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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Three UCLA men s basketball players were arrested in China for shoplifting on Tuesday, media said, a day before U.S. President Donald Trump arrived on his first official visit. The players arrested were freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, according to USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and ESPN, all of which cited unnamed sources familiar with the incident. Ball is the younger brother of National Basketball Association rookie Lonzo Ball of the Los Angeles Lakers. Reached by telephone at a hotel in the eastern city of Hangzhou on Wednesday, Ball declined to comment. ESPN said the three had been picked up by police at their hotel on Tuesday and released on bail early on Wednesday. They were confined to their hotel pending legal proceedings, it said. The University of California, Los Angeles, declined to confirm the arrests but said it was aware of a situation involving UCLA student-athletes in Hangzhou, China . The university is cooperating fully with local authorities on this matter, and we have no further comment at this time, UCLA Athletics said in a statement provided by spokeswoman Shana Wilson. The UCLA team had arrived in China on Sunday with plans to play Georgia Tech in both teams regular-season opener on Saturday, according to statements from both teams. It traveled to Hangzhou, about three hours by bus from Shanghai, to visit the campus of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), sponsor of the annual Pac-12 games in China. The three players were questioned about stealing from a Louis Vuitton store next to the hotel where the team is staying, ESPN said. UCLA representatives, including coach Steve Alford, were at the police station while they were there, it said, citing an unidentified source. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement the conference was disappointed by any situation that detracts from the positive student-athlete educational and cultural experience that this week is about. Whether in the United States or abroad, we expect our student-athletes to uphold the highest standards. We will continue to closely monitor the situation, he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday the Chinese government had reported the case to the U.S. side in accordance with consular agreements. China is handling this case in accordance with the law and will guarantee the lawful rights in accordance with the law of those involved in this case, she said. In a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday by Arash Markazi, a senior writer at ESPN, LaVar Ball said his son, LiAngelo, would be fine. He ll be fine. Everyone s making it a big deal. It ain t that big a deal, said Ball, the outspoken CEO of athletic apparel maker Big Baller Brand. Chinese President Xi Jinping led Trump on a private tour of the Forbidden City to kick off his visit on Wednesday. White House officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Alibaba declined to comment, as did the Hangzhou police. A U.S. State Department official said the department was aware of reports of three citizens arrested in China and stood ready to provide assistance but had no further comment due to privacy considerations. Three players from Georgia Tech were questioned by the authorities in China on Tuesday at their hotel in Hangzhou but were later released by police, Georgia Tech athletics spokesman Mike Flynn said in a statement. During the questioning, it was determined that Georgia Tech student-athletes were not involved in the activities being investigated. They have resumed their scheduled activities, Flynn said. | 0 |
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Donald Trump took about two hours after a grueling cross-country campaign schedule to announce the opening of a new, beautiful hotel in the nation’s capital.
The man has been moving non-stop for months, while Hillary puts on one lame rally, then takes a nap for what seems like days .
So it was absolutely amazing when CNN reporter Dana Bash made the accusation that Trump was merely trying to get “free advertising” for his new hotel and neglecting his duties on the campaign trail.
Do they ask these questions of Hillary Clinton? Of course they don’t. Here’s the video: Dana Bash: Is your DC hotel opening free advertising?Donald Trump: “No, not at all” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/9HHqooom8r
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 26, 2016
“So to people who say you’re taking time out of swing states to go do this, you say?” Bash asked.
“I say the following: You have been covering me for the last — long time. I did yesterday eight stops and three major speeches, and I’ve been doing this for weeks straight,” Trump responded.
“For you to ask me that question is actually very insulting because Hillary Clinton does one stop and then she goes home and sleeps. And yet you’ll ask me that question. I think that’s a very rude question, to be honest with you.” Trump exclaimed.
Trump added that the opening of the hotel also served to prove a point that he can get things built under budget and ahead of schedule, suggesting that the country needs to be able to follow suit.
Did the media ask Hillary where she was when she went off the grid for six days with only one event last month? Nope.
Did they make any comments when she took the entire first half of August off to recuperate from exhaustion/pneumonia/dehydration or whatever they’re making up? Of course not.
“Her speeches are so short – they don’t last long, they’re like 10 minutes and ‘let’s get out of here,’” Donald Trump said about her schedule. “Go back home and go to sleep.” | 1 |
The CIA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are being sued for records containing information regarding Russia s tampering with the U.S. presidential election.On Monday, Journalist Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit alleges that the intelligence agencies failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to turn over requested documents.According to The Hill:On Dec. 14, Leopold and Shapiro asked the intelligence agencies for copies of communications to or from the Electoral College and any records that mention or refer to a requests Electoral College members made for information and briefings on the investigations into ties between Trump, his campaign or his associates. The request included mentions of Russian government interference in the election.Earlier this month, the CIA revealed that their assessment of Russia s election meddling had found that not only had they interfered with the U.S. presidential election, but they had done so with the express purpose of helping Donald Trump win. The FBI later announced that they agreed with the CIA s findings.In the suit, Leopold and Shapiro are asking the court to compel the intelligence agencies to turn over the pertinent records as mandated by the FOIA. This is not Leopold s first rodeo when it comes to these kinds of cases. Most notably, he was part of the lawsuit that got the State Department to release Hillary Clinton s emails.Trump has dismissed the idea that Russia meddled with the election as ridiculous and has claimed that Democrats are just making it up as an excuse for his massive win. (Quick reminder, he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes and even his electoral college win isn t all that freaking massive in reality.)Numerous lawmakers, from both the left and right, are calling for an official investigation into Russia s unprecedented interference in our election.Featured image via David Burnett/Newsmakers/Getty Images | 1 |
The White House is falling apart following indictments against two former Trump associates and a third who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Here s what Manafort s indictment tells me: Mueller is going to go over every financial dealing of Jared Kushner and the Trump Organization, said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. Trump is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can t go any lower. He s fucked. According to Vanity Fair, Trump is reportedly blaming White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is also his son-in-law, for his role in decisions that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.Trump spoke to President Steve Bannon on Tuesday and blamed Kushner for the firings of Mike Flynn and James Comey, that led to Mueller s appointment. Furthermore, Trump agreed with Roger Stone recently when the Dirty Trickster told him Kushner was giving him bad political advice. Jared is the worst political adviser in the White House in modern history, Nunberg said. I m only saying publicly what everyone says behind the scenes at Fox News, in conservative media, and the Senate and Congress, he continued.Advisers want Trump to consider ways to neutralize Mueller, from conciliation to a declaration of all-out war, according to Vanity Fair. One Republican said that a good move would be for Trump to get his poll numbers up. Trump s numbers are lower than any other president s in the history of modern polling, so that would be a neat trick. The establishment has proven time and time again they will fuck Trump over, a Bannon ally told the paper. SURE, it s the Deep State globalists who are trying to hurt Trump, when actually, the former reality show star hurts his agenda every time he tweets to lash out at the world. Trump can t afford to fire Mueller politically, Stone said, but the so-called president has also reportedly complained about Mueller s investigation being allowed to continue.Stone wants Trump to call for a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One non-scandal, which has been debunked, but it s just an effort to use Hillary Clinton as a shield.We re wondering how First Lady Ivanka Trump feels knowing that her husband is getting blamed for her father s scandals.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 |
Keith Olbermann just fired an angry tweet at Donald Trump that will almost certainly leave him seething in fury.Last week, Trump gave highly classified intelligence to Russian officials during a meeting in the Oval Office in which Russian state media was allowed but American journalists were banned.Spilling the intel puts the source of the information in jeopardy and hurts our national security.The Russians can even use the information in order to silence the source from revealing their own activity in Syria. In short, American intelligence gathering efforts against ISIS and Russia have just been seriously compromised.Outrage immediately ensued after the story broke, with both Democrats and Republicans expressing concern over Trump s actions. The optic are also terrible in light of the fact that Trump is embroiled in a growing scandal involving Russia and had fired FBI Director James Comey the day before the meeting.Of course, Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to defend his actions, ending his rant by whining about leakers despite the fact that he leaked highly classified information to the Russians.As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017 to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017GQ special correspondent Keith Olbermann was NOT impressed, especially after reading the last tweet. So he lashed out at Trump with words every American wants to say to him right now.YOU are the leaker, you stupid, pea-brained, motherfucking traitor. RESIGN. https://t.co/ZRXevAonG9 Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 16, 2017Donald Trump is a traitor. He violated his oath of office and violated the trust of an ally by sharing this intel with the Russians, who interfered with the 2016 Election by hacking into our political institutions. Was this the price the Russians demanded in exchange for helping Trump win? Because if it is, our national security is at serious risk. Russia would love nothing more than know everything we know. What s next? Will Trump share NATO strategies with Russia? How about the nuclear codes?Clearly, Trump is willing to give his Russian buddies anything, whether or not they actually ask for it. This is a violation of the American people s trust and there should be consequences. He should either resign in disgrace or be impeached and put behind bars where traitors belong. The Russians have a mole in the White House. His name is Donald Trump.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East on Wednesday condemned the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital as an incendiary move in a volatile region and Palestinians said Washington was abandoning its leading role as a peace mediator. The European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and its repercussions for any chances of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Major U.S. allies came out against Trump s reversal of decades of U.S. and broad international policy on Jerusalem. France rejected the unilateral decision while appealing for calm in the region. Britain said the move would not help peace efforts and Jerusalem should ultimately be shared by Israel and a future Palestinian state. Germany said Jerusalem s status could only be resolved on the basis of a two-state solution. Israel, by contrast, applauded Trump s move. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message that it was an important step towards peace and it was our goal from Israel s first day . He added that any peace accord with the Palestinians would have to include Jerusalem as Israel s capital and he urged other countries to follow Trump s example. [L8N1O660O] Trump upended decades of U.S. policy in defiance of warnings from around the world that the gesture risks aggravating conflict in the tinderbox Middle East. The status of Jerusalem is home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths. Its eastern sector was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of an independent state they seek. Israel deems Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital dating to antiquity, and its status is one of the thorniest barriers to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a pre-recorded speech, said Jerusalem was the eternal capital of the State of Palestine and that Trump s move was tantamount to the United States abdicating its role as a peace mediator. The last round of U.S.-brokered talks foundered in 2014 over issues including Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and Israeli accusations of Palestinian incitement to violence and refusal to recognise it as a Jewish state. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which has dominated Gaza since soon after Israel ended a 38-year occupation in 2005, said Trump had committed a flagrant aggression against the Palestinian people . Hamas urged Arabs and Muslims to undermine U.S. interests in the region and to shun Israel . Protests broke out in parts of Jordan s capital Amman inhabited by Palestinian refugees, with youths chanting anti-American slogans. In the Baqaa refugee camp on Amman s outskirts, hundreds roamed the streets denouncing Trump and urging Jordan to scrap its 1994 peace treaty with Israel. Down with America...America is the mother of terror, they chanted. Angry Palestinians switched off Christmas lights at Jesus traditional birthplace in the West Bank town of Bethlehem and in Ramallah. A tree adorned with lights outside Bethlehem s Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus was born, and another in Ramallah, next to the grave of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, were plunged into darkness. All Palestinian factions called for a general strike and protest rallies at midday on Thursday. The Saudi Royal Court issued a statement saying that the kingdom followed with deep sorrow Trump s decision and warned of dangerous consequences of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem . The statement described the move as a big step back in efforts to advance the peace process , and urged the U.S. administration to reverse its decision and adhere to international will. Egypt, which forged the first Arab peace deal with Israel in 1979, brushed off Trump s decision and said it did not change Jerusalem s disputed legal status. Jordan said Trump s action was legally null because it consolidated Israel s occupation of East Jerusalem. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Trump s Jerusalem decision was dangerous and threatened the credibility of the United States as a broker of Middle East peace. He said the move would put back the peace process by decades and threatened regional stability and perhaps global stability. Qatar s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Trump s undertaking was a death sentence for all who seek peace and called it a dangerous escalation . Turkey said Trump s move was irresponsible . We call upon the U.S. Administration to reconsider this faulty decision which may result in highly negative outcomes and to avoid uncalculated steps that will harm the multicultural identity and historical status of Jerusalem, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. A few hundred protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. The protest was largely peaceful, though some of the demonstrators threw coins and other objects at the consulate. Iran seriously condemns Trump s move as it violates U.N. resolutions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, state media reported. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier in the day that the United States was trying to destabilize the region and start a war to protect Israel s security. In Southeast Asia, the leaders of Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia denounced Trump s action. This can rock global security and stability, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the world s largest Muslim-majority nation, told a news conference in which he called for the United States to reconsider its decision. British Prime Minister Theresa May disagreed with Trump s embrace of Jerusalem as Israel s capital before a final-status agreement as this was unlikely to help nurture peace in the region, her spokesman said. However, May s spokesman welcomed Trump s stated wish to end the conflict and his acknowledgement that the final status of Jerusalem, including boundaries within the city, must be subject to negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not support Trump s unilateral move. The status of Jerusalem is a question of international security that concerns the entire international community. The status of Jerusalem must be determined by Israelis and Palestinians in the framework of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations, Macron told reporters in Algiers. France and Europe are attached to a two-state solution - Israel and Palestine - living side by side in peace and security within recognised international borders with Jerusalem the capital of both states, he said. For now, I urge for calm and for everyone to be responsible. We must avoid at all costs avoid violence and foster dialogue, he said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there was no alternative to a two-state solution and Jerusalem was a final-status matter only to be settled through direct talks. I have consistently spoken out against any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians, Guterres said. I will do everything in my power to support the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to return to meaningful negotiations. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman who has said that U.S. President Donald Trump groped her during a 2007 meeting has subpoenaed his presidential campaign for any documents concerning similar allegations, according to a subpoena filed in New York State Supreme Court. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice,” sought all documents from his campaign pertaining to “any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately,” identifying nine by name, the subpoena said. Trump has denied Zervos’ accusation in the past. On Monday, asked about the subpoena at an impromptu White House news conference, Trump called it “totally fake news.” “It’s just fake. It’s fake. It’s made-up stuff, and it’s disgraceful, what happens, but that happens in the - that happens in the world of politics,” he said. The Trump campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on the subpoena. Last October, shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Zervos held a news conference to say that Trump kissed her, touched her breast and tried to get her to lie down on a bed with him during a meeting about a possible job. The accusation came a week after a 2005 video emerged showing the Republican candidate bragging about groping and making unwanted sexual advances. While Trump said at the time the video was just talk and he had never behaved in that way, several women subsequently went public with allegations of sexual misconduct against the New York real estate magnate going back three decades. Trump denied all the allegations. Zervos sued Trump for defamation in New York State Supreme Court after he denied her account of their meeting and accused her and other women of lying. The subpoena, part of that lawsuit, was served in March and entered into the court file in September. Trump’s lawyers agreed to preserve the pertinent documents, but they are also trying to have the lawsuit dismissed or delayed. “We served it simply to make sure that the documents get preserved,” Mariann Wang, one of Zervos’ lawyers, said in a phone interview on Monday. BuzzFeed website first reported on the subpoena late on Sunday. | 1 |
Many on the left and in the liberal media are hoping President Trump will butt heads with his new chief of staff, former general John Kelly, proving he is incapable of getting along with senior officials in his administration. But if Trump s experience in the New York Military Academy is an indicator, he will surely excel with his new Chief of Staff John Kelly and his disciplined military style.Donald Trump s freewheeling, off-the-cuff campaign style can sometimes make him look like he s winging it. Playing by the rules is not what the billionaire presidential candidate is known for. But during a little-known time in his childhood military school playing the game meant following the rules. And Trump learned how to win at it.When Rules Were Meant To Be BrokenBefore military school, Trump was famous for breaking the rules. Long before buildings would be named after him, schoolmates used the Trump name as shorthand for getting into trouble. We used to refer to our detention as a DT a Donny Trump because he got more of them than most other people in the class, said Paul Onish, one of Trump s grade school classmates.Onish calls Trump one of his best friends at the Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, Queens. Trump attended the school through seventh grade, and the two of them got into trouble together constantly talking out of turn during class, passing notes and throwing spitballs. Onish remembers a few stunts on the soccer field, too. There was even a couple of incidences during half-time when we would eat whole oranges without peeling them in front of the competition to show them how tough we really were, Onish said.Getting Sent Up The RiverIt was the late 1950s and in the quiet, well-to-do community of Jamaica Estates, Queens, the nonstop antics became embarrassing for Trump s parents.So right before eighth grade, Trump s father sent him literally up the river to New York Military Academy in the Hudson Valley. Trump would spend the next five years there.Retired Col. Ted Dobias remembers the tall, lanky kid who showed up at his dormitory. I put [him] down at the end of the hall. He didn t know how to make a bed. He didn t know how to shine his shoes. He had a problem, you know, with being a cadet. You know, being a cadet, you gotta take care of yourself, Dobias said.And Trump the cadet didn t quite know how, at first. Dobias had a reputation for being one of the school s toughest instructors. He was a hardened World War II veteran who made it clear to Trump he didn t care who his daddy was. When he got out of line, he got the same treatment like everybody else. His name was Donald Trump, like Johnny Jones. It was all the same, Dobias said. Nobody was different. We treated everyone alike. When Following The Rules Becomes The GameNew York Military Academy, or NYMA, is tucked in a small speck of a town called Cornwall-on-Hudson. It s a short drive from West Point. Arriving here is like stepping back in time. Antique cannons squat on green fields. Buildings date back to the 1800s.Back in Trump s day, cadets would wake up near the crack of dawn, hurry into their uniforms and march in formation to breakfast. First-year cadets had to eat their meals squared-off lifting their forks in a right angle path into their mouths. And after breakfast, they d scurry back to clean their rooms for inspection. Dobias said it was a place where kids who didn t like following the rules learned to like it. It s a hell of a thing for a kid to go to a military school especially when you have to say, Yes sir, No sir, have to learn how to salute, how to do about-face, how to march, how to carry a gun, said Dobias.But instead of recoiling from the discipline, Trump thrived under it. In her book The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate, Gwenda Blair notes how Donald seemed to welcome being in a place with clear-cut parameters, a place where he could focus on figuring out how to come out on top and get what he wanted. Mike Kabealo, one of Trump s roommates at NYMA, said in the confines of the school s rigid rules, Trump wanted to be a standout. Cocksure, positive and anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better kind of stuff you know, he was very competitive, Kabealo said.And friends say Trump channeled that competitiveness into everything at military school. When he was in charge of the rifle rack, he cleaned the rifles obsessively. He was meticulous about his uniform. When it was his turn to do inspections in the barracks, he whipped other cadets into shape. My bed wasn t really made right, and he ripped it, said Ted Levine, another student who roomed with Trump at NYMA.Trump tore Levine s sheets off during inspections one morning. Levine s bed hadn t passed muster.Trump became captain of the baseball team, and Dobias was his coach. He was very coachable, Dobias said. If I told him, Do this, he ll do it. If I told him to do it the other way, he ll do it that way. So that s what made him a good baseball player. He accepted criticism. He wanted to be best. Not better. Here s a picture of Trump with his soccer team:Donald Trump s New York Military basketball team photo :Trump was made a cadet captain at NYMA one of the highest honors for graduates. I don t think he had a handful of loyalists, you know? Levine, his former roommate, said. Because he was so competitive that everybody who could come close to him he had to destroy. But now, more than 50 years later, Levine says he and the other guys still kind of admire Trump.Today Levine s office is littered with Donald Trump knickknacks. Like a talking Trump doll that belts out Trumpisms such as Brand yourself and toot your own horn, and Have an ego there s nothing wrong with ego. Sometimes, Levine said, he squeezes the doll for advice. It s reinforcement positive reinforcement of true values that are very important for businessmen, he said.Values like winning how to fight back and win.Levine gave the doll another squeeze. Never give up, the doll squawked. Under any circumstances, never give up. Levine said he didn t learn that one from Trump they both learned that one in military school.For entire story: NPR | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s tax reform blueprint appears to be losing its status as the likely framework for the first major tax overhaul since 1986, with rival approaches emerging from the White House, Senate and other quarters in Congress. Congressional aides, lobbyists and analysts say the changing focus could delay passage of a tax bill until late 2017 or 2018, potentially foiling Republican efforts to score a legislative victory for President Donald Trump by August, following last month’s failed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare health insurance. Like the healthcare bill, the House Republican tax blueprint stems from Ryan’s “A Better Way” legislative agenda launched during the 2016 election campaign. “The House can go and do what they want to do. We are going to formulate our own policies,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told CNBC in an interview posted on the channel’s website on Wednesday. “You will have a White House, Donald Trump tax plan that we are going to take down to the Hill and try and sell. In the meantime, Senate Republicans are expected to review a 2015 tax package from former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, as a starting point for their own tax legislation. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of conservative lawmakers that helped derail Ryan’s healthcare bill, have also suggested that expanding the deficit to stave off adding new taxes could be acceptable. “The blueprint was the Republican ideal, written as a campaign document. Now they’re dealing with the realities of a closely divided Congress and a president who wants a win on this key, signature issue,” said one business lobbyist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But Ryan is not giving up on the idea of forging agreement with the White House and Senate leaders. “Our intention has always been and continues to be to coalesce around a unified GOP plan and those conversations continue,” said his spokeswoman, AshLee Strong. Business lobbyists and tax experts warn that a loss of focus could prove fatal for the tax overhaul effort, if the House blueprint disappears from the political stage. “Right now the blueprint is the only plan we have. There’s a great amount of uncertainty about how this would play out without it, or whether this would play out at all,” said John Gimigliano, who heads federal legislative and regulatory services for the accounting and consulting group KPMG LLP. Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee say the blueprint’s viability could become clearer next month, when the committee is expected to hold a series of public hearings and hopes to see a floor vote before the August congressional recess. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met this month with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers about possibly including infrastructure spending in an administration tax package, a feature that is not part of the blueprint. The House blueprint, which Ryan rolled out last June, would bring sweeping change to the U.S. tax code by slashing business tax rates by 15 percentage points, allowing companies to immediately write off capital investments and ending taxation of foreign profits of U.S.-based multinational corporations. But its future has become clouded by mounting opposition to two provisions that would raise a combined $2.4 trillion to pay for those tax changes: a border adjustment tax, or BAT, that includes a new 20 percent import tax and the elimination of business deductions for interest payments. Advocates of Ryan’s plan say it would generate revenues that would help Congress avoid paying for tax cuts by expanding the national deficit. | 1 |
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk warned that deep A. I. could potentially be dangerous to the human race, who he described as already should it overtake us in intelligence. [“One of the most troubling questions is artificial intelligence. I don’t mean narrow A. I — deep artificial intelligence, where you can have AI which is much smarter than the smartest human on earth,” proclaimed Musk during the World Government Summit in Dubai. “This is a dangerous situation. ” “Pay close attention to the development of artificial intelligence,” he continued. “Make sure researchers don’t get carried away. Scientists get so engrossed in their work they don’t realize what they are doing. ” Musk continued to claim that humans are already citing the range of digital applications that people now depend on every day. “To some degree we are already a cyborg — you think of all the digital tools that you have — your phone, your computer,” claimed Musk. “The applications that you have. The fact that you can ask a question and instantly get an answer from Google and other things. ” “You already have a digital tertiary layer. Think of the limbic system — the animal brain and the cortex as the thinking part of the brain, and your digital self as a third layer,” he added. “If you die your digital ghost is still around. All of their emails, and social media, that still lives if they die. ” “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence … It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output,” Musk concluded. “Some high bandwidth interface to the brain will be something that helps achieve a symbiosis between human and machine intelligence and maybe solves the control problem and the usefulness problem. ” In November, Musk predicted that automated robots would lead to mass unemployment, which could eventually create a universal wage from the government. In June, the billionaire tech entrepreneur claimed it likely that mankind is living in a computer simulation. Musk was also one of the Silicon Valley billionaires, along with fellow PayPal Mafia members Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, who invested $1 billion into an artificial intelligence center in 2015. On Monday, Business Insider reported that Google’s new A. I. had learned to become “highly aggressive” in stressful situations, turning on each other in a virtual game once resources became scarce. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0 |
Donald Trump may be decrying the documents dumped by Buzzfeed as fake news, but it seems to be fake news everyone can believe in. Ever since the memos compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele were released to the public, The Donald has not exactly had an easy time of things, with every press conference and attempt to tweet quickly devolving into a screaming mess in which Trump throws himself into a panic screaming of all-caps typing the words FAKE NEWS. But while Trump is taking the nothing to see here approach with the reports, at least four sources now back the information according to a report from BBC s Paul Wood earlier this week: The former MI6 agent is not the only source for the claim about Russian kompromat on the president-elect. Back in August, a retired spy told me he had been informed of its existence by the head of an East European intelligence agency, Wood says, explaining that he used an intermediary to check into things. A U.S. intelligence contact told him that there was more than one tape, and that video and audio of Trump s exploits in Moscow and St. Petersberg do exist.According to Israeli news publication Yedioth Ahronoth, their country s spies have been warned by the United States against sharing information with the Trump administration until they can determine whether he has been compromised by Putin:These fears, which began upon Trump s election, grew stronger following a meeting held recently between Israeli and American intelligence officials (the date of the meeting is not mentioned to protect the sources of the report). During the meeting, according to the Israelis who participated in it, their American colleagues voiced despair over Trump s election, as he often lashes out at the American intelligence community. The American officials also told the Israelis that the National Security Agency (NSA) had highly credible information that Russia s intelligence agencies, the FSB and GRU, were responsible for hacking the Democratic Party (DNC) servers during the elections and leaking sensitive information to WikiLeaks, which hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.The American officials further added that they believed Russia President Vladimir Putin had leverages of pressure over Trump but did not elaborate. They were apparently referring to what was published Wednesday about embarrassing information collected by the Russian intelligence in a bid to blackmail the president-elect.The Americans implied that their Israeli colleagues should be careful as of January 20, Trump s inauguration date, when transferring intelligence information to the White House and to the National Security Council (NSC), which is subject to the president. According to the Israelis who were present in the meeting, the Americans recommended that until it is made clear that Trump is not inappropriately connected to Russia and is not being extorted Israel should avoid revealing sensitive sources to administration officials for fear the information would reach the Iranians.If Israel s secrets are indeed not kept confidential, this is a serious danger to the state s national security: Since the early 2000s, the cooperation between the Israel and US intelligence communities has been intensified. It was led by the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) at the time, Aharon Ze evi Farkash (who even received a citation from the NSA Chief General Michael Hayden), late Mossad chief Meir Dagan and his successor, Tamir Pardo, who served earlier as the commander of one of the secret operational units that cooperated with the Americans. The Israelis who attended the meeting said that the Americans advised them not to expose any sensitive sources to members of the Trump administration, lest that information reach Iranian hands, until it becomes clear that Trump does not have a compromised relationship with Russia and is not vulnerable to extortion, the report states.At this point, we have no choice but to assume that the level of concern shown by intelligence agencies worldwide is a strong indicator that we should be concerned too. Donald Trump is sworn into office on Friday. May one of the gods help us all.featured image via Getty Images (Chip Somodevilla) | 1 |
Former Attorney General Michael McKasey lists 4 laws Hillary Clinton appears to have broken: There s one that says you can t put classified information in an unclassified setting. That s the one that General Petraeus was convicted of on his own plea. There s one that says that you can t expose national secrets through gross negligence. Then there s one that says you can t destroy government information. And then there s one that says you can t obstruct justice. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet on Tuesday with the Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, to discuss keeping the government open but cited differences with them. “Meeting with “Chuck and Nancy” today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal!” Trump said in a Twitter post. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, reacting to President Donald Trump s comment that Puerto Rico had thrown the U.S. budget out of whack, said on Tuesday Trump should stop blaming Puerto Ricans for the hurricane that devastated the island. Mr. President, stop the blame game. Start making the situation better. That s your job, Schumer told reporters. | 1 |
SNAPCHAT: 100,000,000 people worldwide , with an estimated 8 billion daily views. YOUTUBE: 1,325,000 people worldwide , who watch 3,250,000,000 hours of videos per month. INTERNET: 3,200,000,000 people worldwide , or just under half the world’s population are surfing the web.
As you can see , Internet usage is huge with tons of room left to grow, and social media accounts is how all those billions of people communicate with each other. NTEB regularly gets emails from South Africa, New Zealand, All of the United States, Israel, Asia, you name it. The prophesied “global community” is not coming…it is, obviously, already here. And if you are reading this right now, either via email or on a website, you are a part of said global community. Now let me start to tie it together for you.
How often does one of your Facebook friends just “disappear”, and then 3 days, a week, 3 weeks later they pop back up and tell you that they were in “ Facebook Jail “? I see it happening a lot, and am sure that you do as well. Many people, when deprived of the ability to post and interact with their global community, get anxious, depressed and experience genuine psychological trauma. Over the last 10 years, we have been retrained to think differently, act differently, and experience life through the filter of the cyber-world. There are gatekeepers who control that world, and when you violate one of their silly rules, you are locked out. This is, in essence, exactly how life will unfold under the Mark of the Beast system.
How many of your social media friends who are frequent visitors of social media jail ever close thier accounts and stop the insanity? Almost none. They want the system, they need the system, and cannot live apart from the system. They rant, rave and rail against Facebook, and yet there they are. Addicted. No matter how often Facebook jails them, they come back.
