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(Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey is set to testify before the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Thursday about the agency’s decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal email server while serving at the State Department, the panel said in a statement. In the statement on Wednesday, Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said that Congress and the American people have a right to understand the FBI’s investigation in the matter. The panel said the hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is asking Congress to give the Pentagon about $2 billion for a “flexible” fund to use against Islamic State over the next six months, as his administration weighs changes to the U.S.-led campaign against the militant group. Trump is also seeking to upgrade long-underfunded facilities at the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba that Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, unsuccessfully sought to close during his eight-year administration. “It doesn’t seem like we are going to close it anytime soon,” John Roth, the acting Pentagon comptroller, told a Pentagon news briefing, explaining the move. The proposals were part of a $30 billion supplemental request to Congress to add more money to the Pentagon’s budget during the government’s ongoing fiscal year, which began under the Obama administration and ends in September. It includes plans to crank up U.S. funding for the fight against Islamic State militants for items like high-tech bombs and defenses against insurgents’ drones, bringing overall spending on the campaign to the highest level yet, the Pentagon said. “This will likely be our largest request,” Roth said. One analyst called the $2 billion flexible spending request a Pentagon “slush fund,” and many lawmakers were expected to be reluctant to loosen oversight over how the Pentagon spends money. What Trump’s additional funding might mean for America’s evolving war strategy against Islamic State in the coming months was not immediately clear. But the request comes as U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria are entering a critical phase in their campaign to retake Islamic State’s two biggest cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Trump’s administration is weighing deployment of more U.S. troops. The heads of the top U.S. congressional committees that oversee the Pentagon have criticized Trump’s 2018 budget request, saying even more money was needed. “It is clear to virtually everyone that we have cut our military too much and that it has suffered enormous damage,” said Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington questioned whether Trump’s budget wish list could muster enough support among Democrats, whose votes would be needed to sign off on the spending bills given the slim Republican hold on the Senate. Trump said during the election campaign that he not only wanted to keep the Guantanamo Bay detention center open but “load it up with some bad dudes.” Trump’s $5.1 billion “overseas contingency operations” request included a provision for $1.1 billion in additional funds for a range of Pentagon projects, including “planning and design of construction projects in support of Detention Operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” The prison, which was opened by Republican President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks came to symbolize harsh detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama reduced the inmate population to 41, but fell short of fulfilling his promise to close the jail. The 2017 request would also hike spending for the broader Defense Department over the next six months, with $24.9 billion more sought to “readiness needs” after years of complaints over congressionally imposed spending caps. Lockheed Martin would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that proposal. Some $13.5 billion would be spent on more military hardware, including five F-35 warplanes as well as Army Blackhawk helicopters made by Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed subsidiary. Trump also wants 12 interceptors for the THAAD missile defense system. The United States is now deploying THAAD in South Korea in response to North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Boeing would also gain with $2.4 billion for an additional 24 of its F/A-18 E/F jet fighters. A further $7.2 billion would pay for things like military training, cyber and intelligence capabilities and support for weapons systems. | 0 |
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Monday said he had written to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urging bipartisan effort to stabilize the U.S. health insurance market. Schumer noted that McConnell had been quoted recently as saying Congress will need to shore up that market if lawmakers fail to repeal Obamacare. | 0 |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq s Kurdish leadership rejected on Sunday a demand by the Iraqi government that it cancels the outcome of an independence referendum as a precondition for talks to resolve the dispute. Kurdish leaders who met to discuss the crisis in the town of Dokan renewed their offer to resolve peacefully the crisis with Baghdad. The Kurdish parties are ready for talks between Erbil and Baghdad, they said in a statement, referring respectively to the seat of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq and the federal capital of Iraq. The talks between Erbil and Baghdad should be under the supervision of international parties, the statement added. Among those at the meeting were KRG President Masoud Barzani, Iraqi President Fuad Masum a Kurd who holds a largely ceremonial position in the federal state and Hero Talabani, widow of Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who died earlier this month. They rejected what they described as military threats from Iraqi forces against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and pledged to defend Kurdish-held territory in case of an attack. The KRG and the Shi ite-led central government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads since the Sept. 25 vote and its loud call for Kurdish independence. Tension between two parties has flared around the multi-ethnic oil city of Kirkuk, which Peshmerga forces took in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk s oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. | 0 |
