect corrupt politicians in Ukraine and Al Qaeda terrorists in east Aleppo, two rather dubious reasons to end life on the planet, says Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Obviously, I never wanted to see a nuclear war, which would likely kill not only me but my children, grandchildren, relatives, friends and billions of others. We’d be incinerated in the blast or poisoned by radiation or left to starve in a nuclear winter.
But at least I always assumed that this horrific possibility would only come into play over something truly worthy, assuming that anything would justify the mass extinction of life on the planet. Peter Sellers playing Dr. Strangelove as he struggles to control his right arm from making a Nazi salute.
Now, however, Official Washington’s neocons and liberal interventionists are telling me and others that we should risk nuclear annihilation over which set of thieves gets to rule Ukraine and over helping Al Qaeda terrorists (and their “moderate” allies) keep control of east Aleppo in Syria.
In support of the Ukraine goal, there is endless tough talk at the think tanks, on the op-ed pages and in the halls of power about the need to arm the Ukrainian military so it can crush ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine who dared object to the U.S.-backed coup in 2014 that ousted their elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
And after “liberating” eastern Ukraine, the U.S.-backed Ukrainian army would wheel around and “liberate” Crimea from Russia, even though 96 percent of Crimean voters voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia – and there is no sign they want to go back .
So, the world would be risking World War III over the principle of the West’s right to sponsor the overthrow of elected leaders who don’t do what they’re told and then to slaughter people who object to this violation of democratic order.
This risk of nuclear Armageddon would then be compounded to defend the principle that the people of Crimea don’t have the right of self-determination but must submit to a corrupt post-coup regime in Kiev regardless of Crimea’s democratic judgment.
And, to further maintain our resolve in this gamble over nuclear war in defense of Ukraine, we must ignore the spectacle of the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev wallowing in graft and corruption .
While the Ukrainian people earn on average $214 a month and face neoliberal “reforms,” such as reduced pensions, extended years of work for the elderly and slashed heating subsidies, their new leaders in the parliament report wealth averaging more than $1 million in “monetary assets” each, much of it in cash.
A Troubling Departure
The obvious implication of widespread corruption was underscored on Monday with the abrupt resignation of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili who was the appointed governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region. A scene from “Dr. Strangelove,” in which the bomber pilot (played by actor Slim Pickens) rides a nuclear bomb to its target in the Soviet Union.
Though Saakashvili faces charges of abusing power back in Georgia, he was nevertheless put in charge of Odessa by current President Petro Poroshenko, but has now quit (or was ousted) amid charges and counter-charges about corruption.
Noting the mysterious wealth of Ukraine’s officials, Saakashvili denounced the country’s rulers as “corrupt filth” and accused Poroshenko and his administration of sabotaging real reform.
“Odessa can only develop once Kiev will be freed from these bribe takers, who directly patronize organized crime and lawlessness,” Saakashvili said . Yes, that would be a good slogan to scribble on the side of a nuclear bomb heading for Moscow: “Defending the corrupt filth and bribe takers who patronize organized crime.”
But the recent finger-pointing about corruption is also ironic because the West cited the alleged corruption of the Yanukovych government to justify the violent putsch in February 2014 that drove him from office and sparked Ukraine’s current civil war.
Yet, the problems don’t stop with Kiev’s corruption. There is the troubling presence of neo-Nazis , ultranationalists and even Islamic jihadists assigned to the Azov battalion and other military units sent east to the front lines to kill ethnic Russians.
On top of that, United Nations human rights investigators have accused Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service of hiding torture chambers .
But we consumers of the mainstream U.S. media’s narrative are supposed to see the putschists as the white hats and Yanukovych (who was excoriated for having a sauna in his official residence) and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the black hats.
Though U.S. officials, such as Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, helped organize or “midwife” the coup ousting Yanukovych, we are told that the Ukraine crisis was a clear-cut case of “Russian aggression” and Crimea’s decision to secede (and rejoin Russia) was a “Russian invasion” and an “annexation.”
So, all stirred up with righteous indignation, we absorbed the explanation that economic sanctions were needed to punish Putin and to destabilize Russian society, with the hoped-for goal of another “regime change,” this time in Moscow.
We weren’t supposed to ask if anyone had actually thought through the idea of destabilizing a nuclear-armed power and the prospect that Putin’s overthrow, even if possible, might lead to a highly unstable fight for control of the nuclear codes.
Silencing Dissent
Brushing aside such worries, the neocons/liberal-hawks are confident that the answer is to move NATO forces up to Russia’s borders and to provide military training to Ukraine’s army, even to its neo-Nazi “shock troops.” Nazi symbols on helmets worn by members of Ukraine’s Azov battalion. (As filmed by a Norwegian film crew and shown on German TV)
After all, when have the neocons and their liberal interventionist sidekicks ever miscalculated about anything. No fair mentioning Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or other lucky countries that have been on the receiving end of a benighted “regime change.”
An American who protests or even mentions the risk of nuclear war is dismissed as a “Kremlin stooge” or a “Putin puppet” or a “useful fool” repeating “Russian disinformation” and assisting Moscow’s “information war” against the U.S. government.
But if you’re still a bit queasy about risking nuclear annihilation to keep some Ukrainian kleptocrats in power, there is the other cause worth having the human race die over: protecting Al Qaeda terrorists and their “moderate” rebel comrades holed up in east Aleppo.
Since these modern terrorists turn out to be highly skilled with video cameras and the dissemination of propaganda, they have created the image for Westerners that the Syrian military and its Russian allies simply want to kill as many children as possible.
Indeed, most Western coverage of the battle for Aleppo whites out the role of Al Qaeda almost completely although occasionally the reality slips through in on-the-ground reporting , along with the admission that Al Qaeda and its fellow fighters are keeping as many civilians in east Aleppo as possible, all the better to put up heartrending videos and photos on social media.
Of course, when a similar situation exists in Islamic State-held Mosul, Iraq, the mainstream Western media dutifully denounces the tactic of keeping children in a war zone as the cynical use of “human shields,” thus justifying Iraqi and U.S. forces killing lots of civilians during their “liberation.” The deaths are all the enemy’s fault.
However, when the shoe is on the Syrian/Russian foot, we’re talking about “war crimes” and the need to invade Syria to establish “safe zones” and “no-fly zones” even if that means killing large numbers of additional Syrians and shooting down Russian warplanes.
After all, isn’t the protection of Al Qaeda terrorists worth the risk of starting World War III with nuclear-armed Russia? And if Al Qaeda isn’t worth fighting a nuclear war to defend, what about the thieves in Ukraine and their neo-Nazi shock troops? Calling Dr. Strangelove.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ). | 0 |
If you have a system that rewards you for being a victim, it s subject to abuse. Sheriff Donny YoungbloodThat kind of stance has won him enemies in California s immigrant-rights movement and frequent comparisons to Joe Arpaio, the brash Arizona sheriff notorious for his workplace raids and ID checks.Youngblood, 64, said he isn t trying to make headlines. The Vietnam War veteran, who grew up working in the potato sheds around Bakersfield, said he s happier hiking or riding his quarter horse, Sparky.He lives in the same modest suburban neighborhood where he grew up, on Bakersfield s now heavily Latino Eastside, and bristles at accusations that his policies encourage racial profiling, pointing out that a third of his deputies are Latino.As he drove through town on a recent morning, past oil derricks, gated golf courses and strip malls lined with Mexican restaurants and carnicerias, Youngblood outlined his philosophy on immigration.The federal government should start enforcing immigration laws or write new ones, he said. He criticized President Obama s new deportation policies, which say most immigrants who have not committed serious crimes and have fewer than three minor crimes on their records should not be priorities for removal. You re in this country illegally and we re going to give you three bites of the apple? That s three victims! Youngblood said. If you commit crimes, you oughta go. Youngblood s defiant views have made him a rare voice of dissent in what has become the nation s most welcoming state for people in the country illegally.At a time when the Democrat-controlled Legislature has moved to allow such immigrants to drive, practice law and pay in-state college tuition passing 26 immigrant-friendly laws last year alone, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures Youngblood is an outlier.He has largely refused to sign paperwork that immigrant crime victims need to apply for U visas, which allow some victims to stay in the country lawfully. As president of the Major County Sheriffs Assn., a national advocacy group, he has asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to share data with police so patrol officers can determine whether the person they stop may be in the country illegally.Youngblood said his department began following the Trust Act last year on the advice of county attorneys. But he said he reserves the right to violate it. If ICE calls me and says, You have someone there who has committed this heinous crime, and we really need you to hold them, I m probably going to hold them, he said.Youngblood s approach has been celebrated by those who believe, as he does, that Obama has been too lax on immigration enforcement.And it has made him the target of activists who accuse him of setting his own immigration policy and of sowing fear among the estimated 66,000 immigrants in this rural county illegally. People are scared, said Lorena Lara, an immigrant who was brought to the country illegally by her farmworker father and who now works for a community organizing group called Faith in Action Kern County. They re afraid to call the police because they think they might be deported. Immigrant advocates have been pushing for more protections and political representation in the Central Valley since Cesar Chavez launched the modern immigrant-rights movement in the grape fields here half a century ago. In recent years, Kern County has been the scene of tense standoffs between protesters on opposing sides of the immigration debate, including a well-publicized shouting match outside the Bakersfield office of Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy in 2013.The majority of Kern County residents are Latino, but it wasn t until the 1990s that a Latino was elected to the Bakersfield City Council or the Kern County Board of Supervisors. (Political scientists point out that Latinos make up only about a third of registered voters and tend to turn out for elections at much lower rates than their white counterparts.)Youngblood says his views are in line with the conservative voters who have put him in office three times since 2006. Their ideas about immigration and government couldn t be more different than the electorate in Los Angeles, he added, even though Kern borders Los Angeles County. We are right-of-the-center on things, he said. I always say Kern is a county that ought to be in Arizona. Not far from Youngblood s home, Jose and his wife live in a run-down gray bungalow. There s a large portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the living room and a dirt yard out front. On a recent evening, as the couple cleaned up after a long day in the fields, a locomotive screeched on nearby tracks.The couple came here from Mexico nine years ago to find work. Jose, who didn t want to give his full name because he said he fears retaliation from the sheriff, now earns $9 an hour picking almonds and oranges. He made $9 a day as a bus driver back home.Jose said that in 2013 he and his wife were attacked by armed robbers while they slept. The thieves stole everything of value and beat Jose for an hour, shattering his ribs.Organizers with the United Farm Workers encouraged Jose to apply for a U visa, saying he had a slam-dunk case. The crime was sufficiently severe, they said, and he had cooperated with the sheriff s deputies who responded to the 911 call.To apply for the visa, immigrants must present a declaration from the law enforcement agency that investigated the crime saying that they were or will be helpful.The Bakersfield Police Department, like most agencies in the nation, has a policy of signing all U visa declarations. Youngblood doesn t.Out of 160 requests between 2012 and 2014, he signed just four, according to Sheriff s Department records. I think he has something personal against Latinos, said Jose, who prays that Youngblood will find it in his heart to reconsider. We are at his mercy, he said.Youngblood said he hasn t signed most declarations because he doesn t believe in the premise of the law. If you have a system that rewards you for being a victim, it s subject to abuse, he said.The sheriff s stance has won him supporters, such as Ellen Fluhart, 70, a retired rancher who lives in the northeastern part of the county. She said Youngblood s decision not to sign U visa petitions is his prerogative. Fluhart said Youngblood s views are refreshing in a state where politicians have passed bills that she says encourage unlawful immigration. They broke the law, Fluhart said. They shouldn t be rewarded. Tensions between law enforcement and immigrant laborers in this community go back decades, said Gonzalo Santos, a sociologist at Cal State Bakersfield. In the 1930s, sheriff s officials deputized farm owners so they could use their badges to shut down labor protests, Santos said. Some farmworkers were killed.Now the department is intervening in immigration matters, said Santos, who called Youngblood a rogue sheriff. Youngblood argues that Brown and the Legislature were interfering when they passed the Trust Act. Conflicting state and federal mandates put sheriffs like him in the crosshairs, he said. It s unfair, because the law is so unclear, Youngblood said. Really what we re looking for is clear law, clear direction. Via: LA Times | 1 |
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The signs that the Republican Party is purposefully doing everything they can to repress the vote and use every trick in the book to somehow sway voters is clear as day. As the Donald Trump campaign is hit with four different lawsuits over their voter suppression campaigns, it’s been discovered that the early voting ballots in Arkansas have a very disturbing “typo” on t hem.
Early voting ballots in Lanoke County read “Hilliary Clinton.”
Since the Republican Party has been demonizing Hillary Clinton for being “crooked” and a “liar” and a literal demon for years on end, it’s hard to imagine this being an honest “typo.”
It’s just another subliminal way that the right-wing is trying to tip the scales in favor of their candidate, who, we need not remind you, is actually an a pathological liar, a serial sexual predator, a thief, and a racist.
Watch NBC’s report here: | 0 |
Ed Klein: For the past 100 years every president who is outgoing has packed up his stuff gone home and not criticized his successor. This is not what the Obamas are planning to do. They rented an eight-bedroom mansion in the section of Washington near Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton s last press secretary. In that house there s enough room for Valerie Jarrett and Michelle and the kids. A place for ten cars to park. They are setting up what they are calling a shadow government.Pete Hegseth: The Obamas claim it is because the children want to stay in D.C..Ed Klein: That s not the real reason they are staying there. They are staying there because despite what the president said in his press conference, he s in a sense of outrage over this incoming Trump Administration, which he thinks is going to wipe out his legacy. So he s setting up this kind of almost insurgency, picking people in foreign affairs, labor, abortion, union matters and setting them up to start appearing on television, making speeches and doing op-ed pieces for next four years, you re going to see not only a Trump Administration but you re going to see a shadow government opposing the Trump Klein said it was an insurgency by the left starting on Inauguration Day with the mass demonstrations organized by Michael Moore. Gateway Pundit | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical company executive, is U.S. President Donald Trump’s top pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, two sources with knowledge of the confidential process said on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. Azar served at Eli Lilly for a decade, including five years as president of its U.S. Lilly USA, LLC unit. The White House declined to comment. Tom Price resigned as HHS secretary in September after about seven months in the post, after facing sharp criticism for his use of taxpayer-funded private travel. Before his stint at Eli Lilly, Azar served as general counsel and deputy secretary for HHS under President George W. Bush. The new HHS secretary will be tasked with implementing Trump administration efforts to unwind Obamacare, a top campaign promise of his, and overseeing the drug industry, which Trump has said is “getting away with murder” by charging high prices for prescription medications. Azar has served on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a drug industry lobby, for several years, and his nomination would raise questions about the administration’s seriousness about lowering drug prices. Other names that have been floated to replace Price include Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Scott Gottlieb, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House but have repeatedly failed to repeal and replace Obama’s Affordable Care Act, prompting Trump to take steps on his own to dismantle the program. The Trump administration followed through on a threat to cut off billions of dollars of subsidy payments to insurers, shortened the Obamacare open enrollment period, slashed advertising for the program by 90 percent and cut funding to groups that help people sign up for health insurance. In October Trump also signed an executive order that would weaken Obamacare by making it easier for Americans to buy bare-bones health insurance plans. The administration is already planning changes for 2019. Last month, it proposed a rule giving states more flexibility over the benefits that must be covered by insurance. Under Obamacare, all insurers have to cover a set of 10 benefits, such as maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs. | 0 |
Like we didn t know this already BUT now we have a firm account of media efforts to bury Trump. The globalists and media are having a hissy fit because the people are rising up against another term for Obama on steroids. Yes, Hillary wants even more freebies for the masses. Who s gonna pay for it? You!Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept, formerly of The Guardian newspaper, laid out in an interview with Slate magazine that the media in the United States has decided to band together in a last-ditch effort to stop the rise of 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump.Greenwald, the progressive journalist who broke the Edward Snowden mass government surveillance storyline, was asked what he thought about Donald Trump s press conference recently in which Trump joked that Russia should release any emails it has from 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton s illicit private home-brew email server from her time as President Barack Obama s Secretary of State. What did you think of Trump s press conference? You ve gone after people who you thought were smearing those denying a Trump-Russia connection, and you ve used the word McCarthyite to describe them. But now Trump has encouraged the Russians to find or release more Hillary Clinton emails, Slate asked Greenwald. In his response, Greenwald detailed how the media in the United States has decided to bloc together against Trump s candidacy for the presidency:OK, so, I am glad you asked about that because this is the conflict that I am currently having: The U.S. media is essentially 100 percent united, vehemently, against Trump, and preventing him from being elected president. I don t have an actual problem with that because I share the premises on which it is based about why he poses such extreme dangers. But that doesn t mean that as a journalist, or even just as a citizen, that I am willing to go along with any claim, no matter how fact-free, no matter how irrational, no matter how dangerous it could be, in order to bring Trump down.Greenwald bashed the New York Times for pushing, in his words, unmitigated bullsh*t. Read more: Breitbart | 0 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - A typhoon roared towards Japan s main island on election day on Sunday, killing at least two people, prompting a warning for tens of thousands to evacuate and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. One man was killed under scaffolding that collapsed in high winds and a fisherman was killed as he tended to his boat, Kyodo news agency said. There were a handful of minor injuries. Typhoon Lan, classified as an intense Category 4 storm by the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site, was south of Japan and moving northeast at 50 kph on Sunday night, speeding up slightly, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Lan appeared to have weakened slightly from its peak, but it was still a powerful storm that could pound parts of Japan with more than 80 mm (3 inches) of rain an hour, an agency official told reporters. It is set to make landfall on Japan s main island of Honshu, possibly near Tokyo, early on Monday, at which time it is likely to have weakened to a Category 2 storm. The wind and rain will grow stronger as the night goes on, so take measures as needed as early as possible, preferably before it gets dark, the official said. The agency issued warnings for heavy rain and flooding on the Pacific side of Japan including the Tokyo metropolitan area, even though the typhoon is likely to be downgraded. More than 70,000 households in various parts of Japan were advised to evacuate, with more than 5,000 ordered to do so, NHK public television said. I live alone and at night it s scary, so I came here as early as I could, one elderly woman told NHK at a evacuation center in western Japan. Wind gusts of up to 180 kph (111 mph) were possible across central and eastern Japan early on Monday, the JMA said, possibly hampering the morning rush hour even after the rain is expected to have largely dissipated. Several small landslides had occurred and rivers were rising close to the top of their banks. One part received more than 600 mm (23 inches) of rain in 48 hours, twice the usual amount of rain for the whole month of October. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters he had called on the government to take steps to minimize any threats to life. More than 300 flights were canceled and rail services were interrupted across the country, in one case due to a power outage. Toyota Motor Corp said it was cancelling the first shift at all of its assembly plants and that it would decide on a later shift around Monday noon. Abe s ruling bloc was headed for a big win in the election, exit polls showed, potentially reenergizing a push towards his cherished goal of revising the post-war, pacifist constitution. It was not immediately clear how the storm and warnings to evacuate affected voting. | 1 |
After evidence has been uncovered that could point to Donald Trump and/or the Russians rigging the presidential election, a group of activists is encouraging Hillary Clinton to demand an audit of three states.Voter rights attorney John Bonifaz and director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, J. Alex Halderman, says they ve found persuasive evidence that the election results in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania have been hacked or otherwise manipulated. They are privately lobbying the Clinton campaign to do something about it.Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000. While it s important to note the group has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.Source: NY MagazineThose three states were the determining factor in this year s election. In total, Trump won Pennsylvania by about 68,000 votes, Wisconsin by 27,000 votes and Michigan by just 11,000 votes. Clinton won the popular vote. According to their research, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes in Wisconsin, which is enough to swing it to her.According to current tallies, Trump has won 290 Electoral College votes to Clinton s 232, with Michigan s 16 votes not apportioned because the race there is still too close to call. It would take overturning the results in both Wisconsin (10 Electoral College votes) and Pennsylvania (20 votes), in addition to winning Michigan s 16, for Clinton to win the Electoral College. There is also the complicating factor of faithless electors, or members of the Electoral College who do not vote according to the popular vote in their states. At least six electoral voters have said they would not vote for Trump, despite the fact that he won their states.This is far from a sure thing. Nate Silver doesn t see problems:Run a regression on Wisc. counties with >=50K people, and you find that Clinton improved more in counties with only paper ballots. HOWEVER: pic.twitter.com/4swuU70NaY Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016 the effect COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS once you control for race and education levels, the key factors in predicting vote shifts this year. pic.twitter.com/NYOINx9lEz Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016It s not just Democrats who are crying foul, though. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham wants a congressional investigation into election tampering by the Russians.It s doubtful this will happen. The deadline to file for a recount in Wisconsin is Friday. Wisconsin s and Pennsylvania s deadlines are next week. There are several petitions, though and there s a campaign to call the Department of Justice. Their number is 202-353-1555. Keep calling. Their number is often busy.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images. | 1 |
Lazy Liberal Journalists Smear Bannon Lazy Liberal Journalists Smear Bannon November 16, 2016, 1:37 pm by Cliff Kincaid Leave a Comment 0
Accuracy in Media
Media bias won’t let up just because the liberal media were humiliated on November 8. The bias is now being directed at the President-elect’s conservative appointments.
On Monday night’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley proclaimed that the Southern Poverty Law Center had declared that Donald J. Trump’s campaign CEO Stephen Bannon “has no business being in the White House.” Bannon was named as chief strategist and counselor.
In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has no business being cited as a credible source by any responsible news organization. It smears conservatives for profit, diverting attention from real domestic threats, such as the Marxist extremists currently demonstrating against Trump in the streets and threatening to disrupt his inauguration.
Many of the demonstrators are from the ANSWER Coalition , an outgrowth of the pro-North Korea Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party.
But don’t expect to get any information about the ANSWER Coalition from the SPLC.
In fact, the SPLC is in bed with communists of all kinds, having participated in the notorious Left Forum held in New York City earlier this year. We noted at the time that the event featured “an assortment of communists, 9/11 truthers, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, and other extremists.”