“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” Proverbs 30:28 (KJV)
What happens to things caught in a web? They stay caught until the spider shows up. Social media is the web, and the Spider is on the way. Want to play a fun game? Close your social media accounts, all of them for a month, and see what happens. The results will shock you. How It Works: Internet of Things
Under the rule of Antichrist , in order to be included in the global community, you are required to take the Mark. If you refuse, swift, severe and fatal judgment will be issued and you will cease to exist. The Bible says that people refusing the Mark will be decapitated. There is no forgiveness from God for taking the Mark, but if you don’t take the Mark you can’t feed your babies, pay your bills, or interact with the global community.
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4 (KJV)
Social media is training you to accept global rules in order to maintain membership in a global community. More people now connect to the web via hand-held devices than through desktop or laptop computers. Those devices control more and more of our daily lives. There are apps to regulate the air conditioning and heating in your home, open your garage door , deposit money to to your bank account , monitor your vital signs , or meet a date for Saturday night . We literally could not function in our society without these things. So will it really be a big leap from having your device on your belt to having your device under your skin? Nope, not at all. People will jump at the chance to do it.
“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (KJV)
So the next time you try to login to one of your social media accounts, only to receive the dreaded warning of “Your account has been suspended for __ days for violation of our policies”, and you get first angry and then depressed, remember you’re part of the new global community. You have to live and play by global rules set to control the masses. The “secret government file” of yesteryear we all worried the FBI had on us cannot hold a candle to the interactive file that you created on yourself to be spied on with.
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)
The Mark of the Beast system ? It’s already here and you’re already in it. It will “activate” when the Beast shows up. If you would like to “check out” of here in the Rapture before the Antichrist comes to power, click here for the one thing you need to do.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Switzerland opened a war-crimes investigation into Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, almost four years ago, but it has stalled despite compelling evidence , an activist group and lawyers said on Monday. The Geneva-based group TRIAL International said that it had brought the complaint against Rifaat al-Assad for alleged massacres in Tadmor in 1980 and Hama in 1982, and was joined by Swiss lawyers for six Syrian plaintiffs seeking justice. He was in command of the Defense Brigades the country s elite commando troops in the 1980s, the group said in a statement. Under his lead, the Brigades are suspected of participating in the massacre of several thousand people in Tadmor and Hama. Following TRIAL s complaint, an investigation of Assad - the uncle of Bashar al-Assad and the younger brother of his father, Hafez Assad, Syria s former president - began in 2013, the group said. But the criminal inquiry seems to be at a standstill , the plaintiffs lawyers, led by Damien Chervaz, said in a statement. The Swiss attorney general confirmed that an investigation into war crimes was opened in December 2013 against a Syrian national who was the alleged commander of a military unit in the 1980s, but declined to confirm his identity. Its investigations were time-consuming because of the complex nature of incidents that occurred long ago in another country, the attorney general s office said in a statement. A spokeswoman said it had no further comment on any criticisms. Marc Hassberger, Geneva lawyer for Rifaat, told Radio Television Suisse (RTS) on Monday night that his client rejected the accusations. He added: Obviously one must be wary of outrageous simplifications regarding a procedure that concerns facts which may have happened several decades ago and also thousands of kilometers away from here. A former Syrian vice president who was sent into exile in the 1980s, Assad lives in France, where he was put under investigation for tax fraud and money-laundering last year. In April, Spain confiscated property he owned, as part of a investigation into alleged money-laundering. Khaled Al-Khani, a Syrian artist who said that his father was tortured and killed in the crackdown on Hama in 1982, when he was a child, is a plaintiff in the Swiss case. If justice can be rendered to victims of Srebrenica or Rwanda, one must do the same for those whom we have lost, he told Swiss television. | 0 |
Cyber War - From Trifle to Catastrophe By Ernest Partridge
November 06, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Hillary Clinton tells us that all seventeen intelligence agencies agree that the Wikileaks hack comes from the Kremlin. Those agencies proclaim this with a rock-solid conviction that I have not heard since Vice President DIck Cheney told us all that "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." Add to that, the rock-solid evidence of Saddam's treachery that Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council. The mainstream corporate media bought it whole.
However, as all know today, these were lies. Saddam had no WMDs, and there were no Iraqi chemical weapons "Winebagos of Death" vividly described by Colin Powell.
Now we are told, "with high confidence," that Vladimir Putin's Kremlin has launched a cyber attack to disrupt our presidential election. Never mind that, as MIT expert Theodore Postol has written that there is, "no technical way that the US intelligence community could know who did the hacking if it was done by sophisticated nation-state actors."
The lies that launched the disastrous Iraq war have had lasting consequences to the credibility of the United States Government. The last time that government cried "wolf," there was no wolf. Why should we believe it now?
So no, I am not convinced. There is good reason not to believe the "Kremlin hack" story.
A crucial distinction is in order: First, there is the actual content of the hacked emails. Second, there are the consequences of the general media assumption and public belief that the emails were a Kremlin plot to disrupt the presidential election.
As for the content , it was trivial and still worse, not credible. There is nothing remarkable in the disclosed content of the hacked emails. They might, if believed, cause John Podesta some embarrassment. In addition, they might reveal that the Democratic National Committee is controlled by a political elite. But we already know that.
But why should we believe any of that content? If, as claimed, the leaks came from the Kremlin, there is not, and cannot be, any authentication of the hacked emails unless the original sources (e.g, John Podesta) produce the originals. And why would they? Accordingly, the leakers (whoever they might be) are free to concoct forgeries at will. And of course, it follows that we, the intended audience, are advised to ignore all of them.
Furthermore, , why would Putin want to use these emails to "rig" our election? To tilt the election toward Trump? If that is his motive, it has backfired spectacularly. That alleged "disclosure" of the hacking has benefited Clinton far more than Trump. It is one of her favorite talking points, as we discovered in the final debate.
So we are left with two alternate conclusions: The Russian government likely had no part in the leaking. Or if they did, the leaks will have little or no effect on the election, except to provide Hillary Clinton with a talking point and to embarrass John Podesta.
In short, the Wikileaks hacks, whatever the source, appear to be a just a prank: A trifle, blown hugely out of proportion by a scandal-hungry media.
However, even though the content of the hacked emails may be trivial and not credible, the consequences of the accusation of Kremlin connivance could be catastrophic.
First of all, as we are finding out, the neo-cons and the media are using the hacks to intensify the demonization of Putin and to heat up the renewed Cold War.
Still worse, as Joe Biden stated recently on Meet the Press , the accusation that Putin is behind the hacks and their release might provoke a cyber retaliation from the United States.
A Kremlin spokesman has called Biden's threat a a "virtual American declaration of war on Russia."
If, as Biden warns, the United States retaliates, then the Russian response might, unlike the present alleged leaks, be devastating to the US economy.
Be assured that a "cyber-war" entails infinitely more than leaked emails. It might include the shutdown of the internet and emails. Also, the disruption of business and financial communications and utility grids. The world today runs on silicon and microprocessors. Imagine returning home to no electric power, phone service or access to the internet. Add to that, no restocking of the local supermarket or gas stations. And no capability of the government to make prompt repairs. The result: Total economic shutdown.
We can do this to Russia, and be assured that Russia can do this to us.
The reality of cyber attacks is no mere speculation, we have seen them at work. The Iranian nuclear weapons program was severely damaged and set back by a CIA implanted computer virus. And this past month, large regions of the United States temporarily lost internet service. The cause remains unknown.
Has Joe Biden thought through the implications of his threat? Is this the horror that Biden wants to unleash on us and the world in response to an essentially harmless prank? To what purpose? Some kind of capitulation by the Russians? No chance of that.
A far more likely result would be an escalation from cyber to military combat. And then what?
Where are the cool-headed grownups, now that we need them?
Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the field of Environmental Ethics and Public Policy. He has taught Philosophy at the University of California, and in Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin. He publishes the website, "The Online Gadfly" (www.igc.org/gadfly) and co-edits the progressive website, "The Crisis Papers" (www.crisispapers.org). His book in progress, "Conscience of a Progressive," can be seen at www.igc.org/gadfly/progressive/^toc.htm . Send comments to: [email protected] . Ernest Partridge's blog | 0 |
Remember Combetta is Hillary s Oh Sh*t IT guy:BREAKING: FEMALE LAW STUDENT Busts Hillary s Oh Sh*t IT Guy Who Was Seeking Help To Scrub Hillary s Name From Emails Wikileaks Applauds!The same day that President Barack Obama publicly insisted that he learned about Hillary Clinton s use of private email for government business from news reports, internal campaign emails show that Clinton staffers knew he wasn t telling the truth.Obama was asked by CBS in March 2015 when he learned about Clinton s use of an email system outside the U.S. government for official business as Secretary of State. The same time everybody else learned it, through news reports, he responded.In a hacked March 7, 2015 email released by WikiLeaks Tuesday, Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin highlighted Obama s comments in an email to other staffers. You probably have more on this, but it looks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news, he said.Clinton s former chief of staff at the State Department Cheryl Mills immediately followed up in a private email to campaign chairman John Podesta. We need to clean this up, she worried. He has emails from her they do not say state.gov. Read more: Mediate | 1 |
Here Are The Presstitutes Who Control American's Minds .
I just heard an NPR presstitute declare that Texas, a traditional sure thing for Republicans was up for grabs in the presidential election. Little wonder if this report on Zero Hedge is correct. Apparently, the voting machines are already at work stealing the election for Killary.
From my long experience in journalism, I know the American public is not very sharp. Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to believe that Americans, whose jobs, careers, and the same for their children and grandchildren, have been sold out by the elites who Hillary represents would actually vote for her. It makes no sense. If this were the case, how did Trump get the Republican nomination despite the vicious presstitute campaign against him?
It seems obvious that the majority of Americans who have been suffering terribly at the hands of the One Percent who own Hillary lock, stock, and barrel, will not vote for the people who have ruined their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Furthermore, if Trump's election is as impossible as the presstitutes tell us--Hillary's win is 93% certain according to the latest presstitute pronouncement--the vicious 24/7 attacks on Trump would be pointless. Wouldn't they? Why the constant, frenetic, vicious attacks on a person who has no chance? - Advertisement -
There are reports that a company associated with Hillary backer George Soros is supplying the voting machines to 16 states, including states that determine election outcomes. I do not know that these reports are correct. However, I do know for a fact that the oligarchic interests that rule America are opposed to Trump being elected President for the simple reason that they are unsure that they would be able to control him.
It is hard to believe that dispossessed Americans will vote for Hillary, the representative of those who have dispossessed them, when Trump says he will re-empower the dispossessed. Hillary has denigrated ordinary Americans who, she says, she is so removed from by her wealth that she doesn't even know who they are. Clearly, Hillary, paid $675,000 by Goldman Sachs for three 20-minute speeches, is not a representative of the people. She represents the One Percent whose policies have flushed the prospects of ordinary Americans down the toilet.
What is really disturbing is the pretense by the presstitute scum that Trump's lewd admiration for female charms is deemed more important than the prospect of nuclear war. At no time during the presidential primaries or during the current presidential campaign has it been mentioned that Russia is being assaulted daily by propaganda, threatened by military buildups, and being convinced that the United States and its European vassals are planning an attack.
A threatened Russia, made insecure by inexplicable hostility and Western propaganda, is a danger manufactured by the neoconservative supporters of Hillary Clinton.
If the American people are really so unbelievably stupid that they think lewd remarks about women are more important than avoiding nuclear war, the American people are too stupid to exist. They will deserve the mushroom clouds that will wipe them and everyone else off the face of the earth. - Advertisement -
Donald Trump is the only candidate in the primaries and the general election who has said that he sees no point in conflict with Russia when Putin has shown nothing but desire to work things out to mutual advantage.
In contrast, Hillary has declared the thrice-elected president of Russia to be "the new Hitler" and has threatened Russia with military action. Hillary talks openly about regime change in Russia.
Surely, in a free media at least one person in the print and TV media would raise this most important of all points. But where have you seen it?
Only in my columns and a few others in the alternative media. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the Senate would vote on a bill to roll back Obamacare next week and then move on to other legislative business. “We’re going to do health care next week,” McConnell told reporters after a Senate Republican luncheon, adding that he hoped to have a fresh analysis of the legislation from the Congressional Budget Office at the beginning of next week. | 1 |
If Donald Trump wants to take credit for something he actually did to the economy, now would be the time.Earlier this week, Trump threatened war against North Korea, resulting in a war of words with Kim Jong-Un and escalated threats that culminated in a Friday morning tweet from Trump.Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017The rhetorical march towards what could end up being a real nuclear war wrecked havoc on global markets, including Wall Street, as stocks plunged. In all, the economic loss added up to $1 trillion, the effects of which will likely hit households in America and around the world hard.According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,With the tense mood pushing European shares down for a third day and Wall Street set to fall again, global stocks were on course for their worst week since Donald Trump won November s U.S. presidential election. We do just not know what happens next with the North Korea situation, said BNY Mellon FX strategist Neil Mellor. For quite some time the market hasn t really reacted to things on the Korean Peninsula because we know from the past it is largely North Korean saber-rattling, and it may yet be. But with the rhetoric having gone to a different level, the market just can t afford to take that risk. Many world stock markets have hit record or multi-year highs in recent weeks, leaving them vulnerable to a sell-off, and the tensions over North Korea have proved the trigger.Indeed, Asia Pacific shares just suffered their biggest one-day loss since December. South Korea s KOSPI dropped by nearly a full two percent.In addition, Australian shares were down 1.3 percent, set for a weekly loss of 0.6 percent and Chinese and Hong Kong bluechips lost 1.6 percent and 1.9 percent respectively. What has changed this time is that the scary threats and war of words between the U.S. and North Korea have intensified to the point that markets can t ignore it, said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney, reports the Post-Dispatch.The Dow Jones has also been falling since Tuesday, the same day Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury. As of Friday, the Dow has shed 300 points.Trump often brags about the stock market even though the record growth began under President Obama. Donald Trump has not enacted a single economic policy since taking office. The stock market had continued setting records thanks to President Obama s handling of the economy and steady leadership. Trump was merely taking credit for Obama s achievement.But now the stock market is falling in America and around the world because of Trump s war rhetoric, which means this trillion dollar loss is all his fault. There is no blaming President Obama for this economic slide. Trump owns this. And more rhetoric or an attack on North Korea will just make things worse.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1 |
This is how the unions do things in America. Is this where you want your money invested? Bernie Sanders must be so happy to have endorsed #CrookedHillary It s okay to keep the money train flowing into Hillary campaign coffers, but Goldman Sachs is actually banning employees from donating to Trump? How is this legal??? Hillary Clinton is facing more and more heat for accepting $675,000 to give just three speeches to Goldman Sachs employees. What exactly is that hefty fee buying? Critics contend there is a revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, where Wall Street execs shuffle back and forth from the financial sector to key jobs working for their friends in Washington, where they are able to influence financial laws and regulations. Yet despite all the heavy criticism Wall Street has taken in recent years, Clinton still chose to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from PACs, employees, directors and their families associated with the biggest banks. The StreamJust two months after leaving the State Department, Hillary Clinton began a short but very lucrative speaking career to banks, securities firms, trade associations, and three times, Goldman Sachs.In October 2013, Hillary Clinton was paid $225,000 to speak at Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators conference, held at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain Resort in Marana, Arizona. It was structured as a conversation between Clinton and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, according to two attendees. The audience was filled with tech entrepreneurs and investors. CNN | 1 |
Dreaming Up a Reason for NATO’s Relevance November 17, 2016
European leaders still rattle their tiny sabers at Russia, but Donald Trump’s election has spread confusion across NATO nations that had dutifully climbed aboard the New Cold War express, says ex-British intelligence officer Annie Machon.
By Annie Machon
A few months ago during the seemingly endless U.S. election, Donald Trump said NATO is not a gift that America can keep giving. In his stated view , the other member states should make a greater financial contribution (the U.S. currently contributes 70 percent of NATO’s budget) and, if not, they could not expect automatic protection in the face of an attack.
On Nov. 13, after Trump’s victory, NATO Secretary General and former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg wrote a think piece in the U.K.’s Observer newspaper, and acknowledged the need for more widespread contributions while crying up the historic importance and future need for NATO by citing growing Russian “assertiveness” (diplo-speak for “aggression”) and the threat from international terrorism. NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
I was invited onto RT to analyze this and am here expanding on some of the points I made in an always-all-too-brief interview.
Stoltenberg was right to acknowledge Trump’s concerns about the contributions to NATO. But I think he was also addressing another and already-serving president somewhat closer to home – head of the European Commission and totemic Eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker – who for a while now has been plotting an integrated E uropean Union army and who ramped up the rhetoric last week after Trump’s victory. The head of NATO is naturally not going to be too happy that the E.U. is poaching on his territory as the supposed military defender of Europe.
It was also reported in The Observer that France and Germany are planning to announce the acceleration towards an E.U. army over the coming weeks. So much for European-wide consensus. It would appear that Juncker also sees this as a bargaining position in future Brexit negotiations, if Britain ever does get around to triggering Article 50 for withdrawing from the E.U. Any E.U. army would need the U.K.’s contribution – not just the armed forces, which are the second largest in the E.U., but also continued close cooperation with the intelligence agencies.
After all, if both the U.K. post-Brexit and the U.S. after the ascension of Trump become increasingly isolationist and isolated, it would be natural for the two countries to pivot towards each other to the increasing exclusion of Europe. The U.K./U.S. “special relationship” has always been heavily predicated on the uniquely close working relationship of their spies, and the E.U. will fear being left further out in the cold.
So, if Juncker carries on regardless with his vanity E.U. army project and Britain agrees to contribute post-Brexit, there may be other sweet deals to offer to the U.K. during the Brexit negotiations. At least, that seems to be the position that Juncker is oiling his way towards. But the fundamental question has to be asked: why, now, do we need either a New Model E.U. army or the cavalier NATO?
Stoltenberg tried to address this in his article: “In the last few years we have seen a dramatic deterioration of our security, with a more assertive Russia and turmoil across north Africa and the Middle East. Nato allies have responded together. We have implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the cold war. [….] This is deterrence, not aggression. […] Nato also continues to play a crucial role in the fight against terrorism. Every Nato ally is part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State.”
The Dubious Group Think
Let us unpack these comments. Firstly, is Russia indeed becoming more of a military threat, or is this just so much diplomatic grandstanding? After all, is it Russia or NATO that has been more, umm, “assertive” over the last 27 years? A map showing stages of NATO’s expansion. Dark blue showing original members; lighter blue the “round one” members; aqua the “round two” members; yellow represents neutral states; and brown and red (including Ukraine), otherwise aligned. On the map, Montenegro is one of the tiny brown spots on the eastern Adriatic.
In answer, I refer you back to an article I wrote two years ago after the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Referencing the work of former senior CIA officer and fellow Sam Adams Associate , Ray McGovern , it made clear that a deal was made between the Soviet Union of the time and the U.S. – and that, in return for the withdrawal of 260,000 Soviet troops from East Germany and the reunification of Germany, NATO would not move one inch further east than the German border.
Well, today we can see the result of these negotiations – another 12 countries, most in Eastern Europe and right up to the Russian border, have been assimilated into NATO . Recently within most of these border countries large-scale military exercises have been provocatively and publicly staged, plus missile “defen s e ” systems have been planted in the fertile paranoiac soil of an increasingly aggressive and nationalistic Poland.
Yes, Russia has in retaliation been conducting its own border exercises. The leadership has to be seen to be doing something, otherwise it will appear weak and not protecting its own people. That might be “assertive,” but it’s certainly not “aggressive.”
Nor let us forget the fact that, in 2008, NATO was warm towards the idea of Ukraine and Georgia joining, provided they could meet a few conditions. This would be taking Western forces directly into Russia’s backyard. It would be encircling Russia’s border with the rest of Europe with a new “Iron Curtain.” And I have to say that IS an aggressively political move at the very least.
How did this play out? Well, first stop for the campaign of Russian demonization was Georgia, under Western neocon puppet President Mikhail Saakashvili , invading a small and ethnically Russian segment of Georgia, South Ossetia. Russia responded by protecting the population, and then was excoriated across the Western world as conducting an unprovoked invasion of Georgia. This myth has long been exposed factually, but it is the hysterical headlines of the time that residually stick in most people’s minds.
Similarly in Ukraine. In 2014, a coup against the elected head of state , Viktor Yanukovych, apparently partly orchestrated by the U.S. as we know from an intercepted call between the Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. Interestingly, it was Yanukovych who blocked Ukraine’s accession to NATO after his election in 2010, perhaps an additional motivation for the 2014 coup.
All this laid bare the fact that the U.S. had pumped $5 billion in to subvert the Ukrainian state during the post-Soviet years and that, in the face of European concern about the worsening crisis, the U.S. pronounced – in the tender words of Victoria Nuland – “fuck the E.U.” And yet still the E.U. acquiesced to U.S.-led sanctions against Russia that have hit the E . U . economy hard .
Pot and Kettle
Despite this history of interference in the politics of other nations, the U.S. government accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. The old story of the pot and kettle springs to mind. uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo)
Add to this a probably NATO-approved strike on a Russian jet involved in the Syrian conflict earlier this year by NATO member Turkey (at the time one of the closest trading partners of Russia and which, temporarily, caused bilateral damage that has since been repaired) and the military wing of Western interests is not exactly coming up smelling of roses. (The Russian pilot bailed out but was then shot to death by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels on the ground.) Perhaps NATO was just being “assertive.”
So to Stoltenberg’s second point of justification for NATO: the success that it has had combating the threat of international terrorism. Where can I start with this? Since NATO invoked Article 5 (when one state is attacked, all must respond) in the wake of the 9/11 attacks against America , Western countries have been dragged into war after illegal war across the Middle East, central Asia and North Africa.
Let us examine the roll call of successes: Afghanistan (now largely back in the hands of Taliban warlords and supplying ever more heroin to the illegal drug trade that goes toward funding terrorist groups, including ISIS); Iraq, now a basket case and the cradle of ISIS; Libya ditto plus the drugs ; Yemeni communities being vaporized with “precision” bombs by U.S. proxy Saudi Arabia ; and the bloody catastrophe of Syria of course.
So the NATO Secretary General’s second justification of the organization’s continued existence is not exactly what one would call compelling. But I suppose he had to try, when Juncker’s threatened folie de grandeur that is the E.U. army is even less inspiring.
So, back to President-elect Donald Trump. What will he do, faced with this mess of competing Western military/security interests and Euro-bureaucrat careerists? Perhaps his U.S. isolationist position is not so mad, bad and dangerous as the wailings of the Western liberal press would have us believe?
American “exceptionalism” and NATO interventionism have not exactly benefited much of the world since the end of the Cold War. Perhaps the time has indeed come for an American Commander-in-Chief who can indeed cut deals to cut through the saber-rattling rhetoric and, even unintentionally, make a significant contribution to world peace.
Stranger things have happened. After all, outgoing President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize a mere eight months after his inauguration, more a hoped-for aspiration than a recognition of any accomplishment, and we see how that worked out.
Annie Machon is a former intelligence officer in the UK’s MI5 Security Service (the U.S. counterpart is the FBI). | 1 |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s top general said on Monday he was encouraged by contact between President Robert Mugabe and former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking two weeks ago triggered a coup. In remarks made on the state broadcaster, General Constantino Chiwenga said Mnangagwa would be back in the country soon and hold talks with Mugabe, adding that the army was confident its intervention code named Operation Restore Legacy was progressing well. | 0 |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood is gearing up for a concerted response to the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, planning a pre-Oscar rally and a political action group as the show business world moves beyond angry speeches. Talent agency WME-IMG, which represents actors, musicians, writers and sports figures, said it was forming a national political action committee (PAC). In a memo to employees on Tuesday, WME-IMG, one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, said it also planned to develop “actionable public policy solutions,” connect clients with politicians from both political parties, and support donations of time and money by employees. The memo, seen by Reuters, does not mention Trump and avoids taking a direct political stance. But it adds “this company’s greatest asset is the diversity of our backgrounds and beliefs. Please know that we will do everything in our power to support and protect this diversity now and in the months and years ahead.” United Talent Agency (UTA) on Wednesday canceled its annual Oscars party and said it will instead hold a rally in Beverly Hills two days before the Feb. 26 Oscar ceremony to protest “anti-immigrant sentiment” in the United States. “If our nation ceases to be the place where artists the world over can come to express themselves freely, then we cease, in my opinion, to be America,” UTA chief executive Jeremy Zimmer said in a statement. UTA said it will also donate $250,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Rescue Committee. The twin moves follow widespread opposition by celebrities to Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and fiery speeches at recent awards shows and rallies condemning Trump’s travel restrictions on seven predominantly Muslim nations. On Monday, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said that barriers to artistic freedom have “made Academy artists activists.” Trump’s attempts to temporarily ban travel have hit Hollywood hard ahead of the movie industry’s most prestigious night. Oscar-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and actress Taraneh Alidoosti have said they will boycott the Academy Awards to protest Trump’s actions. Syrian civilian rescue workers featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “The White Helmets,” will be unable to attend, producers said this week. UTA represents Farhadi. The agency said the Tehran-based director said he felt “honored and in tears” when he heard about the announcement. | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. His resignation, a big surprise to Beirut s political establishment, brought down the coalition government and plunged Lebanon into a new political crisis. It thrust Lebanon into the front line of a regional competition between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran that has also buffeted Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain. A Saudi government minister said Hariri was in Riyadh to ensure his safety. Hariri, who is closely allied with Saudi Arabia, alleged in a broadcast from an undisclosed location that Hezbollah was directing weapons at Yemenis, Syrians and Lebanese. In comments directed at Iran, he said the Arab world would cut off the hands that wickedly extend to it . Hariri s coalition, which took office last year, grouped nearly all of Lebanon s main parties, including Hezbollah. It took office in a political deal that made Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, president, and was seen as a victory for Iran. The resignation risks exacerbating sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shi ite Muslims and returning Lebanon to paralysis in government. An official at the U.S. State Department said it was following the situation closely and noted that Hariri had been a strong partner in building strong national state institutions and in the war on terror . The official added the United States expects an orderly political process in Lebanon and will remain supportive of the legitimate institutions of the Lebanese state . It was not immediately clear who might succeed Hariri, Lebanon s most influential Sunni politician. The prime minister must be a Sunni in Lebanon s sectarian system. Aoun must appoint the candidate with most support among MPs, who he is expected to consult in the coming days. We are living in a climate similar to the atmosphere that prevailed before the assassination of martyr Rafik al-Hariri. I have sensed what is being plotted covertly to target my life, Hariri said. Rafik al-Hariri was killed in a 2005 Beirut bomb attack that pushed his son Saad into politics and set off years of turmoil. A U.N.-backed tribunal has charged five Hezbollah members over the killing. Hezbollah denies involvement. The Saudi-owned pan-Arab television channel al-Arabiya al-Hadath reported that an assassination plot against Hariri was foiled in Beirut days ago, citing an unnamed source. Saudi Arabia s Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer al-Sabhan said in a television interview that Hariri s personal security detail had confirmed information of a plot to kill him. Lebanon s internal security force said in a statement on the reports that it had no information about the matter. Hariri said Hezbollah and Iran had brought Lebanon into the eye of a storm of international sanctions. Iran was sowing strife, destruction and ruin wherever it went and he accused it of a deep hatred for the Arab nation . Aoun s office said Hariri had called him from outside Lebanon to inform him of his resignation. He has postponed a visit to Kuwait and directed military and security agencies to maintain stability , it said. Hariri flew to Saudi Arabia on Friday after a meeting in Beirut with Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Afterwards, Velayati described Hariri s coalition as a victory and great success . Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, will address Hariri s resignation in a televised speech on Sunday, Hezbollah-affiliated media reported. A member of Hezbollah s central committee, Sheikh Nabil Kawouk, accused Riyadh of being behind Hariri s resignation, saying in a speech reported by Lebanon s al-Jadeed television: God protect Lebanon from the evil of Saudi Arabia s reckless adventures. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon s Druze minority, said Lebanon was too weak to bear the consequences of Hariri s resignation, saying he feared political and economic fallout. We cannot afford to fight the Iranians from Lebanon, he told Reuters, advocating an approach of compromise with Hezbollah in Lebanon while waiting for regional circumstances to allow Saudi-Iranian dialogue. Iran s Foreign Ministry said Hariri s departure was a plot to create tension in Lebanon and the region . Hariri s resignation was done with planning by Donald Trump, the president of America, and Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, said Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, adviser to Iran s supreme leader. Sabhan, the Saudi minister, echoed the language of the Lebanese politician saying in a tweet: The hands of treachery and aggression must be cut off. Israeli politicians also used Hariri s resignation to criticize Iranian influence in Lebanon. His words are a wake-up call to the international community to take action against Iranian aggression, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Hezbollah s close ties to Iran and its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war with rebels have been a major source of tension in Lebanon for years. Beirut has adopted a position of disassociation from the conflict, but this has come under strain with Hezbollah and its allies pushing for a normalization of ties. Since taking office, Hariri had worked to garner international aid for Lebanon to cope with the strain of hosting some 1.5 million Syrian refugees. The government s collapse complicates preparations for next year s parliamentary elections, Lebanon s first since 2009. Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil told Reuters there was no danger to Lebanon s economy or its currency. Joseph Torbey, head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, said there was no risk to monetary stability because the central bank had large reserves and there was confidence in Lebanese banks. Lebanon has one of the world s highest ratios of debt-to-GDP and last month passed its first budget since 2005, one of the few achievements of the coalition government. The United States is considering new sanctions on Hezbollah, as part of a tougher stance against Iran and its allies, that Lebanese politicians have fretted could hurt the economy. | 1 |
(CNN)The Democratic National Convention kicked off Monday without its outgoing Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, following a chaotic scene at a morning meeting where she was loudly jeered by Bernie Sanders supporters.
