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LISBON (Reuters) - A women s rights group has called a rally to protest against a Portuguese court ruling that upheld a light sentence for a woman s attackers on the grounds they may have been driven to it by her adultery, an offence punishable with death in the Bible. Judges Neto de Moura and Maria Luisa Arantes rejected the prosecutors appeal to toughen the suspended sentence and fine, saying the depressive state of the two defendants - the woman s former husband and her former lover - was a mitigating factor. We read in the Bible that an adulteress should be punished with death, the judges in the Porto Court of Appeal wrote. They also referenced the symbolic sentences given to men who murdered adulterous wives in the late 19th century in Portugal. These references are merely intended to stress that the society has always strongly condemned adultery by a woman and therefore sees the violence by a betrayed, humiliated man with some understanding, they wrote in their Oct. 11 verdict. The UMAR Women s Union for Alternative and Response called the verdict in Portugal s second-largest city revolting and said it perpetuated the ideology of victim-blaming . Evoking the Bible does not combine with the rule of law in our country and discredits the judicial norms, UMAR said in a statement. In the 2015 attack, one of the men assaulted and held the victim while the other attacked her with a nail-spiked club. Her injuries were not life-threatening. Both were convicted and sentenced to pay large fines in addition to suspended time in prison of about a year each. UMAR and the feminist movement Por Todas Nos (For all of Us Women) called a protest rally in downtown Lisbon for Friday. Protests were also called in Porto under the slogan Male chauvinism is not justice, but crime . Ultra-orthodox patriarchy - one of the cornerstones of the fascist dictatorship of Antonio Salazar up until the 1974 revolution - still survives in parts of Portugal. | 0 |
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Some activists in Hong Kong say they plan to defy a Chinese law against disrespecting the national anthem, by jeering it at international soccer fixtures against Bahrain and Lebanon in the next few days. The controversy is another instance of recent tensions in the former British colony between pro-democracy advocates and China s Communist Party leaders, who have been criticized for tightening their grip on Hong Kong s affairs. Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems arrangement that guarantees a high degree of autonomy, including an independent judiciary and the freedom of expression. In recent years, some Hong Kong fans have booed the national anthem at soccer matches, with some parallels to protests in the United States where American football players have knelt during the national anthem, a protest denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump. China s parliament on Saturday passed an amendment to its criminal law that extends punishments for publicly desecrating the national flag and emblem to disrespecting the national anthem. Offenders can be jailed for up to three years, Xinhua reported. Hong Kong, as part of China, is now obliged to put its own set of laws related to the national anthem to the local legislature, but details including jail terms and the scope of enforcement have yet to be set. For now, though, some fans say they won t change their behavior when Hong Kong play Bahrain in a friendly match on Thursday and Lebanon in an Asian Cup qualifier next Tuesday. It s something we ve always done, said one fan who has attended games for the past few years, including two World Cup qualifiers between Hong Kong and China in 2015 that drew jeers from the crowd. It s a kind of resentment toward China that comes through ... There are several hundred of us and it s become a tradition now. We ll keep doing it. The Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) was warned by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recently over the conduct of fans who booed the Chinese anthem, and said a repeat violation may result in more severe punishment . Asked for comment, the AFC didn t specifically address a question on whether they d been pressed by China to punish Hong Kong, but said a review of video evidence found fans guilty of improper conduct under the AFC s disciplinary and ethics code. Hong Kong s leader, Carrie Lam, has suggested the law would be enacted in the current legislative year, and not be applied retrospectively - which would mean fans who jeer before it becomes law locally shouldn t face prosecution. People should not excessively worry about unwittingly committing an offense. These worries are unnecessary, Lam told reporters. I don t see this as having any connection to ... freedom of expression. But this has highlighted a recent trend in Hong Kong that whenever there is anything related to Hong Kong and Chinese affairs ... some people cause panic and unnecessary fear. | 0 |
America really, really, really not ready for woman president 09-11-16 THE USA was so unready to have a woman as president that it would vote for literally anyone else instead, it has been confirmed. Following Hillary Clinton’s defeat by a man who has never worked in politics and has no interest in doing so, the glass ceiling has been reinforced with toughened shatterproof safety glass. Wayne Hayes of Jasper, Indiana said: “Boy, were we not ready for a woman president. Not this century. “Commentators were all ‘well we had a black man as president’, but didn’t reckon the most important word there was ‘man’. “Women can’t be trusted. They’re emotional, they think clothes are important, and might try to get revenge for the last 6,000 years. “I believe President Trump should pass a constitutional amendment to make sure no woman embarrasses herself like this ever again. It’d be fairer.” Hillary Clinton agreed: “I should’ve realised it was black man, white man, gay man, white man, black gay man, another 12 white men, then woman.”
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GOP candidate Roy Moore is accused of sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl when he was 32-years-old and several of the state s officials have said they would still support him even if the allegations are true because it s better than voting for a Democrat. Some Republicans have called for Moore to step down if the accusations are true, even though they ve been backed up by 30 people and there are four accusers. Leigh Corfman, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, said she was 14 years old when she met Moore, who later took her to his home. While there, she said Moore removed her shirt and pants, then he removed his clothes. Moore then allegedly touched her over her bra and underwear, and put her hand on his crotch.So Vice-President Mike Pence, a right-wing Christian, has stated that he found the allegations in the story disturbing and believes, if true, this would disqualify anyone from serving in office. Except that Pence s boss has been accused by numerous women of sexual misconduct and somehow, Trump supporters have always been cool with that.This unfortunate tweet sent out by Pence in late September is coming back at him fast AF. Congratulations Roy Moore! We are thrilled you ran on the #MAGA agenda & we are for you! Pence tweeted.Congratulations Roy Moore! We are thrilled you ran on the #MAGA agenda & we are for you! Mike Pence (@mike_pence) September 27, 2017Twitter users pounced.Mike you may want to delete this. Rob (@Unpersuaded112) November 10, 2017Consider it done, Mr. Williams.Screenshot the shit out of that. William Williams (@hahvahd) November 10, 2017Make American Girls Afraid Lisa Hanawalt (@lisadraws) November 10, 2017How does "mother" feel about Roy's penchant for little girls? How 'bout you? Concerned American (@LizEClark) November 9, 2017He's all yours, Mr Vice President. Good luck with that. Laura Parrott Perry (@lparrottperry) November 9, 2017How are you feeling about this tweet right about now?! Christie (@Christie_D22) November 9, 2017What is the age minimum for your cannot be left alone with a woman rule? Asking for a friend Michael (@mjmiglio) November 9, 2017so thrilled to have a pedophile on the #Maga team anton newcombe (@antonnewcombe) November 9, 2017Democrat Doug Jones is running against Roy Moore. Jones secured the conviction of Ku Klux Klan members who bombed a black church in Birmingham in 1963, killing four African-American girls.Conservatives are supporting a pedo over him even though only one of the two men is qualified for the job. But Alabama is a deep-red state and that s putting it lightly. With 30 people, not including the four accusers, backing up the explosive story outing Moore as a sexual predator, one would think that this is a no-brainer and distance themselves from him. At the very least, delete tweets supporting his candidacy. Right, Mike?Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. | 0 |
WHO Cancer Agency Under Fire for withholding ‘carcinogenic glyphosate’ Documents IARC urged its scientists not to publish research documents on its 2015 weedkiller glyphosate review RT.com - October 27, 2016 Comments
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), facing criticism over its classification of carcinogens, has reportedly been advising its scientific experts not to publish internal research data on its 2015 report on “probably carcinogenic” glyphosate.
The IARC urged its scientists not to publish research documents on its 2015 weedkiller glyphosate review, according to Reuters. The agency told Reuters on Tuesday that it tried to protect the study from “external interference,” as well as protect its intellectual rights, since it was “the sole owner of such materials.”
The scientists had been asked earlier to release all the documentation on the 2015 report under US freedom of information laws.
The groundbreaking review, published in March 2015 by the IARC – a semi-autonomous agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) – labeled the glyphosate herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Glyphosate is a key ingredient of Monsanto’s flagship weedkiller well-known under the trade name ‘Roundup.’ It is one of the most heavily used herbicides in the world and is designed to go along with genetically-modified “Roundup Ready” crops, also produced by Monsanto.
The IARC’s report caused problems for both the notorious agrochemical giant and the agency itself.
The report sparked a heated debate around the use of Roundup, and caused several EU countries – including France, Sweden, and the Netherlands – to object to the renewal of the glyphosate’s EU license. The vote on prolonging the glyphosate license for 15 years failed several times in June 2016, but the license was temporarily extended for 18 months during last hours before its expiration.
The controversial report has seemingly made the IARC a target for attacks from multiple directions, and raised scientific, legal, and financial questions.
Various critics, including those in the chemical industry, said the IARC’s evaluations are fuel for “unnecessary health scares,” since the IARC allegedly studies the potentially harmful substance itself, and not a “typical human” exposure to it. It remained unclear whether the critics urged a WHO body to test the potentially carcinogenic chemical on humans.
The critics also brought up other controversial statements from the IARC, over whether such things as mobile phones, coffee, red meat, and processed meat could cause cancer.
The agency defended its methods as scientifically sound and “widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process and…freedom from conflicts of interest.” Numerous freedom of information requests by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), a US conservative advocacy group, have since been turned down with this reasoning.
E&E Legal told Reuters that it is pushing a legal challenge over whether the documents in question belong to the IARC or to the US federal and state institutions where some of the experts work. Basically, it’s being decided whether the IARC, as part of the WHO, is truly independent and free from “conflicts of interest.”
According to Reuters, officials from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be questioned by a congressional committee about why American taxpayers fund the cancer agency, which faces much criticism over its allegedly faulty classification of carcinogens.
“IARC’s standards and determinations for classifying substances as carcinogenic, and therefore cancer-causing, appear inconsistent with other scientific research, and have generated much controversy and alarm,” a letter from US Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz to NIH director Francis Collins states, as quoted by Reuters.
The Oversight Committee demanded a full disclosure of NIH funding of the IARC, and even money spent in relation to the cancer agency’s activities.
IARC opponents from scientific circles vowed to provide their data on the matter. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which believes glyphosate is “unlikely pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans,” promised to release its raw data on the subject as part of its “commitment to open risk assessment.” The food safety watchdog made this statement in late September, and still has to deliver the promised information. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 1 |
On Thursday, while Donald Trump was in the midst of enjoying his vacation from his 17-day vacation, he decided that Republicans weren t working hard enough to strip healthcare from millions of Americans. Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing, Trump tweeted, apparently unaware that he has spent a generous portion of his presidency golfing rather than doing his own job. You can do it! Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing. You can do it! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2017Donald Trump has spent much of his Vacation golfing as usual and toilet-tweeting attacks on Barack Obama as well as Republicans, and at this point seems perfectly willing to destroy his own party to pass his horrifying agenda.Trump loves telling others to get back to work, but as of the end of this month he will have already spent three times as many days on vacation as Barack Obama did in eight years.YOU ARE ON VACATION! HOW ARE YOU TELLING SOMEONE ELSE TO "GET BACK TO WORK"?(although please, stay on vacation. permanently) Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) August 10, 2017You're on a 17 day vacation telling someone to "get back to work" ? Sarah Wood (@sarahwoodwriter) August 10, 2017Why don t you get back to work coming up with a coherent strategy to deal with North Korea? Oh, wait. You can t. David Gorski (@gorskon) August 10, 2017You literally haven't even started working yet. Calvin (@calvinstowell) August 10, 2017You spent yesterday golfing with the owner of a staffing agency and his buds. You're the last person to tell anybody to get back to work. pic.twitter.com/IJHxcxPCA6 P Resists (@4everNeverTrump) August 10, 2017The funniest thing about this is that you probably attacked McConnell for not working hard enough yesterday WHILE YOU WERE GOLFING! pic.twitter.com/1opCTqTNdP P Resists (@4everNeverTrump) August 10, 2017Stay on vacation, you are not well and are a huge detriment to this country. CJ Vanston (@cjvanston) August 10, 2017How's golfing going? Adam Lance Garcia (@AdamLanceGarcia) August 10, 2017Counterpoint: you want to bang your daughter." If ivanka weren't my daughter perhaps I'd be dating her"https://t.co/m0RKVQv5O1 The Deep State (@deepstaterogue) August 10, 2017Our so-called President is a joke. When he should be focusing on the mess he created with North Korea, he is spending his time golfing and attacking Mitch McConnell for not accomplishing anything a weird way to go about things, as The Donald is eroding McConnell s effectiveness by attacking him publicly.It s time for Republicans to actually do their jobs and get Trump out of office.Featured image via Getty Images (Ian MacNicol)/screengrab | 0 |
RUSAPE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - The last time white Zimbabwean farmer Rob Smart left his land it was at gunpoint, forced out in June by riot police armed with tear gas and AK-47 assault rifles. He returned on Thursday to ululations and tears of joy from former workers and their families who were also kicked out - a jubilant return and the first sign that the president who has replaced Robert Mugabe is making good on a vow to stop illegal land seizures and restore property rights. Scores of jubilant black Zimbabweans nearly knocked the 71-year-old off his feet as he and his two children stepped out of their car and onto their land for the first time in six months. Smart s case was taken up by Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe s then vice-president who heard of Smart s violent eviction while at an investment conference in Johannesburg. Mnangagwa became president last month following a de facto coup that ended 93-year-old Mugabe s rule. In the latter half of his 37 years in power, Zimbabwe s economy collapsed, especially after the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms under the banner of post-colonial land reform. Land ownership is one of Zimbabwe s most sensitive political topics. Colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land and much of it remained in the hands of white farmers after independence in 1980 leaving many blacks effectively landless. Twenty years later, Mugabe authorized the violent invasion of many white-owned farms and justified it on the grounds that it was redressing imbalances from the colonial era. White farmers complained that well connected people used state security forces to force them off their farms, sometimes in the middle of harvesting, even after the Mugabe government indicated, some four years ago, that land seizures were over. We are overjoyed, over the moon. We thought we would never see this day coming, Smart s son, Darryn, told Reuters. Getting back to the farm has given not just us, but the whole community hope that it s a new Zimbabwe, a new country. Rob Smart, whose father said he started the farm from virgin bush in 1932, expressed confidence in the new government s pledge to protect the commercial farming sector, a mainstay of the struggling economy. It s early days but so far what they (the new government) said they are going to do they are doing, he told Reuters. We just hope this whole incident will give hope to other farmers, who ve had the same situation. Mnangagwa, who is under pressure to revive the economy ahead of elections next year, said on Thursday that he was resolute about the changes he was introducing. There is no business as usual. Things have changed, it s a new era, he said at a meeting with business leaders in South Africa. I m from the military. If it s left turn then it s left turn . If it s right turn it s right turn . No confusion. Mnangagwa s new agriculture minister, Perrance Shiri, last week ordered illegal occupiers of farms to vacate the land immediately, a move that could ultimately see some white farmers who say they were unfairly evicted return to farming. Shiri, a military hardliner who was head of the air force before being picked for the crucial ministry this month, called for unquestionable sanity on the farms . For 83-year-old Anna Matemani, whose late husband worked on the farm, Smart s return was long overdue. I m so happy he is finally back. He always helped us and the farm provides jobs for many of our young people, said the grandmother of 15, who grew up and raised her children on the farm and witnessed Rob s birth, wiping away tears. Some of the Smarts joy subsided as they walked into their ransacked farmhouses. The occupiers had looted property, including clothes, the children s toys, three guns, bottles of 100-year-old wine and Smart s late father Roy s medals from when he served with the Police Reserve Air Wing in the former Rhodesia. I m sad about my grandfather s medals, Darryn Smart said, surveying a ransacked room. You can buy tables and chairs, you can t buy that family history. But thank goodness we re here. | 1 |
Well, this is ironic Joe Biden is one of the worst when it comes to getting in your space if you happen to be female. Not sure he s the best person to introduce this song. This is yet another example of politicizing the Oscars a turnoff to viewers but loony Hollywood liberals will eat this up.Vice President Joe Biden will introduce Lady Gaga this Sunday at the 88th Academy Awards.The Los Angeles Times reports Biden, who will be in attendance for the ceremony with his wife Jill, will introduce the singer for a performance of her song Til It Happens to You, which will include a presentation aimed a combating sexual violence.After introducing the singer, the vice president will reportedly ask viewers and members of the audience to visit ItsOnUs.org and take a pledge to intervene in cases of sexual assault.Biden, who was main author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act while he was in the Senate, has called for college presidents to help end campus sexual violence. You don t want to be a school that mishandles rape. Guess what? Step up. It s time. Its absolutely time because the moral disapprobation of society is the most powerful tool for effecting change in the cultural norms that doggedly hang on, Biden said in May 2014.Lady Gaga s song Til It Happens to You and an accompanying PSA aimed at warning young women of the dangers of campus sexual assault, was released last September.Read more: Breitbart News | 1 |
Donald Trump has gotten himself in a world of trouble over his slams of Gold Star families, particularly the Khan family. He whined and cried that Khizr Khan, whose son died in Iraq, had attacked him at the DNC and he s just been defending himself, this whole time. He s brought up all the sacrifices he has made, because everything he does is totally the same thing as someone giving their life for their country.What were those sacrifices? They re listed below as part of this David Granlund cartoon that makes all of life in the spotlight very awkward if you re Trump:#NeverTrump #GoldStarFamilyDonald Trump hasn t tweeted in over 2 hours pic.twitter.com/aKkMYtdpst TrumpHasn tTweetedIn (@HeHasntTweeted) August 2, 2016Just to recap, Trump has sacrificed:Let s see the disaster that was his Atlantic City properties is enough evidence to call most of this true. Of course, he doesn t see it that way at all. He s a raving success for his entire life, and his failures are just lies made up by the evil, liberal, mainstream media.Trump University is more evidence of the above because he scammed thousands of students out of thousands of dollars each. He s done all kinds of weaseling about that, but the fact remains that Trump U. was a scam and students were left on the hook for their money and without learning anything useful, like Trump s path to riches and glory.A few days ago, Trump was asked specifically what he gave up for his country that was in any way comparable to a soldier giving up his life. He seriously thinks that he gave up as much as Captain Khan and every other soldier who s ever died, and their families, in creating those thousands of jobs he likes to brag about.He also thinks that donations are this huge sacrifice, and actually said he works very, very hard, bragged about his tremendous success, and talked up the fact that he thinks he s done a lot here. The truth is, General Draft Dodger McSmallhands created all those jobs, built all those structures, and made all those donations to enrich himself. Whatever benefits there were to society are side deals to him.And if people are hurt when his deals go south? Too bad for them, it seems.As for the future of the GOP, well, he s sounded their death knell. They re too cowardly to stand up to him and his gross insults of Gold Star families, and most of America is outraged over both Trump s statements and the GOP s lack of meaningful censure.So those are the sacrifices that Trump has really made oh wait. There are two more. He sacrificed two marriages in order to build his empire. Be still our beating hearts.Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1 |
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering tightening the vetting process for women and children seeking to enter the United States as refugees, a proposal that if adopted would bring security checks closer to those for adult men, three sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The plan could slow down refugee admissions even after the end of a 120-day ban on most refugees instituted by the Trump administration while it reviews vetting procedures. The vetting review is set to end on Oct. 24. President Donald Trump came into office in January with a goal of sharply cutting refugee admissions, in line with the hard-line immigration policies that were a focal point of the Republican’s 2016 election campaign. Trump quickly issued temporary bans on refugees and travelers from some Middle Eastern and African countries that were challenged in court. A U.S. official told reporters last month that the administration is “considering a wide range of potential measures and enhancements” to vetting. Refugees currently undergo differing levels of security checks when applying for admission to the United States, depending on the perceived risk they might present, including running their biographic and biometric data against law enforcement and intelligence databases. Women and young children go through a lower level of security screening than men, said the three sources with knowledge of the proposal, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The proposed changes would bring their security checks more in line with what is required for adult male refugees. Successive Republican and Democratic administrations have focused most of their attention on adult men who tend to join militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State in greater numbers than women. A State Department official declined to comment on any refugee vetting processes while the review is underway. The government is taking steps to “further intensify” refugee screening “to uphold the safety of the American people,” the official said. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan declined to comment, and said the administration is “finalizing security enhancement recommendations as part of the 120-day review.” A White House spokeswoman said there were “no announcements at this time.” All refugees referred for resettlement in the United States are run through a database with watch-list information, called the Consular Lookout and Support System, or CLASS. Refugees can be singled out for a higher level of review based on their age, nationality, or gender. Syrian refugees, for instance, undergo extra checks. Of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the United States in the 2016 fiscal year, about 72 percent were women or children, according to the State Department. Total processing time for refugees to enter the United States now averages about 18 to 24 months, according to the State Department. Trump’s order to halt refugee admissions so his administration could determine whether additional checks are necessary was suspended for months by federal judges. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually allowed it to go in effect for all refugees except those with close ties to the United States. Trump also lowered the maximum number of refugees to be allowed into the United States in 2017 to 50,000 from the 110,000 originally set by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The 2018 level has been set at 45,000, the lowest number in decades. | 1 |
Donald Trump has been irritating everyone lately. It has gotten to the point that even many of the most horrific conservatives can t look past the hate speech and general insanity that has accompanied The Donald s attempt to become Dictator-in-Chief. For the most part, they have been fine with Trump s bigotry: his suggestion that Muslims should be crammed into concentration camps while those not already in the country should be banned, his talk of building walls to keep brown people out of the country, his numerous racist and misogynist statements, and his support of his horrible followers beating African-Americans at his rallies. They ve even been fine with his itchy trigger finger when it comes to launching nuclear weapons.But Trump s recent attacks on a Mexican federal judge from Indiana, his rapidly-dropping poll numbers, and his slightly more reasonable remarks about gun safety regulations, have the delegates he has earned ready for mutiny. The Washington Post reports that delegates are hatching plans to stop Trump. While many others have attempted to start movements to end Trump for good, this time it s different the people who make the rules are the ones leading the movement:The delegates are angered by Trump s recent comments on gun control, his racial attacks on a federal judge and his sinking poll numbers. They are convinced that Trump is an insufficiently conservative candidate and believe they will find enough like-minded Republicans within the next month to change party rules and allow delegates to vote for whomever they want, regardless of who won their state caucus or primary. This literally is an Anybody but Trump movement, said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we re not worried about that. We re just doing that job to make sure that he s not the face of our party. The fresh wave of anti-Trump organizing comes as a growing number of Republicans have signaled that they will not support Trump for president. In addition, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who is slated to chair the Republican National Convention next month in Cleveland, said in remarks released Friday that House Republicans should follow their conscience on whether to support Trump.The new anti-Trump movement is pushing for a change to party rules that would allow them to vote for whomever they want if their conscience (term used loosely because our friends on the Right don t have those) doesn t allow them to support that person.On Friday, Trump dismissed the plot against him. I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries, Trump said. I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying. People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot but there is no mechanism for it to happen, the billionaire concluded. But those in charge of the latest effort to shut Trump down say they do not have a specific candidate in mind.According to those involved, at least 30 delegates in 15 states have signed on a small fraction of the more than 2,400 delegates who will be at the convention in Cleveland. Trump just continues to embarrass himself and his party and this is not going to let up, Iowa GOP delegate Cecil Stinemetz told the Post. Trump just continues to embarrass himself and his party and this is not going to let up. Will the movement succeed? Will Trump continue to embarrass his party and Americans as a whole.Featured image via Getty Images/Rob Jenkins | 0 |
Everyone involved with Donald Trump s campaign seems to have one job, and it s the same job: Explaining why whatever completely horrible thing Trump said or did, this time, is really totally okay. Today, it s Eric Trump s turn to justify daddy s latest 3 a.m. temper tantrum on Twitter, in which he told voters to check out a former Miss Universe s non-existent sex tape. Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Eric said that at least it proves his father doesn t sleep, even though this can admittedly be a downfall sometimes. At least my father s up at 3 o clock in the morning, right? Which, you know, is great. Maybe that energy is sometimes a little bit of a downfall of his, but he s an amazing guy, and he ll be there to answer the call, you know, when things go bad. And, you know, I think people appreciate that. Not everyone sees Trump s lack of sleep as a virtue, though. Some of The Donald s opponents say his late night Twitter rants are proof of just how unfit for office he is. What kind of a man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories? his rival Hillary Clinton asked last week.Vice President Joe Biden took aim at Trump s early morning tweetstorm on Monday during a rally in Orlando, Fl. You don t have to be a psychologist or psychiatrist. But what kind of leader awakens at 3 o clock in the morning and tweets Hillary helped disgusting Alicia M. become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in a debate ? Or 3:30 in the morning. This guy wants to be president of the United States of America? Biden said.In Trump s Twitter rant, he claimed that Clinton had been duped by Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who had been fat-shamed by the GOP nominee and suggested that the Democratic nominee had helped her gain citizenship.Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an "angel" without checking her past, which is terrible! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Trump then tried to defend himself by bragging that at least he was awake at such a ridiculous hour.For those few people knocking me for tweeting at three o'clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 0 |
A 10-year-old girl smacked down Donald Trump, and it was amazing.On Saturday, the Huffington Post interviewed Lexi, an adorable Hillary Clinton volunteer who had absolutely no problem shredding the Republican billionaire when asked how she feels about him.Lexi slammed Trump for having zero experience in government and compared him to her brother who thinks he knows everything. Number one, he doesn t have any experience, at all, Lexi said. And he sits there and thinks, Oh I m Mr. Donald Trump, I know everything, which is sort of like my brother. She also broke the bad news to Trump s supporters that if they think they ll get money by voting for Trump, they are sorely mistaken. He s just rich, a lot of people just vote for him because they think they ll get some money, too. But that s not it. You think you re going to get the money, but that s not the case. Lexi then took aim at Trump s xenophobia and racism and made it clear what parents who vote for Trump can expect of their children s future should he get in the White House. Oh, and she also had positive things to say about Bernie Sanders, who she sees as someone who is building an environment for the kids. It s ridiculous because I mean, look at these people, your best friend you may not know is Muslim or Jewish. And Bernie Sanders, he s Jewish. You don t see anybody talking about that. He s just building an environment for the kids, their parents are voting for Donald Trump, but little do they know that their kids will grow up not having a good education and not having good jobs. Lexi then warned that if people fail to show up and vote on Election Day in November, it could mean a Trump victory. And she thinks his hair is gross. If you don t vote, then Mr. Donald Trump will be president. I don t think that s his real hair, being president. His hair, look at it! Look at it! It s gross. I can t believe that s his real hair. Here s the video via Huffington Post. Lexi s interview can be found at the 7:30 mark.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>HuffPost s Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani takes us through Hillary HQ with chicken & waffles on primary day in S.C. (Yes, chicken & waffles.)Posted by HuffPost Politics on Saturday, February 27, 2016Donald Trump just got his ass handed to him by what he fears most: an intelligent young girl who is going to be a strong woman when she grows up. Featured image via YouTube screen capture | 1 |
Wow! Thrill up his leg for Obama, Chris Matthews does a stunning 180 on his support for Hillary and boldly calls out any person who is still planning to support her. He accuses her supporters of being too dainty to stand up for America. Watch him tell his liberal viewers that the only chance we have to turn this nation around is to vote for Trump. If you like the way things are the way they are headed in this country. If you d like to continue the destruction of our manufacturing base, and the jobs that went with it. If you like the uncontrollable immigration, if you like the string of stupid wars from Iraq to Libya to Syria. If you want to say yes to all of that, if you want to keep this all the way it is, fine then vote for Hillary Clinton. If you don t like the way things are headed, you ve got a chance to really shake the system at its roots. If you wake up on Election Day and it s the same as it is today, if it s the same 4 or 5 or 8 years from now, remember you had a chance really change it up but you were too dainty to do it. https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU7/status/793323182262358017Liberal champion of union members Michael Moore stunned liberals and union bosses everywhere when he came out with this passionate support for Donald Trump:***Language warning***Former Democratic pollster for Hillary makes a stunning admission to Fox News host Harris Faulkner that he won t support Hillary: I still share her worldview and am much closer to her approach to policies than I am to Donald Trump. That said, with America facing a potential constitutional crisis after her election, I am not able, under the circumstances we are now facing, to vote for Secretary Clinton. | 0 |
MONROVIA (Reuters) - After a dozen years of recovery under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring peace after civil war turned her country into a wasteland, Liberians are hopeful about their first democratic power transfer for 73 years. Twenty candidates are standing to replace Johnson Sirleaf in a first round on Tuesday. With nobody likely to win a majority outright, the top two are expected to face each other in a run-off in around a month. While the election campaign has been rambunctious, it has been mainly peaceful so far, and most expectations are that it will come off without bloodshed. Johnson Sirleaf, 78, has many accomplishments to boast since she became Africa s first modern female head of state. The economy is four times the size it was when she took office in 2005. The gangs of drug addled youths who raped and mutilated their way across the nation during a civil war that ended in 2003 are a vivid but receding memory. Charles Taylor, the warlord who ruled in Liberia s darkest days, is now in a British jail, serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity, including terrorism, pillage, rape, murder and sexual slavery the first former head of state convicted by an international tribunal since Nuremburg. Yet the country is still one of the world s poorest. It survived another existential crisis three years ago with an outbreak of the Ebola virus that overwhelmed its health services. Residents complain of corruption from officials and poor public services, and say that while they are thankful for the peace that Johnson Sirleaf brought, they are excited about the prospect of change. For me, the only thing about this administration is peace. I gave her a plus in that, said Timothy Sambulah, a taxi driver in the capital Monrovia. But, he said: She has not been able to fight corruption. She failed to deal with people who took money to build their big houses. FRONT-RUNNERS INCLUDE WEAH Among the front-runners seen as likely to win a place in the run-off are Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, representing the ruling Unity Party, and football star George Weah, who lost to Johnson Sirleaf in 2005. Weah has served in the senate since 2014 for the opposition Congress for Democratic Change. Candidates have held enthusiastic rallies attended by thousands of supporters wearing T-shirts, drenched by downpours in a carnival atmosphere. Many have promised a break from the past. One poster carried around by opponents read: Another six years of this... with a photograph of a distressed woman seated in a damp home with walls made of corrugated iron. There will be no business as usual. We are going to end the era of selective justice so people are given equal protection under the law, Charles Walker Brumskine, a lawyer running as the candidate of the Liberty Party, third biggest in Congress, told Reuters. But one diplomat said it would be difficult to accelerate development just as millions of dollars in aid money pledged during the Ebola outbreak is drying up. Liberia, Africa s oldest republic, was founded by freed U.S. slaves in the 19th century. Its recovery since the war has been remarkable. GDP for the country of 4.6 million reached $2.1 billion last year up from just $550 million the year Sirleaf Johnson took office. A former finance minister in the 1970s who fled after a coup and worked for the World Bank and Citibank during her exile, she restored a measure of professionalism to a government that had been seized by a military junta in 1980 and collapsed under the predation of the warlords. Outside her home country, Johnson Sirleaf has served as an ambassador for peace in an unstable region, donning colorful headscarves on diplomatic missions such as one last year to persuade Gambia s ruler Yahya Jammeh to step down. Still, many Liberians say she failed to stamp out graft and nepotism that have held the country back. Her son Robert Sirleaf was a senior advisor and ran state oil firm NOCAL, which collapsed after his tenure as crude prices slumped in 2015. Her other son, Charles, was among 45 government officials suspended in 2012 for failing to declare their assets to anti-corruption authorities. She declared her own assets this year. Last year a grand jury indicted government officials, including the speaker of parliament on charges including bribery. High level corruption has been a slap in the face for Liberians, most of whom live in abject poverty, said Liberian political analyst Robtel Neajai Pailey who also criticized what she described as hero worship of Johnson Sirleaf. (This version of the story corrects the gender of the pronoun in final paragraph to she from he, referring to expert) | 0 |
On Friday, the White House released its 2015 National Security Strategy, an official document defining the administration's approach to international politics. A lot of the document is pretty uninformative; the ratio of substance to platitudes ("our economy is the largest, most open, and most innovative in the world") is low. But this sentence, pretty early on in the report, is actually a pithy but insightful encapsulation of President Barack Obama's core approach to foreign policy:
This cuts to the core of what can often confuse people about Obama's approach to the world. Though he's constantly intervening in foreign crises — toppling Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, bombing al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and so on — he's also deeply invested in reducing America's involvement in major wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.
