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You almost have to feel sorry for Republicans (almost). They find themselves between a really unpopular president and a party that only rewards those who are perfectly loyal to Dear Orange Leader.Ronna Romney McDaniel, the current head of the Republican National Committee and niece of the last Republican presidential loser, Mitt Romney, says that not supporting Donald Trump should be a cautionary tale for any Republican that ever hopes to win another election.On CNN s Laura Ingraham Show, McDaniel tried to pretend that the RNC stays out of primaries, but that GOP Sen. Jeff Flake was sure to lose because, unlike the toy brown-shirted robots in Congress, he refused to march (at least on paper) to Trump s xenophobic (and generally everything phobic) message.Flake wrote a book called Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle, a title he only partly stole from Barry Goldwater.Flake dared take on Trump and his own party, saying that Trump is a symptom of a dying party. But make no mistake, as a governing philosophy, conservatism is indeed in crisis and not in spite of this apparent success but because of it, later blasting self-described conservatives for changing their political stripes depending on fashion or the passions of the day or based on how much applause a line in a speech received at a rally. We have given in to the politics of anger the belief that riling up the base can make up for failed attempts to broaden the electorate, Flake writes. These are the spasms of a dying party. Source: NPRNow the party is pissed. McDaniel fell short of threatening Flake, but the implication was clear as day if Republicans don t support Trump, they will likely lose. They need to have another candidate that they supported and the three RNC members that have to agree on that other candidate for rule 11 to apply, but it is in their bylaws, McDaniel said. It s just interesting from a party standpoint, we do have governance. We have 168 members that they make those decisions. Sometimes you get in the nitty gritty, but I will say if you look at 2016, the senators that did not support the President, and let s look at Joe Heck and Kelly Ayotte, they fell short in those Senate races, so there is a cautionary tale there because voters want you to support the President in his agenda. Source: CNNWe should note that Flake votes with Trump 93.5 percent of the time. I guess his conscience is that of a man who wants to sell books.McDaniel, of course, neglects to mention that during the election, Trump s approval ratings were sort of close to 50 percent. Now, he s below 40 percent. Between his inability to negotiate deals of any kind and his efforts to take health insurance away from his own base, people are beginning to turn on him. It s not the same political climate as it was just a few months ago, so seeing the 2016 election as a cautionary tale for anything (other than letting Russians interfere) is pretty much moot.What this does say, though, is that Republicans aren t going to be turning on Trump anytime soon and that impeachment will be an uphill battle, at least if they want the support of their party, which of course, is more important than their country.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1 |
Amy Goodman sat down for an interview with CNN s Brian Stelter on Sunday morning. Goodman, the award-winning broadcast journalist and the host of Democracy Now! did what she does best grill the establishment with fact-based analysis.It s been shown that there is a coverage bias against Bernie Sanders in the corporate media. On the other hand, when it comes to Donald Trump, the major networks have given the Republican candidate who wants to make America hate again total domination of America s television screens.This bias was recently exemplified when the big three news networks all decided not show Bernie Sanders concession speech on Super Tuesday 3. Goodman points this out, saying: Let s look at Super Tuesday 3, you had major coverage here at CNN, at MSNBC, at Fox all the networks across all through the night as the polls are closing. You see the concession speeches and the great victory speeches, you see Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Kasich, you see Donald Trump. You re waiting here at CNN, at MSNBC. They said he s going to hold a news conference and that s it. Goodman continues, saying: Where was Bernie Sanders? Well, in fact, Bernie Sanders was in Phoenix, Arizona before thousands of people and as the networks were waiting for Donald Trump and waiting and all the pundits are weighing in, they don t even say that Bernie Sanders is about to speak. Commenting on how the corporate media has given Trump the world s biggest megaphone to preach his message, at the expense of covering all other major candidates, Goodman says: I think this exposure for Trump is frightening. Yes, there is now some critical coverage. But for the year 2015, as the snowball rolled and it got larger and larger, he got 23 times the coverage of Bernie Sanders. It comes down to ratings. Trump gives the corporate media an opportunity to create and sell an information-like-product, that can be quickly reproduced with almost no manufacturing cost. Speaking of manufacturing, Goodman borrows a phrase from Noam Chomsky, alleging that the media is manufacturing consent with their election coverage.While Chomsky may have popularized the phrase, its origins come from the master of media manipulation, Edward Bernays. He has a far more apt expression for the phenomenon that Goodman is addressing crystallizing public opinion. As long as Trump remains in the election, the corporate media s ratings will continue to benefit from his status.You can watch the interview below, in full.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw4tKd9823QFeatured image from video screenshot | 0 |
While it s sometimes difficult to keep up with all the legal hot water Donald Trump is in, one lawsuit predates even his Russian troubles and now Trump wants to put an end to lawsuits like it.For years, Trump peddled his supposed real estate expertise in a scheme called Trump University, which is not a university and it s really not Trump. In the end, 6,000 people sued Trump in a class action lawsuit. They claim that the promised Donald Trump investment techniques were mostly stuff that you could find on the Internet, some of which was illegal in some of the states where the seminars took place, she said. They say that the promised mentoring was worthless or nonexistent, that the instructors were unqualified and that they were definitely not handpicked by Donald Trump, as he claimed. And transcripts of Donald Trump s deposition confirm that he was relatively unengaged with what went on in Trump University. Source: NPRThey won $25 million and now, Trump wants to put an end to class action lawsuits altogether, which would free corporations to screw their customers with very little accountability.While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a new rule that would ban mandatory arbitration clauses, and would instead allow consumers to sue banks when they are wronged, the White House came out with a statement saying that when consumers sue, it s frivolous. If allowed to take effect, the CFPB s harmful rule would benefit trial lawyers by increasing frivolous class-action lawsuits; harm consumers by denying them the full benefits and efficiencies of arbitration; and hurt financial institutions by increasing litigation expenses and compliance costs (particularly for community and mid-sized institutions), the White House said in a statement.Source: The WeekMandatory arbitration, while it might sound efficient, is rarely customer friendly. Most arbitrators are paid by the institution and in most cases, what they say is legally binding. Most of the time, the arbitrators rule in favor of the institution.In a sample of 19,300 cases, arbitrators ruled in favor of consumers 5 percent of the time. Meanwhile, arbitration firms used by companies such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover Financial Services and American Express Co. won 95 percent of the disputes, the study showed.Source: Seattle PIFrivolous, like when Donald Trump sued a man for daring to be born with the name Donald Trump, or when he sued a Miss USA contestant, or when he sued the Chicago Tribune for doubting Trump s Chicago building would eclipse the then Sears (and now Willis) Tower.Altogether, Trump has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits, but despite the fact that our taxpayers pay for courts, he wants to take the option to use them away from us, unless we can afford pricey attorneys.Class action lawsuits are democratic; they give the people a voice. In Trump s and in Republicans world, though, consumer rights are inconvenient for profits. We should just shut up and when a bank-salaried arbitrator tells us we need to take it up the you-know-what, we d better take it up the you-know-what.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1 |
https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/800939338615824384 | 0 |
There is a disturbing trend in the Trump campaign. After revelations in August came to light that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was a lobbyist on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych, he resigned in shame, and currently undergoing investigation.Then, one month later, another Trump advisor, Carter Page, was probed for potentially holding secretive talks with Russian officials in an effort to have U.S. sanctions lifted. Ever since then, the Trump campaign has severed any ties with Page they once had.If the evidence couldn t be clearer that Trump is surrounding himself with pro-Russian allies in order to accomplish some nefarious endgame, it s been reported that yet another advisor has been caught doing business with Russia while coordinating with the campaign.According to congressional lobbying disclosures, Richard Burt received $365,000 from a Russian government-owned firm lobbying for a proposed natural-gas pipeline. The pipeline, which is opposed by the United States, would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine and Belarus thus greatly expanding Putin s power in Europe and abroad.Burt was responsible for crafting Trump s first major foreign policy speech in which Trump called for greater cooperation with Russia:I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength is possible. Common sense says this cycle of hostility must end. Some say the Russians won t be reasonable. I intend to find out.Burt also held policy meetings on national security and foreign policy with Alabama Senator (and Trump cheerleader) Jeff Sessions. Sessions is also the chair of the Trump campaign s national security committee.Not surprisingly, the Trump campaign did everything it could to play dumb, denying that the campaign knew nothing about any of this:We have no knowledge of this. In fact, our team cannot verify his self-proclaimed contributions to Mr. Trump s speech and, I don t believe Mr. Trump or our policy staff has ever met Mr. Burt. To our knowledge he had no input in the speech and has had no contact with our policy team.Either the Trump campaign managers are blatantly lying to everyone s faces, or they have no idea what s going on in their own campaign. Either way, the notions of doubt, deflection and ignorance isn t a good look.According to Politico:The revelation of Burt s simultaneous lobbying and campaign-advising comes at a time of mounting concerns about Russian attempts to manipulate the presidential election. Private security experts and American intelligence officials have concluded that recent hacks of the Democratic National Committee, state elections systems, and political figures were likely carried out by Russian government hackers. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly professed admiration for Putin and called into question whether he would honor the United States mutual defense obligations to NATO allies should they face Russian invasion.Third times the charm, apparently. So after three advisers have been tied to Russia, only time will tell just how much influence the rogue nation really does have on this election.The Trump campaign better start giving answers, before Hillary Clinton starts asking questions.Featured image via Ethan Miller/Getty Images | 0 |
USA Today’s Kelly Lawler falsely branded Breitbart Senior Editor MILO as a “white nationalist” and “racist,” while also claiming that he is a part of the “ ” movement, a claim MILO has repeatedly rebutted over the past few months. [In her article “Leslie Jones speaks out after harasser Yiannopoulos lands book deal,” Lawler branded MILO with numerous false labels, while also claiming that MILO sent “racist” abuse to actress Leslie Jones despite a complete lack of evidence to support these claims. “After white nationalist and poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos landed a massive book deal with a reported $250, 000 advance, publisher Simon Schuster has come under harsh criticism from those concerned that a book will elevate the voice of the notorious Breitbart editor,” wrote Lawler. “Yiannopoulos made headlines earlier this year when he was permanently banned from Twitter for organizing a targeted racist and sexist harassment campaign against Ghostbusters [2016] and Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones. ” Lawler, who previously worked for NPR and interned with Democratic congressman Patrick Murphy, is not the only journalist to have made false and unjust claims against MILO, with the New Yorker also falsely claiming that MILO led a “racist online harassment campaign against the comedian Leslie Jones. ” As previously reported by Breitbart News, Jones had already been engaging with Twitter trolls for hours before ever interacting with MILO. “If at first you don’t succeed (because you’re work is terrible) play the victim,” said MILO in reference to Jones on Twitter. “Everyone gets hate mail FFS. ” Breitbart’s Allum Bokhari also wrote on the issue, adding, “In other words, MILO has been permanently banned for little more than criticism, mild insults, and mockery. Meanwhile, [Breitbart’s] Jerome Hudson’s abuser, who repeatedly called the black reporter a ‘coon,‘ is still on the platform. ” MILO has also sparred with various white nationalist and fringe sections of the right, so much so that white supremacist site The Daily Stormer waged a “war” against him. icon Richard Spencer has also dispelled claims that MILO is a part of the stating simply that “Milo is not a part of the ” during a debate. Many white nationalists have also branded MILO a “ kike faggot,” declaring their distaste for him. Popular outlet “The Right Stuff” also bluntly declared in an article that “Milo isn’t one of us,” while “leading thought leader of ” Paul Town also rejected claims that MILO is anything close to a white nationalist or in a member of the movement, branding him a “cultural libertarian. ” During numerous interviews, MILO has declared that he is not a member of the nor a white nationalist — a label, which he adds, many white nationalists are proud to associate with, however the media has frequently attempted to pin him to the movement. Numerous celebrities and media figures have thrown public tantrums over MILO’s upcoming book release Dangerous, including Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow, and Perez Hilton. Despite threats from the left to boycott publisher Simon and Schuster, the version of Dangerous by MILO became the number one bestselling book on Amazon just a day after being announced and over two months before being released. DANGEROUS is available to now via Amazon, in hardcover and Kindle editions. And yes, MILO is reading the audiobook version himself! Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0 |
(This version of the Jan 29 story has been corrected to show former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott is from Mississippi not Missouri) By Laila Kearney (Reuters) - Many of President Donald Trump’s core political supporters had a simple message on Sunday for the fiercest opponents of his immigration ban: Calm down. The relaxed reaction among the kind of voters who drove Trump’s historic upset victory - working- and middle-class residents of Midwest and the South - provided a striking contrast to the uproar that has gripped major coastal cities, where thousands of protesters flocked to airports where immigrants had been detained. In the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, 72-year-old Jo Ann Tieken characterized the president as bringing reason into an overheated debate. “Somebody has to stand up, be the grown up and see what we can do better to check on people coming in,” she said. “I’m all for everybody to stop and take a breath … Just give it a chance.” By executive order on Friday, Trump banned immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and temporarily halted the entry of refugees. In the electoral strongholds for Trump, residents seemed nonplussed about the uproar flashing across their television screens. They shrugged off concerns about botched execution, damage to foreign relations and legal challenges across the country. In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, Trump’s action set off an outpouring of anger. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, evoked an image of the Statue of Liberty weeping. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York teared up himself on camera as he seethed over the “mean-spirited and un-American” immigration ban. Veterans in government agencies, including the Homeland Security and State departments, blasted Trump’s team for what they called slipshod planning and scant interagency communication, criticism the White House rejected. At airports, security officials also struggled to consistently enforce vague rules. But allegations of operational or administrative blunders may do little to dampen enthusiasm for a president who rose to power on a populist and protectionist platform, political analysts said. Louise Ingram, a 69-year-old retiree from Troy, Alabama, said she forgave the new administration a few “glitches,” such as widespread confusion over treatment of green card holders, as it moved to protect U.S. citizens from attacks. “I’m not opposed to immigrants,” she said. “I just want to make sure they are safe to come in.” A senior Trump administration official said political considerations had little to do with the executive orders. They rather represent a reaction to the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California; the Boston Marathon bombing; and multiple attacks by radicalized groups in Europe. “The reality is that the situation that exists today in parts of France, Germany and parts of Belgium is not a situation that we want replicated inside the United States,” one official told Reuters. Candace Wheater, a 60-year-old retired school cafeteria worker from Spring Lake, Michigan, also referenced the attacks in Brussels and Paris. “Look at what’s happening in Europe,” she said. “I don’t dare travel there, out of fear.” Steve Hirsch, 63, from Manassas, Virginia, drove to Washington’s Dulles airport on Sunday to pick somebody up, rather than to protest as hundreds of others did. He said he supported Trump’s order. “A country is not a country if it doesn’t have borders,” he added. He lauded Trump’s actions as a calculated step toward the larger goal of tightening border security. “He probably went as far as he thought he could,” Hirsch said. “You can’t ban everybody in the world, but I think it’s prudent considering the conditions in certain places in the world.” Trent Lott, a former Senate Republican leader from Mississippi who is now a lawyer in Washington, D.C., said the orders made sense to “working-class Americans in the real world.” “Out in the rest of the country, people are excited to see the president moving forward with securing the border,” he said. University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato agreed that the weekend protests over the executive orders would not hurt Trump politically. “His base is as firm as ever,” he said. “What he’s lost in the very early polls is the Republicans who were never Trumpers and ended up voting for Trump.” Trump opponents have succeeded in winning some early court decisions that could undermine the practical impact of his executive orders, but Sabato said his base would perceive those as attacks from liberal elites. Trump could eventually lose support if he fails to keep promises important to regions that supported him, such as delivering jobs to the so-called Rust Belt, the Midwestern states dotted by dying factory towns. Whatever Trump ultimately accomplishes, his election has ushered in a new extreme of political polarization to an already deeply divided country. “I just have not found a single person who has any neutrality at all about Donald Trump,” Sabato said. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 40-year-old teacher Trista Carles said she had been ordered to keep her views about Trump out of the classroom. “We were told to be Switzerland,” she said. “We’re not allowed to take any sides or views.” She has her own opinions, of course, and said she appreciated that Trump, in his blunt way, gave voice to them “with no sugar-coating.” “I think it’s just too easy to get into our country and stay illegally,” she said. “I feel like he is going to – to the best of his abilities – make a lot of things he said happen.” | 1 |
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once requested to fly in a separate plane rather than share one with then-First Lady Michelle Obama, according to newly released emails.The email exchange was part of a new batch of emails that government watchdog Judicial Watch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Clinton and her top aide, Huma Abedin, discussed in a July 2011 exchange Clinton s plans to attend the funeral of fellow former First Lady Betty Ford in Grand Rapids, Mich. Looks like plane won t be an issue, Abedin wrote. Also, looks like Michelle Obama also going. Is it ok [sic] that we and Mrs. O take two separate planes? Clinton asked. I think it s ok [sic]. But let me see what kind of plane she s taking, Abedin responded. I would rather have our own of course, Clinton added.The new emails surfaced after other messages, ones released during the 2016 presidential campaign, revealed that Clinton and Obama s husband, former President Barack Obama, had an antagonistic relationship. And she HATES that the president ( that man, as the Clintons call him) kicked her ass in 2008, Democratic megadonor Jeffrey Leeds wrote to former Secretary of State Colin Powell in March 2015. She can t believe it or accept it. Leeds also addressed the growing controversy over Clinton s use of a private email server at the State Department, writing that then-President Obama would not care if Clinton found herself in legal trouble. I don t think the president would weep if she found herself in real legal trouble. She ll pummel his legacy if she gets a chance and he knows it, Leeds said.The exchange between Clinton and Abedin came after another message, one also released during the 2016 election, showed that Clinton complained commercial flights were burdensome and asked Abedin to get the Air Force to fly her from Westchester, N.Y. back to Washington, D.C. WFB | 0 |
Dr. Duke and Andrew Anglin discuss the most important vote and election of our lives! November 7, 2016 at 12:32 pm
Dr. Duke and Andrew Anglin discuss the most important vote and election of our lives!
Today Dr. Duke had Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin as his guest for the hour. They talked about the importance of the election tomorrow. They remarked that the Clinton campaign makes baseless accusations that the Russians could hack our voting machines to manipulate the election, but then insisting that Trump is beyond the pale for suggesting that the Hillary forces could possibly rig the vote.
They also talked about New York Times columnist David Brooks admission on the PBS News Hour that as a result of globalization, immigration, and feminism, white men in America have been “displaced,”“shafted,” and “ruined,” and that their support for Trump is due to them “going with their gene pool.” Brooks, a Jewish Republican, says the one person he cannot support for President is Donald Trump.
And now, a message from Andrew Anglin:
Meanwhile, the media is admitting that voting machines will be hacked .
We have to overwhelm the polls tomorrow. You must get everyone you know to vote . Call them right now. Don’t wait. Go through your phonebook on your cellphone and call up every single person you know who is not a totally liberal commie, and make sure they are going to vote. Offer to give them a ride if they need it.
Let’s do this, people.
Immediately following the show Dr. Duke got an mailbox full of emails saying this was the most powerful and inspiring radio broadcast they ever heard! Spread it around.
Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern.
Click on Image to Donate!
And please spread this message to others. | 1 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday nominated the state’s inspector general to serve as interim attorney general until November’s election, temporarily replacing Kathleen Kane, who resigned the post earlier this week after her conviction for perjury. Bruce Beemer, who previously served under Kane as first deputy in the attorney general’s office, will have to be confirmed by the state Senate. Wolf said in a statement that he had already conferred with both Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and expected a quick confirmation. Beemer would hold the job until a successor is elected in November for a four-year term, and then return to his role as inspector general. Kane announced her resignation on Tuesday, a day after a jury convicted her of leaking sealed grand jury material to a news reporter in an effort to embarrass a political rival. The move will likely end a brief stint as acting attorney general for Bruce Castor, whom Kane had hired as her second-in-command earlier this year. In a statement, Castor said the governor was fulfilling his duties under the law. “I will do all within my power to see that the office of attorney general is in the best possible shape for whenever the next attorney general arrives,” Castor said. Castor, the former Montgomery County district attorney, made headlines earlier this year when he testified at a hearing for comedian Bill Cosby in his sexual assault case. Castor said he had agreed not to prosecute Cosby if the entertainer testified in a civil case brought by his accuser. But a court ruled Castor’s claims were not enough to prevent the current district attorney from bringing charges. Kane’s conviction, meanwhile, ended what had once been seen as a promising political career. Prosecutors said Kane believed former state prosecutor Frank Fina was behind a 2014 newspaper article that said she had abandoned a corruption investigation into Philadelphia officials. In an effort to take revenge, prosecutors said, Kane leaked sealed details about a separate investigation that Fina declined to pursue and then lied about having done so to a grand jury investigating the matter. Kane had portrayed the charges as politically motivated, after she revealed lewd emails exchanged among judges, state officials and prosecutors that she discovered while re-examining the Jerry Sandusky molestation investigation. Several officials, including two state Supreme Court justices, lost their jobs in the wake of the email scandal, dubbed “Porngate.” | 1 |
It has been well documented that Donald Trump s presidential campaign has been endorsed by multiple white supremacist groups. One of the groups supporting Trump is the American National Super PAC. A branch of the organization, the American Freedom Party, is directing a new robocalling effort to try and connect their message with voters. They called Iowans before their caucus, and they are now calling voters in New Hampshire.Here is the message people are hearing when they answer their phones: We don t need Muslims. We need smart, educated, white people. I am a farmer and white nationalist. Support Donald Trump. Here is a video that lets you hear the three different voices that have contributed to the message.https://www.facebook.com/cnnpolitics/videos/1068444389864060/?fref=nfOne of those voices is that of Jarod Taylor. Tayler is well known white supremacist leader. He is the editor of the white nationalist media outlet, AmRen. Taylor has ties to various white supremacist organizations and has been very vocal in his support for Trump. During a segment on CNN, Taylor attempted to justify his views, saying: Why would we want more Muslims? Muslims have been a terrible problem for Europe, and here they want to pray five times a day, stop the assembly line, they want foot baths before they go to prayer, they want women-only swimming pool hours, and some of them want to kill us! Why should anyone want more Muslims? Trump has denounced the endorsement by the group. That being said, it isn t surprising that hate groups have latched on to Trump s campaign. So far his campaign has been largely built by exploiting the anti-brown hatred held by many conservatives.The trend has been that as more GOP candidates drop out of the race, their followers flock to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. So, it seems like Taylor and this group of racist friends may have backed the wrong horse to drive home their white advocacy agenda. Despite getting the media attention, Trump s stance on immigration is only nominally different that Iowa GOP caucus winner, Ted Cruz. Since the group s efforts appear to only be hurting Trump, let s hope the group decides to keep up their efforts, backing whoever eventually gets the nomination, in the general election.Featured image from video screenshot via Facebook | 1 |
The new year is almost here and it’s often a time when we all start to think about what we want to change for the next year. I’ve never been much a fan of the whole cliche of changing because of the new year, but why not embrace it as a time where we can make change? Do a quick reflection right now. Do you feel like you have followed your dreams and passions this past year? Do you feel you got caught up in the stresses of life quite often? Did you feel judgement, negative self talk and anger were a big part of your days? Reflecting on how you’ve felt over your year and being honest with yourself about it gives you the chance to know how to adjust and move forward from this moment forward whether it be the new year or not. I’ve found in my own life that if I don’t pay attention to how I feel, what I create, what’s playing out in my life and take responsibility for it, it doesn’t change. It stays the same, I experience the same emotions or stagnant feelings, and I don’t move forward. But the moment I decide to take it into my own hands, I see how much I’m not a victim to what happens. 11 Things To Let Go of Before the New year 1. Stop all the negative self talk – It’s first because it’s probably one of the most important. The more we talk poorly about ourselves to ourselves or others, the more we disempower ourselves and empower all the things we wish to adjust about ourselves. Observe it, take note of it, and kick it. It’s not helping you. 2. Choose one bad eating habit and kick it! – Taking care of and fuelling your vessel is one of the most important things we can do in life to stay mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy. Pick one of your worst eating habits and aim to cut it out completely in 3 months. Whatever it might be, be honest with yourself and make it happen. Then take on the next bad eating habit in 3 months. 3. Let go of chasing ‘success’– So often we put up goals or plans for ourselves yet have this tiny limited scope of what success is. Next thing you know we bring stress, worry and fear into the equation throughout the whole journey because we may not be totally in line to hit this pin prick point of what success looks like to us. Instead, do your best to take the steps needed to get to where you want to go, but let go of the lure of success and what it looks like and means. There’s no such thing as failure. (more) 4. Kick the idea that you cannot achieve or follow your dreams – So often we have our ideas of what we are excited or passionate about, but let it go because we think we can’t do it or because it’s unrealistic. Instead of believing every word of that, take ONE step. One step towards making your passion or your dreams happen. The one step will lead to the next and the next, but you have to take the first one. Plan out that first step and take it! 5. Let go of the idea that you should run from your problems – We often get into this mentality that we just need to “get over it.” In theory this sounds sorta good, you move on from things that happen in the past or something to that effect. But by just forgetting about it, did we really move on? No, it gets triggered again later or lies dormant as a resented event etc. Instead, let’s face our problems and truly move past them. Journal about it, talk to someone else about it. Put the cards on the table to someone who cares about you and who can help you move past it. Pick someone who will see the bigger picture and be honest with you. You have all it takes to move past what challenges you. 6. Stop comparing yourself to others – This is a big one. So often we are looking at others and using what they have, do or are to compare it against us and make up a story. This whole game can make us sad or feel down about ourselves or it can feed our ego in a big way. Let it go, respect everyone’s journey, including your own and stop the need to compare yourself to others. 7. Stop judging others – Judging other people can become a habit and an addiction. It’s like something we can’t stop doing sometimes! Take a moment the next time you judge someone and observe it. Ask yourself why you did it, how did it make you feel? Etc. Make a conscious effort to stop. (more) 8. Stop the blame game – Blaming and pointing fingers when it comes to our challenges or what happens to us doesn’t allow us to look at and observe how we might have created or aligned with an experience to help make it happen. I’m not saying there’s no such things others can do to hurt you, I’m simply saying take responsibility for how you feel and don’t even point blame, it doesn’t help us. 9. Stop worrying and trying so hard to fit in and be accepted – This is something far too many of us do just to save face and not be “the weird one.” The reality is, it’s more ‘weird’ to be a version of yourself that isn’t genuine or real simply because you want to be accepted by others. It’s a choice you can’t maintain forever and the longer it goes the more uncomfortable you will feel. Be you, accept yourself, be genuine and don’t try to make others do the same when. Let it happen. Trust. 10. Let go of the need to control everything – Sometimes we can’t take a step forward in anything because we don’t know all the answers or all the variables. This is our obsession with control sometimes. Yes, observe a situation and make the best choices available to you, but don’t worry so much about needing to control or know every detail about it. Learn to leave things up to trust and knowing that things will work out as they need to. This doesn’t mean be reckless, just that you don’t need to control every thing, person and detail. 11. Stop procrastinating – This one goes with everything on the list. Stop putting it all off. Whatever it may be. The changes listed above, the hobby you want to, the career you want to explore, or the thing you want to tell to someone important to you. Stop putting it off and just do it!