Even more troubling, SPLC President and CEO Richard Cohen was a member of the “ Countering Violent Extremism Working Group ” of the Department of Homeland Security in 2010. It is possible that Cohen, in this capacity, was able to get access to classified information, and that the SPLC, in turn, shared its erroneous data on conservative opponents of the Obama administration with federal law enforcement agencies.
The attacks on Bannon stem from his leadership of the news site, Breitbart News , a popular source of alternative news and information which was strongly pro-Trump during the campaign. On occasion, the site features some unorthodox conservative views that Bannon’s critics have tried to pin on him.
The site was named for Andrew Breitbart, who pioneered new and effective ways to undermine the left. One of his disciples, Jeremy Segal, did a video exposing Democratic Rep. Danny K. Davis (IL) being honored at the Communist Party U.S.A.’s headquarters in Chicago for a lifetime of “inspiring leadership.”
Lazy liberal journalists would rather cite the SPLC as authoritative without having to bother to investigate how the group has been exposed by such investigative reporters on the left as Ken Silverstein. At one time, notes Silverstein , the group did some good work against racist hate groups. But later, in order to expand its business model and make more money, it expanded the “hate” label to mainstream conservative organizations. It has accumulated $300 million in a reserve fund and has become “one of the most profitable charities in the country,” with its top officials getting membership in the so-called financial elite one percent.
This journalist was named a member of the “radical right,” a designation then transformed into a charge of “Islamophobia” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The accusations are designed to silence First Amendment rights and discourage the media from going to conservative sources for news, information and commentary.
Before Pelley uncritically cited the SPLC, Kate Snow was on MSNBC talking about how Trump’s stand against illegal immigration was similar to that of the secretary of state of Kansas, Kris Kobach. She said Kobach had given “support” to the Social Contract Press, which she described as a “hate group” designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Social Contract Press rebuts all of the accusations, while noting that the SPLC’s $300 million cash hoard “rivals that of [the] Clinton Foundation.” It was the Social Contract Press which published one of Silverstein’s articles exposing the SPLC.
Indeed, Silverstein’s exposé was just one section of a major report the Social Contract Press published in 2010 that examined the SPLC’s strategy and tactics.
Yet, it’s Bannon who is being accused of being an extremist. The Washington Post admits there’s no real evidence behind the allegation, making it just another smear picked up by most of the media without adequate checking or verification.
What we are witnessing in the faux outrage against Bannon is a fear that the Trump administration and the new Republican Congress will get back to the business of monitoring real domestic threats.
For example, Trump adviser Walid Phares has already indicated that the President-elect will back a bill, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, which could lead to an investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Trevor Loudon, the producer of the new film, “ Enemies Within ,” says the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act could be supplemented by the House and Senate bringing back committees or subcommittees devoted to exposing internal security problems, also known as un-American activities.
A member of Congress exposed in the film for his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood is Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) , who is running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. | 1 |
Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0 |
November 4: Daily Contrarian Reads By David Stockman. My daily contrarian reads for Friday, November 4th, 2016. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Sunday that any woman who has felt violated or mistreated by a man has every right to speak up, even if she is accusing President Donald Trump. “Women who accuse anyone should be heard,” Haley said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “They should be heard, and they should be dealt with.” Washington has been roiled by sexual misconduct scandals, with accusations leading to the resignations last week of three members of Congress. The growing wave of women reporting abuse or misconduct has brought down powerful men, from movie producer Harvey Weinstein to popular television personality Matt Lauer. Haley, discussing that cultural shift, applauded the women who have come forward: “I’m proud of their strength. I’m proud of their courage.” Asked how people should assess the accusers of the president, Haley said, it was “the same thing.” More than 10 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct before he was president. While filming a segment of the television program “Access Hollywood,” he talked about kissing and groping women. Trump has denied the misconduct allegations, although he apologized for his comments, which he called “locker room” talk. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Thursday that sexual harassment allegations against Trump were addressed by the American people when they voted him into office in November 2016. Asked whether Trump’s election settled the matter, Haley said: “That’s for the people to decide. I know that he was elected, but women should always feel comfortable coming forward, and we should all be willing to listen to them.” On Tuesday, voters in the heavily Republican state of Alabama will cast their ballots in a race involving Republican Roy Moore, a former state judge, and Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney. Moore has been accused of sexual misconduct toward women when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. One woman said he tried to initiate sexual contact with her when she was 14. Reuters has not independently verified the accusations, which Moore, a conservative Christian, has denied. Many Republicans, including Alabama’s senior U.S. senator, Richard Shelby, have distanced themselves from Moore. But Trump has endorsed him, saying he wants to see the Senate seat stay in Republicans’ hands. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said on Monday she will not vote for fellow Republican Donald Trump for president. “This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country,” Collins said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. | 1 |
Long-Shot Candidates Look To Keep Hope Alive For 2016
Not for the headline-devouring, top-tier prospects like Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie, but rather for the long shots and lesser-knowns who are floating their names for 2016.
On Sunday, former Montana Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer reiterated his interest in a White House run.
"I'll just say that there's around 100 counties in Iowa, and on my bucket list is to try to and make it to all the counties in Iowa someday," Schweitzer said on MSNBC, in a flattering reference to the state that hosts the first presidential caucuses.
Two Vermont liberals have signaled a similar interest. One of them, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent and self-described socialist, recently said he's open to a presidential bid if no other progressive candidate steps up.
"Under normal times, it's fine, you have a moderate Democrat running, a moderate Republican running," Sanders told the Burlington Free Press. "These are not normal times. The United States right now is in the middle of a severe crisis and you have to call it what it is."
Former Vermont Democratic Gov. Howard Dean, who ran for president in 2004, told Buzzfeed last week that people have tried to persuade him to take another shot in 2016.
"We'll see. As I say, you never say never in politics," he said.
A few former Republican presidential candidates are also openly considering another run — or hoping to remain in the presidential spotlight.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said last week that he will make a decision about launching a second bid for the presidency next year. He added that the GOP needs to nominate an "authentic conservative" in 2016 who can "lay out a positive vision for America based on the principles that made our country great" — presumably someone like him.
A month earlier, it was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who insisted he is still in the mix: The 2008 GOP presidential candidate told the Christian Broadcasting Network he is "absolutely" thinking about running for the White House again.
It's not just those with a presidential campaign under their belt who've sought to float themselves as prospective 2016 candidates.
After visiting the Iowa State Fair in August, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said he was "curious" about pursuing a presidential bid "if there's room for a bipartisan problem solver" in the race. He's also considering running for the U.S. Senate again in 2014, but in New Hampshire.
Then there's former GOP Florida Rep. Allen West, who like Brown lost his bid for re-election last year. The one-term ex-congressman said in October he is looking at running for several different offices down the road, including the presidency.
Even real estate mogul Donald Trump and Jesse Ventura, a former professional wrestler and governor of Minnesota, have raised the possibility of running for president next time around.
All of these candidates have one thing in common: They aren't frequently mentioned on lists of the top 2016 contenders.
Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, said many of these potential candidates are after one thing: free publicity.
"Politicians and public figures are taking advantage of the vacuum in presidential electoral politics right now," Scala said. "When there's a name floated, and if they're at all prominent, it will get some coverage."
As for those on opposing ends of the political spectrum, like Sanders and Santorum, declaring an interest in running for president can also be a way to influence the conversation within their respective parties.
"They want to make sure their agenda gets some publicity," Scala said. "It is marketing to some degree." | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he respected Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and that the United States’ relationship with Britain would endure. “The people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision,” Obama said in a statement. “The United Kingdom and the European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship.” | 1 |
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas measures to restrict access for transgender people to bathrooms in schools and public buildings appear doomed after moderate Republican powerbrokers blocked the bills and hundreds of businesses opposed them. The so-called “bathroom bills” have caused rifts among Republicans who control the state’s legislature, leaving no likely path to passage before a 30-day special session wraps on Wednesday, analysts and lawmakers said on Monday. “The bathroom bill in this session is dead and buried with dirt over its coffin,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. Enactment in Texas, the most populous Republican-dominated state, could give momentum to other socially conservative states for additional action on an issue that has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. But House Speaker Joe Straus, a pro-business Republican who controls the agenda in the body, has shown little interest in passing a bathroom bill, which he said was not a priority. On Monday, opponents of the bills delivered a list with signatures from 50,000 people who opposed a bathroom bill to Straus and other prominent Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott. Straus’ position was reinforced by a well-financed campaign from major corporations including Texas-based energy companies Halliburton (HAL.N) and ExxonMobil Global Services (XOM.N), which have said the bills were discriminatory and would make it hard for them to recruit top talent. Supporters of the legislation, who say it can help protect women and children from sexual assaults, have not given up. But they acknowledge there is only a slim chance of success, with lawmakers still trying to reach deals on almost all of the 20 priority items set by Abbott for the session. Opponents are still worried bathroom bill language could be attached as an amendment to another bill, but as of Monday afternoon, no such action had been taken. Senate Bill 3, which made it through the Senate and stalled in the House, requires people to use restrooms, showers and locker rooms in public schools and other state and local government facilities that match the sex on their birth certificate, as opposed to their gender identity. A push for bathroom bills nationally sputtered after North Carolina partially repealed such a measure in March after boycotts by athletic organizations and businesses that have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. Opponents of the Texas measures include global tech giants IBM (IBM.N) and Apple (AAPL.O), major Texas city police chiefs, who contested claims the bills would protect public safety, and the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars team. Republican Representative Ron Simmons, who sponsored a version of the bathroom legislation in the Texas House, said the privacy issue at the heart of the bills is supported by a wide majority of Republican primary voters. “Just because we don’t pass legislation doesn’t mean that the issue is not going to be there,” he said. | 1 |
BOZEMAN, Mont. (Reuters) - A Montana Republican congressman-elect pleaded guilty on Monday to assaulting a reporter and was ordered to perform community service and receive anger management training. Greg Gianforte, a wealthy former technology executive who campaigned on his support for President Donald Trump, attacked a reporter on May 24, the day before he won a special election to fill Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Gallatin County Judge Rick West sentenced Gianforte to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management classes. The judge in Bozeman, Montana, also handed down a six-month deferred jail sentence, allowing Gianforte to avoid time behind bars if he complies with the court’s orders. Ben Jacobs, a political correspondent for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, said Gianforte “body-slammed” him, breaking his eyeglasses, when the reporter posed a question about healthcare during a campaign event in Bozeman. The altercation has been portrayed as a sign of the toxicity that has infused American politics. Critics of Trump say his strident criticism of the media has encouraged violence against journalists, while some of the president’s supporters say reporters in general are unfair in their coverage. “This was not a proud moment, but I’m ready to move on and we have a lot of work to do in Washington,” Gianforte, who is expected to be sworn in later this month, said outside court. Last week Gianforte apologized to Jacobs in a letter, and he sent a $50,000 check to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In return, Jacobs pledged not to sue him. “I am confident that he will be a strong advocate for a free press and the First Amendment,” Jacobs said in court on Monday. “And I even hope to be able to finally interview him once he has arrived on Capitol Hill.” Gianforte apologized to Jacobs again in court and said he looked forward to meeting with him later. The judge left open the possibility that Gianforte, after completing his sentence, could have the misdemeanor assault charge formally dismissed, Gallatin County Prosecutor Marty Lambert said by phone. Gianforte initially sought to plead no contest, instead of guilty, but the prosecutor said he insisted on a guilty plea. “This is the type of case where a defendant just needs to admit to the court what he did, to plead guilty, and he did that,” Lambert said. Gianforte on May 25 defeated Democrat Rob Quist to fill the House seat vacated when Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as interior secretary. | 1 |
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told the country what she really thinks about many Donald Trump supporters when she lumped “half” of them into a xenophobic, homophobic, racist, and sexist “basket of deplorables” on Friday.
Although she cautioned her comments were “grossly generalistic,” the blunt commentary at a New York City fund-raiser specifically targeted the nebulous alt-right movement that Mr. Trump has courted, whose philosophical leaders in a press conference this week outlined their plans for an ethno-state where Jews might or might not be welcome.
Mrs. Clinton has never painted Trump as holding such views. But she has used the word “deplorable” to describe some of Trump’s rhetoric and last month said the Republican candidate is “taking hate groups mainstream” by turning alt-right websites with 11,000 views to ones with 11 million hits, a notion she repeated Friday night.
But using the quantifier “half” to describe some of his supporters crossed a new line, say critics. It was likened to the 2008 comment by Barack Obama claiming some Americans bitterly “cling” to guns and religion, and Mitt Romney’s 2012 statement that “47 percent” of Americans can be written off as unapologetic welfare moochers.
The flap comes as Clinton’s polling lead, according to a Saturday report by the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, continues to slide. According to that rolling online survey, the battleground states of Ohio and Florida are no longer considered likely wins for Clinton as Trump has managed to shore up support among white suburban voters. Clinton still has an 83 percent chance of winning the election by an average of 47 Electoral College votes, Reuters/Ipsos reports.
Still, those polling shifts at least partly explain Clinton’s unusually strong assessment of some Trump supporters as part of an effort to let her potential voter base know what’s at stake, especially now that Trump has tapped into what she called some of America’s “irredeemable” impulses.
The harshening tone is part and parcel of one of the most polarized elections in recent history, where two widely disliked candidates are trying to shore up narrow bands of support.
But as Obama and Mr. Romney have found out, calling out any segment of Americans for national scorn is politically risky territory in a country built on the First Amendment right to speak one’s mind without fear.
“The fact is, if somebody tells us to shut up, we’re going to speak as loud as we can,” says Michael Hill, the founder of the white nationalist League of the South. “From her point of view, what Hillary has done is stupid [by targeting Trump’s alt-right support], because she’s legitimizing these people in the minds of folks who may not have been aware that the alt-right existed. She’s basically saying, ‘All you white folks, you’re either going to come with me or go with the alt-right.’ Well, if I have to make a choice, maybe I’ll go look at these alt-right people. And I think that’s happening.”
At any rate, the internet blew up. Clinton supporters found it funny that Trump supporters were offended by a comment that many would say pales to some of Trump’s more politically incorrect quips. “Suddenly NOT being politically correct is a bad thing? Trump detractor Dawn Howard wrote on Twitter.
But Trump saw a clear opening to attack what his campaign characterized as a gaffe for which she should apologize.
“Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people,” Trump tweeted. “I think it will cost her at the Polls!
To be sure, Trump has made sport out of mocking political correctness, piling up a laundry list of dismissive statements about women, Hispanics, veterans, disabled people, Muslims and blacks.
But while Trump's sentiments are clearly resonating in large parts of the US, Vanderbilt University political scientist Marc Hetherington suggests Clinton is zeroing in a majority sentiment in the US that does skew against the alt-right’s white identity politics.
“It’s really important to keep in mind that there’s a really high percentage of whites who don’t organize their world around their racial identity at all, and in fact find the idea troubling,” says Prof. Hetherington.
At the same time, at least to some critics, the American left is to blame for the rise of the alt-right. Clinton’s "basket of deplorables" is an extension of a tendency by some liberals to demonize conservative thought, which has had the consequence of pushing many American moderates into Trump’s corner.
“By reflexively denouncing as a racist everyone who disagrees with them about economics, and by making every detail of ordinary life into a minefield of hidden racial transgressions, [the left has] burned up their own credibility,” commentator Robert Tracinski wrote earlier this year in The Federalist. “In the process, they have weakened the culture’s immune system against racism and made it possible for a young cohort of racists to repackage their odious creed as resistance to political correctness.”
At any rate, the condemnation of Trump's influence on the body politic has become a key part of the Clinton campaign narrative as Election Day nears. The notion is that Trump is “taking hate groups mainstream” in a way that disregards core American values such as equal rights, which is all "profoundly dangerous."
It's not an easy message to muster. In fact, on Thursday night Clinton criticized Trump for his “conspiracy theories like the lie that President Obama is not a true American.” She then added: "If he doesn't respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?"
But after Friday night's comments, Americans clearly saw that Clinton just went down the same road.
At the same time, aside from admitting that she was generalizing, Clinton did empathize with many Trump voters “who feel that 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. They are just desperate for change …."