To understand this approach, you have to look at each half of the above sentence in turn. Each reflects a core tenet of the way the Obama administration approaches the world.
Let's focus on the first half of the sentence: "there are no global problems that can be solved without the United States." That's meant pretty literally. On basically every major world crisis — containing the fallout from the global financial crisis, rolling back climate change, combating ISIS, punishing Russian expansionism, or curing Ebola — the United States has played a major role in organizing the international response.
That's because Obama, like basically every president since the Cold War began, has bought into what's now called the "bipartisan consensus" on foreign policy. To most people, the consensus is basically invisible. That's because almost no one on either side of the aisle bothers to debate its basic premises. But nonetheless, it's defined American foreign policy for decades. It rests on basically three ideas:
If these statements sound banal, it's because, for the most part, they are. Foreign policy intellectuals on both the left and the right regularly criticize these ideas, but no one with serious power in the US government does (at least in public).
You see this pretty clearly in Obama's actions. Bombing ISIS, organizing a coalition to end Libya's civil war, and sending US troops to West Africa to help stop the spread Ebola are all premised on the assumption that the world's problems are also America's.
The general consensus on principles obviously doesn't translate into bipartisan agreements on specific policy issues. That's where the second part of the sentence comes in: there are "few [global problems] that can be solved by the United States alone."
This is a pretty unmistakable reference to the Bush administration. Obama rode to power as a critic of the Iraq war; a core part of his administration's strategic doctrine is to avoid Bush's aggressive, unilateral uses of American power. If Bush pushed the hawkish bounds of the bipartisan consensus, Obama is at times — though not always — somewhere on the dovish end.
In some cases, that means avoiding military action and trusting in multilateral diplomacy and deterrence to resolve conflicts (Iran, East Asia). In others, it means relying on non-military means of punishing bad actors (Iran again, Russia). In others still, it means marshaling global coalitions, but limiting America's up-front military role as much as possible and consistent with the mission's objectives (Libya, ISIS).
Obama's approach to each of these global crises is shaped by a keen desire to avoid Bush-style protracted wars. Even in cases where Obama really does act unilaterally, such as with targeted killings or the Afghanistan surge, he tries to put limits on those actions to keep them from escalating beyond control.
You might think this approach is too cautious — or, for many critics of the consensus, too aggressive still. But one thing it's not is "withdrawing from the world" or "abandoning America's allies," as some critics have alleged.
By virtually every statistical measure imaginable, the United States is the world's leading power, and deeply entangled in political conflicts around the world. Obama has done nothing to change that. His approach may or may not be to your liking on specific issues but, as the NSS reinforces, the broad strokes of his approach are pretty consistent with what America has been doing in the world for decades. | 1 |
US abstains from UN vote calling for end to Cuban embargo US abstains from UN vote calling for end to Cuban embargo By 0 94
The US government abstained from the UN vote on a resolution calling for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba, for the first time in 24 years.
The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution with 191 votes in favor on Wednesday. The only other abstention, besides the US, was Israel. The vote is non-binding but it can have political weight.
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described the abstention as a “positive step for the future of improving relations between the United States and Cuba,” according to Reuters.
Rodriguez said in September that the embargo cost Cuba $4.6 billion last year, and the full damage over the length of the 50-year embargo was estimated at $125.9 billion.
When it was first announced that the US government would abstain from the vote, the entire General Assembly applauded.
“Abstaining on this resolution does not mean that the United States agrees with all of the policies and practices of the Cuban government. We do not,” Samantha Power the US Ambassador to the United Nations told the General Assembly on Tuesday.
“We are profoundly concerned by the serious human rights violations that the Cuban government continues to commit with impunity against its own people,” she said, according to AP.
The Obama administration began normalizing relations with the Communist-run country in at the end of 2014, easing trade and travel restrictions. On July 20, 2015, diplomatic relations were restored, and embassies in the two countries were reopened.
Lifting the full embargo will take the support of the Republican-run Congress, which remains critical of the administration’s efforts, arguing it offered too many concessions to Cuba and accepted little in return, especially on human rights and the restoration of expropriated property.
Obama made the first visit to Havana by a US president in 88 years in March.
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 1 |
On Saturday, Bernie Sanders released a much-anticipated statement on Michigan s governor Rick Snyder and the Flint water crisis. In the statement, Sanders calls for Snyder to resign. There are no excuses. The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint s water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned. Thousands may have been exposed to potential brain damage from lead. Gov. Snyder should resign, Sanders said in a press release.In April 2014, Flint s emergency manager forced the city to switch from using Detroit s water system to using the Flint River for water. The decision to do so was touted as a means to cut costs for the city. It turned out to be a disaster. There is an unusual amount of salt in the Flint River. The river is also extremely contaminated. So when the salt began to corrode the pipes of Flint s water system, lead leaked into people s drinking water.One study found the pipe corrosion problem could have been solved for as little as $100 a day. Now it is estimated that it will cost up to $1.5 billion dollars to fix Flint s water system. There has been massive outcry over the water system transition since day one. When evidence was shown that Flint s water had become contaminated, Snyder and the emergency manager choose not to act. That s why Snyder is currently being investigated by the EPA.Just before the new year, Snyder released an official apology to the people of Flint and Michigan. Considering people are so angry at Snyder, that they are calling for his arrest, the apology has been almost universally lambasted. I want the Flint community to know how very sorry I am that this happened. And I want all Michigan citizens to know that we will learn from this experience, because Flint is not the only city that has an aging infrastructure, Snyder said in the apology.Sanders, like so many others was critical of that apology. Because of the conduct by Gov. Snyder s administration and his refusal to take responsibility, families will suffer from lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Children in Flint will be plagued with brain damage and other health problems. The people of Flint deserve more than an apology, Sanders said.Sanders is absolutely right, Snyder should resign. It is the only move he could make that would leave him with a scrape of dignity. Every moment that Snyder continues to stay in office, is a slap in the face to residents of Flint and the rest of Michigan. Though, I am sure Snyder won t resign.Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said on Monday that senators for now are too divided to keep working on healthcare overhaul legislation and that he and other senior Republicans will take that message to the White House. President Donald Trump has been urging lawmakers not to drop the matter, despite a series of failed votes last week. “There’s just too much animosity and we’re too divided on healthcare,” Hatch said in an interview with Reuters. He said he would prefer Congress not appropriate cost-sharing subsidies that help make Obamacare plans affordable but added, “I think we’re going to have to do that.” Trump over the weekend urged Republican senators to stick with trying to pass an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama’s signature domestic initiative known as Obamacare. Trump made replacing Obamacare a key part of his presidential campaign and Republicans have promised for years to repeal or replace the law. The House of Representatives has passed an overhaul but the Senate has been unable to do so despite having worked on it for months. Three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against repealing even part of the law at the end of last week. “Don’t give up Republican senators, the world is watching: Repeal & Replace ...,” Trump tweeted on Sunday while White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the Senate should stay in session to get something done on healthcare, even if it means postponing votes on other issues. Hatch said although he understood Mulvaney’s position, he did not think he was right. The senator said he saw no real desire on the part of Democrats to work together on the healthcare issue “and I have to say some Republicans are at fault there, too.” Hatch said he had not given up on healthcare. “I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterwards but we need to move ahead on tax reform,” Hatch said. Asked who would relay the message to the Trump administration, Hatch laughed and said, “I’m going to be one who does that,” adding that he expected Republican leaders of the House and Senate, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, would do so, too. Hatch said lawmakers would need to appropriate the cost-sharing subsidy payments that the administration has been making. Trump has threatened to cut off these subsidies, which help insurers keep deductibles down for low-income people who get health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. “I’m for helping the poor, always have been. And I don’t think they should be bereft of healthcare,” Hatch said. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton’s summer ends abruptly on Monday. For several weeks, the presidential frontrunner has toured the homes of America’s rich and famous, hosted by Justin Timberlake, welcomed by Magic Johnson and serenaded by Jimmy Buffett, Jon Bon Jovi and Paul McCartney.
It all helped swell Democratic coffers by a record $143m in August, crucial ammunition for the 64 days of TV advertising left between now and the general election. It also allowed an exhausted campaign to recharge its batteries following months on the road and July’s convention in Philadelphia.
But on Labor Day, Clinton swaps the beaches of Cape Cod and Long Island for the rust-belt towns of Ohio and Iowa, scenes of her bruising primary race against Bernie Sanders and home to a stubbornly loyal pockets of blue-collar support for Donald Trump.
She won’t be alone. Monday’s events in Cleveland and the Quad Cities, industrial towns bordering Iowa and Illinois, will debut a new campaign plane, large enough to carry the traveling reporters who were hitherto consigned to tagging along behind.
Journalists have complained for months about a lack of access to Clinton, who has not held a conference for 276 days. Her campaign has accused the media of fixating on that daily tally and ignoring the interviews she gives to select cable anchors or local news stations.
“This 257 days nonsense is ludicrous. When has it been the norm that a presidential candidate regularly does press conferences?” spokesman Nick Merrill askedreporters on Thursday. He then promised one “soon”.
The new aircraft is nothing if not symbolic: it launches the start of an intense period of travel and scrutiny during the debates and rallies before election day on 8 November.
The plane also provides room for key Clinton aides to escape their headquarters in Brooklyn and gain important time with the boss. Her loyal gatekeeper Huma Abedin will likely stand guard, returning to the plane after a period of absence that aides insist has nothing to do with the very public break-up of her marriage to former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Campaign manager Robby Mook and chairman John Podesta have their own challenge: working out where to direct the plane. Some campaign destinations are obvious, such as the swing states of Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa and North Carolina. Some in rust-belt states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan are getting more attention this time thanks to Trump’s appeal to the white working class. Colorado and Virginia look well out of his reach.
The bigger question is whether to take the battle into enemy territory. Trump has proved so unpopular among some Republican voters, minorities and women, that deep red territory is perhaps in play. States such as Arizona, Utah and Georgia, which haven’t voted Democrat in decades, could be vulnerable in the winner-take-all electoral college system – and Clinton has superior fundraising and a vastly more organised network of campaign offices.
Her campaign is at least testing the waters. On Friday, Clinton began airing TV ads in Arizona, where Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by nearly 10 points. Clinton’s husband is the only Democrat to have won the state in a presidential election since 1952.
Her campaign is also spending money in Nebraska, one of two states that splits electoral college votes and therefore offers Clinton a chance to peel off electors from the relatively liberal city of Omaha. Even Utah, where Trump has riled conservative Mormons, has seen the Clinton campaign open a field office.
Whether these moves amount to a radical new strategy or clever feints to trick Trump is not clear. Some inside Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters are reportedly cheering that moves into Republican heartlands appear to have Trump spending time and money in places he ought to take for granted – for instance, by staging a major immigration speech in Arizona.
Yet the confidence could easily become complacency too. Clinton’s healthy lead following the party’s convention has eroded in recent weeks, slipping down to the low single digits in some key states. Not only are the headline polls too close for comfort, but Americans still stubbornly dislike Clinton and Trump by enormous margins. A record number of Americans now say they dislike Clinton, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that showed 41% of Americans have a favorable impression of her, while 56% have an unfavorable one.
Though she enjoys a powerful coalition of support in Washington, particularly from the Obama administration, political surrogates cannot necessarily translate her shower their popularity on friends.
“This ain’t over man. This is not over,” Joe Biden warned at a rally for Clinton in Cleveland on Thursday, where one supporter confessed he was actually planning to vote Trump but came along because he just liked the vice-president.
The scepticism of many independent voters may also help explain the decision by Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri to shield the candidate from the rough-and-tumble of open press conferences, where generally risks are high and rewards low.
Clinton’s campaign has expressed frustration with the questions of trustworthiness, particularly over her private emails system that appear to reinforce a reputation of favoritism and privilege built up by the Clintons. Aides also complain that she does not get the recognition she deserves for developing many more new policy ideas than most candidates.
“People criticise me for having so many plans,” Clinton told a lukewarm audience of military veterans in Cincinnati on Wednesday. “People say, Oh there she goes with another plan about mental health, or whatever,” she added. “But I have this old fashioned idea that if you are going to ask to be president if you have to have a plan.”
Yet the campaign is under no illusion about the nature of this year’s fight. If hunkering down away from the press while outspending Trump – she has raised more money than the GDP of small Pacific nations – is what it takes to beat him, then so be it.
“This is not a normal election,” Clinton said at the American Legion convention in Cincinnati. “This election shouldn’t be about ideology, it’s not just about differences over policy. It’s about who has the experience and temperament to serve as president and commander and chief.”
“The stakes this fall are as high as any election in our lifetimes.”
Huma Abedin, Clinton’s right-hand woman and gatekeeper. Robby Mook, the campaign manager in charge of her election machine. John Podesta, family friend, campaign chairman and former chief of staff to Bill Clinton. Jennifer Palmieri, former Obama communications director now fielding flak for Clinton. Neera Tanden, key figure in transition team preparing the clan for power.
The campaign slogan “stronger together” captures Clinton’s broad belief in a more socially inclusive America, but the underlying policies range widely from a jobs program and infrastructure spending, to making college more affordable and tackling climate change. On trade and social security, she has moved to the left, rhetorically, at least.
Clinton’s experience as secretary of state, senator and activist first lady make her one of the most qualified candidates to run for office. Supporters also point to her resilience in the face of setbacks, long track record of social activism and historic achievement as the first woman nominee of a major party.
The biggest handicap according to opinion polls is a perceived lack of trust among voters, something exacerbated by years of attacks on Clinton family “scandals” and an ongoing controversy over her private email server. Voters sometimes also talk about finding her inauthentic and lacking warmth.
African Americans, women, Latinos, college-educated men – in short, a vast swath of the increasingly diverse US electorate. Geographically, the strongest support for Democrats is heavily concentrated on the coasts however. | 1 |
The Westboro Baptist Church doesn t leave much room for dissension among its ranks, so when a Phelps family member speaks on an issue, you can pretty well assume that their sentiment mirrors that of the entire cult. That s what makes the conversation The Daily Caller had with Lee Ann Phelps, whose husband Timothy is the late Fred Phelps son, all the more interesting. Talking politics at all with a cult family that hates everyone is typically a pointless endeavor, but in this case something stuck out that is just too good to pass up.Phelps said she couldn t support Donald Trump for president because he is too fringe. Yes, you read that right. Still, you ll want to take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the laughter that is undoubtedly making its way to the surface when you read it again: Donald Trump is too fringe for the Westboro Baptist Church. The same cult that pickets just about anything imaginable with such incendiary slogans as God Hates F*gs and America Is Doomed thinks that Trump is too far out there on too many issues to be considered for the presidency.According to Merriam-Webster, fringe means: Not part of the mainstream; unconventional, peripheral, or extreme. There is nothing in America more unconventional, peripheral or extreme than the Westboro Baptist Church. At least there used to be nothing that compared. Now we have a failed businessman masquerading as a success declaring racism and hate to be what will make America great again. You could almost wager that if you were to ask just about anyone who their guess would be for a WBC endorsement, Donald Trump would win hands down.While she says she isn t voting, Phelps has declined to weigh in on the Democratic candidates at all.Featured image from Wikimedia | 0 |
The obnoxious anti-Trump Hallie Jackson of NBC is constantly trying to play gotcha with Sean Spicer on policy issues related to President Trump. Normally, we wouldn t post a video of a reporter in such an embarrassing situation while on camera, but NBC s Hallie Jackson is a special case, so we ll make an exception. Here s a little dose of karma for the anti-Trump Chief White House correspondent for NBC Hallie Jackson.*Thinking to myself#MSNBC #HallieJackson is a HACK & always unfair to @POTUSso should I tweet this?OF COURSE #MAGA #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/3qyqPA4Ma3 USA OVER PARTY (@michaelbeatty3) June 26, 2017Watch NBC s Hallie Jackson get Spiced after she attempted to mock Republicans for working to keep the seat former US Rep Tom Price vacated in Georgia after joining the Trump administration in DC. Jackson tries, but fails to make the case that the GOP is in trouble because Price s seat in what is traditionally a Republican leaning district is in jeopardy. As we all know, NBC s Hallie Jackson wasted a lot of time manufacturing a story about Georgia s over-rated special election. After over $50 million was spent in the special election to promote the Democrat candidate (most of which came from out-of-state donors), the so-called rising star Democrat John Ossoff ended up losing the seat to Republican Karen Handel.Here s the obnoxious Hallie Jackson attempting to trip up Sean Spicer over tweets by President Trump:*The embarrassing video of Jackson happened several months ago, but since it s being recirculated on Twitter, we thought we d share it for our followers who love Hallie Jackson as much as we do. | 0 |
21st Century Wire says The Washington Post has been caught lying and deceiving the public twice in the last few weeks pushing the unfounded mainstream media meme that Russia invaded the U.S. electric grid and another claiming that Russia is behind the explosion of so-called fake news. Considering that the power grid story was proven to be a fake news story that WashPost had to later retract We have to consider the legitimacy of any further claims the outlet has against Russia as particularly dubious.The Intercept has some interesting analysis on how outlets such as WashPost not only deceive the public, push false state sponsored talking points but also how they profit financially from this collusion. Glenn Greenwald The InterceptIn the past six weeks, the Washington Post published two blockbuster stories about the Russian threat that went viral: one on how Russia is behind a massive explosion of fake news, the other on how it invaded the U.S. electric grid. Both articles were fundamentally false. Each now bears a humiliating editor s note grudgingly acknowledging that the core claims of the story were fiction: The first note was posted a full two weeks later to the top of the original article; the other was buried the following day at the bottom.The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no penetration of the U.S. electricity grid as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor s note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.But while these debacles are embarrassing for the paper, they are also richly rewarding. That s because journalists including those at the Post aggressively hype and promote the original, sensationalistic false stories, ensuring that they go viral, generating massive traffic for the Post (the paper s executive editor, Marty Baron, recently boasted about how profitable the paper has become).After spreading the falsehoods far and wide, raising fear levels and manipulating U.S. political discourse in the process (both Russia stories were widely hyped on cable news), journalists who spread the false claims subsequently note the retraction or corrections only in the most muted way possible, and often not at all. As a result, only a tiny fraction of people who were exposed to the original false story end up learning of the retractions.Baron himself, editorial leader of the Post, is a perfect case study in this irresponsible tactic. It was Baron who went to Twitter on the evening of November 24 to announce the Post s expos of the enormous reach of Russia s fake news operation, based on what he heralded as the findings of independent researchers. Baron s tweet went all over the place; to date, it has been re-tweeted more than 3,000 times, including by many journalists with their own large followings:Russian propaganda effort helped spread fake news during election, say independent researchers https://t.co/3ETVXWw16Q Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 25, 2016But after that story faced a barrage of intense criticism from Adrian Chen in the New Yorker ( propaganda about Russia propaganda ), Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone ( shameful, disgusting ), my own article, and many others including legal threats from the sites smeared as Russian propaganda outlets by the Post s independent researchers the Post finally added its lengthy editor s note distancing itself from the anonymous group that provided the key claims of its story ( The Post does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot s findings and since publication of the Post s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list ).What did Baron tell his followers about this editor s note that gutted the key claims of the story he hyped? Nothing. Not a word. To date, he has been publicly silent about these revisions. Having spread the original claims to tens of thousands of people, if not more, he took no steps to ensure that any of them heard about the major walk back on the article s most significant, inflammatory claims. He did, however, ironically find the time to promote a different Post story about how terrible and damaging Fake News is: Pizzagate shows how fake news hurts real people https://t.co/cOh7RZ4RqK Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 26, 2016WHETHER THE POST S false stories here can be distinguished from what is commonly called Fake News is, at this point, a semantic dispute, particularly since Fake News has no cogent definition. Defenders of Fake News as a distinct category typically emphasize intent in order to differentiate it from bad journalism. That s really just a way of defining Fake News so as to make it definitionally impossible for mainstream media outlets like the Post ever to be guilty of it (much the way terrorism is defined to ensure that the U.S. government and its allies cannot, by definition, ever commit it).But what was the Post s motive in publishing two false stories about Russia that, very predictably, generated massive attention, traffic, and political impact? Was it ideological and political namely, devotion to the D.C. agenda of elevating Russia into a grave threat to U.S. security? Was it to please its audience knowing that its readers, in the wake of Trump s victory, want to be fed stories about Russian treachery? Was it access and source servitude proving it will serve as a loyal and uncritical repository for any propaganda intelligence officials want disseminated? Was it profit to generate revenue through sensationalistic click-bait headlines with a reckless disregard to whether its stories are true? In an institution as large as the Post, with numerous reporters and editors participating in these stories, it s impossible to identify any one motive as definitive.Whatever the motives, the effects of these false stories are exactly the same as those of whatever one regards as Fake News. The false claims travel all over the internet, deceiving huge numbers into believing them. The propagators of the falsehoods receive ample profit from their false, viral news. And there is no accountability of the kind that would disincentivize a repeat of the behavior. (That the Post ultimately corrects its false story does not distinguish it from classic Fake News sites, which also sometimes do the same.)And while it s true that all media outlets make mistakes, and that even the most careful journalism sometimes errs, those facts do not remotely mitigate the Post s behavior here. In these cases, they did not make good faith mistakes after engaging in careful journalism. With both stories, they were reckless (at best) from the start, and the glaring deficiencies in the reporting were immediately self-evident (which is why both stories were widely attacked upon publication).As this excellent timeline by Kalev Leetaru documents, the Post did not even bother to contact the utility companies in question the most elementary step of journalistic responsibility until after the story was published. Intelligence officials insisting on anonymity so as to ensure no accountability whispered to them that this happened, and despite how significant the consequences would be, they rushed to print it with no verification at all. This is not a case of good journalism producing inaccurate reporting; it is the case of a media outlet publishing a story that it knew would produce massive benefits and consequences without the slightest due diligence or care.THE MOST IRONIC aspect of all this is that it is mainstream journalists the very people who have become obsessed with the crusade against Fake News who play the key role in enabling and fueling this dissemination of false stories. They do so not only by uncritically spreading them, but also by taking little or no steps to notify the public of their falsity.The Post s epic debacle this weekend regarding its electric grid fiction vividly illustrates this dynamic. As I noted on Saturday, many journalists reacted to this story the same way they do every story about Russia: They instantly click and re-tweet and share the story without the slightest critical scrutiny. That these claims are constantly based on the whispers of anonymous officials and accompanied by no evidence whatsoever gives those journalists no pause at all; any official claim that Russia and Putin are behind some global evil is instantly treated as Truth. That s a significant reason papers like the Post are incentivized to recklessly publish stories of this kind. They know they will be praised and rewarded no matter the accuracy or reliability because their Cause the agenda is the right one.On Friday night, immediately after the Post s story was published, one of the most dramatic pronouncements came from the New York Times s editorial writer Brent Staples, who said this:Now that this story has collapsed and been fully retracted, what has Staples done to note that this tweet was false? Just like Baron, absolutely nothing Continue this article at The InterceptREAD MORE RUSSIAN HACK NEWS AT: 21WIRE Russian Hack Files | 1 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday it will continue to handle North Korean trade issues in a way that benefits peace, stability and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. Ministry spokesman Gao Feng made the comment at a routine media briefing. | 1 |
Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount Zion By Press TV on October 27, 2016
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US 2016 presidential election
GOP nominee Donald Trump does not believe that settlements built by the Zionist regime of Israel in Palestine are illegal, his advisor on Israel says.
David Friedman, who was campaigning for the New York billionaire at a restaurant on Mount Zion (Jabel Sahyoun) in East Jerusalem al-Quds, made the comments to AFP after the Wednesday rally.
“I don’t think he believes that the settlements are illegal,” Friedman said.
He also said the former reality TV star is “tremendously skeptical” about the so-called two-state solution, promoted by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama during his eight years in office, but to no avail. David Friedman (L) exits the Federal Building with Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump (R) following their appearance at US Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey, on February 25, 2010. (Photo via Bloomberg News)
The Obama administration has already voiced criticism over Tel Aviv’s expansionist policies, considered illegal by the international community.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. A Palestinian man searches through his belongings after his family home was demolished by Israelis in Beit Hanina, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo (background) in East Jerusalem al-Quds, on October 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
All Israeli settlements are illegal under the international law. Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Guaranteeing enmity with Tehran
Some 150 people, including extremist Israelis and evangelical Christians, took part in the Trump rally in on Wednesday.