GET OVER YOURSELF! MOOCH PLAYS THE RACE CARD AGAIN This woman loves to stir it up and fabricate things because it does exactly what she wants. It further divides us as a nation. Why else would she (a lawyer) not know that in both highly charged police abuse cases in Ferguson and Baltimore, racism was not the cause of death for either of the criminals who died.https://youtu.be/4w3eFiVUHQQSooo .instead of standing up to Mooch s claims that all Whites are racists and that clearly we, as a nation have made no progress in race relations since the 1950 s, the CBS hosts choose to applaud her courage and ability to speak the truth. Perhaps they missed the memo, but our so-called First Black President (who could have just as easily called himself white) and his racist wife have spent the last 6 years living in our White House and occupying the most important job in our nation.But you know, it s not about reality for these people, it s about stirring the pot and dividing the nation, and the mainstream media is more than happy to help them accomplish that goal. They don t even have the common sense to know they re being called racists right along with the rest of the majority of Americans who seem to be okay with Barack and Mooch s ignorant labels.CBS host Norah O Donnell closes her segment by saying: That is a speech worth reading from beginning to end. Everyone should take a look at that. | 1 |
SEE ALSO: 21WIRE calls out US media for hyping fake Active Shooter event at Andrews BaseDaily Shooter 21st Century WireWashington DC area was put on high alert today following reports of an Active Shooter a Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, home of the president s Air Force One private jet.The base has been placed on lock-down and first responders are on-scene following a report of an active shooter at the Malcolm Grow Medical Facility located on Andrews.Authorities have instructed all personnel continue to shelter in place. JBA is currently on lockdown due to a report of an active shooter. All personnel are directed to shelter in place. More info as it comes. Joint Base Andrews (@JBA_NAFW) June 30, 2016There s only one problem with this story: we also learned that the base had planned a no-notice Active Shooter Exercise scheduled for 9 am this morning, and as if by some amazing coincidence, during exercise, local first responders received emergency calls about a real world active shooter on the base. Still, this hasn t stopped flippant news anchors and expert analysts from US media outlets like CNN and FOX News from going into media-siege mode, and treating the event as if it were a real active shooter event and injecting addition, unnecessary fear in the public discourse this morning.If one follows the inter-agency security protocols for a security exercise such as this, it would play out more or less exactly as it has today thus far, as evidenced by announcements by what other law enforcement and emergency services are saying.NBC News local affiliate adds here: Fort Belvoir in Virginia says it is increasing its security posture in response to the incident at Joint Base Andrews. It has advised its personnel to stay clear of Joint Base Andrews. Last month Andrews had another active event, in what apparently turned-out to be a non-threat. Last month, Joint Base Andrews was placed on lockdown after a woman walked onto the base and claimed she had a bomb. An Explosive Ordinance Disposal team found the woman had no explosives, and she was apprehended. The only question left now is: is this a real active shooter situation, or is this merely another example of a drill gone live ?UPDATE 11:15AM ET: [Yes, we called it before authorities finally admitted it was only drill ] JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. Andrews Air Force Base is all clear after a lock-down Thursday morning, amid confusion during an active shooter drill, according to a law enforcement official. According to a public information officer in the Washington office, the reason for this is because of the confusion over reports of a drill or an actual incident. The FBI field offices let security on Joint Base Andrews sort out the confusion. (FOX6 NOW) Joint Base Andrews was locked down just after 9 a.m. after someone mistook an active shooter drill for the real thing, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News. All personnel were directed to shelter in place, said NBC News."All Clear." The lock down on base has been lifted Joint Base Andrews (@JBA_NAFW) June 30, 2016SEE ALSO: TROUBLE IN THE HOMELAND: Chattanooga s Made-for-TV PsychodramaREAD MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Daily Shooter FilesSupport our work and Become a Member @ 21WIRE.TV | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An aggressive advertising and lobbying campaign by conservative activists and financial interests this week stalled a plan in the U.S. Congress to rescue Puerto Rico from crippling debt, while lawmakers adjourned on Friday with no clear path forward. As its economy reels and basic services are threatened, the U.S. island territory is pleading for help from Washington, but lawmakers have been unable to formulate a response, or even estimate when they might be able to advance a legislative fix. Puerto Rico is staring down a May 1 deadline for paying about $422 million to Government Development Bank bondholders. With that as a