These Trump supporters, Clinton added, “don't buy everything he says,” but “hold out some hope that their lives will be different” with him as president. “They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.” | 0 |
Sen. Richard Blumenthal laid all his cards on the table when it comes to Donald Trump s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. The Democratic senator from Connecticut argued that with the looming constitutional crisis facing the country and the growing likelihood that Trump will be impeached, Gorsuch should be filibustered.Speaking from the Senate floor on Monday, Blumenthal said that after deliberating carefully and deeply, he has decided to vote against Gorsuch. He said that although he still harbors resentment over the way Republicans treated former President Obama s SCOTUS nominee, Merrick Garland, that isn t why he will be voting no on Gorsuch. But my vote is not about Merrick Garland. It is about Neil Gorsuch and it is about the constitutional crisis that may well be looming as a potential threat to our democracy. Blumenthal noted the testimony of FBI Director James Comey, reminding his fellow Senators that Trump is being investigated for possibly colluding with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. This, he explained, makes the Supreme Court more important than ever. The independence of our judicial branch has never been more threatened or more important. The possibility of a Supreme Court needing to enforce a subpoena against the president of the United States is far from idle speculation. It has happened before in United States vs. Nixon. President Trump has launched a campaign of vicious and relentless attacks on the credibility of our judiciary. His disparaging comments have attempted to shake the foundations of respect for judicial rulings, the credibility and trust that is so essential to our Supreme Court and all our courts. And it is a respect that is vital to holding the president himself accountable to the people and our Constitution.The senator added that Trump had promised a litmus test, for whatever nominee he chose and as an acolyte of hard-right special interests, Gorsuch definitely fits the bill. Because of this, and Gorsuch s evasion of questions regarding civil rights, Blumenthal said he can be expected to attack abortion rights and same-sex marriage, among other things. All reasons he needs to be kept as far away from the bench of the Supreme Court as possible.You can watch Blumenthal explain why he will be voting no on Gorsuch, here:Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1 |
The Twilight actress absolutely shredded the Republican nominee.And the reason why is pretty clear. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has repeatedly insulted women to the point where if only women voted in this election Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide that would give her a mandate.Indeed, Clinton is on pace to do even better with women on November 8th than President Obama did in 2008 and 2012.But just in case there are women out there who have not heard any of the things Trump has said about them, Nikki Reed blasted Trump s misogyny in a new video posted by Humanity For Hillary.In the video, Reed slammed Donald Trump and all the men who support him in an NSFW feminist smackdown that Trump is going to throw a hissy fit about on Twitter for days. This has been a bruising election, Reed begins. On the one hand, we have the chance to elect a lifelong public servant, powerful, experienced, highly qualified to be the first female President of the United States. On the other hand, a candidate who reminds us of the worst men in our lives. Men who saw a powerful woman and tried to block her rise. Our rise. Men who called us bossy, unlikable, liars, and attention seekers. Ambitious, like that s a bad thing. Reed went on to talk about how misogynists like Trump attacked women for doing things like writing books and making movies and that when women continued to achieve new heights despite them they started hurling insults like the C-word, a word that Donald Trump has used in the past. I ve been called the C-word, Reed said. Have you been called the C-word? Reed then pointed out that there is an anti-Hillary SuperPac called C.U.N.T. and proceeded reference Trump calling Hillary a nasty woman by calling upon all nasty women to vote against Trump on Election Day because we are so very close to putting all of that behind us because nasty women vote. And then she sent a message to Trump and his deplorable sexist supporters. So Donald Trump and to every man like Donald Trump who grabbed us, blocked us, who called us fat, unqualified, stupid, ugly and c*nt, we have one thing to say to you: C. U. Next Tuesday. Here s the video via Facebook.Make no mistake, if this campaign and Donald Trump s life before it are any indication, women will be treated like absolute shit if Trump somehow becomes president. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. That s why is it crucial that women vote on Election Day no matter what. Because if Trump wins, women will lose everything they have fought for over the last 100 years, including the right to vote.Featured image via video screen capture | 1 |
Australian Senator Larissa Waters recently went viral after she made history by becoming the first woman to breastfeed in the country s Parliament. But Waters resigned today after it was revealed that she has dual citizenship in Australia and Canada, a breach of Australia s constitution for sitting senators.Waters, a member of Australia s Green Party, became an international sensation in May when she breastfed her two-month old daughter in Australia s parliament. The country had only just legalized the practice in 2016, paving the way for a more family-friendly environment in Australian politics.Waters was born in Winnipeg in 1977 to two Australian parents and moved down under when she was just 11 months old. Australia s constitution forbids anyone with dual citizenship from serving as a senator. Waters, who says she was unaware that she held citizenship in Canada, was elected in 2010. I was devastated to learn that because of 70-year-old Canadian laws I had been a dual citizen from birth, and that Canadian law changed a week after I was born and required me to have actively renounced Canadian citizenship, Waters said at a press conference today. It is with a heavy heart that I am forced to resign as senator for Queensland and co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens, effective today, she continued.Waters is the second Australian senator who s had to resign in as many weeks. Gizmodo | 1 |
As father and son comedy writers and liberal activists Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner appeared as guests on Friday s Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, the two lamented that former President Barack Obama whom Carl called the smartest President we ve had since way back was replaced by President Donald Trump whom Rob derided as clearly mentally unstable. A bit later, Rob Reiner blamed racism that was unleashed after Obama s election for the Republican-controlled Senate blocking him from appointing Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, as he seemed to tie in birtherism and declared that all of that is about delegitimizing an African-American person and everything that s followed from that. Carl fretted: He s working very hard now to take away everything from poor people so that rich people can get a tax break. Smiley, who last week likened possible ObamaCare repeal to a drive-by shooting, agreed, Oh, yeah. And to go from having the smartest President we ve had since way back, to this guy, is like, it s crazy. It s nuts. I mean, I feel so sorry for Obama. I can t believe how he must feel today. MRCTV | 1 |
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Trump supporters chanted at the press before a Trump rally in Fredericksburg, VA: Tell The Truth! Trump Virginia crowd chanting tell the truth at CNN pic.twitter.com/S42MKnx9e9 Jack Posobiec (@AngryGoTFan) August 21, 2016The crowd then yelled DO YOUR JOB! CNN walks in, crowd boos, chants "Do Your Job" Trump Virginia pic.twitter.com/rInKtm5Nle Jack Posobiec (@AngryGoTFan) August 21, 2016 | 0 |
Following all the idiotic drama of Donald Trump s choosing Mike Pence of Indiana for his running mate, Hillary Clinton s choice of Senator Tim Kaine may have seemed a little lackluster to some. However, Kaine compliments Hillary in a way that many people probably haven t thought of, and their pairing makes Trump and Pence look far worse now than before.Politifact, which Republicans revile because they think facts are pesky, annoying things to be ignored, put out a scorecard with the ratings of 27 statements Tim Kaine has made. It turns out that he has more statements rated True and Mostly True than he does Half True, Mostly False, and False put together. He has no Pants On Fire ratings at all.Compare that to Mike Pence. Politifact has rated 20 statements Pence has made, and of those 20, only four are True or Mostly True. Four! He has six Half True statements and six False statements. His only saving grace here is that he also doesn t have any Pants On Fire ratings.A look at Hillary Clinton s and Donald Trump s Politifact scorecards just drives home the point that the GOP is riddled with people who lie and spread misinformation. Trump, being the master liar he is, has more False and Pants On Fire statements than he does Mostly False, Half True, Mostly True and True statements combined.Hillary, on the other hand, has more True and Mostly True statements than she does Half True, Mostly False, False and Pants On Fire all together, just like her chosen running mate. These two are a good team just on that basis.So is it really any wonder that Hillary introduced her running mate as everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not? Of course, she was talking about the policies that Trump and Pence are putting together, but the ability to acknowledge facts and tell the truth is another major way in which Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are not, well, anything like any Republican we ve got.In other words, we have two presidential tickets that illustrate Republican honesty versus Democratic honesty, and Democratic honesty wins hands down. Facts don t lie, and unfortunately for the GOP, facts have a liberal bias.Photo of Clinton/Kaine by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. Photo of Trump/Pence by Alex Wong/Getty Images. Images merged by Rika Christensen | 0 |
In the documents, an unnamed person interviewed by the FBI said Kennedy contacted the FBI to ask for the change in classification in exchange for a quid pro quo.' Whether or not Clinton sent classified emails from her private server that could have jeopardized national security has become a key issue ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8, when Clinton will face Republican nominee Donald Trump.Catherine Herridge of FOX News is a class act and out there telling the truth day after day. Here s her truth bomb on this effort to protect Hillary Clinton:FBI releases docs showing a State Dept exec wanted changes to email classification that would benefit dept & shield HRC, Herridge reports. pic.twitter.com/JMNethoRmX Fox News (@FoxNews) October 17, 2016 VIA: REUTERS | 0 |
WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump, according to senior administration officials. They based that conclusion, in part, on another finding — which they say was also reached with high confidence — that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks. In the months before the election, it was largely documents from Democratic Party systems that were leaked to the public. Intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russians gave the Democrats’ documents to WikiLeaks. Republicans have a different explanation for why no documents from their networks were ever released. Over the past several months, officials from the Republican committee have consistently said that their networks were not compromised, asserting that only the accounts of individual Republicans were attacked. On Friday, a senior committee official said he had no comment. Mr. Trump’s transition office issued a statement Friday evening reflecting the deep divisions that emerged between his campaign and the intelligence agencies over Russian meddling in the election. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again. ’” One senior government official, who had been briefed on an F. B. I. investigation into the matter, said that while there were attempts to penetrate the Republican committee’s systems, they were not successful. But the intelligence agencies’ conclusions that the hacking efforts were successful, which have been presented to President Obama and other senior officials, add a complex wrinkle to the question of what the Kremlin’s evolving objectives were in intervening in the American presidential election. “We now have high confidence that they hacked the D. N. C. and the R. N. C. and conspicuously released no documents” from the Republican organization, one senior administration official said, referring to the Russians. It is unclear how many files were stolen from the Republican committee in some cases, investigators never get a clear picture. It is also far from clear that Russia’s original intent was to support Mr. Trump, and many intelligence officials — and former officials in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign — believe that the primary motive of the Russians was to simply disrupt the campaign and undercut confidence in the integrity of the vote. The Russians were as surprised as everyone else at Mr. Trump’s victory, intelligence officials said. Had Mrs. Clinton won, they believe, emails stolen from the Democratic committee and from senior members of her campaign could have been used to undercut her legitimacy. The intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to help Mr. Trump was first reported by The Washington Post. In briefings to the White House and Congress, intelligence officials, including those from the C. I. A. and the National Security Agency, have identified individual Russian officials they believe were responsible. But none have been publicly penalized. It is possible that in hacking into the Republican committee, Russian agents were simply hedging their bets. The attack took place in the spring, the senior officials said, about the same time that a group of hackers believed to be linked to the G. R. U. Russia’s military intelligence agency, stole the emails of senior officials of the Democratic National Committee. Intelligence agencies believe that the Republican committee hack was carried out by the same Russians who penetrated the Democratic committee and other Democratic groups. The finding about the Republican committee is expected to be included in a detailed report of “lessons learned” that Mr. Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to assemble before he leaves office on Jan. 20. That report is intended, in part, to create a comprehensive history of the Russian effort to influence the election, and to solidify the intelligence findings before Mr. Trump is sworn in. Mr. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt about any intelligence suggesting a Russian effort to influence the election. “I don’t believe they interfered,” he told Time magazine in an interview published this week. He suggested that hackers could come from China, or that “it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. ” Intelligence officials and private cybersecurity companies believe that the Democratic National Committee was hacked by two different Russian cyberunits. One, called “Cozy Bear” or “A. P. T. 29” by some Western security experts, is believed to have spent months inside the D. N. C. computer network, as well as other government and political institutions, but never made public any of the documents it took. (A. P. T. stands for “Advanced Persistent Threat,” which usually describes a sophisticated cyberintruder.) The other, the G. R. U. unit known as “Fancy Bear,” or “A. P. T. 28,” is believed to have created two outlets on the internet, Guccifer 2. 0 and DCLeaks, to make Democratic documents public. Many of the documents were also provided to WikiLeaks, which released them over many weeks before the Nov. 8 election. Representative Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN in September that the R. N. C. had been hacked by Russia, but then quickly withdrew the claim. Mr. McCaul, who was considered by Mr. Trump for secretary of Homeland Security, initially told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “It’s important to note, Wolf, that they have not only hacked into the D. N. C. but also into the R. N. C. ” He added that “the Russians have basically hacked into both parties at the national level, and that gives us all concern about what their motivations are. ” Minutes later, the R. N. C. issued a statement denying that it had been hacked. Mr. McCaul subsequently said that he had misspoken, but that it was true that “Republican political operatives” had been the target of Russian hacking. So were establishment Republicans with no ties to the campaign, including former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. McCaul may have had in mind a collection of more than 200 emails of Republican officials and activists that appeared this year on the website DCLeaks. com. That website got far more attention for the many Democratic Party documents it posted. The messages stolen from Republicans have drawn little attention because most are routine business emails from local Republican Party officials in several states, congressional staff members and party activists. Among those whose emails were posted was Peter W. Smith, who runs a venture capital firm in Chicago and has long been active in “opposition research” for the Republican Party. He said he was unaware that his emails had been hacked until he was called by a reporter on Thursday. He said he believes that his material came from a hack of the Illinois Republican Party. “I’m not upset at all,” he said. “I try in my communications, quite frankly, not to say anything that would be embarrassing if made public. ” | 0 |
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed recent developments in Syria, bilateral ties and a summit in Russia s Sochi during a phone call on Friday, sources in Erdogan s office said. At a summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Wednesday, Russia s Vladimir Putin won the backing of Turkey and Iran to host a Syrian peace congress, taking the central role in a major diplomatic push to finally end a civil war all but won by Moscow s ally, President Bashar al-Assad. A written statement from Erdogan s office will be released later on Friday, sources said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott met with the president of Taiwan on Sunday during a stopover in Houston that was sure to pique Chinese leaders already upset by her conversation with President-elect Donald Trump. It is not unusual for U.S. lawmakers to meet with Taiwanese leaders when they pass through the country, but tensions are high this winter after Trump, who like Cruz and Abbott is a Republican, spoke to Tsai Ing-wen last month. The telephone conversation broke with decades of precedent and cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy. Cruz, who represents Texas, said some members of Congress had received a letter from the Chinese consulate asking them not to meet with Tsai during her stopovers. “The People’s Republic of China needs to understand that in America we make decisions about meeting with visitors for ourselves,” Cruz said in a statement. “This is not about the PRC. This is about the U.S. relationship with Taiwan, an ally we are legally bound to defend.” China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, ineligible for state-to-state relations. The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only “one China” and that Taiwan is part of it.” Tsai scheduled stopovers in San Francisco and Houston on her way to visit allies in Central America, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Beijing had urged the United States not to let her into the country. Cruz said he and the Taiwanese leader discussed upgrading bilateral relations and furthering economic cooperation between their countries, including increased access to Taiwanese markets that will benefit Texas ranchers, farmers and small businesses. Abbott said in a Twitter post that he also met with Tsai on Sunday and that they discussed “expanding trade and economic opportunities.” | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont cast his ballot in a banned referendum on independence from Spain on Sunday morning, images from TV3 television channel showed. He voted in the village of Cornella del Terri in the province of Girona, the regional government said, not in the village originally planned where police broke down the door of the voting station. | 0 |
The Republican National Committee triumphantly seized control of the debates last year, saying it would not allow a repeat of 2012, when “the liberal media interrogated our candidates on issues that were often not a priority to most Americans. … We need more conservatives … in the moderator’s chair.”
But what was a play to keep their candidates safe inside a conservative cocoon now looks like a trap. The first Republican presidential debate will air on Fox News and will be moderated by Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace—who happen to be the same three anchors that have provoked three Republican candidates into embarrassing gaffes this month. Turns out Fox News’ anchors can make Republican candidates look just as bad as MSNBC’s.
The RNC sought to install more “conservatives in the moderator’s chair” because conservatives still are nursing grudges against some of the 2012 primary debate moderators. When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed Mitt Romney on whether “states have the right to ban contraception,” conservatives blamed the “liberal media” for asking an irrelevant question. When CNN’s John King opened a debate by asking Newt Gingrich about allegations leveled by his ex-wife, Gingrich brought the crowd to its feet by chastising King and lambasting “the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans.”
At least in those instances, Republicans could try the “blame the media” strategy to limit the damage. This year, when Republicans shoot themselves in the foot on the debate stage, they won’t have that option.
The recent gaffes on Fox News by Republican candidates are not because Fox News journalists are suddenly out to get Republicans. It’s because even a softball question can trip up a candidate not ready for prime time. Megyn Kelly’s interview of Jeb Bush was the journalistic equivalent of a warm hug. Her simple Iraq question—“Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?”—was only a couple of notches tougher than Katie Couric’s “What newspapers and magazines did you regularly read?”
After Jeb’s initial answer, which skipped past the hindsight premise, Kelly conversationally and neutrally asked for a clarification, “You don't think it was a mistake?” When Jeb was done, she breezily moved on to a new line of questioning well-suited for Fox: “Do you feel that America's place in the world has diminished under President Obama?”
But Fox News teased the Iraq clip before the full interview aired, sparking a media firestorm. Rivals Chris Christie and Ted Cruz, both fervent hawks, jumped in front of the microphone to proclaim they would not have invaded. Influential conservative radio talker Laura Ingraham was incredulous: “You have to have [a nominee] who says, ‘Look, I’m a Republican but I’m not an idiot … I learn from the past.’”
Trying to clean up his mess a couple of days later, Bush ran to what should have been safe ground, Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The host functioned less as a journalist than as a friend helping a friend in need. He first suggested “the media” interpreted Bush wrong and so “I wanted to see if I could clarify that.” After Bush failed to actually clarify, Hannity threw him a second lifeline, “So in other words, with 20/20 hindsight, you would make a different decision.” Bush whiffed the softball, saying, “I don’t know what that decision would have been.”
Unlike the Kelly and Hannity chats, Chris Wallace’s recent interview with Marco Rubio was truly aggressive. He wouldn’t let up over Rubio’s abandonment of the Senate immigration bill for which he voted: “You bailed on comprehensive immigration reform. … Aren't leaders supposed to shape public opinion rather than just follow it? … Shouldn't you have campaigned for this?” He also busted Rubio for a “dramatic shift” in his foreign policy rhetoric, backing off his 2012 support for Iran negotiations and forgoing earlier assurances he was “not a saber-rattling person.”
And those barbs were just the warm-up for the three-minute raking over Iraq. As Wallace bore into Rubio’s varying responses, the unprepared Senate freshman dug himself into a hole by pleading semantic differences regarding questions about whether Iraq was a mistake and whether he’d have invaded knowing what we know now. Relentless, Wallace asked Rubio about seven times “Was it a mistake?” And he refused to let Rubio answer it with caveats, cutting him off with “I'm not asking you that.”
If Wallace were not working for Rupert Murdoch, the loaded questions, opinionated assertions and repeated interruptions would earn Wallace a lifetime membership in the Liberal Media Elite Club.
You can expect Wallace to be similarly unforgiving at the inaugural debate. In fact it was four Augusts ago when Wallace was the foil for Gingrich’s first public haranguing of a debate moderator. (He did not care for what he called a “gotcha question”: “How do you respond to people who say that your campaign has been a mess so far?”) Gingrich was not alone. Wallace dredged up Mitt Romney’s record of layoffs and Herman Cain’s litany of amateurish remarks. Candidates who expect to get a free ride from Wallace will quickly become debate roadkill. | 0 |
We Are Change
Donald Trump on Saturday was quickly ushered off the stage by Secret Service agents in the middle of a campaign speech in Nevada after an incident in the crowd near the front of the stage. The incident turned out to be a false alarm that spurred the arena into chaos.
Secret Service rushes Trump off stage at Reno rally https://t.co/n82d9jXopX
— Chrissy (@omgitsmechrissy) November 6, 2016
Video shows that Trump was in the middle of his speech when the incident occurred. He was looking into the crowd, his hand over his eyes to block the glare from the stage lights, when Secret Service agents grabbed him and escorted him off the stage. Trump ducked his head as he left the stage. The crowd panicked with frightened looks on their faces, as the Secret Service and police tactical units rushed in to quickly arrest the man. Video on twitter shows the moment that the Secret Service and law enforcement took down the man. Got footage of man who was detained by police and Secret Service after @realDonaldTrump was rushed off stage by USSS agents pic.twitter.com/FVEieSYj5w
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 6, 2016
Early reports suggested a man now known to be Austyn Crites, 33 was potentially armed in the crowd according to some witnesses. Those reports have since been retracted the man was found to unarmed besides with a “republicans against Trump” sign. No weapon found at Reno event where Donald Trump was rushed off stage, senior law enforcement official says – NBC https://t.co/LZffgsYes8
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) November 6, 2016
One witness said that they were in the crowd when an unknown guy creeped toward the stage staring at Trump. The witness then proceeded to get the attention of four bigger guys surrounding them and confronted the man. The man then freaked out and reached into his pocket to grab what looked like a gun.” According to the witness the man was mumbling about “the delegates.” “ I was in the crowd, me and my dad saw a guy creeping toward the stage staring at trump. i got the attention of 4 big guys around me and we confronted him and when we did he spurged out and reached into his pocket to grab what looked like a gun. when we tackled him to the ground and between punches he kept saying something about “the delegates”? he must have the delegates. sorry i’m pretty shaken up right now. “ With one person in the crowd shouting “he’s got a gun.” The man was then detained by police officers, Secret Service agents and SWAT armed with assault rifles and taken to a side room for questioning. The man is seen below bei Trump returned to the stage minutes later and proceeded to continue his speech before thanking the Secret Service and police. “Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never be stopped. We will never be stopped. I want to thank the Secret Service. These guys are fantastic.”
~Donald Trump, said.
https://twitter.com/kellyannepolls/status/795070994956374016
Luke broke down the early details in the video below. Austyn has since been exonerated and posted to Facebook the following statement.
The post False Alarm Causes Chaos At Donald Trump Rally In Nevada appeared first on We Are Change .