Friedman echoed previous remarks by Trump, saying the real estate mogul would recognize East Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel if he wins the White House in the US 2016 presidential election.
A short video message by Trump was also played at the event, in which he said, “Together we will stand up to the enemies like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people. Together we will make America and Israel safe again.”
According to leaked emails from March 2015 by former US secretary of state Colin Powell, the regime has pointed 200 nuclear weapons at the Iranian capital. Related Posts: | 0 |
WASHINGTON — In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators. American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence. Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates. The disclosures about the contacts came as new questions were raised about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s ties to the Russians. According to a former senior American official, he met with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, twice in the past year. The details of the meetings were not clear, but the contact appeared to contradict testimony Mr. Sessions provided Congress during his confirmation hearing in January when he said he “did not have communications with the Russians. ” Mr. Sessions said in a statement late Wednesday that he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. ” “I have no idea what this allegation is about,” he said. “It is false. ” Mr. Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with Russian officials, and at one point he openly suggested that American spy agencies had cooked up intelligence suggesting that the Russian government had tried to meddle in the presidential election. Mr. Trump has accused the Obama administration of hyping the Russia story line as a way to discredit his new administration. At the Obama White House, Mr. Trump’s statements stoked fears among some that intelligence could be covered up or destroyed — or its sources exposed — once power changed hands. What followed was a push to preserve the intelligence that underscored the deep anxiety with which the White House and American intelligence agencies had come to view the threat from Moscow. It also reflected the suspicion among many in the Obama White House that the Trump campaign might have colluded with Russia on election email hacks — a suspicion that American officials say has not been confirmed. Former senior Obama administration officials said that none of the efforts were directed by Mr. Obama. Sean Spicer, the Trump White House spokesman, said, “The only new piece of information that has come to light is that political appointees in the Obama administration have sought to create a false narrative to make an excuse for their own defeat in the election. ” He added, “There continues to be no there, there. ” As Inauguration Day approached, Obama White House officials grew convinced that the intelligence was damning and that they needed to ensure that as many people as possible inside government could see it, even if people without security clearances could not. Some officials began asking specific questions at intelligence briefings, knowing the answers would be archived and could be easily unearthed by investigators — including the Senate Intelligence Committee, which in early January announced an inquiry into Russian efforts to influence the election. At intelligence agencies, there was a push to process as much raw intelligence as possible into analyses, and to keep the reports at a relatively low classification level to ensure as wide a readership as possible across the government — and, in some cases, among European allies. This allowed the upload of as much intelligence as possible to Intellipedia, a secret wiki used by American analysts to share information. There was also an effort to pass reports and other sensitive materials to Congress. In one instance, the State Department sent a cache of documents marked “secret” to Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland days before the Jan. 20 inauguration. The documents, detailing Russian efforts to intervene in elections worldwide, were sent in response to a request from Mr. Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and were shared with Republicans on the panel. “This situation was serious, as is evident by President Obama’s call for a review — and as is evident by the United States response,” said Eric Schultz, a spokesman for Mr. Obama. “When the intelligence community does that type of comprehensive review, it is standard practice that a significant amount of information would be compiled and documented. ” The opposite happened with the most sensitive intelligence, including the names of sources and the identities of foreigners who were regularly monitored. Officials tightened the already small number of people who could access that information. They knew the information could not be kept from the new president or his top advisers, but wanted to narrow the number of people who might see the information, officials said. More than a current and former officials described various aspects of the effort to preserve and distribute the intelligence, and some said they were speaking to draw attention to the material and ensure proper investigation by Congress. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information, nearly all of which remains secret, making an independent public assessment of the competing Obama and Trump administration claims impossible. The F. B. I. is conducting a counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s meddling in the election, and is examining alleged links between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government. Separately, the House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting their own investigations, though they must rely on information collected by the F. B. I. and intelligence agencies. On Wednesday, a Justice Department official confirmed that Mr. Sessions had two conversations with Ambassador Kislyak last year, when he was still a senator, despite testifying at his Jan. 10 confirmation hearing that he had no contact with the Russians. At that hearing, Mr. Sessions was asked what he would do if it turned out to be true that anyone affiliated with the Trump team had communicated with the Russian government in the course of the campaign. He said he was “not aware of any of those activities. ” “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it,” Mr. Sessions said at the time. However, Justice officials acknowledged that Mr. Sessions had spoken with Mr. Kislyak twice: once, among a group of ambassadors who approached him at a Heritage Foundation event during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July and, separately, in an office meeting on Sept. 8. The contacts were first reported by The Washington Post. Sarah Isgur Flores, Mr. Sessions’s spokeswoman, said “there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer” because he did not communicate with the ambassador in his capacity as a Trump campaign surrogate. She said Mr. Sessions had at least 25 conversations in 2016 with ambassadors from a range of nations — including Britain, Japan, China, Germany and Russia — while on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The revelation prompted congressional Democrats to issue a torrent of statements reiterating their demands that Mr. Sessions recuse himself from overseeing any investigation into Russia’s contacts with the Trump campaign. So far, Mr. Sessions has demurred. Representative Adam B. Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that if the reports about Mr. Sessions were accurate, “it is essential that he recuse himself from any role in the investigation of Trump campaign ties to the Russians. ” Mr. Schiff added, “This is not even a close call it is a must. ” Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House, called on Mr. Sessions to resign, saying on Twitter that “he is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country. ” A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, backed up Mr. Sessions late Wednesday, calling the accusations “the latest attack against the Trump administration by partisan Democrats. ” At a CNN town hall on Wednesday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said he did not know if there was anything between the Trump campaign and the Russians. But he added that if there was, “it is clear to me that Jeff Sessions, who is my dear friend, cannot make this decision about Trump. ” At his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, former Senator Dan Coats, Mr. Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that “I think it’s our responsibility to provide you access to all that you need. ” Some Obama White House officials had little faith that a Trump administration would make good on such pledges, and the efforts to preserve the intelligence continued until the administration’s final hours. This was partly because intelligence was still being collected and analyzed, but it also reflected the sentiment among many administration officials that they had not recognized the scale of the Russian campaign until it was too late. The warning signs had been building throughout the summer, but were far from clear. As WikiLeaks was pushing out emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee through online publication, American intelligence began picking up conversations in which Russian officials were discussing contacts with Trump associates, and European allies were starting to pass along information about people close to Mr. Trump meeting with Russians in the Netherlands, Britain and other countries. But what was going on in the meetings was unclear to the officials, and the intercepted communications did little to clarify matters — the Russians, it appeared, were arguing about how far to go in interfering in the presidential election. What intensified the alarm at the Obama White House was a campaign of cyberattacks on state electoral systems in September, which led the administration to deliver a public accusation against the Russians in October. But it wasn’t until after the election, and after more intelligence had come in, that the administration began to grasp the scope of the suspected tampering and concluded that one goal of the campaign was to help tip the election in Mr. Trump’s favor. In early December, Mr. Obama ordered the intelligence community to conduct a full assessment of the Russian campaign. In the weeks before the assessment was released in January, the intelligence community combed through databases for an array of communications and other information — some of which was months old by then — and began producing reports that showed there were contacts during the campaign between Trump associates and Russian officials. The nature of the contacts remains unknown. Several of Mr. Trump’s associates have done business in Russia, and it is unclear if any of the contacts were related to business dealings. The New York Times, citing four current and former officials, reported last month that the American authorities had obtained information of repeated contacts between Mr. Trump’s associates and senior Russian intelligence officials. The White House has dismissed the story as false. Since the Feb. 14 article appeared, more than a officials have confirmed contacts of various kinds between Russians and Trump associates. The label “intelligence official” is not always cleanly applied in Russia, where oligarchs and government officials often report back to the intelligence services and elsewhere in the Kremlin. Steven L. Hall, the former head of Russia operations at the C. I. A. said that Mr. Putin was surrounded by a cast of characters, and that it was “fair to say that a good number of them come from an intelligence or security background. Once an intel guy, always an intel guy in Russia. ” The concerns about the contacts were cemented by a series of phone calls between Mr. Kislyak and Michael T. Flynn, who had been poised to become Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. The calls began on Dec. 29, shortly after Mr. Kislyak was summoned to the State Department and informed that, in retaliation for Russian election meddling, the United States was expelling 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives and imposing other sanctions. Mr. Kislyak was irate and threatened a forceful Russia response, according to people familiar with the exchange. But a day later, Mr. Putin said his government would not retaliate, prompting a Twitter post from Mr. Trump praising the Russian president — and puzzling Obama White House officials. On Jan. 2, administration officials learned that Mr. Kislyak — after leaving the State Department meeting — called Mr. Flynn, and that the two talked multiple times in the 36 hours that followed. American intelligence agencies routinely wiretap the phones of Russian diplomats, and transcripts of the calls showed that Mr. Flynn urged the Russians not to respond, saying relations would improve once Mr. Trump was in office, according to multiple current and former officials. Beyond leaving a trail for investigators, the Obama administration also wanted to help European allies combat a threat that had caught the United States off guard. American intelligence agencies made it clear in the declassified version of the intelligence assessment released in January that they believed Russia intended to use its attacks on the United States as a template for more meddling. “We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned,” the report said, “to future influence efforts worldwide, including against U. S. allies. ” | 0 |
In retaliation of Bruce Springsteen cancelling a concert over the state s anti-LGBT law, a North Carolina Republican whined and stated that he might have to become a Justin Bieber fan now.North Carolina Republicans jammed House Bill 2 into law last month in response to a Charlotte city ordinance that protected LGBT people from discrimination. But the new law overturns the ordinance, barring cities and counties from passing their own anti-discrimination laws.In addition, the law also prevents cities and counties from raising the minimum wage, allows employers to fire workers for any reason, and outlaws transgender people from using the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. Basically, the four-page law makes North Carolina a crappier place to live.As predicted, businesses are not happy about this law and it s already hurting the state as Paypal has cancelled a project in the state that would have created hundreds of jobs. And most prominently, Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert in Greensboro rather than perform in a state that discriminates against their own citizens. To my mind, it s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress, the legendary rocker wrote in a statement condemning the law. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry which is happening as I write is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards. And in response, North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Walker, who is also a pastor, threw a tantrum over the cancellation in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.Claiming that the law is merely meant to catch imposters who would somehow take advantage of laws protecting transgender people, Walker called Springsteen a bully. Bruce is known to be on the radical left, Walker whined. He s got every right to be so, but I consider this a bully tactic. It s like when a kid gets upset and says he s going to take his ball and go home. Walker then pointed out upcoming concerts that are coming to the state. We ve got other artists coming soon Def Leppard, Justin Bieber, Walker said. I ve never been a Bieber fan, but I might have to go. Maybe artists who weren t born to run deserve a little bit more support. Yeah, and now that you ve professed your support of these artists, they should probably consider running as far away from the bigoted state of North Carolina as possible. Because the last thing Def Leppard and Justin Bieber would want is to be endorsed by a Republican who supports discriminating against people, especially since many of those people are their fans.Walker and his fellow Republicans are the real bullies in North Carolina. This bill isn t about imposters at all. That s merely the excuse the GOP used to pass the law despite the fact that there have been zero instances of sex offenders using LGBT protection to defend predatory behavior across 17 states and over 200 cities.Make no mistake, Republicans brought these economic consequences upon their state themselves by legalizing discrimination when they could have followed Charlotte s lead and passed a similar law covering the entire state. Instead, they chose hate and took the state backwards.Featured image via Wikimedia | 1 |
LONDON — One of the most influential musicians and style icons of his generation, David Bowie, who died in January, was less well known as an art collector. But as he told Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times critic, in 1998, “Art was, seriously, the only thing I’d ever wanted to own. ” On Thursday evening, Sotheby’s launched its “ ” sale, an auction of some 350 works, or about 65 percent of his total collection, on behalf of Mr. Bowie’s estate. Buoyed by the huge amounts of publicity and public interest, the sale of 47 lots tripled its low estimates raising 24. 3 million pounds, or $30. 3 million. The collection of “The Man Who Fell to Earth” created a string of 12 auction highs for artists as the allure of the David Bowie provenance pushed the values of Modern British art to a new level. Among the works with wide international appeal, a Basquiat painting, “Air Power,” from the collection of Mr. Bowie — who played Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel’s 1996 movie “Basquiat” — sold for £7. 1 million with fees, or about $8. 8 million, against a low estimate of £2. 5 million, or $3. 3 million. It sold in the room to a European collector who declined to give her name. The 1984 acrylic and oil stick composition, painted in shades of brown and red and featuring one of the artist’s trademark masks, had been bought by the British musician in 1995 at Christie’s in London for $120, 122. Though at times the room was subdued, and at times there was more posting of pictures on Instagram than bidding, competition on the telephones ensured some exceptional prices. After an early phase of acquiring Memphis Group furniture and design objects (about 100 lots will be offered by Sotheby’s on Friday) Mr. Bowie began systematically buying art only in 1993, in his after a chance encounter with his first adviser, Kate Chertavian. But from that point on he became passionately acquisitive. The core of his collection is 20th century British art — so called Mod Brit such as Peter Lanyon and David Bomberg and Ivon Hitchens — which at times made his taste look like that of a retired English businessman rather than an pop star. Yet his multifaceted creative life also made him an admirer of German Expressionist prints, Outsider Art, Marcel Duchamp, Damien Hirst and African contemporary. “Bowie was a true collector,” said Christina Shearman, a art adviser based in New York, where Mr. Bowie lived during his final years. “His acquisitions were not commercially motivated he cared about the art, not the market. His was a deeply personal, eclectic collection, reflecting his British roots and his real passion for art. ” The collection took up all eight rooms of Sotheby’s exhibition space and attracted 37, 608 visitors during the exhibition — a record for any auction at Sotheby’s in London, according to the company’s press office. The art trade predicted that Frank Auerbach’s expressive and thickly impasted 1965 “Head of Gerda Boehm,” estimated at £300, 000 to £500, 000, would fly. The hammer finally fell at £3. 8 million, or $4. 7 million, to a telephone bidder. The price was a new auction high for the artist. “I want to sound like that looks,” Mr. Bowie had said of the painting in the 1998 interview with The New York Times. He had bought the work, whose paint layer was still not completely dry, according to conservators, in 1995 at Christie’s for $87, 102. Another work with international appeal was Damien Hirst’s psychedelic 1995 spin canvas, “Beautiful, hallo, painting,” which the artist had made in collaboration with the musician (who wore a brand new, quickly ruined suit). Measuring seven feet in diameter, this sold for £785, 000, or roughly $975, 000, against an estimate of £250, 000 to £350, 000. Mod Brit has in the past been a niche national market, but Sotheby’s ramped up the cataloging of Mr. Lanyon’s imposing 1961 black and white abstract, “Witness,” by calling it a “great American painting. ” Mr. Lanyon was born, lived, and died in Cornwall, in the far west of England, but the painting’s resemblance to contemporary works by greats such as Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline helped it achieve £797, 000, just under $1 million, to another telephone bidder against an estimate of £250, 000 to £350, 000. The price was also an auction high for the artist, whose 1960s abstracts were influenced by glider flights. All the lots sold but total success was ensured by lowering reserve prices on works that failed to attract much presale interest. That included Francis Picabia’s enigmatic painting of a seated mythological figure, “Mendica,” one of Mr. Bowie’s earlier art purchases, bought at auction in 1988. Estimated at £ £800, 000, it was knocked down for £401, 000, or about $500, 000, with fees. “You get a sense of his character,” said Josh Andraos, an art student, 20, at the packed Wednesday preview, summing up why so many people wanted to see the art that had been owned by Mr. Bowie. “It’s very British, but it varies. It all depends on what he’s thinking and feeling. This is the head of Bowie himself. ” | 0 |
By Brandon Turbeville As the U.S. Presidential selection circus draws to a close, the United States and Turkey have announced a new plan to defeat... | 1 |
Nancy Pelosi had another strange moment during her weekly press conference as she was confused about what time of day it was, struggled to recall her latest accusations against Russia just six minutes later, and again awkwardly stopped speaking mid-sentence and stared at reporters before resuming Classic Pelosi As Pelosi approached the podium on Thursday, she muttered to herself on the hot mic, It s afternoon. It is afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. She then immediately got confused about what time of day it was. Thank you for being here. I m honored this morning, or now afternoon she said. She went on to refer to her Democratic colleague as the chairman of a committee, before correcting herself and calling him the ranking member. Going off script proved to be a disaster.While denouncing Republican attempts to replace Obamacare, Pelosi said, And what does that mean? Higher costs, fewer benefits, uh, terrible age tax undermining Medicare, uh, uh, stealing from Medicare and Maid-icaid, as I should have said, mispronouncing the word.A statement about Medicaid left the listener to wonder what other things Pelosi thinks are covered by the program. As they do this, they re making an assault on Medicaid, which is, again, very dangerous to children and other living ch things, she said. AND OTHER LIVING THINGS ? HAHA! Pelosi then criticized Republicans on the hacking by Russia: They hacked our democracy. Twenty-one state, local election systems were per penetrated. Six minutes later, she struggled to remember the accusation Oy vey! We re finding out things that we didn t even know before. For example, was it how many states have been compromised in all of this? Twenty-one, Thompson muttered under his breath.Pelosi muttered Twenty-one. Twenty twenty-one states ALL WE CAN SAY ABOUT THIS IS TERM LIMITS NOW!READ MORE: AMERICAN MIRROR | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration urged Congress to pass legislation to help Puerto Rico resolve a debt crisis which was expected to trigger a bond default on Monday. “Congress has yet to produce a workable legislative response,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a letter to Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. “Congress must work quickly to resolve the few outstanding issues on the proposed legislation to help Puerto Rico.” | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - When Donald Trump named a little-known U.S. energy consultant as part of his foreign policy team, the adviser’s ex-boss was puzzled; how could the relatively junior banker he knew in Moscow a decade ago be qualified to brief a presidential candidate? Carter Page, who worked in Russia at U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch, paints an impressive picture of his three-year stint from 2004, saying on his company’s website that he advised on “key” transactions involving some of the country’s biggest energy groups. But Sergey Aleksashenko, who became head of the bank’s Moscow operation toward the end of Page’s assignment, expressed doubts about whether he has the experience to act as an adviser on Washington’s fraught ties with the Kremlin. “For me it was a strange choice,” said Aleksashenko, who served as a deputy finance minister and deputy central bank governor in the 1990s before running Merrill Russia in 2006-2008. “Carter was never a person who would discuss foreign policy or U.S.-Russian relations.” The achievements of Page - whom Trump named as an adviser in March - are summarized on the website of New York-based Global Energy Capital LLC, a firm that he founded after leaving Merrill. He did not respond to Reuters questions about his time in Russia and Merrill Lynch declined comment. When contacted by Reuters, Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks played down Page’s role in the campaign. “Mr. Page is an informal adviser named as part of a much larger group several months ago. He does not speak for or represent the campaign in any official capacity,” she said. Trump, who is now the Republican nominee, named Page as being among five foreign policy advisers in an interview with The Washington Post on March 21. Hicks did not answer Reuters questions seeking to clarify what Page had done since then for the campaign and why Trump had picked him. Aleksashenko, a Kremlin critic, was Page’s boss in 2006-07 and is now a nonresident senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution in Washington. Three other former Merrill employees in Moscow also told Reuters that Page could not have played a leading role in the bank’s deals due to his rank, and at the time showed no real interest or expertise in foreign policy. Shortly after Trump named his foreign affairs team, campaign member Sam Clovis said the aim was to recruit people with “real-world” and military experience rather than the retreads that other candidates relied on. “These are people who work for a living,” the New York Times quoted Clovis as saying. “If you’re looking for show ponies, you’re coming to the wrong stable.” Clovis was not immediately available for further comment. Russia has been a central issue in the U.S. election campaign, with Trump calling President Vladimir Putin a “strong leader”. Flattering coverage of Trump in Russian state media has left little doubt that he would be the Kremlin’s preferred candidate over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Like Trump, Page holds views that contradict the Obama administration’s stance on Russia and in recent years he has expressed them, reflecting the Kremlin’s views on occasions. In a February 2015 article in the journal Global Policy, he said U.S. policy toward Russia had been “misguided and provocative” and blamed the State Department for precipitating the Ukraine conflict. In a speech given in Moscow last month, Page also criticized Western countries for what he said was their “hypocritical focus on democratization” in the post-Soviet world. At the event, he did not respond to questions about his time in Russia. Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, said Trump wanted to show the incompetence and weakness of the foreign policy pursued by the Democrats. Page was useful as his views fit with that aim, added Kortunov, who does not know the Trump adviser personally. “There are people in the U.S. who are bored with Ukraine, who think it is not an American problem that Washington should be involved in,” said Kortunov, whose think tank is close to the Russian Foreign Ministry but who has also expressed independent views. Despite Hicks’s comments, Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told Reuters that when he left the campaign in late June, Page had “definitely” been an adviser to Trump. Another member of the five-strong foreign policy team, Walid Phares, told Reuters on Aug. 19 that Page continued to advise Trump. A MID-TIER BANKER The Global Energy Capital LLC website says Page was responsible for opening Merrill’s Moscow office and that he was “an advisor on key transactions” for Russian firms including Gazprom, the world’s top gas producer, and RAO UES, a power company that no longer exists. Reuters spoke to four former Merrill employees in Moscow, three of whom overlapped with Page, as well as three Moscow-based bankers who competed with the U.S. bank for business. With the exception of Aleksashenko, none agreed to speak on the record about their recollections which differ from Page’s. “Page was a vice president at Merrill, a mid-tier banker who was not originating deals,” said Aleksashenko. “Gazprom was a VIP client and in no transaction with such a client could a vice president play a decisive role.” In an interview with Bloomberg in March, Page said he advised Gazprom on the purchase of a stake in the Sakhalin energy project in Russia’s Far East from Shell. Aleksashenko said Merrill’s contribution to that deal was merely to provide a straightforward document saying the transaction was at fair value to Gazprom shareholders, alongside other banks. Gazprom declined comment. Another ex-Merrill banker said: “Page was a general dogsbody who would have sat in on most meetings and prepared documents.” A third ex-Merrill banker, whose comments were corroborated by Aleksashenko, said Merrill’s business with Gazprom when Page worked there involved investor relations work. Page also said he worked on deals in central Asia. Two sources who were involved in the initial public offering of shares in Kazakh firm KazMunaiGas EP in 2006 said although Merrill was one of the IPO’s managers, they did not remember Page participating in the deal. Bankers at rivals when Page worked in Moscow said Merrill was not the main bank Gazprom turned to when it needed to raise capital, although the U.S. bank handled its investor relations. Merrill did act as a manager on two Gazprom Eurobonds when Page worked in Moscow but Tom Adshead at Moscow-based consultancy Macro-Advisory, which helps foreign investors in Russia, said it was not a major player with the energy group. “There are other bankers who were viewed in the market as being closer to the company,” said Adshead, who worked in Moscow as an analyst and was a fund manager at the time that Page was at Merrill. Merrill Lynch declined to respond to Reuters questions on Page’s work with the bank in Moscow. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton is a Planned Parenthood s champion. She was greeted like a rock star at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in June, 2016. She mocked Donald Trump s defense of life, while highlighting her undying support for destroying the life of the most vulnerable. She s been bending over backwards to pander to Blacks for their votes, while trying desperately to gain the confidence of the Black Lives Matter movement. But isn t Hillary s concern for Black lives just another one of her lies? She is the darling of Planned Parenthood after all, and their stated goal has always been to kill off the Black population? Finally, a prominent Black professional athlete is speaking out and telling the truth about the true intentions of this killing machine for profit.Christian NFL player Ben Watson does not hesitate to call out Planned Parenthood s targeting of minority women and their babies for abortions.In a recent interview with Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center in San Diego, the Baltimore Ravens player talked about the racial divide in America and how it factors into the abortion issue. abortion saddens me period, but it seems to be something that is really pushed on minorities and provided to minorities especially as something that they should do, Watson said.He pointed to Planned Parenthood s founder Margaret Sanger and her eugenic push to exterminate people she deemed unfit. Today, it s working, Watson said. We sit here and talk about advancing the black agenda, whatever that means, we talk about our interests, and what s important to us like having political power and advancement and all those things and then we are turning around and we are killing our children, Watson continued. And we are buying the lie that it s our personal decision to make. Here s Hillary Clinton slamming Donald Trump over his defense of life and her willingness to destroy it at a Planned Parenthood event:The NFL star said he is sympathetic to the women who are struggling with an unplanned pregnancy. But Watson, a husband and father of five children, said many men are not stepping up to help their children and the women in their lives like they should. He urged men to take responsibility for their actions. He need to be there to support her through the physical changes of the pregnancy, and help and provide emotional strength, and do it together, Watson continued. As much as he has a role in making the baby in the first place, it needs to take both of them the whole way through. Sometimes, Watson said he does have the opportunity to talk with other NFL players about abortion and his pro-life convictions. Just like in almost any career setting, Watson said they talk about many different things, including politics and religion. You ve got guys that consider themselves Conservative and pro-life, and you ve got guys that consider themselves Liberal and pro-choice, and it kind of goes back and forth, he said. What I love is that in most of the situations I have been in, not all of them, but most, even if we sometimes talk abrasively to each other, we still have love for each other. Last year, after the Center for Medical Progress began releasing its undercover Planned Parenthood videos, Watson wasn t shy about speaking up for unborn babies either.He posted on his Facebook wall:As horrific as it is, the issue isn t really the sale of human parts. It s the legal practice that allows this to even be a possibility. Killing children and simply discarding the leftovers is not any more acceptable than profiting off of them. #PlannedParenthood Asked if he has faced backlash for his stance, Watson told Turning Point, I won t say I m not afraid, and I will say that I ve received some flack for some of the things I ve said I decided that you know, if the spirit of God has prompted me to say something, I m gonna trust in God and say it. Via: Life News | 1 |
Two students at a metro Atlanta elementary school say they were singled out for what they did during the Pledge of Allegiance. Tuesday morning at Orrs Elementary School, 10-year-old Jason Newberry said he and one classmate put their hand over their heart while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He said when they did, others in the class called them names. Me and him got called KKK, Nazi, and we just kept getting bullied the whole day, said Newberry.Newberry said it wasn t until his second-period teacher showed them a news clip of NFL players kneeling that he realized the present controversy surrounding the flag.The teacher made a poll on paper and passed it out to all the students to see what they thought was right or wrong about taking a knee. The teacher even told students that she would never stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and that if she did stand she would not really mean it.A spokesperson for Spalding School District tells CBS46 the assignment was supposed to be a lesson on First Amendment Rights, but they wouldn t say if the teacher was disciplined for her comments.In a letter sent home to parents Wednesday, the teacher wrote the following: I apologize for expressing my views to my students. I recognize that while this was not a one-sided lesson, the topic itself and the expression of my views were not appropriate, my intentions were well-meaning.Parents say they plan to stand with their children Thursday morning in front of the school s flagpole when the National Anthem is recited over the loudspeaker. CBS46Watch here:CBS46 News h/t Silence is Consent | 0 |