"I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention," Wasserman Schultz told the Sun Sentinel newspaper in an interview.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is also the Democratic National Committee's secretary, handled the gaveling instead.
"Delegates, alternatives, standing committee members and all of our honored Democrats and other guests here in Philadelphia and all of you who have joined us by television, radio and online, here in the United States and around the world," she said, "I hereby call the 47th quadrennial Democratic National Convention to order."
From Russia without love? DNC hack roils Philly
Wasserman Schultz will also not speak tonight or throughout the duration of the convention, a Democrat close to her says. She will remain in Philadelphia until Friday when she formally steps down as leader of the committee.
Wasserman Schultz changed her plans as the fallout deepened from leaked DNC emails that appeared to show the committee favoring presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Sanders during the primary. It became clear Monday that the convention floor could erupt in anger if she gaveled the convention into session or sought to speak.
And the Democratic National Committee issued an apology to Sanders moments after the convention opened, likely hoping to help soothe tensions heading into the week.
"On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Sen. Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email," the statement said. "These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process. The DNC does not -- and will not -- tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates. Individual staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again."
The morning Florida delegate meeting descended into chaos when Wasserman Schultz took the stage, with critics holding up signs with the word "emails," and Sanders supporters booing the congresswoman loudly, even after she began speaking.
"We have to make sure that we move forward together in a unified way," Wasserman Schultz said during brief remarks. "We know that the voices in this room that are standing up and being disruptive, we know that is not the Florida that we know. The Florida that we know is going to make sure that we continue to make jobs."
The audience was roughly half supportive of Wasserman Schultz and half detractors, though the angry participants were louder than the other half. Those attendees began to chant, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" while Wasserman Schultz was speaking.
Sanders tried to quell some of his dissatisfied supporters at a rally before his expected speech Monday.
"We have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine," Sanders said, which prompted some attendees to shout him down.
Sanders booed after voicing support for Clinton
Sanders booed after voicing support for Clinton 01:18
Alternate plans
Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she is stepping down as chairwoman of the DNC at the end of the party's convention. The drama reinforced concerns about Democratic party unity.
Former Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver tried to show a unified Democratic Party on Monday, the morning after Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation.
"This happened, we knew it happened then, now is the time to go forward,' Weaver told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" on Monday. "Now is the time to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump."
Wasserman Schultz talked with both President Barack Obama and Clinton before making announcing her upcoming resignation, a Democratic source said.
"Going forward, the best way for me to accomplish those goals [which include electing Clinton president] is to step down as Party Chair at the end of this convention," Wasserman Schultz said in the statement.
"As party chair, this week I will open and close the Convention and I will address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans," she said.
Sanders campaign manager: We must elect Clinton
Sanders campaign manager: We must elect Clinton 00:56
DNC Vice Chairwoman Donna Brazile will serve as interim chair through the election. She had been a CNN political commentator, but CNN and Brazile have mutually agreed to suspend their contract, effective immediately, although she will remain on air during the convention week in an unpaid capacity, CNN said. CNN will revisit the contract once Brazile concludes her role.
Separately, a Democratic operative said Hispanic leaders close to Clinton and her high command were discussing Housing Secretary Julian Castro as a possible successor to Wasserman Schultz at the DNC helm, among a number of other candidates whose name are being mentioned.
Chants of "Debbie is done!" and "Debbie resigned!" broke out at a pro-Sanders rally Sunday in Philadelphia after the news was announced.
Party officials decided Saturday that Wasserman Schultz would not have a major speaking role or preside over daily convention proceedings this week. The DNC Rules Committee has named Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, as permanent chair of the convention, according to a DNC source. She will gavel each session to order and will gavel each session closed.
"She's been quarantined," another top Democrat said of Wasserman Schultz, following a meeting Saturday night but before her announcement that she was leaving.
Both sides of the aisle react
Obama issued a statement, saying, "For the last eight years, Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has had my back. This afternoon, I called her to let her know that I am grateful."
And Clinton thanked Wasserman Schultz for her leadership of the party.
"I am grateful to Debbie for getting the Democratic Party to this year's historic convention in Philadelphia, and I know that this week's events will be a success thanks to her hard work and leadership," Clinton said.
After slamming Wasserman Schultz as "highly overrated," Trump, speaking at a rally in Roanoke, Virginia, knocked Clinton for being disloyal to the soon-to-be former DNC chair.
"How about that for disloyalty in terms of Hillary Clinton. Because Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been so much for Hillary Clinton," Trump said. "These politicians. There's no loyalty there. No loyalty. None whatsoever."
"It gets a little heat and they fire her," Trump said. "Debbie was totally loyal to Hillary and Hillary threw her under a bus and it didn't take more than five minutes to make that decision."
Wasserman's Republican counterpart, Reince Priebus, said, "I think the day's events show really the uphill climb Democrats face this week."
"The extreme left will not be satisfied by one person's resignation," the Republican party national chairman added.
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Clinton should follow Wasserman Schultz out the door.
"Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned over her failure to secure the DNC's email servers and the rigged system she set up with the Clinton campaign," he said in a statement. "Now Hillary Clinton should follow Wasserman Schultz's lead and drop out over her failure to safeguard top secret, classified information both on her unauthorized home server and while traveling abroad."
DNC hack: What you need to know
Weaver called Wasserman Schultz's departure a win on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Sunday.
"I think what the signal was today is that the voices of Bernie Sanders supporters have been heard," he said. "And other people, frankly, in the party, Hillary Clinton supporters, who felt this was the last straw, that she had to go, and this shows they have been heard and gives us opportunity to move forward toward November -- united to deal with the problem of Donald Trump."
Wasserman Schultz's stewardship of the DNC has been under fire through most of the presidential primary process, but her removal from the convention stage comes following the release of nearly 20,000 emails.
One email appears to show DNC staffers asking how they can reference Sanders' faith to weaken him in the eyes of Southern voters. Another seems to depict an attorney advising the committee on how to defend Clinton against an accusation by the Sanders campaign of not living up to a joint fundraising agreement.
Sanders: No question DNC was supporting Hillary Clinton
Sanders: No question DNC was supporting Hillary Clinton 02:08
Before the announcement, Sanders on Sunday told Tapper the release of the DNC emails that show its staffers working against him underscores the position he's held for months: Wasserman Schultz needs to go.
"I don't think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC, not only for these awful emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don't think her leadership style is doing that," Sanders told Tapper on "State of the Union," on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
"I am not an atheist," he said. "But aside from all of that, it is an outrage and sad that you would have people in important positions in the DNC trying to undermine my campaign. It goes without saying: The function of the DNC is to represent all of the candidates -- to be fair and even-minded."
He added: "But again, we discussed this many, many months ago, on this show, so what is revealed now is not a shock to me." | 0 |
Glenn Beck has just proven once again, (to anyone who still gives a darn about what he has to say) how little he cares about shaking things up in DC and in doing so, has proven how irrelevant he really is to conservatives who used to believe in him. From Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, who was also a close friend of Andrew Breitbart: It s only a matter of days now before Glenn Beck announces his allegiance to the Democrat Party, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.He has allowed his hatred and pride to consume him.And now that Donald Trump won the election he is doing all he can to make sure Trump fails. Wow.On Monday Glenn Beck said Steve Bannon has ties to white nationalists. This is a complete lie. Check out this Dec. 12, 2011 interview with Andrew Breitbart where he exposes Glenn Beck as a race-baiter, a liar and a coward :Andrew Breitbart exposed USDA S Shirley Sherrod after she made extremely racist comments, bragging about how she used her power as a government official to discriminate against a white farmer in a room packed with blacks. The controversy was real, but the mainstream media and Glenn Beck, who we believe has always been jealous of Andrew Breitbart s ability to with connect with conservatives and more specifically, the Tea Party tried to destroy Andrew over this video. Watch:Watch Andrew Breitbart destroy Glenn Beck here: | 0 |
Posted on October 31, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News , US // 4 Comments
An FBI source has confirmed that evidence has emerged from the Clinton email investigation that a massive child trafficking and pedophile sex ring operates in Washington.
According to reports , at least 6 members of Congress and several leaders from federal agencies are implicated in the pedophile ring, which they say was run directly with the Clinton Foundation as a front.
According to an NYPD source, emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop detail trips made by Weiner, Bill and Hillary Clinton on convicted pedophile pal billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s plane ‘ Lolitta express ‘ to a place known as “ Sex Slave Island “. Will this be the fatal shot? NYPD talking about Child Porn ring involvement. This is NOT confirmed, but would gut Dems. #GoHillary #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ke8YTz4DMh RELATED CONTENT | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Backers of a U.S.-Russian plan to build nuclear reactors across the Middle East bragged after the U.S. election they had backing from Donald Trump s national security adviser Michael Flynn for a project that required lifting sanctions on Russia, documents reviewed by Reuters show. The documents, which have not previously been made public, reveal new aspects of the plan, including the proposed involvement of a Russian company currently under U.S. sanctions to manufacture nuclear equipment. That company, major engineering and construction firm OMZ OAO, declined to comment. The documents do not show whether Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, took concrete steps to push the proposal with Trump and his aides. But they do show that Washington-based nuclear power consultancy ACU Strategic Partners believed that both Flynn, who had worked as an adviser to the firm as late as mid-2016, and Trump were firmly in its corner. Donald Trump s election as president is a game changer because Trump s highest foreign policy priority is to stabilize U.S. relations with Russia which are now at a historical low-point, ACU s managing director, Alex Copson, wrote in a Nov. 16, 2016 email to potential business partners, eight days after the election. White House officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. ACU declined comment and also declined to make Copson available for an interview. Previously they told a congressional committee that they had not had any dealings with Flynn since May 2016, before Trump became the Republican Party s presidential candidate. Flynn s lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not respond to a request for comment. Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about a discussion with the former Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, in late December 2016 regarding sanctions. The documents also show that ACU proposed ending Ukraine s opposition to lifting sanctions on Russia by giving a Ukrainian company a $45 billion contract to provide turbine generators for reactors to be built in Saudi Arabia and other Mideast nations. The contract to state-owned Turboatom, and loans to Ukraine from Gulf Arab states, would require Ukraine to support lifting US and EU sanctions on Russia, Copson wrote in the Nov. 16 email. A Turboatom spokeswoman said she did not have an immediate comment on the matter. The email was titled TRUMP/PUTIN ME Marshall plan CONCEPT. ME stands for Middle East. The title, evoking the post-World War Two plan to rebuild Western European economies, reflected the hopes of the plan s backers that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could cooperate on a project that would boost Middle East economies. The email can be seen here: tmsnrt.rs/2ALdoCY The ACU documents reviewed by Reuters include emails, business presentations and financial estimates and date from late autumn 2016. As part of their investigation into the Trump election campaign s ties to Russia, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Democrats on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee are probing whether Flynn promoted the Middle East nuclear power project as national security adviser in Trump s White House. Flynn resigned after just 24 days as national security adviser after it became known he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence by telling him he had not discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak in late December. In response to questions about the emails and documents, ACU referred Reuters to letters written in June and September by ACU scientist Thomas Cochran to the House Oversight Committee. In those letters, Cochran had laid out the project s strategy, describing a ready-to-go consortium that included French, Russian, Israeli and Ukrainian interests, without naming specific companies. Representative Elijah Cummings, the committee s top Democrat, said the panel s Republican chairman, Trey Gowdy, has for months rejected Democrats requests to ask the White House for documents pertaining to the ACU proposal. Gowdy has blocked all efforts to allow committee members to vote on issuing subpoenas, Cummings told Reuters. Gowdy did not respond to requests for comment. The ACU s nuclear reactor plan aimed to provide Washington s Middle East allies with nuclear power in a way that didn t risk nuclear weapons proliferation and also helped counter Iranian influence, improve dismal U.S.-Russian relations, and revive the moribund U.S. nuclear industry, according to the documents seen by Reuters. The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post reported this week that Flynn pushed a version of the nuclear project within the White House by instructing his staff to rework a memo written by a former business associate into policy for Trump to sign. Two U.S. officials familiar with the issue told Reuters the policy document Flynn prepared for Trump s approval proposed working with Russia on a nuclear reactor project but did not specifically mention ACU. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they did not know if Trump had read the memo or acted upon it. On Nov. 18, 2016, 10 days after Trump won the presidential election, ACU s Copson received an email from nuclear non-proliferation expert Reuben Sorensen saying that he had updated Flynn on the nuclear project s status. Sorensen s role in the project was not clear from the emails. Flynn is getting closer to (being named) National Security Advisor. Expect an announcement soon. This is a big win for the ACU project, Sorensen wrote. Spoke with him via backchannels earlier this week. He has always believed in the vision of the ACU effort ... We need to let him get settled into the new position, but update him shortly thereafter, Sorensen added. The email can be seen here: tmsnrt.rs/2zTqxcZ Reuters could not independently confirm a briefing took place. Sorensen did not reply to an email seeking comment. On Nov. 30, 2016, Copson briefed U.S. Representative Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on the nuclear project, an email shows. Copson was joined by Jim Hamel, a senior official from Curtiss-Wright Corp., which has a nuclear division based in Royce s California district and was eager for a role in the multi-billion dollar project. In a follow-up email on Dec. 5 to a Royce aide, Hamel wrote, We hope that the Chairman will follow-up on Alex s suggestion to reach out to General Flynn to discuss the project. Royce s spokesman, Cory Fritz, confirmed the briefing to Reuters. No action was ever taken by the chairman or the committee, he said in an email. Hamel and Curtiss-Wright declined to comment. Flynn was an adviser to ACU from April 2015 to June 2016, according to amended financial disclosure forms he filed in August 2017 to the Office of Government Ethics. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say that when Flynn applied last year to renew his government security clearance, he failed to disclose a June 2015 trip he made to Egypt and Israel to promote the reactor project. Flynn has not commented on the trips. | 0 |
Support Us Braless Jourdan Dunn flaunt their supermodel figures in racy see-through dresses | 1 |
A Navy SEAL Carl Higbie was blasted and screeched at by a CNN anchor who was shocked that Higbie asked for more evidence and truth in the Trump controversy. Yikes! She s got snowflake written all over her. It s just how the left rolls you have to march in lock-step with what they believe to be true even if it s not true. Just go with it, right? We say NOT RIGHT!Shouldn t we ask that sources be exposed? Anyone can say they know the truth but when they hide behind anonymity, they ruin their credibility. The left just expects everyone to believe the many lies they ve been telling about President Trump. We re with Carl! We re not accepting any stories against Trump until we have proof and know the source.This woman needs to seek help! | 1 |
(Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Friday that the federal government would provide more funding for Puerto Rico’s long-term rebuilding, although he did not say when that funding would be approved. “This isn’t the last aid package. This is the second in more to come,” Ryan told reporters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, adding later, “When we get that final analysis, the administration will submit yet again to Congress a request for another aid package to respond to these longer-term problems.” On Thursday, the House approved $36.5 billion in emergency relief for Puerto Rico and other areas hit by recent disasters. Senate approval is expected in coming weeks. | 0 |
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines vigorously defended its human rights record on Friday, accusing the West of bias, hypocrisy and interference after 39 mostly European nations expressed concern about thousands of killings during Manila s ferocious war on drugs. More than 3,800 Filipinos have been killed by police in anti-drug operations since President Rodrigo Duterte came to office 15 months ago and launched what he promised would be a brutal and bloody crackdown on drugs and crime. Human rights groups say the figure is significantly higher and accuse police of carrying out executions disguised as sting operations, and of colluding with hit men to assassinate drug users. The authorities strenuously reject those claims and Duterte insists he has never incited police to commit murder, despite his frequent and animated speeches about killing drug dealers. During the periodic review on Thursday at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, 38 countries backed a statement by Iceland urging the Philippines to take all necessary measures to bring these killings to an end . The signatories were mostly European countries as well as Australia, the United States and Canada. Filipino diplomats in Geneva called it a sweeping and politicized statement, adding the country was willing to accept international help, but would not be lectured. Unfortunately, it still appears that some parties refuse to understand certain aspects of our human rights efforts, Evan Garcia, head of the Philippine mission, in a statement issued by the foreign ministry on Friday. There is no culture of impunity in the Philippines. His deputy Maria Teresa Almojuela also weighed in by criticizing Western countries that allowed abortion, manufactured and sold arms and, she said, were a source of private militias for wars. It is ironic that many states joining the statement are the very same states that are the sources of arms, bombs, machines and mercenaries that maim, kill and massacre thousands of people all over the world, not only during their colonial past, but even up to today, she said. In Washington, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the Iceland-led statement was based on biased and questionable information . Instead of engaging us constructively, some western countries would rather criticize and impose conditions as if they can do a better job than the Philippine government in protecting the Filipino people, he said. Opinion polls show Filipinos are largely supportive of the war on drugs as an antidote to crime the government says is fueled by narcotics. The latest survey by Social Weather Stations, however, suggests that Filipinos are not convinced of the validity of official police accounts of the killings, with about half of 1,200 people polled doubtful that victims were involved in drugs, or had violently resisted arrest as police maintain. John Fisher, Human Rights Watch director in Geneva, said the UNHRC should do more to stop the Philippine killing, now that there was a growing chorus of condemnation of Duterte s signature campaign. | 1 |
Saker Message: No current Saker messages. TV channel “Zvezda” posted a footage of SU-33 and MiG-29KUB landings and takeoffs from the aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” 102 Views November 03, 2016 No Comments Watch List Scott
The Su-33 is a single-seat ship-based STOBAR fighter, with upward folding wings and horizontal tail surfaces (for hangar storage); it is equipped with probe-and-drogue flight refuelling capability. The Su-33 is designed for defence of naval ships from aerial threats.
Both the MiG-29K (single seat) and MiG-29KUB (double seat) aircraft are the “4++” generation multi-role fighters intended for air-defense missions of naval forces, air superiority gaining, sea & ground targets destruction with the high precision guided weapons day and night and in any weather conditions.
The MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters are the basic aircraft of a new unified family including also the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35/MiG-35D aircraft.
The MiG-29K/KUB aircraft are based on the aircraft-carriers with tonnage from 28,000 tons, equipped with take-off ramp and landing arrestor, as well as at the airfields.
Main technical and technological innovations, applied on the MiG-29K/KUB fighters are the following:
– improved airframe with about 15% composite materials application;
– folding wing with upgraded high-lift devices improving take-off/landing performance;
– fly-by-wire control system with quadruple redundancy;
– significantly reduced signature in radar range;
– increased weapons load, stored at eight external hard points;
– increased internal fuel capacity and in-flight refueling possibility;
– possibility of other aircraft refueling being equipped with “PAZ-1MK” refueling unit. The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95 Be the First to Comment! Leave a Reply Click here to get more info on formatting (1) Leave the name field empty if you want to post as Anonymous. It's preferable that you choose a name so it becomes clear who said what. E-mail address is not mandatory either. The website automatically checks for spam. Please refer to our moderation policies for more details. We check to make sure that no comment is mistakenly marked as spam. This takes time and effort, so please be patient until your comment appears. Thanks. (2) 10 replies to a comment are the maximum. (3) Here are formating examples which you can use in your writing:<b>bold text</b> results in bold text <i>italic text</i> results in italic text (You can also combine two formating tags with each other, for example to get bold-italic text.)<em>emphasized text</em> results in emphasized text <strong>strong text</strong> results in strong text <q>a quote text</q> results in a quote text (quotation marks are added automatically) <cite>a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited</cite> results in: a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited <blockquote>a heavier version of quoting a block of text...</blockquote> results in: a heavier version of quoting a block of text that can span several lines. Use these possibilities appropriately. They are meant to help you create and follow the discussions in a better way. They can assist in grasping the content value of a comment more quickly. and last but not least:<a href=''http://link-address.com''>Name of your link</a> results in Name of your link (4) No need to use this special character in between paragraphs: ; You do not need it anymore. Just write as you like and your paragraphs will be separated. The "Live Preview" appears automatically when you start typing below the text area and it will show you how your comment will look like before you send it. (5) If you now think that this is too confusing then just ignore the code above and write as you like. Search articles | 1 |
The List Of Establishment Republicans That Say They Are Voting For Hillary Clinton Is Staggering By Michael Snyder, on August 1st, 2016
Who would have ever believed that so many big names in the Republican Party would publicly pledge to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election? All throughout the primaries and the caucuses, the Republican establishment expressed tremendous disdain for Donald Trump, but they were unable to derail his march to the nomination. Now that we have reached the general election, some of the biggest names in the GOP are actually taking the unprecedented step of crossing over to the other side and are publicly announcing their support for Hillary Clinton. This shows that many of these individuals were only “Republicans in name only” to begin with, and it also demonstrates the lengths that the elite are willing to go to in order to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
One of the latest big Republican names to publicly support Hillary Clinton is Sally Bradshaw. CNN is describing her as “Jeb Bush’s top adviser”, and she has gone so far as to completely remove herself from the Republican Party because of Donald Trump…
Jeb Bush’s top adviser, Sally Bradshaw, has left the Republican Party to become an independent, and says if the presidential race in Florida is close, she’ll vote for Hillary Clinton.
Bradshaw, who’s been close to the former Florida governor for decades and was senior adviser to his 2016 campaign, officially switched her registration to unaffiliated. She told CNN’s Jamie Gangel in an email interview that the GOP is “at a crossroads and have nominated a total narcissist — a misogynist — a bigot.”
“This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties. Donald Trump cannot be elected president,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw has been working for the Bushes ever since the 1988 presidential campaign, and she never would have made such a bold move without the approval of the Bushes.
Needless to say, the Bushes absolutely hate Trump, and they have a vested interest in seeing him lose the election. There are some that believe that Jeb Bush is already lining up for another run in 2020, and Donald Trump has to lose in order for that to be possible.
In addition to Sally Bradshaw, another prominent friend of the Bush family has also recently announced that he is going to be voting for Hillary Clinton. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was at the center of the storm during the financial crisis of 2008, and not too long ago he announced his intentions in the Washington Post …
“ When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump ,” Paulson wrote in The Washington Post last week . “I will not cast a write-in vote. I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton , with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone.”
Does Henry Paulson actually believe that Hillary Clinton can “bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world”?
I find that difficult to believe.
But apparently he intends to try to persuade as many of his fellow Republicans as possible to vote for Hillary Clinton, and a whole bunch of other establishment Republicans have already lined up behind her.
These are just some of the big Republican names that the Washington Post says have already committed to voting for Hillary Clinton…
Richard Armitage , deputy secretary of state and adviser to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush
Brent Scowcroft , chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and adviser to three previous GOP presidents
Alan Steinberg , regional EPA administrator
Kori Schake , National Security Council and State Department aide
Doug Elmets , former Reagan spokesman
Jim Cicconi , former Reagan and George H.W. Bush aide
Charles Fried , former U.S. solicitor general under Reagan
Robert Kagan , a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, former Reagan State Department aide and adviser to the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney
Max Boot , senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and adviser to GOP presidential candidates
Peter Mansoor , retired Army colonel and former aide to David Petraeus
Larry Pressler , former three-term Republican senator from South Dakota
Arne Carlson , a former two-term Republican governor of Minnesota
Robert Smith , former judge on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals
Mark Salter , former top adviser to John McCain
Mike Treiser , former Mitt Romney aide
Ben Howe , editor at RedState.com
As I have said all along, the establishment will do whatever it has to do to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
If that means voting for Hillary Clinton and encouraging others to do the same, that is precisely what they are going to do.
And if more insidious means are necessary, the establishment definitely has plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Politics in America is a very, very dirty game, and if you have ever been deep inside a national campaign you know exactly what I am talking about.
At this point, even Donald Trump is raising concerns about the integrity of the upcoming election. On Monday, he told a rally in Ohio that he is “afraid the election is going to be rigged” …
Donald Trump said he’s afraid the general election in November will be rigged, but didn’t elaborate on the comment at a rally in Ohio Monday afternoon.
“ I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest ,” the Republican nominee for president said, in remarks that did not mention the controversy generated by his comments about the parents of a slain U.S. soldier.
In my opinion, Donald Trump has legitimate reasons to be concerned. We have already seen the elite spend millions upon millions of dollars to try to defeat him, and virtually all of the big money on Wall Street is lining up behind his opponent. Many patriotic, conservative and faith-oriented Americans are really hoping that Trump can win and move this nation in a positive direction, but the truth is that he is facing overwhelming odds.
Ultimately, it is probably not going to matter too much who wins this election, because America is on the verge of a time of chaos unlike anything we have ever seen before. No matter who the next president is, we are going to see civil unrest, rising crime, political scandals, governmental shaking, major economic and financial problems, and geopolitical events will continue to spiral out of control.
And the establishment is going to do everything it possibly can to make sure that the next president is not Donald Trump. If you go to just about any major news website on the Internet these days, there will be a negative story about Donald Trump featured very prominently, and it is usually accompanied by some sort of positive story about Hillary Clinton.
In the end, one of the biggest stories that will come out of the 2016 election will be the fact that the American people got to see how far the elite are willing to go to keep someone that is not “in the club” from becoming president.
The establishment absolutely loathes Trump, and they are willing to move heaven and earth to try to stop him.
Hold on tight, because the next three months are going to be very, very interesting.
It is nice to see people are standing behind the candidate that won. Not!
I am not surprised. Liars, Liars, Pants on fire.
Everyone of them probably pledged to support the candidate that got the nomination. Now they are going against him because he is so crude? You renege on your word and you are nothing. Because your word is like a contract. No one wants to deal with liars. Hilliary also has a reputation and it isn’t good about lying. I suggest that is what will make or break the candidate going for election. Whether or not they are publicly lying or not. Tatiana Covington
They’re scared to death! greanfinisher .
I really don’t blame them as he gives me the creeps too. P>Hopkins
Why? greanfinisher .
The man is unstable, unpredictable and impresses me as being an immature delinquent inside a man’s body. Imagine imploring the Russians to divulge whatever information that they gathered concerning the Clinton e-mails. Even before that, there was the episode in which his campaign manager man- handled a female reporter, and left gouge marks in her arm. Even during his rants and raves, he succeeded in not only alienating the women, but the minorities as well. It’s no small wonder then why the GOP is simply tossing the man overboard, and throwing their weight behind the ol’ bag. P>Hopkins
So you are a shrill for the drive-by media and willfully regurgitate their talking points with no regard for facts. Got it. If my brain worked like yours, I’d be anti-Trump too. Thankfully, it doesn’t greanfinisher .
I’m not sure that I would trust Donald Trump with the nation’s nuclear codes, and that’s partly what would give me the shivers. P>Hopkins
No patriot could vote for an anti-American candidate like Hillary. But whatever dude. greanfinisher .
I didn’t imply that I would vote for the gun confiscatin’ hag. Do you think that I’m that stupid? Janet Hall
you want more war then vote for Hillary Mad Dawgg
But you would trust Hillary who couldn’t even save our representatives in Benghazi? I would vote for Mickey Mouse before her. greanfinisher .
I wouldn’t that gun confiscatin’ racketeer for nothing. GV
if you want more war then vote for Hillary Guest’s the Name
If anyone has regard for facts, then they simply cannot vote pro-Trump. Clinton is no prize by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s light years ahead of Donald when it comes to honesty… and YES, I realize that she’s seen as the ultimate liar. But Donald has consistently lied so, so very much more. And he’s made a name in politics solely by taunting and bullying.
I tried so hard to stay with him, to vote party line rather than personality, but the whole juvenile “Little Marco” garbage was just unacceptable, and he’s only become more and more childish and bratty since then. You don’t reward bratty, childish, talentless hacks by voting for them, even IF they claim to be the party you’ve supported your whole life. P>Hopkins
Party is irrelevant. You are seriously comfortable with Hillary putting up to 5 people on the SCOTUS? And if you honestly believe that Hillary is more honest than Trump, then you need an intervention to stop your addiction to the crack sold by the media and the left. Because you are obviously smoking it. All of that being said, you are one of those people that will believe what you want to believe regardless of any facts that could be presented. Its a shame that Americans have become so brain dead. GV
how many people has Trump murdered?
how many people has Hillary the war criminal murdered? Janet Hall
Well, your reply to Mr groanfisher was far more polite than mine. We’ll stick with yours. Well said. loadnup
You won’t accept this but the gop is tossing him because he will disrupt their gravy train and the truth is his “rants and raves” are pointing out what the hitlery has done, is capable of and will do if elected. I love the article I read where President Trump said she even lies when she lies… pray, prep and protect. greanfinisher .