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The number killed in twin bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu last weekend has risen to 358, the government said late on Friday. As well as the confirmed death toll, 228 people were injured in what was the deadliest attack in the country s history, Somalia s news agency quoted the information and internal security ministers as saying. | 0 |
Wow! This is huge! The Democrats and their leaders are obviously ticking off the big guys with big bucks Was it something they said? DNC Chairman Tom Perez could be the culprit or was it Donna Brazile exposing the corruption in the DSNC? We re happy Morgan saw the light and ditched the DNC but he s still on board with some Democratic candidates He needs to come on over to the RIGHT side!TALLAHASSEE John Morgan tossed a bomb Friday into the 2018 political landscape, saying in a post-Thanksgiving message he is leaving the Democratic Party, and that Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson should not run for re-election, but rather seek the governor s mansion so he can leave a legacy. I can t muster enthusiasm for any of today s politicians, the prominent trial lawyer and Democratic fundraiser wrote on Twitter. They are all the same. Both parties. I plan to register as an independent and when I vote, vote for the lesser of two evils. Morgan said, while he would support some Democratic candidates he likes, he would not raise a dime for national groups like the Democratic National Committee. F no, he said when asked if he would help national organizations. That s like pissing money down a rat hole. Read Donna [Brazile s] book Morgan was referring to a book by the former interim DNC chair, previewed this month in POLITICO Magazine, where she says the party essentially rigged the DNC to support Hillary Clinton before the Democratic primary was over. Bunch of dumb ass political hacks, Morgan added. | 1 |
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Symantec Corp, a digital security company, says it has identified a sustained cyber spying campaign, likely state-sponsored, against Indian and Pakistani entities involved in regional security issues. In a threat intelligence report that was sent to clients in July, Symantec said the online espionage effort dated back to October 2016. The campaign appeared to be the work of several groups, but tactics and techniques used suggest that the groups were operating with similar goals or under the same sponsor , probably a nation state, according to the threat report, which was reviewed by Reuters. It did not name a state. The detailed report on the cyber spying comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region. India s military has raised operational readiness along its border with China following a face-off in Bhutan near their disputed frontier, while Indo-Pakistan tensions are also simmering over the disputed Kashmir region. A spokesman for Symantec said the company does not comment publicly on the malware analysis, investigations and incident response services it provides clients. Symantec did not identify the likely sponsor of the attack. But it said that governments and militaries with operations in South Asia and interests in regional security issues would likely be at risk from the malware. The malware utilizes the so-called Ehdoor backdoor to access files on computers. There was a similar campaign that targeted Qatar using programs called Spynote and Revokery, said a security expert, who requested anonymity. They were backdoors just like Ehdoor, which is a targeted effort for South Asia. To install the malware, Symantec found, the attackers used decoy documents related to security issues in South Asia. The documents included reports from Reuters, Zee News, and the Hindu, and were related to military issues, Kashmir, and an Indian secessionist movement. The malware allows spies to upload and download files, carry out processes, log keystrokes, identify the target s location, steal personal data, and take screenshots, Symantec said, adding that the malware was also being used to target Android devices. In response to frequent cyber-security incidents, India in February established a center to help companies and individuals detect and remove malware. The center is operated by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Gulshan Rai, the director general of CERT-In, declined to comment specifically on the attack cited in the Symantec report, but added: We took prompt action when we discovered a backdoor last October after a group in Singapore alerted us. He did not elaborate. Symantec s report said an investigation into the backdoor showed that it was constantly being modified to provide additional capabilities for spying operations. A senior official with Pakistan s Federal Investigation Agency said it had not received any reports of malware incidents from government information technology departments. He asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. A spokesman for FireEye, another cybersecurity company, said that based on an initial review of the malware, it had concluded that an internet protocol address in Pakistan had submitted the malware to a testing service. The spokesman requested anonymity, citing company policy. Another FireEye official said the attack reported by Symantec was not surprising. South Asia is a hotbed of geopolitical tensions, and wherever we find heightened tensions we expect to see elevated levels of cyber espionage activity, said Tim Wellsmore, FireEye s director of threat intelligence for the Asia Pacific region. The Symantec report said the Ehdoor backdoor was initially used in late 2016 to target government, military and military-affiliated targets in the Middle East and elsewhere. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Hillary Clinton attended her first major White House meeting on Russia in February 2009, the new secretary of state insisted that she wanted to play a leading role in President Barack Obama’s effort to “reset” U.S. relations with Moscow. But while Clinton became implementer-in-chief for one of Obama’s signature first-term initiatives, she was consistently more skeptical than most of his top aides about how far Russian leader Vladimir Putin was prepared to go in turning the page, according to current and former U.S. officials. That stance is indicative of how she would go about dealing with Moscow if she is elected U.S. president on Nov. 8, aides to both Clinton and Obama told Reuters. With U.S. relations with Moscow already plumbing post-Cold War lows, the aides and veteran Russia watchers said she would likely take a harder line than Obama or Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has praised Putin as a strong leader. Dealing with Putin, who is flexing his geopolitical muscle from Ukraine to Syria to cyberspace, will be among Clinton’s biggest foreign policy challenges — one made more daunting by the personal bad blood between them. Jake Sullivan, a former top State Department aide and now senior Clinton campaign advisor, said Clinton could consider the shipping of lethal arms to Ukraine government forces and the creation of no-fly or safe zones in Syria. Obama has rejected both ideas. While such moves could further stoke tensions and might even face resistance from some U.S. allies, Sullivan said in an interview with Reuters that Clinton could manage ties with Russia effectively because Putin would “respect her as U.S. president, her strength, her clarity, her predictability.” According to current and former Clinton advisers, she could consider other policy moves such as stiffer sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and doing more to wean Russia’s neighbors off reliance on Moscow’s energy supplies. Russia is watching warily. “She is not perceived by many people as the Kremlin’s preferred candidate,” said Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank close to the Russian Foreign Ministry. “Many here believe that she would be tougher on Russia than Obama,” he said. Clinton’s first fence-mending effort in March 2009 was not so much a show of strength than of diplomatic clumsiness. She handed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a red button that was supposed to have the word “reset” on it. Instead, it was labeled with the Russian word meaning “overcharged.” Clinton’s distrust of Putin deepened, mirrored by his growing list of grievances against her. By the time she prepared to leave the State Department in early 2013, former officials said, she wrote at least two confidential memos to Obama urging a more hard-nosed approach. At the time, many in the president’s inner circle were not convinced the reset had run its course, they said. Since Clinton’s departure, Putin has reasserted Russia on the world stage, seizing Ukraine’s Crimea region and intervening militarily in Syria’s civil war. U.S. officials have linked the hacking of Democratic Party computers to the Russian government – which the Kremlin denies. Like most national security policies under Obama, the attempt to “reset” U.S.-Russian relations was managed from the White House by the president himself, along with aides from his 2008 campaign, including Russia specialist Michael McFaul. “No one should pretend that this wasn’t an Obama-driven policy,” said Philip Gordon, Clinton’s top Europe adviser at the State Department. “But it’s also not as if she went grumpily to the table and was told by the president ‘you’re doing it’ ... She thought it had logic.” McFaul, who later became ambassador to Russia, said in an interview that from the first White House meeting on Russia in early 2009 Clinton was skeptical of the prospects for transforming U.S.-Russian relations in a way that “some of us aspired to back then.” Two other officials backed up his account. The first fruits of the reset were promising. Putin had - temporarily, it turned out - stepped down as president, with the younger, reform-minded Dmitry Medvedev in his place. Obama and Medvedev signed a new strategic nuclear arms control pact, cooperated to sanction Iran for its nuclear program and agreed to let U.S. troops and equipment transit Russia to support a American military “surge” in Afghanistan. But after little more than two years, the “reset” ran out of steam. By mid-2011, it was clear that Putin was returning to the presidency. Clinton first met Putin at his residence outside Moscow in March 2010. She persuaded him to back tougher U.N. sanctions on Iran, according to two people with knowledge of the session. In front of the TV cameras, however, Putin railed against U.S. trade and economic policies as Clinton watched. Clinton and Putin have been exchanging broadsides for nearly a decade. Putin, a former KGB agent, “doesn’t have a soul,” Clinton quipped on the eve of the 2008 New Hampshire presidential primary, riffing off of President George W. Bush’s comment seven years earlier that he had looked into Putin’s eyes and seen his soul. The Russian leader retorted: “At a minimum, a head of state should have a head.” A U.S. official who was involved in Russia policymaking said Clinton sometimes chose her words poorly, inflaming Russian resentment over its perceived post-Cold War humiliation, a nationalist strain that Putin has long used to his advantage. “She played into that,” said the official, who requested anonymity. The most serious rift of Clinton’s tenure occurred in late 2011, as crowds filled the streets of Russian cities protesting parliamentary elections marred by allegations of voting fraud. Clinton, in a statement approved by the White House, called the election “neither free nor fair.” Putin, who was preparing to retake the presidency, accused her of trying to foment a new Russian revolution. A steady slide in contacts between Clinton and the Russian leadership and in overall relations followed. “Secretary Clinton’s views on Russia were always a little harder-edged than President Obama’s,” said John Beyrle, Obama’s first ambassador to Moscow. That partly reflected a “splitting up of responsibilities,” he said. Obama cooperated with Medvedev; Clinton grappled with Lavrov and Putin. Some Russia watchers say Clinton’s record was mixed. “The reset was the right approach,” said Thomas Graham, former Russia adviser under Bush’s Republican administration. But he faulted Clinton and Obama’s team for not doing more to “actively reach out to Putin and open lines of communication.” | 1 |
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The Screen Actors Guild entered the awards season fray with its nominations on Wednesday, which included a few surprises: — “Captain Fantastic,” the tale, led by Viggo Mortensen, about a bohemian family in a woodsy Northwestern paradise, nabbed a spot in the best ensemble category, the SAG equivalent of best picture. — “Loving,” directed by Jeff Nichols and starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton as a couple who changed laws, got no love. — Emily Blunt landed a nomination, for lead actress, for “The Girl on the Train. ” — “Silence,” the Martin Scorsese drama, was shut out. The guild nominations — still to come are those from producers and directors — are significant bellwethers in the awards season because they represent the industry’s favorite performances and films. SAG has 160, 000 members, about 1, 100 of whom are also in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actors’ branch, the largest in the academy. Last year’s SAG winner for best ensemble, “Spotlight,” went on to land the Oscar for best picture. One of this year’s favorites, “La La Land,” isn’t led by an ensemble cast but by two main actors — ergo its exclusion from the Screen Actors best ensemble category. “Manchester by the Sea” landed four nominations, the most, followed by “Fences” and “Moonlight,” each with three. The SAG awards will be handed out on Jan. 29. Here’s the list of nominees: Movies Actor in a leading role Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea” Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge” Ryan Gosling, “La La Land” Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic” Denzel Washington, “Fences” Actress in a leading role Amy Adams, “Arrival” Emily Blunt, “The Girl on the Train” Natalie Portman, “Jackie” Emma Stone, “La La Land” Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins” Actor in a supporting role Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight” Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water” Hugh Grant, “Florence Foster Jenkins” Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea” Dev Patel, “Lion” Actress in a supporting role Viola Davis, “Fences” Naomie Harris, “Moonlight” Nicole Kidman, “Lion” Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures” Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea” Outstanding cast “Captain Fantastic” “Fences” “Hidden Figures” “Manchester by the Sea” “Moonlight” Television Outstanding actor, TV movie or limited series Riz Ahmed, “The Night of” Sterling K. Brown, “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” Bryan Cranston, “All the Way” John Turturro, “The Night of” Courtney B. Vance, “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” Outstanding actress, TV movie or limited series Bryce Dallas Howard, “Black Mirror” Felicity Huffman, “American Crime” Audra McDonald, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar Grill” Sarah Paulson, “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” Kerry Washington, “Confirmation” Outstanding actor, drama series Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us” Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones” John Lithgow, “The Crown” Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot” Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards” Outstanding actress, drama series Millie Bobby Brown, “Stranger Things” Claire Foy, “The Crown” Thandie Newton, “Westworld” Winona Ryder, “Stranger Things” Robin Wright, “House of Cards” Outstanding actor, comedy series Anthony Anderson, “ ” Tituss Burgess, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Ty Burrell, “Modern Family” William H. Macy, “Shameless” Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent” Outstanding actress, comedy series Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black” Jane Fonda, “Grace and Frankie” Ellie Kemper, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Julia “Veep” Lily Tomlin, “Grace and Frankie” Outstanding ensemble, drama series “The Crown” (Netflix) “Downton Abbey ( ) “Game of Thrones” (HBO) “Stranger Things” (Netflix) “Westworld” (HBO) Outstanding ensemble, comedy series “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS) “ ” (ABC) “Modern Family” (ABC) “Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix) “Veep” (HBO) Outstanding stunt ensemble, movie “Captain America: Civil War” “Doctor Strange” “Hacksaw Ridge” “Jason Bourne” “Nocturnal Animals” Outstanding stunt ensemble, comedy or drama series “Game of Thrones” (HBO) “Marvel’s Daredevil” (Netflix) “Marvel’s Luke Cage” (Netflix) “The Walking Dead” (AMC) “Westworld” (HBO) | 0 |
Among the high profile companies opposing Trump s seven Muslim country refugee and immigration ban: Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) was down 0.83 percent. Amazon has big operations in the Phoenix area. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Bezos sent a memo to all of his employees stating, This executive order is one we do not support, and the memo listed several actions the company was taking to opposed the order. We re a nation of immigrants whose diverse backgrounds, ideas, and points of view have helped us build and invent as a nation for over 240 years . It s a distinctive competitive advantage for our country one we should not weaken. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was down 0.23 percent, Apple reported strong earnings Tuesday afternoon. Its shares were up in after-hours trading. Apple has a big data center in Mesa. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) was down 1.22 percent closing at $55.22 per share, according to Google Finance. Starbucks has an education partnership with Arizona State University.Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz We are living in an unprecedented time, Schultz said in a memo to Starbucks (SBUX) employees. He pledged to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in the 75 countries where Starbucks does business to reinforce our belief in our partners around the world. Yesterday a huge #BoycottStarbucks campaign was started on Twitter and Facebook. Starbucks took a big hit in the stock market today:Here s what we don t need advice from America s wealthiest welfare recipient, Tesla s Elon Musk:The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country s challenges Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017Tesla s Elon Musk criticized Trump s temporary travel ban. Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space.And he s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The LA Times. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 0.74 percent.Microsoft said it s providing legal advice and assistance to its employees affected by the executive order. We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully, the tech giant said in a statement.According to Microsoft s general counsel Brad Smith, 76 Microsoft employees are citizens with a U.S. visa from the affected countries.MasterCard Inc. MA, +0.02% CEO Ajay Banga, who was born in India, sent an email to company employees expressing his deep concern over the fracturing society. According to The Wall Street Journal, Banga said MasterCard has been in close contact with employees who ve been affected by the ban and is working to help them and their families. What affects one of us, affects all of us, he wrote. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) one of the few Wall Street firms to speak out against Trump s orders was down 1.96 percent closing at $229.32 per share. Goldman was one of the key drivers for the post-election rally and the Dow hitting 20,000 last week. Early Twitter Inc. TWTR, -0.17% and Uber investor Chris Sacca said he would match donations to the ACLU up to $75,000.Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had this to say about Trump s temporary travel ban:The Executive Order's humanitarian and economic impact is real and upsetting. We benefit from what refugees and immigrants bring to the U.S. https://t.co/HdwVGzIECt jack (@jack) January 28, 2017Uber investor Chris Sacca offered to help the ACLU with any legal charges incurred in their fight against making America more secure:I'm inspired by all who are barely scraping by yet still giving monthly to the @ACLU. Show me your receipts and I'll match 'em to $75k. https://t.co/dej1dXag3a Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 28, 2017 Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was 0.5 percent. Yeah thanks for your input Mark. We re pretty sure everyone is aware by now of your leftist political leanings. Why didn t you make the same proclamation when Obama banned Iraqi s from coming to the US in 2011? No need to answer, it s a rhetorical question Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) was down 0.36 percent. Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.08% Chief Executive Reed Hastings, in reaction, said on Facebook that it had been a very sad week. Google parent Alphabet (Nasdaq; GOOGL) was down 0.44 percent.In a staff memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move affects at least 187 of the Internet giant s staff. We re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the U.S., Google said in a statement. We ll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere. Companies and executives not known for speaking out on political matters, such as Nike Inc. NKE, -0.38% CEO Mark Parker, condemned the ban. In an internal letter Parker mentioned Nike athlete Sir Mo Farah, a Somali-born Olympic gold medalist now living in Oregon. What Mo will always have what the entire Nike family can always count on is the support of this company. We will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every member of our family: our colleagues, our athletes and their loved ones, Parker s email read.Ford, NYSE Was down .08% Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Mark Fields In a memo to employees, they said they do not support the ban. Respect for all people is a core value of Ford Motor Company, and we are proud of the rich diversity of our company here at home and around the world, they wrote.Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent Kent said in a statement that the Coca Cola (CCHGY) Company is resolute in its commitment to diversity, fairness and inclusion, and we do not support this travel ban or any policy that is contrary to our core values and beliefs. Chobani is not traded on the stock market, but is one of the biggest advocates for importing employers to the US from Muslim majority nations to Twin Falls, ID Chobani CEO Hamdi UlukayaChobani is owned by Turkish Muslim immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya. Chobani has filled 30 percent of its 600 positions at the world s largest Yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, with refugees resettled in America through a U.S. State Department program carried out in cooperation with the United Nations.Ann Corcoran, author of the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, said the potential conflict of interest is disturbing and should be questioned by Twin Falls residents. Twin Falls is really a microcosm of what we find going on in so many of the refugee communities across the U.S., where you have people moving in and out of government and the Chamber of Commerce with a vested interest in making sure a meatpacking plant or some other industry has continuous access to refugee labor, said Corcoran. Only in this case we have a blatant example of conflicts of interest by an elected official who is also the head of the Chamber enticing companies to come in and make use of the steady influx of cheap, overseas labor. These are jobs that Americans would be happy to fill but they are forced to compete now with someone from Sudan or Iraq who is used to working for a dollar a week. The local Muslim community in Twin Falls grew out of its mosque and built a new, much larger house of worship last year.Here s Chobani CEO s response to Trump s moratorium on refugees from 7 countries: This is very personal for me, Ulukaya wrote in internal memo to his staff that was obtained by CNN. As an immigrant who came to this country looking for opportunity, it s very difficult to think about and imagine what millions of people around the world must be feeling right now. General Electric GE (NYSE) stock was down .87% CEO Jeff Immelt said, in a memo on the G (GE)employee blog, that he shares the concern felt by his employees and said the company has many employees from the countries named in the ban. These employees and customers are critical to our success and they are our friends and partners, he wrote, adding that GE would stand with them and try to find a balance between security and movement of law abiding people. Immelt was one of 28 business leaders named to a council to advise Trump on manufacturing growth.Trip Advisor CEO Stephen Kaufer Trip Advisor s (TRIP) CEO wrote in a Linkedin post that Trump s immigration ban is not only heartless and discriminatory, but also against the principles that make our country great. Kaufer also said in a tweet that We need to do more, not less, to help refugees, and said the action was wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won t make us safer.' In a separate tweet, he called out Republican lawmakers: You can t sit this one out. We need to do more, not less, to help refugees. Trumps action was wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won't make us "safer." stephen kaufer (@kaufer) January 29, 2017Trump hasn t backed off his order and could change up visa programs used by high-tech companies. Biz Journals, Market Watch | 1 |
Charles Payne and economist Liz Peek discuss the booming Trump economy and why the hateful media won t report on it: Payne: These are blue collar jobs maybe that s not sexy to the main stream media.Peek: How many of those economists are talking about how the market is up 13%?Payne is so correct about the media s lack of interest in the booming Trump economy. The American people see it and are feeling it too. As long as President Trump keeps his focus and continues improving the economy, he ll be great. | 1 |
Skipping customs at JFK might seem like a great thing for passengers arriving on an international flight BUT those passengers might be putting all Americans in danger by doing so. For the second time in a few months, a flight into JFK let passengers bypass customs. JFK is known to have a brutal customs time that can be up to two hours but the choice should be obvious just do it: New York remains the number one target for terrorists and it just made me think of Paris and how easy it would be for them to get in, he said. It s incompetence like this that could lead to another attack. Passengers arriving at Kennedy Airport on an international flight were allowed to exit the busy hub without going through Customs for at least the second time in recent months.Bumbling airline and security officials let travelers on American Airlines Flight 1223 from Cancun, Mexico, out of the airport on Monday morning without having their passports or bags checked, sources told The News.The security lapse mirrored a similar incident involving another American Airlines flight in November.A 34-year-old man who had been in Cancun to attend three Phish concerts told The News he was able to glide from the plane to the baggage claim area without having to endure the usual maze of Customs and Border Protection security checks. It s absolutely absurd, the business adviser said. To think that anyone could be walking off of that plane and just get right into the city. It could be terrorists, El Chapo s henchmen, anyone. The jam band fan said he even approached a Transportation Security Administration agent near the exit, but was told he was free to go.A man who had been in Cancun to attend three Phish concerts told The News he was able to glide from the plane to the baggage claim area without having to endure Customs and Border Protection security checks. I told them what happened and asked them what should I do, the passenger said. They said to me That s fine, you re OK. Go ahead. Several other concertgoers who were on the flight were already outside at the curbside cab line when he exited the airport.Neither the TSA, which screens passengers before they fly, nor the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to a request for comment.It was unclear how many of the passengers from the flight were able to skip the security checkpointsHours after the plane landed, American Airline officials pleaded with the Manhattan man and presumably other passengers to return to Kennedy and complete the customs process. I apologize for any inconvenience this may be for you; however it is a Customs requirement that every passenger entering the United States must clear Customs, the airline wrote in an email sent to passengers. You could tell that they knew they screwed up and were desperate to get me to come, the passenger added.The oversight sparked fears that terrorists could easily slip into the country without having to pass through any checkpoints. New York remains the number one target for terrorists and it just made me think of Paris and how easy it would be for them to get in, he said. It s incompetence like this that could lead to another attack. A nearly identical incident involving another American Airlines flight from Cancun unfolded in November, just two days after ISIS released a video threatening New York City with a terrorist attack, The News reported. ISIS THREAT TO NYC: Via: NYDN | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was appalling that Russia had blocked a U.S.-drafted resolution to renew an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. It is appalling that the UN Joint Investigative Mechanism has been closed down, Johnson said in a statement. The United Kingdom will not let the end of the Joint Investigative Mechanism stop work with international partners to identify and hold accountable those responsible for using chemical weapons. The vote at the United Nations on Thursday sparked a war of words between Russia and the United States in the Security Council. | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Queen Elizabeth formally opened Scotland s biggest infrastructure project in a generation - the third bridge across the River Forth - on Monday, exactly 53 years after she opened the second. The 91-year-old monarch met with workers and school children who had gathered on the bridge before cutting a blue ribbon to mark its opening, as a flotilla passed underneath and the Royal Air Force s Red Arrows display jets flew overhead. The 1.35 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) Queensferry Crossing, the longest bridge of its type in the world at 1.7 miles (2.7 km), connects the capital Edinburgh to Scotland s north. The Queen described all three magnificent structures crossing the River Forth, built in three separate centuries, as feats of modern engineering . The Queensferry crossing joins its iconic and historic neighbors to create not only a breathtaking sight across the Firth of Forth, but to provide an important link for so many in this community and the surrounding areas, she said in a statement. Built with 35,000 tonnes of steel and 150,000 tonnes of concrete, the crossing reaches 210 meters (690 ft) above high tide, standing as tall as about 48 London buses stacked on top of each other. Barriers deflect the wind and shield vehicles from the huge gusts common on the Forth. | 1 |
Cori Langdon, a Las Vegas cab driver recorded her harrowing experience as she entered the Mandalay Bay Casino at about the same time gunshots were first being fired into the crowd at the Rt 91 country music festival in Las Vegas.Langdon was using her phone to videotape, as she was pulling into the Mandalay Bay Casino, when she heard gunshots. She can be heard telling the dispatch operator for her cab service that she hears what sounds like automatic gunfire. Cori Langdon hears more gun fire, and tells her dispatch operator that the gun shots sound like they re coming from a completely different area: Now it sounds like its coming from farther away. After listening to Langdon s video recording of the event as it unfolded, one can t help but wonder if it s possible there was more than one shooter. Automatic gunshots are still being heard from the cab. Langdon tells her dispatch person: Somethings going on. I m not sure why people aren t running, but. There s a security guard, what s he doing? Ya know, for there being gunfire, it sure doesn t seem like people are runnin . Oh, shit! Seriously? I don t know what s goin on? Where are the cops at? I m right here by the porch of Mandalay Bay, and everything seems to be normal here. More and more rapid-fire gunshots are heard. The radio dispatcher replies, Remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. And everything seems normal when it s not. Langdon and the other drivers are then warned by another driver that claims he just got details from the metro police at the airport, Do not go to Mandalay Bay! Langdon then says she s leaving, I m leaving. I don t know why people aren t leaving. This is insane. Everyone s just standing around, it doesn t seem like anybody s uh moving. She then gets a message on her radio telling her, Shots fired. They don t even know the details yet. I just talked to the Metro here at the airport and they re still getting the details, but there s multiple injuries and uh (inaudible) That s all they re saying though. They re saying stay away from there, uh, they re shutting the whole place down. Langdon continues to have a conversation with her dispatch people on the radio in her car. She is remarkably calm amongst the chaos going on around her. Langdon tells dispatch, Alright, I m oughta here , as she speculates that she believes the shots are coming from the 10th floor of the hotel. As she s attempting to leave the premises, some panicked concertgoers, who appear to be injured, enter her cab at the Mandalay Bay Casino. The passengers get into the car screaming, Broken leg, broken leg! Drive, broken leg! Let s go, let s go Langdon asks the passenger where they want to go, to which they reply, Anywhere! Langdon asks the passengers, Is there somebody out there? to which the passengers reply, Yes, yes, and active shooter. The passengers reply, Heck yeah! Go, go, go! Langdon: Oh, oh, and active shooter? Alright. Passengers: Go, go, go! Langdon: Go, okay. Alright, alright. Oh g*d, alright, there is an active shooter then. The female passenger replies: Yes, so many people are dead! Langdon asks: Are you kidding me? The passengers appear to be in pain and are screaming in the back seat.Langdon yells at them: Okay, close the door, close the door! The passengers yell: Okay, lock the doors! Go, go, please drive! Langdon: Oh my g*d, okay. Alright, alright, I m going, I m going, okay. Oh shit! Where are we going? The male passenger is freaking out and asks: Are you going as fast as you can? Are you f*cking videotaping this?Langdon replied: Yeah, I am. I didn t know it was so bad! Okay. The female passenger implored Langdon to get out of the area: Thousands of people are dead! Everybody s dead, c mon! and go! and get out of the area.Next, the passengers begin to panic, as Langdon isn t leaving the scene fast enough, not understanding how many people are running in front of her cab to get away from the scene.Langdon calmly drives people out of the scene as she relays the situation to her dispatch unit, and the passengers relay the horrific scene of dead people everywhere! to their parents on their cell phones.Watch: | 0 |
President Obama nominated him for the post of US surgeon general, the nation's top spokesperson for public health, back in November 2013. The Senate then promptly blocked his nomination for more than a year, particularly after the National Rifle Association criticized a letter Murthy had co-signed in support of gun control measures. Murthy only got confirmed in December 2014 after some red-state Democrats who were losing their seats anyway decided to switch course and back him.