Remember the time when a gay couple destroyed the business of a Christian couple who owned a very successful bakery, after they refused to bake the gay couple a wedding cake? Remember the time when an elderly florist, who was friends with a gay couple, was sued by them for refusing to supply flowers for their wedding because it went against her religious beliefs? Remember the time when a venue that hosted weddings was sued because they refused to host a gay wedding? Remember the time when the Oregon baker was sued because he refused to go against his religious beliefs and bake a cake for a gay couple? Yeah, well, that was okay with the gay mafia, because, well, because you shouldn t deny service to someone just because they re gay that s just intolerant.Speaking of intolerant A gay coffee shop owner in Seattle kicked a Christian pro-life group out of his coffee shop because he felt offended by their presence, according to video footage of the incident.The Washington Times reports that the group, called Abolish Human Abortion, decided to order drinks at Seattle s Bedlam Coffee after passing out pro-life pamphlets in the area when the owner angrily asked the group to leave.(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.10"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Angry homosexual kicks Christian customers out of coffee shop. WARNING! This video includes extremely graphic, hate-filled, blasphemous language.Watch and Share before Facebook takes it down! And let us know what YOU think.Posted by Abolish Human Abortion on Sunday, October 1, 2017 I m gay. You have to leave, owner Ben Borgman said in the Facebook video. Are you denying us service? activist Caytie Davis asked. I am. Yeah, Borgman replied.The group had been handing out pamphlets about the Bible, sin, and abortion to Seattle residents and one of the baristas let Borgman know what he was doing, according to the Blaze.Borgman did not take the news well and further confronted the group. This is offensive to me. I own the place. I have the right to be offended, he said.The group tried to explain to him that they did not leave any pamphlets in the cafe, but Borgman continued to berate the group. There s nothing you can say. This is you and I don t want these people in this place, he said.Borgman then asked activist Jonathan Sutherland whether he would tolerate a sex act between two men. Can you tolerate my presence? Really? the owner asked. If I go get my boyfriend and f**k him in the a** right here you re going to tolerate that? Are you going to tolerate it? That would be your choice, Sutherland replied. Answer my f***ing question! Borgman yelled back. No, you re going to sit right here and f***ing watch it! Leave, all of you! Tell all your f**king friends don t come here! Via-Breitbart | 1 |
Of course, there s no official word from the White House yet. Typically the Obama administration keeps a tight lid on celebration details until the 11th hour. But the big names thought to be on the guest list have been slowly trickling out this week.Old standbys such as singer Usher and actor Samuel L. Jackson will most likely be there, according to another person with knowledge of the invitees. Also currently practicing their sweet moves are media titan Oprah Winfrey, who snagged an exit interview with the first lady last month on her fellow invitee and bestie Gayle King s network CBS; actor Bradley Cooper, who showed up to the French state dinner sans underpants; Beyonc , who sang at both of Obama s inaugurations, and her husband, rapper Jay Z. We re also hearing that Stevie Wonder, who has performed at the White House, director J.J. Abrams and director George Lucas make the list.If this star-studded shindig follows the traditional Obama script, cellphones will be confiscated at the White House security gate and social media crumbs will be few. But afterward, tales of the president s dance moves and sore feet will make the late-night talk show rounds.The White House party will act as the kickoff of a goodbye tour of sorts for President Obama, who will head to Chicago to deliver a farewell address Jan. 10th.Please check out the hysterical comments at the Washington Post that will make your night: WaPoThe petulant narcissist just doesn t get it. His legacy and his party were defeated. His audacity of arrogance could not save them. Head high and nostrils flared, he continues to ignore the obvious. He is a classic liberal socialist who insists he knows better than everyone, that he is gifted with superior intellect and understanding. Therefore, his robes are immaculate. We should do as he says. The media cheers, the nations rejoice and the sycophants swoon. He believes in his destiny.Then, from a corner comes a small voice, The emperor has no clothes. | 0 |
21st Century Wire says A tidal wave of revelations is pouring out of the Clinton campaign as the 2016 presidential election draws to a close. MELTDOWN The Clinton campaign continues to unravel following a series of troubling details. (Photo illustration 21WIRE)Over the weekend, it was discovered through a Wikileaks email dump, that Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, John Podesta s top aide, had an email exchange with Michael Lux of Progressive Strategies revealing that the Democratic consultant Robert Creamer of Democracy Partners, was closely allied with Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. POLITICAL BOMBSHELL Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook had close ties to disgraced DNC consultant Robert Creamer. (Image Source: Lockerdome)Creamer gained national attention when he became the subject of video sting operation captured by the investigative non-profit Project Veritas. Not only was it revealed that the Creamer discussed ways to commit voter fraud and violence at Donald Trump rallies on camera he also met with White House officials some 342 times over the past year, including 47 private meetings with President Obama or other senior officials. DNC SCANDAL Robert Creamer of Democracy Partners and Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. (Image Source: National Vanguard)Creamer s visits to the White House also included his wife, a 9-term Illinois Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.White House visitor records have shown that Schakowsky took 47 private meetings with Obama or his senior staff, over the past year. The consultancy Democracy Partners appears to have applied Schakowsky as a political buffering point, in the event of a fallout over their operations at a grassroots level. The nature of this type of procedural separation is to keep certain high-ranking officials of the hook in case of a massive upheaval over various underhanded campaign tactics, potentially giving the Clinton campaign and the DNC plausible deniability.The Mook fallout is the latest in a laundry list of problems for the Clinton campaign and comes at a time when interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, is embroiled in controversy of over leaked debate questions prior to at least two 2016 town hall debates. Brazile stepped down from her role at CNN earlier in October. Here s a passage from the Daily Caller describing the scenario: Donna Brazile, the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, began providing town hall and debate questions to the Clinton campaign earlier than previously known, emails released by WikiLeaks on Monday show. The article continued by stating that the revelations expose that the interim DNC chair was more deeply involved than previously outlined: In the March 12 exchange, Brazile mentions [Roland] Martin by name and offers to provide more than just the one town hall question that she is known to have shared with the campaign. I ll send a few more. Though some questions Roland submitted, Brazile wrote to Palmieri in the March 12 email thread, which is entitled From time to time I get the questions in advance. Martin, is a commentator for TV One and the host of News One Now, as well as a CNN contributor.In another matter, the Wall Street Journal revealed the following, while disclosing an apparently contentious relationship between the FBI and DOJ, while the FBI appears to be somewhat fractured over the latest email server case developments: The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe [of the Terry McAuliffe campaign contribution scandal], the bureau s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a teenage minor, they had recovered a laptop. Many of the 650,000 emails on the computer, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter. Some critics have called for McCabe to recuse himself after it was revealed his wife received $675,000 from a well-known Clinton confidant, Terry McAuliffe. This was further underlined after the House Oversight Commitee wanted more information about the Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe and its ties to the Clintons.The alleged internal feud among agencies was compounded when Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates objected to FBI Director James Comey reopening the Clinton email server case this past week something that added to the Lynch/Clinton tarmac meeting before the first FBI ruling in the Clinton case.According to a report filed by Zero Hedge, a close friend of Podesta, Peter Kadzik, the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ), will be in charge of a probe into Huma Abedin, Clintion s closest aide.Interestingly, as a mountain of controversy envelops the Clinton campaign, the FBI is now conducting an early inquiry into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, over his alleged foreign business connections.Back in August, the following business connection was revealed by NBC news: In 2008, according to court records, senior Trump aide Paul Manafort s firm was involved with a Ukrainian oligarch named Dmytro Firtash in a plan to redevelop a famous New York hotel, the Drake. The total value of the project was $850 million. Firtash s company planned to invest over $100 million, the records say.That same year, Firtash acknowledged to the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine that he got his start in business with the permission of a notorious Russian crime lord, according to a classified State Department cable. Other cables say Firtash made part of his fortune through sweetheart natural gas deals between Russia and the Ukraine. Although the US State Department has determined that Firtash may have ties to a criminal enterprise in Russia so far, there s nothing directly linking Manafort to any underground element at this time.Watch this space as the Russia/Trump meme fostered by mainstream media or some other politically polarizing element will look to deflect from the Clinton campaign meltdown.More from LifeZette below OUT OF CONTROL? Wikileaks reveals Robby Mook s links to DNC contractor who discussed ways to commit voter fraud and violence. (Image Source: Slate)WikiLeaks: Trump Rally Agitator and Clinton Campaign Manager Are Close Top Clinton aides discussed Bob Creamer and his grassroots/netroots operationby Jim Stinson LifeZette Robert Creamer, the operative behind sending provocateurs to Donald Trump rallies, was close to Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton s campaign manager, according to new emails released by WikiLeaks.Creamer, who allegedly spearheaded the dirty tricks for the Democrats, wasn t just consulting for the Democratic National Committee, according to videos made by Project Veritas. He was sending people to provoke Trump at events.Creamer has thus become a red-hot issue in the campaign. And now it s apparent he is close to Mook. That surprising detail came out Sunday morning when WikiLeaks posted hundreds more emails from John Podesta s Gmail account. Podesta is Clinton s campaign chairman whose account was hacked in March.More from LifeZette here READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is reviewing military options, including new intermediate-range cruise missile systems, in response to what it says is Russia s ongoing violation of a Cold War-era pact banning such missiles, the State Department said on Friday. Washington is prepared to cease such research and development activities if Russia returns to compliance with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Nauert also hinted at possible economic sanctions, saying the United States is pursuing economic and military measures intended to induce the Russian Federation to return to compliance. The warning was the Trump administration s first response to U.S. charges first leveled in 2014 that Russia had deployed a ground-launched cruise missile that breaches the pact s ban on testing and fielding missiles with ranges of 500-5,500 kms (310-3,417 miles). U.S. officials have said the Russian cruise missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and that Moscow has refused to hold in-depth discussions about the alleged breach. Russia has denied it is violating the accord. In a statement issued before Nauert s, the Russian foreign ministry said it was ready for talks with the United States to try to preserve the treaty and would comply with its obligations if the United States did. In a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, the ministry said Moscow considered the language of ultimatums and sanctions unacceptable. The U.S. allegation has further strained relations between Moscow and Washington. U.S. and Russian officials are to discuss the issue at a meeting in coming weeks of the special commission that oversees the treaty, said a U.S. official, who requested anonymity. In the U.S. statement, Nauert said the United States remains firmly committed to the INF Treaty and continues to seek the Russian Federation s return to compliance. The administration firmly believes, however, that the United States cannot stand still while the Russian Federation continues to develop military systems in violation of the treaty, she said. The U.S. spokeswoman did not disclose the U.S. economic measures under consideration to secure Russian compliance with the treaty but offered some details on the military measures. These, she said, involve a review of military concepts and options that include researching new ground-launched conventional cruise missile systems. This step will not violate our INF Treaty obligations, Nauert said. We are also prepared to cease such research and development activities if the Russian Federation returns to full and verifiable compliance with its INF Treaty obligations. Her statement came a week after Congress sent to President Donald Trump for signing a fiscal 2018 defense policy bill authorizing $58 million to develop a new INF-busting road-mobile conventional cruise missile and U.S. defenses against the Russian weapon. The bill also called on Trump to submit to Congress a plan to impose U.S. sanctions on Russians responsible for ordering or facilitating non-compliance with the treaty. It was unclear when Trump would sign the bill. The United States already has sanctions on Russian entities and individuals, including people close to President Vladimir Putin, for Moscow s 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. Moscow denies that it interfered in the election. A senior administration official, speaking recently on condition of anonymity, said the administration wanted to preserve the INF Treaty rather than rip it up. If we took the Russian approach, we d all sort of say happy things about what a nice treaty we have and we would both go about violating it secretly, said the senior administration official. But that s not how we roll. It s because we like arms control when it s done properly. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) executive and White House adviser Gary Cohn shocked more than a few of his former Wall Street colleagues this week when he showed support for reinstating a Depression-era law that would break up the biggest U.S. banks. Here are some details about the law, called the Glass-Steagall Act, and why it has returned to the spotlight: WHAT IS GLASS-STEAGALL: Originally passed as part of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933, Glass-Steagall established a firewall between commercial and investment banking activity. The law was whittled away over time as banks gained permission to engage in more trading activity, and was repealed altogether in 1999 with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. WHO SUPPORTS IT?: Since the 2008 financial crisis, Glass-Steagall has become a calling card for politicians eager to crack down on Wall Street. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren frequently invokes it, and Senator Bernie Sanders made it a major part of his presidential campaign. President Donald Trump also seized on the policy during his campaign. WHAT DOES THE WHITE HOUSE SAY?: The Trump administration has not backed away from his campaign stance, but there are questions about how aggressively the president will push for a new law. The issue only tends to come up when officials are asked about it. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he supported a modern version of Glass-Steagall in response to a question during his confirmation hearing. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the White House supports the proposal when asked by reporters. Cohn responded favorably when asked by Warren at a private meeting with senators. WHAT WOULD A NEW GLASS-STEAGALL LOOK LIKE?: There are number of ideas to create what some refer to as a “21st Century Glass-Steagall.” Warren has proposed splitting commercial and investment banking, and also barring depository institutions from using modern financial instruments like derivatives. Thomas Hoenig, the vice chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has proposed a similar split, and would subject banks to a higher, 10 percent capital requirement. Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, would force big banks to take on so much capital they would prefer to split into smaller institutions. COULD IT HAPPEN?: Although many Wall Street critics have seized on Glass-Steagall, efforts to change the law have garnered very little support. Warren’s proposal received just a handful of legislative co-sponsors. And because Congress and the White House are still consumed with complex fights over health care and tax reform, there seems to be little appetite for a broad, controversial overhaul of the financial system. ARE THERE RISKS FOR BANKS?: Big U.S. lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup (C.N) would be most impacted, because their commercial lending and investment banking operations are closely intertwined, say analysts. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) might be less impacted, although they would likely have to revert to being standalone investment banks and shed their deposit funding. But even if Glass-Steagall does not become law, the industry may have to spend money, time and energy lobbying against the idea, when they would rather focus on rolling back existing rules. | 0 |
Bill Maher is not shy about what he thinks of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Maher unleashed a 6 minute destruction of the billionaire demagogue, at one point calling him a pu**y and a whiny little bit*h, saying that Trump fit American stereotypes about 1950 s housewives. Maher said: Never forget, Lady Trump, that Hillary Clinton was born a woman. But you chose to live your life as a whiny little b*tch. Which is why, if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, I ll be voting for the only one who has balls. Maher continued: And like a daffy housewife of the 50s, Trump can t balance a checkbook. In a skit where Maher appeared to voice bewilderment and frustration that someone like Donald Trump actually has a shot at the presidency, Maher pointed to his personal experiences with the GOP demagogue, including the time Trump sued him for challenging him to prove he was not the son of an orangutan in response to Trump s birther rhetoric about President Barack Obama.Maher also criticized Trump s business dealings, pointing to his failures: Trump Airlines, Trump Casinos, Trump University, Trump Steaks. He s got the Midas touch if every time Midas touched something it exploded. Maher is able to sum up the absurdity that is Donald Trump. It s important that we do all we can to make sure he doesn t become president by going out and voting this November.Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB4sGX0R5ak]Featured image via video screenshot. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the largest conservative group in the U.S. Congress, Representative Bill Flores of Texas, said he could not back Republican Donald Trump for president at this time, CNN reported on Wednesday. Flores, the head of the Republican Study Committee in the House of Representatives, told CNN he was incredibly angry about comments that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee made about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of a House committee with broad investigative powers, said on Thursday that it is possible he could leave office before his term finishes next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. “My future plans are not yet finalized, but I haven’t ruled out the possibility of leaving early,” Chaffetz told the Journal a day after the Utah congressman announced he would not run for re-election in 2018. Chaffetz’s staff in Washington, D.C., and in Utah did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In Utah, officials have begun running informal scenarios on how and when to hold a special election should Chaffetz resign, but have not been formally notified of the congressman’s intentions, Mark Thomas, the state’s director of elections, told Reuters. Thomas said his department in the office of Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox was basing the informal information-gathering on Chaffetz’s statements to local media that he might leave office early. “We don’t know what he’s planning,” Thomas said. “This is more informal, just wanting to know ourselves and be prepared.” Chaffetz, a conservative Republican who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2008, gained prominence as head of the committee that investigated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state. Chaffetz’s remarks on a possible early departure from office were first reported by KSL Radio in Salt Lake City. Chaffetz, 50, in the past had considered running for a U.S. Senate seat. A former Chaffetz aide on Wednesday told Reuters the congressman may run for Utah governor in 2020, though no firm decision had been made yet. | 1 |
If Catcalls Were Politically Correct...
October 29, 2016 we interrupt election coverage for this attempt to make you chuckle If men could grow up, what would they say they saw on the street? by Henry Makow Ph.D. "Women are caught in a vice," I remarked to a friend. "They are judged almost entirely on the basis of sex appeal. Nature is cruel." He was telling me how he and a male friend had sat in a cafe rating the women that passed by. "Aren't men pathetic?" I said. "Here we are in our sixties, and we still see women the same way we did when we were 20. We haven't grown up." This got me thinking. What if we could grow up? What would we be saying about them? "I can imagine having a conversation with that one" "She'd be a great mother for my children." "I can see her decorating our house, making it feel very comfortable and homelike." "Yes, she is attractive but what about her character, personality and talent? Can she cook?" If these sentiments were vocalized, they would come under the category of mature catcalls. Catcalls range from vulgar to sweet. Women naturally find the vulgar ones extremely offensive. They are abusive...sexual harassment. But some women find nice catcalls flattering and miss the attention when they stop. Some men see them as compliments as well. They don't understand why women go to so much trouble to look attractive yet resent attention. It's usually the women who have been tainted by feminism who are most easily offended. They have been inverted and fear any kind of male attention. So I've devised some politically correct catcalls. "Honey, I'd sure like to crash through the glass ceiling with you." "If you were a pilot, I'd fly with you!" "If you got a promotion in another city, I'd move for you and look after the kids!" Got any comments or catcalls that fall into either of the above categories? | 1 |
October 31, 2016 White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest tells the press that President Obama stands with Director Comey.
President Obama made it clear today that he doesn’t stand with Hillary Clinton as much as we thought he did. President Obama made it clear he stands with FBI Director James Comey and his recent actions. Press Sec said that Director Comey’s actions have not changed Obama’s opinion on him or the FBI. White House: “President Obama does not believe FBI Director Comey is trying to influence election outcome.”
Press Secretary Josh Earnest also said that the White House won’t criticize the FBI or Director Comey. Josh Earnest on Comey's decision: "I just don't have the independent knowledge of the decisions that are made" https://t.co/dspAaoCcbL
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 31, 2016
Obama doesn’t believe James Comey is trying to influence or change the election. This destroys all the claims the left has been making that this is somehow an influence to ‘fix’ the election.
Now that the President of the United States has declared the FBI is non-partisan to this election, where does Hillary move next? Having the President shut down your claims makes the ‘lying’ stigma more prominent with Clinton. The following two tabs change content below. | 1 |
Hillary Shows Her Guilt After Hearing Trump Supporters Chant 3-Brutal Words Alisha Rich
After decades of scandals, Hillary Clinton’s corruption seems to be finally catching up to her. Unfortunately for her, it’s all going down mere days before the election for her desired presidency. As she faces this harsh but deserved reality, she encountered several Trump supporters in Pompano Beach, Florida, who chanted 3 brutal words, and her reaction is proof that she’s guilty of it all.
With only a little over a week to go before America votes for our next president, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is publically imploding. It seems even her most devoted fans are questioning her actions, and their uneasiness will only increase once they see what she did when she encountered several Trump supporters chanting, “Lock her up.” Pompano Beach – Clinton ran into some Trump supporters at an early voting site. pic.twitter.com/Lzbz1Pga1g
— Roberta Rampton (@robertarampton) October 30, 2016
Obviously, she’s been living in her own corrupt world for many years and believes she’s untouchable. However, people are now finally seeing who the real Hillary Clinton is — a crook and a criminal. When she encountered the vocal Trump supporters at an early voting site and heard what they were implicating, her reaction is exactly how a guilty person would respond – she ignored them, plastering that fake grin across her face. She ignored the folks screaming "Lock her up!" pic.twitter.com/SpgHvawvUr
— Roberta Rampton (@robertarampton) October 30, 2016
Of course, some people may argue that her reaction is what anyone would do, but I believe the contrary. If you’re innocent, you’re going to want everyone to know you didn’t do it and vocally deny any unexpected accusations. Of course, Hillary does the opposite as she has many years of practice on how to ignore people who call her out for her wrongdoings.
Clearly, when FBI Director James Comey dropped his bombshell, reopening her criminal investigation, Hillary became frantic and desperate. She knows what she’s done and how guilty she is.
Now, all she can do is pray nothing more comes to light before the big election. Sorry Hillary, not even your followers can be that dumb. I think it’s safe to say, Comey just handed Donald Trump the presidency. | 1 |
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has several options for disentangling himself from his business empire when he takes office next year, but legal experts say the only way fully to avoid conflicts of interest would be to sell his global holdings. Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he would unveil on Dec. 15 his plans for taking himself “completely out of business operations” before taking office on Jan. 20. Trump did not spell out his plans, but several ideas have started to gain prominence. U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, is pushing for a resolution requiring Trump to establish a blind trust under independent control to manage his holdings. However, a blind trust only works if the office holder does not know how the trustee has invested the money, legal experts said. Much of Trump’s money is tied up in highly visible, illiquid investments such as luxury hotels and properties branded with his name, so he will still be aware of these holdings even if he puts someone else in charge of daily operations. Richard Painter, the chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, said a blind trust would not protect against some of the most dangerous conflicts from the Trump Organization holdings. Painter has urged Electoral College members to refuse to make Trump the next president unless he sells his business interests. He said the organization’s overseas real estate raises questions about the cost of security and whether that would be paid by U.S. taxpayers, foreign governments or the Trump Organization. The properties could also become a target for violence, potentially ensnaring the United States in a foreign conflict. “A blind trust is a fairy tale in this context,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor who specializes in ethics at New York University School of Law. New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin has touted the idea of appointing a corporate monitor, and suggested Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw compensation funds for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Judges often appoint monitors to oversee court settlements. If a party violates the deal, the monitor can bring them back to court where they would face potential penalties imposed by the judge. However, any corporate monitor overseeing Trump’s business would not have a judge’s backing, only the threat of public embarrassment if Trump refused to cooperate. “That’s bad for Trump, but it’s not the same as having a judge instruct a party in court that unless you buckle up and do what I say you’re back in court and I’ll impose more dramatic sanctions,” said Gillers. Painter and Gillers said the best way to reduce potential conflicts would be a sale of the entire Trump Organization. Painter said Trump’s children should also end their association with the business. “What he needs to do is get to the place where Trump’s interest in profit of any Trump entity is the same as my interest or your interest or the interest of the person on the street,” said Gillers. That presents a new set of complications. A portfolio of real estate developments would usually consist of a large number of separate legal entities. “So, each one has to be sold individually. That’s a pain,” said Brian Quinn, a professor at the Boston College Law School. He said the sale would likely take a long time. Making matters worse, real estate developments often involve a building owner who contracts with someone like Trump to brand and manage the property. Quinn said those contracts derive their value from the Trump name. “It won’t be easy to do. He’ll probably take a bath on the transactions,” Quinn said. “But it’s really the only way for him to go forward. Simply handing over day-to-day management of the businesses to his kids will not be enough.” | 1 |
When Hillary Clinton can study up, work out her one-liners, figure out the best way to deflect questions and fence with inquisitors she does well. She thrives, therefore, in a debate or as a witness. She is the quintessential “A” student. No one will cram harder before the big exam than she.
Left to her own devices, however, she is consistently her own worst enemy. Before she worked out her lines, spontaneous answers about her finances (“We were broke”) or her initial stance toward the Benghazi scandal (“What difference does it make . . .?) disastrous. Refusing to take scandals seriously, her first attempts at brushing back the press come across as evasive, haughty and just plain false. In supposedly friendly settings, with her guard down, she winds up saying ludicrous things that come back to haunt her.
If not for Jeb Bush’s self-immolation this week, more attention would have been paid to yet another clueless Clinton moment. Asked about the Veterans Administration scandal in a softball MSNBC interview, she argued that “it’s not been as widespread as it has been made out to be.” She claimed Republicans were exploiting the situation and wanted the VA to “fail.” Her instinct to cast blame and attack political opponents renders her entirely tone deaf at times.
As you will recall, the scandal first uncovered in Phoenix turned into a nationwide investigation, forcing out the secretary and prompting new legislation. (From the Arizona Republic: “The Office of Inspector General concluded that hundreds of thousands of patients were subjected to unacceptable delays in care, and many died while awaiting appointments; wait-time records were falsified or inaccurate at 70 percent of the VA facilities nationwide; and department leadership was contaminated by bullying, reprisal and a lack of accountability. The public furor forced out VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and other administrators, while prompting the largest reform in department history.”)
It is incomprehensible that she would want to downplay the suffering of vets. A series of officials at veterans groups decried her comment. Stars and Stripes reported:
Veterans groups lobbed criticism at Clinton this week for being out of touch with veterans issues. The conservative group Concerned Veterans for America charged Clinton with downplaying and ignoring the VA’s problems. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, called her comments on the VA a “head-scratcher.” The VA scandal that began last year with an agency cover-up of health care delays “was so widespread it has its own Wikipedia entry,” Rieckhoff tweeted Tuesday.
And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle lashed out. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said he was “appalled.” Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) declared, “The problems we’ve seen at the Phoenix VA are devastating and real. The VA scandal has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with systemic failure, negligence and lack of accountability.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted her, observing that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose Senate committee investigated the VA, was better on veterans issues than Clinton.
Her campaign tried to assure us she understands how “systematic” the problem is. No apology or correction from her was forthcoming.
[Opinion: Republicans are right. We in the media do suck.]
Now imagine if Republicans had said, well “Democrats are just exaggerating the impact of Hurricane Katrina.” The mainstream hardly blinked when it was Clinton, fresh from passing her endurance test at the House select committee on Benghazi.
The Republican opposition research team America Rising later put out a devastating ad, recounting one news report after another detailing the abuses, corruption and ensuing deaths. It ends with McCain saying, “She doesn’t understand veterans, she doesn’t understand what they need, and she is politicizing the issue. Shame on her.”
This episode reminds us of Clinton’s severe limitations as a candidate. It also should prompt Republicans to recognize the media is back in Clinton-rooting mood. Her outlandish statements will become headlines like: “Republicans try to exploit…” The media will shrug its collective shoulders at her inaccuracies and outright deceptions. This is all the more reason to find a superbly skilled nominee, one who can focus on her liabilities and cut through the media chatter.
At the recent debate and in subsequent interviews, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) used his time in the spotlight to focus on the evidence that immediately after the Benghazi attack she told family members and the Egyptian prime minister it was a terrorist attack while the administration perpetrated a false cover story for weeks.