They’re tossing him primarily because the man simply will not work with anyone, and certainly not with Congress. iris
There are so few in Congress who have enough spine to merit being worked with at all. Maybe he would shake them away from their country clubs for an afternoon or two. iris
What’s outrageously funny, is that the crud the establishment GOP has been pulling for decades, while systematically selling out their constituency and what Republicans are supposed to stand for, is, that’s what drove folks to Trump in the first place, and now, they think people are that gullible to buy more of the same, with their MSM smear tactics. Every time they pay (heck, maybe they don’t pay a dime) for some tabloid-looking ad against Trump, it confirms what has been going on for far too long, and strengthens the resolve of his supporters. Guest’s the Name
The veterans are also abandoning him.
He blatantly lied about donating huge sums of $$ to them, he has repeatedly insulted the service of many veterans (including John McCain, who is too kind and good to even denounce that awful Trump).
There is only one demographic in favor of Donald, the angry, uneducated white man. greanfinisher .
Those in the oligarchy typically donate nothing destined for the public good. Rather, virtually all of them have set up the so-called ‘foundations’ which are used primarily for money laundering and tax avoidance purposes. The Clinton Foundation is a prime example of such. Yes, all of these foundations are required by law to donate a certain percentage to charity, but it’s paltry compared to the disproportionate monetary gains involved. Even worse, the donations are mostly directed towards .operas, art museums, symphonies, and theaters – where they spend their leisure time fraternizing with other wealthy benefactors. In addition, some donations are routed towards elite prep schools and Ivy League universities (such as Yale, Princeton, Harvard) which do not have a reputation for educating poor young people. Whatever amount of sugar coating that may be applied, those are obviously not charities as most people understand the term. iris
I disagree. He wouldn’t be my first choice, but I’m fairly educated and know plenty of other educated people, who don’t want another blatantly liberal politician in the office. At least there’s a possibility that Trump won’t further what’s been destroying our country for decades, literally. 58 million innocent citizens, is one good example. iris
Well, they have a much better chance at fair treatment from him than her. Dems are most often the party which gets us into war, and the party which strengthens, respects and provides for the military, has been the Republicans. Tobby99
You are right. Bush was a Democrat. Muhahahahahahahaha. P>Hopkins
McCain is an establishment RINO. THAT’S why he is opposed to Trump. The veterans and active duty people are not abandoning him at all. Don’t use McCain as the standard-bearer for veterans. And I find it real funny when people like you parrot what the left wing media and eRINOs say about Trump supporters. I have news for you…education doesn’t mean a damn thing when its indoctrination GV
insane McCain GV
“…Imagine imploring the Russians to divulge whatever information that they presumably gathered from the Clinton e-mails….”
you mean the 30,000 emails Hillary deleted because they were evidence of her crimes?
don’t worry, LOTS of countries have copies of the emails of the unindicted criminal UncleMike Davis
And Donald J Trump has driven them all out of their dens, their lairs, caves, holes, from under rocks, and exposed the corrupt establishment to all Americans, all the world; those with eyes wide open. It seems their end is near, as both corrupt establishment parties self-destruct, dragging down the New World Order, Babylon the Great of Revelation 18, the Rothschilds with all their demons, into their well deserved end.
Thank you Donald J Trump. May Almighty GOD, the Lord JESUS Christ, bless you and your family, and bless your intentions to Make America Great Again. greanfinisher .
I figured some time ago that the Republican hierarchy was going to desert Trump while supporting Clinton. Heck, some prominent Republican figures are even actively campaigning for the gun confiscatin’ witch. I’ll have to readily admit that Trump scares me too as he seems to be a loose cannon. loadnup
Not to even mention her promise to significantly increase taxes… yep, it’s gonna be an interesting time we worthless eaters are heading into… pray, prep and protect. winrob
Oriental “blessing” (?): May you live in interesting times. greanfinisher .
Don’t you think I know that? With the reign of terror that the gun confiscatin’ witch is almost certainly going to brew up, it’ll even make the Obama tyranny look good. stop Hitlery
Here’s how the gun confiscation will probably go: People keep expecting the gun confiscation to be an above board program where police go door to door removing guns from homes. They think martial law will be announced on the evening news with troops rolling into town and setting up on street corners. Those days are long gone and they just don’t work that way anymore. When it happens (as in NOW) it will be low profile, subtle and in stages to avoid the backlash (which everyone is waiting to see overt evidence before they fight back). Martial law won’t be declared but will be activated, most likely under an innocent sounding name. Evacuating people to “shelters” will be the ruse to imprisoning the masses. Gun confiscation will be silent and also under the guise of something else but the unstated purpose will be gun confiscation. That’s how they operate which is why they can say things like “Nobody said they want to round up ALL the guns (sure they will leave us with a few .22 cal rifles)”. Mass vaccinations would be a good one or an outbreak where large numbers of people will have to be quarantined. They definitely will not be doing things like this in a way that would trigger a mass response so you can forget waiting for them to signal the roundup is about to begin. greanfinisher .
Obviously the gun confiscatin’ cronies are beginning the ruse now. At the moment, those on the ‘proposed’ ineligibility list for firearms are those with troubled dating, family problems, those on any prescription, veterans, Social Security recipients, those on the so-called ‘terror list’ (that should cover a cool 100 million people—-or more), those suffering depression (and whatever else they can dream up), etc.etc.etc. Guest’s the Name
Hey, this site doesn’t believe in psychic visions. Unless you have any intelligence to back up your scary little predictions, go peddle it on the astrology websites. GV
says the Hillary troll AmberRheum
They’ll condition obtaining healthcare coverage on the handover of weapons, because, y’see, gun possession is a health “risk factor” for you and your family. Besides, it’s an indicator of mental-health issues, isn’t it? And healthcare coverage is now mandatory! Instead of resistance, many gun owners will hurry to the buyback centers. UncleMike Davis
Trump has not alienated one single intelligent patriotic woman that I am aware of; certainly not in my family. Those women “alienated”are feminist progressive communists already in the Hillary camp, and would never switch from evil for any reason.
There are a lot of women posting on the Trump pages that see right through the propaganda; actually a lot on the Hillary pages too. greanfinisher .
I think that he may have alienated some women today at a campaign rally in Virginia when he told one woman to take her crying baby out. Guest’s the Name
No, he has indeed alienated many such women. The Republican party used to BE the party of family, home, and peacefulness — i.e., a woman’s ideal political party.
But the Alt-Right has taken over it, and popularized Donald, the vile, foulmouthed, anti-woman, pervert who fondles his daughter in a way I would throw some guy out my window if he touched MY daughter in such a way. He’s a class A moron (without any class). HE has voted Democrat more times than anyone on this site! HE is still a Democrat, whereas Clinton’s biggest Dem detractors are caller HER a NeoConservative because of her seemingly right-leaning agendas for the last couple decades. GV
how many immoral wars has Hillary advocated for?
Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, etc. K
No surprise here. I have been saying for a long time, no real difference between the parties. These people are corrupt individuals, and always prefer the status quo. They have become rich off the schemes, and manipulations. So no question the corruption will continue under Hillary. Thus their support. People like this would support Hitler, as long as the pay was good. Oh, forgot Prescott Bush, did actually support Hitler. Money is all that matters to them. jaxon64
Hillary is the ultimate wall street/ military industrial complex, establishment candidate. You really can’t get more establishment than Hillary. As a side note–ANY and EVERY Sanders supporter who supports Hillary is the ultimate hypocrite–no excuses accepted. Guest’s the Name
No, all Sanders’ supporters from the start lived and breathed the platform of “Anyone But Trump”, so it’s no wonder that nearly 90% of his supporters have publicly pledged all support to HRC.
All that they care about now is keeping the lying, cheating, orange buffoon OUT of the White House. Heck, when even ESTABLISHMENT GOPers are publicly denouncing the GOP candidate, you gotta know your GOP candidate blows. GV
“…so it’s no wonder that nearly 90% of his supporters have publicly pledged all support to HRC…..”
r ght krinks
With every passing day I come more and more to the conclusion that the Republican Party is and always has been the party of the rich. I always thought this notion was FDR propaganda, until now. Only the Rich are upset at Donald who will deport their cheap labor and tax their cheap products made with third world slaves.
Don’t worry though. In order for The Donald to win it will take a public not susceptible to the avalanche of Donald Hate sure to come his way. Fat chance of that. The Public are by and large gullible, illiterate morons. One point that proves this. All of the polls point to Hillary with a slight lead. How can this be? The Donald has a much higher percentage of Republican vote than Hillary has of Democrat votes (The hard core Bernites won’t vote for her. Did you see the half empty arena last week and the ads for paid seat fillers to go with the White Noise Machines to drown out the boos?). The Donald leads with Independents nearly 2 to 1. How do these numbers add up? Of course they don’t and yet the public is too stupid to figure the polling scam out and be outraged. jaxon64
Agreed–especially about fear of losing their cheap labor from illegals here and cheap labor for their corporations by off-shoring jobs. The Donald hate is so prevalent it is ridiculous. Just this morning before 8 AM I saw revolving hate ads against Trump when I turned on Roku/Pandora for some morning music–one pop-up ad despicably talking about old, nude photos of Ivana Trump. Then I check my yahoo email account and the entire background of the sign-in screen is an anti-Trump “I’m with Her” ad. It’s going to take a strong and knowledgable mind to withstand the billion dollar Hillary/Wall Street assault on Trump-and I don’t think the average American is that aware of the manipulation and propaganda they are being assailed with. krinks
He could circumvent all of this by keeping illegal immigration and Off Shoring on the menu every time he speaks. This issue is one that majority agrees with even about 1/3 of Democrats. What the hell happened to the party of Big Labor that having more labor is a bad thing? krinks
He could circumvent all of this by keeping illegal immigration and Off Shoring on the menu every time he speaks. This issue is one that majority agrees with even about 1/3 of Democrats. What the hell happened to the party of Big Labor that having more labor is a bad thing? iris
Yes, our tax dollars are probably paying for at least some, if not many, of the anti Trump ads. However, even if they aren’t, the Bilderberg meeting probably included a vote for vast amounts of money to be poured into a smear campaign against him and for Hillary, by way of various world banks. That issue and Brexit, probably took up most of the meeting. They will do everything in their power to make sure the DonkiPhant stays in power, because that suits their plans for now. We are moving inexorably toward a one world economic, political and religious system, in fulfillment of prophecy, and this planned chaos may be the perfect scenario for a possibly very charismatic figure to take center stage under the promise of “world peace and safety”. I will vote, but regardless of what happens, (and I believe it’s rigged), God will still be in control. He is just and true. This world’s system is a shell game.
I trust Trump more than Hillary, but even if he won, it’s probably too late for the U.S. to continue, with our semblance of sovereignty and freedom. The football games will continue, the fast food joints will supersize for an extra dollar, etc., but we’re going downhill too fast to stop, imo. Heaven is home for Christians, and this is all very temporary, however. loadnup
Yep and just look at the turn out for their convention and the folks who show up for her “rallies.” Pray, prep and protect ’cause whosoever wins this race will end up facing what could well be the second not-so-civil war. pray, prep and protect. Bob Knight
Both parties are and have always been parties for the rich. The only difference is how they packaged their deals. Even that has now been blurred so you can’t tell the difference anymore. horse777res
Stop calling these treasonous RINOs “Republicans.” They are sleeper cell Democrats who have infiltrated the leadership of the Republican Party. John Pallyswine
Add Hank Paulson & Paul Ryan to the list
Support for Crooked Hillary support for the GOP! PILGRIM SOCIETY!! Brian
I love how Henry Paulson states “he will be voting for Hillary Clinton with the hope that she can bring Americans together.” Yea, we’ll all be together in fema camps!!! iris
Wouldn’t be surprised. Wouldn’t be surprised if O suspends elections and instills martial law because of a planned crisis and we end up in one somewhere, regardless. It will be a privilege and an honor to be sent to one for standing for God and His truths, though. Hugh Everett
That list of 16 names is staggering!
By the way, who are they? Mike
Duh, the article says who they are right after their names. Guest’s the Name
Just today, at least that many more GOP big wigs have publicly announced their support for anyone-but-Donald.
I suspect we’ll be seeing more and more people with consciences pledge to keep that monstrosity out of the White House. I just WISH they would pull something out of *somewhere* to replace his name on the ballot before November. It will be the only chance the Right has to see a Republican elected. Hugh Everett
“I just WISH they would pull something out of *somewhere* to replace his name on the ballot before November.”
With Trump, everything has a price tag. He can certainly be bought off by the RNC, but the price tag will be high. They will develop a story line about how he is bowing out for the good of the GOP, and the good of the country, and the Trump brand will increase in value.
Republicans can pull the same tag-team Torricelli-to-Lautenberg, Mel Carnahan-to-Jean Carnahan election strategy that democrats frequently employ. Bring in Romney or Rubio as the well-known compromise candidate, and throw a monkey wrench into the Clinton strategy. GV
that would be the neo-conservative war-mongering psychopath Hillary Hugh Everett VigilanteCaregiver
The old regime is broken. In practice, there’s actually 6 major parties now.
Republicans split three ways: Establishment with the right-wing progressives, the Populists-Nationalists under Trump, and the Constitutionalists headed by Cruz and Lee.
Democrats split into three: Liberals, now being pushed out of the party, and has no discernible leader (best thought leader for this new paradigm is Sargon of Akkad, a blogger that occasionally posts here), the Statist’s and porgressives under Hilary Clinton, and the Usurpers (insurrectionists, radicals, SJW’s, Gaystopo, etc) under Obama.
Then there’s the smaller parties that still wait for good leadership to move them up in the ranks: Libertarians, Soylent Green’s, etc.
And finally, there’s folks who don’t want to get involved with anyone’s $#%&. They want to live a good life, provide for their own, defend their homes, and not bother with the extremes. I want to be counted with these guys and am working on it.
So, there really isn’t any shock that Establishment Republicans would go with Clinton – they’re close to the same ideology. kfilly
You called Cruz a Constitutionalist. Epic fail. He is a globalist. Just look at his wife. She works for the vampire Goldman Sachs and was a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. VigilanteCaregiver
That’s what the Cruz and Lee folks claim: don’t really care. If you have a problem with the Cruz folks – take it up with them. You don’t take it up with me.
Like I said in the original post: “And finally, there’s folks who don’t want to get involved with anyone’s $#%&. They want to live a good life, provide for their own, defend their homes, and not bother with the extremes. I want to be counted with these guys and am working on it.”
I’m not on Cruz’s side. I’m not on Trump’s side. I’m not on Hilary’s side. Nor Obama’s. Not Sanders. No ones but Christ’s; I’m bowing out. Election day comes I’m gonna do my chores and duties. If there’s any quiet time, I’ll fire up the foundry furnace and make some ingots.
To repeat yet again: this is the opening forays of a multi-faceted civil war and I will not participate. No one in any party cared what happened to us: none of their candidates and officials even listened – they still don’t. And yet; each side is fervently determined that I must join their side or else face consequences. That’s carnal politics.
What happens if Trump loses? What will you do then? Escalation and eventually the Leftist usurpers will attack: your lot will counterattack. My family shall be caught in the middle – do you see my position?
I don’t care for identity politics or who works for what. I care that my family will struggle worse when you all are violently fighting over words and carnal egos; whilst all sides demanding I support their views!
I chose Christ. He’s the only one who cared when it counted and still does. GV
hey Einstein, YOU are the one who said Constitutionalists headed by Cruz UncleMike Davis
Lying Ted is a pretend Constitutionalist, Conservative, Christian. Cruz is actually a globalist, New World Order anti-American. Jill Stein is a globalist.
And Donald J Trump is single-handedly, by all appearances, defeating every one of them. Even Obama, preparing his martial law backup plan, will be thwarted and defeated. VigilanteCaregiver
I just told the other guy: that’s what the Cruz and Lee folks claim: don’t really care. If you have a problem with the Cruz folks – take it up with them. You don’t take it up with me.
Like I said in the original post: “And finally, there’s folks who don’t want to get involved with anyone’s $#%&. They want to live a good life, provide for their own, defend their homes, and not bother with the extremes. I want to be counted with these guys and am working on it.”
I’m not on Cruz’s side. I’m not on Trump’s side. I’m not on Hilary’s side. Nor Obama’s. Not Sanders. No ones but Christ’s; I’m bowing out. Election day comes I’m gonna do my chores and duties. If there’s any quiet time, I’ll fire up the foundry furnace and make some ingots.
To repeat yet again: this is the opening forays of a multi-faceted civil war and I will not participate. No one in any party cared what happened to us: none of their candidates and officials even listened – they still don’t. And yet; each side is fervently determined that I must join their side or else face consequences. That’s carnal politics.
What happens if Trump loses? What will you do then? Escalation and eventually the Leftist usurpers will attack: your lot will counterattack. My family shall be caught in the middle – do you see my position?
I don’t care for identity politics or who works for what. I care that my family will struggle worse when you all are violently fighting over words and carnal egos; whilst all sides demanding I support their views!
I chose Christ. He’s the only one who cared when it counted and still does. GV
chose Christ? you’re a mormon! GV
hey Einstein, YOU are the one who said Constitutionalists headed by Cruz! GV
are your magic mormon underpants too tight? Hillbilly Willy
I’ve heard of Richard Armitage and Arne Carlson (I’m from Minnesota and Carlson is as close to Dem as “Republicans” get), but they’re the only ones. Maybe these people are important to the author but to me they are just a bunch of names. Anyway, I know enough people voting for Trump to cancel all of their votes, I just hope more traitors come clean with their preferences. UncleMike Davis
Mostly warmongering NeoCons, and former Trotskyites. loadnup
Well, me and my house are voting for him and that’s more than the total of these war mongers… Bob Knight
I hate Trump, I didn’t support Trump, Trump is a fake conservative, but no way, no how can Shillary Clinton be allowed to be president. Why anyone would vote for Billy and Shillary is beyond the pale of reason.
Unless you love sin so deeply that there is no where else for you to go.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (john 3:19)”. Perplexed
sHARE THE COMPLETE LIST AND WE THE PEOPLE WILL MAKE SURE THEY NEVER WORK IN POLITICS AGAIN. Guest’s the Name
There are new Republicans every day denouncing him and throwing the support for the only name who can stop him. Sadly, the few people who do still somehow manage to blindly support Donald really have no power, so when you say “we’ll make sure those Republican turncoats never work in politics again”, it’s kind of lame. Because those Republican turncoats are simply following their constituencies’ desires, i.e., they are listening to the voters, and we voters are telling them that if they support Donald, they will never work in politics again.
And they know the anti-Donald Republicans are more numerous than the pro-Donald Republicans. Bret McCoy
This is the best campaign tool Trump could get! UncleMike Davis
And Donald J Trump will survive, and Donald J Trump has already singlehandedly defeated all these corrupt political hacks and NeoCons and RINOs in the Republican Party. Donald J Trump snatched the nomination right out of their hands, defeating sixteen corrupt establishment political hacks, and they are still screaming.
Now Donald J Trump is singlehandedly defeating the corrupt establishment progressive communist Democrat Party. Typhoid Hillary is the most hated woman, most distrusted politician in the world, and she is self-destructing before our eyes. Slick Willie looks like he is ready to drop dead any second now, and Hillary is likely to blow a brain aneurysm from one of her many screeching fits.
Why is this? How can one man stand against the combined forces of satanic evil? Obviously, a greater power, perhaps Almighty GOD has heard us Americans, asking that our nation be healed, and preserved for our children and grandchildren. Is there some other answer? How is Donald J Trump surviving the combined attack of both political parties, and the entire establishment mainstream newsmedia? GV
oh my, you sound just like an Obama supporter Bill Peddie
The establishment Republicans, I guess those referred to as Rinos, are about to destroy the United States intentionally and because they are on a ego trip because they don’t like Trump.
Simply stated, if the Republicans continue this ego trip against Trump, what is going to be left
This is what the democrats marvel in. Yankeegator
There you have it… It’s a big deception… There is only one party in Washington… The Oligarchs!!! jesus freak
Pray for Trump and for his protection . God is still in control, as always RO
The New World Order is a big club. And you ain’t in it. Neither is Trump as you can tell. Fred Zarfloon
Ex Democrat NeoCons who shanghaied the Republican PaleoCons will now re-join with Democrat war hawks. Bill Peddie
They might as well not have an election. Just give it to Hillary. If there are this many turncoat republicans, then just let the democrats control the United States. It would take Republicans decades to cleans up the mess that will occur if Hillary is elected. I guess these that would rather vote for Hillary would be just as happy to give the Supreme Court to the democrats.
I never thought the Republicans would give up without a fight!!! greanfinisher .
What fight? They’re even bankrolling and campaigning for the wicked witch. Mistanick
Even with chaos in our midst (when have we not had it, ask the baby butchered in the womb about chaos and murder 3000 times per day in the USA alone), it matters very much who is elected. God meant it so. He commanded us to stand fast in this world and occupy it as our home until He returns. We must care passionately who wins this election and those other offices up for the vote.
God raises up imperfect men to do that which seems not possible. Those who do not “like” Mr. Trump do need to first look at themselves and how imperfect we are. Mr. Trump is certainly no different. Each of us has a checkered life and past to some degree. Mr. Trump doesn’t need this and must ask himself, along with his family, if the danger, stress,and fatigue is worth it.
Perhaps the single most important thing the next President will do is to nominate several Supreme Court Justices. One seat is open now and 5 could be opening in the next 4 years. Think of what that might mean to Roe v. Wade, 2nd Amendment and other issues.
Those RINO’s who shout they will vote for Mrs. Clinton are insiders who want to continue to be so. They are one reason for the sin sick problems in our Federal government. Those who say they will vote for Mrs. Clinton are also raising their hand to be voted out of office if they hold one or distanced in any way possible otherwise. When it comes down to it though, many will probably privately vote for Mr. Trump, but just not say they did so. Guest’s the Name
“All throughout the primaries and the caucuses, the Republican establishment expressed tremendous disdain for Donald Trump”
^^^The identical thing is true of 85% of the nation as a whole.
“[…]many of these individuals were only “Republicans in name only” to begin with”
^^^False. This shows that only the most ghastly and abominable gas bag this era has ever created caused good people to obey their consciences by doing what MOST good Americans are doing, and that is making certain Donald-the-RINO never gets into the White House.
“Does Henry Paulson actually believe that Hillary Clinton can “bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world”?”
^^^Anything that a principled American can do to prevent the DeviI from being sworn in is A-OK with all other good Americans. Donald is a buffoon whose Presidency would cripple the country today… und übermorgen die Welte!
“the establishment will do whatever it has to do to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.”
^^^So will anyone with principles and/or a measurable conscience. It is NOT the votes of politicians alone who will crush The Deluded Orange One; he will be voted down by decent, pro-America individuals who work for a living.
““I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” the [orange buffoon] said.”
^^^THAT is precisely the juvenile excuse that we could expect from the mental midget. He knows by absolutely, positively EVERY metric and by EVERY source that he will NOT be good enough to win sufficient idiots’ votes, so he is planting the lie in advance that if he loses, it was a a rig-job. The Wednesday after he loses, he’ll follow up with, “Yeah, I didn’t wanna win anyway”. The man is beyond transparent.
“No matter who the next president is, we are going to see civil unrest, rising crime[…] “
^^^True, and he has already commanded his band of zwastika-armbanded flying monkeys flunkies to riot and destroy on his behalf if he doesn’t get his way. That “man” is too much of a child to have made it this far.
“[T]he establishment is going to do everything it possibly can to make sure that the next president is not Donald Trump.”
^^^Let us all pray that they can do enough then. Individual voters can only do so much, and we individual voters are revving up for a November win for America. Clinton is no prize, but unless or until the GOP comes to its senses and allows an electable candidate, we’re stuck with HRC as the only viable anti-Donald.
“If you go to just about any major news website on the Internet these days, there will be a negative story about Donald Trump featured very prominently, and it is usually accompanied by some sort of positive story about Hillary Clinton.”
notice how the negative news story is about Donald’s own FACTUAL incompetence?? He spits upon veterans, he spits upon everyone who doesn’t support his delusions of grandeur. The “negative stories” about Donald are unfortunately just Donald’s own failings, they aren’t journalistic hit pieces, they are just his own actions coming back to bite him… I say GOOD. Donald is his own worst enemy. As for“positive” stories about Clinton, well, those filled with the most bigotry will see an article penned about her being cleared by the FBI and consider that a positive press… well, no, again it’s just factual press stories about her, and point of fact it is hard to find *truly* positive press about her. She simply $uxx a lot less than Donald.
“The establishment absolutely loathes Trump” ^^^Well, the Establishment hates him a lot less than individual voters do. He’s even polling poorly in The Rust Belt states. He’s approaching a double-digit deficit in post-DNC polls. Besides, Donald has financially contributed to the biggest names on the Left Establishment, not the least of whom being the Clintons.
Donald is objectively not successful in even ONE category to make him a decent President. And daily, more and more American voters are realizing this. GV
vote for Hillary if you want more war. she is a neo-conservative war-mongering psychopath GoldenGirl
Best description yet of HRC. Fred Zarfloon
Trump reputedly has a short attention span. He needs to focus on the big issues that won him the nomination and stop chasing after sideshow debates. Georgiaboy61
The list of defectors reads like a “Who’s Who” of the neo-con/CFR foreign policy establishment – Armitage, Scowcroft, Kagan, Boot, Mansoor, et. al. Since these guys have always been neo-Wilsonian Democrats deep-down, they ought to just register as Democrats and make it official. Nobody anymore is buying the snake oil they’re selling. The Dems can have ’em! iris
Thanks. And as if there’s actually been more than one party on the playing field since the 80’s. Leopold B. Scotch
Everyone should do themselves a favor and learn some of these names if you don’t know them already. Take Robert Kagan, for example: a Big Government interventionist neoconservative married to Obama’s appointee to European and Eurasian affairs, Victoria Nuland, of “F the Eu” Fame, the once State Department liar for U.S. meddling and Spin regarding the Ukraine, a resume equally dubious – a loose-cannon, Ivory Tower War Hawk who is in line for Hillary Goldman Clinton’s state department. . Leopold B. Scotch
“Robert’s brother, Fred, is with the hawkish American Enterprise Institute, and his sister-in-law, Kimberly, is the head of the Institute for the Study of War, which is largely funded by defense contractors. The Kagans work to encourage military action, both through their positions in government and by influencing the public debate through think-tank reports and op-eds. It is a family enterprise that mirrors the military-industrial complex as a whole, with think tanks coming up with reasons to increase military spending and providing “expert” support for the government officials who actually promote and implement the policies. Defense contractors, meanwhile, benefit from the largess and kick back some money to the think tanks, which then develop new reasons to spend still more on military procurement.”
Hmmm, good to know, thanks. GV
no war profits without war winrob
It says a lot about the character of these people that they would recommend a multiple felon and pathological liar to be POTUS. Just how shallow a character do you need for this? FVS
On the other side of the scale I’m sure Wikileaks is loaded and ready to go. Assange has openly said he dislikes the Clintons. If anybody thinks that the DNC emails is the worst they have store for Hillary they are naive and stupid. There are more leaks coming and I’d bet both the frequency and the potential for damaging Hillary will increase the closer we get to the election.
Equally naïve would be to think Trump won’t turn the debates I to an indictment of MSM bias. I can hear it now: MSM Clinton shill: Blah, blah, blah in naked accusatory tone… Trump: Instead of asking that stupid biased question why haven’t you asked Mrs. Clinton about … (insert any one of Hillary’s documented lies). Trump then stops and starts directly at the phony moderator as the silence turns to indictment. FVS
These idiots still don’t grasp that the ground swell of Trump’s support came because he exposed that these ash wipes have been in bed with the Democrats all along. Neither do they grasp that their opinions no lo ger carry any weight. If it did Jeb would have been the nominee. But he isn’t is he? iris
Amen! SantosGarcia
Our ONLY Hope is in the LORD Jesus Christ- and in His answer to our genuine prayers with fasting according to 2 Chronicles 7:14! https://zionsgate.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/praying-for-the-healing-of-america/ Danna
Let everyone know when you get more republicans’ names who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. This identifies them as definitely on the side of the NWO. All of them are traitors and should be put on trial. I’m sure they are involved in the Clinton Foundation money scandal and are afraid if Trump gets in they will all be found out for the traitors that they are. greanfinisher .
What are you talking about? This is the same exact spin that the GOP establishment has used lately. RageHard84
What’s with these so-called Republicans? I get they dont’ like Trump, but you can’t support that compulsive liar Clinton just because she’s not Trump!