In person, however, it's harder to see how the mild-tempered Murthy became such a lightning rod. He meditates daily, he told me, to "center myself, a chance for me to remember who I want to be every day." And he's starting his tenure with a listening tour that took him across America — rather than a push for any particular policies. Indeed, he has already said he wasn't interested in using his post "as a bully pulpit for gun control."
Before his swearing-in ceremony today, I spoke with Murthy at length about what he sees as the biggest public health issues facing the country, what he hopes to achieve as surgeon general, and why the best ways to boost health may have nothing to do with medicine.
The surgeon general is essentially the nation's top spokesperson on health matters. Past officeholders have often used the position to call attention to pressing public health issues such as smoking or obesity. Murthy plans to do the same. But though he's a physician by training, he argues that institutions outside of medicine often have the biggest impact on public health.
"I first started thinking about that when I was practicing medicine," Murthy says, "and I realized that I would sit in the clinic with patients or sit at their bedside, and talk to them about changing their diet, about improving their physical activity. I would question how much of an impact I was having on their ultimate decisions about their lifestyle. If you ask any doctor or nurse who has cared for patients, they will often tell you they have had similar experiences."
"It’s often our family and friends who can impact the choices we make around food"
He elaborated: "If we think about ourselves, it’s often our family and friends who can impact the choices we make around food. It’s the food options that are available at work or in the cafeteria that might impact the choices we make during the third of our lives we spend at work. It can be what we hear in church Sunday morning that impacts how we think about important issues in our society.
"That’s why I have come to believe if we are going to overcome the great health challenges our country faces right now, we have to do so with a coalition of leaders. This includes not only doctors, nurses, and health professionals but also our employers, schools, faith-based organizations, civic institutions, and the various people and institutions in our country that actually impact decisions people make day to day."
Take, for instance, the obesity crisis, which Murthy has called one of his top priorities. He argues that it's not enough to engage doctors on this issue — employers, faith-based organizations, and other institutions need to play a role, too.
"I want to make sure I’m working with employers to make physical activity a greater part of work culture — recognizing that this not only has benefits for the physical health of employees but also positive effects on emotional well-being and mental function," he says.
The same goes for mental health, which needs to be addressed by institutions outside of medicine. "I want to work with faith-based leaders to address the negative attitudes associated with mental illness," he explains.
This, in general, fits with Murthy's broader approach to public health: "We have to do more than build hospitals and more clinics. We have to invest in prevention and community prevention, and recognize that institutions that don’t have the word health in their name — faith-based groups, employers, schools — have a massive impact on the health decisions people make every day. That's why we have to engage these institutions in doing their part to improve health."
So how does Murthy focus on staying healthy? "I have four rules I follow for myself," he says.
"One is to eat healthy. I tend to avoid salt, added sugar, and processed foods whenever possible, and try to eat fresh fruits and vegetables as part of all my meals whenever possible.
"Second is to stay physically active. That means not just going to gym but incorporating activity into whatever I do, whether that’s taking the stairs or converting sitting meetings to walking meetings whenever possible.
"Third is making sure I’m focusing on my emotional and mental well-being. For me, an important part of that is the meditation practice that I do every morning. It’s a chance for me to center myself, a chance for me to remember who I want to be every day.
"The fourth thing is I remind myself to stay away from toxic substances like tobacco and drugs."
The surgeon general doesn't just promote public health. From his perch, Murthy will also likely have to play a role in combating misinformation. I asked him about Dr. Oz, arguably the most famous health proselytizer in America, who has come under fire for his use of pseudoscience. "I have never actually watched Dr. Oz on TV so I can’t really comment," Murthy says.
"Too often, doctors and nurses don’t speak out when it’s needed the most"
But Murthy does agree that the public often faces a problem in sorting through all the health information out there: "In general, when people think about diet and physical activity, there’s a lot of information out there, and it can be very confusing for people. That's why I think it’s very important for us to understand the science behind the recommendations we make around diet and physical activity."
He adds, "I have been on the road a lot these last few months. One of the things that came up time and again was the pervasive misinformation that exists around certain hot-button issues. Diet is one of them. In recent months, in light of the measles outbreak, there has also been some confusion around vaccinations. That was an issue I spoke about a lot on the road, helping people understand that when it comes to the measles vaccine it's both safe and effective, and there's no link to autism."
So what's Murthy's role in all this? "I will continue to make sure we are getting scientifically grounded messages out there to the public about questions that concern them the most," he says. "But it's not just the responsibility of the surgeon general but of every public health professional who understands science, who is trained to evaluate evidence, and who knows the cost we incur when patients are misinformed about the treatments they need.
"Too often, doctors and nurses don’t speak out when it’s needed the most — when there are controversies around issues, whether it be vaccines or e-cigarettes or other health topics. They can not only answer questions that the public may have but also push our institutions and policymakers and leaders to find answers when we don’t have them."
Murthy's mention of e-cigarettes brought up a related question. E-cigarettes are one of the biggest puzzles facing the medical community right now, since the science behind them is still so nascent. So how does he think about the issue?
"Our scientific understanding of e-cigarettes has been far outpaced by the actual use of e-cigarettes"
"Our scientific understanding of e-cigarettes has been far outpaced by the actual use of e-cigarettes," Murthy says. "This means people are asking questions we don’t always know the answers to. Some of those questions are: Do e-cigarettes have adverse effects on health? Do they lead children to be more open to smoking regular cigarettes? And do they help with cessation for people who are current smokers? These are questions we haven’t adequately answered yet through research — but we have to do so because, as a recent CDC report showed, e-cigarettes use tripled over the last year among youth. That to me is very concerning when we don’t fully understand the potential adverse impacts of e-cigarettes."
He continues, "Should we promote or allow the use of e-cigarettes by minors and by people who don’t smoke at all? This is where I'm concerned. We know nicotine is not a benign substance. We know it has potential harmful effects on the body including the development of the adolescent brain. Speaking as a regular person, I would not want my children — if I were blessed enough to have children — to be exposed to nicotine unnecessarily, whether that’s through their smoking of e-cigarettes or traditional cigarettes or whether that was through secondhand vapor or smoke."
In April, Murthy did a public service announcement on Sesame Street to remind kids to get vaccinated. Can we expect more of that in the future?
"The public service announcement we did with Elmo around vaccines was just one example of the different types of communication tools we want to use to make sure we’re getting the right message to kids and adults about health," Murthy said. "But to make sure we’re reaching everybody — to use a variety of messengers, messages, channels. We have to be creative about how we do it.
"When it comes to obesity, thinking about nutrition, I want to work closely with our entertainment leaders and our leaders in sports to make sure we’re setting positive role models for kids in particular when it comes to choices around physical activity and nutrition. " | 0 |
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia s main opposition party, the rightist VMRO-DPMNE formally replaced its leader Nikola Gruevski on Saturday and appointed Hristijan Mickoski, a technocrat, as his successor. Gruevski, 47, resigned earlier this month following an election defeat last year and unrest that rocked the small Balkan country in April. In his speech to the party s convention on Saturday, Gruevski said that a key reason for VMRO-DPMNE s fall from power was his refusal to yield to what he described as international and domestic pressure to accept a compromise in a dispute with Greece. Macedonia, which won independence in 1991 from then-federal Yugoslavia, has made little progress towards EU and NATO membership due to a long-running dispute with Greece which claims Macedonia s name represents a territorial claim to its province with the same name. We wanted a fair compromise and a name solution, but not under dictate, Gruevski said. Gruevski s successor Mickoski, 41, a relative novice in politics, became VMRO-DPMNE Secretary General earlier this year. He served in Gruevski s government as the general manager of ELEM, Macedonia s state-owned power plants managing company. (This story corrects spelling to Mickoski in paras 1 and 6.) | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday it supported calls for a new Palestinian uprising in response to the U.S. decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and urged support for resistance against the move. We support the call for a new Palestinian intifada (uprising) and escalating the resistance which is the biggest, most important and gravest response to the American decision, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a televised speech. | 0 |
Hillary is without a doubt, the worst and most despicable liar to ever run for the office of President Of The United States Hillary is a sociopathic liar: A sociopath is typically defined as someone who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little concern for others. A sociopath is often goal-oriented (i.e., lying is focused it is done to get one s way). Sociopaths have little regard or respect for the rights and feelings of others.https://twitter.com/HlLLARYCLINT0N/status/777660956088406017 | 1 |
President Obama is currently in his final year as Commander-in-Chief while Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. 70 percent of women hold an unfavorable view of Donald Trump while 56 percent of women voted for President Obama in 2012. And it s not hard to see why.An incredible video by Buzzfeed compares how President Obama has treated women versus how Donald Trump has treated women.While President Obama has focused on making sure women and girls have the same opportunities as men and boys and appreciates the role that women have played in making this nation strong, Donald Trump objectifies women, judges them based on their looks, and considers them to be baby-makers who can be cast aside for a different woman.The video begins with Trump telling Celebrity Apprentice contestant Brande Roderick that she must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees. President Obama is then shown talking about his objection to his daughters not being able to have the same opportunities as somebody s sons. That s unacceptable, he tells the audience.Then Trump is shown telling a female reporter that she wouldn t have a job if she wasn t beautiful.At the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, President Obama spoke of how that we have to speak louder than the voices telling our girls that they re not good enough. That they ve got to look a certain way, or they gotta act a certain way. It continues this way throughout the video. Trump makes a negative remark about women while President Obama praises women and fights for their future.Here s the video via Facebook:That s really the choice we face in 2016. Do we want to elect a president who will fight for women or do we want Trump, a man who has shown utter contempt for women and only notices them if they look like a super model. Because if we want a president who respects and fights for women like President Obama, the logical choice this November would be whichever Democrat ends up on the ticket opposite Trump.Hillary Clinton is taking aim at history as she seeks to become the first female President of the United States. Human rights are women s rights, and women s rights are human rights, she said at the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session in 1995. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely and the right to be heard. We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives, she continued. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential. Here s the video of her full speech via YouTube.Bernie Sanders is also pursuing the presidency. His chances at capturing the nomination are waning but should he win the nomination he would also be a good choice for women in November.Like Clinton, Sanders has fought for women s rights throughout his career. As the longtime senator from Vermont, Sanders has made women s issues a major part of his policy agenda.Sanders explained his efforts to elevate women to the Washington Post in September. You re looking at somebody who s made a cornerstone, a key part of my campaign, the need for at least three months of family and medical leave; somebody who is fighting to raise the minimum wage over a two year period to $15 an hour, which will benefit everybody, but women actually more than men; somebody who regards it as enormously important that we fight for pay equity for women; somebody who believes that our child care system is a disaster today and that we need to have the best childcare/pre-K system in the world, making it universal and affordable.So I think if people look at my record, I think they will see somebody who has had a lifelong record of support for the women s movement and women s rights. Like Clinton, Sanders also supports a woman s right to choose. When you tell a woman that she cannot control her own body, that s extremism, he wrote on Twitter. Let s say it loud and clear: women control their bodies, not the government. In short, the contrast between Trump and the Democratic Party couldn t be more clear. Trump is a serial womanizer who constantly spews despicable sexist remarks that should automatically disqualify him from running for president. But so far, conservatives seem to have no problem with Trump s anti-women beliefs and that is why ads like the one below will continue to haunt Trump s campaign.Democratic candidates, meanwhile, want women to be equal and be treated with respect and dignity just like President Obama has been pushing for over the last eight years. And that s why we need another eight years or more of a Democrat in the White House.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
Republicans talk a good game about their supporters being responsible gun owners. As a matter of fact, to listen to them you d almost believe that every gun owner in America is super responsible, only concerned about protecting themselves and their family. However, when you turn on the news it becomes very obvious that this isn t the case at all. Actually, more often than not we hear stories that sound a little something like this one out of Texas.A 9-year-old girl who was wounded when a 9-mm gun her father was showing her discharged was in critical condition Friday in a Temple hospital. The girl, whose name has not been released, was struck in the left shoulder in the shooting at around 9:30 p.m. Thursday One officer said authorities believe the shooting was accidental.Let me be clear: A gun does not just discharge. Period.This ammosexual was showing off his gun to his 9-year-old daughter and he shot her because he is a f*cking idiot who does not know how to handle a gun. He didn t look to make sure there was not a bullet in the chamber of this gun he thought was so awesome.The same people who say that all of their supporters are responsible also say that we want to take their guns away. First of all, we don t but if we did could you blame us? According to Every Town, a gun control advocacy group:From December 2012 to December 2013, at least 100 children were killed in unintentional shootings almost two each week, 61 percent higher than federal data reflect. And even this larger number reflects just a fraction of the total number of children injured or killed with guns in the U.S. each year, regardless of the intent.That s an astronomical amount of kids and the right-wing thinks there isn t a problem in this country. When hundreds of our kids are dying and thousands of adults are meeting the same fate in what is arguably the most powerful nation on earth, we clearly have an issue. What s worse is that the vast majority of accidental shootings could be prevented if people, like this father, just used common sense and took a safety course. Featured image from Whudat | 1 |
International leaders aren t making any secret about their disdain and lack of respect for Obama in his final G20 summit PHILIPPINES President Barack Obama is threatening to cancel a meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo D tente after the fiery political figure called the U.S. president a son of a bitch. According to the Associated Press, Duterte demanded that Obama be respectful during the G-20 summit. Otherwise, he said, son of a bitch, I will swear at you in that forum. Duterte was referring to a potential discussion about his violent war on the drug cartels, killing over 2,400 people in the process.During a press conference in China at the G-20 summit, Obama hinted that the meeting between himself and Duterte could be canceled. What I ve instructed my team to do is to talk to their Philippine counterparts to find out is this in fact a time when we can have constructive, productive conversations, he said.Obama said that the United States would always assert the need for due process in prosecution of drug criminals, citing basic international norms. He added that he would bring it up in a meeting, despite D tente s comments. BreitbartCHINA The leader of the world s largest economy, who is on his final tour of Asia, was forced to disembark from Air Force One through a little-used exit in the plane s belly after no rolling staircase was provided when he landed in the eastern Chinese city on Saturday afternoon.When Obama did find his way on to a red carpet on the tarmac below there were heated altercations between US and Chinese officials, with one Chinese official caught on video shouting: This is our country! This is our airport! RUSSIA President Obama shared a tense exchange with Russian premier Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in China this morning as the two failed to agree over a ceasefire in Syria.Sly Putin could be seen grinning as he clasped hands with stony-faced Obama, who is serving the final months of his Presidency before November s election. Sun | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Thursday that allegations of a state-sponsored doping program in Russia were an attempt to sow discontent ahead of the country s presidential elections. Reports commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have raised allegations of the existence of a state-run program that included tampering with Russian athletes positive tests by laboratory and security officials at the 2014 Sochi Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now investigating the allegations and has banned six cross-country skiers for life from the Olympics over doping violations at Sochi. This is what is bothering me: the (Pyeongchang Winter) Olympics start in February, and when are our presidential elections? In March, RIA Novosti state news agency quoted Putin as saying. There are big suspicions that all this is being done to create for someone the necessary conditions for discontent among sport lovers, athletes. Putin, widely expected to stand in and win the elections, also suggested the United States influence in international sports organizations could be having a deleterious effect on Russia. Putin said the United States was home to the main companies that order and pay for television rights, the main sponsors and advertisers of major sporting events. In retaliation for our alleged meddling in their election, they (the United States) want to create problems in the election of the president of Russia, Putin said. Last month, Putin said the IOC was being pressured by the United States to prevent Russia taking part in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Russia escaped a blanket ban at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro although it was, and remains, barred from competing in international athletics events. The country s Paralympic Committee and anti-doping agency RUSADA are also still suspended over the doping scandals. Despite repeated calls for cooperation with international bodies to help rid Russia of doping, the authorities have always denied the state s role in the scandal. The IOC has said it will decide during its executive board meeting being held on Dec. 5-7 on the participation of Russian competitors at the 2018 winter games. | 1 |
Freedom Center Urges College Presidents to End Aid to Campus Supporters of Terror “We ask that you withdraw all university privileges granted to SJP.” October 31, 2016 Frontpagemag.com
Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent to the presidents of the ten campuses named in the Freedom Center’s report on the “Top Ten Schools Supporting Terrorists.” In alphabetical order, the ten campuses are: Brooklyn College (CUNY), San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, Tufts University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Chicago, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Vassar College.
October 27, 2016
University of California
Dear Dr. Napolitano,
Your school purports to promote the values of diversity, inclusiveness and tolerance yet provides resources, funding and legitimacy to Students for Justice in Palestine. Students for Justice in Palestine is a campus organization whose sole purpose is to conduct hateful propaganda against Jews and the Jewish state for the terrorist organization Hamas. The explicit goals of Hamas are the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state and genocide against its Jewish population. For these reasons, among others, three campuses of the University of California—Irvine, Los Angeles, and Berkeley—have been named among the “Top Ten Schools Supporting Terrorists” by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. You may read the full report here: http://www.stopthejewhatredoncampus.org/news/top-ten-schools-supporting-terrorists-fall-2016-report
While it masquerades as a typical campus cultural group, SJP is an integral part of Hamas’s efforts to annihilate Israel through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. This is an insidious effort that attempts to delegitimize Israel, and smear it as a rogue “apartheid” nation. These claims are ludicrous. More than a million Palestinians enjoy Israeli citizenship including the rights to vote and to sit on the Israeli courts and parliament. Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz has said of the BDS movement, “It is anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-human rights, anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-negotiation, anti-peace, anti-compromise, and anti-Palestinian workers when they are denied opportunities to work.” Both Larry Summers and Hillary Clinton have denounced BDS as anti-Semitic Jew hatred. Yet your school provides a platform and funding for its sponsors.
With university support, SJP also conducts “Israeli apartheid” hate weeks on campus quads. These events feature pro-Hamas advocates, the construction of “apartheid walls” featuring pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic propaganda, and the creation of mock checkpoints and die-ins that disrupt student movements on campus. SJP actively disrupts pro-Israel campus events—a threat to free speech and a violation of your university’s stated values and rules of conduct.
In addition to being scripted by Hamas terrorists, SJPs pro-terror campaign is funded and guided through a Hamas front called American Muslims for Palestine. In recent testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Jonathan Schanzer, who worked as a terrorism finance analyst for the United States Department of the Treasury from 2004-2007, described how Hamas funnels large sums of money and provides material assistance to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) through the Hamas front group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) for the purpose of promoting BDS campaigns on American campuses. AMP was created by SJP co-founder Hatem Bazian, a pro-terrorist lecturer at UC Berkeley who called for a suicide bombing “Intifada” inside the United States. It employs high-ranking officials from other Muslim “charities” that were previously shut down for providing material assistance to terrorists.
Schanzer described AMP as “arguably the most important sponsor and organizer for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is the most visible arm of the BDS campaign on campuses in the United States.” He detailed how AMP “provides speakers, training, printed materials, a so-called ‘Apartheid Wall,’ and grants to SJP activists” and “even has a campus coordinator on staff whose job is to work directly with SJP and other pro-BDS campus groups across the country.” Furthermore, “according to an email it sent to subscribers, AMP spent $100,000 on campus activities in 2014 alone.”
Students for Justice in Palestine continues to accept funding and aid through the Hamas front group American Muslims for Palestine. Despite its links to terrorist organizations and agendas, Students for Justice in Palestine continues to receive campus funds and campus privileges, including university offices, and the right to hold events preaching the genocidal values of Hamas on university property. These privileges would normally be denied to groups that preach hatred of any other ethnic group, let alone one that supports barbaric terrorists who slaughter men, women and children with the goal of cleansing the earth of people who disagree with them.
In light of these facts, we ask that you withdraw all university privileges granted to SJP and other campus groups who promote the genocidal Hamas agenda, and that you put an end to the terrorist influences which have infiltrated your campus and which threaten the security not only of Jewish students on your campus, but of all Americans.