Republicans cannot repeat often enough evidence of her ethical lapses and shoddy record. The press sure isn’t going to dwell on it. | 0 |
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has raised many questions and left the fate of the Supreme Court up in the air, especially since the GOP is flat-out refusing to allow President Obama s potential nominees through, no matter who they might be. However, Scalia s sudden demise also had another unintended and very unexpected effect: it made notoriously silent Justice Clarence Thomas open his mouth for the first time in literally a decade.The case before the court involved the 1996 law that stopped domestic abusers from owning firearms again. Being the staunch conservative that he is, Thomas didn t agree with this, and seemed to imply that wife beaters should be able to own guns, despite the very good reasons for prohibiting them from doing so. So, Thomas s first utterance on the court in the last ten years was also incredibly stupid. He asked: Can you give me another example where a misdemeanor suspends a constitutional right permanently? There was an audible gasp of surprise from the court; after all, many folks there probably don t even know what Clarence s voice sounds like. But, now, we understand why he didn t speak. He s clearly a f*cking moron. As Winning Democrats reports, Thomas decided to go to bat for the gun rights of violent men and engaged in the following tit-for-tat with Ilana Eisenstein, a Justice Department attorney: You re saying that a misdemeanor conviction results in a lifelong ban on possessing a gun, Thomas said. Which at least right now is a constitutional right. In these cases, did any of the petitioners use a weapon? Eisenstein responded that they had not. So it is not directly related to the original crime, Thomas asked.Well, it seems that with Scalia gone, Thomas will be the one to fight for the rights of abusers everywhere to go on and kill the partners they victimize. Way to carry a monumentally stupid and dangerous torch, Justice Thomas. Shame on you.Featured image via screen capture from DailyNebraskan | 1 |
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will send more state police to Catalonia to block any moves to hold a banned independence referendum, the interior ministry said on Friday. The government in Madrid is facing one of its biggest political crises since the end of the Franco dictatorship and the return of democracy four decades ago. It has called the referendum an illegal act and taken police and court action to block it. The new officers would monitor public spaces, keep order and act in case the illegal referendum is maintained, the ministry said in a statement. Catalonia s regional government said new measures including a ban on police time off were over the top and meant to create a false impression of crisis. All you need is eyes in your head to see there is no violence, spokesman Jordi Turull said. Catalan leaders have said they are determined to hold the vote on Oct. 1, defying the central Madrid government and a Constitutional Court ban. They have also said the Catalan assembly would declare independence within 48 hours of a yes vote. State police already on the ground carried out unprecedented raids on regional government offices, printers, newspapers and delivery companies, searching for campaign material on Wednesday. Spanish media have said between 3,000 and 4,000 state officers have already arrived or are on their way, though the interior ministry did not give any numbers. The reinforcements will join 5,000 state police already based in the region. The ministry said they would back up Catalonia s separate police force, called Mossos d Esquadra, which would remain in charge. So far the state and local police forces have worked together well, but Spanish government officials say in private the Mossos could do more to block the vote and maintain order. The Catalan interior minister said the new state forces on the ground were one more step toward taking over the local police, a move that is seen as unlikely by most observers because it would be reminiscent of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, when the force was abolished. The state is laying the groundwork to take over the Mossos d Esquadra. It s a clear attempt to discredit it, said Joaquim Forn on Twitter. The Catalan government earlier this week accused the Spanish authorities of effectively taking over its administration after state police raided its offices and arrested officials, and the finance ministry took control of the local finance department. Authorities have had to billet some of the new officers in three ferries rented by the Spanish government and moored in the harbors of Barcelona and Tarragona because of both a shortage of temporary housing and to avoid clashes between protesters and police forces. | 1 |
Maxine Waters has a major brain freeze during an interview ripping on the Trump administration Karma? Recognize that evidence is pouring in and it s growing or what is matt what what is wrong with them, I just don t quite understand, If Maxine Waters is the best the Dems have in their arsenal then this is good news for Republicans. The California Democrat has been bashing President Trump at every turn with no real reason. She s even called for his impeachment. Is this all she s got? She never speaks about what she s doing for the district in California that she doesn t even live in. She refuses to hear any opposing views during town halls. She has opposing voices removed so the adoring masses can rant and rave about Trump. It s truly a Banana Republic in Maxine s world. We ve reported in the past about her bizarre behavior but the best question was asked by Tucker Carlson:Maxine Waters is so filled with hate for anyone who disagrees with her, that she s decided to appoint herself as the Democrat s chief attack dog for President Trump and his administration. Unfortunately for Maxine, making a public spectacle of herself also comes with a price. Speaking of a price how about the price tag on career politician Maxine Waters $4.3 million mansion?Tucker Carlson reacted to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) threat to take [HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson s] a** apart by noting she might indeed be qualified to take his job.Carlson said Waters, a 40-year politician, lives in a 6,000 square-foot mansion worth $4.3 million that is not in her congressional district.He asked how Waters could afford a home like that in a ritzy neighborhood while solely working as a representative of the 43rd District. We should take her seriously on this subject, Carlson said, calling her a confirmed expert on the question on housing. He said that while Waters sometimes speaks using racially-charged rhetoric, she lives in a neighborhood that is only six percent African-American.Via: Fox News | 1 |
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Monday Catalonia s independence referendum that turned violent was a matter for the Spanish government, but urged restraint. These are internal events for Spain and for the Spanish government and the Spanish people. Obviously we deplore violence wherever it occurs, we want to see any constitutional questions wherever they arise settled by constitutional means, Hammond told Britain s LBC radio. It s very important to maintain the rule of law everywhere, we would always urge restraint in the way that is done but it s for the Spanish people and Spanish government to resolve these issues. | 0 |
Public funding of elections — that is, relying on tax revenue more than private donations to fund candidate campaigns — is a popular campaign finance reform proposal, if one that many Americans don’t fully embrace. Public funding is often thought to free candidates from the burden of fundraising and reduce the influence of wealthy donors and special interests. That all sounds good. Who likes “special interests,” after all?
Now, new research shows that public funding has an unexpected consequence: increased polarization. That is, public funding makes it harder, not easier, to elect moderate candidates.
That is the conclusion of political scientist Andrew Hall. He focuses on state legislative elections and compares trends in the five states that implemented robust public funding programs — Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin — to trends in other states. Here is what he finds:
Below is a graph showing the distribution of ideology (“NP scores”) in legislatures in states that implemented public financing (the “treated” states) and those that did not (the “control” states). The first group of states became more polarized after the implementation of public financing. But no such change occurred during this time in the states that didn’t implement public financing.
In a more elaborate statistical analysis, Hall examines the gap between Republican and Democratic legislators representing similar districts. In a polarized legislature, a Republican and a Democrat will tend to vote in very different ways even though they represent essentially the same constituents. Hall finds that public financing increases this gap between the parties by 30 percent.
Why does public financing appear to have this effect? Hall argues that public financing weakens the influence of a maligned, but moderating, force in elections: access-oriented interest groups. Public financing reduces the funding supplied by these groups by over $20,000 per race, on average. The problem is that these groups give relatively little to ideologically extreme legislators and much more to moderates. Individual donors, however, have no such preference.
This leads to a broader point about campaign finance and polarization. Much of the debate over campaign finance is based on distinctions between “good” donors and “bad” donors. Good donors are taxpayers, in a public financing system. Or, in a privately funded system, good donors are ordinary citizens, sometimes called “small donors.” Bad donors are political party organizations, wealthy people, political action committees, and interest groups.
The problem is that if you want to reduce polarization, this way of thinking about donors gets things exactly backward. Small donors are a polarizing influence, as Adam Bonica has shown. Meanwhile, wealthy people tend to be a moderating influence. The same is true of many political action committees and interest groups. The same is true of political party organizations, as Brian Schaffner and Ray La Raja argue in this post.
That’s not to say that there aren’t good reasons to favor public financing or small donors. But favoring those things may also mean living with the trade-off: a more polarized, and probably less functional, politics.
Note: For a response, see this follow-up post by Seth Masket and Michael Miller. | 0 |
SAN JUAN (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday said that while the Obama administration was ready to do all it could to help debt-ridden Puerto Rico, only Congress could deliver truly effective change. Lew, speaking in San Juan where he met with the island’s governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, as well as business and labor leaders, last week urged Congress to urgently pass legislation by the end of March to help the island struggling with $70 billion debt. He has called for legislation to allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debts paired with independent fiscal oversight. “We will leave no stone unturned in looking for things we can do both administratively and using our convening authority to ... help solve these problems,” Lew said at a press briefing on Wednesday morning. “But using all the tools we have still won’t be as effective as Congressional action. That’s why the time for Congress to act is now.” Puerto Rico has begun to default on some of its bond issues and is negotiating with creditors to restructure its borrowings, but is facing a lawsuit from bond insurers who backed its debt. Extending Chapter 9 to Puerto Rico, which currently does not have the ability to put its public agencies into bankruptcy, has been long debated. Democrats have been generally supportive of proposals but a number of Republicans have shown skepticism. Lew reiterated there would be no federal bailout, saying Puerto Rico won’t be able to find a “path out of insolvency and back to growth” unless creditors make sacrifices in an orderly restructuring. Still, he stressed the Treasury was doing all it could. Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday, Lew said the Treasury has bolstered its team dedicated to Puerto Rico, providing technical assistance on issues such as revenue collection. “The Treasury team is part of a broader administration-wide effort jointly led by the White House,” he said. Lew added that a restructuring could also help Puerto Rican retirees. The island’s main pensions face a roughly $45 billion unfunded liability that stands to be depleted by 2019. “Coming out of a comprehensive restructuring, I think that pensioners could end up with more security than they have right now,” Lew said. A legislative solution could also include introducing a control board for the island. Lew said that any oversight would have to be done in a way that is respectful of Puerto Rico’s system of self-government. | 1 |
Children, the most vulnerable of Americans, will feel the brunt of the new Obamacare replacement bill by the House GOP. The Hill reports that the new bill would result in $43 Billion being cut in Medicaid coverage for children over the next 10 years, according to a recent study.The study conducted by Avalere, a healthcare consulting firm, found that coverage for non-disabled children would be cut due to a per capita cap. This new cap is the GOP s way to implement new cuts to an already strained Medicaid fund that provides health care to millions of American children who don t have access to anything else. Over time, per capita caps could significantly reduce the amount of funding that goes towards Medicaid coverage for children, Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere, said in a statement. While local control and more efficient operation of Medicaid programs are laudable goals, coverage and access for low income children are ultimately dictated by federal funding, and reductions of this magnitude could disrupt access. The GOP argues that these cuts are necessary to control what they see as too much spending on Medicaid.The Congressional Budget Office discovered that overall, $839 billion will be cut from Medicaid over 10 years. These enormous cuts will be achieved through the new Medicaid per capita cap and ending extra funds to ObamaCare s Medicaid expansion.Parents across the country are afraid of what will happen when their child s health coverage is cut. The fear is being felt across the board.With cuts this astronomically huge, there s absolutely no way kids can stay out of harm s way, says Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center on Children and Families.Let s hope the House bill doesn t get any further, for the sake of our country and our children.Featured image via Getty/Chip Somodevilla | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russia s FSB security service said on Thursday Moscow knew the identities of four Russian citizens responsible for a wave of bomb hoaxes. The anonymous phone calls have caused huge disruption at shopping centers, train stations and public buildings across Russia since last month. Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB, told reporters on Thursday that authorities knew the identities of those responsible, Russian news agencies reported. He said they were four Russian citizens based abroad with accomplices inside Russia. Bortnikov was also quoted as saying that Moscow was working with foreign authorities to try to locate and extradite the hoaxers, who he said had used IP phones to call in their threats, making it hard to trace them. | 1 |
1. Paula Jones Paula Corbin Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, sued President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. Jones accused Clinton of sexually harassing her in a Little Rock hotel room in... | 1 |
Schools All Over America Are Closing On Election Day Due To Fears Of Violence
Will this be the most chaotic election day in modern American history? All across the nation, schools are being closed on election day due to safety fears. Traditionally, schools have been very popular as voting locations because they can accommodate a lot of people, they usually have lots of parking, and everyone in the community knows where they are and can usually get to them fairly easily. But now there is a big movement to remove voting from schools or to shut schools down on election day so that children are not present when voting takes place. According to Fox News, “voting has been removed or classes have been canceled on Election Day at schools in Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere.” Just a couple days ago, I shared with you a survey that found that 51 percent of all Americans are concerned about violence happening on election day, and all of these schools closing is just another sign of how on edge much of the population is as we approach November 8th. | 1 |
With the release of the email chain that proves that Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner met with the Russians with the idea of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton; after Jared Kushner (Donald Trump s son-in-law) failed to disclose multiple meetings with Russians (which is a crime), he has managed to keep his security clearance. Democrats tried to do something about it, but Republicans, who are apparently with Trump till the very end, stopped them.House Democrats proposed an amendment that would strip Kushner of his security clearance. Republicans certainly have to be seeing the writing on the wall at this point Trump and his crew (especially Kushner) are going down but instead of using this opportunity to tell their constituents that they truly stand for law and order, Republicans are digging their heels and are prepared to go down with the ship (excuse the mixed metaphor). They blocked the amendment.Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who chaired the Democratic National Committee during much of last year s campaign cycle, proposed an amendment targeting Kushner during a House Appropriations Committee markup session Thursday. It was voted down, 22-30, along party lines.The measure would have barred the government from issuing or maintaining a security clearance for any White House individual under a criminal investigation by a Federal law enforcement agency for aiding a foreign government. This amendment is an important step in protecting the American people from the threat of hostile foreign interference. That is not a controversial or a political goal, Wasserman Schultz said during the hearing. Revoking Jared Kushner s security clearance would send a clear signal to anyone who would consider aiding and abetting a foreign enemy state to affect the outcome of a U.S. presidential election that they will not be entrusted with our nation s most sensitive information, she added.Source: Huffington PostThis proves that Republicans have lost all claims to patriotism. They have put party and even Russia before country. That s okay, though. The Trump ship is sinking and Republicans who refuse to jump off will pay dearly at the polls.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1 |
The current occupant of the White House traveled overseas and met with President Andrzej Duda of Poland at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, then continued to embarrass our country by bashing the media, refusing to say outright that Russia meddled in our 2016 presidential election. He then went on to tout his economy even though he s only been on the job for 167 days.On Thursday, the former reality show star Trump bragged about the U.S. economy, saying everyone else is getting rich.Trump spoke of U.S. stock market gains since he was elected, according to The Hill. Personally, I ve picked up nothing, he said. Everyone else is getting very rich. That s ok, I m very happy. On the 4th of July, Trump tweeted, Really great numbers on jobs & the economy! Things are starting to kick in now, and we have just begun! Don t like steel & aluminum dumping! Really great numbers on jobs & the economy! Things are starting to kick in now, and we have just begun! Don't like steel & aluminum dumping! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017While on the campaign trail, Trump said, I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created but that promise hasn t been kept. 594,000 jobs have been created since Trump took office and that s a dismal number if you compare it to Obama s record. And of the jobs created by the Trump administration, most of those can be attributed to Obama s economy. Businesses that were bleeding jobs unleashed the longest streak of job creation on record, Obama wrote in a letter to the American people.The economy added jobs for 75 straight months.As for Trump bragging about jobs, the US employment growth is actually slowing.Trump says he hasn t made money but that, too, is a lie. Trump and his family members are shamelessly profiting from his so-called presidency. Trump said that everyone is getting rich but a quick visit to my bank online just showed me that that is not true.For the record, 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama. Trump did accomplish one thing, though. He managed to disparage the U.S. media while on foreign soil. That s got to be a first.Photo by Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images. | 1 |
Ted Nugent is once again degrading a segment of the population and this time he targeted women.In a Facebook post devoted to his love of his guns, all of which he has undoubtedly f*cked repeatedly, the conservative rocker listed the reasons why men prefer their guns over women. You can trade an old 44 for a new 22, Nugent wrote as reason number ten on the offensive list, which then became even more cringe-worthy as it continued.Nugent went on to explain how You can keep one gun at home and have another for when you re on the road, and even went so far as to say that women don t act normally all month long like guns do even though PMS is a normal bodily function that all women go through in their lives.In his top reason, Nugent lamented that he can t make women shut their mouths like keeping a gun silent with a silencer.Here s his full post via Facebook.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Top ten reasons men prefer guns over women-#10 You can trade an old 44 for a new 22.#9 You can keep one gun at Posted by Ted Nugent on Thursday, March 24, 2016This isn t the first time the Donald Trump fan has acted like a complete asshole toward women.According to Media Matters, Nugent has a lengthy history of misogynist commentary, including calling women worthless bitch, worthless whore, toxic cunt, fat pig, and dirty whore. And in a disgusting defense of Trump, who is in the middle of trying to portray himself as the best candidate for women, Nugent went on a tirade against Fox News host Megyn Kelly in which the Motor City Madman said: I often turn on Fox just to look at her. Sometimes when I m loading my [gun ammunition] magazines, I like to just look at her. And I usually sit naked on the couch dropping hot brass on my stuff. Not only does Nugent prefer guns to real women, he also prefers teen girls over women as well. He wrote and performed a song about raping a 13-year-old girl in 1981. Two years earlier, Nugent suckered a 17-year-old girl s parents into making him her legal guardian so he could have sex with her.In short, not only is Nugent a coward when it comes time for real men to take action in defense of their country, he s terrified of strong independent women who think for themselves. Featured image via Flickr | 1 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Thursday approved the creation of a U.N. investigative team to collect, preserve and store evidence in Iraq of acts by Islamic State that may be war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. The 15-member council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution, after a year of negotiations with Iraq, that asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a team to support domestic efforts to hold the militants accountable. British Minister of State for the Middle East Alistair Burt said Britain would provide some $1.3 million to help establish the team. There can never be adequate recompense for those who were forced to endure the wanton brutality of (Islamic State) and the dead will not be brought back, but this resolution means that the international community is united in our belief that there should, at least, be accountability, Burt told the council. Use of the evidence collected by the team in other venues, such as international courts, would be determined in agreement with the Government of Iraq on a case-by-case basis. Evidence is for primary use by Iraqi authorities, followed by competent national-level courts, according to the resolution. Thousands of foreigners have fought with Islamic State and some are already being prosecuted when they return home. U.N. experts said in June last year that Islamic State was committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the minority religious community through killings, sexual slavery and other crimes. International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi woman who was enslaved and raped by Islamic State fighters in Mosul, have long pushed Iraq to allow U.N. investigators to help. Clooney and Murad, who were both in the Security Council for Thursday s vote, described the resolution as a milestone in the fight for justice. Nadia and I exchanged a warm smile when we saw the 15 hands go up in the chamber, Clooney told Reuters. It s been a long time coming; in the meantime, evidence has been lost and we ve lost some opportunities along the way, but the fact that we have this resolution now means that justice is finally possible, she said. Murad said she was very happy the council had acted. The Security Council met during the annual gathering of world leaders for the U.N. General Assembly. We look ahead to the next steps and it s really the next steps that will define whether this piece of paper we acquired today will become real justice on the ground for Yazidis and other victims of ISIS, Clooney said. Iraq s foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari officially requested international help in a letter to the Security Council last month. The council could have established an inquiry without Iraq s consent, but Britain wanted Iraq s approval. Islamic State s self-proclaimed caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants capital in northern Iraq, after a nine-month campaign. | 0 |
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Media coverage has recently been saturated with distressing scenes showing the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, where aerial bombardment has led to a heavy loss of civilian life. The severity of the crisis instinctively makes us want to help – scores of protesters gathered outside the seat of the British prime minister on Saturday holding signs calling on the government to “Save Aleppo” and impose a “No-Bomb Zone Now”. While the anger is understandable, the way it is being channeled reflects a circumscribed policy debate – there are other options than a No-Fly Zone, which should be avoided as it would harm rather than help efforts to alleviate the suffering of Syrian civilians.
In any area of policy, the mainstream debate revolves around policy alternatives that reflect establishment divisions. For example, in economics, ‘there is no alternative’ to neoliberalism, at least there wasn’t until Keynesianism was rediscovered by some elites after the 2008 crisis. The debate over what is to be done over Syria revolves around two policy alternatives: the hawks, including likely next U.S. president, Hillary Clinton, advocate a NFZ and the doves, including the current U.S. administration, maintain that the sanctions regime should be increased. This effectively reflects a division within the establishment on how to proceed. Serious policy alternatives are not discussed. In particular, discussion of increasing aid and support to refugees, surely the most obvious way of directly helping civilians in Syria, and what the UN has called on industrialized countries to do , is curious by its absence.
This circumscribed debate does not logically follow from its supposed pretext – stopping civilian loss of life. In fact, a NFZ is a policy that would unavoidably lead to civilians dying. Enforcing a NFZ means destroying air defenses, which are located to defend cities – i.e. they are located in areas where there are many civilians. Even the flagbearer for the hawks, Hillary Clinton, has admitted privately that with a No-Fly Zone “you’re going to kill a lot of Syrians”; such intervention will “take a lot of civilians”. This realization would seem inconsistent with the often-used humanitarian pretext, but it makes sense given Hillary Clinton’s recent admission that her top priority in Syria is removing Syrian President Assad.
There is a clear parallel with the imposition of a NFZ in Libya, which prolonged the conflict and worsened the situation for civilians. NATO bombing directly led to scores of civilian deaths and facilitated the overthrow of the regime by rebel militias that have killed, and are continuing to kill , thousands. Particularly repugnant was the ethnic cleansing of black people , including through public lynching . In a 2013 paper , Alan Kuperman, a Harvard academic, argued that NATO intervention extended the war by a factor of 6 and increased the death toll 7 to 10 times; given that Libya is now a failed state, torn apart by warlords, we can safely say that these estimates were too conservative. President Obama privately calls the situation in Libya a “ shit show ”. Only last month a report from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament found that the humanitarian justification was an insufficient pretext and based on falsehoods, the supposedly limited intervention led “ineluctably” to regime change, and that the (British) government, and by implication other participating Western powers, did not seriously consider diplomatic alternatives to military action.
Regardless, the mantra of Western foreign policy is “it will be different this time” – unlike all recent Western military interventions this one will be limited, successful and won’t leave a worse humanitarian situation in its wake. Although, if the dire humanitarian situation in Aleppo necessitates immediate action, then why are there not equally loud calls for action for civilians facing similar situations? U.S. bombing in Manbij and Kobane in Syria and Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and flattened entire neighbourhoods ; more than a third of US and UK backed Saudi airstrikes in Yemen have hit civilian sites, including schools , hospitals , weddings and funerals .
Talking about this is not meant as a distraction or relativization; the fact that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are engaged in similar activities does not make the bombing of Aleppo less objectionable. However, it does raise questions about the motives of those pushing so hard for a no-fly zone. If western foreign policy actors, and their allies in press, were motivated by humanitarian concerns, then surely stopping these atrocities should appear on the policy agenda – especially given that the action required is easier and does not risk war with Russia.
If humanitarian considerations were really the important factors in the foreign policy debate, then there would be discussion on the legitimacy of aerial bombardment of cities and towns, given that this invariably leads to civilian deaths. International agreements have been successful in making chemical and biological weapons illegal, a prohibition which is generally followed ( though not always ). The first well-publicized use of aerial bombardment, the Nazi bombing of Guernica in 1937, caused righteous, popular outrage. Tragically, however, its use became normalized during the Second World War and a ban on aerial bombing of cities was not included in the post-war international settlement. The fact that this seems so hopelessly idealistic reflects the fact that it is geopolitics, not humanitarian considerations, that govern international relations and foreign policy discussion; human suffering is nothing more than a useful pretext for whatever actions you want to take in order to secure geopolitical advantage. The U.S. and its allies want to remove Syria from Russia’s orbit, so therefore the dictator there must go, but airstrikes to support the dictator in Yemen are fine, because the dictator there is a friend of close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
There is an added complication with the NFZ in Syria in that it marks a return to Cold-War era brinkmanship and possible armed confrontation with Russia. The logic of brinkmanship runs that to make geopolitical gains, one must escalate to a level that will make the other side back down, partly by convincing your enemy you are ready to commit irrational acts. There is an inherent danger in this game: both states are nuclear armed and the consequences of a spiral of escalation could be devastating .
Syria hawks, or what close Obama aide Ben Rhodes called the “ pro-stupid shit ” caucus, argue that a NFZ will lead Russia to effectively back down: for example, Clinton argued that it will “give us leverage in our conversations with Russia”. (Interestingly, in the exchange this quote from Clinton indicated the war goal: a NFZ will make Russia “put the Assad future on the political and diplomatic track” – i.e. Russia will be forced to accept regime change.) After all, despite the panic in the press, Russia is actually a feeble successor state to a superpower, and would come off worse in a direct conflict with the preeminent might of North America, or so the logic runs.
However, ‘dovish’ Western foreign policy actors point to the danger that advanced Russian materiel support to Syria poses to the enforcement of a NFZ. Unlike other recent U.S. military adventures, enforcing a NFZ in Syria could lead to significant, and politically unpalatable, American casualties – pilots will be shot down. This realization means that saner establishment figures are opposed to a NFZ. For example, U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who oversaw the NFZ in Libya, said a NFZ is a “violent combat action that results in lots of casualties and increased risk to our own personnel”.
Instead, relative doves like current Secretary of State John Kerry advocate intensifying the sanctions regime against Syria and Russia. Again, this does not seem to be seriously about helping civilians. A leaked UN report has revealed that the existing Western sanctions regime is preventing humanitarian aid and creating a humanitarian disaster that threatens to rival that caused by the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq during the 1990s. The history of sanctions tends to show that the costs are borne by civilians, and a Petersen Institute study of all sanctions incidents since WWII shows that sanctions failed to achieve their goals in about ⅔ of cases, and are even less successful when applied against enemies and autocrats.