Vote third party. | 1 |
There are a lot of things citizens of the United States can and do look for in a Commander-in-Chief. However, it s doubtful that schoolyard bully is part of the ideal criteria for president. There s really no better way to describe Donald Trump. He s nasty, vile, bigoted, hate-filled, and outright nauseating. The things that he says aren t okay to say in any arena of professional life, and they only reason he s allowed to get away with it is because of money, power and privilege. If the words he uses were to come out of a poor person living on the street, you d think they were unstable, phone the police and they would likely get carted away for a lifetime in an asylum.For years, Trump has tried to perpetuate the myth that President Obama not only isn t a natural-born citizen, but that he s also Muslim. And while there s absolutely nothing wrong with being Muslim, hearing it from a man who equates Islam solely to terrorism means he s calling our Commander-in-Chief a terrorist.Continuing this hostile fallacy, Trump took to Twitter to try to be witty, and posed the question: I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go! I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2016First of all, President Obama DID go to the Supreme Court building alongside his wife to pay his respects while Justice Scalia lay in repose on Friday, and Vice President Biden will be attending the funeral service. However, this wasn t at all a jab at the fact that Obama wasn t unable to attend the service. It was a direct attack on President Obama to once again perpetuate the myth that our president is Muslim, which in Trump s language means, he s a terrorist. It s not even coded language. It s clear as day as he lays down his hatred for Muslims nearly every day.This man has a VERY real chance at becoming the GOP nominee for president, which is absolutely disgusting. And it says a lot not only about Trump, but about the hateful bigots in this nation who seem to think he s the right choice.Featured image: Flickr/Twitter | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is ramping up his search for a new chief for the U.S. central bank, meeting with former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and three others and promising a decision next month. “I’ve had four meetings for Fed chairman and I’ll be making a decision over the next two or three weeks,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn. Trump has previously suggested he may reappoint Fed Chair Janet Yellen to the post. Jerome Powell, one of the current governors on the Fed’s board, also met with Trump earlier this week about the Fed job, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Trump on Friday did not provide details on his meetings. A new Fed chair would take the helm as the central bank eases well away from crisis-era policies in response to a strengthening economy and falling unemployment, though inflation still lingers below the Fed’s 2-percent goal. Under Yellen, the Fed has raised interest rates and launched a plan to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Much of the latter was accumulated through a controversial bond-buying program that Yellen said helped the economy avert an even deeper downturn. Her term as chair expires in February. Warsh was a Fed governor between 2006 and 2011 and resigned from the board because of his opposition to the bond-buying program. He has called for a revamp of how the Fed makes monetary policy, saying it needs “fresh air” from markets and from the “real economy.” Treasury yields spurted higher on news of the Trump meetings; Warsh is viewed as more of a hawk than Yellen. “He’s definitely more hawkish on the spectrum. He is quite a contrast to Yellen. It does seem he is the front-runner even though it’s not a sure thing he will be nominated,” Gennadiy Goldberg, interest rates strategist at TD Securities in New York, said of Warsh. As recently as July, Trump had not ruled out reappointing Yellen, telling the Wall Street Journal that he liked her demeanor and desire to keep interest rates low. In addition to Warsh and Powell, Stanford University economist John Taylor’s name also has been floated as a contender. Powell specialized in financial regulatory matters during his five years on the Fed Board of Governors, which is led by the Fed chair. There has also been speculation that Trump could turn to his top economic aide, Gary Cohn, for the Fed chair position. A Fed spokesman declined to comment on the process while Warsh and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment. | 0 |
The information below is disturbing and should be a wake up call for Americans that the left isn t taking losing lying down. This is war A war for the heart of America!The quote below from Steve Bannon also goes for the left and the radical elitists like Holder He continuously mocks President Trump in the interview below by calling him orange man . Holder is seething with contempt and hate. It s shameful behavior from a man who was once a very powerful member of a presidential administration in America. He exposes himself for the hateful racist we knew he was. This is scary and should be a big reminder that the war isn t over with these people. Keep up the fight!Bannon is 100% correct on this:Former Attorney General Eric Holder says he is glad to be unshackled from his old job because employment with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee lets him lash out at Republicans like orange man President Trump.Politico recently went on the road with the NDRC s chairman in Virginia for get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor.An interview at Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond covered everything from NDRC s efforts to raise over $30 million for gubernatorial races to Mr. Trump s alleged role in empowering neo-Nazis and white nationalists. I probably would not have [attacked Republicans like] that while I was attorney general, he continued. I didn t have an orange man who I was serving under, but, I mean, I would not have said that about a former president, for instance, while I was attorney general. But now, I m just a citizen and I ve got the full range of my voice back. The former attorney general also told Rising Mount Zion congregants that Mr. Northam s battle with Republican Ed Gillespie was important because debts have to be repaid. Read more: WT | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will Pakistan next week during an Asian trip that will also take him to the country s rival India, a senior official at the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc has turned over information about U.S. election ads it believes were bought by Russians to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating alleged Russian interference in last year’s election, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The information produced by Facebook included copies of advertisements and data about the buyers of the ads, the source said. | 0 |
The first time I’d miscarried I was a newlywed and, because of a scheduling I’d had to wait two days for a D C. While I mourned the loss, I found it macabre and scary to be carrying death. Afterward, I was sad but mostly relieved. Since then I’d had several very early onset miscarriages between two live births, but nothing so traumatic. Now I was pregnant again. After an uneventful first trimester, my husband and I announced that we were expecting our third child. Our son wanted a brother and our daughter wanted a sister. They named their new sibling Lil’ Mo I have no idea why. They purchased infant socks from the Gap, months crimson with white rubber on the soles, and placed them on the mantel like Christmas stockings. Lil’ Mo’s first ultrasound photo, a dimpled knot, was pinned to the fridge with a pastel magnet that spelled . A few days later, I dropped my kids at their elementary school and headed to the gym. We had recently moved to Georgia for my husband’s job and, in the absence of family or friends, exercise classes were my lifeline. After class, I headed home only to discover that I was bleeding. I arrived at the ’s and readied myself for the inevitable devastation. But there was the of a beating heart and the beaming proclaiming, “The baby is fine!” Still, in the following weeks heavier spells of bleeding would send me back several times. Each time I was assured that half of all women bleed throughout their pregnancies it was normal and the baby was going to make it. I also drew solace from first person accounts on the internet. I picked out names: Sahara for a girl and Khyber for a boy. One evening when the bleeding sent me to the emergency room, a compassionate nurse, sorry I was having such a miserable pregnancy, whispered that I was going to have a boy. The doctor added that he was moving so fast, he was going to come out playing soccer. The next morning, after another bad night, I checked in with my regular . As she ran an ultrasound wand over my tummy, she became silent. I knew already. My baby — Khyber — was gone. Overnight. The told me that since the pregnancy was close to 16 weeks, only specially qualified doctors could perform a late stage D C. Since both the qualified doctors in our area happened to be Jewish and because I’d miscarried on the Jewish New Year, they wouldn’t be available until four days later. She assured me that my progesterone was too high for anything to happen over the weekend, and sent me home. The last time I’d had a dead baby inside of me, I’d been distressed. This time, I treasured a final weekend to hold in my baby. Friday and Saturday were a teary blur. I was unsure of how to tell my kids. I kissed the tiny crimson socks and thought of the story: “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn. ” By Sunday evening, I started to have cramps and realized I was in labor. I wish the had warned me that I might very well deliver my baby’s face into my hands. His face was no bigger than a kitchen cabinet knob. The outlines of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth were clear. He looked like an alien out of the “ ” TV show. Should I kiss him? Finally I held him to my heart before putting him in a sandwich bag as the E. R. instructed so he could be sent for an autopsy. When I got to the hospital, a Christian chaplain held my hand and prayed with me. I told him I was Muslim but that prayers are prayers. I couldn’t stop sharing the story of my miscarriage with everyone. It was as if I had opened the gates to a taboo subject. Family, friends, strangers — everyone would share either their own miscarriage story or else someone else’s. It turned out that even my mother had miscarried before me. And yet too many, including my husband, could not quite understand why I was so gutted. After all, I was told over and over again, I already had two kids. That I’d barely been 16 weeks. I could have another one, as if babies are replaceable. I was told, “It wasn’t a stillbirth. You weren’t full term. It was just a fetus. Stop being so sad!” It left me upset and alone to have conditions put on grief. That afternoon, as my kids cleaned out their Spiderman and Dora the Explorer backpacks, I blurted out: “Lil’ Mo is gone. ” “Gone?” said my son. “He died. ” My son’s best friend’s father had passed away and so my son had an inkling of life after death: Darren’s father was in heaven and heaven was a good place. “So Lil’ Mo’s in heaven?” he said as his eyes filled up. “Like Darren’s father?” “Yes,” I said and I knew that whether heaven really existed or not, it certainly belonged to little children confronted with mortality. Over the next month, we began to recover — if recovery is the correct sum of time plus healing. My son put the ultrasound pictures in a photo album with pictures of his beloved dead guinea pigs. I took the crimson socks off the mantel and tucked them in the back of a drawer. Around the same time, I lost the contract for my debut novel but never again would I equate the loss of a book with the loss of a baby these creations were not of equal magnitude. One day, I received a call from the hospital: What did I want to do with the remains? As Muslims, we bury our dead, so my husband called the local mosque to make arrangements. But he was informed that there could be no burial. In Islam it is believed a soul enters the body at 120 days of gestation (about 16 weeks) and since my miscarriage took place right around that time with no proof that a soul had indeed entered, Khyber could be considered only a soulless fetus. Fresh grief engulfed me. I called the hospital’s perinatal loss clinic: Please don’t throw him in the trash. The kind woman told me that she’d seen the remains and she could tell he’d been a beautiful baby. I managed a thank you. She said the hospital would take him, with the remains of other such babies, for a collective cremation. At first, thinking of a trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, I recoiled at the thought of my baby being one of many. But eventually I found comfort in the idea of a collective. That way, I told myself, Khyber would, at least, never be alone. We printed out directions to the cemetery in Stone Mountain, Ga. where the ashes were buried in an urn in a plot shaded by an oak tree. It was marked by a small marble bench with a carved dove on it. My son had brought as an offering a miniature teddy bear I’d given him for Valentine’s Day and my daughter a rose from our garden. I sat on the bench with the carved dove. I recited a prayer for my baby. I recited a prayer for all the babies. | 0 |
Sonntag, 20. November 2016 Stiftung Warentest benotet Planeten Erde mit "Mangelhaft" Berlin (Archiv) - Großer Schock für Erdnutzer: Wie die Stiftung Warentest am Mittwoch mitteilte, hat der Planet Erde in einem ausführlichen Test auf Bewohnbarkeit, Sauberkeit und allgemeinen Nutzen lediglich die Note "Mangelhaft" erreicht. Demnach sei der Planet für eine Besiedelung durch den Menschen kaum bis gar nicht zu empfehlen. "Bereits seit Jahren erreichen uns Berichte empörter Nutzer, die mit ihrem Gesamterlebnis auf dem Planeten Erde in höchstem Maße unzufrieden sind", erklärte eine Sprecherin der Stiftung auf einer Pressekonferenz. Besonders erschreckend sei dabei die Vielzahl unterschiedlichster Defizite und teils hochgefährlicher Fehlfunktionen, die auf ein bereits ab Werk mangelhaftes Produkt hinweisen. Vernichtend: Urteil der Stiftung Warentest "Im Test haben sich vor allem der hohe Salzwassergehalt, das nahezu ständige Auftreten von Naturkatastrophen und die Anwesenheit ziemlich nervender Wespen als größte Schwächen der Erde erwiesen", so die Sprecherin. "Zudem sterben ständig Menschen, weil die Erde gegen elementarste Sicherheitsbestimmungen verstößt." So seien 97 Prozent aller Canyons, Klippen und Schluchten nicht ordnungsgemäß abgesichert. In den meisten Gewässern fehlen Tiefenangaben sowie ausgewiesene Nichtschwimmerbereiche. In die Gesamtnote von 5,1 ("Mangelhaft") seien jedoch noch deutlich mehr Mängel eingeflossen. So enthalte die Erde zahlreiche, nicht deklarierte Inhaltsstoffe, die teilweise Allergien hervorrufen, sowie alle erdenklichen gefährlichen Chemikalien, die oftmals krebserregend oder gar radioaktiv seien. Nicht zuletzt könne die planeteneigene Gravitation Gelenkbeschwerden und Verschleißerscheinungen hervorrufen. Harte Kritik übte die Stiftung Warentest auch am Hersteller der Erde, der sich derzeit an einem unbekannten Ort aufhält und jegliche Beschwerden enttäuschter Kunden über sein Produkt unbeantwortet lässt. Angebracht sei mindestens eine Stellungnahme und gegebenenfalls eine koordinierte Rückrufaktion, so die Forderung der Warentester. Bis dahin rate man vorsorglich jedem davon ab, die Erde privat zu nutzen. ssi, dan; Hinweis: Erstmals erschienen am 15.8.14 Artikel teilen: | 1 |
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey plans to change the name of the street where the embassy of the United Arab Emirates is located to Fakhreddin Pasha, the historical figure at the center of a diplomatic row caused by a retweet, the state-run Anadolu agency said on Saturday. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan retweeted last week accusations that Ottoman forces led by Fakhreddin Pasha stole money and manuscripts from Medina in 1916 during World War One when the city was under Ottoman rule. Medina is now part of Saudi Arabia. The mayor of the Turkish capital Ankara ordered preparations to change the name of the street where the UAE mission is located to that of the former commander and one-time governor of Medina, Anadolu said. Without naming him, Erdogan suggested on Thursday that the UAE minister was ignorant. The UAE charge d affaires in Ankara was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry over the issue. UAE officials had no immediate comment on dispute. The UAE, a close U.S. ally, sees Erdogan s Islamist-rooted ruling party as a friend of Islamist forces which the UAE opposes across the Arab world. Ties were further strained by Ankara s support for Qatar after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed sanctions on the Gulf nation in June over a dispute in which the Arab states accused Doha of supporting terrorism. Doha denies this. | 1 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that the United States should either prove accusations that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election by hacking Democratic Party organizations or drop the issue. “Either stop talking about it or finally provide some evidence. Otherwise it looks indecent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Tokyo. Russia has repeatedly denied the hacking allegations. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch wrote in an opinion piece published on Thursday that his meeting with Merrick Garland failed to change his view that the Senate should not act on President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee. The problem is that no such meeting had yet taken place. Later in the day, the Utah senator issued a statement announcing that he would meet with Garland on Thursday, calling the appeals court judge “an honorable public servant who deserves our respect” but reiterating that the Senate should not act now. Paul Edwards, executive editor of the Deseret News in Hatch’s home state of Utah, said by email the article was a draft that was mistakenly published on newspaper’s website, and apologized to Hatch and the newspaper’s readers for “this unfortunate error.” “Like many of my Senate colleagues, I recently met with Chief Judge Merrick Garland,” Hatch wrote in the piece. “Our meeting, however, does not change my conviction that the Senate should consider a Supreme Court nominee after this presidential election cycle,” Hatch added. The 82-year-old Hatch, first elected to the Senate in 1976, is the longest-serving Senate Republican and is a long-time and influential member of the Judiciary Committee that considers Supreme Court nominees. Hatch has joined with the Senate’s Republican leaders in asserting that Obama’s successor, to be determined in the Nov. 8 presidential election, should fill the vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February. Democrats have accused Senate Republicans of ignoring their constitutional duties by refusing to consider Garland’s nomination. A copy of the article was archived by Google after the Deseret News removed it. “The electronic publication of this version, awaiting edits from the Senator following his meeting with Judge Garland, was inadvertent,” Edwards added. The article illustrated how unshakeable Republican opposition has been to Obama, a Democrat, appointing a replacement for Scalia. If a Democratic president appoints Scalia’s replacement, that would likely end decades of a conservative majority on the court. Obama nominated Garland on March 16. Hatch helped break a partisan log jam in the Senate against Garland two decades ago when President Bill Clinton nominated him to an appeals court. Garland won Senate confirmation in 1997. | 1 |
JERUSALEM — Donald J. Trump thrust himself into one of the world’s most polarizing debates on Thursday by pressuring President Obama to veto a United Nations resolution critical of Israel, the newly elected leader’s most direct intervention in foreign policy during his transition to power. Mr. Trump spoke out after Israeli officials contacted his team for help in blocking the draft resolution condemning settlement construction even as they lobbied its sponsor, Egypt. Within a couple of hours, Egypt withdrew the resolution, at least temporarily, and its president, Abdel Fattah called Mr. Trump to discuss how “to establish true peace in the Middle East,” according to an aide to the . Mr. Trump’s forceful intervention was a rare effort by a new president to shape international events even before taking office. While new presidents typically refrain from weighing in on current issues during the interregnum between their election and inauguration, Mr. Trump’s statement underscored that he does not plan to wait for the swearing in. He has already upended decades of American policy by speaking directly with Taiwan’s leader, and he has spoken out regularly on events like this week’s terrorist attack in Germany. But his push to stop a United Nations resolution criticizing Israel was more directly aimed at decisions still being made by his predecessor in his final days in office. The move also highlighted the stark shift on Middle East policy ahead when the new administration takes over in a month. Combined with his pledge to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and his selection of a ambassador to Israel, Mr. Trump’s involvement Thursday signaled an intent to play an active role in Middle East peace issues as a strong ally of Israel’s. The resolution would have condemned Israeli housing construction in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as a “flagrant violation under international law” that was “dangerously imperiling the viability” of a future peace settlement establishing a Palestinian state. The United States has routinely used its veto at the Security Council to block similar measures, including under Mr. Obama in 2011. But Mr. Obama refused to commit to doing so again this time. Mr. Trump said flatly that he should. “As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations,” the said. “This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis. ” Mr. Trump amplified his position by posting the statement on Facebook and Twitter as well, but a transition official insisted on anonymity to confirm the ’s conversation with Mr. Sisi because of the sensitivity of the matter. Mr. Trump’s words echoed the positions expressed by Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has welcomed Mr. Trump’s election as a breath of fresh air after years of clashes with Mr. Obama. According to Security Council Report, an independent research organization, the United States has vetoed 30 resolutions regarding Israel and the Palestinians, plus a dozen more regarding Israel and Lebanon or Syria, more than half of its 77 vetoes since the United Nations was founded in 1946. Mr. Netanyahu cited that history on Thursday. “I hope the U. S. won’t abandon this policy,” he said. “I hope it will abide by the principles set by President Obama himself in his speech in the U. N. in 2011 — that peace will come not through U. N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. ” Frustrated by two failed efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians during his tenure, Mr. Obama has been considering an effort to lay out an American framework during his final days in office. Palestinian leaders and their allies had hoped he would allow the resolution at the United Nations to pass as an expression of frustration at Israeli policies. A Palestinian delegation traveled to Washington this month to urge Mr. Obama’s team to support the resolution or at least abstain. Mr. Obama’s advisers did not disclose a position and were holding out until the vote to watch how the matter developed. The Palestinians were unable to meet with Mr. Trump’s aides and expressed disappointment on Thursday with his position. “A veto means support of settlement activities,” Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, said after the resolution was pulled. “A veto means abandoning the solution and peace efforts. ” Asked about Mr. Trump’s comments, a visibly upset Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said, “He is acting on behalf of Netanyahu. ” The return of the Palestinian cause to the world stage could serve the interests of some Arab leaders eager to turn public attention away from troubles at home. The government of Mr. Sisi, which sponsored the resolution as the Arab representative on the Security Council, faces domestic challenges stemming from a deteriorating economy, a persistent Islamic terrorist insurgency and this month’s bombing of a Coptic Christian cathedral. At the same time, it could distract from Mr. Netanyahu’s efforts to forge stronger relations with Sunni Arab nations on the basis of shared antipathy toward Iran, dominated by a Shiite theocracy that has threatened Israel’s existence and challenged Arab interests in the region. Arab leaders, who have largely overlooked the Palestinian issue in recent years, may feel pressured to distance themselves from Israel again if their own publics are angered at the treatment of Palestinians. Egypt backed off on the resolution after Mr. Netanyahu’s government put pressure on Mr. Sisi’s government to withdraw it, shortly before Arab ambassadors meeting at the United Nations endorsed it. Mr. Netanyahu treated the pending United Nations vote as a crisis, staying up late into the night discussing it with aides and posting on his own Twitter account, at 3:28 a. m. local time, a message urging Mr. Obama to veto what he called the “ ” resolution. “The Israelis leaned on the Egyptians this morning to postpone the vote, and the Egyptians basically caved,” said a Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter. Arab officials met in Cairo on Thursday night to consider their next move. “The negotiations over the Arab proposal for the Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories are still not finished at both the United Nations and the Arab League’s committee,” said Ahmed Abu Zeid, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, according to Egyptian state news. If the White House had let the resolution pass, it would have been a symbolic blow to the diplomatic shield that the United States has always offered Israel. It would also have sent a strong signal of international disapproval over the construction of settlements, regarded by many as illegal under international law. A former top Obama adviser suggested that the president should consider supporting the resolution because settlements are an obstacle to peace and therefore the real damage to Israel. “The resolution is about settlements, not negotiations,” Martin Indyk, a former special envoy under Mr. Obama, wrote on Twitter. “Vetoing would mean vetoing US policy on settlements. ” But Aaron David Miller, another former Middle East peace negotiator, said supporting the resolution would have plunged the administration into an issue that the past several administrations had avoided: the legality of the settlements. “The problem with voting for this,” Mr. Miller said, “is that Trump will disavow it and U. S. credibility on the issue will again be undermined, not to mention what the Israelis might do on the ground in response, to which the new administration may acquiesce. ” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the first two months after a June Supreme Court ruling allowed partial implementation of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, visas issued on average each month to citizens of six countries targeted by the order were 18 percent lower compared to the month prior to the ban, a Reuters analysis of government data shows. The 3,268 visas issued in July and 3,884 visas issued in August to citizens of the six majority-Muslim countries were down from 4,351 issued in June. The July figure was lower than the monthly average at any point since 2007, when an average of 3,080 visas per month were issued to those countries. The lower July and August numbers were especially noteworthy, immigration attorneys say, because a larger number of visas are typically issued in the summer months, as foreign students prepare to arrive in the United States for the fall semester. “We are processing visa applications for nationals of the six affected countries as directed by the Executive Order and to the extent permitted by court decisions,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity when asked about the lower numbers. The decline comes on top of already plummeting figures for U.S. visas issued to citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen after Trump issued an executive order in late January halting entry of travelers from those countries for 90 days. That order, and a more limited form of the ban issued in March, were hamstrung by months of legal challenges until the Supreme Court approved a limited version in June. But in the interim, the State Department issued far fewer visas to travelers from those six countries compared to the number issued in 2016 under the administration of President Barack Obama. On Sunday, Trump issued a third version of the ban, which indefinitely restricts travelers from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea. Certain government officials from Venezuela will also be barred. From March through June, a period when Trump’s order was mostly blocked by the courts, citizens of the six countries were issued an average of 3,929 visas monthly, 42 percent fewer than the 2016 monthly average of 6,799, according to State Department data. After the Supreme Court ruling, that monthly average was 47 percent lower than in 2016. (For a graphic of visas issued to six countries affected by the travel ban, see tmsnrt.rs/2yd6BAA) Trump’s initial travel ban, which barred citizens of the six countries as well as Iraq, sparked chaos and protests at airports around the United States. Issued with little forewarning, the order’s scope was unclear and sowed confusion among travelers as well as authorities responsible for implementing it. Courts quickly enjoined the main parts of the order. Trump eventually issued a new order that excluded Iraq and delayed its enactment to allow the administration and travelers time to prepare. But that order, too, was soon blocked by courts. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which allowed a limited version of the ban affecting only those citizens of the six countries lacking “bona fide” ties to the United States. After Trump issued the revised ban on Sunday, the Supreme Court canceled oral arguments scheduled for Oct. 10 to decide whether or not the earlier version of the ban was discriminatory. Even as sharply fewer visas were being issued, the president often complained on social media and in speeches about limits imposed by U.S. courts on the two executive orders establishing the travel ban. “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific-but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!” Trump tweeted on Sept. 15. (Follow Trump’s impact on energy, environment, healthcare, immigration and the economy at The Trump Effect www.reuters.com/trump-effect) Because the State Department only releases data on how many visas are issued and not total application numbers, it is unclear if the drop is due to fewer people applying, or because the administration is denying more applications. In addition, a month-by-month comparison with prior years is not possible because the State Department released only annual numbers – not monthly data - until March of this year. Stephen Pattison, a former U.S. consular official and now an immigration attorney, said he suspects that the huge drop in visas issued is due to fewer people applying rather than higher rejection rates. “Quantifying the chilling effect of the Trump administration’s policies on the international public is hard to do, but I think that’s the biggest impact of what this administration has done,” Pattison said. “This atmosphere is causing bona fide, legitimate travelers to think twice about coming to the United States.” Michael Boos, general counsel for the conservative nonprofit Citizens United, which filed a brief to the Supreme Court in support of the Trump administration in the travel ban case, said the figures show the ban is having its intended effect. “Clearly the purpose of the temporary ban was to reduce the number of visas that would be issued to persons from the affected countries, so it’s not surprising that...when the court reinstated the ban, the number of visas would have dramatically diminished,” Boos said. “If people are deterred from seeking admission to the United States because they’re going to go through a vetting process that’s real and substantial, then maybe they shouldn’t be coming here in the first place.” (This version of the story corrects penultimate paragraph spelling to Michael instead of Michel) | 1 |
PARIS (Reuters) - The French Socialist Party plans to put its headquarters in Paris up for sale, the party said on Tuesday, as it tries to reinvent itself after a poor performance in elections earlier this year. The disappointing performance in the presidential and parliamentary elections split the party, and it will struggle financially. The sale of the Paris mansion, acquired in 1980, will be used in part to cover the shortfall. This new era that is ahead of us can also open up at a new place, Jean-Francois Debat, the treasurer of the party told journalists. The number of Socialist seats in the 577-seat assembly plummeted from 280 in 2012 to just 29, the lowest in the post-war Fifth Republic. Parliament s lower house is now dominated by President Emmanuel Macron s centrist Republic on the Move party, which blew apart the traditional two-party system. The crisis facing the Socialists has its roots in a mid-term shift of former president Francois Hollande from being the self-proclaimed enemy of bankers and defender of workers to advocate of business-friendly reform. The move split the party, exposing a deep-seated rift between moderates and hard-left lawmakers. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House’s 2018 budget plan for the U.S. Department of Energy includes $120 million for nuclear waste programs including the restart of licensing for Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a project stalled for years by lawsuits and local opposition. The move signals that President Donald Trump may consider that nuclear waste solutions could extend the lives of existing U.S. nuclear power plants and speed up innovations in next- generation nuclear plants that backers say are safer than previous reactors. Congress will debate the budget and it is uncertain whether funds for waste will remain in the plan. While Yucca Mountain would store waste on a practically permanent basis, the budget money would also support programs for storing waste at interim sites before Yucca opens. “These investments would accelerate progress on fulfilling the federal government’s obligations to address nuclear waste, enhance national security, and reduce future taxpayer burden,” according to a summary of the budget. Yucca has been studied by the U.S. government since the 1970s as a potential repository for the nation’s radioactive waste and billions of dollars have been spent on it. But Yucca has never opened because of legal challenges and widespread opposition from local politicians, environmentalists and Native American groups. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama withdrew the license to store waste at Yucca amid opposition from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a fellow Democrat from Nevada. Maria Korsnick, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute industry group, said the industry was encouraged by the plan for waste projects but that nuclear energy innovators were “nervous” about cuts to programs that have supported public-private partnerships to bring new nuclear technologies to market. The budget eliminates funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy and an innovative technology loan guarantee program that have been popular with both Democrats and many Republicans. Trump’s energy secretary, Rick Perry, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that restarting the Yucca Mountain project could not be ruled out, but that he would collaborate with states. “I am very aware that this is an issue this country has been flummoxed by for 30 years. We have spent billions of dollars on this issue,” Perry told the hearing in January. “I’ll work closely with you and the members of this committee to find the answers to this issue.” The White House proposal for the Department of Energy budget calls for an overall cut of 5.6 percent. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators examining money laundering accusations against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort hope to push him to cooperate with their probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is examining Manafort’s financial and real estate records in New York as well as his involvement in Ukrainian politics, the officials said. Between 2006 and 2013, Manafort bought three New York properties, including one in Trump Tower in Manhattan. He paid for them in full and later took out mortgages against them. A former senior U.S. law enforcement official said that tactic is often used as a means to hide the origin of funds gained illegally. Reuters has no independent evidence that Manafort did this. The sources also did not say whether Mueller has uncovered any evidence to charge Manafort with money laundering, but they said doing so is seen by investigators as critical in getting his full cooperation in their investigation. “If Mueller’s team can threaten criminal charges against Manafort, they could use that as leverage to convince him to cooperate,” said one of the sources. Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said, “Paul Manafort is not a cooperating witness. Once again there is no truth to the disinformation put forth by anonymous sources and leakers.” Manafort is seen as a key figure in the investigation because of his senior role in the campaign and his participation in a June 2016 meeting that included the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., close adviser Jared Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was called after the lawyer offered damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Mueller’s team asked the White House on Friday to preserve all of its communications about that meeting. Mueller is examining contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election as part of a broader investigation into whether Russia tried to sway the election in favor of Trump. Manafort became Trump’s campaign manager in June 2016 but was forced to resign two months later amid reports of his business relationship with the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich. Manafort previously worked as a consultant to a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine and helped support Yanukovich. According to a financial audit reported by the New York Times, he also once owed $17 million to Russian shell companies. Former Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was investigating Manafort’s real estate dealings before he was fired by Trump in March, and Mueller has now assumed control of that investigation, one of the sources said. Bharara was not available for comment on his investigation on Friday. | 1 |
1. Disarm federal regulatory agenciesDuring an eight-year period, 53 non-military, non-law enforcement agencies spent a shocking $335 million on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment.2. Fire EPA lawyersThe EPA has more lawyers than scientists The EPA doesn t need 1,020 lawyers to harass the private sector.3. Blockade federal funds for sanctuary citiesBest was to clean up sanctuary cities!4. Cut funding for agency self-promotionCongress should tell the administration how agencies are doing through rigorous oversight. Funding self-promotional agency PR campaigns is absurd.5. Direct small business funds to small businessHere s a novel idea: Lending by the U.S. Small Business Administration should go to small businesses!Read the last 5 at: Forbes | 0 |
Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina have recently received word that they have been left out of the next Republican presidential debate and one of them isn t taking it very well.Thursday night s GOP debate in North Charleston, South Carolina is set to feature the usual knuckleheads: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich. Paul found out that he wasn t included in the debate last night, and couldn t contain his disappointment. Referring to the slight as a rotten thing to do, Paul posted several angry tweets about his exclusion from the line-up, and even told CNN that he is boycotting the debate and won t participate in anything that s not first tier because we have a first tier campaign. .@RandPaul: I will not participate in an undercard debate https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/s27wHk5elS CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 11, 2016Fox Business January 14 debate marks the first time only seven candidates will be in the Republican debate, allowing candidates to be included based on the average of the five most recent national polls and the top five candidates in Iowa or New Hampshire. Paul didn t qualify, but he doesn t want to accept that. He told CNN: It s a mistake because the thing is we actually have been in the top five or six in most of the recent polls. In fact, last week in a national poll we were just one point out of fourth place. So I think it s a mistake to try to exclude me from the national debate. Continuing his temper tantrum on social media, Paul busied himself with retweeting posts from supporters that painted him in a more favorable light.Rand was so angry, that he also released this statement:And of course when all else failed to get his point across, Paul begged his supporters for donations to prove the media wrong:Paul has not had much luck in the polls, coming in consistently low compared to his fellow GOP candidates but he apparently felt entitled to this debate and felt he should be given the chance to bore voters with his speeches, despite the fact that they ve already proven that they re not interested. For a man who was once considered the most interesting man in American politics, that s certainly a hard pill to swallow.Featured image via Medill DC / Flickr | 0 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The crisis around North Korea requires quick action, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday, calling on world powers to press Pyongyang to abide by its U.N. obligations. North Korea must fulfil all U.N. resolutions, abandon its nuclear and missile programmes, Abe said at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. The international community must unite to force North Korea to fulfil its U.N. obligations. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to recommend President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, retired Marine General James Mattis. The committee voted 26-1 to back Mattis’ nomination when it is received by the full Senate from Trump after he is sworn in as president. As a result, Mattis’ nomination will be sent directly to the Senate for a vote without referral to the committee. The identity of the senator who voted against Mattis was not immediately available. Congress cleared the way for Mattis’ quick confirmation last week by backing a waiver that would allow him to lead the Pentagon despite retiring from active duty as a Marine general only in 2013. The 66-year-old Mattis, who is highly respected by many fellow Marines, retired 3-1/2 years ago after more than four decades of military service. The 1947 National Security Act requires a seven-year gap between active duty military service and the Cabinet position. Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress and Democrats have both heaped praise on Mattis since his nomination was announced. | 0 |
As Republicans gather for the first day of their clown show also known as their convention a glaring and telling detail rests in the GOP platform: the preservation of Citizens United and big money in our national politics.On the other side, however, Democrats are committed to overturning the disastrous Supreme Court decision that has allowed a total pollution of our system of politics. And the party s nominee for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton, is making it priority number one.In a video posted at the progressive gathering Netroots Nation in St. Louis, Missouri, Clinton pledged her support for a constitutional amendment that would overturn the 2010 decision, and will push for such an amendment in her first 30 days should she be elected.The former secretary also promised to enact an executive order that would require all government contractors to disclose their campaign contributions and require the Securities and Exchange Commission to require all publicly traded companies to disclose their contributions as well.The chances of a constitutional amendment overrunning Citizens United are slim should the House and the Senate remain Republican controlled. But polls show the public overwhelmingly wants money out of politics. Then again, the overwhelming majority of the public supports common sense gun legislation but that hasn t convinced the Republicans to do anything.One of the biggest arguments in the Democratic Primary was the use of money in politics. While both candidates, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, supported a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United, it was Clinton who received major backlash from progressives over hefty Super PAC contributions. CBS reported last month that her biggest PAC contributor, Priorities USA, had raised over $52 million in June alone, and currently has $150 million stashed away for general ads against Donald Trump.According to OpenSecrets, an independent government watchdog group, of the $314 million that Clinton has raised this election season, 27 percent of that came from Super PAC donations.The bottom line is this: yes, Hillary Clinton used Super PAC money to help fund her campaign and get this far in a very competitive race. But in the age of Super PACs (and now a billionaire mogul), a candidate needs money to win. Clinton recognizes this, and is pledging to put an end to the system that pollutes our elections.If anyone thinks a President Trump would end Super PACs, they are blissfully ignorant or totally blind. Or both.Featured image via Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images | 0 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Friday urged the governments of the United States and Cuba to find points of agreement and resolve their differences “via dialogue”, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a tougher policy towards Cuba. “The Mexican government reiterates its friendship and solidarity with the Cuban people, and the desire to continue working with the Cuban government in the many areas of common interest,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement. | 1 |
We are now in the finally days leading up to the 2016 presidential election, and if there s one thing everyone must do it s vote. Donald Trump must lose, and he must lose, in his words, big league.Putting together the most epic music video of the entire election season is none other than the brilliant Rachel Bloom for Funny or Die with a cast of amazing talent a mile long.One of the most profound lyrics of the entire song is this: Look obviously only Hitler s Hiter but break out Mein Kampf into tiny parts and it reads like a Trump rant on Twitter. Followed with this thorough explanation: And if you need a refresher on post World War I Germany, they had an authoritarian political outsider stoking xenophobia in a nation where the poor felt marginalized, and blaming complex problems on scapegoating minorities. The song goes on, albeit in a silly way, to get the point across that Donald Trump would be absolutely devastating for not only the nation but the entire world.The final message is to vote for Hillary Clinton, and that a vote for a third party, while your right, is a conscience vote a lot of people don t have the luxury to have, because of how much they ll lose if Trump wins.Don t only vote, people. Vote wisely and for everyone s benefit, not just your own.Watch here:Featured image via video screen capture | 1 |
Donald Trump has a cocaine problem. As Howard Dean pointed out, the recent sniffling episode at the first presidential debate is not necessarily a sign of addiction, but something funny was absolutely going on. On Saturday as Trump was having his morning coffee? blood of the innocent? cocaine? and stalking women who say mean things about him on Twitter, he surely was furious when he came across Bette Midler s profile.Referencing the latest of Trump s seemingly endless string of late-night Twitter meltdowns, Midler offered The Donald some advice stop doing coke:Trump suffers a Twitter meltdown in the wee hours of AM. You gotta stop doing coke after 4PM or you'll be up all night! Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016And, of course, she couldn t resist mocking Trump s failing poll numbers, joking that Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs a reference to his penchant for leveling stupid insults at women who stand up to him:#Clinton is seeing a post-debate bounce in the polls. Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs. Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016Naturally, Trump s deplorables came out to play:@BetteMidler I love the smell of liberal desperation in the morning GROSS NEGLIGENCE (@sea329) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler This is exactly what is wrong with "Hollywood" slander everyone that has a half a brain. To many years of the "Inquirer" WeCATS (@WeCatsCorp) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler but Hillary needs to wake up so she can stop people from dying unnecessarily while Benghazi is being attacked! Kathleen Hansen (@KathJHansen) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler You should try your hardest not to sound so ridiculous..desperate. Stick to selfies in front of your fancy dressing room mirror Karen Perez (@karrielynn88) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler I am a deplorable and I am voting Trump!!! Yvonne Manley (@ymjunction56) October 1, 2016Trump s treatment of women is disgusting from his attacks on Megyn Kelly after she fact-checked him or his insults leveled at Carly Fiorina s face. While he is surely seething over Midler s latest Twitter gut-punch, one thing is for certain: Sniffles isn t going to stop making a fool of himself or embarrassing America. Remember that on election day.Featured image via Getty Images(Craig Barritt)/screengrab | 1 |
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton picked up an early if not surprising endorsement on Saturday from one of the country's largest labor unions: the American Federation of Teachers.