David Horowitz ceo The David Horowitz Freedom Center Sherman Oaks, California | 1 |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans vote on Sunday in nationwide mayoral polls boycotted by major opposition parties and likely to help leftist President Nicolas Maduro consolidate power ahead of a probable 2018 re-election bid. After withstanding massive street protests, international sanctions and dissent within his ruling Socialist Party, the 55-year-old president saw his candidates win a surprise majority in October gubernatorial elections. Now, with 335 mayorships up for grabs, the socialists seem certain to repeat the feat, helped by opposition abstentionism, which would delight Maduro after the international opprobrium he has faced all year. The crumbling opposition coalition s main parties - Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action - have opted out of Sunday s vote, alleging the election system is biased and designed purely to keep a dictatorship in power. It is crazy not to participate, said political analyst Dimitris Pantoulas. The government most likely will have one of the best results in its history ... Maduro will be very strong after this election. He has the political momentum. The socialists already hold more than 70 percent of Venezuela s mayorships, and are forecast to increase that share, extending their grip at a grassroots level just as Maduro mulls standing for a second six-year term in the OPEC nation. Despite presiding over one of the worst economic meltdowns to hit any country in modern history, and with ratings barely half when he was elected, Maduro is enjoying a political upturn after the October gubernatorial vote. He is the favorite to be the government s candidate at the 2018 presidential election and could win if the opposition does not re-unite and re-enthuse supporters. Despite the boycott by major parties, moderate opposition supporters were still planning to vote on Sunday, arguing that it was the only way to stop the socialists amassing power. Some of the smaller parties are fielding candidates, fuelling acrimony and in-fighting within the coalition. There s huge frustration at everything that has happened this year ... but we cannot throw in the towel, said one of those candidates, Yon Goicoechea of Progressive Advance party. Just out of jail for allegedly plotting against Maduro, Goicoechea was running for El Hatillo mayorship outside Caracas. I can t say when we will achieve democracy - maybe months, maybe years - but we have to fight with our only weapon: votes. The election was taking place at the end of a fourth year of crushing economic recession that has brought hunger, hardship and shortages to Venezuelans. Yet with the opposition in such disarray, Maduro and his allies are buoyant. We are going to have a great victory! said Erika Farias running for a Caracas district mayorship. We are fulfilling the legacy of our commander Hugo Chavez. With many Venezuelans angry at both the government and opposition, some independents have registered for Sunday s mayorship races, though there is still no sign of a third-way presidential candidate. The country is demanding an alternative. Mine is a protest campaign, said Nicmer Evans, running against Farias in the capital s Libertador district for his recently-founded party, New Vision For My Country. As well as the mayoral elections, voters in oil-rich western Zulia state were choosing a new governor. The opposition took that state in the October gubernatorial race but the election was annulled after winning candidate Juan Pablo Guanipa refused to swear loyalty to a pro-Maduro legislative superbody. Results were expected to start coming in on Sunday evening. | 1 |
Anyone inclined to find joy when a president’s taste collides with yours had a lot to choose from with Barack Obama. There was the time he dropped by the Los Angeles garage where the comedian Marc Maron records his podcast or when he sat between the two ferns where Zach Galifianakis pretends to be a boob hosting a talk show. At the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, he did a bit with Key as Luther, Mr. Obama’s fictional but legitimately irate “anger translator” from “Key Peele. ” He called Kanye West a jackass, invited Miranda to the White House Poetry Jam to perform a song from “Hamilton” before “Hamilton” was even a thing, and, for two straight years, dropped thoroughly convincing Spotify playlists. That doesn’t even include the New York Review of Books conversation (in two parts!) between him and the novelist Marilynne Robinson. They talked about … about … well it’s just sobering and oracular, and you should read it. But of all the culture Barack Obama has been a part of, inspired, commented on or cultivated, of all the ways in which the culture seemed to evolve around — and unconsciously respond to — him, the thing that says so much about his unprecedented relationship to art and popular culture is actually, in the vast scheme of things, just a footnote. Which is to say it’s pretty small yet so illustrative of his sense of respect, professionalism and awe. It was the time he was emailed for a quote. The occasion was the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. The inductees included Carole King, who sat in the balcony between her fellow inductee George Lucas and the first couple. And during Ms. King’s tribute, out came Aretha Franklin, who sat at a piano in a fur coat and sang “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” the classic Ms. King wrote, and Ms. Franklin released in 1967. Her appearance was pretty much expected. The shock was how powerfully good, at 73, Ms. Franklin sounded — so good that you worried ecstasy would send Ms. King toppling off the balcony, so good that Mr. Obama wiped tears from his eyes. For a critical profile of Ms. Franklin in The New Yorker, its editor, David Remnick, reached out to the president. As a critic, I feel a duty to point out that that’s an unusual move. Mr. Remnick is also, among other things, a critic. He knows Ms. Franklin’s worth as an American treasure and that it has no price. He’s more than equipped to sum her up. But he outsourced that job. To the president of the United States. And if you got to that section of that story and considered rolling your eyes (“When I emailed President Obama about Aretha Franklin and that night … ”) you immediately retreated when you read what Mr. Obama wrote in response. “Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the spiritual, the blues, R. B. rock and roll — the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope,” he wrote back, through his press secretary. “American history wells up when Aretha sings. That’s why, when she sits down at a piano and sings ‘A Natural Woman,’ she can move me to tears — the same way that Ray Charles’s version of ‘America the Beautiful’ will always be in my view the most patriotic piece of music ever performed — because it captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence. ” Mr. Remnick wrote to him because he knew that Barack Obama would deliver. Mr. Remnick asked for two cents. The president gave him a dollar. Mr. Obama, for nearly all of his tenure, was fully aware of, interested in, and knowledgeable about popular culture, even as it grew impossible to take it all in. He tried: sports, movies, television, the internet, music, books. He was protean and catholic. He was thoughtful and cool and yet far from it. He was a version of America’s dad and the dad some kids wished theirs could be: fit for world leadership, fit for a sitcom. Lots of smart people are poring over Mr. Obama’s record to divine a legacy. Which policies will last? How did he change the job? How did he distinguish himself? But this was a presidency whose few faint whiffs of scandal included being surreptitiously videoed last year by Usher dancing listlessly to Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” which was more than a year old. So to be fair: It’s an addictive song, and he moved like someone who had been dancing to it since it came out. In other words, Mr. Obama’s place in popular culture has always felt new, alive and mostly underappreciated. Obviously, other presidents have had a relationship with American culture. Television was in its creative infancy when Dwight D. Eisenhower entered office in 1953, and he took quick advantage of the power of its immediacy. When John F. Kennedy turned 45, he received American history’s most famous “Happy Birthday” from Marilyn Monroe. But it was tragedy and a glamorous wife that ensured Kennedy’s legacy in popular culture. Richard Nixon disliked “All in the Family” and was an avid moviegoer, who according to Mark Feeney’s surprising book “Nixon at the Movies,” watched about 500 films during his presidency. Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood actor before he was a politician, and, as a candidate, Bill Clinton made a lot of sense on MTV and Arsenio Hall’s talk show. But has any president been as conversant in the art and popular culture of this country as Barack Obama? Who has been as committed to opening up the White House to the sorts of artists he has? Lunches with the novelists Zadie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Junot Díaz, Dave Eggers and Colson Whitehead. One lunch, actually. That was one lunch. Initiative summits that included Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Ludacris, Rick Ross, Pusha T. Common and Chance the Rapper. (So many different rappers and RB singers have come through the White House in the last eight years that the BET Awards could sue for copyright infringement.) Last year, Barack and Michelle Obama hosted “Jazz at the White House,” which featured appearances by so many magnificent, important people that to type out all the names — Chick Corea, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ms. Franklin, for openers — is to make a very fancy shopping list. Mr. Obama brought all kinds of art and culture into the White House, and he sought culture out. At the same time, how we experience that art and culture, changed as much as the culture itself. When he entered office, in 2009, Netflix was a service. Now it’s a major reason we no longer watch TV we scarf it down. But that disruption — from channels and networks to platforms and apps — also unleashed TV that looked more like America: more nonwhite characters, more women, more gays. He presided over an era in which television and movies grappled with the meaning and meaninglessness of race, whether to laugh at it or take it seriously or ignore it altogether, whether the idea of a postracial America was ever possible, as though electing a black man for eight years erases the traumas of 400. To that end, “30 Rock” was the great situation comedy — a workplace farce, on and loosely about NBC, that hit its stride in 2008 and ran until 2013. Not so secretly, it was about the insurmountable work of race and gender. Meanwhile, the American movie industry went all in on franchises and sequels while leaving art and humanity for TV. But the “Fast and Furious” movies did bounce off the assembly line. The series started in 2001, essentially died in 2003, and came roaring back to life at the start of Mr. Obama’s first term and is ludicrously yet thankfully on the verge of an eighth installment. The protagonists are car thieves turned action heroes, who are mostly black, Asian, Latina or racially ambiguous. These aren’t great movies. But they’re great, fun: serious and without too much (or any) . And they take an issue that Hollywood has always struggled with — what to do with all these talented, interesting people of color? — and laughs at it. What to do? It’s not that hard: Let ’em drive. Mr. Obama had his priorities straight, of course. Pop culture and art aren’t aspects of American life that should dominate a presidency. They have little to do with the business of governance. But Mr. Obama has always seemed to understand the importance of culture as mirror, window, escape hatch and haven. The Obamas were catholic in their tastes not because they had to be, but because that’s what we should be: open. Their minds were open, their hearts were open, their arms were open — to the Willie Nelsons, the Beyoncés, the Junot Díazes, to all kinds of excellence. One of the happiest cultural events I’ve ever watched was the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in November. The honor went to 21 men and women, from Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks and Michael Jordan to Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross and Ellen DeGeneres. Bill and Melinda Gates were honored. So were Maya Lin and Robert Redford. Mr. Obama had good material for most of them — philanthropists, movies stars, architect, alike. And, as he so often does and gets nary enough credit for, he delivered it with perfectly timed drollery. (He could easily enjoy a second career as a comedian.) These people meant something to him. His joshing notwithstanding, a few of them appeared to mean everything. The knock on Mr. Obama was that he was dry and aloof. Perhaps but not always. He understood what laughter could do. He knew the power of songs. He knew the power of singers, even if the only person doing the singing was, at first, only him. In 2015, at the memorial service after the Charleston massacre, he takes a dramatic, deliberative pause before intoning the lyrics to “Amazing Grace. ” He starts and the choir behind him rises, out of surprise. You can tell he’s not singing because he thinks his baritone sounds good. He’s singing because something’s come over him, the way it does me, the way it does lots of people. What appears to have come over him at that memorial is both a sincere holiness and a rare, powerfully particular recognition of the glory and tragic risk of being black and American: He had to sing. In that moment, that song was all he seemed to have. That’s not a sensation you go looking for. It finds you. Good historians tend to know the right moment to evaluate a president’s place. They wait until the office is behind him, for the right mix of distance and scholarship. In the meantime, Barack Obama’s performance as president — meaning the performance he gave in the role of president of the United States — was flawless. Culturally speaking, he didn’t use his office to lift up, enlighten and entertain so much as share it. He wrote to David Remnick that he loved Ray Charles’s version of “America the Beautiful” because “it captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence. ” The man knows his country and his Ray. But it’s entirely possible to read that quote and catch a chill because Mr. Obama could easily have been writing about himself. | 0 |
Wikileaks released an email from Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, coaching Hillary on how to best gain the trust of the Black community by going directly to the victims being held up by Black Lives Matter movement as heroes, and faking empathy with the parents. She also mentions it would be a good idea to use the idea that their grief should be magnified because it happened at the hands of law enforcement officers (the state). The email was forwarded by Jen Palmieri who is the same person who was busted criticizing Catholics. Karen Finney, Hiilary s Senior Advisor for Communications and Political Outreach, & Senior Spokesperson for Hillary for America was also copied on the suggestion about how to fake concern for parents of Black Lives Matter victims.Here is an excerpt from the Wikileaks email:Hillary clearly took her advice, as she can been seen milking her phony support for mother s of Black Lives Matter victims by giving them a chance to appear at the DNC as her special guests to chant :Ever the actress, here s Hillary appealing to the black community with her newfound black dialect: | 0 |
The last accuser who could have been the nail in the coffin for Bill O Reilly spoke on The View about her sexual harassment lawsuit. Perquita Burgess and her lawyer were on The View for their 15 minutes of fame. Attorney Lisa Bloom should know better than to send her client on to speak out about her allegations. Lisa Bloom has a track record as a high profile lawyer for cases like this She should know better but it could be that she s trying to gain sympathy for her client.Please listen to the video and let us know what you think about what she said and about sexual harassment in the workplace:O Reilly settled with other women over sexual harassment but how do we know if any of them has any credibility? How does a man protect himself from such charges?If this could be brought up on charges, then every high profile man out there needs a witness when he walks around anywhere.Are the comments (if true) that this woman said Bill O Reilly made considered sexual harassment to you? What exactly is sexual harassment? If it s how you feel then men are in big trouble because of all of the offended women out there. Should the definition be broader or should it be more narrowly defined. We feel with our litigious society, the cases for sexual harassment should be very closely scrutinized. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that amendments were necessary to a Puerto Rico debt bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said would be voted on by next week. Reid, speaking to reporters, said changes were needed to the federal board overseeing the restructuring of Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt under the bill, but he did not say whether Democrats would be successful in making any changes. The House of Representatives passed a Puerto Rico debt relief bill on June 9, following months of internal debate. Supporters hope the Senate passes that bill, without any amendment, before July 1, when Puerto Rico faces a deadline for making a $1.9 billion debt payment. The Caribbean island, which is a U.S. territory, is suffering a poverty rate of about 45 percent and has been hobbled by worsening debt problems. Some schools and medical facilities are closing and thousands of residents are relocating to the U.S. mainland, further shrinking Puerto Rico’s tax base. While Reid said he had “some serious concerns” with the current bill, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and lawmakers in the House, he did not say whether he expected any amendments to succeed in the Senate. A Senate debate over amendments could simply help put Democrats on record registering their concerns with the legislation. “At the very minimum, we need some amendments to make sure that people understand what is not in that bill,” Reid said. Democrats in both chambers have voiced concerns over some potential minimum-wage reductions for young workers that Republicans included in the House bill. They also have said the federal oversight board, to be appointed by Washington, might not have Puerto Rico’s best interests in mind. Supporters of the bill have argued it is the best measure that can pass the Republican-controlled Congress and that Puerto Rico could slip into chaos without action. | 1 |
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
The West has in effect developed a two-tier legal system for Muslims.
The article below is about a baby being dumped in the road, with the Muslim migrant perpetrator escaping jail time. This follows another shocking recent report about the rape of a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Vienna by a Muslim refugee from Iraq; his sentence was overturned because the judge accepted, outrageously, that the man thought the little boy consented.
Our senses have seemingly gone numb to Muslim crime. This is similar to the phenomenon of how Muslim Arab violence against Israel is tolerated, as suggested by Middle East scholar Ephraim Karsh:
The sight of Arabs killing Jews (or other Arabs for that matter) is hardly news; while the sight of Jews killing Arabs is a man-bites-dog anomaly that cannot be tolerated.
Karsh’s comment is based on the unflattering principle of low expectations toward Muslims, which is a costly malady, as Western civilized society is slowly descending into the barbarism seen in Islamic states.
Less than two decades ago, no one could could have imagined reports such as these: Violent “asylum seekers hurl chairs and throw punches in ‘wild west’ fight that left five in hospital”; a 90-year-old woman gets raped by a Muslim; a 79-year-old woman visiting her sister’s grave also gets raped by a Muslim; up to a million girls in the UK are sexually assaulted by Muslim rape gangs; and crime has seized Europe, with coverups of Muslim crime in the U.S. as well.
“No jail time for asylum seeker who dumped baby in road”, by Paul Gillingwater, The Local , October 19, 2016:
The 27-year-old had been living in an asylum centre in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district and had already been given several warnings for being drunk and violent.
So when he turned up again intoxicated with a beer in his hand and was told to leave, he flew into a furious rage.
Spotting his baby daughter in a pram nearby, he grabbed her and ran into the busy road, and put her in the middle of a traffic lane.
The man’s lawyer denied however that he wanted to cause the child any harm, saying he wanted to take a photograph
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Fifth Varshavyanka submarine joins Russia’s Navy 26 October 2016 TASS By the end of this year the Russian Navy will have the sixth submarine in the series, The Kolpino. Facebook submarines , russian navy , black sea fleet
The fifth non-nuclear submarine of project 636.3, The Veliki Novgorod, has joined the Russian Navy, a TASS correspondent reports from the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg, attended by the Russian Navy’s Deputy commander, Vice-Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov and the shipyards’ CEO Alexander Buzakov.
"The Veliki Novgorod submarine has been through all government certification tests. All of the previous submarines in that series built for the Black Sea Fleet have confirmed the expected parameters, too," Buzakov said.
The Veliki Novgorod is the fifth in the group of six submarines of project 636.3 (Varshavyanka) built for the Black Sea Fleet. The first two - The Novorossiysk and The Rostov-on-Don were delivered in 2014, and another two, The Stary Oskol and The Krasnodar, in 2015. By the end of this year the Russian Navy will have the sixth submarine in the series, The Kolpino. The flag-hoisting ceremony is due November 25.
Another six Varshavyanka subs will be built at the Admiralty shipyards for the Pacific Fleet. The contract was signed at the Army-2016 forum near Moscow. The last submarine in the second group is to be delivered in 2021.
First published by TASS . | 1 |
By Claire Bernish, The Free Thought Project Four stars from the movie, The Avengers, have now joined forces to demand President Barack Obama pay attention to abuses and excessive force being used... | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Refugee advocates said on Thursday the Obama administration is sending mixed signals to Central American migrants by deporting families who have fled to the United States while increasing resources in the crime-ridden region for asylum seekers. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States would work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to expand opportunities for people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for refugee status before coming to the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently conducted raids in the United States on Central American families who had fled the region in an effort to deter others from doing the same. “That frankly leaves us scratching our heads and leaves us wondering how the administration could be talking about the refugee resettlement issue in such different terms,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, an advocacy organization for children who enter the U.S. immigration system alone. Young said the families were not given due process before being deported. The question of what claim Central Americans fleeing violence have to refugee status in the United States comes amid a polarized national debate about the U.S. immigration system. Some congressional Republicans have said migrants, including refugees from Central America and the Middle East, could threaten public health and national security. More than 140 Democrats in the U.S. House wrote a letter to President Barack Obama condemning the deportation raids. Refugee and immigration advocates said the administration’s plan to deport Central Americans from the United States while increasing opportunities for them to seek asylum from their own countries wrongfully assumes that those asking for asylum at the border are a threat. The asylum application process, which can take two years, is unfeasible for families needing to flee violence quickly, said Jen Smyers, associate director of immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service. Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said the administration’s “border enforcement approach to this issue has been a mistake from the beginning.” Young said the administration wanted to counter the perception that border is out of control but “I think what they’re going to find out is that the most dangerous political calculation is that the immigrant rights community ... are now all unifying and speaking out in strong opposition to this new policy.” | 0 |
Thanks to the persistence of Judicial Watch, the emails from Huma Abedin were finally released today. Within those emails are classified documents that are heavily redacted . Chris Farrell just commented on the documents: A national security crime that Mr. Comey thinks is no big deal .@JudicialWatch Director of Investigations Chris Farrell on release of Huma Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop: "Yet another really grave national security crime that Mr. Comey apparently thinks is no big deal." https://t.co/xAzOlbGImt pic.twitter.com/YwvR2CIL3E FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) December 29, 2017Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch:Thanks to @JudicialWatch, we know classified info from Hillary Clinton s email server was on Anthony Weiner's laptop. There is an urgent need for a criminal investigation by the @RealDonaldTrump Justice Department. pic.twitter.com/rTCS8zD206 Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) December 29, 2017New York Post Reports:The State Department Friday released a trove of emails from Huma Abedin that the feds discovered on her husband Anthony Weiner s laptop including at least five that were marked as classified. Most of the emails were heavily redacted because they contained classified material but one that was sent on Nov. 25 2010 was addressed to Anthony Campaign, an apparent address belonging to Weiner.The message contained a list of talking points for then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was prepping to make a call to Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia to warn him about sensitive documents that had been given to WikiLeaks by then-Army intelligence officer Bradley Manning. I deeply regret the likely upcoming WikiLeaks disclosure, read one of the talking points. This appears to be the result of an illegal act in which a fully cleared intelligence officer stole information and gave it to a website. The person responsible will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law the message continued. This is the kind of information we fear may be released: details of private conversations with your government on Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. State was expected to dump roughly 2,800 emails as a result of a court case won by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.Thanks to @JudicialWatch, State Department now posting government docs from Clinton/Abedin found on Anthony Weiner laptop. Weiner campaign received classified info through Abedin/Clinton emails. Docs being posted here: https://t.co/dHCRPEk3gn Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) December 29, 2017This is a major victory, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, said in a statement. After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department to finally allow Americans to see these public documents. | 0 |