So, what is to be done? What should people in the West and globally push for to help the people of Syria? Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any quick fixes – the situation in Syria is complex and involves diverse actors, with competing interests. Immediate relief to the refugees fleeing the conflict should be a priority. In terms of foreign policy, campaigning for de-escalation and diplomacy against constant militarism remain the best solutions for the Syrian people, and humanity generally. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday said it was time for Congress to lay aside politics and to act to provide additional money to combat the Zika virus before government funding dries up. “Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out,” Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon. He warned that development of a vaccine for the virus could be delayed if Congress does not provide any more money and urged Americans to contact lawmakers to pressure them to take up the issue. Concern over the threat from Zika, which can cause a birth defect called microcephaly marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies, has risen since Florida authorities last week detected the first signs of local transmission in the continental United States. Zika funding remains stalled six months after Obama asked the Republican-led Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funds. Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to fight the virus. But, Ryan accused Democrats of obstructing the funding and said the Obama administration has failed to spend existing funds to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne virus. Congress has interrupted its own recesses at least eight times since 1998, most recently in 2013 when lawmakers returned early to debate the use of military force in Syria, according to congressional records. The latest round of finger-pointing indicated there was little chance lawmakers would cut short their seven-week summer break to vote on Zika funding. A $1.1 billion compromise failed after House Republicans attached language that would place restrictions on abortion and defund part of Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law. Senate Democrats, who blocked the measure twice before Congress left Washington last month, want Republicans to agree on a new funding measure that drops those provisions, a step Republicans reject. “We need the White House and Senate Democrats to drop politics and put the public’s health first. We hope for a change of heart, and soon,” Ryan wrote in an opinion piece in the USA Today newspaper. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart invited Democrats to allow the current bill to pass by unanimous consent at a perfunctory session on Friday. | 0 |
Former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill) has always been an asshole. His Twitter feed is full of damn near sociopathic rants, and he regularly appears on television saying the same sorts of things. He was kicked off his own radio show for racist slurs, is a well-known deadbeat dad, and even rewrote Martin Luther King Jr s famous I Have a Dream speech into one of his infamous racist rants. However, what this guy did this time really takes the cake.By now, we ve all heard late night host Jimmy Kimmel s emotional story about his newborn son s congenital heart defect. Anyone with even a sliver of a heart was moved by that. But not Joe Walsh. Instead, Walsh decided to mock Kimmel, tweeting out:Sorry Jimmy Kimmel: your sad story doesn't obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else's health care. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) May 2, 2017This man is absolutely despicable. In his world, newborns with heart defects should just be made to die? Does he know that time is of the essence in such situations, and the LAST thing those parents should have to worry about is whether or not some corporate bureaucrats will deem their kid s life worth saving, whether or not it hurts their bottom line too much?This is what conservatism is, folks. It s people like Joe Walsh who really don t care about anyone but themselves. It s those who d let people die all because of selfishness. If this single tweet doesn t tell you that the GOP is heartless, I don t know what will.Featured image via video screen capture | 1 |
(Reuters) - Some wealthy owners of U.S. major-league sports teams may have to put up more of their own money to fund stadium construction under a tax bill proposed by U.S. House of Representatives Republicans, but the overall impact could be slight, sports economists said. The legislation unveiled on Thursday could mean just a modest scaling-back of grand plans for new stadiums, with one expert suggesting team owners could help offset any lost federal subsidies, for example, by pouring concrete flooring instead of terrazzo. Outside some of the biggest cities, team owners may have enough leverage to compel local governments hungry for the prestige and perceived economic benefits of new stadiums to come up with alternative funding streams. Various sports owners in the past have relocated teams to other cities because of stadium funding issues or used the threat of a move to extract concessions from local governments. “I’m sure the teams will be in a lather but, based on experience, if the cities/counties/states want to subsidize the stadium they’ll figure out some way,” Rick Eckstein, a sociology professor at Pennsylvania’s Villanova University, wrote in an email. Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Massachusetts’s Smith College, said it may make future plans for billion-dollar stadiums “less elaborate,” but added it was nothing that team owners and local governments could not take in their stride. Under the Republican plan, local governments could no longer fund the building or renovating of professional sports stadiums by issuing tax-exempt public-purpose bonds, the sort of bonds typically used to fund things like schools, libraries and public transit. U.S. President Donald Trump has called for an end to the subsidy, at least for the National Football League after some of its players angered the Republican president by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial bias in the criminal justice system. His Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, also proposed ending the tax break for stadiums in 2015. A report last year by the Brookings Institution, the Washington-based social sciences research group, found that of the 45 major-league stadiums built or overhauled since 2000, 36 were at least partly funded by tax-exempt municipal bonds. The total tax-exempt bond principal issued to fund those stadiums was about $13 billion and led to a federal tax revenue loss of about $3.7 billion, the study found. Republicans say they would expect to see only an additional $200 million in tax revenue over the ensuing decade if the plan becomes law. Ted Gayer, one of the authors of the Brookings study, welcomed the proposal to end what he called an “egregious but small misuse of federal tax dollars.” “Will it substantially affect the lucrative business of professional sports teams? No,” he said. “Will it substantially impact the ability of sports teams to get subsidies? No, maybe at the margins, but probably not.” | 0 |
The big question this year for the White House Easter Egg roll is whether White House Press Scretary will show up as the Easter Bunny. A little known fact and tradition has been that Spicer is the Easter Bunny! What a guy! Who knew that the guy who dressed in the bunny costume would one day be the 45th President s Press Secretary 15 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE WHITE HOUSE EASTER EGG ROLL:While the long-established custom of rolling eggs on the historic grounds has practically become a rite of passage for those who observe Easter, this time-honored tradition has come a long way since it was officially established by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878. In fact, the fun in Washington on Capitol Hill almost didn t become the grandstanding institution as we now know it today.Here, we look back at the White House Easter Egg Roll s 138-year history to highlight 15 of the most surprising and memorable moments associated with the most sought-after ticket in D.C.1. According to the White House Historical Association, some historians note that it was first lady Dolley Madison who originally proposed the idea of a public egg roll around 1810. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson s young children held their own informal egg roll for their own amusement in the 1860s.2. Taking advantage of a day off from school, more than 10,000 children were said to have gathered near the cast-iron dome of the U.S. capitol in 1876. Baskets in tow, filled with dyed Easter eggs, they set about to carry on the holiday tradition of rolling eggs down the hills to see how far they d go without breaking.3. Uh oh, here comes the fun police. The unusual sport of rolling and racing after hard-cooked eggs apparently did a lot of damage to the grounds of the Capitol. So in 1876, members of Congress approved the Turf Protection Act, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, which prevented the Capitol s grounds from being used as a playground. The law was supposed to take effect in 1877, but inclement weather prevented any Easter activities from occurring that year anyway. However, the egg rollers who showed up in 1878 were turned away and forced to play elsewhere.4. President Hayes and his wife, Lucy, brought the holiday tradition back later in 1878 for the first official White House Easter Egg Roll. Every year thereafter, with a few notable exceptions, presidents have hosted the celebration on the South Lawn.5. By the late 1800s, games such as egg picking, egg ball, toss and catch, and egg croquet were added to the Easter festivities.6. The treasured tradition was cancelled due to World War I and suspended during the Second World War in 1942. When the White House underwent renovations in that same year, it was hosted by Congress and held at other locations.7. After a 12-year hiatus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought the egg-stravaganza back in 1953.8. In 1969, the White House Easter Bunny went hoppin down the government trail for the first time. The bunny was actually a staffer for first lady Pat Nixon. While we know that the Easter bunny is always part of the current administration s staff, the rules forbid the bunny from revealing his or her identity, until now that is.9. Ursula Meese, wife of President Reagan s Attorney General Edwin Meese III, was quite the Peter Rabbit of her time, as she performed as the White House Bunny for six seasons. It earned her the nickname The Meester Bunny. And thanks to this unofficial Twitter account, we know just who was under the fleece costume during the George W. Bush Administration as well. Today, he s traded in the long bunny ears for a suit and a podium, but there s no word yet if current Press Secretary Sean Spicer will be making a furry-tailed appearance again for this year s celebration.10. Enter the sacred spoon in 1974. Organizers were tasked with finding silverware for the first egg-rolling races, where children used spoons to push their eggs through the grass, down marked-off lanes.11. Step right up: The circus came to town in 1977. President Jimmy Carter introduced a three-ring circus and menagerie, including a 1,200-pound steer named Big Red. 12. President Ronald Reagan, a superstar in his own right, brought a little Hollywood to the White House event in 1981. Not only did he and wife, Nancy, present Broadway show performances and the Egg Hunt Pits, but they also had balloons from the Macy s Thanksgiving Day Parade floating in mid-air.13. The Reagans were also the first to use wooden eggs at the Easter egg hunt, which were signed by Hollywood s elite, widely-recognized athletes, and notable politicians. Ever since, wooden eggs imprinted with the president and first lady s signatures are handed out as a small memento to children under 13 years old.14. By 2009, the Easter Egg Roll had become the hottest ticket in D.C. So much so, an online lottery for tickets was established to give children from all around the country the opportunity to attend. The lottery is held in March each year for three days only.15. Sean Spicer is the Easter Bunny!WHAT A GUY!Via: Southern Living | 0 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that a planned Sept. 25 independence referendum in Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdish region would detract from the need to defeat Islamic State and to reconstruct regained territories. The Secretary-General respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Iraq and considers that all outstanding issues between the federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should be resolved through structured dialogue and constructive compromise, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. The Secretary-General calls upon the leaders across Iraq to approach this matter with patience and restraint, he said. | 1 |
GENEVA (Reuters) - A round of Syria peace talks that ended on Thursday was a big missed opportunity but there may be more talks next month if ideas can be found to encourage President Bashar al-Assad s government to engage, U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said. He said neither side had actually sabotaged the latest talks by refusing to attend, but he laid most of the blame for the failure of the round at the feet of the government side. De Mistura voiced milder disappointment with the Syrian opposition, after they arrived in Geneva ruling out any future role for Assad. But he said that tough public stance had been tempered by a mature position in the closed-door discussions. The goal we had was to bring about real negotiations, de Mistura told a news conference. Let me be frank. We did not achieve, we did not achieve these negotiations. In other words, negotiations in reality did not take place. I would conclude by saying (it was) a big missed opportunity. A golden opportunity at the end of this year when in fact there is a clear indication by many sides that the military operations are coming to a close, he added. De Mistura said he was leaving Geneva for consultations in New York with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, followed by a meeting with the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. I will probably need to come up with new ideas, parameters, about how to move the talks forward, particularly on constitution and elections, he said, adding that plans for a new round of Geneva talks in January depended on their outcome. Civil war has ravaged Syria for more than six years. Chief opposition negotiator Nasr Hariri said the international community needed to do more to persuade government negotiator Bashar al-Ja afari to come to the table, warning that the talks were in great danger . The international community needs to find a new approach, otherwise this stalemate will continue and unfortunately it will be at the expense of Syrians, he said. One European diplomat said the talks had been a charade because of the government s behavior. Although the regime has presented itself here, that is all that it has done. I would go further: it s not just a kind of disengagement that they ve shown, it s an extraordinary contempt, he said. I understand that a large amount of their time here was spent negotiating personal admin matters and expenses, rather than the substance of the talks. As he left the talks, Ja afari accused the opposition, backed by Western countries and Saudi Arabia, of sabotaging the round. Ja afari said Damascus did not want the talks to fail but the opposition had put down a precondition last month by concluding a conference known as Riyadh 2 with a declaration that Assad had no role in Syria s political transition. De Mistura said the Damascus government had wanted him to insist that the opposition withdraw the statement. That was not possible or a logical approach because to me it sounded like a precondition. The government engaged me with only on (discussions about) terrorism. The truth is there is not one single subject they accepted except that one. | 0 |
Should legal gun owners be allowed to freely carry anywhere in their state, including dorm rooms and school campuses?In the wake of mass shootings in Las Vegas and Texas that left dozens of people dead or injured, a Michigan Senate committee approved bills Tuesday that will allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in gun-free zones such as schools, churches, day care centers, bars, dorms, and stadiums.The shooting at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, which left 26 people dead and 20 more injured, makes state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, a Republican from West Olive, Mich., more certain that now is the time to take up the gun legislation. Some have said it s insensitive to bring up these issues now, but I feel quite the opposite, he told a standing-room-only crowd in the Senate Government Operations Committee. The recent events will allow us to look at how we can deter those who want to do harm. And responsible, well-trained, licensed concealed-pistol holders can be one of those deterrents. The bills taken up in the Senate Government Operations Committee passed on a party-line vote with Republicans supporting the three-bill package and Democrats opposing it. The bills also would close the open-carry loophole, effectively barring gun owners from openly carrying their weapons in gun-free zones.He gained support from gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association and the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners. The idea of having the ability to arm a well-qualified, well-trained individual is tantamount to setting out a scenario where we no longer set up a sheep for the wolf, said Robert Rudowski of the gun owners group.Gun-free zones should be called mass murderer empowerment zones, said Steve Dulan, spokesman for the gun owners group.Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, vetoed similar legislation in 2012, just four days after a horrific shooting in Newtown, Conn., when a heavily armed man muscled his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first-graders and six adults.Snyder said that bill had a fatal loophole that didn t allow for those institutions to opt out of the new legislation and prohibit weapons from their buildings. His spokeswoman, Anna Heaton, said Tuesday that Snyder hasn t seen the latest version of the concealed- carry bills and hadn t taken a position on them.Meekhof said he has talked with Snyder about the new legislation and that he s not necessarily on board with it. USA Today Never-Trumper Governor Rick Snyder (R), who some Republicans believe leans to the left on more than one important issue, like vetoing legislation that would require MI voters to have a valid ID in order to vote, is currently facing some serious allegations related to the Flint water crisis.WXYZ Harvey Hollins, the man Gov. Snyder appointed to handle the Flint Water Crisis, recently testified that he told the governor about increasing lead in Flint water months before Snyder told Congress he learned about it.The testimony came during the preliminary hearing for Michigan Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyons, who is facing involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office charges for his alleged role in the water crisis.Hollins testified that he told Snyder in July 2015 and August 2015 that there were concerns about increased lead levels in Flint s water.During congressional testimony in March 2016, Snyder testified that he didn t even learn about the dangerous levels of lead in Flint s water system until October 2015. I told the governor that we re hearing a lot more folks complaining about lead, copper, and TTHM (total trihalomethanes), Hollins testified.We d love to hear what you think about legal gun owners being able to carry anywhere in their state? | 1 |
On the morning of Feb. 23, 1987, a couple of dozen subatomic particles known as neutrinos zinged through specially instrumented underground sensors in Japan, Ohio and Russia. The particles had squirted from the core of a collapsing star 163, 000 light years away in a small galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. They were the heralds of doom. On their heels, a couple of hours later came a rising blitzkrieg of light, heat, shock waves, and rings and knots of gas and all manner of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum — all the panoply of a star devouring itself in one of the great cataclysms of nature, a supernova explosion. SN1987A, as it is known, was the nearest supernova to be discovered since humans started using telescopes, and it sent astronomers rushing to observatories in Chile and Australia where the star was dying straight overhead. Since then, it has been studied by telescopes in space and on every continent, including Antarctica. And the show is still going on, as can be seen in new images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope and released in honor of the event’s 30th anniversary. “There’s the shredded star in the center, the circumstellar ring that looks like a string of pearls,” Robert Kirshner, a longtime Harvard professor and currently science program director for the Moore Foundation, who has studied the supernova for 30 years, mused in an email. At its peak, SN1987A was radiating more energy than 100 million suns and was visible to the naked eye. Among other things, astronomers traced the explosion to a blue supergiant star that has now disappeared. The observations have allowed scientists to recreate the steps by which it started coming apart tens of thousands of years before the final cataclysm. The data confirmed that most of the light from the supernova was caused by the decay of radioactive cobalt produced as the star shrank catastrophically and then rebounded even more catastrophically in a thermonuclear fury. But another mystery remains. According to theory, the emission of neutrinos should have meant that the core of the doomed star was collapsing into a neutron star, a ball about the size of Manhattan but dense as an atomic nucleus, whose magnetic fields spinning and sweeping space like a lighthouse beam produce the clocklike signals known as pulsars. But there is no sign that a neutron star has been seen yet. “We’ve looked, but we don’t see any little dot in the center,” Dr. Kirshner said. Maybe it is hidden by dust, or maybe enough star material fell back onto the star to nudge it into collapsing into a black hole. The end of the story of this star is still unwritten. “The most interesting thing to test is whether we understand correctly how a star explodes and which elements it forms, by looking directly at the shredded star,” Dr. Kirshner said. “After all, you and the Earth are made of supernova debris. ” | 0 |
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber rammed a car into a police truck in the southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least seven people, police said. The attack killed five police officials and two passers-by on the outskirts of the city of Quetta, police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said. He said 22 people were wounded, eight of them critically. Sarfraz Bugti, the home minister of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is capital, told Reuters: It was a suicide blast. Quetta is about 100 km (60 miles) east of the border with Afghanistan. Bugti said the truck carrying the police officials was on its way to the city to drop them at their posts when the suicide bomber rammed into the vehicle. Television pictures showed the burnt wreckage of the vehicles. The Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella organisation of various militant groups within Pakistan, and loosely allied to the Afghan Taliban, issued a statement claiming responsibility. Baluchistan province has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists fighting against the state to demand more of a share of the gas- and mineral-rich region s resources. They also accuse the central government of discrimination. The Taliban, Sunni Islam militants and sectarian groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group also operate in the strategically important region, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. The violence has fuelled concern about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a transport and energy link planned to run from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar. A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State at a Sufi Muslim shrine this month killed 22 people and wounded more than 30. Ayub Qureshi, the provincial police chief, said a counter-terrorism police officer was shot and killed in another part of Quetta as authorities were dealing with the suicide bombing. A militant sectarian faction, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi, claimed responsibility for killing the counter-terrorism official, and for planting a roadside bomb in a northwestern region, that killed two soldiers. Security officials said a remote-controlled bomb was set off as an army vehicle passed by. | 0 |
The late Ambassador Stevens
Wikileaks is about to confirm the story that The Common Sense Show told 4 years ago in that Ambassador Stevens was set up to die because his stories of gun-running, child trafficking and drug-running on behalf of the CIA in order to promote regime change in Libya using terrorists funded by these illegal activities, were leaking out and it was only a few months until the election. Subsequently, Ambassador Stevens had to be silenced. And Petraeus had to be put in a place where he was not forced to testify before Congress. At the same time, Clinton was broadcasting Stevens whereabouts and she refused to provide the extra protection Stevens was so desperately requesting. Being that Stevens was working for the CIA, then head of the CIA, David Petraeus, would have known about Chris Stevens activities. To protect Obama’s 2012 election, both Stevens and Petraeus had to be gone. People are asking me how I knew all of this four years ago and I say, “I had a source from inside of ARSOF who wanted the real truth to be told. Somebody who knew this nation could not afford to let Clinton ever become President”. This is an excerpt of what I wrote 4 years ago…..
……..Nov. 2012
Who had Ambassador Stevens Killed
and How the Petraeus Affair Factors In There is the reason for an event and there is the real reason behind the event. Sixty percent of all married men cheat on their spouse. The more money they make and the more power a man possesses, the more opportunity for cheating.
I have swamp land for sale, in Florida, for anyone to purchase if they are naive enough to believe that David Petraeus, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), resigned solely based upon having an extramarital affair with the biographer-turned-mistress, Colonel Paula Broadwell. How did the affair compromise Petraeus’ position as CIA director? The FBI has concluded that it did not.
The media has suggested that the affair began in 2006. So, the ignorant American public is supposed to believe that David Patraeus was vetted by the FBI, the Secret Service and the rest of the Obama goon squad and they did not discover the affair until AFTER Ambassador’s Steven’s murder? How convenient is that? This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the CIA’s and the FBI’s vetting practices now does it? Let me be clear again about this outrageous set of facts. The most powerful and presumably thorough intelligence agency was unable to detect Patraeus’ affair during the vetting process? America, this is what you are being asked to believe!
It is abundantly clear that the extramarital affair excuse is just one more piece of excrement piled upon a growing mountain of Oba-manure perpetrated by this administration in order to cover up the fact that they had Chris Stevens murdered by the very terrorists that Stevens was running guns to on behalf of the CIA.
Does Adultery Get One Fired? Let’s examine this event through the lens of common sense. Adultery is indeed a violation of the Military Code of Justice and senior command officers have indeed lost their careers over their sexual indiscretions. However, David Patraeus is no longer a command officer in the military and would not be subject to these prohibitions. And the adultery prohibition is rarely enforced, even in the military, and when it is, it is used as a matter of political expediency in order to get rid of an undesirable.
As for the political “I did not have sex with the woman, Monica Lewinski,” crowd, adultery is not a career killer. And for the head of a federal agency, or for a cabinet member, unless the affair can be shown to compromise national security, it does not end the careers of unholy partakers of the forbidden fruit while serving in high government office. Petraeus decided to quit, though he was breaking no laws by having an affair, officials said.
Janet and David A Tale of Two Tails Rumors persist that the way to get promoted in the Department of Homeland Security is to “provide services” to one’s superiors, especially for Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano. So if it is permissible for Janet to be serviced in exchange for a promotion , then why should David be any different when it comes to giving an exclusive to your mistresses’ journalistic desire to become his biographer? Yet Janet is on the verge of being promoted to Attorney General, despite her indiscretions and resulting law suit. Conversely, Patraeus is out of a job. But wait, the believability of this cover story gets worse!
According to New York Times best-selling author, Aaron Klein, whom I have interviewed on my talk show , Hillary Clinton is a lesbian who surrounded herself with lesbian aides and staffers when she was the First Lady and she continues to do so as the Secretary of State. And as the Mail Online points out, why did it not seem to matter to Hillary that her husband chased anything that wore a skirt? It is because she is a serial lesbian who has had multiple affairs. Who cares?
Take Attorney General, Eric Holder, his actions, related to the topic of sex, are the most reprehensible of them all. Brandon Darby , previously an FBI informant, is speaking out on the Department of Justice’s hesitancy to assist victims of human trafficking, in particular they are refusing to help children who have been victims of sex crimes. The obvious question is, who is Holder protecting? This inaction on the part of Eric Holder is far more reprehensible, and represents a greater violation of the public trust than do the actions of Hillary Clinton and Janet Napolitano.
When one considers the fast and furious sexual life-styles of the senior cabinet members of the Obama administration, it is impossible to swallow the fact that Patraeus was sacked because of an affair.
The Patraeus dismissal based upon an extramarital affair is a cover story, plain and simple.
The Rats are Jumping Off the Ship I do not care what people do in their private lives behind closed doors. I do not care if Clinton and Napolitano are lesbians. My feelings hold true for the President, the Director of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State or the director of the CIA. However, when a fake cover story is concocted to cover up the murder of an ambassador, as it was with Chris Stevens, then it is everyone’s business.
Many of the rats of the Obama administration are jumping ship in the aftermath of the murder of Ambassador Stevens and this explains why Patraeus was fired as CIA director. Patraeus is gone for the same reason that Hillary Clinton will soon be gone. Clinton is gone for the same reasons that Eric Holder is contemplating leaving.
Congressional Hearings Regarding the
Death of Stevens Begin Soon If Petraeus was subpoenaed before Congress in his role as CIA director, he could not invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. If Hillary Clinton is subpoenaed to testify before Congress, in her role as Secretary of State, she cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. And if members of the Obama administration begin to incriminate themselves for their dirty deeds which resulted in Stevens’ death, then they implicate Obama.
This is Obama’s potential Watergate moment. If Clinton reveals before Congress that, as the senior official that oversees diplomatic security, that she denied Stevens’ requests for extra security and that she, Holder, Patraeus and Obama watch drone footage for nearly seven hours as Stevens and his party were murdered and that these senior level Cabinet officials blocked AFRICOM Commander, General Hamm , and the Commander of Carrier Task Force 3, Admiral Gayouette from rescuing the Stevens contingent, and then had both men arrested when the tried to disobey orders and rescue Stevens in violation of these executive orders from Obama administration.
The gravity of these events are stunning! All of these senior officials, including the President, are implicated as accomplices in Stevens murder. This is criminally negligent homicide. This is first degree murder! And why did Stevens have to be murdered? Stevens was murdered because he was running guns for the CIA to al-Qaeda operatives, first in Libya last year and in Syria this year . (EDITOR’S NOTE: WE KNOW THAT STEVENS WAS ALSO RUNNING KIDS AND DRUGS TO SUPPORT THE CIA IN THEIR EFFORTS TO ARM TERRORISTS IN THE OVERTHROW OF LIBYA.)
Dead men tell no tales in this Middle East version of Fast and Furious. This also explains why Patraeus had to be sacked. He was the link between Stevens’ gun running and al-Qaeda since Stevens’ gun running was a CIA operation conducted under the purview of Petraeus. This account is partially confirmed by Council on Foreign Relations member, Dr Steve Pieczenik, as states that Stevens was running guns and missiles into Syria . You remember the missing hand held stinger missiles that went missing in the NATO invasion of Libya last year? Those would be the ones! Can you imagine the public’s further outcry when al-Qaeda operatives begin brining down American commercial airliners with these weapons. Even Biden would not be able to pardon this motley crew!
How Will the New World Order Spin This? Only a month before the election, I thought Obama’s reign of terror was over. However, in the month before the election, the economic outcome appeared brighter for the first time in years. The housing market showed signs of rebounding. The stock market appeared stronger and the banks were actually talking about loosening credit.
The George Soros voting machines came into play. The military’s vote was compromised. All the stops were pulled out to extend the heinous tyranny of Obama by the global elite. Why? The very simple and obvious reason is that with Benghazi-Gate, the elite can pull Obama’s strings in any direction they want. If Obama gets out of line, the global elite will topple his presidency and the aforementioned Obamanites will go to prison for a very long time.
What will the next four years look like in America? Well, under the existing conditions, with Obama’s very freedom riding on the whims of the globalists, the future of America looks bleak as Obama is completely compromised.
END OF EXCERPT FROM NOVEMBER OF 2012
Conclusion When Wikileaks releases their information, and it shows that Stevens was running drugs, guns and children to support the overthrow of Libya, Clinton will come into the foreground. She repeatedly turned down Stevens request for additional protection. PEtraeus was sacked for the bogus reason of having an extramarital affair so he did not have to tell Congress what he knew because he could not hide behind the 5th Amendment.
If this breaks before the election, Clinton cannot win. She alone set up Stevens by denying protection and transmitting by email Stevens location by email from her private server.
We know that Stevens was murdered. What happened to Petreaus? After he was fired from the CIA, he went to work for the NWO in Belgrade where serves as the minister of propaganda. He is the chief censorship official in Belgrade. How do I know this? I was interviewed on the Voice of Belgrade radio this past summer and I was told that they had a hard time getting me by the censors and that is when I learned that Petreaus ran State-owned Belgrade media.
Now we find out that 1,000 emails between Clinton and General Petraeus were not turned over in the original FBI investigation. These emails are going to sink the good ship Hillary. Remember, The Common Sense Show had the information about to be leaked by Wikileaks four years ago. If justice is done, Clinton will soon be doing the perp walk for the murder of Chris Stevens.
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The glowing review we gave to Miss USA Kara McCullough must be revoked Bummer!She was our hero when she defended liberty from the liberals who believe healthcare is not a right but a privilege. Liberals wasted no time exploding in rage, seeing it as an intolerable betrayal of their ideology by someone who had an advantage in the pursuit of her crown due to political correctness. Today we see this: I am privileged to have health care. I do believe it should be a right. @MissUSA 2017 K ra McCullough clarifies response. #MissUSA pic.twitter.com/QCc7irmmmq Good Morning America (@GMA) May 16, 2017If healthcare is to be a right for all worldwide, you had better open up your wallet. Places like Uganda cannot be provided with modern healthcare on a coercive basis at the national level. Socialism has always been globalist in its redistributive aspirations.Hot Air says maybe she really is clarifying rather than reversing what she actually meant:Her answer on Sunday night wasn t all that coherent ( to all the American citizens worldwide ?). She may have heard the word privilege and, in the stress of the moment, processed it not in the legal sense but in the colloquial sense, as a synonym for gratitude for one s good fortune. E.g., it s a privilege to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world, I m privileged to have a wonderfully supportive family, what a privilege to have good medical care through your job, etc. A pageant contestant wants to project graciousness, so that s what she did.Or maybe she was taken to the woodshed for an attitude adjustment, and came back a commie.Via: moonbattery | 1 |
Look, we don’t want to write about every presidential campaign tweet that teeters on the brink of the absurd like a mirror revealing the political Frankentheater that the entire electorate has collaborated to create, whether actively or by submission. We’d never get anything else done. But O. K. fine, this one could use some explanation. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was responding to a tweet from Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee: Mrs. Clinton’s missive, most likely written and sent by her campaign staff, quickly became one of the most widely shared tweets of the 2016 campaign. It was precisely the kind of tweet that political junkies, and anyone else checking Twitter for a midday distraction, thirsts for in the middle of the afternoon when they’d prefer to think about something other than work. But it’s worth noting, to the unfamiliar, that “Delete your account” was not a sudden turn of phrase by a coldblooded social media manager, let alone the candidate herself. The phrase has a long history as a dismissive rejoinder, especially on Twitter. It translates roughly as “Your tweet or opinion is so bad that you should be immediately disqualified from further participation on the platform. ” Mr. Trump then responded, and other political figures quickly jumped on board. Mrs. Clinton has not always been totally hip, jiggy and on fleek with the cool kids. She was widely panned for a tweet in August that struck some watchers as a tad too pandering. On Friday, a day after it was announced that Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was endorsing Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump unleashed a typical tweet, mocking the senator’s heritage. But Ms. Warren, who has taken to matching the Republican taunt for taunt on social media, could not resist resurrecting Clinton’s tack. There. Now you understand politics again. | 0 |
LONDON — With their giddy celebrations of “independence day” having given way to political and economic turmoil, one thing has become especially clear about the former London mayor Boris Johnson and other leaders of the successful campaign to vote Britain out of the European Union: They had no plan for what comes next. In the days since Britain voted to leave the bloc, the movement’s leaders have often appeared as if they had not expected to win and were not prepared to cope with the consequences. Faced with the scope of the decision, they have been busy walking back promises they made during the campaign and scaling back expectations. They have failed to show a united front or to answer basic questions. Their faltering performance has added to the sense of political chaos in Britain and, arguably, to the turmoil in the financial markets. And it has undercut their credibility and authority as Mr. Johnson prepares his bid to become prime minister and lead Britain into a new relationship with the Continent. The stakes are high for Mr. Johnson in particular, as he tries to build an impression as a capable leader amid the chaos that followed the vote in favor of a British exit, or “Brexit. ” But the mixed signals coming from him and other proponents of leaving the European Union have left their intentions unclear on such basic issues as when and how they will seek to negotiate a withdrawal, and what kind of new arrangement they want. To the degree that they have signaled a direction, it has often been substantially different from what they promised during the campaign. On issues from immigration to spending on the National Health Service, the “Leave” coalition has retreated from its more populist and apparently exaggerated claims. Many of those assertions had been promoted by the U. K. Independence Party, or UKIP, led by Nigel Farage, and benefited the broader Leave campaign, whose most prominent figures included two senior Conservatives, Mr. Johnson and Michael Gove, the justice minister. In changing their tune, the leaders of the Union campaign risk undermining whatever trust they had earned from the millions who voted to leave the bloc in the expectation that immigration would be cut sharply and that money now going to the European Union — which the Leave campaign said was 350 million pounds, or $465 million, a week — would be available to help finance the National Health Service. For example, one Leave advocate, Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader and cabinet secretary, walked away from the campaign pledge to reallocate the £350 million a week to the health service. Instead, he said, “the lion’s share” of anything left from that amount after replacing subsidies from the bloc to British farmers could be available for health services. On immigration, too, there was immediate backtracking from Mr. Johnson and Daniel Hannan, a member of the European Parliament from the Conservative Party, who told the BBC, “Frankly, if people watching think that they have voted and there is now going to be zero immigration from the E. U. they are going to be disappointed. ” Analysts say the change in tone may be necessary to begin reeling in unrealistic expectations about the changes the referendum could produce, but it also holds considerable political peril for Mr. Johnson and other Conservative Party leaders of the Leave campaign, especially with populist sentiment spreading and groups like the U. K. Independence Party eager to build support. “There is a clear tension between what the voter wanted and what senior euroskeptic leaders want to produce,” said Matthew Goodwin, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent. “If they don’t deliver radical reforms on immigration, it would be the equivalent of pouring gasoline on the populist UKIP fire that has been burning since 2010. ” In his regular column in The Daily Telegraph on Monday, Mr. Johnson tried to strike a prime ministerial tone of unity in the wake of the divisive referendum, but he emphasized continuity over change and tried to argue that immigration, clearly the primary motivation for many voters in taking a position against Europe, was somehow not a major issue. “It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration,” Mr. Johnson wrote. “I do not believe that is so. ” Suggesting that he wants to keep some kind of open flow of people across the border with Europe, Mr. Johnson wrote, “British people will still be able to go and work in the E. U. to live to travel to study to buy homes and to settle down. ” Not only that, he asserted, “There will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market. ” What he described was a relationship with the European Union like that of Norway, which would allow freedom of movement and labor and would pay money to Brussels in return for access to the single market, but without having a voice in . But Mr. Johnson rejected the Norway model during the campaign, and even if negotiations proved to lead to a slightly enhanced Norway, with some symbolic measures to restrict immigration of European Union citizens to Britain, the result would be a betrayal of those who voted Leave. And right now, Norway pays Brussels roughly per capita what Britain currently does as a full member. “The difficulty for Boris and Gove is that Brexit feels like a column gone wrong, an academic exercise suddenly turned into reality,” Paul Waugh wrote in his blog for The Huffington Post, alluding to the shared backgrounds in journalism of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gove. “And reality, particularly where the E. U. is concerned, is a messy, complex thing. ” Mr. Johnson is clearly looking to unite the divided Conservative Party behind his own, flamboyant self and to burnish his economic credentials. But playing down immigration, Mr. Goodwin said, could create more political trouble. “I worry for senior euroskeptic leaders, because there is a misunderstanding of the vote, and that will feed voter dissatisfaction,” he said, driving many of the voters who chose a British exit to turn away from both mainstream parties and move to the populist right. The referendum was unusual, because it pitted a government on one side, “Remain,” against a loose coalition on the other, made up of Conservatives, some Labour legislators and U. K. Independence Party supporters. The Leave side never had to hammer out an agreement on how to proceed if it won, said Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics. “There was no coherence, because it wasn’t a political party fighting for government, but an odd coalition fighting against something, but with no consistent view of what it was fighting for,” he said. Even on the economy, the Leave side was made of economists who believe in no tariffs at all, those who believe in trade deals and protectionists who want to shield the declining working class against globalization, Professor Travers said. “And now the government will have to be reformed as if it were representing the Leave side and yet represent both, a government that must reflect the schism in itself,” he said. In the aftermath of the Leave campaign’s victory, the political editor for Sky News, Faisal Islam, asked a Conservative member of Parliament who supported leaving the bloc to see his camp’s plan. The legislator replied, according to Mr. Islam: “There is no plan. The Leave campaign don’t have a plan. ” Then the legislator added, “Number 10 should have had a plan,” referring to the prime minister’s office. | 0 |
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Add another group to the list of people who won’t be voting for Donald Trump. Oh, a few of them might but after they see this ad for Trump, I’m betting the majority will laugh and vote for Hillary Clinton.