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Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the New York Times Wednesday that he estimates President Donald Trump has a 55 percent chance at . [Bloomberg, who has been harshly critical of President Trump, thought Democratic would make Trump the odds on favorite in 2020. “They’ll step on each other and Donald Trump,” he told the Times‘s Frank Bruni, adding that there is a “55 percent chance he gets . ” Bruni, for his part, was horrified by the estimate. “ percent? Whether good for my longevity or not, I need a cookie,” he wrote, comparing the campaign to unseat Trump to Bloomberg’s crusades against smoking and junk food. Bloomberg was brutal in his critique of Hillary Clinton’s failed bid for the White House. ‘Hillary said, ‘Vote for me because I’m a woman and the other guy’s bad,’” he said. The former mayor has a long and tumultuous history with the president. Despite Trump’s occasional praise of his fellow NYC billionaire’s time as leader of the Big Apple, things turned ugly after Trump’s presidential campaign kicked off. Bloomberg, nominally an independent, spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, telling the packed arena, “The bottom line is: [Trump] is a risky, reckless, and radical choice, and we can’t afford to make that choice. ” Trump was quick to hit back, telling ABC News, “Michael Bloomberg couldn’t get elected as a dog catcher in New York. ” Bloomberg, best known outside New York for his steadfast opposition to gun rights, support for taxes on soda, and the news outlet that bears his name, has not let up on the president since Trump took office. In March, he appeared to defy the president and Congress, saying America will meet the requirements of the Paris climate agreement regardless of what the democratically elected government tries to do. | 0 |
At a Tuesday press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week’s chemical weapons attack in the Idlib province of Syria was a “false flag” — a phony operation staged by enemies of Russia and Syria to discredit them. He said more such false flag operations were on the way. [“We have reports from multiple sources that false flags like this one — and I cannot call it otherwise — are being prepared in other parts of Syria, including the southern suburbs of Damascus. They plan to plant some chemical there and accuse the Syrian government of an attack,” said Putin, as reported by Russia’s RT. com. “President Mattarella and I discussed it, and I told him that this reminds me strongly of the events in 2003, when the US representatives demonstrated at the UN Security Council session the presumed chemical weapons found in Iraq,” Putin continued, referring to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who appeared with him at the press conference in Moscow. “The military campaign was subsequently launched in Iraq and it ended with the devastation of the country, the growth of the terrorist threat and the appearance of Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] on the world stage,” Putin declared. According to RT. com, the Russian General Staff has prepared a report that claims “militants” among the Syrian rebellion are “transporting toxic agents into several parts of Syria. ” “These actions are aimed at creating a new pretext for accusing the government of Syria of more chemical weapons attacks and provoking more strikes by the US,” said Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations for the General Staff. The Associated Press reports that Russia’s General Staff has expressed a willingness to allow international inspectors to examine the Sharyat airbase in Syria for traces of chemical weapons, and offered to provide military security for the inspectors. Putin said he would appeal to the United Nations to investigate the incident. The UK Independent reports that Putin more specifically accused the United States of planning to drop chemical weapons on Damascus and then blame the incident on Assad, although it does not provide a translation of the Russian president’s precise words to that effect. On Monday, Russia and Iran declared the United States “crossed red lines” by attacking Sharyat airbase, borrowing a phrase made infamous by former President Barack Obama. U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has accused the Russians of either being “complicit” in the Syrian chemical weapons deployment, or “incompetent” for allowing it to happen. The Pentagon is investigating the possibility that Russia actually participated in the chemical weapons attack, the bombing of a hospital where victims were receiving treatment afterward. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday said that it sees no reason to wait until after the Nov. 8 presidential election for Congress to take up discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership “There’s no reason we need to wait that long, particularly when you consider that ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership would hasten the end to 18,000 taxes that other countries impose on American goods,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing. | 1 |
(Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) said on Monday it will no longer offer Obamacare plans in Nevada’s state exchange and will stop offering the plans in nearly half of Georgia’s counties next year. The moves come after Republican senators last month failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law, creating uncertainty over how the program providing health benefits to 20 million Americans will be funded and managed in 2018. Hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets in the coming months. Nevada had said in June that residents in 14 counties out of 17 in the state would not have access to qualified health plans on the state exchanges. Anthem’s decision to leave the state entirely does not increase the number of “bare counties” in the state, Nevada Insurance Commissioner Barbara Richardson said in a statement. The insurer will still offer “catastrophic plans,” which can be purchased outside the state’s exchange and are only available to consumers under 30 years old or with a low income. Anthem also said it will only offer Obamacare plans in 85 of Georgia’s 159 counties. It said the counties it will continue to offer the plans in are mostly rural counties that would otherwise not have health insurance coverage for their residents. It said these changes do not impact Anthem’s Medicare Advantage, Medicaid or employer-based plans in either state. The company said last week that it will pull out of 16 of 19 pricing regions in California in 2018 where it offered Obamacare options this year. Anthem blamed the moves in part on uncertainty over whether the Trump administration would maintain subsidies that keep costs down. U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened to cut off subsidy payments that make the plans affordable for lower-income Americans and help insurers to keep premiums down, after efforts to repeal the law signed by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, failed in Congress. Trump has repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers to keep working to undo Obama’s Affordable Care Act. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A coalition of 14 conservative groups urged U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday to support an amendment to the House of Representatives’ annual defense bill that would prevent the Pentagon from implementing climate-change and green energy policies meant to save taxpayers money and protect the planet. In a letter to the lawmakers, the groups said many climate programs “are likely to undermine military readiness by diverting scarce resources.” The programs in question were initiated by former President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order requiring the military to meet green energy and greenhouse gas emissions targets. The conservative groups are trying to gather support for Republican Representative Warren Davidson’s amendment to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would stop the military from implementing the policies. The groups include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian advocacy group; Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the conservative Koch brothers; and Americans for Limited Government. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has long been supportive of programs that reduce troops’ petroleum dependence. In written testimony to a Senate panel after his confirmation hearing in January, Mattis said “climate change can be a driver of instability” and is “a challenge that requires a broader, whole-of-government response.” The House bill includes language from Democratic Representative Jim Langevin that would require the Pentagon to report to Congress on military bases that are most vulnerable from rising seas and other effects of climate change. It is uncertain whether Davidson’s or Langevin’s measures would be in the final House bill. The House is due to vote this week on its version of the defense bill and the Senate version will follow later this year. Myron Ebell, the head of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who also led President Donald Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, said in an interview that the Defense Department “needs to concentrate on its core mission and not waste a lot of time with irrelevant distractions that gain them some political cover.” When asked about Mattis’ position on climate, Ebell said he had heard generals say for years that climate change is a risk and “I’ve never listened to one who seemed to have the slightest clue as to what he was talking about.” The Defense Department, the largest U.S. consumer of energy, is planning to forge ahead with a decade-long effort to convert operations to green energy. | 0 |
VILNIUS (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, will have to explain his relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at his confirmation hearing, senior Republican senator John McCain said on Thursday. McCain, who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, also called President Putin “a thug and a murderer”. Speaking on a tour of the Baltic states, where there is widespread concern that Moscow wants to reassert its power across the region, McCain said he had concerns about Tillerson, who opposed sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea. “I and several of my colleagues have concerns about Mr Tillerson, and some of his past activities, specifically his relationship with Vladimir Putin,” McCain told reporters. “I have concerns but at the same time I’m certain we will give Mr Tillerson an opportunity to make his case about why he is qualified to be Secretary of State.” Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Tillerson could face a rocky confirmation process, given worries among both Democrats and Republicans about his connections with Russia and possible conflicts of interest related to his business ties. Relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014, with the two nations also at loggerheads over Syria. The Obama administration also plans a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information. Trump has said that the United States should move on from the controversy. McCain, however, said the United States needed to reassure voters there and abroad that elections would not be influenced by foreign powers. “I agree with president elect that we need to get on of our lives - without having elections being affected by any outside influence, especially Vladimir Putin, who is a thug and a murderer,” he said. Fellow Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who is traveling with McCain, called for sanctions against Russia to be widened to target areas like energy and to be directly aimed at Putin. “I think the sanctions need to go beyond what it is today, they need to name Putin as an individual and his inner circle because nothing happens in Russia without his knowledge and approval,” Graham said. | 1 |
When Midtown Manhattan goes dark after hours, Chicken Delicious edges onto his piano stool at Mimi’s, tinkling some notes to start. He opens to the crowd with his soft Southern accent: “Good evening, everyone. My name is Chicken Delicious. I come from Mississippi. I live on the kindness of strangers. ” This is a reference to his tip jar. Mimi’s at midnight resembles those parties you used to hear about in New York, rowdy affairs of offbeat regulars for whom last call always seems far away. The Italian restaurant and piano bar, which opened on Second Avenue and 52nd Street in 1973, glows invitingly from its street corner in those hours with the warmth of Tiffany lamps. The sign above its bar reads, “What Happens at Mimi’s Stays at Mimi’s. ” Its regulars, mostly over 50, seem to appreciate this nightly time warp, and could themselves be extras from “Midnight Cowboy” or “Taxi Driver”: a Scandinavian brain surgeon who requests Beatles tunes, a Taiwanese man who sings and hogs the microphone, a woman who keeps saying she needs to get home to her husband but keeps ordering another drink. But for evenings to hum like this at Mimi’s, much depends on Chicken Delicious, 74, who is the conductor of festivities, the metronome to which things swing. Chicken Delicious, a voluminous bald man, started at Mimi’s in 1996, and he may be one of New York’s most eccentric and unsung acts. He is not in guidebooks for tourists, but to those at Mimi’s, he is a kind of Midtown legend, performing every night except Mondays and Saturdays. Liza Minnelli has been known to go see him play. “In a city full of talent, Chicken is an icon,” Anders Cohen, the Scandinavian brain surgeon, said recently at the bar. “When he’s on he’s got the schtick. He’s got the . And he can play it all. ” His humor is mildly crude and New . “You used to play football in college didn’t you?” he recently taunted someone. “How did it feel always being the wide receiver? Or were you the tight end?” During a Billy Joel tune, he gave the chorus a Midtown twist: “I’m in a Tudor City state of mind. ” Outlandish masks are part of his act: the pope, a dog, Marilyn Monroe, a baby, a fairy. He has made hundreds and keeps the collection at his home in Yonkers. He also narrates the tale of a persona in between tunes, one of a shy artistic boy from a fictional town in Mississippi who fled to New York to play the piano and make it big. He has described the town as “not quite Faulkner. ” During his set breaks, he waddles to the kitchen for baked French fries, which he likes blackened. If customers engage him during a break, he may ask for their “numbers” and start notating equations about their luck on a cocktail napkin. But every so often he will offer the details of his own luck. If he does, make sure to pay attention to the ornaments on his wrists and the peculiar sun pendant around his neck. Chicken Delicious’s path from the Deep South to a Midtown piano bar is a classic story of New York reinvention. But his story is stranger than most. He has crossed paths with Yoko Ono and her entourage, had a moment in the New York art world, and he helped create a voodoo love potion so powerful its effects could not be reversed. He was born Lewis Hunter Stowers III in 1943 and grew up in Jackson, Miss. Like the character in his act, he was a shy boy who often felt out of place. Mr. Stowers’s early passion was watercolors, and his paintings (he has scans of his work on his iPad) portray the landscape of his formative years: rickety roadside general stores, crumbling antebellum mansions, a dilapidated bowling alley on the edge of a swamp. He credits his mother, who died when he was 7, with instilling in him a love of piano playing. When he was 5, Mr. Stowers said, he ran away from home to crawl into a pit teeming with alligators. “My parents found me sitting on their heads,” he said. The alligators didn’t touch him, however, which he took as a sign that he was different. He studied art at a Christian college and motorcycled through Europe in his early 20s to, he said, “sleep in fields and eat yogurt. ” In the late 1960s, he started teaching art in New York as his own career as a painter was blossoming the New York Times art critic John Canaday even reviewed him, seeing in his work “echoes of German romanticism adapted to juvenile (or even infantile) demonism. ” Then in 1969, Mr. Stowers met a mystic named Joseph Lukach and everything changed. This is a period his fans at Mimi’s know little about. The man who would become Chicken Delicious would bear witness to a chapter of occult history. Mr. Lukach was a short and rotund figure who wore glasses and practiced a blend of religions like Yoruba, Santería and Voodoo. Mr. Lukach, who died in 1995, never became as famous as the English occultist Aleister Crowley, but in the spheres of witchcraft, he was considered a powerful witch and healer and counted Ms. Ono among his acolytes. “Witches U. S. A. ,” a popular book in the early 1970s that chronicled America’s occult scene at the time, devoted a full chapter to him. “Despite being and weighing 200 to 250 pounds, depending upon the current state of his casual attitude toward dieting,” a passage reads, “Joe is as light as a perfectly dumpling. ” It also said his most prized possession was a “ green Egyptian scarab set in heavy gold” that he wore on the little finger of his left hand. Though his relationship with Mr. Lukach later became troubling, initially Mr. Stowers was in awe of the abilities he saw. When Mr. Lukach was displeased by a pasta dish, he set the cook’s buttocks on fire, Mr. Stowers said, and on a weekend trip to a lake together, Mr. Lukach grew weary watching a and made him flip into the water by slicing his finger through the air. “‘What are you doing?’ I asked him,” Mr. Stowers said. “‘Target practice,’ he told me. ” Mr. Stowers became Mr. Lukach’s apprentice, and they opened a small botanica together on the Upper West Side. He started managing Mr. Lukach’s meetings with clients, helping sell herbs and potions, and became a skilled palm reader and student of numerology. One of their products was a love potion they believed was created by the infamous Louisiana Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau. “He summoned her one night,” Mr. Stowers said. “She arrived and her dress was ruffling in the air. He said he wanted her love spell recipe and would she give it to him. She did. We made it. The ingredients were grisly. We bottled and sold it. “I told customers there is no antidote and they would say: ‘I don’t care. I want this person. I need them.’ Then they would come back six months later saying they wished they could get rid of this person more than anything. ” Mr. Stowers said that he still had some vials left and that they collected dust inside a box in his Yonkers basement. “I will never touch them,” he said. It was an exciting time to be a witch in New York. Conjurers of all kinds would hang out near Astor Place at Weiser Antiquarian, the oldest occult bookstore in America, and they shopped for ingredients for spells at Alberto Rendon’s botanica on 116th Street. On the side, Mr. Stowers became a fixture on the piano bar circuit playing at gay bars like the Painted Pony. “Everyone knew everyone,” Mr. Stowers said. “Not like now. There’s nothing unique about witchcraft in New York today. Everyone who wants to be a witch can say they’re a witch. You used to have to really know what you were doing in that world to be respected by others. ” But potions and incantations were not entirely new to Mr. Stowers. He had been having visions since he was a child. He said he started sleeping in cemeteries in his 20s. “That’s when I started working with the dead,” he said in his car outside Mimi’s recently as he hunted for a parking space. “That was when I started visiting the African spirit world. The gods talked to me. After that, a conga line of the dead started following me wherever I went. ” Mr. Lukach was merely empowering something that was inside him all along. He was finally able to conclude that an African deity named Oshun, who represents love and the arts, had protected him in that swamp when he was 5. “She had been watching me since I was a boy,” he said. Regarding Mr. Lukach, Migene an author and expert on religions, said, “It sounds like he was mixing various religions and beliefs and making his own special blend. ” She suggested he had fallen through the cracks of occult history, but added: “I don’t want to pass judgment, but this was a time people were interested in spiritualism. Everyone was looking for enlightenment. Bob Dylan was. The Beatles were. It was a period of . But he may have been completely sincere in his beliefs. ” Interest in the occult was having a moment in pop culture around the same time. Rock bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones were drawn to the dark teachings of Mr. Crowley. Mr. Stowers would enter this cultural moment himself. He and Mr. Lukach, he claimed, were psychics to Ms. Ono in the late 1970s. “She’d send a limo to pick us up and take us to the Dakota,” he said. “As Joseph and her would do readings together, I’d play the theme to ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ right there on John Lennon’s big beautiful white piano. She would call Joseph at all hours of the night if she had a good song idea and ask him, ‘Am I going the right way? ’” Mr. Stowers said he still had Ms. Ono’s “hand prints” from those days stored away in his home. He is mentioned briefly in the controversial 1988 biography “The Lives of John Lennon,” by Albert Goldman. Of a close friend named Sam, Mr. Goldman wrote that one June evening, Ms. Ono “told him that as a step toward his elevation he must go that very night to see a marvelous psychic whose name was Joseph Lukach. He would make a study of Sam and give him potions that would strengthen him spiritually. Sam was taken by limousine to Yonkers, where Joey was living with his companion, Hunter, in a suburban bungalow with a backyard and garage. ” (Ms. Ono did not respond to requests for comment.) By the end of the 1970s, the Yonkers house was filled with altars to deities like Oshun and Anubis, and students of Mr. Stowers and Mr. Lukach would commute from the city on weekends for lessons in their living room. Many of these people are no longer around, but Mr. Stowers remains in touch with a man named Peter, who joined Mr. Lukach’s circle in the late ’70s, and declined to use his surname to avoid association with his past in the occult. He is a veterinarian in Manhattan. “He could do things saints could do,” Peter recalled in a phone interview. “Things that Jesus could do. “We’d go there every week and meet in these groups. Hunter was always there. And he too began to open himself up to the universe and see things like Joseph could. ” But there had long been a darker side to their union. Mr. Stowers has described it as “servitude. ” In his mind, it was no ordinary apprenticeship, but rather a form of slavery. Soon after they met, according to Mr. Stowers, he was compelled to obey Mr. Lukach, who chose his friends, the relatives he could speak to and even what he could eat. Mr. Stowers slept on the floor and made Mr. Lukach’s clothes by hand. “I was a free bird who was put in a cage for 20 years,” he said. He reflects calmly on this period now. “There is a tradition of a shaman choosing a whipping boy to break him and then remake him,” he said. “I had to be broken. I was lost. I was looking for him. I look back and wouldn’t change one thing about it because I wouldn’t be who I am now. ” Peter reluctantly admitted that Mr. Lukach, when inclined, could use his prowess as a healer for darker biddings. “He could use black magic on those that rubbed him the wrong way,” he said. When asked to elaborate further, he declined and said, “It’s best not to talk about this. ” When Mr. Lukach died in 1995, Mr. Stowers believed the spell of servitude was broken, but their students dispersed, and Mr. Stowers was left alone in the home filled with potions and Voodoo relics, where he still lives. “One of the great sadnesses of Hunter’s life is that none of these people who were supposedly so friendly to him are around anymore,” Peter said. “Once Joseph was gone, the thing that brought everybody there left as well. That is what happens when relationships are based on a desire to touch power. ” But Lewis Hunter Stowers III then started his transformation into Chicken Delicious. He still had the piano gigs, which he said Mr. Lukach permitted him because they brought home money. Over the years, he had kept his act simple: background music with little showmanship. After Mr. Lukach died, however, he suddenly felt like singing one night at a bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He did. And he liked it. “I’d never sang before,” he said. “I stood up and sang. I sounded terrible. They laughed at me. But I was finally out of my cage. ” In 1996, he auditioned at Mimi’s. A longtime bartender, Star, remembered his arrival. “When he first came here they said he was too wacky,” she said. “I told them: ‘Nonsense. Let’s hire him. ’” Another bartender, Laurie Bricker, also recalled his start. “Mimi’s will be around no matter who is behind the piano,” she said, “but when Hunter came here, a very special and psychic power arrived with him. ” The masks and the tale of the fictional Mississippi town developed soon after. So did his exotic pendants. “I make them all myself,” he said. “Each one represents a god or goddess I worship. I throw the bones every evening and ask them which I should wear. They tell me if it will be a hard night or if someone will need special care. I’m like a pastor. Each is an omen of how the night will be and what will be needed from me. ” Before a set at Mimi’s last month, Mr. Stowers drove around the block repeatedly in his car. This nightly search for a parking spot has become something of a ritual. “Jesus will help us find a spot,” he said. As he looped around the block, he explained how he took the name Chicken Delicious. First, he became Hunter Blue in 1998, because he dyed his hair blue, then he became Chicken Delicious in 2010, when a spirit told him he was becoming an old man. He said it told him: “Do this and they won’t think of you as an old man. Do this and they will think of you as an old chicken. ” “Now I’m just waiting for my next name,” he said. “I’m waiting for the next step in my evolution. ” At a red light, he offered divinations about my life: “You’ve been a nervous wreck. ” “You’re not an easy person and you will never be easy. ” “You have problems in your romance life. ” Eventually, a red Toyota pulled out in front of Mimi’s. “I told you Jesus would deliver,” he said, pulling into the space. “Some people think this all just fun. But there’s a depth happening. This is a distilling of many years of magic. What I’m doing isn’t obvious, but I find the people who are looking, even if they don’t realize it. ” Mr. Stowers hobbled out of his van, collected a bag of props and headed into Mimi’s, where regulars were gathering. He edged onto his stool. “Good evening, everyone,” he said. “My name is Chicken Delicious. ” He told them he came from Mississippi. “I live on the kindness of strangers. I’m going to show you what it means to follow a passion every day like I have for 74 years. ” Then he put on a mask and started to play. | 0 |
Beyonce gets political in her graphic anti-cop performance at the MTV VMAs last night. The MTV awards use to be a fun-filled night of entertainment but now it s a chance for political activism to take center stage. Prior to the show, Beyonce met with the Michael Brown s mom and other moms of people killed by police officers. We guess she forgot about the fact that all of these cases are legitimate cases of crimes being committed by the deceased. The truth is way too buried because it s more profitable for the truth to be twisted. Where were the families of police officers like the Dallas officers murdered in cold blood? Nope, Beyonce had to stick with a lie and be the political activist she always has been. Remember the Super Bowl? Yes, that was where she had her dancers form an X on the field in support of the Black Panthers fist raised in the air and all. I have one thing to say about all of this While performing a medley of songs from her hit album, Lemonade, the pop megastar was surrounded by backup dancers dressed as angels. However, as red lights flooded the stage, each of the angels was shot down during the performance, which viewers said was a representation of police brutality. The imagery of the Beyonce performance with the angels getting shot down , one person tweeted. Beyonce too deep. All the angels were shot, police brutality, another wrote.I think I need a moment after watching @beyonce s #VMA performance https://t.co/lYVFfrIenO MTV (@MTV) August 29, 2016 Read more: Daily Mail | 1 |
WCD Ministry to reward married men who select “What is your anniversary date?” as security question Posted on Tweet
The Ministry of Women and Child Development, headed by Maneka Gandhi has announced a new bravery award for married Indian men who select “What is your anniversary date?” as a security question during their registration process with any website online.
“The idea is to encourage married men across the country to remember their wedding anniversaries correctly and well. This, in turn, will prevent unwanted acrimony in families in India and foster better husband-wife relationships. The number of married Indian men who remember their wedding anniversaries is abysmal and this is an earnest effort to improve the rate. Even today, lakhs of Indian married men who sign up for anything online and create an account anywhere usually choose ‘What is your first pet’s name?’, or ‘When is your birthday?’, or ‘Which is your favorite car?’ as their security question,” WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi told The UnReal Times .
“Hardly anyone ever chooses ‘What is your anniversary date?’ as a security question, simply because there have been people who have forgotten their passwords and not only have they been unable to retrieve their accounts due to inability to answer the security question correctly, but they have also been unable to retrieve access to their own households, due to highly miffed wives. We do not want to further penalize those who forget their anniversaries as they would already be in deep shit, so we’re trying to change this the positive way – by honoring those few who do. We hope the number of men who do remember the anniversaries grows due to this,” Gandhi added.
The ministry’s policy, however, wasn’t without its share of initial controversy. BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who was one of the first married men to stake claim for the award, after bravely selecting the anniversary security question while registering at Patanjali’s online retail website to buy their honey bottles, has been denied an award by his mother. “I’m sorry, Varun’s case is special – anything other than honey and I would gladly give him the award. I will even overlook the fact that our women journos’ Whatsapp group was totally against Varun buying things from Patanjali, of all places, but honey is an absolute no-no,” Maneka Gandhi is reported to have said.