If you are a young white male in America, apparently you are free to stick your genitalia into whomever you please without having to fear that you will end up in prison. Consent be damned. Proof of this is the disgusting case of an Iowa teen who raped a toddler on camera and was given a free pass when he was finally hauled in front of a judge for his repulsive crimes.Kraigen Grooms has admitted to raping the 2-year-old in April of 2013 when he was 16 years old. Not only did he rape the small child, but he did it on camera so he could livestream the sexual assault for another pervert to watch online. Investigators believe that the attack was premeditated, and also that he had plans to rape a 3-year-old boy in the same manner.Grooms was arrested in March 2014, when he was 17. Initially, he was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a felony that could have put him in prison for 25 years. However, after spending two years in a juvenile detention center and county jail, he cut a deal and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of engaging in a lascivious act with a child in July. This week, Judge Randy Degeest handed Groom, who also goes by the alias Kraigen Simmers, a 10-year suspended sentence and sent him home.This means that he will see absolutely no prison time for raping a 2-year-old. Let that sink in for a minute.This is just the most recent in a string of high-profile sexual assault cases that have ended with the rapist getting a slap on the wrist and being sent on his way. The most well-known of these cases being that of Brock Turner, who raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and was given just six months in jail, but ended up only serving three before being released.Is there any question that anyone who rapes a toddler a f*cking toddler should be behind bars until hell freezes over? Is there any question that America s rape culture has spiraled completely out of control when you can rape a 2-year-old, on camera, livestream it on the internet, and not end up in prison?Featured image via KTVO screen capture | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday it had no intention of using currency devaluation to its advantage in trade, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s description of the Asian giant as the “grand champions” of currency manipulation. Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday he had not “held back” in his assessment that China manipulates its yuan currency, just hours after his new treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analysing Beijing’s foreign exchange practices. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he hoped the United States could “fully and correctly” view the exchange rate issue. “China has no intention of seeking foreign trade advantages via an intentional devaluation of the renminbi. There is no basis for the continued devaluation of the renminbi,” he told a daily media briefing in Beijing. “If you must attach the label ‘grand champion’ to China, then I think China is a grand champion. But we are the grand champions of economic development,” Geng added. The Foreign Ministry has no say in currency policy, but it is the only Chinese government department that holds a daily briefing that foreign reporters attend. The central People’s Bank of China did not respond to a request for comment. In a commentary, the official Xinhua news agency said criticising China for manipulating its currency to prop up trade was a “major myth that has been circulating in Washington for quite a long time”. “Since July 2005, China has decided to unpeg the yuan against the U.S. dollar, and allow it to fluctuate against a basket of currencies so as to better reflect the market changes. Over the years, the renminbi has appreciated substantially against the dollar,” it said. Trump has frequently accused China of keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar to make Chinese exports cheaper, “stealing” American manufacturing jobs. But he did not act on a campaign promise to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. The yuan fell 6.6 percent against the dollar in 2016, its biggest annual drop since 1994, as it was pressured by worries about slowing Chinese growth and more recently by a resurgent dollar, which has spurred capital outflows from many emerging markets. Chinese authorities have taken numerous steps in recent months to curb capital flight to support the weakening yuan currency, while trying to bring in more foreign investment. Geng said there was no basis for the continued devaluation of the Chinese currency and he hoped “the relevant side can fully and correctly view the renminbi exchange rate issue”. But China’s foreign exchange regulator said this month the economy still faced weak global demand and financial market volatility caused by expectations of further interest rate rises by the U.S. Federal Reserve. | 0 |
Charles Oakley has strong feelings about comped tickets. They are not freebies, he said in a recent interview. Instead, they are the vehicle through which teams show respect for former players. The Knicks have not offered Oakley free tickets for a long time. Worse, Oakley said, is the feeling that the organization has been scrubbing him from its history. This season, for example, the Knicks are celebrating their 70th anniversary, and Oakley has not been invited to participate in any of the events. It seems unlikely that any of that will change now. Mounting losses and a dysfunctional relationship between Carmelo Anthony and the team’s president, Phil Jackson, are no longer enough for the Knicks. On Wednesday night, a franchise with an addiction to needless drama raised the bar when Oakley, one of the franchise’s most beloved former players, was removed from Madison Square Garden in handcuffs after a fracas involving security personnel. If the episode was the product of years of festering animosity between Oakley and James L. Dolan, the team’s owner, then the fallout was swift, with the public and a number of prominent N. B. A. players quickly siding with Oakley. He was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal trespass, all misdemeanors, and came out of the encounter more revered than ever among the team’s many frustrated fans. Even before the Knicks wrapped up their loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, the hashtag #FreeOakley began to circulate on social media. A police officer at the Manhattan precinct where Oakley was being processed stood on the steps and shouted, “Free Charles Oakley!” Passing motorists rolled down their windows and complained about how he had been treated. Several N. B. A. stars were quick to express their support for Oakley on social media. The Clippers’ Chris Paul, who was not at Wednesday’s game because of a thumb injury, bristled at the Knicks’ statement on Wednesday night that Oakley needed some sort of help, and Paul described him as “the realest person our league has seen. ” The Chicago Bulls’ Dwyane Wade and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James posted photographs of Oakley from his playing days with the Knicks on their Instagram accounts. James called him a legend. And Reggie Miller, a former star with the Indiana Pacers and a player who had legendary playoff duels with Oakley’s Knicks in the 1990s, weighed in on Twitter with vehement criticism of the franchise. He questioned why any N. B. A. free agent would want to sign with the Knicks and “play for an owner who treats the past greats like this or a president who stabs star player in the back?” The latter part of the tweet was, of course, a reference to Jackson, whose efforts to force Anthony out of New York have been overshadowed by the Oakley episode — at least for the moment. The Knicks are, by any objective measure, a mess, and Miller may be right that they are taking on a toxic reputation around the league. The Knicks are even making the Nets, with their record, look like the most stable basketball organization in New York City. Less clear, though, is what actually occurred Wednesday night that resulted in Oakley’s ejection. At the start of the game, Oakley was sitting with several friends, and they were not far from Dolan’s usual seat, which is in the front row in the corner of the court. Accounts of Oakley’s behavior at that point vary widely, with some fans saying they didn’t hear or see Oakley saying or doing anything inappropriate, or trying to provoke Dolan, and others suggesting he seemed somewhat combative. In any case, when security guards approached Oakley, he clearly became angry, unleashing a string of profanities and becoming physical with at least two of them. As he was then removed from the arena, the crowd chanted his name, a moment that may come to symbolize an increasingly disastrous season. Shortly after the encounter, the Knicks issued a statement that ended with the hope that Oakley would get “some help,’’ a suggestion that offended many people in addition to Paul. On Thursday, the Knicks issued a statement in which they more explicitly stated that numerous Garden employees and New York City police officers had witnessed “abusive behavior’’ by Oakley as the episode unfolded. It dismissed his contention that he had done nothing wrong as “pure fiction. ’’ Madison Square Garden officials provided one employee’s description of the encounter to The New York Times, identifying her as a woman who was an “order taker’’ in the section in which Oakley was sitting. According to the statement by the woman, whom the Garden did not name, Oakley was agitated when he sat down, asking where Dolan was and why security guards were looking at him. She said she urged him to calm down, to no avail. Oakley played for the Knicks for 10 seasons and through much of the 1990s, when the Knicks were a tough, competitive team and Oakley’s determined physical presence near the basket epitomized everything the Knicks were about. Dolan did not become the chairman of the Garden until Oakley had already left the Knicks. Nevertheless, the two men have managed to become adversaries in the years that followed. In a recent interview, Oakley said that he tried to approach Dolan at the 2014 N. B. A. Game in New Orleans but was rebuffed. Dolan, he said, refused to shake his hand. Oakley said that he was later told that he had said “something in the paper” that had infuriated Dolan. Oakley said he had no idea what he said to offend Dolan. Oakley has been a vocal critic of the team — and of Dolan, in particular — for years. His insistence that he does not know why the team treats him so poorly is, at the very least, disingenuous. He has been miffed that the Knicks did not offer him a coaching position. He has cursed Dolan through the news media, largely for Dolan’s refusal to meet with him. And he has continued to channel many fans’ frustrations by venting about the team’s poor play. Oakley is no stranger to confrontation. As a player, he once punched Charles Barkley in the face during a preseason game. He was the consummate enforcer in an era of physical play. It has become clear, through some of his actions in retirement, that his approach to the game was really who he is. And that has caused some problems. In 2010, he was involved in a scuffle at a Las Vegas casino that left him with a broken arm. More recently, after Game 7 of last season’s N. B. A. finals, Oakley screamed at security personnel in Oakland, Calif. who were trying to prevent him (with varying degrees of success) from entering the Cavaliers’ jubilant locker room. The Cavaliers had just won their first championship after defeating the Golden State Warriors, and Oakley, who grew up in Cleveland, wanted to join the celebration. “They was just mad they lost,” Oakley said in a recent interview, referring to the Warriors. Friends describe Oakley as loyal, generous and protective. But he is also sensitive to slights, perceived and real. Over lunch with this writer in November, he reflected on his playing days with the Knicks and lamented how the team, he thought, had refused to market anyone except Patrick Ewing. “They probably never sold my jersey in New York until I left,” he said. Oakley added that he still attended three or four Knicks games every season, always paying his own way. And every time, he said, he would be watched by security personnel. He said that Dolan was behind their actions. “Anytime I go into the Garden, they have to call him and tell him where I’m at,” he said. “They got to let him know, ‘Oakley is in the building. ’” He added: “It’s so disrespectful. I bought my tickets. And you’re going to tell someone he can’t walk around?” Oakley sounded most upset when he said that the Knicks had tarnished his relationships with many of his former teammates. Oakley recalled a game at the Garden last season when he bumped into a former teammate near the court. The teammate, Oakley said, apprehensively urged him to keep his voice down. “The guys I played with,” Oakley said, “they can’t even talk to me or be around me. ” On Thursday, in an interview on ESPN Radio, Oakley apologized for his role in Wednesday’s episode. “I feel sorry for the fans,” he said. The fans, in turn, seem to be on Oakley’s side. Welcome to the world of the Knicks. | 0 |
As the GOP paves the way for Hillary The campaigns of Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have announced they are clearing paths for each other in certain states in an effort to deny Donald Trump the necessary delegates to win the Republican nomination. Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans, Cruz s campaign manager Jeff Roe wrote in a statement Sunday. To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead. The Kasich campaign followed their lead and released a similar statement. We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign resource s West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana, Katich for America chief strategist John Weaver wrote. Via: Daily Caller | 0 |
A beautiful story of generosity and kindness the media would never share with American voters One narrative emerging around the surprisingly resilient Donald Trump portrays the brash billionaire as a final card laid down by Republican blue-collar voters who see their way of life and their political clout draining away in a bathtub spiral.Trump has been a man of last resort before. Right here in Georgia, in fact. And if his Republican presidential machine doesn t seize upon the tale in the next few weeks, as he and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas battle for Southern votes, then someone in the Trump campaign will be guilty of gross incompetence.It happened in 1986, in the midst of the worst farm crisis since the Great Depression. In Burke County, on Georgia s eastern border, farm after farm was folding.On Feb. 4, Lenard Dozier Hill III, a third-generation occupant of his cotton-and-soybean acreage, was about to have his land sold out from under him. That morning, it was going to be auctioned off at the courthouse steps, so he committed suicide, said Betsy Sharp, his daughter.In the bedroom of the Hill home, along with the .22-caliber rifle that did the work, was a neat stack of life insurance policies and other papers on the nightstand. Hill had intended for the life insurance payout to cover most of his $300,000 debt and so save the family farm for another generation.It was a grievous miscalculation. Most, if not all, life insurance policies include a clause that prohibits payment in cases of suicide. He didn t realize all that, Sharp said.Hill s desperate act struck a chord. Reporters and TV crews descended on the Waynesboro church where the funeral was held. Vandals painted farmer killer on the door of the local bank.Once the family realized the financial futility of Hill s suicide, the burden of saving the farm fell on his widow, Annabel Hill, a 66-year-old teacher and social worker with gray hair and large glasses.The widow was already familiar with Frank Argenbright, a wealthy and white Atlanta businessman who had made a name for himself by organizing the successful effort to save the farm of a black farmer in Cochran named Oscar Lorick.(Argenbright initially tried to do this anonymously, as a masked benefactor who called himself A.N. American. But he was the head of a growing security firm, and his cop friends recognized his voice.)Argenbright arranged a press conference for Annabel Hill in Atlanta. It went national, he said. Today, in the age of the Internet, we use the term viral. Then, as now, clowns came out of the woodwork. In an interview, Argenbright said one of the first calls he received was from a Texas oilman who wanted to come to Atlanta to help. For some reason I had to pay the ticket, Argenbright said. First class.The oilman turned out to be a soused escapee from a rehab unit for alcoholics. Argenbright put him on the next flight back to Texas. In coach.Above is a video, featuring Betsy Sharp, daughter of Lenard and Annabel Hill, put together by Chad Etheridge of Growing America, a news service for farmers.***Argenbright was still at the airport when his assistant called. Someone claiming to be Donald Trump had just rang, offering to help Annabel Hill.A suspicious Argenbright called the number and demanded proof of identity from the man who answered. Herschel Walker works for me, the voice said. The former University of Georgia running back was the star of the New Jersey Generals, a United States Football League team owned by Trump. That was good enough. Well, Mr. Trump, I apologize, Argenbright said.Trump told the Atlanta businessman that his wife, Ivana, had seen the report on the Hill family s plight on the network news, and she suggested that he get involved. The magnate summoned Argenbright and the Hills to New York. After a brief interview, Trump signed onto the cause.Accounts of what followed differ. In his book The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that, in a phone call, he twisted the arm of a vice president of the Georgia bank that held the Hill mortgage. I said to the guy, You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I ll bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill s husband to his death. All of a sudden, the banker sounded very nervous and said he d get right back to me. Sometimes it pays to be a little wild, Trump wrote.Problem solved.Argenbright, a Trump admirer who would go on to provide security at many of the billionaire s properties, describes a Trump who was far less sure of himself and of the public reaction that would follow. And quieter, too. It wasn t the Donald that you see now, Argenbright said. He wasn t sure that people would respond to him. He didn t want to be embarrassed. Trump provided $20,000 to stave off foreclosure of the Hill farm, but his name was initially kept out of the picture. During a press conference on the courthouse steps in Waynesboro announcing the delay, Argenbright said he spoke only of support from a New York developer. But Trump s identity was easily and quickly guessed. The billionaire and the Georgia farm wife made the rounds of the morning TV shows. Viewers were asked to send their dollars to the Annabel Hill Fund, Trump Towers, New York, 10022. Money poured in, but Trump and a Texas oilman a real one, this time provided the last $78,000. A mortgage-burning ceremony was scheduled for two days before Christmas. The Hill family was again flown to New York, at Trump s expense. I had just graduated from high school. He flew us to New York, and we went to Trump Towers and had breakfast with him, said Betsy Sharp, who is now 49 and lives in Augusta. We saw a whole different side of him that was kindhearted, to reach out to us, to help us, the daughter said. Most people don t know and see that side. All they see is just the blurt that people put on the TV. They don t see the other side of him, and that s what my family got to experience. Argenbright feels likewise. He couldn t have been nicer. He took care of them and stayed in touch with them after that, Argenbright said. He had no ulterior motive. But Argenbright said that, in advance of that mortgage-burning ceremony in 1986, he did catch a glimpse of the media-savvy presidential candidate that we are watching now.Trump ordered the waterfalls in his towers turned off, to make it easier for the TV sound technicians. He made sure that at least three tested cigarette lighters were on hand to spark the fire. The mortgage papers were fake, but Trump ordered an assistant to light one up to make sure they would burn quickly and dramatically, said Argenbright, who supplied an engraved tray from Tiffany s for the ashes. Just to watch how detailed he was in understanding the perception of the moment and how significant it was it was a special time, Argenbright said. He was an honorable guy who wanted to do the right thing. If it wasn t for him, that farm wouldn t have been saved. The Annabel Hill episode was just a small piece of the farm crisis. In the two months that followed, 85 other farms in Burke County alone were scheduled for foreclosure. Other celebrities attempted rescues as well Willie Nelson s series of Farm Aid concerts had begun the year before.But this was the moment that Donald Trump, who had already put his name on the New York City skyline, introduced himself to rural America. Via: AJC | 0 |
The majority of Donald Trump s campaign is built on xenophobia, but while his supporters are ranting non-stop about immigrants, Trump himself is taking full advantage of the flaws in our immigration system at least according to a report in Mother Jones, in which Trump is accused of human trafficking (my words, not theirs).Are those words a little harsh? Well, according to the report, Trump Model Management has been using foreign models who arrived on tourist visas, not work visas. Yes, that s a violation of federal law. It gets worse, though. The models are what could be considered indentured servants because much of what they make goes right back into the pockets of Donald Trump.Founded in 1999, Trump Model Management has risen to the top of the fashion market, boasts the Trump Organization s website, and has a name that symbolizes success. According to a financial disclosure filed by his campaign in May, Donald Trump earned nearly $2 million from the company, in which he holds an 85 percent stake. Meanwhile, some former Trump models say they barely made any money working for the agency because of the high fees for rent and other expenses that were charged by the company.Mother Jones interviewed three of Trump s former models, all of whom arrived in this country without proper documentation to be working at all. All of whom compared working for Trump to modern day slavery. Two of those models make the claim that the agency urged them to lie.Two of the former Trump models said Trump s agency encouraged them to deceive customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and told them to lie on customs forms about where they intended to live. Anna said she received a specific instruction from a Trump agency representative: If they ask you any questions, you re just here for meetings. That s not all. The models complained that they were forced to share a two bedroom apartment with at least 10 other models, all at very inflated prices. Most of the models are under age: It is like modern-day slavery (Canadian born model Rachel) Blais said, adding that most of the girls in the apartment that were not American didn t have a work visa. We re hoarded into these small spaces, Kate recalled. The apartment was like a sweatshop. I was by far the oldest in the house at the ripe old age of 18, Anna added.Source: New York Daily NewsA few months ago, the Daily Mail reported on a former model who claims that she should have earned $75,000 a year working for Trump s agency, but she took home less than $5,000 in three years. She s suing Trump s agency.It s even rumored that Trump s wife Melania came to the U.S. illegally.Neither Mother Jones nor the Daily Mail used the words human trafficking, but according to the United Nations, the definition certainly applies:While there s no evidence in the report of prostitution and definitely no evidence of removal of organs, there was almost certainly deception, fraud and exploitation. Trump would never get away with paying American models so poorly, which is exactly why he imports them.Next time you hear Trump and his supporters chant, lock her up, remember this story. Not only is Trump not fit to be President, he s not fit to be out of prison.Featured image via Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images | 0 |
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two National Football League teams largely steered clear of a controversy over national anthem protests that have ensnared U.S. President Donald Trump and threatened to damage the game’s popularity, staging a “moment of unity” on Monday instead. The entire Dallas Cowboys team, including owner Jerry Jones, linked arms and knelt on the playing field for a moment before the game, but then stood respectfully as the “Star-Spangled Banner” was performed by singer Jordin Sparks. “We all agreed that our players wanted to make a statement about unity and we wanted to make a statement about equality,” Jones said after his team beat the Arizona Cardinals 28-17. Jones has previously expressed pride that no players on his team had taken to one knee as the anthem was played and said he was disappointed to see such protests. Cardinals players joined arms as a giant flag was unfurled on the field but did not kneel. “Prior to the National Anthem, the @DallasCowboys and @AZCardinals shared a moment of unity on the field,” the NFL said in a Twitter post that was retweeted by the Cowboys. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred a polarizing national debate in 2016 after refusing to stand during pre-game renditions of the “Star Spangled Banner” to protest against police violence against African-Americans. Kaepernick was not signed by an NFL team this season but several players have made similar gestures. Trump kicked off his battle with the largest-grossing U.S. professional sports league at a rally on Friday, when he said any protesting player was a “son of a bitch” who should be “fired.”Those remarks touched off protests by dozens of NFL players, coaches and even some owners at games on Sunday, along with criticism from many corners of the sports world. “The childishness, the gratuitous fear-mongering and race baiting has become so consistent that we almost expect it, the bar has been lowered so far,” Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team, told reporters. The head of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) spoke out in support of the protesters at NFL games. “The athletes you see protesting are protesting because they love their country,” USOC Chief Executive Scott Blackmun told reporters in Park City, Utah. The International Olympic Committee’s charter prohibits “demonstrations of political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic venues. Not all players joined in Sunday’s protests. Notably, Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Alejandro Villanueva, a U.S. Army veteran, stood alone at the entrance to the stadium for the anthem on Sunday while his teammates waited in the locker room. Villanueva jerseys and other apparel have outsold those of all other players in the past 24 hours, said a spokesman for online retailer Fanatics, which operates NFLShop.com. Villanueva’s teammate, Ben Roethlisberger, said on Monday he regretted having missed the anthem. “I was unable to sleep last night,” Roethlisberger said in a statement. “I personally don’t believe the Anthem is ever the time to make any type of protest.” Trump kept up his verbal battle with the players on Monday, saying on Twitter that his objection to the protests had nothing to do with race but was “about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!” The president, who has called for a boycott of NFL games, also tweeted: “Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our Country.” The demonstrations have become a thorny issue for the league, which has sought to support players’ rights to protest while trying to keep politics from overshadowing games. CBS Corp said overall viewership of games it broadcast on Sunday was up 4 percent from last year and 1 percent from last week. NBC, owned by Comcast Corp, said viewership for its Sunday night game was down compared with the week before. “The protest has nothing to do with respecting the flag. I agree with their message but not doing it during the anthem,” U.S. Air Force veteran Jimmy Phillips, 43, said before Monday’s game in Phoenix. Nike Inc said it supported athletes who had joined the protests. “Nike supports athletes and their right to freedom of expression on issues that are of great importance to our society,” Nike said in a statement. The debate attracted intense attention online, with the hashtag “#TakeAKnee” racking up 2.4 million mentions and “#TakeTheKnee” used 1.2 million times by Monday, while “#BoycottNFL” had 101,500 mentions. Prominent players continued to speak out against Trump on Monday. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has said he considers Trump a friend, said on Monday he disagreed with the president’s remarks. “I thought it was just divisive,” Brady told Boston’s WEEI radio. At the same time as he berated the NFL, Trump praised car-racing league NASCAR, which saw no protests at its Sunday race in New Hampshire. (The story has been corrected to add missing words “we wanted to” in paragraph 3) | 0 |
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Agriculture Department said in Senate ethics disclosure forms that he would place his assets, which include part ownership of a grain merchandising company, into a blind trust. Republican Sonny Perdue was tapped to head the department the day before Trump’s inauguration. Progress on his confirmation has been slow, with media reports suggesting that undoing his various business entanglements caused the delay in the ethics filings. Representatives for Perdue did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the delays. The divestiture plan was disclosed in filings posted online over the weekend by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Submitting the ethics filings is a key step toward possible confirmation. Perdue, the former governor of Georgia, also said he would resign his positions from the National Grain and Feed Association, the Bipartisan Policy Center Governor’s Council and the Georgia Agribusiness Council. Perdue has received strong support from agricultural trade groups. The Senate Agriculture Committee has not yet released a schedule for his confirmation hearings. | 1 |
It s easy to blame the White man that way, you don t have to be accountable for your actions I lived in Oakland [CA] all my life, and the people that robbed my mama at gun-point, when she was just a hard-working immigrant trying to get ahead honestly, it wasn t White, right-wing extremists, it was black and brown people. Why don t you cheat on your wife and blame her for it? My hardworking mom was not robbed by "White Right wingers."My dead friends were not shot by "White Right wingers" pic.twitter.com/RqyeWnShpu Oak-Town Unfiltered (@hrtablaze) August 30, 2016 | 1 |