Earlier in the month, Trump attended a Bollywood concert for charity. It was organized by the Republican Hindu Coalition, a group that was founded by a rich Indian-American named Shalli Kumar, who is looking to be the Hindu Sheldon Adelson. The Indian community is heavily Democratic so good luck with that.
Trump came to the event, lit the Diya — it’s doubtful that he had any idea what it was — and then spoke. He pandered told the attendees that “the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House,” promising they will “defeat radical Islamic terrorism.”
This inspired Kumar to make an ad which will be playing 20 times a day on Indian-American channels. He refused to say how much it cost the campaign to buy that much time but we can guess that Mr. Kumar is helping foot the bill. He previously has given almost $1 million to a fundraising committee which benefited both Trump and the RNC.
There is a lot to laugh about in the ad, bt Trump’s inability to pronounce Hindi words takes teh cake. It is such an obvious bit of pandering, even for him.
The ad starts with a wish for a Happy Diwali , a holiday I am certain Trump is ignorant of. The cut to Trump’s orange face is a bit jarring after the pretty lights and flowers.
Kumar wanted to draw a similarity between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM’s campaign had used a clever catchphrase which loosely translates to “This time a Modi government.” Kumar wanted Trump to replace Modi’s name with his own. In Hindi, that is “Ab ki baar Trump sarkar.” Don’t get ahead of me, now.
In the ad, which uses footage of Trumps speech at the charity concert, a 2008 photo of the hotel which was attacked by Islamic militants in Mumbai gives way to a picture of PM Modi. Then back to Trump who tries to speak the short Hindi phrase. It’s something one must see to believe.
Make sure you aren’t drinking anything as you may endanger your computer.
“Approved by Donald Trump?” Well, I guess so. This ad is not just pandering, it is awful. I hope the Indian American community laugh this off and then go vote against this man who only shows interest in their culture when it might get him votes.
Oh, and Happy Diwali! May the light burn away any bad times and welcome the good.
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Donald Trump and his administration have proven time and time again that they are incapable of performing even the most simple, basic tasks that only require basic human decency and manners. The latest gaffe in the White House demonstrates that even as Trump s 100th day approaches, they still can t get their sh*t together.According to a White House aide and court spokeswoman, Trump did not extend a formal invitation to the Supreme Court to have dinner at the White House on Thursday. An initial report that was released early Sunday stated that a dinner WOULD take place: That evening, the President will have dinner with the Justices of the Supreme Court, including his successfully confirmed nominee Justice Neil Gorsuch. However, this changed just hours later. On Sunday night, the dinner with the Supreme Court justices was taken off the agenda. The White House aide confirmed: An invitation was never extended. When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was questioned about the nixed dinner plans, Spicer said Trump s staffers moved some things around and perhaps the dinner might happen at a later time. Spicer said: I think having a relationship and meeting with the Supreme Court at some point would be a great idea and something that we hope to have on the schedule at some point soon. Trump s rude, disorganized cancellation is hardly the only issue with these tentative dinner plans. While former presidents have had dinner with Supreme Court justices before, Trump s corrupt administration definitely raised some eyebrows when they first announced these dinner plans. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said it best: Why would the Supreme Court agree to do this? I can think of no legitimate reason to dine with a litigant. No matter what Trump does, he can t help but raise ethical concerns as his scandals and conflict of interests only mount up. Trump s administration is not only the most incompetent, lazy, and disorganized, but it is the most corrupt and must be watched closely.Featured image via Tom Pennington / Getty Images | 0 |
Oh. My. God. The stupid, it burns.Anybody who actually paid attention in science class in school are going to have a collective WTF moment when they learn what one Pennsylvania Republican said about the cause of climate change.As we all know by now, Donald Trump signed an executive order reversing every action President Obama took to fight and reverse climate change, a move that has horrified scientists around the globe.But just as cringe-worthy is what Scott Wagner told a group of county officials on Tuesday. Wagner is a GOP state senator who wants to be Pennsylvania s next governor. Unlike Donald Trump, he acknowledges that climate change is real. However, his view on what causes climate change is far different than what any actual scientist has concluded.According to Wagner, climate change is happening because of two different reasons. First, he claimed that it s happening because of body heat. Seriously. We have more people. You know, humans have warm bodies. So is heat coming off? Things are changing, but I think we are, as a society, doing the best we can. Humans have warm bodies but it s not our body heat that is causing climate change. It s all the pollution we harmful gases we expel into the atmosphere like methane and carbon dioxide. Also, reversing climate action is not doing the best we can. Ending the fight against climate change threatens our country, especially our coastlines, which will likely end up under water unless we do something fast to prevent sea level rise caused by climate change.But then Wagner suggested another cause for climate change and this one makes it clear that Republicans need to pick up a f*cking science book. I haven t been in a science class in a long time, but the earth moves closer to the sun every year you know, the rotation of the earth, Wagner said. We re moving closer to the sun. Again, this is a guy who wants to occupy the top government office in Pennsylvania.And Wagner is absolutely wrong.As Huffington Post reports,Contrary to what Wagner said, the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours, not every year. And it may come as a surprise to him that the United States and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere experience winter when the earth s yearly orbit brings it closest to the sun.Furthermore, Wagner made it sound like the Earth s orbit around the sun is decaying. But it definitely is not decaying. If anything, the sun would become a red giant and swallow the Earth. And that probably won t happen for millions of years long after climate change kills us all because Republicans like Donald Trump and Scott Wagner deny climate change and its cause.After his embarrassing remarks went viral, Wagner released a statement somewhat acknowledging that humans have contributed to climate change. I believe that the climate is changing every day, and some of that change is certainly manmade. I think that we have a responsibility to future generations to be good stewards, and I support efforts to do that. However, the real question isn t is the climate changing but what role should the government play in trying to alter it. I believe we have to prioritize action in a measured way so that we do not hurt our economy. The problem is that climate change will do more to hurt our economy than the measures employed to stop it ever will. One would think saving the planet would be the number one priority. But as usual, Republicans are thinking more about the wallets of billionaires.Featured Image: Wikimedia | 0 |
21st Century Wire says QUESTION: Is this the same malware leak that US elected officials blamed on Russia?His name is Harold Thomas Martin III. He is a US Navy veteran and NSA contractor RTContractor is called Hal Martin, a Navy veteran, his attorney confirms. First appeared in court in late August. Charges to be unsealed soon. https://t.co/g40YOLsVCH Ian Duncan (@iduncan) October 5, 2016The contractor s name is Hal Martin, and he is a Navy veteran, said the Baltimore Sun reporter Ian Duncan citing the man s attorney. Martin worked for Booz Allan Hamilton, the same company that used to employ Snowden, before he blew the lid on NSA operations in 2013.So Booz got repawned four months after Snowden's leaks?Maybe, um, take cyberattacks in-house? pic.twitter.com/3FrpMcgGjo emptywheel (@emptywheel) October 5, 2016This is huge. Did the FBI secretly arrest the person behind the reports NSA sat on huge flaws in US products? https://t.co/otgOwB5efm Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 5, 2016This is huge. Did the FBI secretly arrest the person behind the reports NSA sat on huge flaws in US products? https://t.co/otgOwB5efm Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 5, 2016Citing unnamed government officials, the New York Times reported the contractor was arrested in recent weeks, the New York Times said. According to Duncan, Martin was arrested in late August and has already appeared before a judge.Martin s LinkedIn profile describes him as a Technical Advisor & Investigator on Offensive Cyber issues for the Department of Defense since July 2015, in pursuit of program oversight, management excellence, and optimal outcomes on issues for various Cyber related Initiatives across DoD and the IC [intelligence community] Continue this story at RTREAD MORE SCI-TECH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Sci-Tech Files | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is unlikely to raise the country’s debt ceiling without conditions to rein in spending, a Republican lawmaker said on Tuesday, raising the specter of another potential clash even as Republicans control both Congress and the White House. The Trump administration has asked Congress to extend the federal borrowing capacity to meet U.S. payment obligations with a “clean” bill that does not include any other provisions. Asked if the House would act to pass such a bill when lawmakers return to Washington next month, U.S. Representative Tom Cole said “probably not clean.” “Most Republicans want to do something to lower the trajectory of the debt,” Cole, a member of the House Appropriations and Budget committees, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. Disagreements over the country’s borrowing capacity have prompted skirmishes for years. The latest tussle among Republicans follows a fight over healthcare legislation that left the party unable to make good on years of promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, and has also raised concern among some investors.. The Treasury is expected to fully exhaust its remaining borrowing capacity in October. More fiscally conservative House Republicans see the debt ceiling issue as tied to deficit-reduction, and want to include spending cuts or the selling off of government assets — something Cole, a more establishment Republican, backed on Tuesday. Representative Mark Walker, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in a Washington Examiner Op-Ed article that a debt ceiling agreement should also address any future crises and recommended two conservative measures to that end. Both measures would require the government to issue new bonds to pay principal and interest on debt held by the public and by two Social Security trusts. One would also allow the president to rescind budget authority over unobligated funds and to order the sale of government assets. “Both these measures are steps in the right direction,” wrote Walker, whose group represents the House’s largest conservative caucus. Both the House and the Senate left for summer recess until early September despite requests from the White House to pass a debt limit bill before the congressional break this month. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said debate over the issue could stretch into September, when lawmakers must also pass separate legislation to fund day-to-day government activities before the fiscal year ends later that month. | 0 |
CLEVELAND — Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump ran virtually parallel campaigns on Monday as they geared up for the final stretch of the presidential race. She made nice with the news media by opening up her campaign plane and chatting with reporters. He followed suit, inviting a smaller group of reporters onto his plane and answering questions during the flight. She took along her running mate, and so did he, as both focused on Ohio and nearly crossed paths in Cleveland. Their motorcades all but passed each other, and all four candidates’ planes ended up on the tarmac at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at the same time. Mrs. Clinton moved on several fronts on Monday to confront nagging doubts about her candidacy, despite her comfortable lead in many polls. Courting labor supporters, she met with union leaders in Cleveland while her husband, Bill Clinton, appeared at a Labor Day parade in Detroit. Seeking the backing of progressive voters, she enlisted her primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who made his first solo appearance on Mrs. Clinton’s behalf at a rally in New Hampshire. And her outreach to reporters included her most extensive session with them in months. She expressed alarm “about the credible reports about Russian government interference in our elections” through hacking, saying, “We’ve never had a foreign adversarial power be already involved in our electoral process. ” Not to be outdone, Mr. Trump used his airborne meeting with reporters to clarify his views on immigration, saying he opposed any path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. But he did not explicitly rule out a path to legal status if the nation’s immigration system is overhauled. “We’re going to make that decision into the future,” Mr. Trump said. But, he added, “to become a citizen, you are going to have to go out and come back in through the process. You’re going to have to go out and get in line. This isn’t touchback. You have to get in line. ” On the plane, Mr. Trump also told reporters that, “as of this moment,” he planned to attend all three debates, and that only a “natural disaster” could make him change his mind. He added that, while he was preparing, he was not holding mock debate sessions. Labor Day is traditionally the beginning of a sprint to Election Day, in which candidates try to seize voters’ attention as summer fades and debates loom. Monday was no exception. The visits to Ohio by Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton — along with their respective running mates, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia — highlighted the importance of a state that Republicans believe Mr. Trump must win to have any shot of reaching the White House. “Labor Day comes, and it’s kind of like a recalibration,” said Beth Myers, who managed Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as his senior adviser in 2012. “You see the finish line, you see that there’s not too many events left, and most campaigns take a measure of where you are on Labor Day. ” This cycle, however, both candidates have eschewed traditional campaigning, albeit in divergent ways. Normally, they would already have been circling each other in swing states. But Mrs. Clinton has spent most of the summer away from the campaign trail, focusing on in places like the Hamptons and Beverly Hills with celebrities like Jimmy Buffett and Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Trump has also kept a languid pace, favoring large rallies, often in the evening, over several daily stops. Mr. Trump, a political novice, and Mrs. Clinton, a veteran politician, are confronting historically low approval ratings among voters for whom they are commodities. “Labor Day used to be this big, important marker in the campaign season,” said Amy Walter, the national editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “A kickoff, if you will. Today, it feels like the start of the third quarter instead of the kickoff. ” “The candidates are the ads have been running for months and TVs have been saturated with talking heads,” she added. Mr. Trump tried to burnish his image as a statesman last week with a hastily arranged trip to Mexico City. He has also tried to increase his outreach to minorities, from a promised “softening” on immigration that concluded with a fiery, nativist speech in Phoenix, to a stop at a black church in Detroit. That approach was also on display on Monday. At a diner in Cleveland, Mr. Trump met Maria Hernandez, a who said she was supporting him. “ supports Trump,” he said. “It’s so nice. ” Then he turned to the nearby reporters to emphasize his focus group of one: “Make a note of it, guys,” he said. Earlier, speaking to a dozen white men and a lone white woman at an American Legion post here, Mr. Trump criticized China’s treatment of President Obama: When the president landed in Hangzhou for the Group of 20 summit meeting, the host country forced him to disembark from the plane’s belly. Mr. Trump said he would not have gotten off the plane, but instead would have urged his crew to “get out of here. ” Mrs. Clinton’s appearance in Cleveland was meant as a show of labor support during a campaign in which many union members were drawn to Mr. Sanders’s promise to take on income inequality. At a Labor Day festival here, she and Mr. Kaine were joined by the A. F. L. . I. O. ’s president, Richard L. Trumka Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the first unions to endorse Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton’s surrogates were also out in force. In Pittsburgh, Mr. Kaine and the man he hopes to succeed, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke at a rally before the city’s Labor Day parade. Mr. Kaine assailed Mr. Trump for refusing to release his tax returns, then turned the stage over to Mr. Biden. “My name is Joe Biden, and I work for Hillary Clinton and whatever the hell this guy’s name is,” he said. Mr. Sanders, at a rally in Lebanon, N. H. praised Mrs. Clinton for supporting a host of progressive positions. “I would hope and ask you all, very much, that we have got to do everything we can to make sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president,” he said. “But two days after the election, we have got to continue the pressure. ” Addressing an issue that has dogged the campaign, Mr. Clinton defended the Clinton Foundation. And he criticized Mr. Trump over his own foundation, referring to a Washington Post report that found that his charitable organization paid the Internal Revenue Service a $2, 500 penalty this year after improperly giving a political contribution to a campaign group with ties to the attorney general of Florida, Pam Bondi. Mr. Trump discussed the issue in his talk with reporters aboard his plane. He denied any impropriety on either his part or Ms. Bondi’s concerning the $25, 000 donation. At the time of the donation in 2013, Ms. Bondi was considering whether to investigate Trump University for fraud. In the end, she did not do so. “I never spoke to her, first of all, she’s a fine person beyond reproach,” he said when asked about the controversy. “I never even spoke to her about it at all. She’s a fine person. Never spoken to her about it. Never. ” Many attorneys general besides Ms. Bondi, he said, decided against pursuing any action regarding Trump University. “I’ll win that case in court,” he said. “Many turned that down. ” “I never spoke to her,” he added, again referring to Ms. Bondi. When asked what he expected to get out of the donation, he would only say: “I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years. I have a lot of respect for her. Never spoke to her about that at all. I just have a lot of respect for her, and she’s very popular. ” | 0 |
After an epic Twitter tantrum in which he yelled at Puerto Rico for being knocked down by two hurricanes and cried giant crocodile tears about fake news, Trump decided he d try shaming the NFL with a video from an NHL game. At that game, the audience stands up and sings the national anthem. One might think that this just happened, but it didn t. The video in question is almost a year old.19,000 RESPECTING our National Anthem! #StandForOurAnthem?? pic.twitter.com/czutyGaMQV Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017The original video is on NHL on NBC Sports Facebook page, dated Nov. 9, 2016. The day after the election that gave us this walking shitshow to begin with. Why does this matter? Because Trump is still going on about NFL players kneeling during the anthem on Twitter. Earlier today, in the midst of all the ranting about nobody giving him his due credit for the farce of a relief effort in Puerto Rico, he tweeted this:Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017He brought the issue into sharp relief last week when he went on a tear about disrespect to the flag and called on NFL owners to fire players who won t stand. Many NFL players retaliated by kneeling, the Pittsburgh Steelers didn t even come out of the locker room, and many owners issued statements rebuking Trump in one way or another.So Trump, in an attempt to shame what the NFL is doing now, shares a video that s a year old. In truth, the NHL seems rather split on how they feel about kneeling during the national anthem. There are, however, several players and coaches who believe it s everyone s right to protest how they see fit, as part of the First Amendment. Trump just embarrassed the hell out of himself.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 |
Feds: 275,000 Born to Illegals in One Year, Would Fill City the Size of Orlando Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, October 26, 2016
Moms in the United States illegally gave birth to 275,000 babies in 2014, enough birthright U.S. citizens to fill a city the size of Orlando, Florida, according to an analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The data showed that newborns to illegals accounted for 7 percent of all births in 2014, according to the analysis from the Pew Research Center.
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The analysis also found that the growth in the birthrate of America is entirely driven by immigrants.
“While the annual number of babies born in the U.S. has fluctuated in recent years–most markedly during the Great Recession when there was a significant drop in births nationwide–the trajectory over the past four decades or so has been upward. In 2014, there were 4 million births in the U.S., compared with 3.74 million in 1970,” said Pew.
“This growth has been driven entirely by the increasing numbers of babies born to immigrant women. In 2014, immigrant women accounted for about 901,000 U.S. births, which marked a threefold increase from 1970 when immigrant women accounted for about 274,000 births. Meanwhile, the annual number of births to U.S.-born women dropped by 11 percent during that same time period, from 3.46 million in 1970 to 3.10 million in 2014,” added Pew. | 1 |
President Donald Trump gave a to the “forgotten” industrial heartland that delivered him the White House as he announced America’s unilateral withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords Thursday. [“I was elected to help the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump told those gathered in the White House Rose Garden, as he gave a forceful condemnation of the global climate agreement, under which the United States is to meet progressively lower caps on certain emissions while subsidizing developing countries in the hope they do the same. “This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States, ” Trump explained. Citing a comprehensive report by NERA Economic Consulting, Trump laid out the economic disadvantage that would befall American workers, especially those in the Appalachian energy industries and the Midwestern industrial heartland. That report, for example, envisions a potential 86% reduction in American coal output and a 38% reduction in iron and steel production by 2040 if the Paris Agreement’s targets were actually met. According to Trump, apparently citing the climate model, the most climate activists could hope to gain from America’s dearly bought reductions in carbon dioxide emissions is 0. 2 degrees Celsius less warming over the rest of the century. This did not stop the political left from accusing the President of “telling the Earth to drop dead,” by pulling out of the climate accord. Trump cast doubt on the lofty goals supposedly motivating the accord, pointing out how it allows to China, India, and even Europe to continue to ramp up coal production while placing incredible burdens on our own domestic industry. “In short the agreement doesn’t eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers those jobs out of America … and ships them to foreign countries,” he told the crowd. “The current agreement effectively blocks development of clean coal in America. ” At several points, Trump took the opportunity to highlight the economic benefits he claims have already returned to the heartland since his election. “And the mines are starting to open up. Having a big opening in two weeks. Pennsylvannia, Ohio, West Virginia, so many places. A big opening of a brand new mine, it’s unheard of. For many many years it hasn’t happened,” Trump said, referring to the Acosta Coal Mine due to open in Somerset County, PA amid the slew of mine openings announced across the rich energy region. Trump’s rejection of the the globalist economic paradigm underpinning agreements like the Paris accord became more explicit as the speech went on. “It would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic economic affairs. But this is the reality we face if we do not leave the agreement,” he said before making his appeal directly to the Midwestern voters who put him over the top in November. “It is time to put Youngstown, Ohio Detroit, Michigan and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along with many other locations within our great country, before Paris, France,” Trump said. “It is time to make America great again. ” The President also promised that the withdrawal from the Paris Accord will not be the end of his reexamination of America’s position in the international economic landscape. “Many trade deals will soon be under renegotiation. ” | 0 |
This video was published on March 11, 2016, exactly 11 days before the terror attack took place in Brussels. Micha l Modrikamen, president of the Peoples Party in Belgium says he fully supports Donald Trump. He asked Trump to make America great again and warned Americans about not becoming another Brussels: It was once a vibrant, entrepreneurial, joyful, peaceful city. That was before. Brussels is becoming a third world city with a majority of Muslim migrants within 10-15 years according to demographic studies.This situation is being aggravated by the current migrant system. Message from BRUSSELS. I support Donald Trump !Message from BRUSSELS. I support Donald Trump !Posted by Mischa l Modrikamen on Friday, 11 March 2016 | 1 |
Kid Rock, aka Robert (Bob) Ritchie, a native of Michigan who was born and raised in my hometown of Romeo, just announced on Twitter that he s running for US Senate. As a kid, I remember frequently sitting across from the Ritchie family in our local Catholic church. Kid Rock is a philanthropist who s done so much to help those in need in the city of Detroit. He s also very passionate about supporting our troops. Ritchie s made several overseas trips to play for our troops, and even donated specially designed homes for disabled veterans. Ritchie (Kid Rock) has not yet announced which party he ll be aligning himself with. He s been a staunch supporter of Republican presidential candidates in the past like Mitt Romney, Ben Carson and after he won the GOP primary, Kid Rock got behind Donald Trump. In 2013, Ritchie told Rolling Stones that he considers himself more of a libertarian. Stay tuned I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq The answer is an absolute YES. pic.twitter.com/uYCUg6mjW1 Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 12, 2017Rock is one of the most prominent right-leaning voices in music, but he s also a somewhat irregular Republican: I don t like the hardcore views on either side and I m not in bed with anybody, he told Rolling Stone in 2013. I d probably be more libertarian, but I m a firm believer you have to pick a side. I can t be playing the middle. If Rock runs as a Republican, he ll be up against Trump s Michigan Campaign Chair, Lena Epstein for the GOP nomination.Lena is a candidate the left will have a very hard time defeating. She s Jewish, she s a Harvard grad, and she s a tough-minded, successful business woman who wasn t afraid to jump in and support Trump from the moment he announced he was running. Rock may have his hands full with the very popular Lena Epstein, who we believe has the ability to defeat the very liberal Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow. Rock has the star power, but many will question if he s really got what it takes to run for US Senate.CBS Sunday Morning attempts to find out who badass rocker Kid Rock really is in this interview:And for those who might be saying (or thinking) Kid Rock running for Senate is crazy or ridiculous. Keep in mind that Al Franken has been a Senator for 9 years:Democrats on Twitter right now: "Kid Rock can't be a Senator that's ridicolous!" pic.twitter.com/WS1z8dlQxq Ken Webster Jr (@ProducerKen) July 12, 2017Nancy Pelosi has been a Congresswoman for 30 years:And Maxine Impeach Trump Waters has held a political position since 1977 and has been serving in the US House of Representatives since 1991! | 0 |
Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 1 |
Trump on immigration appeal: We ll win. For the safety of the country we ll win. pic.twitter.com/ffOPCgtPBv Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) February 5, 2017One lucky guest got a photo with the President and First Lady:The lavish ballroom decorated for tonight:Poolside tonight:The gala has a history at Mar-a-Lago: The estate s first owner, Marjorie Meriweather Post, hosted the first Red Cross Ball there in 1957:Since then, it has been held at Mar-a-Lago and The Breakers, with Trump playing host several times throughout the years.As those attending the ball arrived Saturday night, anti-Trump protesters were gathered outside the club, positioned along Southern Boulevard and held behind a temporary barrier by Palm Beach police and Palm Beach County sheriff s deputies.Read more: Palm Beach Post | 0 |
On the sixth year anniversary of the Supreme Court s Citizens United v. FEC decision that granted billionaires, millionaires, and special interests the ability to essentially buy U.S. elections by donating virtually unlimited amounts of money to superPACs, Elizabeth Warren wanted to make a statement, and it wasn t pretty. She not only blasted the Supreme Court for the decision, but the entire U.S. Congress, as well. This is what we ve come to expect and love Senator Warren for, and she didn t disappoint. It was brutal, to say the least.Here is what she had to say, in part: Six years ago today the Supreme Court overturned a century of established law. And, in doing so, unleashed a secret flow of corporate money into our political system. The Supreme Court created a big problem, but that does not mean anyone with any integrity must just roll over and play dead. No, it is time to fight back.This Congress doesn t lack for workable ideas for how to root out the influence of money in politics, this Congress just lacks a spine to do it! (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Senator Elizabeth Warren goes Bernie Sanders on Congress.U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren just opened a can of whoop ass on the floor of the Senate today.Listen to her scathing remarks as she calls out Congress, the Supreme Court and most of Washington D.C on campaign finance..Notice how she ends with a comment about the Presidential Elections. Warren does have the courage to stand up to the super wealthy. Would you be excited if Senator Warren was Bernie Sanders choice for Vice President?Posted by Viva Bernie 2016 on Thursday, January 21, 2016She called on Congress to pass three measures to end this none sense once and for all:Pass The Fair Elections Now Act. This will create public funding for congressional elections matching the contributions of small donors so working families would have a louder voice and begin to compete with the rich and powerful. This is a bi-partisan solution, at least outside of Washington. According to a recent poll, Democrats and Republicans both agreed strongly with the idea of citizen-funded elections. 72 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans said YES. This bill was first introduced by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) back in 2014. As you may very well know by now, no actions have been taken on it. Take a look, HERE.Pass the Disclose Act. (This will) force super PACs out of the shadow and make them tell us where the money comes from. 91 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of Republicans agree they need to disclose the source of their funding. This was re-introduced by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD-D) in January 2015 and referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice back on 2/5/2012. Since then, as you might be able to guess, nothing has been done with it. Take a look, HERE.Pass the Shareholder Protection Act. To force companies to tell their shareholders how much money they re giving to politicans and which politicians they re giving it to. This is the shareholders money and they have a right to know how it s spent. And, if they don t like how the money is being spent, they can put somebody else in charge. This bill was re-introduced, as well, by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) also in January 2015. It was read only twice where it has since collected nothing but dust. Take a look, HERE.She really ended up giving seven ideas, including a constitutional amendment to solve the problem, but summed up the majority of her comments on those first three. Senator Warren decided to speak up on the anniversary of Citizens United because the majority of Congress just doesn t seem to care, and for that we thank her. If anything like this is ever going to get passed, the people will need to DEMAND it.Featured image via screen capture | 0 |