Varun’s act of bravado reportedly hasn’t found favor with his better half too. “Poor Varun, he told Yamini ‘I’ll never forget our anniversary, honey!’ to which she yelled back ‘Don’t you dare say honey again!’” a WCD ministry source told The UnReal Times . 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. | 1 |
It s easy to think the whole brouhaha with Michael Flynn was over the moment he was forced from his post as Trump s national security adviser, but it s not. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating Flynn and his connections with Russia, and they just found something incredibly damning.RT, a state-run news network in Russia, paid Flynn to attend a gala in Moscow with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, released records that include checks, invoices and emails showing that RT literally paid Flynn nearly $34,000 to attend the function.And not too long afterward, he was busy advising Trump and his campaign in a voluntary capacity. Not only was he paid a speaking fee at the gala, but his company, Leading Authorities, received $11,250 from that gala. All told, Flynn was paid $56,250 to appear with Putin and do work for two Russian firms, all while he was acting in an advisory capacity with Donald Trump.Some of that involved a Russian company, Kaspersky Lab, which is a subsidiary of a Russian company that specializes in uncovering Western government spyware. In other words, evidence shows that he worked for a company that works against not just the U.S., but also against all our NATO allies. Kaspersky Lab claims it has no ties to any government, but is proud to collaborate with the authorities of many countries, in fighting against cybercrimes.Cybercrimes like hacking the DNC to help tilt our election to Trump s favor, maybe? If this isn t corruption by a foreign power, then what is? Democrats on the House Oversight Committee now want an additional investigation into these payments because the come from companies based in Russia.We already know Flynn was acting as a foreign agent in Turkey while working for Trump s campaign, and that he failed to disclose that until just recently. But now we see he was working with Russia, too. It s high time we learned just how deep this goes. It s not likely that Flynn was a solo actor here. The entire Trump administration must be thoroughly investigated we can t allow Flynn to serve as their scapegoat.Featured image by Andrew Harrer via Getty Images | 1 |
Watching sports on TV or going to a football stadium to watch a game, used to be a great way to unwind and forget about your troubles at home or at work. Watching sports used to be a stress reliever for many. That was before the NFL and the NBA was hijacked by the politically correct police, and social justice warriors, and morphed into something most fans don t even recognize anymore.One of the worst cases of political correctness was when liberals insisted that the Washington Redskins change their name so as not to offend Native Americans. The left got very little support from Redskins fans and surprisingly, many in the Native American community were unwilling to join the fight to demand a name change for the team. Eventually, the left was forced to walk away from that fight, and accept that the owners of the Redskins were focused on playing football, and were not interested in their foolish game of political correctness.Today, the NFL is facing a huge backlash from fans, as players are being asked to choose activism over their allegiance to their fans who couldn t care less about their political views, they re coming to escape the stresses of everyday life and to watch these professional athletes play football. They don t come to see professional athletes kneeling on the sidelines during our national anthem in support of the Black Lives Matter anti-cop group, who inspired the killings of several innocent cops, shut down major roads, threatened innocent people who got in their way, and looted and burned cities to the ground. Fans come to relax and to forget about their troubles. They come to get away from the divisive politics and challenges of everyday life. They certainly don t travel to stadiums to attend games or watch them on TV so they can be admonished or scolded for not holding the same politically correct views as the snowflakes on the field.This hilarious cartoon by BenGarrison is a perfect example of who fans are paying to see on the field today:It won t be long before fans stop supporting these snowflakes, and politically correct crybabies, and maybe then, they ll remember why we came | 1 |
Now that Donald Trump has more or less sealed the Republican nomination, Democrats see a very real possibility that he could be president and that is scaring people to death. Thanks to Trump, last minute Democratic voter registrations in California are up way up.In the first three months of the year, California added 1.5 million new voters through the end of April double the number of new voters added during the same time period in 2012. And the total number of registered Democrats increased by nearly 100,000 people between the beginning of January and the beginning of April compared to a gain of just 15,000 registered Republicans, according to an analysis from Political Data Inc., a California-based voting analytics firm. What s interesting is that the upticks have been greatest among Democrats and Latinos on those days where Donald Trump is kind of dominating the conversation, said Mitchell, a former Democratic consultant who has analyzed California voter registration from day to day and by party affiliation since January.Source: PoliticoOf course, this is bluer than blue California. Trump won t win the Golden State, but the state is heavily Latino, and that could mean a lot for the general election in November. In fact, it reflects a pattern that s been happening throughout the primaries.While Republican turnout is at an all time high, Democrats have been almost as busy:Turnout has nearly been just as intense on the Democratic side, where 11.7 percent of eligible voters have cast their ballots, the highest percentage since 1992 other than the year Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008.Several media outlets have recently reported large swaths of legal Hispanic citizens are registering to vote in swing states across the country with the express purpose of casting their ballots against the unapologetic Trump. The outspoken New York real estate magnate launched his campaign by deriding Mexican immigrants as killers and rapists. We ve seen more people this year that want to become citizens and specifically because they want to vote against Trump, said Mi Familia Vota executive director Ben Monterroso, whose group is among those leading a nationwide effort aimed at getting more Latinos to the polls.Source: Latin PostThe Latino vote represents more than 1/6 of the entire voting populace. Latinos are also the fastest growing demographic in the country. Even before Trump called all Mexicans rapists or blathered on about his big, beautiful wall, that he would have Mexico pay for, the Republican Party has been on the losing end of the electoral sea change. The last time a Republican wont the majority of the Latino vote was in 2004, and that was George W. Bush, who spoke Span(gl)ish and said he d prioritize comprehensive immigration reform. Yes, George W. Bush was a disastrous president, but his immigration stance was still much better than Trump s.The reality is, that without the Latino vote (yes, he did win the Latino vote in Nevada, but only the very small Republican Latino vote. The vast majority of Nevada Latinos are Democrats), Trump has a very tough road ahead of him: There is no president that can get the White House without having the Latino vote, Mr. Monterroso told the Latin Post. You have key states that without the Latino support, the candidate is not going to win, and if those key states don t vote for the president they re not going to make it. The data backs him up. By most political scientists estimates, the eventual Republican nominee needs between 40 and 47 percent of the Latino vote to win in a general election.Still, there is a chance Trump could find an issue that appeals to enough Latinos that he could siphon off a few votes from the Democratic nominee. It s doubtful he ll win the Latino vote anywhere, but he doesn t have to win it. He needs about 40 percent of the Latino vote. Is that possible? Well, Romney received 23 percent in 2012 and he wasn t anywhere near as divisive. If California, and the primary so far, are any indication, things look good for the Democratic nominee, assuming the party isn t too divided.Featured image via David McNew at Getty Images. | 0 |
Children as young as four will be taught “sex and relationship education” in all Britain’s schools, the Education Secretary is expected to announce Tuesday afternoon. [The controversial guidelines will be compulsory for every primary and secondary school, even private and religious establishments. Currently, only local schools are required to teach children about sex in biology classes, with no such requirement in academies, free schools, or independent schools. Little is currently known about the content of the new curriculum, but ITV News reports it would likely include lessons on sexting, online safety, and abusive relationships. The curriculum is likely to cause concern among family and religious groups, especially as some reports suggest parents would be unable to remove their children from the classes, as they presently can. A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said: “There is a threat online and that threat we would all recognise has grown. “That does mean that now is the right time to look at how we can ensure children have the access they need to the teaching in those subjects. ” The policy is likely to be introduced as an amendment to the Children and Social Care Bill, tabled by Tory MPs David Burrowes and Maria Miller, the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee. They say failure to teach children about sex and online relationships had led to consequences including “physical and emotional harm, including teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases girls feeling unable to participate in educational and opportunities teachers spending valuable time dealing with incidents of sexual harassment and bullying and young people developing a sense that sexual harassment and sexual violence are acceptable behaviours and learning social norms that are carried through to adult life. ” The Downing Street spokesman said: “The department will be saying more than this in due course. High quality relationship and sex education is an important part of preparing young people for adult life. “The education secretary has been clear she is looking at options to make sure children have access to education in those subjects. Clearly, there is a threat online and that threat has grown and now is the right time to look at how we can ensure children can have the access they need to teaching about those subjects. ” | 0 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said in remarks broadcast on Sunday that he would put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of a commission to probe what he believes was voter fraud in last November’s election. There is an overwhelming consensus among state officials, election experts, and politicians that voter fraud is rare in the United States, but Trump has repeatedly said he thinks perhaps millions of votes cast in the Nov. 8 election were fraudulent. “I’m going to set up a commission to be headed by Vice President Pence and we’re going to look at it very, very carefully,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly in an interview taped on Friday. Trump, who was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, captured the presidency by winning enough of the state-by-state Electoral College votes to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Still, Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, piling up an overwhelming majority in deeply Democratic states like California. This has irked Trump and as a result he has claimed voter fraud without evidence. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that election fraud does occur but that “there is no evidence that it occurred in such a significant number that would have changed the presidential election.” “And I don’t think we ought to spend any federal money investigating that. I think the states can take a look at this issue,” he said. | 0 |
PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic must seek partners beyond the central European Visegrad Group to find common ground on issues including migration and food quality, Czech parliamentary election winner Andrej Babis told Reuters. He said the country needs to seek an active role in the European Union and look for allies for a common goal of halting illegal migration. The billionaire businessman, who won 29.6 percent of the vote in this weekend s election, is against deeper EU integration and adoption of the euro, and has raised concerns he may join Poland or Hungary on a collision course with the EU. But he insisted on Saturday that the ANO party which he leads was pro-European and ready to take on an active role in the EU. We have to prepare topics, propose to the European Council (of EU leaders) what we want to change. Double food quality, solution to migration, the fight against migration and other issues, Babis told Reuters in a brief interview at ANO headquarters after the election results were counted. We certainly have an ally in Austria, Mr Kurz, who has the same view as we do on migration, he said, referring to Austrian conservative election victor Sebastian Kurz. The Visegrad group must find other allies, we need Austria and other countries, in the Balkans, or Slovenia, Croatia and perhaps others, Babis added. ANO won 78 seats in the 200-seat lower house and will need partners to form a majority. Several parties have however rejected joining an ANO-led government because they say Babis poses a threat to democracy due to his accumulation of business and political power. Some said they could not join a cabinet led by Babis personally because he faces fraud charges over a 2-million-euro subsidy a decade ago. He denies wrongdoing. This has led to the possibility that, failing other options, Babis may form a government which would depend on parliamentary support from the Communist Party or the far-right, anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy party. Babis said this was something he did not want to do. I do not want to cooperate with them, he told Reuters. We have invited everyone for talks. We want to hear all arguments at a table; the arguments they have (mainstream parties against joining a coalition) ... they don t need to worry when they come with us. | 1 |
Civil political discourse took a beating in West Virginia this weekend when a Democratic senator profanely proclaimed that he was going to vote the way he wanted and didn t give a s t if it cost him his seat. I don t give a s t, you understand? I just don t give a s t, Sen. Joe Manchin told the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Sunday, saying he wasn t going to toe his party s line on every issue. Don t care if I get elected, don t care if I get defeated, how about that. If they think because I m up for election, that I can be wrangled into voting for s t that I don t like and can t explain, they re all crazy, he continued. I m not scared of an election, let s put it that way. Elections do not bother me or scare me, he said. I m going to continue to do the same thing I ve always done, extremely independent. President Trump won West Virginia by a mile, and Democratic Gov. Jim Justice pointedly switched teams and joined the GOP at a Trump campaign rally in the state last week.Watch Governor Justice announce that he s switching parties at the Trump rally last week:West Virginia Democratic Governor Jim Justice announces that he is switching parties to GOP https://t.co/io13ugk6KD https://t.co/GZkqWBJ6z3 NBC News (@NBCNews) August 3, 2017Manchin s angry comments followed a slam from GOP senatorial candidate Patrick Morrisey, who called for the incumbent to resign from the Democratic leadership.Morrisey cited Manchin s refusal to sign onto a letter establishing Democrats three main policy points on tax reform, The Hill reported.Manchin was one of three Democrats in the Senate who didn t sign the letter.He explained that he agreed with the party platform but wanted party leaders to get Republicans on board. NYP | 0 |
DAKAR (Reuters) - A dormant Senegalese rebel movement has called for the abandonment of a planned mineral sands project operated by Australia-listed Astron, saying it amounts to a declaration of war . A spokesman for the Movement of Democratic Forces for Casamance (MFDC) on Thursday said that it had not been consulted about the project and considers any exploitation of natural resources in the southern region as theft because taxes on proceeds would go to the northern government of Dakar. The opposition to the Niafarang mine comes as the stable West African fish and peanut exporter seeks to boost revenue from natural resources such as mineral sands containing zircon and ilmenite used in construction as well as recently discovered oil and gas. Both the political and armed wings of the MFDC are strongly opposed to this project and consider it a declaration of war, said MFDC spokesman Oumar Ampoi Bodian by telephone from Ziguinchor in Casamance. The comments echoed a statement by MFDC military commander Salif Sadio in July. Sadio had said that the mineral sands project was a violation of the terms of the ceasefire deal with the rebels in 2014. Astron did not respond to emailed requests for comment. It said in June, when the contract was awarded, that work was due to begin in the fourth quarter of 2017. [nFWN1JC0OG] A government spokesman could not be reached for comment. Unlike many of its West African neighbors, Senegal has never had a civil war or a coup and is seen by Western aid partners and investors as a bastion of stability in a fragile region. But Casamance s isolation from the relatively rich Muslim north from which it is divided by Gambia and its eponymous river remains a source of resentment for locals. One of Africa s oldest rebellions was losing steam even before the ceasefire deal and some diplomats dismiss them as a divided group of rag-tag fighters. Yet the rebels still hold garrisons concealed within the southern region s lush forests, which witnesses say are piled high with weapons. Civil society groups have also criticized the mine planned along a picturesque strip of coastline, citing environmental factors. Astron previously said it had studied the environmental impact and engaged with the local community. They (the MFDC) are united on this and are saying it publicly, so I am afraid that this long period of calm could end, said Ousmane Sane, a resident and hotelier in Niafarang. A source familiar with the peace talks said that the matter would be raised with the government in the next round of negotiations aimed at settling the question of the region s official status. | 0 |
Things just keep getting worse for Donald Trump Jr. With the word treason floating around on both the Left and Right, the last thing he needs is more inconvenient facts coming out about his meeting with a Russian lawyer past what we already know. Fortunately for him, he had the foresight to hire a criminal defense lawyer before the other shoe dropped.Speaking of shoes dropping, new information has come out about that meeting. Not only did he go there with the intent of getting information about Hillary Clinton from the Russians, Trump Jr. was informed beforehand that the material was part of the Russian government s effort to help install his dad in the Oval Office.The New York Times reports:The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.Mr. Goldstone s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information. It does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign. There is no evidence to suggest that the promised damaging information was related to Russian government computer hacking that led to the release of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails.According to Trump Jr., the meeting did not amount to much. For his light treason, he says, he received no information and they just chatted about an adoption program (yes, that s what he s going with).The adoption program in question was halted by Vladimir Putin in response to the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that blacklists Russian human rights abusers. Putin became so incensed that he decided American families may not adopt Russian children. The New York Times notes that Trump Jr. ended the meeting when the adoption program was brought up.The meeting was also attended by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Ivanka Trump s husband, Jared Kushner a lot of people for an innocent meeting about a Russian adoption program, but just the right amount for a little bit of treason.No inconsistency in statements, meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q's I simply provided more details. https://t.co/FdT1D4hfhz Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017To be clear, the meeting was not about adoption (though it was discussed), nor was it supposed to be. The meeting was about the Russian government delivering damaging information about Trump s political opponents to his lackeys.Trump Jr. was told this beforehand. He. Went. Anyway. His intent was to work with the Russian government against the United States, against our election, and for Vladimir Putin. There is no other way to describe what happened.It. Is. Treason.Featured image via Getty Images | 1 |
In today’s, 25th, Wikileaks release of hacked Podesta emails, one of the notable highlights is a March 2, 2015 exchange between John Podesta and Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in which the Clinton Campaign Chair says “ On another matter….and not to sound like Lanny, but we are going to have to dump all those emails. ”
Back in July 2016, FBI didn’t go after Hillary because director Comey said “didn’t find any intent”. Well here’s your “intent” thanks to Wikileaks.
The email, which may indicate intent, was sent at the same time as the NYT story “ Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email Account at State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules ” – which for the first time revealed the existence of Hillary’s email server – hit, and just days before Hillary’s press conference addressing what was at the time, the stunning revelation that she had a personal email account, and server, in her home.
The proposed “dumping” on March 2 takes place two days before the House Select Committee on Benghazi sent Hillary Clinton a document retention subpoena on March 4, 2015, with some hinting the NYT report may have served to tip off the Clinton campaign about the upcoming subpoena.
Mills’ response to Podesta: “Think you just got your new nick name.”
It is unclear which “Lanny” is referred to: the infamous former DOJ staffer Lanny Breuer who quit in January 2013 after telling Frontline that some banks are too big to fail, or, more likely Lanny Davis, special counsel to President Bill Clinton, and spokesperson for the President and the White House on matters concerning campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues
It is also unclear – for now – which emails Podesta is referring to in the thread, but Podesta adds: “better to do so sooner than later.” We can hope that a subsequent response, yet to be leaked by Wikileaks, will provide more color.
If the exchange is shown to disclose intent to mislead, it will negate the entire narrative prepared by Clinton that she merely deleted “personal” emails and will reveal a strategic plan to hinder the State Department and FBI “investigation.”
This is the first time that particular exchange has emerged among the Podesta emails.
Furthermore, a search for Lanny Davis reveals the following curious exchange between Robby Mook and John Podesta from March 8, 2015, just days after the abovementioned exchange, in which Mook says:
We gotta zap Lanny out of our universe. Can’t believe he committed her to a private review of her hard drive on TV.
It seems the Clinton campaign was not happy with being set on a course of transparency by Bill Clinton’s special counsel.
Finally, in a separate email sent out in the first week of March 2015 , by Clinton campaign communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, we get yet another confirmation that the president actively mislead the public when he said he didn’t know Hillary was using a private email address:
Suggest Philippe talk to Josh or Eric. They know POTUS and HRC emailed. Josh has been asked about that. Standard practice is not to confirm anything about his email, so his answer to press was that he would not comment/confirm. I recollect that Josh was also asked if POTUS ever noticed her personal email account and he said something like POTUS likely had better things to do than focus on his Cabinet’s email addresses.
Perhaps while the DOJ/FBI is taking a second look into Huma Abedin’s emails, it can also take a repeat look at some of these, especially the ones involving POTUS.
Source
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WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English said a final election tally released on Saturday did not fundamentally change negotiations between his National Party and the nationalist New Zealand First Party to form a coalition government. The final count in the Sept. 23 election showed National had lost two seats compared to the preliminary count on election night, but remained in the lead with 56 seats, compared to the opposition Labour Party s 46. I don t think it weakens it significantly at all, the fundamentals haven t altered, English told reporters in Queenstown in response to a question on his party s negotiation position. The inconclusive election results have left neither major party with enough votes to form a government without populist New Zealand First, which holds nine seats. | 0 |
Meanwhile The U.S. keeps funding the war in Syria that drove the refugees out of their homes in the first place Refugees receive a plethora of services and assistance when they reach the shores of the America, according to a recently released study.The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops posted a PDF on their website breaking down available assistance for refugees resettled in the United States. The information is based on a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.President Barack Obama initially said he wanted to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees. The White House is now discussing raising that from 70,000 this year to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in fiscal 2017, administration officials told Bloomberg News.The numbers of refugees appear on track to grow and each refugee is offered a placement grant of $1,850 from the Department of State. This includes: pre-arrival, reception, initial housing food, clothing, referral services and social programs. The benefit eligibility are for those refugees who have been in the U.S. for up to three months.Refugees needing cash assistance can get it through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This is temporary financial assistance and social services for those eligible low-income refugees with dependent children. Cash assistance for refugees who do not qualify for TANF can also be obtained through Refugee Cash Assistance. This is available for those in U.S. for up to 8 months.Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is also an option for incoming refugees and those who settled in the U.S. for up to nine years. This is cash is cash assistance for those low-income individuals who may be elderly, blind, or disabled.Refugees who ve been in the United States up to seven years are also offered medical financial assistance through Medicaid as well as through the State Children s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Otherwise, Refugee Medical Assistance is available for up to eight months for those individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid.The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is made available to refugees for up to nine years while social services for refugees including job training, placement, and retention for those settled in the U.S are available for up to five years.Ann Corcoran, founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch, first noticed the posting and comments, At the top you will see that each refugee gets $1850 as a one time payment from the US Dept. of State (a family of 6 would receive $11,100). However, the contracting (non-profit) agency keeps about $750 of each refugee s allotment for its own overhead. She later noted, But, that is not all the contractor receives, most get tens of thousands of federal dollars to run myriad other programs through their offices including English language lessons, employment counseling, and even are granted federal dollars to develop community gardens for their refugee clients. Via: Daily Caller | 0 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike does not expect her new conservative party to pick a candidate for prime minister during the campaign for the Oct. 22 election, leaving the door open to eventually backing a lawmaker from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s party. Koike s new Party of Hope has emerged as a serious challenge to Abe s Liberal Democratic Party supporter base, but she has said she would not personally contest the election. Abe called the snap election last month in hopes his ruling bloc would keep its majority in parliament s lower house, where it now has a two-thirds super majority. Losing a simple majority would be a major unexpected upset, but a poor performance by the LDP could put pressure on Abe to step down. Asked in an interview published on Saturday by the Asahi newspaper whether Koike s party would pick a candidate for premier from its own ranks during the election, she replied: Basically, no. The campaign kicks off formally on Oct. 11. Koike, 65, a former defense minister and ex-member of Abe s LDP, told Reuters on Friday that all options were on the table regarding whom her party would back when parliament convenes to vote on a prime minister after the election. We need to see the results (of the election). We must protect this country and at the same time, we must change it, Koike told Reuters. We will decide after the election after confirming the trend in which our Party of Hope can achieve this. In the interview with the Asahi, Koike praised former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba, whom she backed in a 2012 LDP leadership race won by Abe, and lauded Internal Affairs Minister Seiko Noda for her work on behalf of handicapped people. Ishiba has criticized Abe on several fronts including his proposal to revise the post-war constitution s pacifist Article 9 by clarifying the status of the military. Ishiba says Abe s proposal does not go far enough. Noda has said she wants to run in the next LDP leadership race when Abe s current term expires in September 2018. | 0 |
BALTIMORE (Reuters) - In the port city of Baltimore, where Europeans once streamed into America after crossing the Atlantic by ship, a 47-year-old immigrant named Rhonda is in a desperate position. She said she wants to provide for her teenage daughter but cannot get a work permit because she is in the United States illegally. “I’d like, as a parent, to provide for my daughter’s needs. Homelessness and moving around has been rough,” said Rhonda, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who has lived in the United States since 2001 and spoke on condition that her last name not be used to protect her daughter. In Houston, Daniel Castillo Garcia said he is apprehensive about his toddler son’s future because the 19-year-old Mexican native is in deportation proceedings after being picked up by U.S. federal agents near the border. “I’m very worried for my son because I need to provide for him,” said Garcia, who has lived in the United States since being brought into the country by his mother as a child in 2007. For these two and many others like them, perhaps their only realistic hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court revives President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration, which was thrown out by a lower court. That plan was designed to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, do not have a criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. Rhonda’s 16-year-old daughter and Garcia’s 2-year-old son are citizens by virtue of being born in the United States. The court hears the case on Monday and is due to rule by the end of June. Rhonda said she cannot get a work permit because she overstayed her original 10-year visa. She and her daughter are staying in temporary housing provided by her church because she has no income. For a year, she was separated from her daughter, who plays the violin and hopes to attend college, because they could find nowhere to live together. Rhonda, who said her Christian faith keeps her positive, believes work authorization would make the difference because employers increasingly demand such documentation. “That’s why I’m in such hardship. I’m very anxious for something to happen,” she said. In Baltimore’s heavily Latino Fell’s Point neighborhood, South Broadway is lined with store fronts advertising services in Spanish, ranging from tax preparation to cellphone providers. Catholic Charities runs an immigrant resource center offering legal advice as well as education and health services. Its managing attorney, Adonia Simpson, said about half the roughly 600 people she counsels annually have no option beyond Obama’s program, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), if they want to legalize their status and get work permits. Initial enthusiasm about Obama’s plan waned when a federal judge put it on hold in February 2015, just before it was due to begin. All Simpson can do for now is ask clients to gather documentation to be ready to apply. “The community is getting very discouraged,” Simpson said. In Maryland alone, about 56,000 people could be eligible for the DAPA program, according to the Migration Policy Institute think tank. Obama’s plan was challenged by Texas and 25 other states that argued he exceeded his authority in bypassing Congress to take the actions. “The president has violated the Constitution, and we are trying to prevent the president from implementing executive action that we believe is lawless,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. The Supreme Court is hearing the case at a time when immigration has become a hot issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with top Republican contenders calling for all illegal immigrants to be deported. An estimated 11 million immigrants are in the country illegally. In Houston, Garcia has pinned his hopes on the court reinstating Obama’s program. “DAPA will help me get that freedom and help me to keep going and have a good future for myself and my son,” Garcia said in an interview translated from Spanish by his attorney. | 1 |
Taming the corporate media beast Whatever the Outcome on November 8th the US Will Be on a Collision Course With China
Regardless of who is elected next president, the attention of the US will shift to Asia Originally appeared at Strategic Culture Foundation
When it comes to the authenticity of the American electoral process, one must start with the media. Eighty percent of it openly sides against Trump and favors Hillary Clinton, predetermining the outco me of the elections with omitted or, worse, distorted and ignored news, deliberately avoiding any irreparable damage to Clinton.
The endless Wikileaks revelations about the collusion between the Democrats and the media establishment clearly show that there is a very specific plan to prevent a Trump victory. The lack of impartiality gives citizens little information to make a final choice in terms of voting, openly favoring the Democratic candidate. Therefore, it is more than fair to say that with this media situation and the number of polls in favor of the Democratic candidate that it is difficult to imagine a different outcome other than the most obvious one.
It is also true that there are some factors in favor of Trump; often his voters like to stay silent instead of exposing themselves in spurious surveys used to manipulate the electoral vote.
However, this election will see the triumph of a candidate that will be able to attract new voters to the polls. In this sense, the many who say they are pro-Clinton may stay home on November 8, completely disheartened by the numerous scandals of the Democratic candidate, in spite of the media censorship.
A striking difference between the two presidential campaigns regards the energy of the supporters. Trump’s base is alive and breathes an air of revolution, while that of the Clinton is trying hard to stay alive. This is a factor that could be decisive if the margins are reduced (or proven false).
On these bases it would already be enough to fully describe the US electoral system as being corrupt to the core. The media bias, covert funding of the Clinton Foundation , WikiLeaks and hacking against the Democratic National Committee (DNC), are all causes that certify how the so-called "Deep State" is clearly supportive of Clinton.
That said Hillary Clinton remains the favorite candidate to win this election, with enormous percentages around 92 % if one listens to the New York Times. Also, forgetting for a moment the outcome, whatever it is, this election will deliver the most unpopular president in recent American history, with all the attendant consequences.
Has there been anyone more unpopular than either candidate over the 18 months or so of the election campaign? But perhaps more interesting to ask is, once elected, what kind of president would Hillary Clinton be?
The most obvious answer is that she will be a belligerent president, ready to impose her vision of the world with its accompanying sound of wars and bombs. And yet the more we delve into the issue, the more we realize that perhaps such a description is too generic and imprecise.
Clinton, first of all, is above all a president in the hands of her donors, and rarely can a US president independently fashion foreign policy strategies. Obama’s famous interview with Goldberg in The Atlantic provides a striking example, where he described how he would have liked his foreign policy doctrine to be less involved around the world, instead seeing increased use of soft power to obtain geopolitical advances.
Obama during his presidency was much more in favor of attempts to expand US influence with proxies like in Ukraine with the use of neo-Nazi battalions, or with the use of terrorists in Syria as opposed to using American ground troops, a scenario that is impractical for many reasons.
Also for these decisions he is considered to be a weak president with little knowledge or interest in foreign policy. Obama is not a pacifist, God forbid. But it is true that he has often been softly opposed to a direct confrontation with Russia and Iran in different situations in the course of his presidency.
Returning to Clinton, Who are her masters? First of all are the regional allies of the United States in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, thanks to millions of dollars of generous donations that will grant them the ability to demand concessions in specific situations regarding the Middle East. Secondly, and most importantly, there is the American elite , who have a strong interest in maintaining the US role in the world and prolonging its unipolar moment.
It is principally for this reason that Clinton probably will be nothing more than a copy of Obama in terms of foreign policy, but with many more concessions to regional allies in the Middle East and a generic more aggressive policy towards Russia, China and Iran.
It is a vision certainly closer to that of the neoconservatives, but in terms of specifics, her foreign policy decisions will be operated mostly by her masters that just want to get richer. A Clinton presidency will likely continue with a fairly similar foreign policy doctrine to that of Obama in Europe and the Middle East but with some important differences in Asia.
It is likely that her donors, especially Riyadh and Doha, will try to influence her decisions allowing them to have a freehand in Syria. In Ukraine it is even more improbable that Clinton would try to reverse the negative trend for Kiev in their ATO, since this would require an intervention of NATO directly, unleashing a direct confrontation between the Atlantic Alliance and the Russian Federation, something that would escalate into a situation that would favor no one.
The most obvious reason why the Clinton presidency is unlikely to deviate much from the course of the Obama presidency is the nature of the two major conflicts. In Syria, Damascus has now begun the victory phase, and there is no room for armed intervention by regional countries thanks to the Russian and Iranian veto. As usual, in the Middle East it is just hysteria from Washington, regardless of who will be the next president. In Ukraine, the situation is frozen in terms of territorial advances.
It is unlikely that would change without a massive boost of Ukrainian troops to the east, but the effectiveness of such was seen in the 2014 war. Moreover, Moscow has suggested that they clearly possess all the ability to withstand such attacks, helping the Donbass and worsening the condition for the Ukrainian nation. The war is played in the courtyard of Moscow, thousands of kilometers away from the United States, a clear strategic disadvantage unbridgeable by Washington. Even in the case of Ukraine, it comes down to anti-Russian hysteria at little cost thanks to media propaganda.
Even European countries are starting to complain about the sanctions against Moscow, not to mention the prospect of escalation by NATO in Ukraine. In addition to not being able to win the war, a new war in the east of Ukraine would become the perfect cause for existential crisis for Atlantic Alliance. This is a risk that Washington is well aware of, and weighing the strategic value of Ukraine, which is zero when compared to that of Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia , it is easy to see why the next US president would still not be willing to have a conventional, let alone nuclear , confrontation with Moscow over Ukraine.
Unfortunately, the question changes dramatically when we take into account an area of greatest strategic interest to the US elite such as Southeast Asia. Clinton always promoted the pivot to Asia, arguing that the only way to counter the rise of China is by in every way seeking to contain the Asian power. In this sense, we can also notice her efforts as Secretary of State in the Clinton reset, a policy that sought to bring Moscow and Washington closer together, and a strategy that could have helped the United States in containing, with Moscow's help, the Chinese giant.
Fast-forward seven years later and the results are a disaster. The US and Russia have never been so divided. American pressure and aggression toward Moscow in Georgia and Ukraine have ended up pushing the former Soviet country into the arms of the Asian giant power, effectively creating a counterweight to the US, a failure that has worsened with Iran joining the Eurasian club thanks to continued destabilization from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Turkey and the United States in areas ranging from North Africa to the Persian Gulf and passing through the Middle East. With the consolidation of this anti-hegemonic bloc, the US has lost most of its options to take action in an area of keen interest, such as the Middle East.
The Russian presence in Europe, especially in the context of Ukraine, is an insurmountable obstacle. In the Middle East, Russo-Iranian cooperation has averted a possible use of foreign troops in Syria. The final decision of the United States not to intervene in such scenarios is also based on a vague hope that Iran will eventually gravitate toward the Western sphere of influence and away from this anti-hegemonic bloc. To that effect, the nuclear deal makes more sense, especially considering the openness of western politicians to the Rouhani administration when compared to the preceding Ahmadinejad one.
Even towards Russia there is the continuing hope that US power centers will be able to stretch the tentacles of colored democracy by 2018 (Russian presidential elections), imposing a candidate with a markedly more Western view. Good luck with that one, as Putin has about an 80% approval rating.
Dashing Uncle Sam’s dreams, Russia and Iran continue to dominate their regions of influence, expanding contacts and alliances, without giving any sign of bending to the opposing policies of Washington. The foreign policy of Washington in Europe and in the Middle East, especially in the last eight years, has been schizophrenic, ineffective and against American interests in region in the first place.
In Southeast Asia, the situation is quite different. With the rise of China in terms of GDP, military investment that is higher than the allocated budget, and the number of military personnel available, and if the growth of the last 15 years continues on its trajectory for a further 10 years, then China will certainly become the number one world super power. It is a situation that directly threatens American hegemony, something that has not happened in decades.
For these reasons, Clinton came up with what is now known as the pivot away from Europe and towards Asia, as well as a reset with Russia, in the hope of lengthening the list of countries hostile to Beijing with the aim of containing China. Fast-forward again to several years later and as already stressed, the effect has been quite the opposite. Economically, China is continuing to grow and is consolidating its economical power, with new institutions like the AIIB and the BRICS bank creating an alternative pole to the American globalist system of IMF-World Bank-FED.
Militarily there are less and less nations willing to patrol the South and East China Seas with the United States, Japan and Australia. Rather, countries like the Philippines and Vietnam are seeking a dialogue with the Chinese giant, hoping to improve their economic partnership. For its part, the US will not miss a chance to provoke Beijing with reckless military maneuvers. It is easy to see that with a Clinton presidency the US, when compared to Europe or the Middle East, will be more likely to pursue aggressive strategies in Southeast Asia with much greater determination as to risk conflict.
The major US national donors, composed entirely by the globalist elite , control the press, banks, insurance, the military-industrial complex, Big Pharma, the rating agencies and central banks, and, in addition to increasing their earnings, have every intention to extending the unipolar moment of the United States and ensuring that no superpower can emerge to be a peer competitor. The rise of China is a no go, seen in perspective.
At present, and in the past, it has certainly been the perfect client to allow the turbo-capitalist US system to outsource cheap labor, accelerating globalization, to enrich the pockets of these privileged super wealthy. The problem for the US elites is the rise, as time goes by, of the Chinese elite that has every intention of not being subject to the will of Washington. At a state level we can perceive this struggle with the emergence of institutions like the AIIB and organization of the BRICS.
Clinton, obeying her master-donors, will obviously try to accentuate the influence of the US on regional allies in Asia to inflame anti-Chinese sentiment. The strategy is clear: to prevent Beijing from dominating the region. The risk of a conflict, even while being the highest of any other area of the world, is unlikely to happen in the immediate future, especially due to China’s restrained approach. More likely I expect an asymmetric response by Beijing, aided by its finances.
The most likely hypothesis regards an involvement of the Chinese Military in the Middle East to fight terrorism, perhaps with an Iranian and Russian partnership thanks to organizations such as SCO. The alliances, interests, organizations and international frameworks are all ready, the only thing missing being a direct order from Beijing. This posture and threat also serves as a deterrent to Washington’s meddling in Asia, acting as a kind of counter asymmetrical balance.
It is not far fetched to see in a future presidency of Clinton Chinese troops alongside those of Russia, Iran, Syria, Iraq and maybe even Egypt in the Middle East fighting against state-sponsored terrorism. In a scenario of this kind, with all the behind-the-scenes negotiations between Ankara, Tehran, Tel Aviv and Moscow, it is difficult to imagine a regional war but rather the increasing isolation of Saudi Arabia and Qatar thanks to the policies of the anti-hegemonic bloc in the Middle East.