The executive council of the 1.6-million member AFT voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of backing the early frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, according to an announcement from the union. It marks the first endorsement from a major national labor union during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"Hillary Clinton is a tested leader who shares our values, is supported by our members, and is prepared for a tough fight on behalf of students, families and communities," Randi Weingarten, the union's president, said in the statement.
Weingarten and Clinton have been personal friends for years and the union threw its weight behind the Democrat during her 2008 campaign as well. In the resolution declaring its endorsement, the AFT said it polled its members twice and held two town halls before deciding which primary candidate to back.
The endorsement comes at a helpful time for Clinton as Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders surges in polls. Still considered a long shot, Sanders has proven to be an attractive candidate to progressives in the labor movement, particularly those turned off by Clinton's unclear positions on President Barack Obama's looming trade deal. A number of local labor federations are flirting with the idea of getting behind Sanders, Politico reported.
Clinton joined one of the AFT's executive council meetings last month, where she said teachers had become unfair targets of political attacks, according to the union.
"It is just dead wrong to make teachers the scapegoats for all of society's problems," Clinton had said. "Where I come from, teachers are the solution. And I strongly believe that unions are part of the solution, too."
Clinton plans to meet with officials from the AFL-CIO labor federation later this month to address their concerns with her unclear stance on the White House's trade pact, Reuters reported Thursday. The AFL-CIO vehemently opposed giving the president so-called fast-track authorization for the deal, though Congress ultimately granted it in June. | 1 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood to 25 years in prison in a final ruling over a case accusing him of spying for Qatar, judicial sources said. Mursi, democratically elected after Egypt s 2011 revolution, was overthrown in mid-2013 by then-general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, now the president, following mass protests against his rule. He was immediately arrested. Egypt s Court of Cassation reduced Mursi s sentence in the Qatar case to 25 years in its final ruling, from an original 40 years. Mursi is already serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted for the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. Since toppling Mursi, Sisi has clamped down on dissent. Mass trials have been held for thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and hundreds have received death sentences or lengthy prison terms. In 2014, Egypt charged Mursi and nine others with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar. Egypt s relations with Doha were already troubled by Qatar s backing of Mursi. Egypt is one of four Arab nations in a Saudi-led bloc that cut relations with the Gulf state on June 5, accusing it of backing militant groups and cooperating with their arch-foe Iran, allegations Doha denies. | 1 |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A former California state senator accused of taking cash bribes and gifts from a businessman and from undercover FBI agents posing as Hollywood filmmakers to steer legislation in their favor has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud, federal prosecutors said on Monday. Ronald Calderon, 58, a Democrat indicted in February 2014 on two dozen counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and other charges, will enter his guilty plea this week, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said. According to the plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed not to ask for a sentence of more than 70 months, although the statutory maximum for the charge is 20 years. Calderon’s attorney, Mark Geragos, could not be reached for comment. The former lawmaker’s brother, former state Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, pleaded guilty last week to a federal money-laundering charge in connection with the case. The Calderon brothers were members of a political dynasty going back several decades in California before they were ensnared in the federal investigation. “The Calderons have acknowledged their roles in a bribery scheme in which money for them and their families alone was driving legislation that would have benefited only a few individuals,” U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said. The 2014 indictment accused Ronald Calderon of taking bribes from California hospital owner Michael Drobot to preserve a legislative loophole that allowed Drobot to defraud the state’s healthcare system out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, Drobot hired Calderon’s son while he was in college, paying him some $30,000 for three summers of work. Drobot has agreed to plead guilty to separate federal charges and is cooperating in the case, prosecutors have said. Calderon was also charged with accepting money from undercover FBI agents, who he thought worked for an independent Hollywood movie studio, in exchange for supporting an expansion of film tax credits in California. According to the plea agreement, Calderon had the undercover agent hire his daughter for $3,000 a month, make a $5,000 payment toward his son’s tuition, pay for $12,000 in Las Vegas trips and give $25,000 to a nonprofit group the lawmaker and his brother used to pay themselves. In exchange, Calderon agreed to vote for the film tax legislation and hire the undercover agent’s purported girlfriend for his staff, according to the plea agreement. | 1 |
Where s George Soros when his top fact checkers, aka conservative news slayers , need him?Snopes.com is a liberal blog from 1994. The website claims to be the internet s oldest and most popular fact-checking site. Last year, Snopes Co-Founder was accused of embezzling company money, and spending it on prostitutes.Now you can find the blog begging for $500k in funding via GoFundMe. So, far the campaign has raised $18,000 in 3 hours via 710 people Zero HedgeFacebook users who are too stupid to figure out if a story is fake or real can now rely on a porn star with an escort service and her husband as well as a woman who admits to smoking to pot while fact checking stories .In December of 2016, Facebook announced plans to check for fake news using a series of organizations to assess whether stories are true.Here are a few facts most Snopes users probably don t know about fact-checker Snopes: One of them is a website called Snopes.com which claims to be one of the web s essential resources and painstaking, scholarly and reliable It was founded by husband-and-wife Barbara and David Mikkelson, who used a letterhead claiming they were a non-existent society to start their research Now they are divorced with Barbara claiming in legal documents he embezzled $98,000 of company money and spent it on himself and prostitutes In a lengthy and bitter legal dispute he is claiming to be underpaid and demanding industry standard or at least $360,000 a year The two also dispute what are basic facts of their case despite Snopes.com saying its ownership is committed to accuracy and impartiality Snopes.com founder David Mikkelson s new wife Elyssa Young is employed by the website as an administrator She has worked as an escort and porn actress and despite claims website is non-political ran as a Libertarian for Congress on a Dump Bush platform Its main fact checker is Kimberly LaCapria, whose blog ViceVixen says she is in touch with her domme side and has posted on Snopes.com while smoking potOne of the websites Facebook is to use to arbitrate on fake news is involved in a bitter legal dispute between its co-founders, with its CEO accused of using company money for prostitutes.Snopes.com will be part of a panel used by Facebook to decide whether stories which users complain about as potentially fake should be considered disputed .Popular myth-busting website Snopes originally gained recognition for being the go-to site for disproving outlandish urban legends -such as the presence of UFOs in Haiti or the existence of human-animal hybrids in the Amazon jungle.Recently, however, the site has tried to pose as a political fact-checker. But Snopes fact-checking looks more like playing defense for prominent Democrats. Its political fact-checker describes herself as a liberal and has called Republicans regressive and afraid of female agency. Snopes main political fact-checker is a writer named Kim Lacapria. Before writing for Snopes, Lacapria wrote for Inquisitr, a blog that oddly enough is known for publishing fake quotes and even downright hoaxes as much as anything else.While at Inquisitr, the future fact-checker consistently displayed clear partisanship. Go HERE for entire story on Kim Lacapria and her liberal background that was exposed by the Daily Caller. | 0 |
Why Donald Trump Must Shut Down The Federal Reserve And Start Issuing Debt-Free Money By 16th, 2016
If Donald Trump truly wants to fix the economy, he must shut down the Federal Reserve. If he just tries to patch up our current system, he will fail, because it has been fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. A little over a century ago, very powerful forces on Wall Street convinced Congress to completely restructure our financial system. An immensely powerful central bank known as the Federal Reserve was created, and the goal was to transform the U.S. dollar into a debt-based currency that would continuously be inflated and to create an endless debt spiral from which could never possibly escape. Sadly, they were successful on both counts. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by approximately 98 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger .
Americans tend to give most of the credit or most of the blame for the performance of the U.S. economy to our presidents, but the truth is that an unelected, unaccountable group of central bankers has far more power over our economy than anyone else does. The Federal Reserve has become known as “ the fourth branch of government “, but unlike the other branches of government we are told that the Fed’s decisions are “above politics” because they are “too important”. Fed officials fiercely guard their “independence”, and they fiercely resist any “interference” from Congress, the President, or the American people.
Donald Trump can try to lower taxes and reduce regulations, but what he will be able to do to influence the economy pales in comparison to the immensely powerful tools that the Fed wields. The Fed controls interest rates, the Fed controls the money supply, and the Fed regulates the banks.
To give you an idea of how enormously powerful the Fed is, I want you to pull out a dollar bill.
As you look at that dollar bill, I want you to notice that it says “Federal Reserve Note” right at the top.
In the financial world, a “note” is an instrument of debt, and the truth is that our system was designed to create as much debt as possible.
So why are we using debt-based “Federal Reserve Notes” in the first place? Shouldn’t Congress have control over our currency?
According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution , it is Congress that has the authority to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”.
So how did the Fed get involved?
Well, it is a very long and convoluted story, and if you are interested in the history behind it I would commend to you an excellent book by C. Edward Griffin entitled “ The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve “. Basically, big money interests on Wall Street got their hooks into the White House and Congress, and they rushed through legislation right before Christmas in 1913 that created this insidious central banking system that was designed to slowly but surely take wealth from the American people and put it into their hands.
Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize that we have a debt-based currency, nor do they understand where our money comes from. In a previous article , I discussed how money is normally created by the Federal Reserve under our current system…
When the U.S. government decides that it wants to spend another billion dollars that it does not have, it does not print up a billion dollars.
Rather, the U.S. government creates a bunch of U.S. Treasury bonds (debt) and takes them over to the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve creates a billion dollars out of thin air and exchanges them for the U.S. Treasury bonds.
The Federal Reserve takes the U.S. Treasury bonds that it receives in exchange for the “Federal Reserve Notes” that it gave to the government and it auctions off those bonds to the highest bidder . But of course this process always creates more debt than it does money…
The U.S. Treasury bonds that the Federal Reserve receives in exchange for the money it has created out of nothing are auctioned off through the Federal Reserve system.
But wait.
There is a problem.
Because the U.S. government must pay interest on the Treasury bonds, the amount of debt that has been created by this transaction is greater than the amount of money that has been created.
So where will the U.S. government get the money to pay that debt?
Well, the theory is that we can get money to circulate through the economy really, really fast and tax it at a high enough rate that the government will be able to collect enough taxes to pay the debt.
But that never actually happens, does it?
And the creators of the Federal Reserve understood this as well. They understood that the U.S. government would not have enough money to both run the government and service the national debt. They knew that the U.S. government would have to keep borrowing even more money in an attempt to keep up with the game.
So our debt just keeps going up and up and up. While Barack Obama has been in the White House our national debt has risen by more than 9 trillion dollars, and at this moment it is sitting just under the 20 trillion dollar mark .
But we shouldn’t be surprised by this, because this is precisely what the Federal Reserve system was designed to do to us.
Many conservatives still hold to the mistaken illusion that we could somehow pay all of this debt back someday, but as I have shown in a previous article, this is mathematically impossible to do .
If the government went out today and grabbed every single dollar in existence we could not pay back the national debt, and of course we have of household debt, of corporate debt and of state and local government debt that we need to pay back as well.
Under the current system our only hope is to keep the wheel spinning by continuing to devalue the dollar and by continuing to go into even greater amounts of debt.
And of course it isn’t just the United States that is in this predicament. At this point, almost every single nation on the entire planet has a central bank.
Even though there are extremely sharp disagreements among nations on virtually everything else, somehow central banking has achieved nearly universal adoption.
As you read this article, well over 99.9% of the population of the globe lives in a country that has a central bank.
Do you think that is just a coincidence?
Of course there are still a few very small countries such as the Federated States of Micronesia that do not have a central bank, but the only big nation not to have one is North Korea.
And you would literally have to be insane to want to live in North Korea.
But now we have an opportunity to get free from this insidious system. The truth is that we don’t have to have a central bank. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no central bank .
We don’t need central planners to set our interest rates and to manipulate our money supply. They will never admit this, but the reality of the matter is that their interference in the economy often creates tremendous economic busts.
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, there have been 18 distinct recessions or depressions : 1918, 1920, 1923, 1926, 1929, 1937, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1958, 1960, 1969, 1973, 1980, 1981, 1990, 2001, 2008.
Considering their track record, isn’t it time for a change?
And we don’t have to have a debt-based currency. In fact, not too long ago we had a president that decided to start issuing debt-free “United States Notes”.
Back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110 which authorized the U.S. Treasury to issue debt-free “United States Notes” which were directly created by the U.S. government.
He was assassinated shortly thereafter.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but many of the debt-free United States Notes that were issued under President Kennedy are still in circulation today , and President Trump could do something similar.
But will he?
It has been said that the borrower is the servant of the lender, and the Federal Reserve system has turned all of us into debt slaves.
Debt is a form of social control, and the global elite use all of this debt to dominate the planet. The total amount of debt in the world just hit of 152 trillion dollars , and the longer we allow the central banks to control the system the bigger this debt bubble will become.
here in the United States that starts with shutting issuing debt-free currency. It would take someone very bold to make a move like this, and so let us hope that the man that we just elected is up to the task. | 1 |
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Thousands of Romanians protested in freezing weather across the country on Sunday against attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to overhaul the judiciary, which critics said would threaten the rule of law. In Bucharest, an estimated 4,000 protesters marched from government headquarters to parliament, where lawmakers will begin debating changes on Monday to the criminal code. Earlier this month, the Social Democrats used their solid majority to approve a judicial overhaul in the lower house that threatens to put the justice system under political control. The senate is expected to approve the bills next week. The European Commission, the U.S. State Department, the country s centrist president and thousands of magistrates have criticized the changes to judicial legislation, saying they could derail the rule of law. The government denies this is the case. Outside parliament, the marchers chanted Thieves nest and We want justice, not corruption under sleet and rain. Thousands more protested in the cities of Iasi, Cluj, Timisoara and others. Attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to change anti-corruption legislation have taken place on and off throughout 2017 in one of the European Union s most corrupt states. Romania s anti-corruption prosecution unit has sent 72 deputies and senators to trial since 2006 alongside cabinet ministers, a sitting Prime Minister and hundreds of mayors and other public officials. The speakers of parliament s lower house and senate are both currently on trial in separate cases. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to slap new sanctions on Iran has been delayed in the U.S. Senate due to concerns about Iran’s May presidential election, in which conservative hardliners hope to defeat moderate President Hassan Rouhani, U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday. A group of Democratic and Republican senators introduced the bill in March seeking to impose tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran over ballistic missile launches and other non-nuclear activities, echoing a harder line on Tehran espoused by Republican President Donald Trump. But on Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, said the bill would not move forward for now. “We’ve got a Iran sanctions bill that has a number of co-sponsors that wasn’t able to markup at present because of concerns about how the European Union might react and (Iranian) elections that are coming up,” Corker said during a hearing on the EU as a U.S. partner in dealings with Russia. A markup is when a committee meets to debate legislation and to consider amendments. Corker was a co-sponsor of the new sanctions bill, as were several other Democratic and Republican members of the Foreign Relations Committee. As he has campaigned, Rouhani has called for greater individual freedoms and highlighted as a signature achievement the 2015 diplomatic breakthrough reached with the United States and other world powers, in which Iran curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. The lawmakers who wrote the bill said it had been written specifically not to interfere with the nuclear accord. But Iran has suggested that it would consider past proposed sanctions bills violations of the international pact reached during the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Every Republican in the U.S. Congress opposed the nuclear agreement. Trump criticized it while he campaigned for president in 2016, but his administration has so far said that it would seek to strictly enforce the pact rather than tear it up. | 0 |
BRASILIA (Reuters) - A majority of the judges on Brazil s Supreme Court voted on Wednesday to send new graft charges against President Michel Temer to the lower house of Congress, which must authorize any trial of a sitting president. Last month, Temer s allies in Congress blocked the first corruption charge against the president, saving him from facing a possible Supreme Court trial that could have ousted him from office. | 1 |
We ve all heard the stories of Donald Trump preferring a well-done steak with ketchup and shunning any new delicacies, despite living a lifestyle that offers him all the luxuries one could ever desire, however, it s not just that the President has terrible gastronomical taste, a new memoir suggests that his diet is one of several poor lifestyle choices that could very well shorten his life.According to an excerpt from Let Trump be Trump, an upcoming book by Trump s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and aide David Bossie, we get to enter the inner circle where the President of the United States having a 2,400-calorie McDonald s dinner is par for the course. Trump s appetite seems to know no bounds when it comes to McDonald s, with a dinner order consisting of two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted, is just one of the claims made in the book. To put that meal in perspective, Trump s dinner contains 3,400 grams of sodium, despite the American Heart Foundation recommending just 1,500 grams per day, plus enough white bread to last most people a week. Remember, this is just one meal, but it only gets worse. On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke, the authors write about traveling with Trump during the early days of his presidency, but there may be a valid reason for it Not only is he a fan of manufacturing, Trump is also a renowned germaphobe who allegedly won t eat from a package that has already been opened, which would also explain the plane s cupboards being stacked with Vienna Fingers, potato chips, pretzels, and many packages of Oreos. Those well-done steaks make a little more sense now, as well. But a little bit of bacteria is probably the least of the President s worries. This is a 71-year-old man who gets next to no exercise (it s hard to include his golf when he barely even walks while playing), gets very little sleep, and is constantly throwing tantrums, so add in that diet and you have the perfect recipe for a heart attack. The diet alone, especially the snacks, is almost an open-invite for diabetes, too.What makes this frightening for the rest of us is that this is a man who is currently responsible for a nuclear standoff with North Korea, as well as dealing with rapidly warming oceans and an ever-increasing tax bill. If he has this lack of concern for his own wellbeing, then what does it say of his risk-assessment abilities?Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1 |
Republicans in Hawaii punished the first female House Minority Leader for putting country before party.Prior to and after the election, state Rep. Beth Fukumoto took a stand against Donald Trump. She criticized him for his treatment of women and minorities and refused to blindly follow Trump.Criticism is a form of free speech, but Fukumoto is now being punished for exercising her constitutional rights by her own party.Fukumoto served as the House Minority Leader of the Republican Party in the state legislature, but no longer holds that position after her party punished her for criticizing Trump at the Women s March last month. They told me they would keep me in this position if I would commit to not disagreeing with our president for the remainder of his term, Fukumoto explained during a speech on the House floor. Mr. Speaker, I m being removed because I refused to make that commitment, because I believe it s our job as Americans and as leaders in this body to criticize power when power is wrong. Indeed, dissent is an American value, especially when the president is acting like petulant child tyrant.Fukumoto was told by a Republican colleague that as House Minority Leader, her first duty should be to the party. You are speaking not for yourself anymore, Rep. Bob McDermott responded. It is a high-level responsibility. And he is totally wrong.The first duty of any American in public office is to the country and the people, not the interests of the party. Putting party and power first is selfish and blinds lawmakers to seeing what is best for the nation.McDermott repeatedly argued with other Republican women in the state legislature and Fukumoto was replaced as House Minority Leader by a male lawmaker.Fukumoto told KHON that she expressed her concerns about Trump during the Women s March the day after the inauguration. The Republican Party is getting increasingly hostile to different opinions. If you followed what happened at the state convention, I got booed for about 10 minutes straight for raising concerns about President Trump, then nominee Trump, and the way he treated women and minorities in many of his remarks. I, at the time, had said this is not, this should not reflect our party I repeated those sentiments at the Women s March last week.And since then, there have been many calls for my resignation, and my caucus members have raised concerns about whether or not that means I m a Republican, whether or not that means I m fit for leadership, whether or not that means I should even be an elected official. My caucus has asked me to stop speaking out about Trump and to make a commitment. They ve said they ll keep me as minority leader if I make a commitment not to speak out against Trump for the remainder of his term. I don t think that s our job as elected officials, even more so, I don t think that s our job as citizens. So Fukumoto is now reaching out to her constituents asking them if they would be okay with her joining the Democratic Party.Here s the video via KHON.Fukumoto should not have been punished for criticizing Donald Trump. But Republicans increasingly believe that anyone who criticizes them and their policies should be punished, the Constitution be damned.The fact that Republicans replaced Fukumoto with a man speaks volumes about how much Republicans value women and it s an insult that should be answered with protests and a landslide victory for Democrats at the ballot box for generations until Republican learn to respect women, the country, and the Constitution that they claim to hold so dear.Featured Image: YouTube | 1 |
Obama addressed the Nation In a nothing burger of a jumble of jargon:Here are steps Congress can take right now to help defeat the terrorist threat from ISIL and keep Americans safe. https://t.co/YFgbTSXndX The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 7, 2015 | 0 |
We are all aware by now of Donald Trump s racist rhetoric. One young but very intelligent and articulate student understands how the media can at times sensationalize everything, so he decided to see for himself by attending a Trump rally. His findings were not surprising: Trump s followers are very racist. James Patterson, whose high school assignment was for him to volunteer at Trump s campaign as part of a student-based civics activity, perfectly analyzes the Trump phenomenon and he exemplifies what racists are afraid of: The baseline of his campaign is to make America white again. It speaks to fundamentalist Christian, white middle class Americans who feel like their power has been taken. Even though that s a false accusation, they feel like because minorities are making strides that they re losing power. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh8VGKqqunA]Patterson was also stunned to see just how many people actually support Donald Trump. He said: That s the scary part about the Trump campaign, they re everyday people, people we work with, people at schools, people who hold these resentments. As an African American, that s very scary that I can talk to somebody and they can hate me because of my skin color. Patterson said that what concerned him the most was how nice people pretended to be to him, yet they were in favor of Trump s racist policies, policies that have come out against minority populations, specifically Muslims and Mexicans: They were very friendly, they were normal people but in the back of their mind, and openly, they were advocating for Trump s policies which are inherently exclusive for people who look like me. However, as he made his way through the crowd, Patterson said that the pretense of friendliness went away and he could feel the hostility: When I would bump into various members of the crowd, there were hostile looks when I would attempt to excuse myself. Many people in the crowd looked me up and down as I was walking. If I had to describe the feeling it would be that of isolation. This all reminded Patterson of what he s made to feel like as an African American in this country. The difference with Trump and his followers is that they normalize all this and make it fine.The most effective response to Trump and his racist army is for minorities to continue the march toward self-empowerment through education and activism. This young man is an excellent example and an effective counter punch to the racists. Featured image from Wikimedia Commons | 0 |
We Use Cookies: Our policy [X] Young Fellas Made Of Nothing These Days, Finds Scientific Study November 10, 2016 - BREAKING NEWS , HEALTH Share 0 Add Comment
DOCTORS studying the make-up of young fellas have found that they are made of nothing these days, in contrast to the men of old.