Republican delusion never ceases to reach new ridiculous heights of absolute stupidity.In their race to make Oklahoma the most anti-abortion state in the nation, Republicans passed SB1552 in the House this week. The legislation now moves to the Senate where it will likely also pass before then heading to the desk of GOP Governor Mary Fallin, who will likely sign it into law. You know, because hating women and costing taxpayers millions of dollars to defend an unconstitutional law is what Republicans obsess with these days.But one Republican actually argued that Oklahoma taxpayers shouldn t worry about the cost of the legal expenses because according to him, God will pay the costs.Despite the fact that Oklahoma faces a $1.3 billion deficit, GOP state Rep. David Brumbaugh excused passing the bill by claiming that God will fix the state s crumbling economy and pay all the legal expenses resulting from forthcoming lawsuits if they do the moral thing and ban abortion. Everybody talks about this $1.3 billion deficit, Brumbaugh said on Thursday. If we take care of the morality, God will take care of the economy. I ve heard almost every argument today about judicial challenge to this legislation and after much prayer and study, I ask myself this question, he continued. Do we make laws because they re moral and right, or do we make them based on what an unelected judicial occupant might question or overturn? No, Rep. Brumbaugh. We make laws in this country based on the Constitution and the Supreme Court has ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibits banning women from making private choices regarding their own bodies, and that includes the right to choose to have an abortion.But if SB1552 passes in Oklahoma, women across that state will no longer get a choice because the bill makes it a law that doctors who perform an abortion other than for a woman who has suffered a miscarriage or their life is in danger to have their license revoked. In short, women would not even be able to get an abortion within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy when 90 percent of abortions occur because doctors would be faced with having their license to practice medicine taken away from them. Basically, Republicans are trying to ban abortion by punishing doctors who perform the procedure.Brumbaugh went on to compare abortion to slavery and then scoffed at the fact that the bill is unconstitutional. Don t let people tell you, Unconstitutional arguments, Roe v. Wade, all this, he said.Once again, a Republican insanely believes that passing certain legislation will please God enough that all of our problems will be magically fixed. Taxpayers in Oklahoma should be outraged that one of their own representatives is trying to dupe them in this way to excuse a bill that would strip millions of women of their reproductive rights.Featured Image: YouTube | 0 |
Dinesh D Souza s Hillary s America will debut in theaters in July. Clinton Cash is a documentary that investigates donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities, paid speeches made by Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the Clintons personal enrichment since leaving the White House in 2001. It also debuts this summer. And now, Weiner exploring the life of a world class narcissist who just happens to be married to Hillary s top aide and special friend who is also tied to Hillary s email scandal investigation, Huma Abedin. With so many scandalous movies surrounding the life of Corrupt Hillary debuting this spring and summer, it s hard to know what to see first. We only have one question. Did filmmaker, Mr. Kriegman credit Andrew Breitbart for exposing (pun intended) the truth about Anthony Weiner?Mr. Kriegman s careful chronicling of Mr. Weiner s campaign is poised to prompt a much broader reassessment of a tabloid-tarred politician. Weiner, a feature-length documentary by Mr. Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, will be released on May 20, amid one of the most contentious presidential elections in memory, and it may be the most intimate and provocative portrait of a political race since The War Room. Mr. Weiner whose moth-to-the-flame instinct toward exposure led in part to his resignation from Congress in 2011 after admitting he had lied about online liaisons with women granted extraordinary access to Mr. Kriegman, in exchange for the occasional use of his footage during the campaign. The filmmaker agreed to step out of the room whenever Mr. Weiner asked.And yet there is Mr. Kriegman in the back of a sport utility vehicle, filming as Mr. Weiner tries to persuade his wife, Huma Abedin, to appear at a primary-night party where Sydney Leathers, Mr. Weiner s erstwhile sexting partner, is lurking outside. Mr. Kriegman is inside the couple s apartment at breakfast time as Ms. Abedin, a frozen smile on her face, confides to the camera that she is living a nightmare. There are startling moments of Mr. Weiner analyzing his own transgressions (he calls them the things ) and facing teary-eyed staff members. Hours after Mr. Weiner s campaign is stricken by revelations of new online infidelities, the film finds husband and wife alone in a conference room, staring at each other for what may be the longest and most painful onscreen marital silence this side of an Ingmar Bergman film. The door closes, and I m filming, and I m riveted by what s happening, Mr. Kriegman recalled in an interview last month. But I m definitely thinking to myself: I can t believe I m standing here right now. He almost never got the chance. Mr. Kriegman had known Mr. Weiner for years, serving as chief of staff in his district office. After a decade in politics, he began pursuing a film career, earning credits on MTV and PBS. He and Ms. Steinberg, who are both 36, and previously collaborated on a documentary about prison reform, came to view Mr. Weiner as an ideal subject.Via: NYT s | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s choice of a general as chief of staff has quickly brought more order to the White House and is giving the president more time to ponder decisions as he tries to bounce back from a rocky six months with no major legislative achievements. But John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general with an intimidating air, still has many challenges to confront to stem the chaos that has raged at the White House since Trump took office in January, not least the Republican president’s free-wheeling style. Trump, who attended a military prep school growing up, is said to be pleased at the increased discipline that Kelly has brought in since taking over from Reince Priebus, who struggled to maintain order and was often ignored by senior staff. “He is feeling like he’s getting more time to read the materials and have substantive discussions and talk about the decisions he’s making,” said a White House official, who asked not to be identified. “Before, he was carrying a lot himself. It feels now like there is more burden-sharing around. He has more trust and confidence in Kelly,” the official said. Aides said Kelly, who previously was running the Department of Homeland Security and who began work on Monday, was commanding respect in the West Wing. “Kelly is scary in a way that Reince wasn’t,” said an administration official. Senior staff meetings are well attended and no longer considered optional as they were under Priebus. Typically anyone who goes into the Oval Office to see Trump makes sure Kelly knows. “I think you’ve seen less backbiting,” said Ken Duberstein, who was a chief of staff for 1980s President Ronald Reagan. “I think the idea that he is asserting, that the White House cannot be a free-wheeling place but rather there is a chain of command and things go in an orderly process, are all major steps in the right direction.” So far, Kelly has not managed to put a stop to leaks to the media that have infuriated Trump. On Thursday, the Washington Post published transcripts of Trump’s sometimes fraught calls in the early days of his presidency with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. He has not reined in the president himself, and it is by no means clear he will try to do so. Confidants say Trump is still speed-dialing people in the evenings, as he has done for decades. He is still firing off bombastic tweets, like one on Thursday blaming the Republican-controlled Congress for what he called an all-time low in relations with Russia because it piled on more sanctions. But Trump did stay on message at a rally in West Virginia on Thursday night, reading from a Teleprompter and sticking to the script. Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, said time will tell whether Kelly can reform any of the habits Trump has displayed during the first six months in office.”He’ll have some of the smartest people around him and they’re not there to change him but to make him better. Even Tom Brady needs a coach,” said Bennett, referring to the highly successful New England Patriots quarterback. Trump’s friends said there is value to letting Trump be Trump, particularly since Priebus’ attempt to shape Trump into a more traditional president failed spectacularly. “Kelly can go too far in the other direction. Donald Trump doesn’t need a babysitter. He’s his own man,” said one friend. “I understand the attitude of the military types that if they can control all information flow they can control the president. But the first time he learns something that he should have heard from staff, there will be hell to pay.” Trump has yet to notch up a major legislative win and Kelly has scant experience with lawmakers. In the mid-1990s he served as the Marine Corps commandant’s liaison officer to the U.S. House of Representatives. So far his appointment is being welcomed on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers had grown weary of the chaos at the White House. Many were heartened to see one of Kelly’s first acts was to jettison Anthony Scaramucci as communications director after a foul-mouthed tirade against Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon. “He is going to bring such an air of calm,” said Senator David Perdue, a Republican and early supporter of Trump’s election campaign. “This man has been through a career of providing results, and showing leadership.” Kelly is seen as likely to form a partnership with two other retired generals in Trump’s inner circle, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. The three attended a meeting of top national security aides on Thursday in the White House Situation Room aimed at settling on a strategy for Afghanistan that Trump, who tends to be non-interventionist, will find acceptable. Whether they will be able to overcome his doubts about sending around 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan is unclear. “I think he likes the snap and efficiency. But I seriously question whether any of them share his non-interventionist world view,” the friend said. | 1 |
Here s what the election map for Crooked Hillary vs. Trump in Oregon looked:Due to extensive criminal and dangerous behavior, protest is now considered a riot. Crowd has been advised. Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 11, 2016Those not wanting to be associated w/anarchists should leave the area immediately. Peaceful protesters encouraged to go to Pioneer Square Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 11, 2016Finally .police are not saying the woman who was hit by a car and killed was part of the anti-Trump protests, but the accident did happen near area of protests according to Twitter users. | 0 |
You seriously can t make up this stuff State Dept's new 'email czar' to deal with Clinton records requests donated $2,700 to Clinton campaign just weeks ago pic.twitter.com/S2nxW1KgiK Ted Bridis (@tbridis) September 8, 2015Via: Weasel Zippers | 0 |
THE COMMON THREAD IN ALL THIS IS HATE THE HATE COMING FROM: Black Lives Matter, Nation Of Islam and New Black Panthers. They all have a common theme of hate for cops and for white people. The shooter today took the life of fathers, sons and husbands .Here s a BLUE LIFE that mattered. In fact, he mattered a LOT. He mattered to his baby boy who was only months old. He mattered to everyone who loved him and to the neighborhoods and communities he courageously patrolled https://twitter.com/CajunKangaroo/status/754769486310506496 Baton Rougue Police Spokesman L Jean McKneely said in the above press conference that it was not clear how the shooting started on Sunday morning. The shooting took place near a B-Quick Convenience Store on Airline Highway, near Old Hammond Highway. One of the shooters was found dead near the story, reports The Advocate. Police used a robot to find out if there was an explosive device inside the store.CNN reports, citing a source close to the investigation, that police were called to the area when there was a report of a suspicious person walking down Airline Highway. The shooting started when police arrived. Shooting was first reported around 8:40 a.m.Baton Rouge Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel told The Advocate that two of the deceased officers were Baton Rouge police officers and the third is an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff s deputy. HeavySo who will accept responsibility for this horrific act of hate? Will Black Lives Matter supporters who openly chant Pigs In a Blanket Fry Like Bacon assume responsibility? What about our Community Organizer in Chief? What about his lawless AG and the lawless AG before her whose job it is to ensure justice in America, but instead works with Obama to encourage BLM protesters to carry on with their violent protests and disruptions across America And who can forget the ever-popular "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon." #BatonRouge https://t.co/d4MKWeSst2 https://t.co/GUJxkJvSiA Elizabeth Alexander (@McSillyson) July 17, 2016Speaking of Community Agitators #BlackLivesMatter chants: "Pigs [cops] in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!" But Obama defends BLM. #BatonRouge pic.twitter.com/YnDyxKLA3s Dutch Deacon Blues (@ddeaconblues) July 17, 2016Here s a Twitter user reminding BLM of their now famous chants:Well BLM looks like your chants Pigs in a Blanket Fry Em Like Bacon and What Do We Want? Dead Cops . Appears to be working #BatonRouge YouAreFakeNews (@JeffErick1234) July 17, 2016Here s a Twitter user who takes to Twitter to express his over-the-top hate for our law enforcement:https://twitter.com/SavionWright/status/752021245399412738And then there s this hateful little punk who tweeted this to us:Via: Heavy | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will take its first steps toward repealing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform act by the end of the week, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” McConnell said: “There ought not to be a great gap” between repealing the act and replacing it and that Republicans would be “replacing it rapidly after repealing it.” McConnell did not define what he meant by “rapidly.” Another top Republican, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, told Fox News that it could take two years to fully replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. “I think everybody recognizes that there will be a transition period,” Scalise said. “President-elect Trump and our leaders have said nobody is going to get the rug pulled out from underneath them.” Scalise cited a previously proposed Republican bill to repeal the healthcare law that laid out a two-year transition period for putting in place an alternative. “That’s a benchmark for what we’re looking at again,” he added. Since his election on Nov. 8, Trump, who will be sworn in as Obama’s successor on Jan. 20, has made clear he wants to move swiftly on his campaign pledge to repeal and replace the 2010 law. Republicans have a chance to make good on the Republican president-elect’s promise since they control both chambers of Congress. House Republicans took a step last week to clear the decks for Obamacare repeal by approving a procedural rule that would make it harder for Democrats to impede progress on such legislation. Repealing the act without an immediate replacement raises the question as to what happens to those who have insurance under Obamacare. On ABC’s “This Week,” Obama said that while the law could theoretically be repealed, “suddenly 20 million people or more don’t have health insurance.” “I think Republicans now are recognizing that may not be what the American people, including even Trump voters, are looking for,” he said. The healthcare law extended insurance coverage to millions of Americans through an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor and the creation of online exchanges where consumers can shop for private health insurance coverage. The law also provides for subsidies to help individuals and families afford coverage purchased on the exchanges. Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, told “Face the Nation” that while repealing and replacing Obamacare all at once would be ideal, it “may take time” to get all elements of the new plan ready. Obamacare came under renewed criticism recently after the government disclosed that benchmark 2017 Healthcare.gov premiums would rise 25 percent compared with 2016. Several large health insurers have withdrawn from the market, saying they are losing money. Obama said he expected the law to survive, albeit in a modified form. “If in fact the Republicans make some modifications,” he said, “and re-label it as Trumpcare, I’m fine with that.” | 0 |
Americans woke up on to a country that will soon have Donald Trump serving as president. It is a frightening realization. However, overcome with horror, the irony of the date went largely unnoticed by many. November 9, the day after Election Day, is the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down.On this day in 1989, the spokesman for East Berlin s Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR would be permitted to freely cross the country s borders. The scene of East and West Berliners flooding to the site became iconic. People used hammers and picks to chip away at the wall. The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. While almost three decades ago this date became synonymous with freedom in the hearts and minds of so many, Americans woke up today to a president-elect that plans to build a wall of his own. Since the very beginning of his election, Trump has promised to build a wall along the border between Mexico and the United States. Of course, he still insists that Mexico is going to pay for it. Anti-immigrant rhetoric served as the foundation of Trump s campaign and the wall was his keystone.Anti-immigrant rhetoric has served as the foundation of Trump s campaign and the wall has been his keystone. While most of us were simply overwhelmed by the reality of a Trump presidency, some couldn t help but notice the date and point out the irony.The sad irony is that the #berlinwall came down today in 1989 and #PresidentTrump is about to build a new one that will be just as brutal. Harry Leslie Smith (@Harryslaststand) November 9, 2016It is said that those who don t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It certainly looks as if we have an awful lot to learn. This is more proof of just how far backward we have to go for Trump to Make America Great Again. We took one step forward 27 years ago, and today, we took 10 steps back.Featured image via History.com | 1 |
Tweets from a Fresno State lecturer Lars Maischak not only demonstrate stark disagreement with capitalism, Christianity, and the GOP, but also a declaration that President Trump “must hang” to save democracy. [Maischak teaches America History at the university. His February 17 tweet speaks for itself: To save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better. #TheResistance #DeathToFascism https: . — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) February 18, 2017, Other tweets on Maischak’s profile demonstrate the ideology behind statements about Trump hanging and explain why universities across the country are now viewed with disdain by average, Americans. Here is another tweet from Maischak, dated March 8: Don’t tell me to ”obey the Law.” ”The Law” in this country is one part Racism, one part Class Oppression, all Capitalism. #TheResistance, — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) March 8, 2017, And another dates March 3: Judging from the largely absent facial markings this year, Christianity is paying the price for its pact with Fascism. Students abandon it. — Lars Maischak (@LarsMaischak) March 4, 2017, This is today’s academia. These are types of voices hired to teach recent high school graduates American History. How do you think George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson fare when taught by one who sees the world in this way? How do you think America’s heritage fares? AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0 |
Here s how Bill is paying back years of loyalty by his enabling wife Hillary, who made it possible for him to sexually assault an untold number of women. With Bill s magnanimous personality and Hillary s less than likable aura and fingernails on a blackboard orator skills, Bill has had her right where any strong and capable woman wouldn t have allowed herself to be in his back pocket. Hillary has allowed herself to be portrayed in the media as a victim and a loyal wife to her impeached husband. The truth is, Hillary needed (and still needs) Bill more than he ever needed her. It s precisely because of Hillary that Bill was able to prey on so many women and keep them quite afterwards. According to several sources, Hillary worked behind the scenes, threatening to do harm to any woman who would dare to come forward and expose her perverted husband for fear of destroying her insatiable desire for a powerful position in politics.During an Oct, 2014 interview, former advisor to President Bill Clinton, Dick Morris said it was then-first lady Hillary Clinton s Nixonian attempt to attack the woman Bill Clinton victimized and sexually harassed by hiring detectives to dig for dirt in their lives Hillary could use against them to smear their character. Dick Morris said he believes Bill was a very good president but he left because he said, What really turned me off was what I call secret police. When she [Hillary] hired this fleet of detectives to go around examining all of the woman who had been identified with Clinton. Not for the purpose of divorcing Clinton. Not for the purpose of getting him to stop but for the purpose of developing blackmail material on these woman to cow them into silence that had a Nixonian quality that I hold against her and I continue to. Via: Breitbart NewsWATCH HERE: | 0 |
With the Democratic nomination wrapping up in Hillary Clinton s favor, the question remains what role Senator Bernie Sanders will play heading into the convention in Philadelphia. Trailing in the delegate support and popular vote support, Sanders undoubtedly has mastered a great chunk of clout that the Democrats will need to tap into if they hope to beat Donald Trump or long-shot candidate Ted Cruz.While the Sanders campaign has remained unwavering in their determination to win California, a power house in delegates and popular voters, they have accepted their path to the nomination is almost all but impossible. However, the campaign has found a way to make their lasting presence within the Democratic Party: the national platform.And Hillary Clinton, who is having to fight to pick up Sanders supporters, is prepared to offer an olive branch of solidarity to work together. Appearing on CNN with Jake Tapper, the frontrunner said she welcomes working with Sanders to implement a progressive platform: I certainly look forward to working with Sen. Sanders in the lead-up to the convention in the lead-up to the platform that will represent the Democratic Party. It will be a progressive platform. I ve run on a progressive agenda. I really welcome his ideas and his passion and commitment, because the most important thing is winning in November. Sanders has called on the Democratic Party to implement open-primaries, automatic voter registration, and a 50-state strategy to garner as many votes as possible. Clinton has seemingly embraced some of these positions, and especially loved when Sanders told reporters his main priority in November is to make sure Donald Trump would not become President of the United States:There is no more important goal, and I was pleased when Sen. Sanders said the other day he s going to work tirelessly to make sure that Donald Trump was not president, and I really welcome that because that has to be our primary objective.As Clinton heads into the general, she will need to court Sanders most ardent supporters. Extending an olive branch to work with Sanders is a smart move on Clinton s part, and will ensure a unified party.Featured image via Joe Readle/Getty Images | 0 |
Let s face it, if it weren t for gerrymandering, Russian interference and straight up lies, Republicans would never hold another majority again and they d certainly never hold the presidency. Unfortunately, that s not our reality and Republicans in Iowa are so desperate that they are turning to lies to keep people from voting.Iowa s Secretary of State, Paul Pete, wants to pass stricter voting restrictions in an effort to keep undesirables (Democrats especially Democrats of Color) from voting and he s lying to justify it.To substantiate his argument, Pate s office drafted a statement for a reporter from the local Gazette newspaper, noting that in Iowa it appeared 41 felons had cast ballots and that more than 200 election day voter registrations, or EDRs, had bounced back. The draft statement included the caveats that the irregularities do not necessarily constitute fraud and that the state would have a more complete picture of election data come March. Pate urged his staff to release it. We need to release info and these stats are public already. When an auditor turns them over to the county attorney or sheriff for action that pretty much makes it public. Am I missing something?, he wrote in an email.Source: Huffington PostIn a state of three million people, 41 felons voting doesn t exactly seem like a reason to change voting laws for everyone, but even that paltry number is vastly misleading. According to Pate s deputy, Carol Olson: I do not believe that we should say that 41 felons illegally cast ballots. We encouraged them to use provisional ballots, so that would feel a little like we baited them to do something illegal, she wrote. And it s risky to label it illegal because we don t know the circumstances. It might be illegal, but [it] might not be, if someone really believed their rights were restored. We can report the number of felons voting, but let s not call it illegal, she wrote.Olson noted that some of the statistics suggested something nefarious when it could simply be attributed to human error. I m also really reluctant to say that 207 EDR s (sic) from 15 counties bounced back. In the context of a discussion on election fraud, it sounds like we are suggesting that bounce backs are fraud or likely to be fraud, she wrote. First, it s only a partial report. What about the other 84 counties? How does this fit into the overall process of EDRs? The vast majority of these bounce-backs are sloppy addresses from voters in too much of a hurry when they register at the polls. That s a real reason to discourage EDR and a real reason to have pollbooks, but it s not an indicator of illegal activity. Regardless, it s likely the bill, that will require voter IDs, will pass, nearly ensuring that the state, which has long been a red-leaning swing state, will become a red state.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images. | 0 |
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand s Puea Thai Party on Wednesday urged the ruling junta to end a ban on political activity since the 2014 coup, saying it feared a delay could signal that a general election promised for next year might be pushed back yet again. The rare statement from the party whose government was ousted in 2014 comes amid growing calls from groups of all political stripes to scrap the ban ahead of the November 2018 election the junta has promised. The junta s continued ban on political activity could provide a channel or excuse to delay elections again, as has happened before many times, it said after an announcement by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha that the ban would stay. The junta had said it would consider lifting the ban, which had drawn condemnation from Western governments and the United Nations, following the Oct. 29 end of a funeral ceremony for King Bhumibol Adulyadej. But after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Prayuth, who led the 2014 coup, said the ban would be retained because Thailand was not ready for political conflicts. Tension has festered since 2006, when a coup removed then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Subsequent bouts of unrest included deadly street protests. Thailand is divided broadly between those backing Thaksin and his sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was removed in the 2014 coup, and the elite in the capital, Bangkok. Thaksin is credited by some as being the first Thai prime minister to tap into the potential of the rural electorate. But his enemies accuse him of corruption, which he denies. Thaksin and Yingluck live abroad. Yingluck fled Thailand in August, ahead of a verdict in a negligence trial that eventually found her guilty and handed down a five-year jail term. Thaksin fled to avoid a 2008 jail term for corruption. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), did not want to hold on to power. The NCPO has no such thought to not return power to the people, but we have to wait until country is more peaceful first, he told Reuters. Other political parties echoed Puea Thai s call. Parties should at least be allowed to hold meetings to select new board members, said Nipit Intharasombat, a deputy leader of the Puea Thai s rival Democrat Party. The continued ban lets the military gain popularity before the election, academic Titipol Phakdeewanich told Reuters. With the political ban in place, people only receive one-sided information, allowing the NCPO to build its credibility and discredit other parties, said Titipol, the dean of political science at northeastern Ubon Ratchathani University. Although Prayuth cannot stand for election, a new military-backed constitution offers a route for him to be chosen as outside prime minister . | 1 |
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