Beijing, which always plays on different tables and well in advance, has already approached Riyadh in the recent past (its largest world supplier) with proposals and attractive agreements, just as it did with Britain immediately before the Brexit vote, trying to bring the City of London (and its influential financial market) into the orbit of China. For now, the Saudi family remains loyal US allies (and Wall Street finance), but with a new supranational circuit as AIIB, let us say supported by a financial market like London, it is not unthinkable that as the final asymmetric move, Beijing could aspire to deal a deadly blow to US hegemony by shifting oil trading from the dollar system to the new petro-yuan. This scenario is something that has been talked about and that frightens the US elites more than anything else.
Regardless of who is elected the next president, the full attention of the US will shift mainly to the Asian area, prompting Beijing to think about its future and how to deal with American containment. So far, rather than a military deterrent, it looks like the economical factor will play a huge role against an aggressive US military posture in the Asian region. | 1 |
Republicans continue to jump the sinking ship that chose Donald Trump to be their captain.Chris Ladd has been a Republican for 30 years now. He is so hardcore that he s even a friend of former Texas Governor Rick Perry and thought the world of Ronald Reagan.But now that the party has chosen Donald Trump as their 2016 nominee, Ladd wants nothing more to do with the GOP any longer, and he tore Republicans a new one in a letter he wrote announcing his resignation from the York Township Republican Committeemen s Organization and it is an epic read. At the national level, the delusions necessary to sustain our Cold War coalition were becoming dangerous long before Donald Trump arrived, Ladd pointed out. From tax policy to climate change, we have found ourselves less at odds with philosophical rivals than with the fundamentals of math, science and objective reality. And then Donald Trump came along and made the party even worse. From his fairy-tale wall to his schoolyard bullying and his flirtation with violent racists, Donald Trump offers America a singular narrative a tale of cowards. Fearful people, convinced of our inadequacy, trembling before a world alight with imaginary threats, crave a demagogue. Neither party has ever elevated to this level a more toxic figure, one that calls forth the darkest elements of our national character.With three decades invested in the Republican Party, there is a powerful temptation to shrug and soldier on. Despite the bold rhetoric, we all know Trump will lose. Why throw away a great personal investment over one bad nominee? Trump is not merely a poor candidate, but an indictment of our character. Preserving a party is not a morally defensible goal if that party has lost its legitimacy. Ladd goes on to reminisce about Reagan s positive message and then sharply rebukes Republicans for abandoning their morality to pledge their allegiance to a fascist who has none. Fast-forward to our present leadership and the nature of our dilemma is clear. I watched Paul Ryan speak at Donald Trump s convention the way a young child watches his father march off to prison. Thousands of Republican figures that loathe Donald Trump, understand the danger he represents, and privately hope he loses, are publicly declaring their support for him. In Illinois our local and state GOP organizations, faced with a choice, have decided on complicity.Our leaders compromise preserves their personal capital at our collective cost. Their refusal to dissent robs all Republicans of moral cover. Evasion and cowardice has prevailed over conscience. We are now, and shall indefinitely remain, the Party of Donald Trump.I will not contribute my name, my work, or my character to an utterly indefensible cause. No sensible adult demands moral purity from a political party, but conscience is meaningless without constraints. A party willing to lend its collective capital to Donald Trump has entered a compromise beyond any credible threshold of legitimacy. There is no redemption in being one of the good Nazis. I hereby resign my position as a York Township Republican committeeman. My thirty-year tenure as a Republican is over. Ladd is absolutely right. The Republican Party has shattered any claim they had of being the morally superior party precisely because they are supporting a man who does not share their values. Furthermore, they are supporting a man who uses fear as a political tool and has a pessimistic view of America.This is not a sign of good news for the Republican Party or Donald Trump. Trump has seriously created a rift in the party between moderate Republicans and conservatives that could cost the GOP dearly on Election Day. The Republican Party needs more than just their base to win a general election and that means they need moderate voters like Ladd in order to have a chance at winning.If more people like Ladd continue to leave the Republican Party because of Donald Trump, the GOP is finished.Featured Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1 |
PARIS (Reuters) - The right-hand man of French National Front chief Marine Le Pen quit the party on Thursday, a split that opens the way for policy changes in the far-right party and shows the depth of internal feuding after Le Pen s presidential election defeat. The departure of Florian Philippot, for years Le Pen s closest aide and a key architect of efforts to detoxify the party s image while campaigning against the euro, had looked increasingly inevitable as the party bickered over who was to blame for a damaging electoral cycle. His exit is expected to allow Le Pen to refocus on core policies around immigration and French national identity, while perhaps softening her anti-euro tone, which many say contributed to Le Pen s resounding defeat in the presidential election run-off. While Philippot s departure is likely to increase turmoil in the party at first and others have already said they would follow him out the door, the FN has survived similar crises in the past and analysts expect it to do the same this time. Philippot is seen as too divisive within the far-right to create a party that would be a serious threat. Le Pen, who has shown a sometimes ruthless determination to hold on to power in the National Front, having already pushed out her father Jean-Marie, the founder of the party, withdrew Philippot s responsibilities within the movement late on Wednesday, leaving him with little choice about his future. I m not into being ridiculed, I m not into having nothing to do. And so yes, of course, I m quitting the National Front, Philippot, 35 and a graduate of France s elite administrative school ENA, told France 2 television. Le Pen, who just last year spoke of having an intellectual crush on Philippot, responded tersely that the FN would have no problems of getting over his departure. One should stop trying to bury the National Front, she told LCP television. Every time people have tried to do it, it came out better-structured, stronger and more powerful. The National Front, which has made major inroads in local, regional and European elections over the past decade without winning any major constituency, will hold a congress in March where internal differences since its defeat to Emmanuel Macron and his new party will come to a head. The far-right party has tried to portray itself as the main voice of opposition against Macron. But that mantle has so far been assumed by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the far-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed), who is calling for mass demonstrations against the president s economic reforms. FAR-LEFT THRILLED Appearing on France s RTL Radio on Thursday, Melenchon reveled in the turmoil on the far-right. Excellent, that s their business. It s perfect, he said in reaction to Philippot s departure. It s a party that counts for nothing. Those that were angry but aren t fascists, I urge them to turn their back (on the FN) and come and join us. J r me Fourquet, an expert on the far-right at polling group Ifop, said Philippot s exit would deprive the party of experienced policy writers. But he said any exodus was likely to be limited and short of those who quit when Bruno Megret left the party in 1988, when it was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Megret created his own party but it never attracted many votes. Those who leave the FN or are pushed out all end up being marginalized, Fourquet said. Philippot joined the party in 2011 and rose quickly to become Le Pen s chief adviser. He was instrumental in crafting her policies and her 2012 and 2017 election manifestos. Sophie Montel, one of Philippot s closest aides and an FN member for over 30 years, said on Twitter she was quitting the party. So did several other Philippot allies. But other more high profile figures rejoiced, including Le Pen s partner Louis Aliot. The FN will finally have some peace of mind away from a sectarian, arrogant, vain extremist who was trying to muzzle our freedom to debate, Aliot said on Twitter. He thinks he s right about everything and... for me he s an extremist, he said later, speaking to RMC. When you show him a poll that says 75 percent of the French people don t want to leave the euro, his reply is we don t give a damn, that s where we are going. Robert Menard, an FN ally and a mayor in southern France, was even blunter, saying: We need to stop with the anti-Europeanism and the Melenchon-type (economic) policies. Le Pen said the party would continue to fight the EU and wanted a return to monetary sovereignty. But after many flip-flops on the issue, she did not spell out precisely what that would entail. | 1 |
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly s interview with Trump supporter, conspiracy theorist, fake news purveyor, and general asshole Alex Jones is set to air soon but that doesn t mean that Jones intends to be his usual terrible self no matter how many advertisers run screaming from Kelly s show.On Wednesday Jones, who lost custody of his children over his insane rants and violent attitude, set his sights on CNN s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday:Wolf Blitzer has a guest on: So, this man wasn t a monster, he was just tired of things. Wolf Blitzer: Ok, thanks for your view. Hmm, very interesting. What happens, Wolf Blitzer, when somebody pumps rounds into your little pumpkin head and says, It s just political ? Hah. You people. You guys better have some helicopter jump jets and be ready to get out of here real quick if the actual civil war kicks off, Jones added before attempting to claim that he was somehow innocent in his call for violence against Blitzer: I mean, I m not the one that s calling for violence; you re going to get wrecked bad. There are a lot of people like Santa Claus been making a list, been checking it twice about who s been naughty and nice. And you kick off Civil War 2, baby, you ll think Lexington and Concord was a cake walk. Despite Jones attempt to sic his disgusting fans on Blitzer, NBC still plans to allow his interview to air.Watch Jones outburst below: Featured image via screengrab | 1 |
Donald Trump s behavior and outlandish ways have made him countless enemies and some of them are in the White House. Apparently, there s a lot of animosity over the fact that Trump s team keeps trying to do damage control and save Trump from the several federal investigations that are haunting the White House, and Trump continues to undo their hard work every day.This couldn t be more clear in the way the White House has reacted to Trump s lashing out at his own Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, on Friday morning. The Daily Beast is reporting that Trump s team is so disgusted by this, Trump s aides and advisers are actually mocking him and making jokes about how they can get him to shut the hell up.In response to Trump s tweet about Rosenstein this morning, in which Trump said I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! , an anonymous senior Trump administration official reportedly joked: Has anyone read his Miranda rights? At this point in Trump s flawed presidency, we all know that the best thing he could do for himself and his numerous criminal investigations would be to remain silent which he is incapable of. One senior Trump administration official even placed blame on Trump for bringing the obstruction of justice inquiry upon himself. That senior aide said: The president did this to himself. Another White House official shared that no one in the administration is surprised when Trump goes off the rails on Twitter anymore. That official said that for all the heartburn and misery , they should expect that dealing with Trump s insanity is just part of the job now: If you haven t made this a settled factor in your morning routine, why are you still here? Thanks to Trump s erratic behavior, GOP insiders are seriously worried that he s not mentally fit to continue on with the rest of his presidency. Republican strategist Evan Siegfried said: President Trump has started the clock on the Rosenstein firing watch. This is feeding the private discussions in the GOP about the president s state of mind. As Trump s erratic behavior gets worse, we can expect more White House and GOP leaks as Trump s team turns on him one by one.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 0 |
Actress Lena Dunham said she warned Hillary Clinton s campaign about disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and was uncomfortable with his presence during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report out Tuesday.The Girls star told The New York Times that she heard stories about Weinstein from other actresses who claimed they had troubling interactions with him, so in March of 2016 she warned Clinton campaign deputy communications manager Kristina Schake about him. I just want you to let you know that Harvey s a rapist and this is going to come out at some point, Dunham said she told the campaign. I think it s a really bad idea for him to host fund-raisers and be involved because it s an open secret in Hollywood that he has a problem with sexual assault. Dunham, who has professed an incredible allegiance to Hillary, claimed Schake told her she d relay the message to campaign manager Robby Mook, but that she was surprised at the warning.The controversial actress said she also told another Clinton campaign member, spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod, about Weinstein. Dunham said the campaign had not responded to her concerns about the disgraced megaproducer, who s been accused of sexually assaulting or harassing more than 100 women.Weinstein donated thousands of dollars to Clinton s political campaigns over the years, and it took the former secretary of state five days to break her silence following the accusations made against him. I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said in a statement through campaign communications director Nick Merrill. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior. Fox News | 0 |
Joy Reid once again proved that she isn t putting up any nonsense on her show. During a segment of AM Joy, Reid eviscerated a Donald Trump supporter who implied that Planned Parenthood is part of a eugenics program meant to racially cleanse people of color. Alfonso Aguilar, the executive director Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles went on the program to discuss Trump and his spreading of white supremacist propaganda via his Twitter account when he decided to bring up this conspiracy theory about Planned Parenthood. He does control his own Twitter account, Reid said. He is retweeting white nationalists. Which, if you re following them, and they re somehow in the stream of your social media. Aguilar responded to Reid, saying: I think I could argue that is a double standard. Margaret Sanger. Let s talk about Planned Parenthood That is not a double standard. You re mentioning a dead person gone for many decades, Reid shot back. Planned Parenthood is not a eugenicist organization. And I think that is incredibly offensive. Planned Parenthood is a health organization. Good gracious. Aguilar persists with the line of questioning, saying: 52% of all abortions are performed on Latino and African-American That s as far as Aguilar gets before Reid shuts him down entirely. Good gracious. Okay, I think that smear on Planned Parenthood cannot go forward, we are not going to continue with that line of questioning, Reid finished.It s nice to see that there are still people on cable news willing to not give their guests the time of day with their outrageous theories.You can watch a clip of the segment below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
Originally published at the Tax Justice Network
This blog comes from Johannesburg, South Africa, where investigative journalists from 28 countries are sharing their work at the African Investigative Journalism Conference . One session looked at stories dug out from the Panama Papers leak from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca and investigations which have revealed a colourful mix of characters involved in looting Africa.
The stories uncovered include a mafia lawyer linked to the film The French Connection , an absentee landowning Russian oligarch , plus, of course, a former politician , and a “millionaire receptionist” who denies knowledge of having owned nine offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The common factor in all these stories is the role of offshore secrecy jurisdictions populated by western banks, western lawyers, western accounting firms, and protected by leading western nations like the United Kingdom, which even as I write is vigorously trying to protect its Crown Dependencies from attempts to crack down on offshore secrecy .
Unsurprisingly the British Virgin Islands – a British overseas territory – feature heavily, as does Switzerland .
The story of the “millionaire receptionist” Letitia Diergaardt, covered by The Namibian newspaper, provides fascinating insights into the duplicity of offshore secrecy. Diergaardt works as a receptionist/clerk in Windhoek, Namibia. Yet according to The Namibian she technically owns or owned nine offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. However, as The Namibian reports, she denies all knowledge of owning these companies, which were registered in the BVI between 13th and 25th April 2007.
Apparently unknown to her, Diergaardt’s identity was used to provide a nominee shareholder for all nine companies. As The Namibian dryly notes: “on face value, the use of her name in these companies is to represent hidden owners . . “
Secretive shell companies are a core part of the secrecy jurisdiction offer. They provide immunity from criminal investigation and prosecution. They are the ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card for crooks and their enablers. Secretive shell companies allow nominee owners to front for those known as the ‘ultimate beneficial owners’, as The Namibian comments:
“The secretive offshore industry relies on a network of individuals whose names are used on official records as directors, company secretaries and shareholders. Often, the real owners who call the shots remain invisible, hiding behind dummy directors, who are only owners of these companies on paper.”
Yet despite all the evidence of abuse of offshore companies registered in Road Town, the British Virgin Islands government persists in blocking moves to make a registry of ultimate beneficial ownership available to public scrutiny. In Jersey, another British tax haven, the authorities refuse to make company ownership information available to investigative journalists by claiming that a public registry would “lead to fraud and cybercrime.”
Let’s be frank. For all their pious words about wanting to crack down on corrupt practices, western governments remain deeply implicated in facilitating the looting of Africa .
As Shinovene Immanuel from The Namibian told this blogger earlier today:
“The West must help Africa by locking the doors through which the money flows, and the West must also pull up their socks to make these offshore companies more transparent. If Western countries want to help developing countries, they must stop standing in the way of investigating corrupt business practices.” 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 |
We Are Change
In the fourth undercover video from the guerilla journalists at James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, Democratic operative Robert Creamer claims to be on daily calls with the Clinton campaign — and accepts a foreign donation.
In the newly released footage, Creamer admits to working directly for the Clinton campaign — overseeing Donald Trump events.
“I mean frankly I spend most of my time overseeing the Trump event rallies, I mean that’s what I do for the Clinton campaign,” Creamer states.
In previous video releases from Veritas, Democratic operatives reveal how they had been working to incite violence at Trump rallies, using a tactic called “bird-dogging.” An operative also reveals to the undercover journalists their step-by-step voter fraud strategy.
The Clinton campaign originally denied working with Creamer and his firm, Democracy Partners. O’Keefe then released a video of Creamer stating that their “Donald Ducks” effort was at the request of the candidate herself.
“Every morning I am on a call at 10:30 that goes over the message being driven by the campaign headquarters … I am in this campaign mainly to deal with what earned media with television, radio, with earned media and social media, not with paid media, not with advertising,” Creamer says in the latest video.
He also admits to working directly with Barack Obama, statements that are backed up by his 340 logged visits to the White House — where he met with Obama 45 times.
“I do a lot of work with the White House on their issues, helping to run issue campaigns that they have been involved in. I mean, for immigration reform for the… the health care bill, for trying to make America more like Britain when it comes to gun violence issues.”
To gain access and trust, O’Keefe reveals that he had provided a $20,000 donation to the Americans for United for Change super PAC from Belize.
“The more money that was promised to Creamer, the more access Project Veritas Action journalists seemed to get,” Project Veritas said in their release .
Following the release of the first Veritas videos last week, the PAC suddenly returned the donation — stating that they were concerned it may have been illegal.
“In an unexpected twist, AUFC president Brad Woodhouse, the recipient of the $20,000, heard that Project Veritas Action was releasing undercover videos exposing AUFC’s activities. He told a journalist that AUFC was going to return the twenty thousand dollars,” Project Veritas explained. “ He said it was because they were concerned that it might have been an illegal foreign donation. Project Veritas Action was pleased but wondered why that hadn’t been a problem for the month that they had the money.”
O’Keefe has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against both Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee based upon the shocking revelations that his team has uncovered.
During a rally in Gettysburg on Saturday, Trump promised that he would also be suing the DNC for inciting violence at his rallies, based on what he saw in the Project Veritas videos.
The post Another Project Veritas Bombshell: Pro-Clinton PAC Accepts Foreign Donations appeared first on We Are Change .
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Of course Emily s List is going to support Hillary, because Democrats have been doing their part to keep the unwanted or undesirable babies from making it out of the womb alive for decades .WASHINGTON, D.C. Today EMILY s List, the nation s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Clinton is on track to become the first woman to win the Democratic nomination, and if elected, the first woman president of the United States. Hillary Clinton is a lifelong champion for women and families and the most qualified candidate to be president, said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY s List. With roots in the middle class, Hillary s top priority is changing the economic reality for American families. Her focus is on strengthening the middle class, creating jobs, and making sure hardworking families get a fair shot. No one will work harder than Hillary. She knows how to lead so Washington fights for all Americans. As president, Hillary will create more opportunities than ever for women and girls (give them access to on demand abortions) and for all hardworking Americans across the country, just as she has done throughout her exceptional career. The EMILY s List community now more than three million members strong is proud to endorse Hillary Clinton for president. Hillary Clinton has devoted her entire career to fighting for women and families (supporting the killing of unborn babies). Instead of going to a big law firm after graduating from Yale Law School, she took her first job going door to door for the Children s Defense Fund. She helped lead the fight for the Children s Health Insurance Program as first lady of the United States, and she put emphasis on women s rights as a cornerstone of American foreign policy as Secretary of State.A visionary leader who s always worked to create opportunity for others, Hillary has said she believes our challenge is to be clear-eyed about the world as it is while never losing sight of the world as we want it to become. When she is elected president, it will mean more opportunities for women, more opportunities for girls, and more opportunities for hardworking Americans across the country.Via: Weasel Zippers | 1 |
How very progressive And how very ironic that our tyrannical President would take the opportunity to address how he plans to implement gun control in the U.S. while standing in Paris, where only two weeks ago 130 unarmed people were slaughtered by armed terrorists.Gun control, man-made climate change, open borders, one-world order just a few of the topics our anti-American President feels right at home discussing with a few comrades Speaking from Paris, France, on December 1, President Obama criticized the lack of gun control in the U.S. and pledged to remain focused on using executive action to enact new controls where possible.Obama is in Paris for a conference on climate change.During a press conference, Obama was asked about the November 27 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack that killed two civilians and a police officer. He responded by claiming mass shootings are a something specifically American a problem not witnessed in other countries then criticized Congressional inaction toward passing more gun control.According to Bloomberg, Obama said:In the United States we have the power to do more to prevent what is just a regular process of gun homicides, that is unequaled by multiples of five, six, [or] ten, and I think the American people understand that. So my hope is that, once again, this spurs a conversation and action.He said that Congress, states, and local governments need to act, and he made it clear he will continue to focus on what [he] can do administratively, which is something he has been threatening to do since a gunman opened fire in the gun free zone at Umpqua Community College on October 1.On November 12 CBS News reported that Obama has given a team of White House lawyers the job of finding a way that executive action can be used to expand background checks. And Breitbart News reported that part of what is being sought is an arbitrary threshold that can be set on private gun sales. Citizens who sell more than the allowable level will be forced to do background checks on every sale.Obama and the Democrat Party have been obsessed with expanding background checks since Adam Lanza attacked Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012. Yet it is interesting to note that expanded background checks would not have hindered that attack in the slightest, because Lanza stole the guns he used he did not buy them.Moreover, background checks are already expanded in Colorado. Breitbart News previously reported that expanded background checks and a high capacity magazine ban are the law of the land in Colorado, but neither were effectual in stopping the Planned Parenthood attack or the high profile public shooting that took place in CO Springs on Halloween day. Via: Breitbart News | 0 |
SAN FRANCISCO — The board of Uber is confident in its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, board member Arianna Huffington said on Tuesday, providing a show of support as the embattled company seeks to repair its reputation. Ms. Huffington made her remarks in a conference call with reporters that Uber announced only hours before. During the roughly call, executives also laid out a multipart plan to get the reeling company back on track after a series of revelations about its business practices and internal unrest that have damaged its image. Of paramount importance, the company stressed, is Uber’s search for a chief operating officer to help Mr. Kalanick. In addition, Uber is overhauling its human resources department, improving its relationships with drivers, and soliciting feedback from concerned employees. The company also plans to release a report on the diversity of its work force this month, and will conclude an investigation into its workplace culture by the end of April. “The board is confident in Travis, and we are proceeding ahead with the search for the C. O. O. ,” Ms. Huffington said during the call. “Put very simply, change starts at the top. ” Because Uber rarely puts together such calls for the news media, the one on Tuesday reflects how the company is working to seize control of its image after a rough start to the year. In recent weeks, Uber’s reputation was badly damaged after a former employee published a scathing blog post detailing what she said was a history of sexual harassment and systemic issues in the company’s human resources department. Separately, Uber faced criticism for its program to deliberately deceive law enforcement using a software tool called Greyball, The New York Times reported. Mr. Kalanick, who helped found Uber in 2009, also came under fire for how he had influenced the culture of the company. After a video of Mr. Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver recently leaked on the internet, Mr. Kalanick apologized and said he would seek leadership assistance. Several executives, including president Jeff Jones, have since left the company. Mr. Kalanick was not present during the conference call. Ms. Huffington, who joined Uber’s board last year, was joined on the call by Liane Hornsey, the recently hired head of human resources, and Rachel Holt, the head of Uber’s business in the United States and Canada. In the call, Uber said it expected that Mr. Kalanick would be highly collaborative with any executive hires. Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist and longtime Uber board member, is helping to lead the executive search for the chief operating officer, as is Ms. Huffington. Asked whether Mr. Kalanick would be willing to step down if asked, Ms. Huffington said the company’s leadership has not discussed the “hypothetical” situation. “It’s clear that both Uber and the entire industry would not be where we are today without Travis,” Ms. Huffington said. Beyond providing assistance to Mr. Kalanick, Uber said it had significant work to do to repair what appears to be a culture badly damaged by infighting and harassment. Ms. Hornsey said Uber had held more than 100 “listening sessions” with employees across the company, and had set up a hotline for anonymous complaints from employees for sensitive subjects. She also noted the recent hiring of a global head of diversity, Bernard C. Coleman III. Uber plans to publish its first diversity report breaking down the gender and ethnic makeup of its work force by the end of March. Uber also is working to change its feedback system in human resources, which many current and former employees had criticized as unfair and opaque. “Too much time is spent looking backward rather than forward,” Ms. Hornsey said of the system. “We need to change it. ” A companywide investigation into Uber’s workplace practices, which is being conducted by Eric H. Holder Jr. the former United States attorney general, is expected to conclude by the end of April. Ms. Huffington said the company would honor the results of the investigation and abide by any changes recommended. Despite Uber’s culture problems, Ms. Holt said the company’s business remains healthy. Last week in the United States, riders took more trips with Uber than in any previous week, she said. “In our most mature country, we’ve grown faster in the first 10 weeks of 2017 than in the first 10 weeks of 2016,” Ms. Holt said during the call. “Looking at less mature regions like Latin America, trips were up 600 percent in February, year on year. ” Uber, which has raised billions of dollars in capital, is privately valued at close to $70 billion. Employees and investors were shaken early this year when a campaign to delete the app sprung up, following concerns that Uber was trying to capitalize on a New York taxi work stoppage. About half a million people requested deleting their Uber accounts over the course of that week, according to three people familiar with the company’s internal metrics who asked not to be named because the numbers are confidential. Those deletions have slowed drastically in recent weeks, and the company continues to add new users on a weekly basis, one of the people said. Aside from internal changes, Uber said it would continue to work on improving relationships with drivers, who are freelancers that the company does not employ . “We need to bring more humanity to the way we interact with drivers,” Ms. Holt said, noting changes in how Uber would treat rider feedback and how the company considers a driver’s history on the platform. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to serve as commissioners on Wall Street’s top derivatives regulatory agency on Thursday pledged to work to complete rules that would restrict trading by market speculators who bet on the rise and fall of prices. The nominees to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Republicans Dawn Stump and Brian Quintenz, and Democrat Rostin “Russ” Behnam, told the Senate Agriculture Committee during their confirmation hearing that they are committed to working to craft a final “position limits” rule that would limit speculators without harming farmers, ranchers and others who rely on futures markets to hedge their business risks. “I look forward to helping... finalize this rule,” said Stump, adding that she will work to ensure that the strategies agricultural businesses use to hedge “are not prevented in the future due to unworkable bonifide hedging restrictions.” Bonham said: “The relevant question is not whether or not position limits should be completed, but how they should be completed.” The CFTC won broad new powers under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform to police the massive over-the-counter derivatives markets. The agency has largely implemented the bulk of the rules, which required many kinds of derivatives to be cleared centrally to reduce the risk of default and traded on platforms with greater price transparency. The CFTC is primarily focused on reviewing more carefully how the rules are working and whether certain rules should be tweaked to reduce burdens. Acting CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, who is awaiting Senate confirmation as permanent chairman, earlier this year launched a review that aims to streamline and simplify existing regulations. However, there are still a number of outstanding rules that need to be completed, with the position limits rule one of the most notable. Although there has generally been considerable tension between Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s nominees to various positions since January, there was no such divisiveness on display Thursday. Both Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow signaled they intend to support the nominations of all three. | 0 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may announce the completion of its nuclear program within a year, South Korea s unification minister said on Tuesday, as the isolated country is moving more faster than expected in developing its weapons arsenal. Experts think North Korea will take two to three more years but they are developing their nuclear capabilities faster than expected and we cannot rule out the possibility Pyongyang may declare the completion of their nuclear program in a year, said Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon at a media event in Seoul. | 1 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - With a tight general election looming next year, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto faces a tough choice on whether to pursue a graft probe involving a prominent ally and Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. Mexico s top prosecutor, acting Attorney General, Alberto Elias Beltran, on Friday fired the federal attorney general responsible for electoral crimes, adding fuel to a case that may complicate the president s efforts to shake off allegations of corruption in the run-up to the July 2018 presidential vote. The dismissal of top electoral prosecutor, Santiago Nieto, came two days after he accused Emilio Lozoya, the former boss of state oil firm Pemex, and a longtime ally of President Pena Nieto, in a newspaper interview of writing to him to ask to be declared innocent of funneling Odebrecht cash to political campaigns. In Brazil, Odebrecht has admitted to paying bribes in several countries in Latin America, including Mexico. President Pena Nieto s party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has been the dominant force of Mexican politics for the best part of a century, but has long been a byword for corruption. Mindful that the issue of corruption has become central to the 2018 election, the unpopular PRI has overseen the arrest of various former state governors, but Lozoya poses a more difficult challenge, given his proximity to the president. If they investigate (Lozoya) deeply, I think it would be the end of the party in power. If they don t, they stir up more public anger, said Paulo Diez, an anti-corruption lawyer who has taken on the government in high-profile graft scandals. Four days after becoming acting Attorney General, Alberto Elias Beltran dismissed Santiago Nieto on the grounds he had broken the office s code of conduct for public officials, his office said on Friday. The dismissal was attacked by the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), opposition parties which questioned the impartiality of Pena Nieto s government. Santiago Nieto told newspaper Reforma on Wednesday that Lozoya s letter was a bid to secure impunity and that Odebrecht money had entered political campaigns. Nieto s office confirmed the letter s existence, as well as the investigation into the former Pemex chief executive, when contacted by Reuters. Lozoya said in a press conference that he is innocent of all accusations and that he did not funnel cash to President Pena Nieto s campaign. President Pena Nieto has also previously denied Odebrecht bribes made their way into his party s coffers. Lozoya s lawyer, Javier Coello, denied his client had written seeking leniency interviews. Coello also shared with Reuters a letter sent to Santiago Nieto, in which Lozoya asked to be informed of any criminal investigation into him, and to be called to testify if needed. That letter did not mention any appeals for clemency. Odebrecht has admitted to U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors that it paid $10.5 million in bribes in Mexico. Details of the payments have not been made public, though in August, Brazilian and Mexican media reported that Lozoya had asked Odebrecht executives for bribes in 2012 in return for contracts, citing testimony from Odebrecht employees. On Monday this week, Attorney General Raul Cervantes stood down, telling Senators his office had concluded investigations into Odebrecht. However, the details have yet to be published. | 0 |
Anti-Trump Violence Sweeps the Nation Matthew Vadum, LifeZette, October 26, 2016
While the mainstream media has been working day and night promoting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, it has largely ignored or downplayed violent attacks against supporters of Donald Trump.