The scientific study, carried out by a team of genetic experts at Trinity College Dublin, found that the majority of Irish males aged between 16-30 have grown a lot weaker physically and less resilient to cold temperatures over the past 60 years. Of 100 Irish males tested in physical work environments, 67% percent moaned about being tired and fatigued after just two minutes.
“We put the study group to work on a local farm picking spuds, weeding gardens and doing general old time shit,” lead researcher Professor Conor Tracey explains, “We even made them travel to work in their bare feet. The results we got back were absolutely appalling to tell you the truth. Only a small minority of the men got on with their chores without complaining”.
In fact, further testing found that 89% of those studied were ‘perishers’, a trait increasing in modern day males.
“Nearly every one of them began whinging about the cold during the picking stones in the frost task,” Dr. Tracey added, “They began complaining that their ikkle fingies were sore, and that they couldn’t feel their hands or feet from the cold. Poor pets. Several lads even tried to pretend they were sick in a bid to get out of the job, and one 18-year-old subject began crying for his mammy like a big baby, so he did”.
The study concluded that 92% of Irish men were found to be made of nothing these days, compared to the young fellas of years ago who used to walk to school in their bare feet, before then going to work in the mines for 18 hours a day. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee said on Wednesday a final tax bill Republicans hope to get to President Donald Trump by Christmas likely will not retain a corporate alternative minimum tax. “Right now it doesn’t look like it but you never know,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch told reporters when asked if the corporate AMT would survive in the final bill. Republicans in the House of Representatives want to get rid of the AMT, which is designed to limit the ability of corporations to reduce their payments through tax breaks and credits. | 0 |
Donald Trump made an odd statement about Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in Florida on Friday night. Trump told his supporters that Clinton could shoot somebody and not be prosecuted for the crime. She is being so protected. She could walk into this arena right now and shoot somebody with 20,000 people watching right smack in the middle of the heart and she wouldn t be prosecuted, Trump said.Trump was commenting on the federal government s decision not to prosecute Clinton after she was investigated for using a private email server. Taken on its own, the comment doesn t appear to be too controversial, keeping in mind this is the live action version of Trump speaking at a rally in a conservative state. However, the comment is odd because it is similar to something Trump said about himself back in January during a campaign event in Iowa. I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn t lose any voters, OK? the pre-nominee Trump told his supporters.The assertion has me wondering, just how well protected Trump is. Trump is embroiled in numerous legal scandals, the biggest probably being the huge scam known as Trump University. The university is a scam that took thousands of people s money and gave them nothing back in return. Even former employees of the school were revealed to have considered the place to be a giant fraud. Questions have even been raised about whether Trump had actually bribed his way out of having the school be investigated in Florida.I have no idea how Trump is still not in prison for his dealings in Atlantic City. That s where he made millions from casinos that were failing. He also failed to pay contracted workers what they were owed, all the while taking in huge bonuses. Some of his actions might even have been felonious.Say what you want about Clinton and her status in society and you will see Trump standing at least just as high. Trump is billionaire aristocrat who uses his privilege to grow his fortune even more by abusing the working class. He is protected. He is not an outsider. We live in a capitalist society and he is a member of the transnational capitalist class.You can watch trump make the comment below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 |
Edward Albee never expected or even wanted you to like his plays. “Like” is too pale and friendly a word for the emotions he hoped to elicit. Rage and bewilderment, fear and loathing and that grand old Aristotelian couple, pity and terror: These were all welcome and entirely appropriate responses to have in the theater of Mr. Albee, one of the genuinely great dramatists of the last century, who died on Friday at 88. If you left one of his plays feeling good about yourself, then it would seem that Mr. Albee hadn’t done his job. But the real problem probably would have been that you hadn’t been paying attention. “You don’t listen,” as a character in one of his plays kept saying to anyone who would — sorry, wouldn’t — listen. The challenge within that accusation rang through everything he wrote. That play, “Listening,” was the first work by Mr. Albee that I wrote about as a critic for The New York Times. First staged in 1977, it had been revived in New York in the fall of 1993 by the invaluable Signature Theater Company, created by James Houghton (who died in August) which was devoting a season to Mr. Albee’s more obscure work. By that time, New York critics and audiences had mostly turned their backs on Mr. Albee. It had been a decade since he had had new work produced in the city. And the feeling was that he belonged to an earlier, artier generation that took its provocative intellectual postures far too seriously. Sure, the consensus seemed to go, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ,” the marital boxing match of a play that had been made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was great. But, be honest now, did anyone really understand such arcane plays as “Tiny Alice” and “The Lady From Dubuque,” with all their cryptic, cosmic talk? Being just another New York sheep, I had probably absorbed that perspective without even thinking about it. But as I left “Listening,” and its companion piece “Counting the Ways,” in 1993, I realized that my mind was still churning, in excitement and agitation and a bit of annoyance, in ways it seldom did at the end of any show. I wrote in The Times that I was certainly glad to be able to listen to Mr. Albee again. He in turn wrote me a crisp and courteous letter, saying it was refreshing to be treated fairly again. As it turned out, New York was more than willing to embrace Mr. Albee again. (O. K. maybe not embrace, since that implies huggability writing about Mr. Albee, the most exacting of semanticists, makes you question every word you use.) That same autumn of 1993 saw, in addition to the Signature season, the New York premiere (Off Broadway, at the Vineyard Theater) of Mr. Albee’s “Three Tall Women,” a portrait of the three ages of a rich and selfish suburbanite who was clearly modeled on the playwright’s adoptive mother. It became the play of the season for people who no doubt included fashionable, captious, Americans rather like its title character. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. And so began one of the greatest second acts in any dramatist’s career. Soon, Mr. Albee would be back on Broadway again, first with an exquisite revival of his “A Delicate Balance” in 1996. Plays that had seemed annoying and obscure a couple of decades earlier, including “Tiny Alice” and “The Lady From Dubuque,” were reincarnated to illuminating effect. One of his new works, “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” which opened on Broadway in 2002, put to rest any notions that Mr. Albee might have started playing nice with his audiences. The titular animal was the love (and lust) object of the play’s anguished married hero, first portrayed by Bill Pullman. You can listen to Mr. Albee — in the “Last Words” interview I conducted with him some years ago — contentedly cataloging the different points in the production at which theatergoers walked out. He didn’t even mention the bit of dialogue that made me think, “No, surely he did not say that” — a description of a man dandling an infant on his lap and realizing to his distress that he had acquired an erection. In 2002, Mr. Albee was evidently still quite capable of making even jaded critics, who had done their time with the naked fornicators of fringe theater, squirm. But it is never just the shocking detail that unsettles with Mr. Albee. What’s most disturbing, always, is his insistence that our most primitive instincts keep asserting themselves in even the most civilized settings, like a Minotaur at a cocktail party, and usually they wrestle us to the ground. “Violence! Violence!” chants the mousy Honey, with a cheerleader’s delight, in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” And nasty eruptions of the impulse to hurt, and its frequent conflation with the sex drive, were always a part of the with Mr. Albee. So was death, with and without a capital D, most pointedly in “All Over” and “The Lady From Dubuque,” but its shadow looms large in everything Mr. Albee wrote. That unsentimental insistence on our mortality may have been the biggest turnoff to New York theatergoers of the century. Mr. Albee repeatedly dared to ask what most of us retire to the closets of our minds for as long as possible: the fact of our inevitable ends, and what it means for our tenuous . I should say that few dramatists of the 20th and 21st centuries matched Mr. Albee as a spinner of filigree dialogue. It can hold its own with that of Wilde, Shaw, Coward and Stoppard. Mr. Albee loved words and wordplay — sometimes to the point of giddiness. But he also made it clear that he fully grasped the inadequacy of language as a means of staving off — never mind defining — the darkness that waited to claim his characters. Performing his work required, to borrow a title of his, a delicate balance. (“If I am sharp, it is because I am neither less nor more than human,” says Agnes in that play.) And one of the joys of my job as a theater critic has been watching performers, actresses in particular, discover that balance, with an appropriate mix of glee and bitterness, bravura and uncertainty. Kathleen Turner, Rosemary Harris, Uta Hagen, Marian Seldes and Elaine Stritch all created performances in Albee works. I met Mr. Albee several times, socially and professionally. The first time, he pointed out that, like so many people, I had mispronounced his name. (“It’s Ben, not . ”) Generally, he was gentlemanly, polite, reserved and attentive, in a way I associate with a era. There was power in his gaze, though, an assessing twinkle that you suspected might easily be fanned into a flame that could scorch. Once I saw him, for an interview, the day after I had attended a new play of his at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N. J. I told Mr. Albee that my nephew, whom I had taken to the show, had greatly enjoyed the production. “Good,” said Mr. Albee, who then paused and added, “I hope he didn’t enjoy it too much. ” | 0 |
Better a blow-up doll than an actual citizen, in the city of L beck, Germany where the Muslim migrant population has exploded.Police were called out on Wednesday to the scene of what seemed to be a grisly murder. But they were soon able to put the finder s mind to rest.It must have been quite the shock.A street cleaner in the picturesque town of L beck near Germany s Baltic coast called police early on Wednesday morning to tell them he had found a female corpse lying on the street next to a paper recycling container.The lifeless body was wrapped in a blanket with a foot jutting out of one end.Officers from L beck s 2nd police district jumped into action, rushing to the scene as fast as they could. After more exact criminal observation, it was ascertained that we were dealing with a so-called sex toy which had no head, the police report reveals. Via: Local de | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The surprise election of Donald Trump, a real estate television star with no government experience, upended the political order in the United States and around the world. Mr. Trump marshaled white and voters disaffected by globalization and multiculturalism, waging a campaign that traded in derision and attacked the legitimacy of the political process. ____ 2. Mr. Trump turned to assembling his White House team. There are some familiar names among the potential candidates: Rudolph W. Giuliani, above, a former mayor of New York Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a crucial adviser on policy issues, and Steven Mnuchin, a businessman who was Mr. Trump’s national finance chairman, are also among those being considered as cabinet secretaries and advisers. ____ 3. Both Hillary Clinton and President Obama were stung by the voters’ repudiation, but reinforced the importance of a peaceful, orderly transition of power. Mrs. Clinton, who said the loss was “painful, and it will be for a long time,” also insisted that the nation owed Mr. Trump “an open mind and a chance to lead. ” ____ 4. In cities across the nation, like Oakland, Calif. above, people hit the streets to vent their anger at Mr. Trump’s election. A crowd of protesters in Oregon burned American flags and chanted, “That’s not my president. ” But many Americans are glad. In a former Pennsylvania steel town that was once a Democratic stronghold, people watched the returns Tuesday with mounting satisfaction. “He’s killing it — that’s our next president,” said one voter. Mr. Trump reshaped the election map with large gains across rural America, most significantly from industrial Midwest counties where whites without a college education made up the majority. ____ 5. “Call it pink and blue America. ” Our senior correspondent on gender issues writes that the election shows how much men and women still talk past one another. A crowd of women attended Mrs. Clinton’s concession speech, to bid her an anguished farewell. “I know now that we live in two different Americas,” said one woman. “And one clearly doesn’t know the other at all. ” ____ 6. Global markets stabilized after an initial plunge. But uncertainty over Mr. Trump’s agenda, along with his distrust of trade pacts and climate change, raised international concerns. Vladimir V. Putin expressed hope for a “constructive dialogue” with Mr. Trump, whose lack of foreign policy experience and friendly positions toward Russia could play into the Kremlin’s hands. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, sent a short congratulatory note, but made no mention of Mr. Trump’s promises to confront Beijing on trade and currency issues. ____ 7. Mr. Trump’s sweep was unforeseen, undercutting the credibility of much of the American news media and the enormous efforts put into polling and analysis. As with the “Brexit” referendum that astonished Britain a few months ago, much of the prominent coverage failed to capture the level of popular fury. The host Stephen Colbert was swept up in a surreal, disconcerting broadcast when he and the guests on his live special began realizing that Mr. Trump was winning. ____ 8. The Republicans will now control the White House and both houses of Congress, as well as more statehouses than at any point in history. Mr. Trump’s unanticipated strength in several key battleground states helped G. O. P. candidates fend off numerous Democratic challengers in the Senate. The Supreme Court will tilt right again, with one vacant seat almost certain to be filled by a conservative. And there’s the prospect of several more openings during Mr. Trump’s tenure. ____ 9. With the help of the House and Senate, Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act could become reality. But it’s not clear how many of the promises he made on the campaign trail — like building a wall on the Mexican border or making sweeping changes to immigration policy — will be pursued. Here’s a look at where he stands on some of the issues that could fundamentally change the direction of the U. S. ____ 10. Finally, the presidential election wasn’t the only marker of the country’s changing attitudes. The national movement to legalize marijuana took a huge leap with the addition of three states — California, Massachusetts and Nevada — approving recreational use of the drug. With Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington having previously approved recreational marijuana measures, Tuesday’s votes created a bloc that stretches across the West Coast. But the federal government’s ban on the drug continues, and a Trump White House may not be friendly to overturning it. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0 |
LONGVIEW, Texas (Reuters) - Looking for a way to help relieve stress in a heated political season, a Texas golf course owner has given patrons the chance to whack their balls at large posters of the leading presidential candidates affixed to hay bales. In the Republican-stronghold of Longview, where Alpine Target Golf Center is located about 120 miles east of Dallas, Democrat Hillary Clinton has been the overwhelming target for patrons’ golf balls. “Hillary Clinton is taking it a lot on the chin,” owner Mike Williams said on Wednesday of the promotion that started about a week ago. The Trump poster has suffered little damage, Williams said, noting “he is still in great shape.” | 0 |
Report Copyright Violation The media chooses our president (Hillary), because we're a nation of morons. If the media said, "Trump's a genius, women like him, he's a man's man, he's dynamic, he's vibrant... but Hillary is crooked and she's a criminal and no one likes her" Blah Blah... if that happened, women would support and vote for Trump, etc.Think about that. Just flip the whole thing.There's never been a pile-on in MSM history like the one against Trump.While he had a few unforced errors, I don't think it would matter much what he did. They would trash him, or drag up 10 year old Tweets and play them 24/7 all day, even if he had pivoted to being presidential.If they wanted to prop up Trump and destroy Hillary, we would have seen the opposite happen.This entire election has been nothing more than an exercise in mass propaganda. Hillary is the chosen candidate of the Establishment, and she shall win. Early voting totals already show the Democrats are showing up in big numbers for Hillary, and Republicans are lagging behind.The election IS rigged, but largely by the media and voting scams may not be necessary if the Sheeple are compliant . "Being easily offended is indicative of your own guilts and neuroses regarding your self." - AC 25018606"Easily the best poster on this site and never afraid to speak the truth." -Ronin"You're the most politically incorrect person on the site. Keep on speaking the truth brother." - Anon"You're still on the ball, Cigarette Man! God bless."- Helios Maximus | 1 |
Donald Trump went on quite a tweetstorm this morning, lashing out former Director of the FBI James Comey and the agency. Trump is losing his sh*t after his former national security adviser flipped in the investigation into any possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. On his former FBI Director, Trump called him a liar, writing, I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie! Then he claimed his FBI is the worst in History! and said it was in tatters. After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters worst in History! he wrote. But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness. After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017That tweet prompted a statement from the President of the FBI Agents Association in a series of tweets. Every day, FBI Special Agents put their lives on the line to protect the American public from national security and criminal threats, FBIAA President Thomas O Connor wrote. Agents perform these duties with unwavering integrity and professionalism and a focus on complying with the law and the Constitution. This is why the FBI continues to be the premier law enforcement agency in the world, he continued. FBI Agents are dedicated to their mission; suggesting otherwise is simply false. James Comey also weighed in. I want the American people to know this truth: The FBI is honest. The FBI is strong. And the FBI is, and always will be, independent. Me (June 8, 2017) pic.twitter.com/OZ1ZiBrMNL James Comey (@Comey) December 3, 2017Former President Barack Obama s Attorney General Eric Holder also took a shot at Trump s tweets. Nope. Not letting this go. The FBI s reputation is not in tatters, Holder tweeted. It s composed of the same dedicated men and women who have always worked there and who do a great, apolitical job. You ll find integrity and honesty at FBI headquarters and not at 1600 Penn Ave right now. Nope. Not letting this go. The FBI s reputation is not in tatters . It s composed of the same dedicated men and women who have always worked there and who do a great, apolitical job. You ll find integrity and honesty at FBI headquarters and not at 1600 Penn Ave right now Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 3, 2017What the FBI agents are saying is that Donald Trump is fake news.Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images. | 1 |
After The West Wing wrapped up its final season in 2006, many of us were left with a gaping hole in our soul watching a part of our lives cease to exist any longer. The brilliance of the show between the writing, directing and acting is one that seldom happens, and can seldom be recreated.However, what it can be, is reprised. Which is what just happened as actress Allison Janney took to the White House press podium to reprise her role as Claudia Jean CJ Cregg. For six seasons Janney played the beloved role of Press Secretary for the President Bartlet administration, and then played the White House Chief of Staff.Janney came to the podium telling everyone that Josh is out today, and that the president is still preparing his jokes for the Correspondents Dinner. That s when real-life Press Secretary Josh Earnest makes an appearance and seems surprised to see Janney there.Clearly, it was a set-up that was brilliantly pulled off, and was made so that Janney could get her broader message across which is the dangers of opioid abuse. She came to the White House alongside television heavyweight Chuck Lorre, creator of Janney s show Mom, to discuss opioid abuse and recovery.According to ABC News: The White House held an event today honoring 10 White House Champions of Change who help fight the epidemic in their local communities. After Janney was done speaking, a reporter asked if he could ask her a question. She politely said sure. Then the reporter asked if she knew which Democrat President Bartlet is supporting for the election. To which Janney quickly quipped back, I think you know the answer to that. After all, Janney s character CJ has been said to have been modeled after former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. So, one can only assume who she was talking about in her answer to the reporter s question.All in all, it was great to see CJ Cregg back in action!Watch here:.@AllisonBJanneyAKA CJ CreggAKA Bonnie on @MomCBSdrops by the White House press briefing. https://t.co/TK4NJ7TEyM The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 29, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 |
Ted Cruz did everything right in his campaign for the White House. He built a happy campaign operation that achieved all of its ambitious goals. Cruz elbowed out candidate after candidate to consolidate support among social conservatives, Tea Partiers and libertarians in the Republican field. He raised considerable amounts of money to build a political apparatus unrivalled in the GOP field.
There was only one problem. Every successful move, every stratagem that took Cruz – who dropped out of the presidential race on Tuesday night after a disastrous loss in Indiana – from an ambitious Ivy Leaguer to one of the final three Republican candidates for the presidency prevented him from attaining the ultimate goal.
The Texas Republican was elected to the Senate in 2012 after winning a bitter primary as a Tea Party candidate. He was positioning himself for a White House bid almost from the get-go, travelling to Iowa for presidential cattle calls less than six months into taking office. In a legislative body that values tradition, Cruz’s undisguised ambition didn’t help him make friends. But what really alienated colleagues was his push to shut down the government in October 2013 in an attempt to defund Obamacare, the president’s signature healthcare reforms. The quixotic effort alienated almost all of his colleagues who were left calling him a “wacko bird” and viewed him as an amoral opportunist who would do anything for his own political gain.
Cruz did nothing to alter his image when he became the first candidate for the White House in 2016 to announce his campaign, in an event at Liberty University in Virginia in March last year. He was then racing to beat competitors with stronger roots in Iowa – such as Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee – to be the first out of the starting gate.
Cruz’s message that day was consistent with what the Texas senator would say every day on the campaign trail until the moment he withdrew from the race in Indianapolis on Tuesday. He told a crowd of college students: “I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America” and pledged to “reclaim the constitution”.
In fact, Cruz’s campaign was remarkable for its consistency. There was only one key issue on which Cruz changed his message significantly in the course of the campaign – Donald J Trump.
For months after Trump’s entry into the race, Cruz engaged in a virtual bear hug with the New York billionaire. Immediately after Trump said that Cruz’s Senate colleague John McCain, a former POW who was tortured in Vietnam, was not a hero, Cruz called him a friend.
He told reporters in Iowa in July 2015: “I recognize that folks in the press love to see Republican on Republican violence. So you want me to say something bad about Donald Trump or bad about John McCain or bad about anybody else. I am not going to do it. John McCain is a friend of mine. I respect and admire him. He is an American hero. Donald Trump is a friend of mine.”
In contrast, the then candidate Rick Perry immediately condemned Trump and called on him to drop out of the race.
This pattern continued throughout 2015. As late as December, Cruz even tweeted that he thought Trump was terrific – long after other candidates had begun to condemn the frontrunner’s rhetoric.
But eventually, after Cruz’s win in the Iowa caucuses, the two turned to focus on each other. Cruz targeted Trump as a “New York liberal” who was no more a conservative than Hillary Clinton. After Trump had endured months of attacks for failing to adhere to conservative orthodoxy, this had little impact.
But Trump’s labelling of Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted” – based on the campaign rushing to inform Iowans that Ben Carson might drop out of the race after misconstruing a report on CNN just minutes before the caucuses were scheduled to begin – did have some effect.
The result was that exit poll after exit poll showed that voters thought Cruz ran a dirtier campaign than Trump and the Texas senator’s favorability numbers dropped with Republicans.
This happened even though the most personal attacks came from Trump, not Cruz. Trump tweeted an unflattering image of Cruz’s wife and threatened to “spill the beans on her” and, on the day of the Indiana primary, implied Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F Kennedy. A campaign surrogate even repeatedly referenced a totally unproven tabloid story about Cruz’s personal life at multiple Trump rallies
In contrast, Cruz insisted that he was merely going after Trump’s record when he slammed the frontrunner’s past support for abortion rights and gun control and current support for allowing grown men “alone in bathrooms with little girls”, ie his contention that transgender people should use whichever bathroom they felt appropriate.
Like other candidates in the race, Cruz had no way to cope with Trump’s strange political jujitsu. Even as Cruz out-organized Trump on the ground, it was to little avail. The Texas senator’s campaign concentrated on Illinois in the final days before the 15 March primary after poll numbers showed him solidly ahead in North Carolina and Missouri.
However, the backlash among Republican voters after unrest at a canceled Trump rally in Chicago led to the frontrunner surging in the polls there, and Cruz was shut out in those crucial primaries as a result.
Cruz’s only hope was to somehow unite the GOP behind him. As the last remaining opponent to Trump, he should have been the standard bearer for the Stop Trump forces, and indeed some longtime detractors like Lindsey Graham – who had joked about him being murdered on the Senate floor just a week earlier – begrudgingly endorsed him.
As Jimmy Kimmel joked to Cruz in late March: “Yeah, what you did is you kind of held out until they found someone that they liked less than you.”
Cruz responded by saying: “There you go. It is a powerful strategy.” The problem was the strategy didn’t work.
The antagonism Cruz inspired among many mainstream Republicans made this a near impossible task. They sat on their hands and viewed Cruz as just as bad as Trump. The same factors that got him to the brink of the Republican nomination, his disdain for the “Washington cartel” and impatience with politics as usual, kept him from grasping the ring.