(Reuters) - A populist politician whose party could emerge as a kingmaker at this month s New Zealand election has called for an inquiry into whether a member of the ruling National Party government has been working for China s intelligence services. Earlier this week the Financial Times reported that National Party member Jian Yang spent a decade at elite Chinese military academies and has been under investigation by New Zealand s national intelligence agency. Winston Peters, whose New Zealand First party is widely expected to form a ruling coalition with either the National or Labour parties, said that New Zealanders should be very concerned . National must act now and a full inquiry is required. Peters said on his official Twitter account. There must be proof Dr Yang is not a risk. Meanwhile, Dr Yang must step aside. Yang who is 55, had lived in China until he was 32, the Financial Times said. No information about his Chinese education or military background was included in his official biographies in New Zealand or those published when he was an academic at Auckland university, it said. Yang, who has been a major fundraiser for the National Party and has pushed for closer ties with Beijing, told media that he was the victim of a smear campaign and denied passing on any information to China during his time in New Zealand. I can understand people can be concerned, because they do not understand Chinese system, but once they understand the system they should be assured this is nothing really you should be concerned about, he said according to a Newshub report. Prime Minister and National Party leader Bill English said that he was well aware of Yang s background, employment and training in China. This is a New Zealand citizen. Dr Jian is a New Zealand citizen. The country is happy to have him as a citizen, English told New Zealand s 1News. English said he had been aware from early on that Dr Yang had had military training, including military intelligence . He s never tried to hide that background, English said. Meanwhile, Labour leader and contender for the premiership Jacinda Ardern declined to comment, saying only it was an issue for the National Party to respond to, according to the report. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California governor Jerry Brown on Thursday proposed a funding increase for the state attorney general to create more than 30 new positions dedicated to combating President Donald Trump’s policies. Democratic attorneys general in states across the country have assumed lead roles in opposing some of the Republican president’s agenda. State attorneys general in Washington and Hawaii successfully sued to block Trump’s executive orders restricting travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and California attorney general Xavier Becerra has pledged to defend the state’s environmental standards and health care access. Brown has been particularly outspoken against Trump’s policies. In budget revisions released on Thursday, Brown’s office proposed a $6.5 million increase for California’s Department of Justice, enough to fund 31 positions to address “various actions taken at the federal level that impact public safety, healthcare, the environment, consumer affairs and general constitutional issues.” The department has expended over 11,000 hours of legal work in response to federal issues since Trump’s inauguration in January, according the governor’s office. Brown’s proposals would have to be approved by California’s legislature, which is dominated by Democrats. At a press conference, Brown repeatedly expressed the need to fight the Trump administration on health care reforms under discussion in Washington. The potential loss of funds for the state’s Medicaid program alone would be enough to fund the University of California system for a year, Brown said. Given that backdrop, Brown said Becerra deserves “some latitude” in pursuing litigation. A spokeswoman for Becerra could not immediately be reached for comment. Brown’s budget also proposed a $15 million increase to expand legal services for immigrants seeking assistance securing legal status in the United States and fighting deportation. | 0 |
On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace had a heated exchange with Jay Sekulow, who is member of President Donald Trump’s legal team. Partial transcript as follows: WALLACE: I want to ask you a direct question, does the president think that Rod Rosenstein has done anything wrong? SEKULOW: The president has never said anything about Rod Rosenstein doing anything wrong. Here’s what — what is the legal situation here. There is a constitutional issue when you have this scenario. The president made a determination based on consult of advice. He decided ultimately. He’s the commander in chief. He gets to make that decision that James Comey had a go. That was coming, by the way, from groups right, left, and center over the last year. You — you and I know that. So there had been concern about James Comey. It was put forward in a memorandum — that’s what the president’s referencing — from the deputy attorney general and the attorney general requesting the removal of James Comey as the FBI director. And, ultimately, that’s the president’s determination. So here’s the constitutional threshold question, Chris. The president takes action based on numerous events, including recommendations from his attorney general and the deputy attorney general’s office. He takes the action that they also, by the way, recommended. And now he’s being investigated by the Department of Justice because the special counsel under the special counsel relations reports still to the Department of Justice. Not an independent counsel. So he’s being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the termination. So that’s the constitutional threshold question here. That’s why, as I said, no investigation — WALLACE: Well, I — what — what — what’s the question (INAUDIBLE). I mean you — you stated — you stated some facts. First of all, you’ve now said that he is getting investigated after saying that you didn’t. SEKULOW: No. WALLACE: You — you just, sir, that he’s being — SEKULOW: No, he’s not being investigated! WALLACE: You just said that he’s being investigated. SEKULOW: No, Chris, I said that the — any — let me be crystal clear so you — you completely understand. We have not received nor are we aware of any investigation of the president of the United States, period. WALLACE: Sir, you just said two times that he’s being investigated. SEKULOW: No. The context of the tweet, I just gave you the legal theory, Chris, of how the Constitution works. If, in fact, it was correct that the president was being investigated, he would be investigating for taking action that an agency told him to take. So that is protected under the Constitution as his article one power. That’s all I said. So I appreciate you trying to rephrase it, but I’m just being really direct with you, Chris. This is — let me be — WALLACE: No, I — I — sir, I didn’t rephrase it. The tape will speak — Jay, the tape will speak for itself. You said he is being investigated. And it’s not that big — SEKULOW: Chris, he is — just — no, Chris — that’s (INAUDIBLE) unfair, Chris. WALLACE: Wait a minute — wait a minute. Jay, and it’s not — Jay, it’s not just being investigated for firing Comey. There’s also the question of what he said to Comey when Comey was still the FBI director. So there’s more than just the fact that he fired Comey. SEKULOW: He — Chirrs, let me be clear, you asked me a question about what the president’s tweet was regarding the deputy attorney general of the United States. That’s what you asked me. And I responded to what that legal theory would be. So I do not appreciate you putting words in my mouth when I’ve been crystal clear that the president is not and has not been under investigation. I don’t think I can be any clearer than that. WALLACE: Well, you don’t know that he’s not under investigation again, sir. I mean you might — SEKULOW: You know, I can’t read the mind — you’re right, Chris, I can’t read the minds of the special prosecutor. WALLACE: Well, then, good, OK, so we’re in agreement, you don’t know whether he’s under — you don’t know whether he’s under investigation. SEKULOW: But I have not been notified. No one has been notified that he is. WALLACE: You don’t know whether he’s under investigation or not. SEKULOW: Chris, I — WALLACE: The question I’m asking you is, does he think that Rod Rosenstein — it’s a very simple question — does he think that Rod Rosenstein did anything wrong? SEKULOW: The president has not expressed any opinion about Rod Rosenstein. WALLACE: Does he think that Robert Mueller has done anything wrong? SEKULOW: First of all, he has not said anything about Robert Mueller. And, Chris, let me say something here. You’re asking me if I had a conversation, which I have not had, about Robert Mueller with the president of the United States on — or anyone else for that matter. I can’t discuss that and would that with you. Unlike James Comey, who leaks information to the press, I actually respect the privilege. Apparently, he did not. WALLACE: Does the President believe — well, you’re speaking for his legal team, so you’re out here to represent him and tell us what the president’s belief is, is that correct? SEKULOW: No, I’m out here to tell you what the facts are and the legal issues are. I’m not to tell you what the beliefs are. I’m not the client’s conscience I’m his lawyer. WALLACE: I understand that and the — and the client — have you spoken the — have you spoken to the president at all? SEKULOW: Yes, but I’m not going to discuss those conversations with you. Those are privileged under the privilege. WALLACE: Well, I assume that if he asked you to say something, for instance, Marc Kasowitz said all kinds of things about — after Comey’s testimony. I assumed he was speaking for the president, SEKULOW: Marc Kasowitz made a general statement to the press after the testimony of James Comey. That’s what that was about. This — you’re asking me now questions about what people are thinking in their minds, which I don’t read minds, and you’re asking me also what I may or may not have had a conversation with the president about and you understand this. I respect the privilege, unlike James Comey. WALLACE: Does — SEKULOW: I want to be real clear on that too. I’m not going to give you conversations I’ve had with — have or have not had with the president of the United States. So when I’ve had conversations with the president of the United States — WALLACE: Well, I — your — SEKULOW: As his lawyer, it’s privileged, period. WALLACE: Does the president think that Rosenstein, because you talked about this constitutional theory that he took action, that’s on the advice — SEKULOW: Yes. WALLACE: Although he says he didn’t take it on the advice of Rosenstein, does he think that Rosenstein should recuse himself, and is healing the groundwork to fire Rosenstein and Mueller? SEKULOW: I’ve had no conversations, and I’ve heard nothing without that at all. Nothing. I think this — Chris, this points out — let me tell you one thing quickly about the constitutional theory, as you called it. It’s actually called the Constitution. You know, the president has certain (INAUDIBLE) authority under the Constitution. It’s — WALLACE: Well, you called it the constitutional theory, sir. SEKULOW: Yes, it is a constitutional theory based on the Constitution. WALLACE: I understand that. SEKULOW: Not . It’s the constitutional theory. It’s part of the Constitution. The president has inherent authority. Here’s what you’re trying to — here’s what you’re trying to do, Chris, and I appreciate that you’re — you’re trying to push back. WALLACE: Well, now you’re reading minds again. Now you’re reading minds again. SEKULOW: No, Chris, I deal with fact and law. You were asking me to read people’s minds. That I don’t do. WALLACE: Well, don’t tell me what I’m trying to — well, don’t tell me what I’m trying to do because you don’t know what I’m trying to do. What I’m trying to get is a straight answer out of you. Let me ask you this — SEKULOW: Yes, well — sure. WALLACE: As a matter of law, does the President think that he can be indicted under the Constitution? SEKULOW: The president — I haven’t had that conversation with the president, but the president can’t be indicted under the Constitution of the activity alleged in something like this. Of course not. WALLACE: Why is that? SEKULOW: Because there’s not an investigation. And there’s — there’s no investigation against the president. WALLACE: Well, you don’t know whether there’s an investigation. Oh, boy, this is weird. You — you don’t know that there’s — whether there’s an investigation. You just told us that. SEKULOW: Chris, you’re asking me to speculate — so then what you’re asking me to do is to speculate on — WALLACE: And it would matter. I’m asking you as a matter of law, not whether there’s an investigation. Does the president think he can be indicted as president? SEKULOW: For — for — WALLACE: That’s a constitutional issue, isn’t it? SEKULOW: For obstruction of justice? No, the Constitution’s — WALLACE: No, for any of it. SEKULOW: Now, Chris, you know, let’s — let’s be realistic here. You know what the — the answer is. Can the president be indicted for obstruction? You know what the position has been at the Department of Justice since the 1970s and again stated in 2000. That’s not what President — that’s now how you engage a president. There’s a political process if somebody did something wrong. You’re talking about — you’re conflating a constitutional process, criminal law, with an issue of political consequence. So I am his lawyer. I’m not his political advisor. WALLACE: Senator Dianne Feinstein, a top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, responded to the president’s tweet this week with this statement. “The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired. ” Is she wrong, sir? SEKULOW: Yes, she’s wrong. First of all, Dianne Feinstein also called for an investigation of James Comey and Loretta Lynch for that whole episode regarding her engagement and calling it a, quote, “matter,” not an “investigation. ” But with regard to this particular issue, I mean the tweet — there’s nothing illegal or inappropriate about the tweet. If the tweet came on the heels of a Washington Post story that had five anonymous sources and didn’t even identify the agency from which those sources came from, and that’s what he tweet in response to. It’s that simple, period. WALLACE: Final question, the president just — just added John Dowd, a Washington lawyer, to his legal team. Should we expect him to hire other criminal lawyers? And, in a sense, is he preparing for a potential legal battle here? SEKULOW: Look, I mean John Dowd is — is a legal legend, you know that, in — in — in the — in Washington, D. C. and the president is doing the appropriate thing by hiring lawyers necessary, if there was to be an investigation, if there were to be an investigation, you have the lawyers in place. We’ve got a great legal team led by Marc Kasowitz. We’ve got John Dowd on the team. This is a solid team. Contrary to some of the press reports, a deep team, if necessary. WALLACE: Do you think — I — I — I misspoke. I’m going to ask one more question. Because I’m not allowed to ask you what the president thinks, do you think that he should stop — SEKULOW: Of course. WALLACE: Do you think he should stop tweeting about this case? SEKULOW: Look, I — here’s the thing on that. You know, people have been asking me that. Look, the president has changed the way in which engagement goes in — I mean you’ve got great ratings, no doubt about it, Chris. But let’s face it, the president speaks to 107 million people through his social media platforms. He revolutionized the election process by utilizing media in a different way. So I — I think, look, the president knows the effectiveness of social media. He’s been very effective at it. Again, I’m his lawyer, I deal with the issues. Nothing that he’s tweeted is causing me any issues whatsoever at this point. Nothing. WALLACE: Jay, thank you. Thanks for coming in. SEKULOW: Thanks, Chris. WALLACE: It’s always — it’s always interesting to talk to you. Please, come back, and we’ll — SEKULOW: Thanks, Chris. WALLACE: We’ll continue it and maybe this time we’ll get on this — you know what, be here in studio and we can stay on the same wavelength. SEKULOW: There we go. WALLACE: All right, sir — SEKULOW: Happy Father’s Day. WALLACE: Happy Father’s Day to you too, sir. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0 |
There s been a meme spreading across social media that says Only in America do we accept weather predictions from a rodent but deny climate change evidence from scientists. Sadly, that meme is more accurate than Punxsutawney Phil could ever hope to be as conservatives continue to deny climate science outright as they flock to see if a groundhog sees his shadow or not to predict an early spring or more winter.Of course, groundhogs are not scientifically accurate at all. It s a complete myth that they can forecast the weather. This is explained particularly well by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who put together a nice chart comparing Phil s predictions with the actual temperatures that occurred following them. From 1988-2015, NOAA found that, The table shows no predictive skill for the groundhog during the most recent years of this analysis. While Groundhog Day is a way to have a little fun at mid-winter, climate records and statistics tell us that winter probably isn t over. Climatologically speaking, the three coldest months of the year are December, January, and February, so winter typically still has a bit to go when the groundhog comes out in search of his shadow on February 2. And that s why Bill Maher had a field day on Friday mocking conservative climate science deniers with a hilarious attack ad aimed particularly at Ted Cruz.Maher noted that Groundhog Day fell on the same day as the Iowa caucus vote, and said that because Punxsutawney Phil predicted warmer weather, naturally, conservatives now think that Punxsutawney Phil is in the tank with the liberals on global warming. They re crazy about this issue, Maher said, which is why he introduced an ad mocking climate science deniers in which conservatives attack Phil for being just another scientist propped up by liberal media. The ad also took a masterful shot at Iowa winner Ted Cruz.Here s the video via YouTube:Conservatives probably are crazy enough to believe that a groundhog can predict weather and they are certainly crazy enough to attack the groundhog for predicting warmer weather. But not believing actual science is truly crazy and it s the kind of crazy that is dangerous as Republicans continue to ignore that many of our coastal cities are going to be under water if we don t act. Featured image via screenshot | 1 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea does not care who is president of the United States, a senior Pyongyang-based diplomat said during a visit to the United Nations on Tuesday following the election of Donald Trump to succeed President Barack Obama. Kim Yong Ho, director of human rights and humanitarian issues, spoke to reporters after a U.N. General Assembly committee approved a draft resolution condemning “widespread and gross violations of human rights” in the Asian state. “We do not care about whoever becomes the president of the United States,” Kim said. “The fundamental issue here is whether or not the United States has the political will to withdraw its hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea).” North Korea regularly accuses the United States and South Korea of preparing for war by holding annual joint military exercises. The United States and South Korea also plan to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in the South to counter missile and nuclear threats from the North. Trump said in May he was willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program, proposing a major shift in U.S. policy toward the isolated nation. However, ahead of the Nov. 8 election, an adviser to Trump said last month he could not foresee any circumstances in the short or medium term in which the Republican nominee would meet the leader of North Korea if he became president. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. In March, the Security Council tightened sanctions to further isolate the impoverished country after its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February. Since North Korea’s fifth and largest nuclear test more than two months ago, the United States and China, a close ally of North Korea, have been negotiating a new draft Security Council resolution to punish Pyongyang. | 1 |
COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - At least two people have died after a boat carrying refugees fleeing Myanmar capsized on its way to Bangladesh on Sunday, local authorities told Reuters. The boat sank near Shah Porir Dwip, on the southern tip of Bangladesh, said Lieutenant Colonel Ariful Islam, the local commander of Border Guard Bangladesh. He confirmed via SMS that the bodies of a boy and an elderly woman had been recovered in the water while eight others had been rescued. The rescue operation was ongoing on early Monday morning, local time, and the number of missing unknown, he said. More than 500,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when an attack by Rohingya militants on police and military posts in Rakhine State sparked a ferocious response from Myanmar s security forces which the United Nations described as ethnic cleansing . Myanmar s government denies the allegations of ethnic cleansing and has labeled as terrorists the militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who launched the initial attacks. Six weeks after the violence erupted, Rohingya continue to stream into neighboring Bangladesh by land and sea amid reports that Myanmar s military and Buddhist mobs have targeted Rohingyas with summary killings and burned villages. Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist nation, does not recognize the Rohingya Muslims as citizens, even though many have lived in Rakhine for generations. After waves of violence in the past five years, about 1 million Rohingya have been forced to move to Bangladesh. The overturned vessel is the latest of a series of deadly mishaps at sea involving Rohingya refugees. Most recently, on Sept. 28, a boat carrying about 80 refugees overturned. Seventeen survived, while 23 were confirmed dead and the remainder declared missing. On Sept. 6, 46 bodies were recovered after another boat sunk in the narrow stretch of water that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. Among the dead were 19 children, 18 women and 9 men. | 0 |
BAGDANDA, Nepal — From a pasture high in the Himalayas, Tulsingh Rokaya, 55, a shepherd, watched for years as the number of itinerant harvesters swelled. They came in search of what is known as caterpillar fungus, or yarsagumba in Nepali. A parasitic fungus, it forms out of the head of ghost moth larvae living in the soil at altitudes above 10, 000 feet, and has been used as an aphrodisiac for at least a thousand years, earning it the nickname Himalayan Viagra. In the 1980s, the pickers used to trade the fungus for cigarettes and noodles. But as yarsagumba grew in popularity, it exploded into a industry spanning China, Singapore and the United States. During the picking season, which runs from late May to July, the number of harvesters in Bagdanda and two neighboring camps has often reached several thousands of people. But this season, with the fungus becoming scarce, the number is down to the hundreds. They still hike from a camp below, carrying metal picks to dig out the fungus, helping to produce an average regional harvest of 135 tons a year. Occasionally, they stop at Mr. Rokaya’s tent to buy sheep’s curd. Most of the time they pass through, teetering on a steep hillside where they spend the morning hunched over to find the fungus’s crooked black stem poking through the dirt. Folklore has it that interest in the fungus stems from the startling performance of Chinese runners at an international track meet in 1993, which their coach attributed to their consumption of a soup combining the fungus with turtle blood. (Western competitors suspected something less exotic, namely drugs.) With prices topping $50, 000 a pound in China’s coastal megacities, harvesting of the fungus has helped to curb endemic poverty in the Himalayas, which stretch across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, Tibet and China. For hundreds of thousands of people living in remote villages, selling yarsagumba has become a primary source of income. A study by Nepal’s central bank found that harvesters earned an average of about $2, 500, or 56 percent of their yearly income, selling the fungus. Money from yarsagumba has given some of the world’s most impoverished people access to electricity, hospital care and education. “The whole Tibetan plateau is by now completely dependent on the cash influx,” said Daniel Winkler, a mycologist who has studied the caterpillar fungus extensively in Tibet. He estimated that over one million people in Tibet sell the fungus. But as quickly as demand for the fungus has surged, its supply has dropped sharply. Mycologists studying the fungus point to overharvesting as one reason. But another possible cause, some researchers now believe, is a warmer ecosystem precipitated by climate change, a phenomenon that may be more acute at higher altitudes. “There are strong theoretical reasons as to why we might expect the rate of climate change to be faster higher up in the mountains than it is at sea level,” said Nicholas Pepin, a geographer at the University of Portsmouth in England. Some of the most compelling data comes from the Tibetan plateau, where from 2001 to 2012, the increase in temperatures was between half a degree Fahrenheit and nearly an entire degree at weather stations above 10, 000 feet. In the same decade, global temperatures rose by only about 0. 2 degrees. Scientists say it is unclear why mountain ranges may be warming more rapidly than other parts of the planet. But Kamaljit Bawa, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said failure to better understand warming in the Himalayas could have serious consequences for the region’s unique biodiversity. “We have to make very rapid progress,” he said. “We can’t use the slow approach, the traditional, slow scientific approach. ” Not for yarsagumba, apparently. As harvesters returned from the pastures to Bagdanda on a recent afternoon, children gathered in the camp’s dusty thoroughfare and divided teams for a volleyball game. A mother held down her squirming daughter to pick lice from her scalp. Men congregated on dirt mounds and peeled strips of kutki, an herb used to treat vomiting and fever. In a village below the meadows, Prithvi Budha, 60, a beekeeper who is sitting out the harvest to watch dozens of empty mud and stone huts, said less precipitation might be the cause for the drop in yarsagumba supplies. “We used to have snow up to here and up to here,” he said, pointing to his torso and his shoulders as he recalled a string of childhood winters. Uttam Shrestha, a researcher at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, said it was difficult to say why the supply of yarsagumba had dropped. Changes in temperature, he said, could be one of several factors affecting the supply of the fungus. “We can draw some inferences,” he said. “Here, the fungus is very sensitive to the increase in temperature and so that could have an impact, but there is no empirical evidence yet. ” Jir Bahadur Budha, 43, a farmer, said he was disappointed with this year’s harvest. He estimated that his family of six would collect only 400 pieces of yarsagumba, 200 fewer than last year and 500 fewer than the year before. The selling price for a single piece is about $3. 50 in Nepal. On a recent morning, Mr. Budha joined dozens of others in a pasture as a heavy fog set in. Within 10 minutes of searching, calls echoed from a few hundred feet away, where a teenager had spotted one of the day’s first pieces. Clawing away dirt from the larva’s body, the boy received a smattering of congratulations. He had found a good piece. “Only lucky people find yarsagumba in the morning,” one man said. Mr. Rokaya, the shepherd, was cautious in his appraisal of the day’s pickings. Whatever the reason for the decline in yarsagumba, he said, it may be too late to salvage what has been lost. “No jobs. No money. What to do?” he said, thrumming his fingers on a gnarled cane. “We eat the rice that even donkeys and horses don’t eat. ” | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Princes William and Harry paid a quiet tribute to their mother Princess Diana on Wednesday, a day before the 20th anniversary of her death that has reignited interest in one of the world s most famous women. Diana s two sons met representatives of the charities she supported in a public garden at Kensington Palace, their home and where their mother lived until she was killed in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. Outside the palace gates supporters of the royal family gathered in the rain to mark the occasion, with many praising Diana s sons for keeping her in the public memory. Everyone remembers where they were the day she died, and when they heard about it, said 74-year-old Nancy Purinton, on holiday with her husband from the United States. It was pretty dramatic. Sheltering under umbrellas, William, Harry and Kate took a tour of the renamed White Garden, which has been transformed temporarily with white English roses and forget-me-nots planted earlier this year. The palace s head gardener and a gardener who knew Diana from her frequent visits to the spot, usually known as the Sunken Garden, explained the design and pointed out some of the princess s favorite plants. The gathering follows weeks of renewed interest in Diana, the first wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles. She has once again become front page news with new revelations about her life and a raft of TV documentaries to mark the anniversary. Previous anniversaries of her death have passed with little fuss, suggesting that the People s Princess , as she was dubbed by then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, had perhaps lost some of her allure and relevance. But with the popular William and Harry coming to the fore, the 20th anniversary has sparked a re-examination of the role Diana played in Britain and the royal family, from her lavish wedding in 1981 to her bitter divorce. The princes have also been increasingly willing to speak about the trauma of her death and its lasting impact. I m glad that they ve finally loosened up a little bit to talk about her and how really hard it was for them, Purinton said of the princes. I think they were stiff upper lip for so long and now they re able to talk about it, which I think helps other people if they re grieving. Diana s death in a Paris underpass sparked an outpouring of grief that stunned many Britons, with thousands of mourners descending on the palace to leave flowers and letters to pay tribute to a woman who had become a global fashion icon and charity campaigner. I was here the first time around, Alexia McDonald, 54 and a full-time carer, told Reuters. We were similar age ... (I remember) seeing the fairytale wedding. She was my generation and I just felt a connection. I felt I needed to pay my respects to Diana. Outside the palace on Wednesday, Britons again left flowers, photographs and messages attached to the front gates, although in far fewer numbers than immediately after her death. After touring the garden, the princes met representatives from causes Diana had supported, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Aids Trust and The Leprosy Mission. On Thursday, they will reflect on their mother s life in private. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Elizabeth Warren and 19 other U.S. senators voiced concern to the chief executive of Mylan NV (MYL.O) about the high cost of its EpiPen on Tuesday, calling the device used in the case of life-threatening allergies “exorbitantly expensive.” Mylan has been under fire for steadily raising the price of the device from about $100 in 2008 to about $600 currently. In a letter to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the lawmakers asked the company to spell out the company’s programs to provide some people with lower cost EpiPens. Such discount programs are often an “industry tactic to keep costs high through a complex shell game,” the letter said. “Insurance companies, the government and employers still bear the burden of these excessive prices. In turn, those costs are eventually passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums,” the senators wrote. Mylan said this week it would launch the first generic version of its allergy auto-injector EpiPen for $300, half the price of the branded product, the drugmaker’s second step in less than a week to counter the backlash over the product’s steep price. It also reduced the out-of-pocket costs of EpiPen for some patients last week. EpiPen has a 94 percent market share for auto-injector devices, which jab a dose of the drug epinephrine into the thigh to counter dangerous allergic reactions such as to peanuts, other foods and bee stings. Asked about the letter, Mylan spokeswoman Lauren Kashtan said in an email statement: “We have acknowledged receipt of letters from congressional offices and intend to respond to them.” Mylan has defended EpiPen’s high price, saying it spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the product since acquiring it in 2007. It has also said it recoups less than half the list price for EpiPens. In their letter, the lawmakers asked Mylan how much insurers paid for the EpiPen in 2009 and how much they pay now. They also asked how many EpiPens Mylan provided to low income, uninsured consumers and how many schools purchased EpiPens versus how many received them for free. In addition to Warren, other signatories included Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat; Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat; Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats from Rhode Island and Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey on Thursday defended his handling of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email investigation during the contentious U.S. presidential election, according to a message to FBI staff reported by ABC News. Comey and the Federal Bureau of Investigation came under criticism from Republicans and Democrats amid its investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server while U.S. secretary of state. “I would be lying if I said the external criticism doesn’t bother me at all, but the truth is, it doesn’t bother me much because of the way we made the decision,” Comey said in the New Year’s message, ABC reported. “At every turn last year, we were faced with choosing among bad options and making decisions we knew would bring a torrent of criticism.” The most furious criticism came after Comey disclosed that the FBI was examining a trove of newly discovered Clinton emails just 11 days before the Nov. 8 vote. The new trove did not change the FBI’s decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton, Comey said a week later. But Clinton cited his decision as a turning point that cost her the election to Republican businessman Donald Trump. | 0 |
”Clearly this is an effort by the president to try to distract attention from our hearings today and tomorrow,” @MarkWarner says. pic. twitter. In an appearance Wednesday on “CBS This Morning,” Sen. Mark Warner ( ) accused President Donald Trump of attempting to distract from the upcoming Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that will include testimony from former FBI Director James Comey by nominating Christopher Wray as his choice to be the next director of the FBI. Despite having said Wray had a good reputation, Warner still maintained there was the possibility of wrongdoing that deserved focus. “[B]ut clearly this is an effort by the president to try to distract attention from our hearings today and our hearings tomorrow,” Warner said. “I think we’re going to see some pretty interesting things this morning. Because not only do we have reports that the president tried to intervene with FBI Director Comey and ask him to back off the investigation of General [Michael] Flynn, which would be totally inappropriate, but we also have reports that he also asked the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the head of the NSA Adm. Mike Rogers to also back off or try to downplay the FBI investigation into Mr. Trump and his affiliates. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0 |
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