But assaults on Trump supporters appear to be growing increasingly common as Election Day approaches and tensions intensify. Reports of Trump lawn signs and banners being stolen and defaced are everywhere on social media.
Making matters worse, undercover video evidence emerged showing senior Democrat operatives Robert Creamer and Scott Foval acknowledging using dirty, likely illegal tricks against the Trump campaign. Their goal was to generate negative media coverage of Trump rallies by fomenting violence at them. The media eagerly used the various fisticuffs and melees the Democrats created to attempt to discredit Trump by depicting his supporters as violent, knuckle-dragging crazies.
{snip}
Despite their aversion to covering stories that put Trump in a sympathetic light, members of the media had no choice but to cover the extremely newsworthy Oct. 15 weekend firebombing of Republican Party headquarters in Orange County, North Carolina. Gov. Pat McCrory called the arson “an attack on our democracy,” while one GOP official called it an act of “political terrorism.” Spray-painted on the building next door were a swastika and the sentence “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else.”
Meanwhile, most physical attacks on Trump supporters make only local news outlet–if that. Rarely do such assaults get mentioned on the evening TV broadcast news or in The New York Times or The Washington Post. That’s because they don’t fit the leftist narrative that Republicans are violent, racist, Islamophobic homophobes.
{snip}
Here is a compilation of some of the attacks on Trump supporters:
On Oct. 15 in Bangor, Maine, vandals spray-painted about 20 parked cars outside a Trump rally. Trump supporter Paul Foster, whose van was hit with white paint, told reporters, “Why can’t they do a peaceful protest instead of painting cars, all of this, to make their statement?”
Around Oct. 3, a couple of Trump supporters were assaulted in Zeitgeist, a San Francisco bar, after they were allegedly refused service for expressing support for Trump, GotNews reports. “The two Trump supporters were attacked, punched, and chased into the street by ‘some thugs’ that a barmaid called out from the back.” Lilian Kim of ABC 7 Bay Area tweeted a photo of the men, in which one was wearing a Trump T-shirt and the other was wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” shirt.
On Sept. 28 in El Cajon, California, an angry mob at a Black Lives Matter protest beat 21-year-old Trump supporter Feras Jabro for wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. The assault was broadcast live using the smartphone app Periscope.
On Sept. 26 at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, as the first presidential debate was about to get underway, a woman wearing Trump campaign apparel was assaulted while heading to a debate watch event. {snip}
On Aug. 19 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Trump supporters had to run a gauntlet of angry protesters to get into a Trump fundraiser at the Minneapolis Convention Center. When they left after the event they were hit, pushed, and spit on.
{snip}
On Aug. 3 in Bloomfield, New Jersey, an assailant attacked a 62-year-old man who was walking down the street wearing a pro-Trump T-shirt, local police said. “The motorist inquired why [the man] was wearing the shirt, directing profanities at him,” a police spokesman said. “The [victim] continued to walk away as [the] motorist followed him.” The motorist hit the man several times with a crowbar, causing injuries to his arms, hands, and thighs,
{snip}
This is not an exhaustive list of violent attacks on Trump supporters.
No doubt there will be plenty more such assaults in the final two weeks, as Americans head to the polls.
And Hillary Clinton’s campaign may be involved in those attacks. | 1 |
16 mins ago 2 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes New Zealand's country's entire east coast and urged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate and seek higher ground. Waves of up to two meters (6 feet) could be possible for up to two hours, it said. Anna "That's reasonably significant so people should take this seriously," she told Radio New Zealand. New Zealand's Geonet revised up its estimated magnitude of the quake to 7.5, from 6.6 earlier. USGS Zealand's South Island. A 6.3 quake there in February 2011 killed 185 people and caused widespread damage. The "The whole house rolled like a serpent and some things smashed, the power went out," Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, a coastal town near the quake's epicenter, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents. Learn More: https://www.yahoo.com/news/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-strikes-near-christchurch-zealand-112145924.html http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ https://twitter.com/i/moments/797788639014989826 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%221day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-45.736859547360474%2C-192.777099609375%5D%2C%5B-38.410558250946075%2C-175.198974609375%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22list%22%2C%22map%22%5D%2C%22event%22%3A%22us1000778i%22%7D https://www.essentialdrugstore.com/ B Rich: https://twitter.com/Brian_T33NO https://www.youtube.com/c/BRichOfficial Erick M: https://twitter.com/letmeexplainit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcwB6XtfJtyWW4DXKoZVn5A ToBeFree: https://twitter.com/da52true https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdTd5-p_sBE8oTjUOqPpPg EnterThe5t4rz: https://twitter.com/Enterthe5t4rz https://www.youtube.com/user/Enterthe5t4rz Save On Official DAHBOO7 Gear with Code "5off" http://dahboo7.deco-street.com http://foodforliberty.com/dahboo7/ You can also cut cable bills forever and save $75 with code "tigerstream75" https://tigerstream.tv/go/tigerstream7/ | 0 |
Hillary Clinton is a complicated woman running in a country that wants its political platforms to fit on a trucker s cap. As a candidate, she has taken a lot of heat from progressives for being late to coming around to marriage equality. She was, but it s not that simple. If you scratch just a little beneath the surface, you ll find a true champion of LGBT rights throughout the world.When it comes to Clinton s evolution on LGBT rights, there are a lot of legitimate complaints. First, her husband s legacy, although also not that simple, is the failed military policy of Don t Ask, Don t Tell. Bill Clinton didn t love the policy, but it was what he saw as the best compromise at the time.Of course, that wasn t Hillary s policy. In fact, in 1999, she said she was against Don t Ask, Don t Tell, so let s move on. The criticism that has the most teeth is that Hillary didn t come around to accepting marriage equality until just three years ago, but that was only one step in a long history of support.One accomplishment that has received scant attention is that she ushered gay rights onto the international stage. It is fair to say that without Clinton s efforts, the global struggle for equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people would not have proceeded as fast as it has in the past several years, nor would the United States be seen today as a global leader in that struggle. At the heart of these efforts was the 2011 United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, otherwise known as the UNHRC Gay Rights Resolution, an international agreement whose drafting and signing Clinton oversaw. With that document, and a sister UNHRC resolution of 2014 condemning anti-LGBT violence and discrimination, the UN has formally recognized gay rights as part of the international human rights regime.Clinton s gay rights crusade began within the State Department, which she transformed into one of the most if not the most gay-friendly bureaucracies in Washington, both in terms of its policies and its administration. This signaled a radical makeover for the stodgy institution, which under Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Clinton s predecessors in the George W. Bush administration, had seen little drive for gay equality. Largely beholden to the Christian right and social conservatives, the Bush administration was hostile toward LGBT people and issues. As president, Bush endorsed an amendment to the federal constitution banning same-sex marriage, and his political managers used same-sex marriage as a wedge issue during his reelection campaign in 2004 with the intention of mobilizing so-called values voters in swing states like Ohio.Source: Foreign AffairsHer support of LGBT rights didn t stop in international waters. She extended family leave and other government benefits to families of same-sex couples who worked in the State Department.She fought discrimination in the State Department, despite a 1950s executive order by Dwight Eisenhower to fire all gay people, because homosexuality was considered a risk. Clinton instead recognized the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Association (GLIFAA) for its courageous actions in the face of historic discrimination. She also ended the firings.Clinton even had gay pride celebrations at embassies and consulates throughout the world. Every May 17th, to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, embassies hang rainbow flags. She also made a concerted effort to be inclusive in her hiring, by, among other things, appointing six openly gay ambassadors to serve on several continents.Here she is with her own words:Don t take my word, or hers, for it. She s been endorsed by nearly every LGBT organization.Featured image via Getty Images | 0 |
Except, of course, other US weaponry.
Where did ISIS get such a fine anti-tank weapon? | 1 |
A Nebraska Democratic Party official has refused calls to resign her volunteer position after calling reactions to this week s shooting of a high-ranking Republican member of Congress so funny on social media.NOT FUNNY: Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) a married father of two young children, is listed in critical condition after a 66 yr. old Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans who were practicing for their annual Democrat-Republican charity baseball game in Alexandria, VA.Chelsey Gentry-Tipton of Omaha said in statement that she will not resign as chairwoman of the party s Black Caucus, saying her post was taken out of context by party officials.Screen shot below is taken from Gentry-Tipton s Facebook page:The Nebraska party s leadership asked Gentry-Tipton to step down Wednesday, several hours after she wrote, in a Facebook thread about the shooting at in Alexandria, Virginia, Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho? House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot in the early morning incident at a Washington, D.C., area baseball field. Four others were shot or injured. The gunman was shot and later died.Messages left Thursday with Gentry-Tipton seeking an interview were not immediately returned.Jane Kleeb, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democrats, said the news media s interest in what amounts to an internal party dispute was troubling and distracted from the more important issue of gun violence. Nonetheless, she confirmed that she and the party s central committee were deeply disappointed in the comments. Anyone who commits violence against anyone is wrong, Kleeb said Thursday. Anyone who makes insensitive comments about gun violence is wrong. For me that s the end of the story. In a separate Facebook post, Gentry-Tipton refused at this point to resign. Via: Omaha World-Herald | 1 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has reservations about granting diplomatic protection to an Iranian-British aid worker jailed in Iran, her husband said on Wednesday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, met Johnson earlier on Wednesday. Ratcliffe said he hoped Johnson, who will travel to Iran within the next few weeks, will bring his wife home in time for Christmas. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters. The Foundation operates independently of Reuters News. | 0 |
Trump lost his marbles on Friday, letting loose on his senior staff over Jeff Sessions recusing himself from any and all Department of Justice investigations into Russia. It s kind of strange the investigations should go forward properly regardless of who s in charge. Or would they? Trump may not have thought so until Sessions recused himself and put Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, an Obama appointee, in charge of those investigations.Boente gives the Senate Judiciary Committee powerful leverage to demand a special prosecutor now, because Trump s nominee for Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, will have his confirmation hearings this month. The Judiciary Committee could press him to commit to appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Trump and Russia before voting to send his confirmation to the full Senate.If they manage to do that, Russia will probably blow up. If they don t manage to do that, it s possible that the Judiciary Committee won t vote to send Rosenstein to the full Senate, which leaves Boente in charge. The kicker is that Boente, as an Obama appointee, is less likely to fall under Trump s influence.There s historical precedence for the Judiciary Committee to demand such a commitment from a nominee of a corrupt president, too. In 1973, during the unfolding Watergate scandal, Nixon nominated his former Secretary of Defense, Elliot Richardson, for Attorney General. The Judiciary Committee not only demanded Richardson commit to a special prosecutor for Watergate, they demanded he name the person he d appoint before they would vote on his confirmation.Richardson did, and both he and his pick, Archibald Cox, were grilled on just how independent Cox would be in pursuing Watergate.Richardson was confirmed, Cox was appointed, and then Nixon began pressuring Richardson to fire Cox because Cox was getting too close to the truth.What happened with Nixon, Richardson, Cox, and the entire Watergate scandal, are why we need a special prosecutor with broad independent authority now. Trump has accused Obama of illegally wiretapping him, yet apparently, the FBI was able to get a FISA warrant for such tapping back in October. That means there are recordings that are not illegal. Those recordings probably contain damning evidence and need to be investigated, if not outright released.Trump s ire suggests that he s terrified of what those recordings, along with other mounting evidence, will reveal. The more damning those recordings, the more he ll play the victim and act like everything would be just fine if Obama s FBI had just left him and his campaign alone.Maybe Trump thought Sessions would prevent all of this. After all, Sessions lied to the Senate about his own contact with Russia while working on Trump s campaign as a top foreign policy adviser. Or maybe he just thought Sessions would resist calls to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the growing Russia scandal and do it himself, under direction from Trump himself.Trump projects endlessly. Every accusation he levels is something of which he, himself, is either guilty or afraid. In this case, it s likely fear. Besides Sessions, disgraced National Security Adviser, General Michael Flynn, lied about contact with Russia. Trump s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was present for some of that. Two of Trump s other campaign advisers, Carter Page and J.D. Gordon, likewise had contact with Russia. Paul Manafort, who had a brief stint as Trump s campaign manager, has business dealings with pro-Russia leaders in Ukraine.And yet, the Trump administration has vehemently denied any contacts with Russia at all during the campaign, while also saying that contact was brief, fleeting, informal, and innocuous. If so, then why lie like this? Trump s frightened as hell right now. A DOJ under an Obama appointee could easily be his undoing, and he knows it.Featured image by Win McNamee via Getty Images | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate negotiators on Wednesday tried to reach a deal to provide more than $1 billion to battle the Zika virus that is feared will creep north into the United States with the onset of warmer weather, which breeds mosquitoes that could carry the disease. Senior Senate Democratic aides said details were still being worked out, but votes could come by next week on whether to approve the new money. In February, President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds, but Republicans balked, with some arguing that $1.1 billion is more in line with what is needed. Many Republicans also want any Zika funds to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. These are among the details that still have to be worked out, according to aides. Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri and Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, the two senior senators on an appropriations panel that oversees healthcare spending, have been trying to hammer out a deal. An aide to Murray said in a statement: “Senator Murray is having conversations with Chairman Blunt and others about the path forward on emergency funding to respond to Zika.” The aide said Murray still supports Obama’s $1.9 billion request. Amid congressional inaction, the Obama administration shifted $589 million to help federal agencies prepare for Zika. Most of that money came from a fund to fight the Ebola virus and will have to be replenished, according to officials. Senator Marco Rubio, however, is one Republican pushing for both immediate, emergency funding and longer-term money to be made available starting on Oct. 1 to battle the disease that can cause severe brain deformities in babies born of infected mothers and other illnesses. “This is going to be an ongoing issue beyond this year,” Rubio said, adding, “We need to jump on it now.” There are fears that Rubio’s home state of Florida could be the first place in the continental United States to get hit hard by Zika because of its tropical climate. “For the first time, I’ve seen high-level conversations about a way forward here in the Senate and that’s a positive development,” Rubio said in a brief hallway interview with Reuters. Republicans in the House of Representatives are still deeply divided over new funding for Zika, according to two senior aides. | 1 |
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Tuesday he would use pickets and petitions to protest last week s presidential poll and convene a People s Assembly to try to improve governance but made no mention of challenging the result. We will guard our right to dissent by exercising it, Odinga said in a long-awaited television address. He emphasized that he wanted to limit his protests to well-recognised, legal avenues. | 1 |
One of the most tedious moments of any presidential campaign is when everyone in the country decides they are better campaign strategists than the professionals. It’s like watching the World Series at a bar full of drunken fans in the losing team’s hometown. They all know more than the experts, or so they think, because they’ve watched a lot of baseball. This time it’s more tiresome than usual because it’s pretty much tied going into the ninth inning, and both team’s supporters are yelling their advice at the TV screen.
In recent days we’ve seen most prescriptions directed at the Hillary Clinton campaign, as the always nervous Democrats are waking up the startling reality that the flamboyant, white nationalist demagogue on the other side might just pull this off. And they have as many different ideas as there were GOP all-stars Donald Trump smoked in the primaries. These range from “She needs to take the fight to Trump and call him out” to “She should attack the Republican officials who endorse him” to “She should stop attacking him and lay out a positive policy agenda so people have a reason to vote for her” — which, to be fair, sounds like a good idea.
But the question is, if someone lays out a positive policy agenda and nobody hears it, did it really happen? Let’s take Wednesday as an example, when Clinton gave a big speech about something that is important to millions of Americans. She went to Orlando, a major city in a crucial swing state, and spoke about disability rights, expressing her plans in terms of American values of equality and inclusiveness. This is the fourth in a series of “Stronger Together” speeches the Democratic nominee has given recently about faith, community service, families and children, designed to display her values and vision for the future and show how her policies will achieve them.
Clinton also published an Op-Ed in the New York Times on Wednesday called “My Plan for Helping America’s Poor,” in which she discussed a comprehensive policy including one modeled on Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan, “directing 10 percent of federal investments to communities where 20 percent of the population has been living below the poverty line for 30 years,” putting “special emphasis on minority communities that have been held back for too long by barriers of systemic racism.”
Did you know about any of that? Has the press asked her questions about those issues in the now-frequent press avails she’s given over the last few weeks? Did you see any of those speeches in their entirety? Probably not. And that’s not the campaign’s fault. I get inundated with notices and press releases from the Clinton campaign, its surrogates and outside groups promoting her public speeches and other appearances. There’s no coverage of this “good news” stuff. Unless she’s thumping Trump the media is basically not interested.
Harvard’s Shorenstein Center has been tracking media coverage throughout this campaign and yesterday released a fascinating study of the four weeks around the political conventions in the middle of the summer. The study’s author, Prof. Thomas E. Patterson, wrote about it for the Los Angeles Times, and its conclusions are depressing. Clinton’s so-called email scandal was the single most important story of that period, and the coverage of it was overwhelmingly negative and without context. In fact all the coverage of Clinton was overwhelmingly negative:
How about her foreign, defense, social or economic policies? Don’t bother looking. Not a single one of Clinton’s policy proposals accounted for even 1 percent of her convention-period coverage; collectively, her policy stands accounted for a mere 4 percent of it. But she might be thankful for that: News reports about her stances were 71 percent negative to 29 percent positive in tone. Trump was quoted more often about her policies than she was. Trump’s claim that Clinton “created ISIS,” for example, got more news attention than her announcement of how she would handle Islamic State. Even with the email story that dominated Clinton coverage, of course, journalists largely failed to provide the context that would allow voters to put the issue into proper perspective. The Shorenstein study was backed up by an ongoing Gallup survey that asks people to give them the first word that comes to their minds when they hear a candidate’s name. Since July 11, the words most commonly cited for Clinton are “email,” “lie,” “health,” “speech,” “scandal” and “foundation.” Trump, by contrast, brought to mind the words “speech,” “president,” “immigration,” “Mexico,” “convention,” “campaign” and “Obama.” As you can see, the Clinton words are loaded with negative judgment. Trump’s, not so much. Clinton has given prepared remarks on 22 occasions since the end of the Democratic convention. Some of these were standard stump speeches, while others were major policy addresses. She has dozens of positive ads running in media markets all over the country. But the only Clinton speech that garnered the full and interested attention of the press corps was her “alt-right” speech in Reno, Nevada, in late August. Almost all her speeches are covered the way the New York Times covered the disability speech on Wednesday: Clinton’s remarks are framed as a political ploy designed to evoke Trump’s ugly comments about a disabled reporter (which she did not discuss in the speech at all.) At the very end of the article, the reporter mentions that “some of [Clinton’s] most affecting moments on the campaign trail” come when she speaks with disabled people and their families, and that she often spontaneously brings up the subject in informal settings. There’s no reason to think she isn’t sincere about the issue, even if the campaign is subtly trying to highlight Trump’s cretinous attitudes by contrast. It’s an old truism that negative campaigning works, so it’s no surprise that Clinton’s campaign would try to leverage Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric against him. But there is plenty of positive material out there as well. It’s just the press isn’t interested, and there isn’t a lot of evidence that the voters are either. This doesn’t seem to be that kind of election. The armchair strategists who think a more positive, uplifting message is what Hillary Clinton needs to put this election away may be right. But the question is whether anyone could hear such a message above the din of cynicism and negativity that characterizes the coverage of this campaign. | 0 |
[LISTEN] Clinton’s Shocking Response To Claim He Slept With Black Beauty Queen
Rascon spoke with Gloria and her daughter, Trina, who were apparently waiting in line to vote early, about what they thought of Trump. Neither of the women had anything negative to say.
“Well, I think Trump is reaching out all citizens, including African-Americans,” Trina said. “He’s trying to address a problem… That’s what a president should do for us. He should reach out and try to help people and address problems that’s going on in our country.”
When asked about how Trump has appealed to blacks by telling them they had nothing to lose by voting for him, Gloria agreed, and said that African-American should not be deceived. Advertisement - story continues below
“Look at the record, look at the promises that have been made over the past from the Democratic Party. We are not voting for a party. We are voting for a man who’s been standing by all citizens ,” she told Soboroff.
“He loves America. That’s what I love about him. We need somebody that loves America. And he also loves all people. All people,” she added.
She also added the there is a deception out there that Trump has no black supporters.
“Wrong! He does,” she concluded. Advertisement - story continues below | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration, like every U.S. administration since 1949, remained committed to the NATO military alliance and security commitments under the treaty, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. “I want our NATO partner to be clear where we stand. This administration, like every single administration Republican or Democratic alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments on the Article 5,” Kerry told a news conference. He was responding to comments by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who told the New York Times that if elected he might abandon NATO’s guarantee that any member, including the United States, would defend the others if they were attacked. | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he had agreed with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to launch a constitutional reform that could change the way Spain s autonomous regions, including Catalonia, are governed. The two leaders agreed that a committee would study the current system of regional autonomy for six months, after which the Spanish parliament would debate constitutional reforms, Sanchez told reporters. He also backed Rajoy s demand that Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont clarify whether he declared independence from Spain and said he would support constitutional measures that may be taken by the Spanish government if Puigdemont failed to reply or said he had declared independence. | 0 |
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer opened a can of worms tonight when he said that the Awan brothers sent sensitive intel to the Muslim Brotherhood As if this case couldn t get more bizarre!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlqiLJVM-soOUR PREVIOUS UPDATE ON THIS BIZARRE CASE: Dem Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Pakistani IT staffer Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles airport while trying to flee the United States. Get the back story from Maria Bartiromo: How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background! If you haven t been following this crazy series of events, we ve got a previous report below to fill you in. Basically, Imran Awan and three Muslim relatives were hired to handle IT for the DNC which gave them access to lots of sensitive information NOT GOOD! The Daily Caller just exclusively reported that Awan attempted to destroy hard drives then desperately tried to retrieve them when they were discovered.GETTING THOSE DESTROYED HARD RIVES BACK:Pakistani-born Imran Awan, long-time right-hand IT aide to the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman, has since desperately tried to get the hard drives back, the individual told The Daily Caller News Foundation s Investigative Group.A high-level congressional source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, confirmed that the FBI has joined what Politico previously described as a Capitol Police criminal probe into serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network by Imran and three of his relatives, who had access to the emails and files of the more than two dozen House Democrats who employed them on a part-time basis.Capitol Police have also seized computer equipment tied to the Florida lawmaker.Awan s younger brothers, Abid and Jamal, his wife, Hina Alvi, and Rao Abbas, Imran s best friend, are also under investigation. There have been no arrests in the case.THIS CASE IS HUGE! MARIA BARTIROMO IS LIVID ABOUT IT:A Pakistani family under criminal investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police (see our previous report below) for abusing their access to the House of Representatives information technology (IT) system may have engaged in myriad other questionable schemes besides allegedly placing ghost employees on the congressional payroll.Imran Awan, his wife Hina, and brothers Abid and Jamal collectively netted more than $4 million in salary as IT administrators for House Democrats between 2009 and 2017. Yet the absence of signs of wealth displayed among them raise questions such as was the money sent overseas or did something other than paychecks motivate their actions?Capitol Police revoked the Awans access to the congressional IT system in February 2017 after a major data breach was detected. Their access had allowed them to read emails and files of dozens of members, including many serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THIS THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS IGNORING THE CRIMINALITY OF THESE BROTHERS:3 MUSLIM BROTHERS Working For Dems In Congress CAUGHT Accessing Unauthorized Top-Secret Government Intel One Has Criminal Background May Have Ties To Muslim Brotherhood [VIDEO]3 Congressional IT employees have been fired for accessing members computer networks without permission. Maria s on the show, knows more about this. Can you fill me in a bit.Here are their names Stuart. let me tell you what the 3 people that were fired on Thursday: Abid, Imran and Jamal Awan. They were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives on Thursday because they accessed Congressmen and Congress people s computer networks unauthorized. At a minimum they were fired. At a minimum we know that they accessed computers unauthorized and they did so in foreign intelligence, foreign affairs and intelligence committees. Okay? So they were getting very important information, government information. They accessed these computers. That is the least of it. There s also some talk that people are looking into what ties they have into terrorism. Are they impacted by the Muslim Brotherhood? Are they a part of the Muslim Brotherhood? One of them has a criminal background!How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background! I hear what you re saying, I mean, these intelligence committees handle our terror strategies right? They got in on Benghazi by the way.Yes, and they also worked for many Democrats in the House. They are thinking that they may be also one of the reasons Debbie Wasserman Schultz got hacked. There s so much more to come on this Stuart, it s an incredible story. I think it s amazing!Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Their salaries and time were shared among dozens of Democratic members, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Despite the generous salaries, the four were involved in multiple suspicious mortgage transfers and a debt-evading bankruptcy. Abid had more than $1 million in debts following a failed business called Cars International that he ran in Falls Church, Va., from November 2009 to September 2010. Business associates said in court documents that Abid had stolen money and vehicles from them.It s unclear how Abid found time to run an automotive business while working full-time for Congress. He had been on the congressional payroll since 2005. A congressional credit union repossessed two of his personal cars before the business folded.Abid filed for bankruptcy in 2012, but somehow managed to keep ownership of two houses while telling the bankruptcy court and creditors that he had no assets with which to pay them. He signed a sworn statement that he and his wife, Natalia Soba, were living apart and needed separate residences. My spouse and I are legally separated under applicable non-bankruptcy law or my spouse and I are living apart other than for the purpose of evading the requirements of 707(b)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, Abid claimed in bankruptcy documents. But both houses had been in the family for years.Abid s record includes numerous driving- and alcohol-related legal problems, including driving with a suspended or revoked license, court records show. He was found guilty of drunk driving a month before he started at the House, and was arrested for public intoxication a month after his first day.A spokesman for Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas told TheDCNF Friday that Jamal s employment with our office has been terminated. Hilarie Chambers, a spokeswoman for Rep. Sandy Levin who employed Abid told TheDCNF that after being notified by the House Administration Committee, this individual was removed from our payroll. We are confident that everything in our office is secure. Not every Democrat is willing to terminate their connection with these four:Some Democrats have not terminated their connection with the four, including Wasserman Schultz, who employs Imran and who resigned from her DNC post last year after a computer hack revealed embarassing emails. Derrick Robinson, spokesman for California Rep. Karen Bass, refused to comment on Alvi s employment status.For entire story: Daily Caller | 0 |
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio traveled to Milwaukee to attend a fundraiser where he delivered a blistering speech attacking Scott Walker and the wealthy. Governor Walker is part of a dangerous breed of Republicans, a group actively working to dismantle the foundation for middle-class life. Now listen, he told attendees, according to the transcript, I m not saying Scott Walker set out to destroy Wisconsin s middle class. But if that were his mission, I can t think of a (darn) thing he d had done differently! It s no wonder why the latest polls show Governor Walker s approval sinking to new lows. The people of Wisconsin can see beyond his pleasant smile and reassuring words. He tries to play the everyman then he stabs the everyman in the back. Mayor de Blasio s event was held at the exclusive and private Milwaukee Athletic Club (pictured above). According to Orbitz:The Milwaukee Athletic Club is a private city club located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee .Built in 1917, the historic club sits on the corner of Broadway and Mason streets. The 12 floors house 17 meeting rooms including the stunning Grand Ballroom, restaurants, bars, 60 hotel rooms, separate athletic facilities for men and women, co-ed fitness studio, pilates studio, yoga studio and babysitting room Swanky!Read more: GATEWAY PUNDIT | 1 |
Sen. Rand Paul ( ) on Friday told Breitbart News that several sources have told him that the Obama administration spied on his presidential campaign. [“We’ve had several people come to us and say that it happened. I don’t have access to that information, but I’ve been very concerned that too many Americans’ information is being culled through without a warrant,” he told Breitbart News. “I don’t have any facts to say it happened,” he said. “But numerous sources are coming to us saying it did happen so I want to search through, find out why I wasn’t notified. Was it on purpose?” “There’s a lot of things to be found out, particularly since we found out that Susan Rice was unmasking people and we need to know was there a political motivation, because one of the real dangers in a free society is if government gets so powerful it’s listening to all of our phone calls, the possibility of extortion, the possibility of blackmail — all of that goes up exponentially,” he said. Earlier in the day, Paul revealed that he had requested information from the White House and the intelligence community on whether he was surveilled by the Obama administration or the intelligence community. I have formally requested from the WH and the Intel Committees info on whether I was surveilled by Obama admin and or the Intel community! — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 5, 2017, In a letter Paul sent to President Trump on April 10, he asked that the administration “promptly investigate” whether his name or the names of other members of Congress, individuals from their staffs or campaigns, were included in queries or searches of database of the intelligence community, or if their identities were unmasked in any intelligence reports or products. Paul said at a CATO Institute speech later that he was sending a new letter Friday morning. “We have several sources telling us that members of the Obama administration were looking at politicians, particularly who were running for office,” he said. Paul said he has never received a “Gates notification,” which Congress is supposed to receive if the intelligence community reveals the identity of a lawmaker in a National Security Agency intercept. He said in the new letter, he is asking specifically whether there was a Gates notification for him. He said he’s heard from people “specific aspects of a private conversation” he had with President Obama. “How’s anybody know that? How did General Flynn’s conversation get reported? They keep using the word incidental. Don’t let that let your guard down. There’s a million Americans having their phone calls recorded incidentally. It’s not just a no big deal to have your phone call recorded,” he said. “Particularly if someone in the intelligence community uses the media to destroy you … As an American citizen, I’m horrified that his private conversation was leaked. Does the president not have any privacy in who he talks to?” Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was forced to step down after a private conversation he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisylak was leaked to the Washington Post. “This is very very worrisome, and what we’ve allowed to happen,” Paul said. Paul was among several Republican members of Congress who ran for president in 2016. The others were Sens. Ted Cruz ( ) Lindsey Graham ( ) and Marco Rubio ( ). Paul’s query comes after news reports revealed last month that former President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice had requested the unmasking of Trump campaign officials. She has not denied doing so, only doing anything illegal or “untoward. ” Rice on Wednesday denied an invite from Graham to appear before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday to testify on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections. Rice’s lawyer said in a letter that Rice declined after the subcommittee’s Democrat ranking member had notified her that he disagreed with the invite. Paul told Breitbart News “I think it’s especially egregious if it’s happening to another branch of government, that one branch of government is spying on the other branch of government and you don’t really have checks and balances. ” “I can’t for the life of me think of any reason why I would be part of an investigation. And it also goes further to prove that maybe we have an intelligence community run amok if they’re looking at political figures, because I had nothing to do with any of the other things,” he added. | 0 |
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow will retaliate if the Unites States take measures to pressure Russian media outlets operating there. In this case we will do it only in kind and quite quickly, as soon as we see steps (to pressure) our media, there will immediately be an answer, Putin said at a forum with scholars. | 1 |
While speaking in front of United States servicemembers at a recent USO event with both President Obama and Vice President Biden, David Letterman made a joke that many of us would really like to be a reality. He played off his age and said that his mind seemed to be playing tricks on him. He claimed that by listening to the two men speak, he thought the president and vice president were running for a third term.Letterman told the USO crowd: I don t know, sometimes the mind plays tricks on a person, especially when you get to be my age. I was listening to the president speak. I was listening to the vice president speak. And, for a split second, my mind said to me, oh, that s nice, they re running again.' Which at first was received by laughter, and then uproarious applause and cheers.And while it s true that President Obama cannot run for a third term, if he could, he would likely win. History will be very kind to Obama as all of his accomplishments make him one of the greatest leaders in the history of the republic.Watch the clip here: USO Crowd Roars As David Letterman Jokes About by DailyPoliticsFeatured image via video screen capture | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have opened a new case against a British-Iranian charity worker serving five years in jail in Tehran, leveling charges that could carry a sentence of 16 additional years in prison, her family said on Monday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guards in April 2016 at a Tehran airport, as she was about to return to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. She was sentenced to five years in prison. In a hearing in Evin Prison, where she is serving her term, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told on Sunday that a new case had been opened at the insistence of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran s most powerful security force, her family said in a statement. The new charges include joining and receiving money from organizations working to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and attending a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London, the family said. Nazanin and the rest of her family are bewildered at this turn, the family statement said. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said the Revolutionary Guards were inventing new charges to prevent her early release . Iran s judiciary was not immediately available for comment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to work in London for the BBC, which Iran says is seeking to topple the Islamic theocracy. During Sunday s hearing she rejected all the new charges, the family said. Iran refuses to recognize dual nationals and denies them access to consular assistance. On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Britain s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said progress in the relationship between London and Tehran would depend to some extent on a resolution of the Nazanin case. | 1 |
The United States will deploy about 6, 000 American soldiers to Europe and Afghanistan, according to the U. S. Army. [On Thursday, the largest branch of the U. S. armed forces announced that an estimated 4, 000 soldiers from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, will be sent to Europe beginning this fall in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. The offensive refers to ongoing operations aimed at reassuring NATO allies concerned about Russia’s intentions in Eastern Europe. In a statement, Col. David Gardner, commander of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, noted, “The Dagger Brigade is looking forward to deploying back to Europe. The brigade has served most of its history in support of our European allies and will arrive after a year of training ready to do so again. ” Moreover, the Army announced Thursday that 1, 500 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will deploy to Afghanistan this summer in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, the name for the U. S. mission in the country. “Since spearheading allied assaults in Sicily and Anzio in 1943, the Devil Brigade has accomplished its missions through disciplined initiative,” said Col. Toby Magsig, commander of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, in a statement. “The same endures today. The ‘Devils in Baggy Pants’ are and ready to assist our Afghan partners as part of the Resolute Support mission. ” The Army also revealed that another 200 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia, will be sent to the war zone in Afghanistan this summer in support of Freedom’s Sentinel. “The Marne Division is trained and ready to deploy in support of this important mission,” said Maj. Gen. James Rainey, commander of 3rd Infantry Division, in a statement. “The number one priority at the 3rd Infantry Division is readiness, and I am confident our soldiers are ready to serve our nation’s call. ” The U. S. Army announced the upcoming deployments to Afghanistan on the same day that Bill Roggio, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and editor of the Long War Journal, told American lawmakers that America is “losing in Afghanistan. ” He added that despite the more than U. S. military effort against and its Taliban ally, the two terrorist groups are growing stronger and remain a threat to America’s national security. The Islamic State ( ) has also established a branch in the country, but the Taliban and remain a bigger threat, noted the FDD expert. An estimated 300 U. S. Marines were recently deployed to the Taliban stronghold in the southern Afghanistan province located along the Pakistan border, Helmand, one of the deadliest regions of the ongoing war for coalition forces. Prior to the recent Marine deployment, there were an estimated 8, 300 U. S. forces serving in Afghanistan. | 0 |
Dr. Duke and Reverend Dankof on the state of the campaign, the Synagogue of Satin 21 am
Dr. Duke and Reverend Dankof on the state of the campaign, the Synagogue of Satin
Today Dr. Duke discussed the state of his campaign, including television commercials that he was preparing. He will be in a televised debate with the other leading candidates, which should be critical in putting him in the run off.