After a campaign in which he appealed to conservatives who were tired of voting for the lesser of two evils, Cruz could never win over those establishment Republicans he had spent the past year calling the lesser evil. That became undeniable this Tuesday. | 0 |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday asked Senate lawmakers to include civil society s views in their discussion of a divisive bill that critics say would give the military greater powers and deepen its role in the country s drug war. The bill, which enjoys cross-partisan support, aims to regulate federal defense forces involvement in the drug war, which has claimed well over 100,000 lives in the last decade. But the United Nations, Amnesty International and Mexican human rights organization have all criticized the bill for prioritizing the military instead of seeking to improve Mexico s police. Pena Nieto s unusual comments reflect the growing international pressure his government has come under over. I d like to make a call to the Senate to broaden the space for dialogue with civil society organizations in order to hear all voices and enrich what will eventually be decided, the president said at a human rights event in Mexico City. The bill has already passed the lower house, and is due to be discussed in the Senate next week, but could potentially be delayed in the wake of Pena Nieto s comments. Lawmakers who support the bill say it will give clear rules that limit the use of soldiers to fight crime. However, rights campaigners worry the law opens the door to military intervention in protests, as well as expanding military powers to spy on citizens. It is opposed by the party of leftist presidential frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which has only a handful of senators. The bill comes during a particularly violent year, with the 2017 murder tally almost certain to be the highest since modern records began twenty years ago. | 1 |
When President Xi Jinping of China visited President Obama at the White House last September, he startled many with reassuring words about his intentions for the Spratly Islands, a contested area where the Chinese government has been piling dredged sand and concrete atop reefs for the past few years and building housing and runways on them. “China does not intend to pursue militarization,” Mr. Xi said, referring to the area as the Nansha Islands, a Chinese name for what most of the rest of the world calls the Spratlys in the South China Sea. The most recent satellite photographs suggest a different plan. The photos, collected and scrutinized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization, show the construction of what appear to be reinforced aircraft hangars at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, all part of the disputed territories. There were no military aircraft seen at the time the photos were taken. But a summary of the center’s analysis suggests that the hangars on all three islets have room for “any in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. ” A larger type of hangar on the islets can accommodate China’s bomber and refueling tanker, a transport aircraft and a KJ200 Airborne Warning and Control System plane, the center said in its analysis. While China may assert that the structures are for civilian aircraft or other nonmilitary functions, the center says its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise. Besides their size — the smallest hangars are 60 to 70 feet wide, more than enough to accommodate China’s largest fighter jets — all show signs of structural strengthening. “They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian purpose,” Gregory B. Poling, director of the center’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said on Monday in a telephone interview. “They’re reinforced to take a strike. ” The largest hangars, 200 feet wide, are “more than enough for strategic bombers and refuelers,” Mr. Poling said. If those planes were deployed, they would greatly complicate China’s disputes with the Philippines and other nations, and add a level of military risk to the United States’s “freedom of navigation” patrols through the area. Even before the hangars appeared, it was clear to independent military analysts that China’s intention was to use the islands to flex military might in the area. “We knew from the day they started building those runways,” Mr. Poling said. For China to assert a more benign purpose, he said, would be “like saying you’re building a mansion, but only living on the first floor. ” Evidence of the military hangars emerged a month after an international tribunal at The Hague sharply rebuked China over its behavior in the South China Sea, including its assertion of expansive sovereignty and construction of artificial islands. The tribunal’s ruling was a response to a landmark case brought by the Philippines, which called it an “overwhelming victory. ” Infuriated, China said it would ignore the ruling. Some analysts cautioned that the hangars were not a response to the ruling and had likely been under construction for some time. “The foundations may have been laid months ago,” said M. Taylor Fravel, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of its Security Studies Program. Mr. Fravel said the hangars are not necessarily inconsistent with the Chinese president’s assertions. “China has given itself the option to use these reefs as military facilities, but has not decided yet to what degree it is going to use them,” he said. “It creates the option for a robust defense of those places or even a power projection. ” | 0 |
Trump drew international attention again by claiming there was a terror attack in Sweden on the night of Feb. 17. To cover his gross lie, he tweeted today that his remarks were in reference to something Fox News reported, which is either just another lie, or a gross misunderstanding of a documentary Fox News aired. But it seems that there really was a terror attack in Sweden recently, in a city called Gothenburg.The suspected terrorists in this attack were Neo-Nazis, and they attacked a refugee center in Gothenburg with a homemade bomb last month. One person was seriously injured in the attack.Swedish intelligence said that the attack was linked to two others in Gothenburg, and appeared to be politically motivated, which isn t shocking if the terrorists were white Neo-Nazis, and members of a white supremacist group known as the Nordic Resistance Movement. They openly preach anti-Semitism and racism, and they oppose non-white immigration into Sweden.Hmmm. That sounds an awful lot like all the white supremacists here in the U.S. who support Trump.Sweden has taken in more refugees per capita than anyone else in Europe in 2016, despite imposing border controls in the middle of the year. What we have now, however, are white supremacists attacking a refugee center. Trump wants to blame refugees for terror attacks all across Europe, but that doesn t work when the terrorists are white Neo-Nazis.This is how this administration operates, though. Tell a lie, make a wild accusation, or say or do something equally outrageous, watch it get debunked or solidly smacked down, and then double down on it by either blaming it on faulty information or sticking by it anyway. And they won t acknowledge terror attacks that don t fit their anti-Muslim narrative.Featured image by Olivier Douliery via Getty Images | 1 |
Donald Trump s bigoted attack against London s mayor just backfired spectacularly.The day after London was attacked by a terrorists, Trump launched an attack on the city s mayor by taking his words out of context and making it sound like he s a terrorist sympathizer just because of his name.At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his no reason to be alarmed statement. MSM is working hard to sell it! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017Trump took a lot of criticism for his unsavory attacks on the mayor in the wake of the terrorist attack. And now conservatives in London just experienced the consequences.In a snap parliamentary election held on Thursday, UK voters booted conservatives and the extreme right-wing out of power, making it impossible for Prime Minister Theresa May to create a majority government. Trump s remarks reportedly were partly to blame for the stunning defeat.Hearing from a Labour friend that Donald s nasty attacks on the Mayor of London hurt the Tories in the closing days. Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) June 9, 2017Brexit was also a major reason why conservatives lost the vote as young Brits flocked to ballot box to correct an error made last year when voters approved of withdrawing the United Kingdom from the European Union based on bigotry and fear of Muslims. Not only did progressive Labour leader Jeromy Corbyn win the youth vote by a landslide, more people voted in this election than they did during the Brexit vote.In May 2015, just 43% of Britons 18-24 voted In Nov. 2016, just 50% of Americans 18-24 votedOn Thursday > https://t.co/Qke3NQvtIC Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 9, 2017In 2015, Miliband won the youth vote by 15 points. In 2016, Clinton won it by 18 points.Tonight s exit poll: Corbyn won it by 44 points Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 9, 2017In May 2015, just 43% of Britons 18-24 voted In Nov. 2016, just 50% of Americans 18-24 votedOn Thursday > https://t.co/Qke3NQvtIC Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 9, 2017This is a major victory that should scare the hell out of Republicans here in America. If the same percentage of Americans, especially American youths, vote in the 2018 Election, they are in serious trouble of losing the majority they currently have in Congress. And that spells doom for Trump as well. He will definitely be impeached if Democrats control Congress, and if he somehow survived until the 2020 Election, the trend away from right-wing extremism could make him a one-term loser.Let s hope what happened in the UK on Thursday crosses the pond and bites Trump and the Republican party on the ass.Featured Image: Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 1 |
In the rough countryside of northern Morocco the writer and horticulturist Umberto Pasti has created Rohuna, his garden, which is nothing less than autobiography writ from earth and flora. I FIRST CAME HERE, to this patch of dusty land 40 miles south of Tangier, 18 years ago. Tired after a long walk, I fell asleep under a fig tree and had a strange dream, full of words whose relation to one another I didn’t understand: mouth, nasturtium, exedra, unicorn. At the time, I didn’t know that the jinn, the local spirits, possess those who fall asleep under trees in the middle of nowhere. What I did know was that I was going to build a garden here. I told my Moroccan friend who was traveling with me that I wanted to buy the land. There were 20 or so owners to negotiate with, but after about 100 meetings with the adouls, Muslim notaries, the deal was done. In the meantime, I’d already set myself up in a shack made out of reeds and palm leaves, built with help from Rachid, the child who had popped out from behind a bramble one day, a huge smile on his face. Today, he is Rohuna’s head gardener. Objectively, it wasn’t an ideal place for a garden. Sure, a few trees grew in the dusty, scorching heat — three figs, a small cluster of pomegranates and a eucalyptus — and the view, of the sleepy, stony ground, of the ocean, was biblical, the solitude exciting. But, unfortunately, you could only get there either by scrambling along a difficult path or on the back of a mule. The chalky soil was in many places, in fact, sand or lifeless clay. The temperature could climb to almost 122 degrees and the rocks were home to scorpions and vipers, including the rare, magnificent Vipera latastei, whose bite is lethal. What’s more, the peasants who lived in the village nearby were stubborn and suspicious, and many had never seen a European. My father had died not too long before, leaving me some money. I used all of it making up for the roadblocks that destiny had placed in my path as a gardener. By the time my Cleopatra syndrome reached its height, I had hired 600 workers: There were three houses to build, a track to lay down miles of stone, walls to erect. And in the meantime we had to transport hundreds of tons of good topsoil so that everything would turn out as I had dreamed. My vision for the garden, I am still convinced, is for how it has always been — but always when? In what dimension did a sliver of Moroccan countryside coincide with something out of the background of a Renaissance painting, populated by centaurs, basilisks, hippogriffs? THESE WERE TIRING YEARS, but there were also many moments of joy: the morning on which the pump we’d attached to the third probe yielded a rivulet when coming back from Tangier, I saw the Iris planifolia that, months before, we’d transplanted by the thousands from the construction site of a tourist dock, all in bloom. In the beginning, I was very strict with myself. Other than fruit trees, I only planted greenery threatened by the urbanization that has disfigured northern Morocco, snatching them from the jaws of excavators and bulldozers: gigantic olive trees, holly oaks, strawberry bushes, viburnum shrubs and fig trees. Then I let myself go, but only in the ornamental terraces around the houses, where I liberally planted the species that I’d seen in the gardens in the country’s north: Damask roses, Madonna lilies, Canna indica, Iris germanica and Iris pallida (Dalmation irises) Dietes iridioides (fortnight lilies) tithonia, hollyhocks, carnations and geraniums. These terraces, of which there are roughly 20, are each themed. There’s the Englishman’s Garden, with its lilies and fuchsias the Italian’s Garden, planted with olives, myrtle and lilies of the Nile, and the Egyptian Garden, because when I sit there I feel as if I’m in Luxor. I surprised my partner and guardian angel with Stephan’s Terrace, which I named after him. We now drink gin and tonics there on summer nights. And Bando’s Gardens take their name from one of the gardeners the meandering bloodlines of his family, one of the oldest in the village, leave me as awestruck as those of the Guermantes family do the narrator of “In Search of Lost Time. ” In these gardens, it’s my men who decide what to plant among the mulberries, the apricots and the pears, delighting me with their audacity: orange Streptosolen jamesonii (marmalade bushes) next to Tecoma garrocha alongside horseshoe pelargoniums as red as the idea of red itself, purple African daisies and Tagetes lemmonii (Lemmon’s marigold) those perfumed clouds of gold. BUT THIS GARDENER’S heart truly resides beyond the path that leads to the village, on the margins of the forest of fig trees that yields, as in a fable, to the wooden bridge built for me by my friend Najim. Here wild plants grow — roughly 300 native species — from the magisterial Quercus ilex, the evergreen oak, to the minuscule Acis tingitana, and all the rock roses, euphorbia, helianthemum and thyme that made northern Morocco a paradise. Wild bulbs are our forte: There are 17 species of iris (six native) 12 narcissus varietals, five kinds of ornithogalum ( ) and tulips, romulea, merendera, dipcadi, fritillaries, gladioli, grape hyacinths, crocuses, meadow saffrons and garlics. And I’m not talking about small clusters. Such boundless Phoenician horizons demand courage. For winter picnics, straw mats and rugs are spread out among the thousands of Iris tingitana (Moroccan irises) — in their honor we drink mint tea and break bread. To live in this Arcadia is a great privilege. Here, the lives of people are intertwined with the lives of plants and of the animals, and the rhythms of nature itself. This is the Morocco that I love more than anything else in the world, the noble and rustic Morocco for which I live. I am grateful to the men who work with me — and to the jinn that possesses me still. | 0 |
In an apparent attempt to prove to the world that he is the devil himself, George Zimmerman recently decided to auction off the gun he used to murder Trayvon Martin. The move has been universally condemned by everyone who is not a heartless monster.Fortunately, some brilliant individuals decided to hijack the online auction for the weapon, mocking the gun s sale with fake bids. The top bid for the gun was made by someone named Racist McShootface in the amount of $65 million dollars. As hilarious as the monkey wrenching shenanigans are, it is saddening to know that there is money to be made, so the gun will eventually be sold and Zimmerman will go on living his new life of luxury and infamy.However, one individual released a plan to turn this terrible event in history into an opportunity to do some good in the world. Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist released a post on his Facebook page where he writes that he and others had planned on attempting to win Zimmerman s gun in the online auction. From there, they would work with RAWtools, a company that turns firearms into tools.The idea of turning weapons into tools come from the biblical verse Isaiah 2:4:He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.Some Christian peace activists live by this verse, encouraging nations and individuals to lay down their weapons and work towards creating world peace.As Claiborne points out in the post, there is one major flaw with this plan. There has been a Twitter-storm of folks suggesting we should acquire the gun and beat it into a plow with our friends at RAWtools, Claiborne writes. Initially, that seemed like a powerful idea to destroy this horrific icon of injustice, and make sure it doesn t take another life. We even had some donors offering to buy it. But then we heard the money was going to be used to fight many of the groups and movements we believe in, like Black Lives Matter. Claiborne then writes that a new plan was eventually formed. I have to say, as far as B plans go, it s a pretty good one. We are going to take a 9mm pistol identical to Zimmerman s, beat it into a plow, auction it off, and donate the money to Trayvon Martin s family foundation. Last night we sent out the invitation to donate handguns and just got the news that we have had 6 guns donated overnight (thanks to Benjamin L. Corey and all who donated so far).And all 6 of the guns are 9mm pistols. (by the way, keep em coming email here to donate: [email protected]) My friends at RAWtools, Inc. will be transforming the pistol. And will start the bidding within the next week or so. What a great idea. This just proves that no matter how much hatred and misery some people put out into this world, there are others willing to push back with acts of love and compassion.Here is the original Facebook post.https://www.facebook.com/ShaneClaiborne/photos/a.10150112918376371.279881.100500271370/10153375689991371/?type=3&theaterFeatured image from Rawtools via Facebook | 0 |
By Jacob Devaney / upliftconnect.com
Overwhelm is a constant state of being for many of us, but it doesn’t need to be. Most of us are under a deluge of responsibilities like running errands, responding to emails, keeping up with house-chores, hurrying to meetings, and more. Though this is normal in our modern lives, our nervous system struggles to keep up. If we don’t make a conscious effort to relieve this kind of stress, our adrenals get depleted, and sometimes we get sick. Luckily overwhelm is not about how much is going on in your life, it is all about how you manage things. Let’s dissect overwhelm from a neurological perspective and explore ways to reduce its impact on our lives.
When life’s circumstances overwhelm our ability to cope or integrate, our nervous system goes into a stress response. It doesn’t need to be a life-threatening incident for the nervous system to trigger a fight, flight or collapse response. The interesting thing is that it is purely subjective. It can be as simple as a “perceived threat”, like being embarrassed in public, imagining that you will get fired for being late, or having a squirrel run in front of your car. Regardless of how big or small the incident is, our system can go into overwhelm, causing our brain to release all the stress hormones that accompany it.
It can be as simple as a “perceived threat” like imagining that you will get fired for being late. Self Awareness to the Rescue
We pride ourselves in being busy. Many of us feel like something is wrong if we are tired, or feeling lazy and want to lay on the couch and stare at a wall. Actually, this is the parasympathetic, restorative nervous system that is inviting us to step out of our constant ‘go-go-go’ state so that we can unwind. Laying in the grass and looking at the clouds is actually much better for us than being on a couch staring at a wall, but we rarely make a conscious decision to do so. Instead, we collapse right in the middle of cleaning our house and then beat ourselves up for being lazy.
Humans have a very different way of coping with stress than all other primates. In order to conquer fire (a trait that has allowed humans to climb to the top of the food chain), we had to develop regions of the brain that suppress our fear so that we can overcome it. The stress hormones associated with fear are still released even if we don’t indulge them. Animals instantly discharge these hormones, but humans need to do this consciously. In other words, we have to make a choice to actively engage in practices that reset our nervous system. As we have explored in How to Relieve Stress Stored in our Bodies , this process can be a whole lot of fun and very rewarding on many levels.
In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. Do not make yourself ill with overwhelm. -Clarissa Estes
Humans have a very different way of coping with stress than all other primates. Information Overwhelm
We live in a time of extreme bombardment of information, along with a desire to wake up socially and address the many problems facing the world. There is no effective solution when we come from a constant state of overwhelm. Being relaxed and clear-minded is the only way to approach these seemingly insurmountable issues. This research is well documented in the Uplift article Will Humanity Choose Love or Fear? Is the information you are reading an immediate threat to your survival… Probably not.
Information overload occurs when a person is exposed to more information than the brain can process at one time. – Lucy Jo Palladino , Ph.D Hemispheric Disconnect
The right hemisphere of our brains is great for creativity and spirituality, it is where we go when we ponder the eternal nature of things, yet it doesn’t comprehend time sequencing. Understanding this is paramount to taking the reigns on our overwhelm and positioning us to have greater coping skills. This unconscious, biologically-wired, stress response is explored in Get to Know Your Amygdala .
The right hemisphere processes experience differently from the left – non-verbally through body sensations, visual images, emotions, and holistically – it processes the gestalt of someone’s face or energy globally, all at once, rather than in a linear data bit by data bit mode. The right hemisphere is where we get our “gut” intuitive sense of things and the gestalt of things as a whole. The right hemisphere is the seat of the social and personal self. The right hemisphere regulates the sub-cortical limbic system and is dominant for social-emotional processing. -Linda Graham
We live in a time of extreme bombardment of information. How Do We Get Past Overwhelm?
Step One is as simple as recognizing that you are operating from a state of overwhelm. Self-awareness breaks us out of unconscious patterning, and this is central to the practice of mindfulness. Learning to check in with one’s self by pausing is also a great way to develop emotional intelligence.
Step Two is to take a few deep breathes after recognizing that you are overwhelmed. This also works if you are angry, sad, or reacting out of fear. Since the emotional response is rooted in the right hemisphere, it always feels immediate. By breathing you are helping your mind integrate the threat level into time synchronisation, which is a left-brain process that will help relax your nervous system.
Step Three is to remind yourself that you are safe, and to develop strategies to call on this sense of safety when needed. This is known as resourcing one’s self, and there are healthy ways of doing it, as well as unhealthy ways. Hint: reaching for a cigarette, or indulging in television, drugs, or junk-food is not as effective as 5 minutes of stretching, mindful breathing, or taking a moment to connect with nature.
Step Four is to help your body let go of any stress hormones that may have been released into your system at the first moment of panic/overwhelm. Shake like a dog, jump up and down or do some psoas stretches to discharge the nervous system and help you reset your physical body as well as your emotional body.
Self-awareness breaks us out of unconscious patterning.
Overwhelm has a whole lot to do with our perceptions. We expand our mental-emotional container to be able to integrate larger and larger amounts of information without succumbing to overwhelm in the first place. The steps above will help you deal with overwhelm when it hits you, but a daily mindfulness practice will help you reduce the instances when you are thrown into overwhelm. The ability to respond without reacting, to observe without indulging, will help you increase success in your life on many levels. It will also be a valuable skill in rapidly changing times!
Jacob Devaney - Founder and director of Culture Collective, creative activist, musician, and producer. 0.0 · | 1 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has summoned a British official in Beijing and lodged stern representations about recent comments from London expressing concern about a British rights activist being denied entry to Hong Kong, it said on Friday. Ben Rogers, a co-founder of Britain s ruling Conservative Party s Human Rights Commission, has been a vocal critic of Chinese-ruled Hong Kong s treatment of human rights activists, including that of jailed student protest leader Joshua Wong. He was denied entry to Hong Kong on Oct. 11. Britain said on Tuesday it had summoned the Chinese ambassador to express its concern. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that Hong Kong is part of China, and the central government handles Hong Kong s foreign affairs and Beijing and Hong Kong decide who to let in or not as a matter of Chinese sovereignty. China has already summoned in an official from the British Embassy in Beijing, and lodged stern representations about Britain s recent series of wrong remarks and actions on this issue, Lu told a daily news briefing. I must to stress here that Hong Kong matters are purely an internal affair of China s. China will not permit any government, organization or individual to interfere in China s internal affairs in any way. Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is governed under a one country, two systems formula that promises it a higher degree of autonomy and freedom than on the mainland. Last week, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said London needed an explanation from Hong Kong and Beijing about the treatment of Rogers. | 0 |
States have rights too! We love the new conservative governor of Kentucky! He means business and it s about time someone stood up to the bloated and over regulated EPA! | 0 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a blast on Friday that injured 22 people on a packed commuter train on the London underground network, the militant group s Amaq news agency said. | 1 |
We need to know more about this virus. We can lead a better life. | 1 |
The Islamic state magazine Rumiyah has called on supporters and Islamic State fighters in Germany and Austria to murder moderate Imams who they consider “apostates. ”[The magazine was released in several languages earlier this week through the various internet channels Islamic State uses to broadcast propaganda to its sympathisers, MEMRI reports. One of the methods used was a “telegram” app, an encrypted messaging service that ISIS often uses and is generally the first place the group takes credit for terror attacks. The terror group named several prominent members of the Muslim community in both Germany and Austria as potential targets for assassination in an article entitled “Kill the infidel imams in Germany and Austria. ” Among the targets listed is Aiman Mazyek, of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. Mazyek has made controversial statements in the past, such as calling for German leaders to limit the number of migrants flowing into the country in late 2015. The Muslim leader has also slammed the migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) likening them to Nazis after they revealed a platform of last year. Omar a Vienna city councilman for the Socialist Party (SPÖ) and a member of the Council Committee on European and International Affairs was also listed as a target. is also no stranger to controversy — in 2010 he led an official condemnation of Israel in the Vienna city hall over the Israeli raids on a flotilla heading for Gaza, which Israeli authorities claimed was not the humanitarian mission activists stated it to be. also led a protest against Israel in Vienna. Among the demonstrators were members of the Turkish nationalist group the Grey Wolves who have clashed with Kurds in Germany and have been accused of trying to infiltrate German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party through its diversity program. Killing Imams they don’t agree with is nothing new for the Islamic State. In 2014 ISIS executed 13 clerics in the city of Mosul whom they deemed to be too moderate. Imam Muhammad al Mansuri was one of the victims of the terror group and was the imam in charge of the mosque in which ISIS leader gave a rare public appearance to lead prayers. Islamic State killed a further six imams in early 2015 after they condemned the group’s actions when they burned Jordanian pilot Mu’ath Kasasbeh alive. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com, | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former U.S. officials told Reuters. Those contacts included two phone calls between April and November last year, two of the sources said. By early this year, Kushner had become a focus of the FBI investigation into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, said two other sources - one current and one former law enforcement official. Kushner initially had come to the attention of FBI investigators last year as they began scrutinizing former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s connections with Russian officials, the two sources said. While the FBI is investigating Kushner’s contacts with Russia, he is not currently a target of that investigation, the current law enforcement official said. The new information about the two calls as well as other details uncovered by Reuters shed light on when and why Kushner first attracted FBI attention and show that his contacts with Russian envoy Sergei Kislyak were more extensive than the White House has acknowledged. NBC News reported on Thursday that Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI, in the first sign that the investigation, which began last July, has reached the president’s inner circle. The FBI declined to comment, while the Russian embassy said it was policy not to comment on individual diplomatic contacts. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Kushner’s attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said Kushner did not remember any calls with Kislyak between April and November. “Mr Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. He has no recollection of the calls as described. We have asked (Reuters) for the dates of such alleged calls so we may look into it and respond, but we have not received such information,” she said. In March, the White House said that Kushner and Flynn had met Kislyak at Trump Tower in December to establish “a line of communication.” Kislyak also attended a Trump campaign speech in Washington in April 2016 that Kushner attended. The White House did not acknowledge any other contacts between Kushner and Russian officials. Before the election, Kislyak’s undisclosed discussions with Kushner and Flynn focused on fighting terrorism and improving U.S.-Russian economic relations, six of the sources said. Former President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia after it seized Crimea and started supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. After the Nov. 8 election, Kushner and Flynn also discussed with Kislyak the idea of creating a back channel between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could have bypassed diplomats and intelligence agencies, two of the sources said. Reuters was unable to determine how those discussions were conducted or exactly when they took place. Reuters was first to report last week that a proposal for a back channel was discussed between Flynn and Kislyak as Trump prepared to take office. The Washington Post was first to report on Friday that Kushner participated in that conversation. Separately, there were at least 18 undisclosed calls and emails between Trump associates and Kremlin-linked people in the seven months before the Nov. 8 presidential election, including six calls with Kislyak, sources told Reuters earlier this month. . Two people familiar with those 18 contacts said Flynn and Kushner were among the Trump associates who spoke to the ambassador by telephone. Reuters previously reported only Flynn’s involvement in those discussions. Six of the sources said there were multiple contacts between Kushner and Kislyak but declined to give details beyond the two phone calls between April and November and the post-election conversation about setting up a back channel. It is also not clear whether Kushner engaged with Kislyak on his own or with other Trump aides. FBI scrutiny of Kushner began when intelligence reports of Flynn’s contacts with Russians included mentions of U.S. citizens, whose names were redacted because of U.S. privacy laws. This prompted investigators to ask U.S. intelligence agencies to reveal the names of the Americans, the current U.S. law enforcement official said. Kushner’s was one of the names that was revealed, the official said, prompting a closer look at the president’s son-in-law’s dealings with Kislyak and other Russians. FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official. The head of Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, Sergei Nikolaevich Gorkov, a trained intelligence officer whom Putin appointed, met Kushner at Trump Tower in December. The bank is under U.S. sanctions and was implicated in a 2015 espionage case in which one of its New York executives pleaded guilty to spying and was jailed. The bank said in a statement in March that it had met with Kushner along with other representatives of U.S. banks and business as part of preparing a new corporate strategy. Officials familiar with intelligence on contacts between the Russians and Trump advisers said that so far they have not seen evidence of any wrongdoing or collusion between the Trump camp and the Kremlin. Moreover, they said, nothing found so far indicates that Trump authorized, or was even aware of, the contacts. There may not have been anything improper about the contacts, the current law enforcement official stressed. Kushner offered in March to be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating Russia’s attempts to interfere in last year’s election. The contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials during the presidential campaign coincided with what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a Kremlin effort through computer hacking, fake news and propaganda to boost Trump’s chances of winning the White House and damage his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. | 1 |
You won t hear this tidbit of good news about Donald Trump in the main stream media now that he s running for the Republican nomination. The press has totally skipped over this testament to the kindness and generosity of Mr. Trump. Here are the details of how Trump helped Hudson during a family tragedy in 2008:In the wake of her family tragedy, Jennifer Hudson has received a helping hand from a very unlikely source Donald Trump.Jennifer and some of her family members have been staying at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago and Trump has been picking up the tab. They are safe, Trump told People on Monday night. She s a great girl and we re protecting them well. According to E! Online, Hudson has been staying at the hotel since arriving in Chicago on October 24 the day her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were found murdered, and her nephew, Julian King, was found missing. Since checking into the hotel, the Oscar winner and former American Idol star has rarely left the hotel. She is still in shock, a source told E!. She hasn t gone out much at all and has a lot of security around her. Earlier this week, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board ruled William Balfour, the only individual to be identified as a person of interest in the murders of Hudson s three family members, would remain in custody while authorities continue their investigation. Although Balfour has not been charged in connection to the slayings, the parole board ruled he had violated his parole and, as a result, would be kept in custody.Read more: Access Hollywood | 0 |
COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Wild elephants trampled to death two Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh on Monday when they rampaged through a settlement where the refugees were taking shelter after fleeing a military offensive in neighboring Myanmar. More than 410,000 refugees from Myanmar have poured into Bangladesh since Aug. 25 when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts triggered a Myanmar army operation that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing. There are elephants in the forest, close to the place where many Rohingya refugees are clearing forest to make huts, police official Chailau Murma told Reuters. An elderly person and a toddler were killed when the elephants rampaged through the area, he said. Three other people were taken to hospital to be treated for injuries, a refugee camp leader said. Police said the elephants later disappeared back into the forest. The refugees are facing dire conditions with insufficient food, water, medical care and shelter, and regular drenchings from monsoon rains that have turned roads into quagmires. Bangladeshi authorities say they aim to move everyone out of so-called spontaneous sites, usually beside roads where people try to make shelters wherever they are, into one big camp where aid supplies can be properly distributed. | 1 |
So we disrespect the flag in class now? Whether this teacher tried to get this child to stand is one thing another thing is the fact that children AND adults aren t being taught why we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. MAYBE THIS KID COULD TALK TO THE KID WHO WON T STAND: The video below was created by a student to teach students the importance and meaning behind saying the Pledge of Allegiance:STAND FOR THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE!A student in Farmington Hills, Michigan is accusing a teacher of assault. The teacher tried to get the boy to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance but the boy says he doesn t do that.The teacher was put on leave and is under investigation now.A Black Publication is trying to spin this as just more racism after other black athletes refused to stand for the National Anthem. Notice how The Root spins this alleged assault: Everybody is all about freedom of speech and expression until a black person (hey, Colin Kaepernick; hey, Jemele Hill) decides to exercise his or her right to do so. And in this particular case, a black sixth-grader out of Michigan says he was assaulted by his homeroom teacher all because he was exercising his rights and declined to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.STONE CHANEY:Stone Chaney is a sixth-grader and had just started his first week of school but may not go back because he feels his rights were violated.Stone claims: The teacher consultant comes up behind me and snatches me out of my chair violently. I was so confused. I didn t know what was going on. He says the homeroom teacher tried to force him to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. I PLEDGE TO GOD AND FAMILY Click on Detroit reported: I don t stand because I don t pledge to a flag, Stone said. I pledge to God and family. The alleged incident happened Sept. 7. Stone said the next day, another teacher yelled at him for sitting down during the Pledge. I don t feel safe going to that school anymore because I don t know what they re going to do next, Stone said.His father addressed the district directly during their last board meeting. It s his choice to sit, Brian Chaney said. I don t make him sit. And they should respect that. Marine veteran Stephen Stevens sees things differently. I would love to be able to talk to them and get their side and explain my side so maybe we could come to an understanding, Stevens said. Because I get they have that right, but I don t believe they understand what that right really entails. If they re fighting for freedom, they re fighting for us to have choices, Brian Chaney said. Then it s our choice. The superintendent of Farmington Public Schools released the following statement: The District fully supports the right of each student to participate or not in the daily Pledge. The teacher allegedly involved in the incident has been placed on administrative leave. At this time, the District cannot speculate about the outcome of the pending investigation. The family is exploring its options. Stone hasn t gone back to school, but they re probably going to leave the district. | 0 |
Apparently, keeping a slave and repeatedly raping her is not against his Islamic faith From International Business Times:A Saudi national who was convicted of keeping his Indonesian maid as a sex slave has refused to attend a mandatory sex offender s course, arguing that his Muslim beliefs do not allow him to look at pictures of scantily-clad women.Homaidan al-Turki, 45, was jailed for 28 years in 2006 after his maid claimed she had been forced to work 12 hour days with no break and then locked in a cellar and abused regularly by the Saudi, who was in the US on an academic scholarship with his wife and five children.Al-Turki s sentence was reduced in 2011 to eight years-to-life but his parole applications have been repeatedly denied because of his refusal to attend a sex offenders course.Al-Turki told prison officials in 2013 that the sex offender treatment programme conflicts with [his] Islamic faith , according to a letter by the then executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Tom Clements.Eight years for keeping a slave in America. Shameful.Via: Gateway Pundit | 0 |
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday the government would maintain its commitment to protecting Europe after Brexit as she accused Russia of military aggression and meddling in elections. The prime minister said Britain would continue to provide assistance to states that were victims of aggression. The UK will remain unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe s security, May said in a speech at the Guildhall in London s financial district. The comprehensive new economic partnership we seek will underpin our shared commitment to open economies and free societies in the face of those who seek to undermine them. The British government is playing one its strongest cards in the Brexit negotiations by offering to put its defense and security assets at the disposal of the EU in the hope of winning concessions on future trading and economic relations. The country has bigger defense budgets than any other EU member state and its diplomatic and intelligence services are among the most extensive in Europe. Its government also argues it is one of the leading EU contributors to a range of security measures, such as data and evidence sharing, extradition measures and to the EU s police agency Europol. May on Monday accused Russia of fomenting violence in eastern Ukraine, of repeatedly violating the national airspace of several European countries, and mounting a campaign of cyber attacks. She also accused Russia of meddling in elections and hacking the Danish defense ministry, the German parliament and its state-media of planting fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to undermine western institutions. May said the government is working to reform NATO so it is better placed to counter Russian hostility and has stepped up military and economic support to Ukraine. We will take the necessary actions to counter Russian activity, she said. May also said she wanted better relations with Russia if it worked to promote peace. Russia can, and I hope one day will, choose this different path, she said. But for as long as Russia does not, we will act together to protect our interests and the international order on which they depend. | 0 |
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