Pastor Mark Dankof took over the show at the break. He took calls from listeners. One call asked about Jesus’s warning about the Synagogue of Satin. Pastor Dankof ended the show with a passionate warning about the risk of World War III should Hillary be elections.
This is another great show that you won’t want to miss. | 1 |
21st Century Wire says Why shouldn t borders be protected? It is a fair question Tucker is asking Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels (pro-immigration advocate group) in a recent discussion about President Trump s 10 point immigration plan.Morones was quick to call Trump s position on illegal immigration racist and xenophobic yet seemed to have no knowledge that the policies of Mexico are much more harsh with regard to illegal immigration. In Mexico illegal immigration is a felony, illegal immigrants can face deportations (based even on financial viability, physical and mental health) and up to 10 years in prison for repeat offenders. Tucker also points out that Mexico only allows 4% of their applicants clemency whereas the US grants 49% and Morones again seems completely unaware of the facts being presented.Certainly it is a sensitive topic that should be open for debate by all citizens but the critical thinkers out there are likely wondering Are Morones and many of those on the left confusing the difference between enforcing legal US immigration policies and acts of hatred? Why does he not hold Mexico to the same standard as the US? Watch the interview below and you decide.https://youtu.be/K_llng4kFokREAD MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has invited Judge Merrick Garland to breakfast, but absent from the menu will be any promise of hearings on President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. A spokeswoman for Grassley said that the Republican senator spoke with Garland late on Monday and extended the invitation “where they could discuss the nomination and why the Senate will not consider a nominee until the next president takes office.” The Senate Judiciary Committee is in charge of holding hearings on Supreme Court nominees chosen by the president and deciding whether to recommend full Senate confirmation. Most of the Senate’s 54 Republicans have indicated opposition to confirming any high-court nominee of Obama’s, saying the choice should be made by the next president, who would be elected on Nov. 8 and sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. Despite the wall of Republican opposition to Garland, who is considered a moderate federal appeals court judge, Obama and his fellow Democrats continue to push for Senate confirmation this year. Garland already has made several “courtesy calls” to senators, mostly Democrats, and will continue his visits to Capitol Hill this week. If he were to be confirmed, Garland - nominated to fill the vacancy created by the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia - would tilt the Supreme Court to the left for the first time in decades. The race for a replacement for Obama, who is completing his second and final term as president, is in full swing now with billionaire businessman Donald Trump leading two other Republican candidates and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. But it could be weeks or months before the two political parties settle on their respective candidates. A date for the breakfast meeting has not yet been set, Grassley’s spokeswoman said. | 1 |
The entire nation is now waiting with bated breath for fired FBI Director James Comey to testify in open session Congress in what might be the biggest political event since election night. That will not take place until Thursday, and in the meantime, bombshells keep dropping from the White House especially on the subject of just how troubled Comey was by Trump s behavior. In fact, it seems that Comey was so uneasy that he actually told Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump.The New York Times is reporting that Trump s inappropriate requests for Comey and the FBI to drop certain elements of the Russian hacking investigations made him uncomfortable enough that he went to Sessions and told him that he and his agency needed him to be a firewall of protection from investigation meddling from the West Wing of the White House. Comey, however, never told Sessions specific details of just what had him so worried when it came to Trump; after all, Sessions and Trump are notoriously close, and it is not a certainty that Sessions is completely trustworthy in these matters, either.When asked about these conversations with the now-former FBI Director, the Department of Justice only said: The attorney general doesn t believe it s appropriate to respond to media inquiries on matters that may be related to ongoing investigations. So, in other words, there s no denial here that these conversations took place. This is quite a development, considering that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was so deeply concerned about the behavior of the nation s chief executive that he simply could not bring himself to be alone in a room with him.Trump s problematic behavior causes Obama Justice Department Official Matthew S. Axelrod to weigh in. He said: You have the president of the United States talking to the director of the F.B.I., not just about any criminal investigation, but one involving his presidential campaign. That is such a sharp departure from all the past traditions and rules of the road. Indeed, if this behavior is not illegal, it is, at the very least, wildly inappropriate and unethical. Thursday should be a goldmine of new revelations from Comey. Hopefully, said revelations get us at least a step or two closer to being rid of this Trumpster fire of an administration. Here is video reporting of these revelations, via the New York Times:Featured image via screen capture from the New York Times | 1 |
Twenty Years of a Dictatorial Democracy By James Bovard
" Washington Times " - The 2016 election campaign is mortifying millions of Americans in part because the presidency has become far more dangerous in recent times. Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have lived in a perpetual emergency, which supposedly justifies routinely ignoring the law and Constitution. And both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have signaled that power grabs will proliferate in the next four years.
Politicians talk as if voting magically protects the rights of everyone within a 50-mile radius of the polling booth. But the ballots Americans have cast in presidential elections since 2000 did nothing to constrain the commander in chief.
President George W. Bushs declaration in 2000 that America needed a more humble foreign policy did not deter him from vowing to rid the world of evil and launching the most catastrophic war in American history. Eight years later, Barack Obama campaigned as the candidate of peace and promised a new birth of freedom. But that did not stop him from bombing seven nations, claiming a right to assassinate American citizens, and championing Orwellian total surveillance.
Mr. Bush was famous for signing statements decrees that nullified hundreds of provisions of laws enacted by Congress. President Obama is renowned for unilaterally and endlessly rewriting laws such as the Affordable Care Act to postpone political backlashes against the Democratic Party and for effectively waiving federal immigration law. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama exploited the state secrets doctrine to shield their most controversial policies from the American public.
While many conservatives applauded Mr. Bushs power grabs, many liberals cheered Mr. Obamas decrees. After 16 years of Bush-Obama, the federal government is far more arbitrary and lethal. Richard Nixons maxim its not illegal if the president does it is the lodestar for commanders in chief in the new century.
There is no reason to expect the next president to be less power hungry than the last two White House occupants. Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton can be expected to trample the First Amendment. Mr. Trump has talked of shutting down mosques and changing libel laws to make it far more perilous for the media to reveal abuses by the nations elite. Mrs. Clinton was in the forefront of an administration that broke all records for prosecuting leakers and journalists who exposed government abuses. She could smash the remnants of the Freedom of Information Act like her aides hammered her Blackberry phones to obliterate her email trail.
Neither candidate seems to recognize any limit on presidential power. Mr. Trump calls for reviving the brutal interrogation methods of the George W. Bush era. Mrs. Clinton opposes torture but believes presidents have a right to launch wars whenever they decide it is in the national interest. After Mrs. Clinton helped persuade Mr. Obama to bomb Libya in 2011, she signaled that the administration would scorn any congressional cease-and-desist order under the War Powers Act.
If Americans could be confident that either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton would be leashed by the law, there would be less dread about who wins in November. But elections are becoming simply coronations via vote counts. The president will take an oath of office on Inauguration Day, but then can do as he or she pleases.
We now have a political system which is nominally democratic but increasingly authoritarian. The rule oflLaw has been defined down to finding a single federal lawyer to write a secret memo vindicating the presidents latest unpublished executive order.
By the end of the next presidential term, America will have had almost a 20-year stretch of dictatorial democracy. Our rulers disdain for the highest law of the land is torpedoing the citizenrys faith in representative government. Forty percent of registered voters have lost faith in American democracy, according to recent Survey Monkey poll.
The United States may be on the verge of the biggest legitimacy crisis since the Civil War. Whoever wins on Nov. 8 will be profoundly distrusted even before being sworn in. The combination of a widely detested new president and unrestrained power almost guarantees greater crises in the coming years.
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mrs. Clinton are promising to make America constitutional again. But as Thomas Jefferson declared in 1786, An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. If presidents are lawless, then voters are merely designating the most dangerous criminal in the land.
James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy (Palgrave, 2006) and Lost Rights (St. Martins, 1994). | 1 |
A poll released Wednesday found that 83 percent of Trump voters believe the media is hostile towards them — with 60 percent saying the media is “enemies to people like” them. [The Huffington Post reports that’s an uptick from February, when 51 percent of Trump voters thought the media is “an enemy to people like you. ” Well over half, or 68 percent, of Hillary Clinton voters say media are an “ally” or friendly to people like them. ( ) Men are more likely to see the press as hostile to them, with nearly half, or 49 percent, saying media is unfriendly or “enemies” to people like them, including 28 percent who agreed media outlets were “enemies to people like you. ” Forty percent of women also saw the media as biased against them. Over half, or 57 percent, of Americans aged 65 and older, said the media is “unfriendly to people like you” or “enemies to people like you,” as did 35 percent of respondents between 18 and 29. Black respondents had a more positive view of media: 45 percent believed the media were allies to or friendly to people like them, compared to 26 percent who said the media is “unfriendly to people like you” or “enemies to people like you. ” Half, or 50 percent, of white respondents thought the media was unfriendly or outright enemies of people like them, while 29 percent viewed media as friendly or allies. Only 18 percent of Hispanic respondents thought the media was positively inclined towards them, while 39 percent thought the opposite, and 43 percent were unsure. Only 12 percent of Republicans saw the media as friendly towards them, while 44 percent believed the press was an enemy and 68 percent said the press was opposed to them overall. Meanwhile, 60 percent of Democrats thought media was “friendly to people like you” or “allies to people like you. ” Only seven percent thought the press was an enemy. Overall, 25 percent of respondents said media were “enemies to people like” them, while another 19 percent said they were “unfriendly,” for a total of 44 percent who believed the media was hostile towards them. Only 30 percent said media were friendly to or allies of people like them. ( ) Coverage of Trump’s brief time in office has been relentlessly hostile. A Media Research Center (MRC) study released in early March found 88 percent of Trump administration coverage from ABC, CBS, and NBC was negative, with “anchors and reporters often [injecting] their own editorial tone into the coverage. ” A study released by by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center in May found 93 percent of CNN and NBC’s coverage of the president was negative, as well as 52 percent of Fox News’ coverage and 70 percent of the Wall Street Journal‘s: “Trump has received unsparing coverage for most weeks of his presidency, without a single major topic where Trump’s coverage, on balance, was more positive than negative, setting a new standard for unfavorable press coverage of a president. ” As Breitbart Senior Large Joel Pollak reports: “The media, furious that Trump defied them by winning the election, denied him any semblance of a ‘honeymoon’ in office … Trump has never been given the same chance — or any chance — to carry out his agenda. And for months, Trump voters have watched the media fawning over the hysterical opposition, praising the ‘pussyhat’ protesters and downplaying the extremists in their ranks. ” Trump has frequently bashed the “fake news media” for attacking him and allegedly fabricating sources to damage his agenda on Twitter. I win an election easily, a great ”movement” is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017, Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017, Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2017, Whenever you see the words ’sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names … . — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017, … . it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017, It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017, The Fake News Media works hard at disparaging demeaning my use of social media because they don’t want America to hear the real story! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2017, Pollsters questioned 1, 000 U. S. citizens from May 26 to May 27. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3. 9 percentage points. | 0 |
An already ugly presidential campaign has descended to a new level — one where the question is no longer whether Donald Trump can be stopped on his march to the Republican presidential nomination, but whether it is possible to contain what he has unleashed across the country.
Violence at Trump’s rallies has escalated sharply, and the reality-show quality of his campaign has taken a more ominous turn in the past few days. On Saturday, a man charged the stage in Dayton, Ohio, and a swarm of Secret Service agents surrounded the GOP front-runner.
Later Saturday at a Trump rally in Kansas City, the candidate was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, who were then removed from the venue. Outside the rally, police said they used pepper spray to control crowds. Kansas City police said that two protesters were arrested.
The racially tinged anger that has both fueled Trump’s political rise and stoked the opposition to it has turned into a force unto itself. It has also brought a reckoning from his three remaining rivals for the Republican nomination, who are shedding their fear of provoking Trump and of alienating the raging slice of their party’s base that has claimed him as its leader.
But Trump should not be viewed in isolation or as the product of a single election, President Obama said Saturday at a fundraiser in Dallas.
Obama said those who “feed suspicion about immigrants and Muslims and poor people, and people who aren’t like ‘us,’ and say that the reason that America is in decline is because of ‘those’ people. That didn’t just happen last week. That narrative has been promoted now for years.”
This year’s presidential campaign, however, seems to have fallen into a bottomless spiral.
A low point came Friday night. Where Trump has delighted in mocking hecklers — and condoning attacks on them by his supporters — he was forced to cancel a rally at the last minute after protesters turned up by the thousands. That set off a chaotic scene in the arena at the University of Illinois at Chicago that left a handful injured and thousands agitated.
[Campaign 2016 is on a dangerous descent]
Trump’s continued domination of the GOP race suggests that there are no guardrails left in politics. Party elders and his opponents assumed that at some point, he would self-destruct. But he has defied just about every norm, and it has redounded to his benefit.
His candidacy and the sentiment it provokes have also stirred disturbing historical comparisons.
GOP political consultant Stuart Stevens, who was a top strategist for 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, said Trump’s rhetoric is “almost verbatim” what segregationist George Wallace was saying in his third-party 1968 presidential campaign.
“I don’t know what’s in Trump’s heart, but I don’t care. What he’s saying is really hateful,” Stevens said. “What did the Democratic Party do with Wallace? They rejected him.”
Some on the right accused the anti-Trump forces who shut down the rally in Chicago of being the true culprits, who denied the GOP front-runner an opportunity to exercise his constitutional right to free speech.
“It’s sad, number one, that you have protesters that resort to violence, that resort to threats of violence that resort to yelling and screaming and disruption to silence speech that they don’t like,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is running a distant second to Trump in the GOP primaries.
But Trump’s Republican opponents — all of whom have pledged to support Trump if he gets the nomination — said that the New York billionaire cannot be held blameless.
“I think it is also true that any campaign, responsibility begins and ends at the top,” Cruz said.
“Look at the rhetoric of the front-runner in the presidential campaign,” Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Saturday. “This is a man who at rallies has told his supporters to basically beat up the people who are in the crowd and he’ll pay their legal fees. Someone who’s basically encouraged the people in the audience to rough up anyone who stands up and says something he doesn’t like.
“I still at this moment continue to intend to support the Republican nominee, but it’s getting harder every day.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich condemned Trump for creating a “toxic environment” that has led supporters and protesters to “come together in violence,” but he, too, stopped short of saying he would not support his Republican rival if Trump secures the party’s presidential nomination.
Their increasingly pointed criticism of Trump comes at a crucial moment in the GOP race, with primaries being held Tuesday in five states that could either propel Trump to the nomination or give life to the effort to stop him.
Most closely watched will be Florida and Ohio, which are considered must-wins for home-state candidates Rubio and Kasich. And for the first time in this electoral season, delegates will be awarded on a winner-take-all basis, which means that victories by Trump would accelerate his efforts to secure the nomination.
Trump has won GOP contests in 15 states, accumulating an estimated 458 Republican delegates of the 1,237 he needs.
On Thursday, the candidates held their final debate before the next round of primaries, and they managed to remain civil to one another and focused on their substantive differences.
During the debate, Trump was asked about an incident in which a supporter at a rally in Fayetteville, N.C., punched a protester.
“There is some anger. There’s also great love for the country. It’s a beautiful thing in many respects. But I certainly do not condone that at all,” Trump said.
Now, the outbreak of violence in Chicago had again drawn focus to Trump’s temperament and character, as well as whether he has played a role in inciting his supporters.
[After months of playing protesters to his advantage, Donald Trump is overpowered in Chicago]
For months, Trump has been able to control — and even employ as foils — the hundreds of protesters who show up to his rallies to oppose what they consider divisive and racist.
Trump often says that he loves having protesters at his rallies, that they make his rallies fun. Plus, the interruptions are an opportunity to show him bossing around and mocking liberals, often bellowing, “Get ’em out!”
In the past two weeks, however, these interruptions have increasingly eaten into Trump’s speaking time and become more violent. The Trump supporter who punched the protester in North Carolina was charged with assault.
Asked about the criticism from other Republican candidates following the Chicago cancellation, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski mocked them: “Do they have protesters at their events? Do they have any people at their events?”
Lewandowski — who has been accused of and denies manhandling a female reporter at a Trump event — also said his candidate does not plan to do anything to calm his supporters.
“The American people are angry,” Lewandowski said. “They’re upset at the way this country has been run. They’re upset that this country is being taken advantage of by every other country in the world. And they’re tired of not being proud to be Americans.”
As for Trump, he insisted that his supporters had been blameless in Chicago. He accused backers of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator and democratic socialist, of inciting the violence.
“My people are nice,” Trump said at his rally in Dayton. “Thousands and thousands of people, they caused no problem. They were taunted, they were harassed by these other people. These other people, by the way, some represent Bernie, our communist. . . . He should really get up and say to his people: ‘Stop. Stop.’ ”
Sanders retorted in a statement issued by his campaign: “As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar. Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests.”
“What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama,” Sanders added, referring to Trump’s false assertions that Obama was born in Africa and was therefore disqualified to be president.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton also jumped into the fray.
“The ugly, divisive rhetoric we are hearing from Donald Trump and the encouragement of violence and aggression is wrong, and it’s dangerous,” she said at an appearance in St. Louis. “If you play with matches, you’re going to start a fire you can’t control.”
The decision to cancel the rally on Friday was made by the Trump campaign, not the agencies charged with keeping him safe.
Trump requested Secret Service protection in October and was granted a detail of agents in early November.
Government officials have said their role is only to protect Trump and that any decisions to throw out the hecklers and protesters at Trump rallies are made by the campaign or groups hosting the events. Secret Service agents intervene only, officials have said, if someone verbally or physically threatens the candidate.
After the man tried to breach the barricades around Trump on Saturday, he was charged with disorderly conduct and inciting panic by the Dayton police, according to an official familiar with the matter. Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer identified the man as Thomas Dimassimo of Fairborn, Ohio, the Associated Press reported.
“I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it, don’t we agree?” Trump said after the man was hauled away. “And to think I had such an easy life! What do I need this for, right?”
Tumulty reported from Washington. Johnson reported from Chicago and DelReal from Dayton. Also contributing to this story were Ed O’Keefe in Largo, Fla.; Abby Phillip in St. Louis; Philip Rucker in Cleveland; Jim Tankersley in Sharonville, Ohio; Juliet Eilperin and David Weigel in Washington; and Katie Zezima in Ballwin, Mo. | 0 |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi defended the role of an Iranian-backed paramilitary force at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday in Baghdad. Tillerson arrived on Monday hours after the Iraqi government rejected his call to send home the Popular Mobilisation, an Iran-backed force that helped defeat Islamic State and capture the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk. In his opening remarks at the meeting with Tillerson, Abadi said Popular Mobilisation is part of the Iraqi institutions, rejecting accusations that it is acting as an Iranian proxy. Popular Mobilisation fighters should be encouraged because they will be the hope of country and the region, he added. Iraq is one of the few countries allied closely to both the United States and Iran, and Tillerson s effort to drive a wedge between Baghdad and Tehran appeared to have backfired, drawing a sharp statement from the prime minister s office. Tillerson visited Iraq a day after a rare joint meeting with Abadi and Saudi Arabia s King Salman in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After that meeting, he called on Iraq to halt the work of the Tehran-backed paramilitary units, which have operated alongside government troops in battles against Islamic State and, since last week, in a lightning advance that seized the oil city of Kirkuk from Kurdish security forces. At his meeting with Abadi in Baghdad, Tillerson urged the Iraqi government and Masoud Barzani s Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil to resolve their conflict on Kurdish self-determination and disputed territories through dialogue. We are concerned and a bit sad, Tillerson said. We have friends in Baghdad and friends in Erbil, and we encourage all parties to enter into discussion ... and all differences can be addressed. Iraqi forces are deploying tanks and artillery just south of a Kurdish-operated oil pipeline that crosses into Turkey, a Kurdish security official said, the latest in a series of Iranian-backed operations against the Kurds. Iranian militias that are in Iraq, now that the fight against Daesh and ISIS is coming to a close, those militias need to go home, Tillerson said on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. Abadi s office responded sharply. No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters, a statement from his office read. It did not cite the prime minister himself but a source close to him. It referred to the mainly Shi ite Popular Mobilisation as patriots . One of the closest groups to Iran within Popular Mobilisation, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, reacted to Tillerson s comment by saying it would be Americans who will be forced to leave Iraq. Your forces should get ready to get out of our country once the excuse of Daesh s presence is over, said Asaib s leader, Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, according to the group s TV channel, al-Aahd. The international battle against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq since 2014 saw the United States and Iran effectively fighting on the same side, with both supporting the Iraqi government against the militants. Washington has 5,000 troops in Iraq and provided air support, training and weapons to Iraqi government forces. At the same time, Iran armed, trained and advised Shi ite paramilitaries that often fought alongside the army. The latest twist in the Iraq conflict, pitting the central government against the Kurds, is trickier for U.S. policymakers. Washington still supports the central government but has also been allied to the Kurds for decades. Iran is the pre-eminent Shi ite power in the Middle East. Shi ites, including Abadi, are the majority in Iraq, but it also has large Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities. In the campaign for the Kurdish referendum, Iran backed the government against the Kurds. Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Tillerson s remarks. The paramilitaries could not go home because they are at home already, he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. Abadi has asserted his authority with the defeat of Islamic State in Mosul and the Iraqi army s sweep through Kirkuk and other areas that were held by the Kurds. The buildup at the Kurdish oil export pipeline is taking place northwest of Mosul, an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government s security council said. The loss of Kirkuk dealt a major blow to the Kurds, who had been steadily building an autonomous region in northern Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, who oppressed them for decades. We are concerned about continued military build-up of Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces towards the Kurdistan Region, said the Kurdistan Region Security Council in a statement. Elections for the Iraqi Kurdistan region s presidency and parliament set for Nov. 1 will be delayed because political parties failed to present candidates, the head of the electoral commission, Hendrean Mohammed, told Reuters. Parties have been unable to focus on the elections in the turmoil that followed the referendum, a Kurdish lawmaker said on condition of anonymity. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Wednesday the panel should hold hearings on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch but that Democrats would seek a 60-vote threshold for his confirmation in the full Senate. President Donald Trump announced his nomination of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Gorsuch on Tuesday night to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last year. The seat has remained vacant for nearly a year because Republicans refused to consider former President Barack Obama’s nominee. | 0 |
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa said late on Thursday he had been hospitalized in August because he had been poisoned, raising the political temperature in the fight to succeed 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief nicknamed the Crocodile , is the leading candidate to succeed Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980. He did not say who he believed was responsible for trying to kill him, and his main rival for the top job, First Lady Grace Mugabe, swiftly denied having anything to do with it. Hours earlier, she told a public gathering at a nearby hotel on Thursday night that Mnangagwa and his allies were plotting a power grab that was tantamount to a coup, according to an audio recording of her speech. Mnangagwa was airlifted to Johannesburg after falling ill in August. At a news conference late on Thursday open only to state media, he said doctors had concluded that poisoning was to blame for his illness, and not inadvertent food poisoning. The medical doctors who attended to me ruled out food poisoning but confirmed that indeed poisoning had occurred and investigations were in progress, Mnangagwa said, reading from a statement. He provided no further details or proof. Mnangagwa, 75, became vice-president in 2014, putting him at the front of the pack to succeed Mugabe. However over the last 18 months he has met fierce opposition from Grace and a faction of the ruling party backing her. The first lady denied having anything to do with his illness and accused him of lying about it to get public sympathy. Why should I kill Mnangagwa? Who is Mnangagwa on this earth? Grace Mugabe said in footage aired on Friday on state television. Killing someone who was given a job by my husband? That is nonsensical. Veterans of Zimbabwe s 1970s independence war have publicly backed Mnangagwa to step into Mugabe s shoes and last year described the nonagenarian ruler as a dictator, a jolting rebuke that laid bare the fissures within the ruling ZANU-PF party. In her hotel address on Thursday evening, Grace said Mnangagwa was plotting to force ZANU-PF to support him as Mugabe s successor - a scheme she said must be resisted. We are being threatened day and night that if this one does not become president, we will kill you, she said without stating the origin of the threats. No, we will not bow down to that pressure, never. You will have to arrest all of us and throw us in prison before you can rule. According to a trove of hundreds of documents from inside Zimbabwe s Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) reviewed by Reuters in September, Mnangagwa and other political players have been positioning themselves for the day Mugabe either steps down or dies, with the tacit backing of some of Zimbabwe s military and former colonial power Britain. The ruling party s next leadership congress is due in 2019 and Mugabe, who plans to context next year s elections, has said he is staying put for now. | 1 |
When getting to the truth behind Donald Trump s scandals, there s probably nothing more revealing than Trump s Twitter history and his erratic behavior. Time and time again, we ve seen that when Trump s scandals begin to close in on him, he just gets crazier and does whatever he can to distract from the situation. And if his public behavior wasn t concerning enough, what Trump does behind the closed doors of the White House is even worse.According to a new report from Politico, Trump can t even act like a mature grown up when he watches television and sees segments about his Russia scandal. Behaving more like an old bitter retiree than the sitting President of the United States, Trump apparently can t contain himself and resorts to yelling at the television.Politico states that two advisers said that Trump would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe into his Russia investigation. Because that s not incriminating or weird at all, right?Honestly, the best thing Trump could do for his scandals and public image is to just stay the hell away from social media and cable TV but we all know that Trump can t do that. And as long as Trump lacks the self control to manage his emotions or the insane amount of television and social media he consumes, these outbursts are going to get him in even more trouble.This information from Trump s advisers shows that Trump will do anything to make this scandal go away to the degree that he has to scream at televisions to vent his anger. This kind of uncontrollable rage is exactly what the majority of Americans who voted against Trump were afraid of a man this unhinged should never have access to nuclear codes. With any luck, Trump s scandals will be his downfall and we won t have to deal with him much longer.Featured image via Mark Wilson / Getty Images | 0 |
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak congratulated U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying the Republican victor had appealed to Americans who wanted to see the United States less embroiled in intervention abroad. “His appeal to Americans who have been left behind – those who want to see their government more focused on their interests and welfare, and less embroiled in foreign interventions that proved to be against US interests – have won Mr Trump the White House,” Najib said in a statement. Najib said he looked forward to continuing a partnership with the United States under Trump’s presidency. | 1 |
Outsourcing firms, which supply major U. S. companies with thousands of foreign workers, are being by the Trump White House. [During a White House briefing on the issue of the visa, where some 650, 000 foreign workers are in the U. S. at any given moment, specifically mentioned three outsourcing firms that are working to replace Americans with foreign labor: Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant. “Just to illustrate a little bit more how the lottery works — so some companies oftentimes are called outsourcing firms,” the White House briefing statement reads. “You may know their names well, but like the top recipients of the visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, Cognizant — they will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle, if you will, and then they’ll get the lion’s share of visas” the statement continues. “Which is very different than I think how most people think of the program — they imagine it for more — being for — again, they would think of it as being for skilled domestic work, rather than contract work. ” “And those three companies are companies that have an average wage for H1B visas between $60, 000 and $65, 000,” the statement read. “By contrast, the median Silicon Valley software engineer’s wage is probably around $150, 000. ” The White House briefing went on to call out the abuses associated with the visa program, where companies like MassMutual Insurance hires Cognizant to fire hundreds of their American employees to hire cheaper, foreign workers to do their jobs. “And you’ve seen some of these examples where you have career employees at a company who have been working there for 10, 20 years, and then they get laid off and they hire a contracting firm using H1B workers at much less pay,” the statement said. “And again, this is an issue that labor unions have called attention to for a long time. ” The White House also mentioned that reforms of the visa and other foreign guest worker visa programs must be accomplished through rulemaking, executive orders, and Congress. Attorney John Miano, who the exposé Sold Out with Michelle Malkin, told Breitbart Texas that the move by the Trump Administration is a step in the right direction, but said it was not the to reform. “It’s a step in the right direction that they’re calling attention to problems in the program. You can’t criticize them for doing that,” Miano said. This year alone, Infosys, Tata Consulting Service, and Cognizant asked for a combined total of almost 44, 000 visas, something Miano says is a misuse of what the program was intended for. “One of the things is that we have this whole business of importing labor to fill jobs,” Miano told Breitbart Texas. “If this was supposed to be for jobs that Americans can’t fill, then this whole system of contract labor should not exist in . A lot of companies are doing this. It’s becoming labor brokerage. ” While the Trump Administration issued an executive order demanding a legal review by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department into abuses by visa program, as Breitbart News reported, Miano says more must be done. “In reality, you have to tackle them by going through the regulations. They’re hundreds of pages long. It takes an army of lawyers,” Miano said. “The big problems in this program, the President doesn’t have the power to fix, a lot of this has to be done by Congress. ” John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has begun circulating long-awaited draft legislation that would give federal judges clear authority to order technology companies like Apple to help law enforcement officials access encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The proposal from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not spell out how companies must provide access or the circumstances under which they could be ordered to help. It also does not create specific penalties for noncompliance, leaving that determination to judges, the sources said. Previous legislative efforts have focused on requiring technology products to have a built-in “back door” for law enforcement. The latest approach would not mandate any specific technology, but rather would require companies to figure out how to access the data. Congress has tried and failed for years to pass legislation that could prevent criminals and spies from “going dark,” or hiding from law enforcement by using encrypted computer and communications services. The latest effort died when the Obama administration signaled last fall that it would not support it. But Apple’s high-profile showdown with the government over a federal magistrate judge’s order that it unlock an iPhone connected to the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, has reopened the debate. Apple and the Justice Department are set to face off in court on Tuesday. “The going-dark issue has been gathering momentum (in Congress) like a train coming down the tracks, but it still seemed for a while like it was going to be a long time before it got to the station,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters in an interview. “But it arrived with a fury with this lawsuit.” Apple and many of its allies argue that the court is over-reaching its authority in the San Bernardino case and that Congress should ultimately resolve the encryption debate. President Obama warned a tech conference earlier this month against “fetishizing” phones and made it clear that he supports law enforcement efforts to gain access to encrypted information. Administration officials have reviewed the legislation from Burr and Feinstein and offered suggested edits, the sources said, signaling that the White House may now be more open to a legislative approach. Still, the Burr-Feinstein effort is expected to face a steep climb in a gridlocked Congress wary about tackling such a complex and controversial issue during an election year. “We have previously been quite skeptical of legislative handling of this particular matter,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters last month after the Apple case began. “I don’t know at this point whether or not (conversations with lawmakers) will result in a piece of legislation that we will embrace.” In an attempt to break the congressional stalemate on encryption, Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation earlier this month to form a national encryption commission to further study the issue. That effort has been criticized by some privacy advocates who believe its composition would be skewed to favor law enforcement. Others have complained that it would give Congress an excuse to continue postponing action on encryption. | 1 |
Donald Trump has a go-to response whenever someone asks whether the angry impulsiveness he displays on the campaign trail befits a U.S. president — whether voters should trust him with his “finger on the trigger,” as the question is often phrased.
He opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
That’s always his answer. And it proves, according to Trump, that behind the bluster is a man of sober judgment who won’t rush the country into a war it will come to regret.
The problem with Trump’s logic is that, in 2002 — before the invasion — he actually said he favored going into Iraq. We learned this Thursday night when BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski dug up an old interview Trump gave to shock jock Howard Stern, of all people.
In the interview, which took place on Sept. 11, 2002, Stern asked Trump directly if he was for invading Iraq.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
This is a good get. It shows that, once again, Trump is selling revisionist history to his backers.
But it’s also probably unlikely to change the minds of many people. The GOP front-runner has said that he was against the invasion so many times over the course of months that it is cemented as truth for those who support him. Until Thursday night, there hadn't been much reason to doubt Trump's version of events, because there had been scant evidence to contradict him.
And even now, it's likely Trump backers will look at this comment and think, He was put on the spot and didn't give a strong answer; maybe he hadn't thought it through yet and maybe he came to oppose it later.
This what Trump does. He strategically picks claims that are difficult to fact-check. In this case, it took months for someone to find the interview with Stern, which — having been conducted outside the mainstream news media — was tucked away in a place that journalists wouldn’t immediately think to look.
BuzzFeed appears to have been on the case for a while. In September, after Trump said during a debate that he was the “only person up here that fought against going into Iraq,” Kaczynski wrote that “there’s no record of Donald Trump being against the Iraq War before it started.”
True enough. But finding “no record” isn’t the same as finding proof to the contrary, which BuzzFeed didn’t turn up until Thursday. Others have tried to fact-check Trump’s Iraq invasion opposition, too, but they always seemed to be groping around for a way to prove a negative — that the Manhattan billionaire didn’t state his anti-war position as “loud and clear” as he claims today.
Proving a negative is always difficult and often unconvincing. There’s always a chance that you’ll miss something.
That’s what happened in November when the media tried to debunk Trump’s assertion that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The media was left to prove that something Trump says happened didn’t happen. Reporters did their best, but all Trump needed to vindicate himself among supporters was to turn up a few clips talking about small groups of celebrating Muslims.
It didn’t matter then that Trump’s original claim about 9/11 was a wild exaggeration. And it almost surely won’t matter now that his supposed opposition to the Iraq invasion appears to be revisionist history. | 0 |
This is the craziest explanation of why Donald Trump is getting his ass handed to him in the polls and you have to hear it for yourself.The Republican nominee s newst campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was interviewed by the UK s Channel 4, where she was grilled about Trump s poll numbers and whether he can really win.Once again, Trump s minion dismissed the polls as being cherry-picked by the media because they supposedly want to destroy him.Conway claimed that online polls are more accurate because they allegedly show Trump in the lead and she argued that college students are keeping their support of Trump secret so they aren t alienated on campus. Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the election. It s because it s become socially desirable, if you re a college educated person in the United States of America, to say that you re against Donald Trump. The problem with online polls, however, is that anyone can take them and they can be easily skewed if a bunch of people take it with the intention of making the results lean one way or the other. In short, they aren t scientific, like real polls conducted by CNN, Gallup, NBC, and Quinnipiac, all of which show Trump losing badly to Hillary Clinton.Furthermore, polls are anonymous so there is no need to hide one s support of a candidate. But polls overwhelmingly show that Trump is getting trounced by Hillary among young voters, so it s pretty clear why Conway would make any excuse to explain the wide gap there.Conway then claimed that Trump will win the election in November because most of his voters are supposedly undercover. Yeah, you read that right. She literally said Trump has undercover voters that are in hiding until they can rush to the voting booth and cast their votes. The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition, she said.When asked if she has numbers to back up her claims, Conway said she does but refused to share them. I can t discuss it, Conway said. It s a project we re doing internally. I call it the undercover Trump voter, but it s real. Here s the video via Youtube:Someone get this woman a straight jacket and a rubber room, because this claim is as delusional as the claim that the government will send black helicopters to whisk critics away in the middle of the night or that the government is going to take way all of our guns.Seriously, this a crock of bullshit. The idea that voters are undercover is totally ridiculous. Donald Trump s campaign is imploding and the best his new campaign manager can do is cite the vote of imaginary voters as proof that Trump will win? It s pathetic and it sounds like Trump needs yet another new campaign manager.Featured image via screenshot | 0 |
November 17, 2016 - Fort Russ News - PolitNavigator - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Petro Poroshenko’s regime has initiated criminal proceedings in which figure around 10,000 participants of the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbass. This was stated on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada by the former head of the Donbass Nationalist Battalion and PM, Semen Semenchenko.
According to Semenchenko, “volunteers” have come under criminal proceedings insofar as they do not have the right to bear arms and use them in Donbass, since martial law has not been instituted in the country. Now all such “volunteers” could theoretically be declared war criminals.
Semenchenko stated:
“Those volunteers whose situation is discussed every day from the parliamentary podium are currently under threat. More than 10,000 criminal cases have been initiated for various reasons. Noncompliance with the law on defense, the fact that martial law has not been imposed and, accordingly, part of the functions carried out by servicemen are now de jure a crime. For example, in 2014, the National Guard of Ukraine added, so to say, more than 10,000 reservists to the ATO. These servicemen did not have the rights of National Guardsmen, did not have the right to bear arms, and did not have the right to participate in the war - they did not have the right to kill people and be killed. Now more than thousands of people could at any moment be charged as criminals if the government or political situation changes.”
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Join Patrick every Wednesday at Independent Talk 1100 KFNX and Alternate Current Radio for the very best in news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 6 America s Mainstream Media Meltdown Has the surprise 2016 Election result sent the US mainstream media into a tale spin, or has this crisis of confidence been in the works for much longer than people realize? Who is checking the new Fact Checkers ? Can the Washington establishment walk-back the current anti-Russian hysteria, and can the new Trump Administration bring a secretive federal government to a more open place?All this and more, as host Patrick Henningsen in joined by special guest Robert Parry, award-winning investigative journalist, editor and founder of Consortium News, and author of the book America s Stolen Narrative. Listen END 1042 Download Link START 1158 Download Link Download this podcast END 1158 Download Link This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm MST, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.com.LISTEN TO MORE INTERVIEWS AT PATRICK HENNINGSEN LIVE SHOW ARCHIVES | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on seven Iranian individuals and two entities, alleging involvement in either malicious cyber activities or enabling Tehran s ballistic missile program. The action, announced on the U.S. Treasury Department s website, freezes any assets they may hold in the United States and prohibits U.S. individuals from doing business with them. (Corrects first paragraph to say ballistic missile program, not nuclear program.) | 0 |
One of the Bundy militiamen has lost his sole source of income thanks to his decision to join the merry mob of marauding morons in their armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Was he skipping work? Nah he would have to have a job for that. Robert LaVoy Finicum tells Oregon Public Broadcasting that he lost his meal ticket children.Over the past decade, Finicum and his wife s home has served as nothing more than a revolving door for foster children, with more than 50 kids coming through their home. The children, who often came from mental hospitals, drug rehabs, and group homes for emotionally distressed youth not only provided the happy couple with a steady income thanks to money they received from the state, but also with workers on his ranch (which barely makes enough money to stay afloat). My ranch has been a great tool for these boys, Finicum said. It has done a lot of good. Unfortunately, when Finicum ran off to play terrorist with his friends and he left four young, emotionally disturbed boys home alone to be cared for by his wife, let s just say some flags were raised. Within four days of Finicum s departure, the Arizona Department of Social Services began to remove his meal tickets from the home. They didn t go out at the same time, Finicum said. One was there for a year, one of the boys was there six months, another eight months, and a month. I don t know where they ended up. Rather than blame his involvement with a terrorist group or his own irresponsibility, Finicum says the removals resulted from pressure from the feds : They were ripped from my wife. We are very successful (foster parents). Our track records are good, it s been a good relationship. (Federal authorities) must have gotten to the governor, who told the state to get them out of there. OPB reports that this is a staggering loss of income from the Finicums, who have depended on the between $22.31 to $37.49 per day they were paid to take care of the children. According to a 2010 tax filing, the Finicums received $115,343 in 2009. At the maximum rate, this means they cared for an average of 8 children per day that year. And it s exactly those dollar signs that concern Finicum, not the children he was tasked with caring for as his own: That was my main source of income. My ranch, well, the cows just cover the costs of the ranch. If this means rice and beans for the next few years, so be it. We re going to stay the course. Another of the Bundy militants, Blaine Cooper, also claims that Child Protective Services removed his children from his home. At the Facebook page All Your Base, Cooper claimed that the removal of his children, which can not be independently verified, was an attempt by the FBI to draw him out, blaming the removals on bias media and asshole s like the page owner. I hope people are seeing the sacrifices we re making here, Finicum said. I want to show what my government is doing. You need to understand the cost being paid by many people. Finicum has pledged to die in defense of the militants armed encampment proving that he is someone who should not be entrusted with the care of children. Watch him threaten violence against the government below:Featured image via NBC News | 0 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday a dual suspension proposal to handle North Korea was still the best option, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had rejected a freeze for freeze agreement. North Korea s rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons and missiles has fueled a surge in regional tensions as United Nations-led sanctions appear to have failed to bite deeply enough to change its behavior. China and Russia have proposed that the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs. Beijing formally calls the idea the dual suspension proposal. Speaking upon his return from Asia on Wednesday, Trump said he and Xi had agreed that they would not accept a freeze for freeze idea, which China s foreign minister announced in March. Asked how China understood Trump s remarks and whether he agreed with the characterization of what Trump said he agreed to with Xi, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said only through talks that addressed all sides legitimate security concerns could there be a peaceful resolution. We believe that the dual suspension proposal is the most feasible, fair and sensible plan in the present situation, Geng told a daily news briefing. Not only can it relieve the present tense situation, it can also resolve all parties most pressing security concerns, and provide an opportunity and create conditions to resume talks, and find a breakthrough point to get out of trouble, he added. The dual suspension is just a first step and not the end point, Geng added. We hope that all sides can conscientiously treat and proactively consider China s proposal, and at the same time we welcome relevant parties to put forward proposals that can benefit the promotion of a peaceful resolution for the peninsula nuclear issue. Asked at a regular briefing if Trump stood by his remarks as to what he had agreed with Xi, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Thursday replied: Both sides made their positions clear. They are different, but we agreed that there are going to be different positions and therefore it s not going to move forward. North Korea has said it needs to develop its weapons to protect itself from what it sees as U.S. military aggression. It also sees U.S.-South Korean military exercises as joint preparations for invasion. South Korea and the United States, which has about 28,000 troops based in South Korea, say their exercises are defensive in nature. | 1 |
Randy Johnson 21st Century WireThe majority of mainstream media reporting surrounding the Burns, Oregon, and Wildlife Refuge occupy protest has ranged from overly simplistic, to outright partisan. This story is a microcosm of media at its most divisive. At its core, the narrative has become reduced to the government versus the militia or the government versus the people depending on one s vantage point. On average, the mainstream media s most neutral narrative is as follows: Father-son duo of the Hammond ranching family started fires, were found guilty, went to jail, and a bunch of militant and anti-government militia men don t like what the federal government are doing and used the event to take over a federal building in the Malhuer Wildlife refuge. Further to the left, the narrative looks more like: Armed Anti-government gang takes over federal building Oregon community in crisis (exact words from one mainstream media news anchor)For most of the American media, that s a good enough explanation. If it fits your political template, then that is all good. Case closed ? Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum sits watch overnight with media looking on (Image Credit: Capital Blue/AP Photo/Rebecca Boone)News media have become brand shopping. Do you want quality, fun, style, and value? Are you loyal to the name? Pick your poison. Reporting a story often times becomes the selling of a larger agenda, each agenda point with its own out-of-the-box marketing campaign and the corresponding planning that goes with it.The entire development, for major news networks, is much easier to navigate and is less confusing than constantly revising varying degrees of moderation and extremism between allegiance-switching groups in the Middle East.For a case closed perspective of the events from the Department of Justice, District of Oregon, after court rulings on the Hammonds in October of 2015, read here and stop.The first line of defense is to know that these events rarely, if ever, spawn up overnight and happen in isolation. For a review and thorough sequence of events, detailing how the situation has escalated to what it is now, read the following from 21WIRE, here.So is the media reporting events or peddling agendas? If they do both, maybe no one can tell the difference.Things are not that easy and navigating through mainstream news media sludge takes work. Certainly, the White House s gun-control marketing campaign this week has cast a convenient shadow over events in Oregon, and in order to force-in outside and unrelated issues, the matter at hand must be reduced to a quick and easy account by the media.One could maintain that Oregon s Malhuer Wildlife Refuge, the Hammonds, and militias have all become components for a guided tour on how to think. The reason for this is because any number of agendas and unrelated topics have been heaped upon the issue ranging from the Presidential race posturing, race itself, Islam, terrorism, gun control, and a host of distractive latch-on issues.Simplify MattersThe contrasting sides are often set-up, or at least alluded to, immediately. This is what public relations operatives and political consultants refer to as framing . There are plenty of them working in media now, so don t be surprised to see the exact same tactic deployed in politics as is commonplace in today s media industry.In today s media barrage, the title alone might suffice. A quick internet search of various article titles on the subject frame everything at a glance:FBI Monitoring Armed Stand Off in Oregon National Wildlife RefugeArmed Group Takes Over Federal Building Following Protest In OregonOregon Armed Protest Leader Says Group Will Defend Occupied BuildingThe narrative is further presented as two sides with contrasting positions. Choose your position, and make your case. Most Americans will have been pre-conditioned to know where they are supposed to stand, and will quickly align accordingly. The framing here is usually a binary dialectic, or two sides only, with no grey area or middle ground. A or B, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, pro-government or anti-government, Jedi or Sith? We all know the drill. Here they are mainstream media style:The Hammonds: Victims of over-reach by a federal government, or rogue ranchers who are above the law with a fondness for starting fires?The Bundy s and outside militias: Lending a hand to fellow ranchers who are too over-matched to fight for themselves, or unwanted instigators on a personal anti-government crusade?The Bureau of Land Management: Caretakers and stewards of land and resources, or the very embodiment of big government imposing its will through a vantage point of official power and authority?Over-simplified, binary arguments almost never present real events. In reality, there are two or more sides to a story or event. This is what most media outlets do not want you to understand, and this is where the art of the delivery comes in, by steering the audience to the right choice.When reporting on the events in question in Oregon, the mainstream media imply, or outright allege, that protesters and the militia members who converged on the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge intend to draw first contact and start a shootout (as seen later in a CNN clip below). The analysis about a trigger-happy militia is pondered endlessly by mainstream news personalities, despite repeated statements to the contrary by organizers of the militias in question. This is followed by an endless string of pundits and experts expressing their righteous indignation that the federal government can t let these militants get away with this! , and so on.Activists or Terrorists?Part of the process of owning the narrative and shaping public opinion is to define the problem and the people involved with quick and easily identifiable labels. Among other things, this allows the media to avoid doing any real investigation into the core issues, and simply surf the partisan waves.In Burns, Oregon, this never happened. Instead the media have labeled the Hammonds as arsonists and the Bundys as terrorists .The mainstream media have worked diligently to characterize the protest s leader, Ammon Bundy (photo, left), son of now iconic Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy, as an armed insurgent and a domestic terrorist. This is likely do to the fact that journalists are unfamiliar with the fact that Ammon Bundy has stepped into a political role as a public and state lands advocate since 2014 bringing attention to the thousands of ranchers and farmers in the southwestern states facing federal vs state land management issues, and has spoken publicly many times since the Bundy stand-off in 2014. Viewed through this prism, the Hammond protest and occupation of the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge is quite obviously a political event. But that s not how the media are treating this.Today saw one of the lowest points in partisan media. In one of the worst displays of mainstream gutter journalism, led by Carli Brosseau from Oregon LIVE, who has attempted to senselessly slander the Bundys by digging through all the personal records and finances of the Bundy sons and other protesters, including their businesses loans, personal property records and even traffic violations in a clear effort to try and slander them in public for matters not related at all to the public lands issue. If only the Oregon LIVE and CNN would apply that same level of effort to investigating the government s role in Hammond case, or for the thousands of other farmers who have been forcibly bankrupted and put out of business over the last two decades.What guilt-by-association words better fit today s on edge atmospherics than terrorists and terrorism ? These are precisely the terms which media began saturating the internet with moments after this event hit the headlines. Various left-wing hashtag campaigns like #YallQaeda and #VanillaISIS were strewn all over Twitter and have been trending ever since. This has provided a soft cushion on which larger media journalists and organizations can comfortably bounce around pejorative terms without receiving too much criticism. Here s one choice example: See tweet here.Amazingly, even long-established news organizations, such as the Washington Post, have published articles which question why the militia are not called terrorists , while Fox Radio ponders whether or not they are patriots or terrorists .The drive for the pejorative label is in full effect. This comes as no surprise, as the mainstream media have been swimming in confusion the last few years, with ever-fluctuating moderation levels of jihadists based upon what group is being backed by the West or its allies at any given moment. However, calling an American citizen or group terrorist immediately defines where you stand with regards to protesters or members of the militia.CNN gets right after it, throws down the gauntlet, and calls the militias in question terrorists without hesitation. The video below is a typical example of agenda driven news reporting that brings in unrelated issues of race, the Muslim religion, and loosely slapping a terrorist label over what might best be described as breaking and entering. Through their presentation, the event itself slightly matters and the story becomes everything but the event. Instead of an analysis into how the situation evolved, time is spent on painting a good versus bad narrative, which is done simply by applying the terrorist label to the militias. Watch: In reality, the happy mediums between demands, law, authority, and obedience are more calculus, than single digit addition. In other words, it s complicated, and no one hates complications more than media and partisan politicians. Through polarizing the issue, drawing sides, and picking a righteous winner, CNN sides with its apparent partner in Washington and presents the story in such a manner. You can even hear the sadness in the voices as they discuss the possibility that the government might wait out the militia instead of coming in with aggressive force and establishing who is boss. It might behoove any good journalist or pundit to pause and ask: are the various militias in question really terrorists, and do their acts constitute terrorism?Here is the definition of domestic terrorism and the federal crime of terrorism as delineated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Domestic terrorism means activities with the following three characteristics: Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.18 U.S.C. Sec 2332b defines the term federal crime of terrorism as an offense that: Is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct; and Is a violation of one of several listed statutes, including Sec 930(c) (relating to killing or attempted killing during an attack on a federal facility with a dangerous weapon); and Sec 1114 (relating to killing or attempted killing of officers and employees of the U.S.).Granted, America seems to be expanding this definition every year, as evidenced by the above inclusion of retaliate against government conduct on the list. This seems to indicate that any protest can be characterized as terrorism should the government chose to press there. Those calling these militias terrorists , seem to be taking only (ii) from the above definition of Domestic Terrorism and are running with it. Again, the FBI states in their own words above that the three characteristics are required. Nowhere does the FBI say, one of the above is terrorism, or some of the above is terrorism. As champions of the law and enforcing it, and assuming care was taken to review the definitions by many, one would believe that they meant what they wrote and wrote what they meant. The militia is a citizen s right clearly stated in the US Constitution, but perhaps breaking and entering or unlawfully occupying is not legal . but terrorism?What about committing the federal crime of terrorism from 18 U.S.C. (United States Code) Sec 2332b above? Clearly, the militias are there, openly, with guns and stating they will defend themselves if necessary. Or, are they simply there and carrying fire arms within the law (yes, it is legal to carry a gun in the US)? The definition might appear to be in the eye of the beholder, but from the government s perspective, the definition seems highly elastic.CNN and the Washington Post are telling you whom to side with through their narrative and terrorist labels for the militias in question.Depending on how one views the world with regards to the issue, along with their ability to process information presented to them, determines what side they are on, or if they are even on a side. Who has the bigger agenda and the bigger stake, the government, or the militias and ranchers? Is it really about Land Management and/or People Management, or are both inter-related?Let s start with the land itself. As noted in the Congressional Research Service s 2014 document Federal Land Ownership, the United States governs, oversees, owns, or otherwise has authority and jurisdiction over land primarily through the following 5 agencies:The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) The Forestry Service (FS) The Fish and Wild Life Service (FWS) The National Park Service (NPS) The Department of Defense (DoD)Here is what Oregon looked like with regard to the above agencies and some of their sub-departments in 1996, now twenty years ago: Oregon Public Lands 1996. (Image: Wiki Commons)The Federal Land Ownership document, cited above, also notes that the overall public land managed by the BLM has dropped nearly 25 million acres from 1990 to 2013. However, this comes mostly from almost 22 million acres within Alaska alone. Within Oregon, the state in question, the BLM alone has gained almost 550,000 acres to manage from the already color-dense map above, and is set to takeover another 2.5 million acres with the their proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument an area larger than Yellowstone National Park set to be shut-off to the state and placed under BLM control.Part of the larger Department of the Interior (DOI), the Bureau of Land Management s (BLM) Mission Statement is: To sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. According to the BLM website, they oversee more than 245 million acres and over 700 million mineral and sub surface acres, with a multi-billion dollar budget and about 10,000 employees. The BLM also claims to be one of the few federal agencies that generate revenue, based largely on 4.3 billion dollars of onshore oil and gas development and numerous other land deals brokered by the BLM.Hundreds of millions of acres is vast. Most people probably see the need for a diligent and upstanding management of it, to include the natural resources and wildlife found on the land, as well as the resources beneath it. Understanding that a free for all of destroying resources combined with a full bore resource grab would be adverse, many would likely contribute to the oversight of it. Being entrusted with such a job could be seen as an honorable undertaking by citizens for citizens. But when does stewardship and land management turn into territorial control by Washington DC, which invariably leads to an institutional vendetta, or sending a message , or becomes a means to define boundaries between authorities and their subjects? Undoubtedly, this is what seems to be happening all over the western states, and with small farms being victims, picked off, one by one by a superior force the federal government.So the federal government in Washington DC is treating State public land as its territory , when, according to the US Constitution, it is not.Watch as Oregon Congressman Greg Walden (R) delivers an incredibly detailed and impassioned speech on the Capitol floor yesterday, outlining the scale of this problem in his state: Many Constitutional purists and opponents of federal government over reach and abuse of power argue that the government doesn t really own the land. By both the letter, and spirit of the law, there is a real Constitutional case to be made there. Unfortunately, it all quickly turns into a debate on power, control, and authority between the federal government and the states, further complicated by who happens to be in positions of authority for each.They point to Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution which authorizes Congress to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful Buildings, and they throw out the very premise of government land ownership outside of those parameters. The larger issue, beyond the Hammond family in particular, is also centered around jurisdiction literally. Jurisdiction over land and resources inevitably stem from arrangements involving ownership and control. Who is in charge of what, and to what degree? Whose goals are ultimately being achieved and who is affected are things all citizens would be wise to ask themselves.Are the Hammonds being crushed from above in accordance to what they did and were found guilty of and does the punishment fit?The Oregonian reports: There s nobody in history who has gone to federal prison for burning a few acres of public property, said Melodi Molt, a Harney County rancher and former president of Oregon CattleWomen. It s not right. The Oregon Farm Bureau said the second prison term is gross government overreach and the public should be outraged. And then there is what some locals see as a government land grab. The Hammonds in late 2014 agreed to pay the federal government $400,000 to settle a lawsuit seeking to force them to pay more than a $1 million in costs for fighting fires they set. The Hammonds paid $200,000 right away and paid the rest Thursday. The settlement also required the Hammonds to give the land bureau first chance at buying a particular ranch parcel adjacent to public land if they intended to sell. For some, this was evidence that the government all along was after the Hammond ground to add to its Steens Mountain holdings. The Oregonian continues, stating that the Hammonds originally served jail time starting in 2012 under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The father, Dwight Hammond, aged 73, was sentenced to three months and the son, Steve, to one year. A possible 5 year sentence, according to U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan at the Hammonds original 2012 sentencing, would be unconstitutional and a sentence which would shock the conscience. After serving their time, both father and son were dragged back in front of a federal bench and re-sentenced to a full 5 year term in what many believe was just the latest chapter in a federal vendetta against the family, waged in part by then U.S Attorney for the State of Oregon, Amanda Marshall.A New Yorker article unabashedly calls the AEDPA law, one of the worst statutes ever passed by Congress [headed by Bob Dole] and signed into law by a President [President Clinton]. The heart of the law is a provision saying that, even when a state court misapplies the Constitution, a defendant cannot necessarily have his day in federal court. So is this the new image of a terrorist breeding ground and rallying point? (Image: Oregon Live/The Oregonian) Wild Cards and Other SubterfugeTo be fair, not everyone is happy about the outsiders. Caught in the midst of it all are citizens such as a local resident, Candy Tiller, quoted by Oregon Public Broadcasting, saying, I m worried that there s a trigger-happy idiot out there And maybe a law enforcement officer or somebody else makes a move that makes him think they re pulling a gun and he s going to shoot I don t want that. I don t want that for anybody This is crazy. This does not fit. These people need to go away. Locals will always feel the tension best, and no scenario would play to the establishment and mainstream media narrative better than an Waco-style gunfight and siege, also playing out on LIVE television. Based on the current situation report, the federal government would be the one escalating tension by pouring hundreds of assets into the small town and turning the area into a quasi-military occupation, as Washington clearly did with Bundy Ranch in 2014.Whether it s a Greenpeace protest, Occupy Wall Street, or Bundy Ranch, federal agencies have tried and tested methods besides overt force, in order to weaken and ultimately bring down any protest. The first method is disinformation a protest leak about a split within the group, or rumors about a member of the group wanting to leave. This type of manuever might look something like this: See the tweet here.Next is the Dirty Tricks phase, where a third party leaks personal information of the protesters to the mainstream media, in order discredit the protesters and help to break up the group.The other method of disinformation is a government insider leak designed to scare off other activists from coming to the event, but also to jar those inside of the protest and their families and as loved ones look on. Whether it is true or not is beside the point. This type of sensational storyline is designed make its way on to the internet and quickly go viral, and might look something like this: FBI preparing for Waco-style raid in Oregon Similarly, during the Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014, a slightly more outlandish story was planted in the alternative media about Eric Holder authorizing a drone strike on Bundy Ranch. Not surprisingly, the story was complete fiction. As wildly unbelievable as that story was, it worked incredibly well for the federal government because the bulk of the militia camped out at the ranch, a group known as Oathkeepers, immediately became frightened, packed up and left.Oathkeepers appear to have released another similar insider leak story last week for the Oregon Standoff, about the Pentagon deploying Delta Force to take back the Wildlife Refuge, which can be found here.Another example could be found in a Tweet released at the height of the Bundy Ranch stand-off in 2014, claiming that the government had shut down cell phone towers in a communications black-out (presumably preparing to attack ). Though this never actually happened, one could easily view this as an attempt to scare away members of the public from going to the ranch to support the cause:Bundy family reports cell towers near ranch have been shut down, preventing communication & video uploads. #BundyRanch Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 11, 2014If the disinformation fails, the next level of federal subterfuge is usually to embed or plant a federal informant(s) or agent provocateur (s) inside of the protest. Typically, this is done very early on in the process, but also becomes much easier once more people pour into the area. With a patriots unite call to stand with the militias, as seen in the below video, it s almost impossible for organizers to ever know who could be on-site, or what off-centered rebel or individual would simply just show up , either to make a name for themselves through media coverage, or even worse by starting some serious trouble between activists or with law enforcement.In terms of discrediting the protest in the court of public opinion, the Hammond Protest could field no one better than tabloid media mascot, like Jon Ritzheimer of Anti-Islam protesting fame. Ritzheimer quickly become the mainstream media s target of ridicule and used to discredit any of the other protesters. In addition to his armed march on American mosques, Ritzheimer also tried to grab headlines for traveling to Michigan to kidnap, or make a citizens arrest as Ritzheimer called it, of the elderly Senator Debbie Stabenow (D) because she supported the international Iran Nuclear Deal.Here is Ritzheimer recording his own martyrdom-style video before heading into the protest: Whether this is by design, or not, the effect is undeniable. This exact scenario has already played out in Burns, Oregon with the mainstream media casting Ritzheimer in the role of flag-waving xenophobe and militia nut-job , with the added knock-on effect of painting constitutionalists as mentally unstable, militant extremists. PHOTO: Professional media villain and provocateur Jon Ritzheimer.Another prominent militia personality at the Oregon protest is Blaine Cooper (also known as Stanley Blaine Hicks). Like Ritzheimer, he also acts as a media lightning rod due to his similar performance in a YouTube video where he rubs bacon on a copy of the Koran before burning and shooting arrows in to it, before calling it, the most evil, pathetic book on the face of the planet. Unfortunately, these media distractions only divert the public from real issues being raised by the Hammonds and the Bundys and will ultimately be used to discredit their land rights cause.Once again, more Patriot Games. As the event unfolds many scenarios could happen. The worst outcome of events in Oregon would be that the Hammond family issue loses the spotlight, and the public lands issue becomes obscured by a media desperate for a anti-gun narrative and obsessed with the ridiculous antics of synthetic YouTube actors attached to event.Only the craziest of megalomaniac government officials, robotic plants, or glory-seeking wackos would really want this to escalate, led by a depraved sensationalized media, and with a public glued to the screen Farenheit 451 style with a bag of Cheetos.READ MORE HAMMOND RANCH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hammond Ranch | 1 |
TUCSON, Arizona — Sinaloa smugglers and migrants are growing more violent against U. S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector as penalties for their crimes stiffen. Realizing that being caught now means almost certain prosecution and incarceration, the smugglers and migrants are increasingly becoming violent with Border Patrol agents in remote border regions in efforts to escape and evade justice. [Border Patrol Agent Art Del Cueto, speaking to Breitbart Texas in his role as National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) spokesman, stated, “The smugglers are definitely becoming more violent with our agents. They now try to evade arrest and even use force to get away from us where during the Obama years they would joke with us and not mind being caught. They knew, back then, that they would get away with violating our laws. ” Agent Del Cueto continued, “We are talking about significant force and violence being used against our agents. Very recently, one smuggler slammed a large rock into the side of an agent’s head. ” The growing violent tendencies are not limited to the cartel’s drug smugglers, according to Agent Del Cueto. “Even the illegal aliens who aren’t smuggling dope are growing more violent as they now face consequences for illegally entering. Before they would be let go the next day or so, now they face incarceration for illegally entering. They are willing to do anything possible to evade us. ” With the increased aggression levels on the part of the foreign nationals, the agents are forced to be on a higher alert level and willing to use higher level of force to defend their lives. Agent Del Cueto stated, “It’s a concern because when we use force we are put under a microscope and everything we do is scrutinized by different investigative bodies. There was a culture of destroying the lives of Border Patrol agents during the past presidential administration and unfortunately, that culture hasn’t yet completely dissipated. ” Though the Sinaloa Cartel or Federation controls the U. S. border in this sector, the cartel is actually a collective of numerous regional criminal groups that simply operate under the banner of “Sinaloa Cartel. ” The Tucson sector is largely controlled by two of such regional groups, Los Memos and Los Salazar. The groups are engaged in frequent clashes with each other and Los Salazar has begun using armed scouts to enter U. S. territory, according to sources in Border Patrol who asked to remain anonymous. One source told Breitbart Texas, “We have them on video with but we haven’t caught them. They most likely wouldn’t use them on random U. S. citizens, but have them for rip crews and to prevent Los Memos or U. S. gangs from stealing their drug loads. Be careful in the Huachuca Mountains right now. ” Brandon Darby is managing director and of Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart. com. (Disclosure: Breitbart Texas sponsored the Green Line podcast for the NBPC in an effort to provide a platform for agents to inform the public about the realities on the border and what Border Patrol agents face. Director Brandon Darby received an award from the Laredo chapter of the NBPC for his work in helping to defend and bring a voice to Border Patrol agents. Breitbart News assisted in covering funeral costs for a slain Border Patrol agent previously.) | 0 |
21st Century Wire says The FBI is walking a very fine line that crosses into the unacceptable.Watch a video of this report here:The FBI has apparently arrested a man planning an attack on a Miami-area synagogue with an explosive device.The suspect had allegedly planned to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center on Friday evening.The plot, which is about as simple as they come, involved throwing an explosive device over a wall and into the synagogue grounds during Friday night services, as congregants would have been marking the start of Shabbat and the final day of Passover.Most importantly, the synagogue was never actually in any real danger.This is because, the man was stopped by FBI agents posing as fellow terrorists who set up a sting operation. The bomb, apparently a dummy, was sold to him in Hallandale Beach by an FBI undercover operative just before the planned terror attack .What this means, is that the suspect James Medina, may have never had the material means to carry out any attack with an explosive device unless it had been provided by the FBI.So why is anybody praising the FBI for stopping a terror attack when they are the very group that facilitated its implementation in the first place?The synagogue s Facebook page issued a statement saying the FBI had even told them that, there are no credible threats directed against us at the present time. No credible threats means that the only threat was a fictitious false flag created by the FBI.Democratic Party National Committee head and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, apparently unaware of the finer details, said she was, deeply grateful that the FBI arrested this individual before he was allegedly able to do harm to the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center .Where do we draw the line between posing as a terrorist , and actually being a terrorist?How can the FBI be allowed to facilitate such incidents and then claim credit, both financially and politically, for stopping them?ALL THE FALSE FLAG INFO YOU NEED: 21st Century Wire False Flag Files | 0 |
President-elect Donald Trump s denial of Russia s involvement in the US election is disturbing enough, but it s even more unfortunate that he has Republican minions that are willing to back him up and spread his lies.Trump has recently been protecting his man crush, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, by dismissing the multiple, legitimate, and widely accepted reports from the CIA and conservative Jeffrey Lord is more than ready to back him up on that. During an interview with Anderson Cooper and guest Robert Reich, Lord killed everyone s brain cells with his moronic defense of Trump.Lord not only tried to convince everyone that Trump hadn t been dismissive to the intelligence community (one only needs to look through Trump s Twitter feed to know that s false), but he accused the intelligence community of attacking Trump! As soon as Lord stated that Trump hasn t been disagreeing with the CIA and NSA, Reich jumped in and corrected him. Reich said: I mean, Donald Trump has said that he disagrees with the intelligence agencies, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA. He has disparaged them publicly. He has also disparaged other sources of facts such as the media and science. Scientists who talk about global climate change. Donald Trump doesn t want to hear anything he doesn t want to hear. And to disparage the intelligence community when he is going to have to rely on the intelligence community, it seems to me is the height of arrogance and very dangerous. Where is Donald Trump getting his facts from if he is not getting them from the intelligence community? Does a separate root of facts? A separate source of facts? Reich then pointed out, How can you run a government if you re going to be disparaging all your sources of information? Lord lied and said Trump was a fan of the intelligence community. He said: I don t think he is disparaging the men and women who put their lives on the line to do this. That s not Donald Trump at all. But I think he is right to question the leadership. To be perfectly candid. Then, Lord said something that was so foolish, Reich s brain nearly melted when he heard it. Lord said, They re going to attack him anonymously in the press. They ll attack through their allies on Capitol Hill. Reich could hardly find the words. He tried to compose himself as he asked: The CIA and NSA are going to attack Donald Trump? Is that what you re alleging? Wait a minute, wait a minute. I want to understand something. You re saying that there is a conspiracy of some sort, that you have all the intelligence agencies Congress conspiring and they ll try to bring Donald Trump down? Is this the assumption here? Lord failed to provide a suitable answer, and Reid continued to ask, But why is it appropriate for somebody who is president-elect to undercut, disparage, demean the intelligence agencies, just as he does the media, just as he does independent scientists and government scientists? Once again, Lord was out of answers. He tried to change the subject, and Cooper put an end to the interview. You can watch Lord destroy everyone s brain cells with his stupidity below:Featured image is a screenshot | 0 |
Richard Simmons is not being tormented by black magic — or so says Mr. Simmons, the fitness guru, whose disappearance from public view three years ago has at least one close friend fearing he is under the spell of a witch. He is not being held hostage inside his Hollywood Hills mansion, he and his publicist insist, contrary to suspicions of several longtime associates. He is not transitioning and becoming a “softly spoken woman named Fiona,” as the National Enquirer claimed last summer and Mr. Simmons rebutted on Facebook. So what happened to the most loquacious, flamboyant, visible and rambunctious exercise evangelist this world has ever seen? Why did Mr. Simmons, now 68, suddenly drop out of sight without warning, baffling his friends and colleagues and disappointing his many fans? Those are the questions that Dan Taberski, a former producer of “The Daily Show” and a friend of Mr. Simmons, has turned into a cultural phenomenon with his podcast, “Missing Richard Simmons,” which is currently the most downloaded podcast on iTunes. The back story: On Feb. 15, 2014, Mr. Simmons didn’t show up to teach his class at his gym, Slimmons, in Beverly Hills, Calif. He stopped answering emails or phone calls. He no longer sprinted out of his home to greet tour buses, delighting onlookers with his glittery costumes. After an article in The Daily News suggested last year that Mr. Simmons might not have control over his life, the mystery took such hold in pop culture that even Donald J. Trump weighed in from the campaign trail, promising to liberate Mr. Simmons if he became president. “We have to get him out,” Mr. Trump, laughing, said in a radio interview. Mr. Simmons hasn’t been heard from since phone interviews last March, though the Los Angeles Police Department visited him recently and said he was fine. A spokesman for Mr. Simmons said the same to The New York Times last week and declined to discuss the podcast. Mr. Taberski’s storytelling and sense of wonder on “Missing Richard Simmons” have drawn comparisons to “Serial,” the podcast about a murder case that inspired a bevy of conspiracy theories and captured the country’s imagination. But mostly, it is a love letter from Mr. Taberski to Mr. Simmons: He said that he wanted to show Mr. Simmons that people who care about him are worried. PJ Vogt, the host of “Reply All,” a popular podcast that explores the internet, said that “Missing Richard Simmons” was well served by a narrator so close to its subject. “More so than in other media, podcast reporting is really filtered through the person doing the reporting,” Mr. Vogt said. “Their relationship to the story feels very inescapable. ” Mr. Taberski spoke about the podcast in a recent telephone interview. This conversation has been edited and condensed. How did you find out that Mr. Simmons had stopped showing up at Slimmons? Richard and I were still friendly. We were still calling and emailing. He stopped returning my emails. I just thought: “Bummer. I guess, he’s not interested anymore. ” Then I realized that he had stopped returning everybody’s calls. Then it was just a gradual process of talking to people and reading the odd news report and realizing that he had disappeared. How did the idea to do a podcast come together? Richard and I were talking about doing a documentary from the very first day we met. We met at Slimmons. I asked him if he would ever do a documentary with me. Did you go to the class to work out? Or to pitch the documentary? Or both? I went to the class because I heard you could. I thought, “Well, I have to do this. ” I thought he was amazing, and I couldn’t believe he was still teaching a class for $12 a class. But I was a producer for 15 years, and I was looking to do a feature documentary, and the minute I took the class, I knew that was something I wanted to pursue with him. And so we started talking about it right away. What made you decide to shift from the original intent of doing a documentary to going into the podcast realm? I didn’t want to do a documentary. I think it’s really hard to pull those off without them being . It just didn’t feel right. But a podcast is superflexible as a format, and it needs a narrator. It needs somebody to tell the story. And so it was a way for me to show that it was coming from a place of love and coming from a place of real concern, and show my point of view without making it about me. It’s still about Richard. The four theories of his disappearance: 1. He is being held hostage by his housekeeper. 2. He is recovering from knee surgery. 3. The death of his dog sent him into a depression. 4. He just wants out of public life. Anything I’m missing? The podcast explores all the possible reasons Richard Simmons would stop being Richard Simmons. And some of them are outlandish. Some of them make total sense. And some of them are a little sad. What do you think is going on? I’m not limited to those four. The podcast is us exploring many theories of what they are. I have my own theory, but we get to that toward the end. And it’s not really something that people have discussed, and it speaks less to this sort of weird mystery that nobody ever wanted in the first place. What have Mr. Simmons’s representatives said? Richard’s people say very little. But what they do say is that he’s fine. One theory, pushed by Mr. Simmons’s former masseur, is that he is being held hostage by his housekeeper. Tom Estey, his representative, forcefully denied this claim. Is he correct? It’s possible, for sure. I think our skepticism of the more outlandish parts of that theory are clear in that episode. It had been reported before, and others who know Richard didn’t dismiss it out of hand, so we clearly needed to raise it. But I also think Richard’s friends are genuinely, deeply concerned for Richard and the eerie wall of silence around him. That is very real. And Richard’s rep pretending that everything is normal — “nothing to see here” — feels a little false, too. Why do you think people are so intrigued by Mr. Simmons and the podcast? It’s people who have been reminded or are being just told for the first time that Richard Simmons is a special, important and fascinating person. And I think people feel for him. I think he’s always been this way. He just exudes kindness and genuineness. If Mr. Simmons truly wants to be out of the spotlight, as he told the “Today” show a year ago, then should you just leave him be? The concern is that he is not just taking time off. He’s not just retired. He’s not just stepping away from the spotlight. The concern is that he’s cut off every person he knows. It’s impossible not to be concerned about that. And every person I’ve talked to, every friend who’s known him for years, everybody is concerned. | 0 |
Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin and Hillary Clinton defended her 2003 vote for war in Iraq in a televised Q&A Wednesday on national security.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with 'Today' show co-anchor Matt Lauer, left, speaks at the NBC Commander-In-Chief Forum held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid, New York, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton confronted their key weaknesses in a televised national security forum, with the Republican defending his preparedness to be commander in chief despite vague plans for tackling global challenges and the Democrat arguing that her controversial email practices did not expose questionable judgment.
Mr. Trump also renewed his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his disdain for President Barack Obama, saying that the Russian enjoyed an 82 percent approval rating. "The man has very strong control over a country," Trump said. "It's a very different system and I don't happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."
Speaking to reporters in Laos, Obama said Thursday that Trump confirms his belief that Trump isn't qualified to be president "every time he speaks" and added: "The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions to what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas."
Trump and Mrs. Clinton spoke back-to-back Wednesday night, each fielding 30 minutes of questions. While the candidates never appeared on stage together, the session served as a preview of sorts for their highly-anticipated presidential debates.
By virtue of a coin flip, Clinton took the stage first and quickly found herself responding at length to questions about her years in government. She reiterated that she had made mistakes in relying on a personal email account and private server as secretary of State and in voting for the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a senator. But she defended her support for U.S. military intervention to help oust a dictator in Libya, despite the chaotic aftermath.
"I'm asking to be judged on the totality of my record," said Clinton, who grew visibly irritated at times with the repeated focus on her past actions.
Clinton, who has cast Trump as dangerously ill-prepared to be commander in chief, tried to center the discussion on her foreign policy proposals. She vowed to defeat the Islamic State group "without committing American ground troops" to Iraq or Syria. And she pledged to hold weekly Oval Office meetings with representatives from the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to stay abreast of health care for veterans.
Trump did little to counter the criticism that he lacks detailed policy proposals, particularly regarding the Islamic State group. He both insisted he has a private blueprint for defeating the extremist group and that he would demand a plan from military leaders within 30 days of taking office.
But he was also harshly critical of the military, saying America's generals have been "reduced to rubble" under Obama. Asked to square his request for military options with that criticism, Trump said simply: "They'll probably be different generals."
Trump stood by a previous comment that appeared to blame military sexual assaults on men and women serving together, but added he would not seek to remove women from the military. And for the first time, he opened the door to granting legal status to people living in the U.S. illegally who join the military.
"I think that when you serve in the armed forces, that's a very special situation," Trump said. "And I could see myself working that out."
The Republican also repeated an incorrect claim that he was opposed to the war with Iraq before the invasion. That assertion is contradicted by an interview Trump did with Howard Stern in September 2002 in which he was asked whether he supported the invasion. He replied, "Yeah, I guess so."
With just two months until Election Day, national security has emerged as a centerpiece issue in the White House race. Both candidates believe they have the upper hand, with Clinton contrasting her experience with Trump's unpredictability and the Republican arguing that Americans worried about their safety will be left with more of the same if they elect Obama's former secretary of State.
This event – and the upcoming presidential debates – could be particularly important in the closing days of this election. As The Christian Science Monitor reports, this year an unusually large percentage of the electorate says it hasn’t made up its mind, or will vote for a third-party candidate. That’s a big chunk of folks who might swing in one way or another when the pressure of choosing on Election Day actually nears.
For instance, Wall Street Journal/NBC polling shows 13 percent of voters undecided in 2016. The corresponding figure from this time in 2012 was 8 percent.
“We are seeing a historically high number of potential voters who aren’t committing to either major party candidate at this point,” writes Middlebury College political science professor Matthew Dickinson on his“Presidential Power” blog.
While GOP candidates are often seen by voters as having an advantage on military and national security issues, Trump is far from a traditional Republican. He has no military experience and has repeatedly criticized the skill of the armed forces.
A flood of Republican national security experts have instead chosen to back Clinton, helping bolster her case that Trump is broadly unacceptable. Earlier Wednesday, former Defense Secretary William Cohen joined the list of GOP officials supporting Clinton.
Ahead of the forum, Trump rolled out a new plan to boost military spending by tens of billions of dollars, including major increases in the number of active troops, fighter planes, ships and submarines.
His address earlier in the day included plans to eliminate deep spending cuts known as the "sequester" that were enacted when Congress failed to reach a budget compromise in 2011. Republicans and Democrats voted for the automatic, across-the board cuts that affected both military and domestic programs, though the White House has long pressed Congress to lift the spending limits.
Trump expressed support for the sequester in interviews in 2013 — even describing them as too small — but seemed to suggest at the time that military spending should be exempt.
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Erica Werner in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report. | 0 |
This post was originally published on this site
The first Russian-Egyptian anti-terrorist exercise, dubbed Defenders of Friendship-2016 was held on October 15-26.
It took place in the desert, between the Egyptian cities of El-Alamein and Alexandria.
The Russian Airborne Troops arrived in the African continent for the first time.
Over 500 Russian and Egyptian paratroopers took part in the drills.
More than 15 helicopters and planes, 10 items of air-droppable military hardware were involved.
Russian and Egyptian servicemen practiced localization and elimination of militant groups in desert conditions.
Foreign representatives, including ambassadors and military attaches, were present in the capacity of observers.
Egyptian military are going to use the experience of the Russian Airborne Troops in the fight against international terrorism.
In 2015, Russia and Egypt held their first joint maritime exercises in the Mediterranean near Alexandria.
Next Russia-Egypt joint drill may be held in Russia next year. Related | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The District of Columbia’s city council approved a $15-an-hour minimum wage on Tuesday, a rate adopted by a growing number of U.S. cities and states seeking to battle income inequality. The council voted unanimously to pass the measure boosting the minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2020, with subsequent hikes tied to inflation. A final vote will come later this month, and Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has backed the bill. Once approved, the U.S. capital will join California and New York in making $15 the hourly minimum. At least eight cities, including Seattle, have also approved the $15 base. “Raising the minimum wage will help address the issues of residents being pushed out of the District due to rising costs of living and income inequality,” Council member Vincent Orange, a sponsor of the bill, said in the hearing. He and other supporters say Washington’s robust economy and growing population mean it can support a higher minimum wage. The District of Columbia’s base wage is $10.50, and will go up by $1 on July 1 under existing law. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour. The $15 minimum is estimated to raise wages for 114,000 workers, or about 14 percent of the District of Columbia’s workforce, according to an analysis for the council by the non-profit Economic Policy Institute. The higher pay proposal was supported by unions but was opposed by the District’s Chamber of Commerce. It said the District should not raise wages until neighboring suburbs do. The District of Columbia’s booming restaurant industry also opposed it. Restaurant owners and the local restaurant association said that higher costs would lead to layoffs. Some lawmakers said the measure did not go far enough to address a widening income gap and 18 percent poverty rate. Council member David Grosso added an amendment requiring the government to study a minimum income system to help the poorest residents. “Raising the minimum wage is a good thing, but is $15 enough? Or should the number be $35, or $50 an hour?” he asked. Under the measure, the minimum for workers who get tips, like waiters and bartenders, would also be $15 an hour by 2020. Following talks with unions, restaurateurs and community activists, employers would have to make up the difference between a base for tipped workers that will be $5 an hour in 2020, up from the current $2.77, Orange said. | 1 |
As I was scrolling through my Twitter feed this evening, I happened upon a gem of a tweet by Adam Khan. The text reads, From 2010: Scaramucci says Obama is beating up on him and Wall Street friends like a pi ata. Attached is a six minute video. And contained within that video are some pretty amazing moments.At 0:36, Scaramucci says,The question I have, sir, and this is something I really, you know, a lot of my friends are thinking about, listen I represent the Wall St. community. We ve felt like a pi ata. Maybe you don t feel like you ve been whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like we ve been whacked with a stick.To which, at 2:34, President Obama responds:Now, I have been amused over the last couple years, this sense that somehow me beating up on Wall St. I think most folks on Main Street feel like they got beat up on! The crowd immediately erupted in cheers for the previous Commander-in-Chief.This interaction, of course, comes after the 2008 financial crisis in which people like Mr. Scaramucci almost destroyed the world economy in the name of bigger risks and bigger payouts, at the expense of everyday people.You can see the tweet, and the amazing video contained within, in entirety below. The rest of the thread is also worth a read:From 2010: Scaramucci says Obama is beating up on him and Wall Street friends like a pi ata. Watch how Obama responds. pic.twitter.com/o8sjsSRSMW Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) July 23, 2017Featured image by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images | 1 |
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