backdrop, the Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives huddled privately for 90 minutes on Friday to hear ideas, then decided to go home. “There may be different ways to fix a problem that may include doing nothing and allow it to work through the court system,” conservative Republican Representative Mick Mulvaney, of South Carolina, told reporters following the meeting. In the face of an election-year wave of radio, television and print advertisements warning of a federal “bailout” for Puerto Rico, House Republicans had already put off planned committee votes on a rescue package earlier this week. The Center for Individual Freedom, a conservative activist group, has spent $200,000 on television advertisements around Washington, D.C., this month, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog. The center’s ads call for a halt to “the Washington bailout of Puerto Rico.” Another group that opposes a Puerto Rico rescue, Main Street Bondholders, has run newspaper ads. Radio spots have reached Utah voters warning of a “radical plan” to usher Puerto Rico into bankruptcy and urging local Representative Rob Bishop to protect investors. Bishop chairs the House committee overseeing Puerto Rico legislation. With a 45 percent poverty rate and $72 billion in debt, Puerto Rico needs an orderly way to shed some of its debt, leading Republicans agree, though compromise on details remains elusive. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats support a rescue effort to help Puerto Rico. A proposal backed by Ryan and Bishop would lead investors towards a voluntary reduction of loans and a compulsory write-down if no compromise were possible. Democrats have pressed for changes to a draft bill, knowing their votes likely will be needed to win passage in the House. Ryan has insisted that there is no “bailout” under development, while scurrying to figure out how he can please conservative Republicans without alienating too many Democrats. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, a conservative stalwart, told reporters: “The liberal, financially irresponsible members of the Republican conference will cozy up to the Democrats and they will work out an agreement.” Anti-rescue ads are also running in Louisiana, whose Representative Garret Graves said on Friday: “The campaign has been effective in distorting reality.” | 0 |
EAG News A Wyoming high school is under fire after parents exposed an online student quiz that offered shooting at Trump as one of the multiple choice answers.An unidentified English teacher at Jackson Hole High School gave students a multiple choice quiz on Thursday about George Orwell s novel Animal Farm that included a question that many are pointing to as an example of the district s liberal bias, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reports. Napoleon has a gun fired for a new occasion. What is the new occasion? the quiz read.Possible answers included He was shooting at Trump, His birthday, For completion of the windmill, or To scare off the attackers of Animal Farm. Jim McCollum told the news site he did a double-take when his son showed him a screenshot he took of the test. I had to read it two times, McCollum said. I was like, Are you kidding me? McCollum, a Jackson Hole High School graduate and Trump supporter, shared the quiz on Facebook, where it was shared widely and generated a lot of angry comments. It was so inappropriate to show a name of a sitting president in that question, he said. To me, that is so wrong in light of the situation in our country and the divisiveness and all. He told the news site the incident is one of other examples of liberal bias in other classes at the school that make conservative students like son out to be the outcast. He told me, Dad, they crapped on everything I believe in, McCollum said of his son. Rylee is very patriotic, very supportive of our military and of our country and is considering enlisting in the U.S. Marines.School officials eventually issued a statement about the quiz on Monday. (District) administration learned late yesterday that a quiz was administered to a class of high school students that contained an inappropriate answer to a multiple choice question. Administration is investigating this incident and verifying the information we have received, the statement read. (The District) takes seriously threats of any kind, regardless of the intent. We apologize to the students, families, and community for this incident and will be addressing the issue with personnel. It s unclear what, if any, discipline the teacher may face.The incident occurred in the Teton County School District #1.According to The Washington Post:Last year, deeply conservative Wyoming voted for Trump by the widest majority of any state, 70 percent. In Teton County, Hillary Clinton got 60 percent, the only Wyoming county the Democrat won.Teton County is a wealthy ski and summer recreation destination. Residents include former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.In 2015, school administrators canceled an America Day tradition for homecoming in which students donned red, white and blue and rode around on a diesel truck to show their patriotism and love of country. Activities director Mike Hansen put the kibosh on the event because he alleged some students might get offended.The school s juniors and seniors didn t buy it, however, and many showed up to school decked out in stars and stripes, then paraded the diesel truck around the school parking lot at the end of the day, waving American flags. It s homecoming week and our school administration thought it was too offensive to have an America Pride Day! So this is my kids answer to that! local parent Ted Dawson posted to Facebook with pictures of his kids in patriotic get-ups. Where have we gone wrong! I don t care what race or religion you are, you live here, benefit from the schools, enjoy tax benefits or whatever you re an American or at least you better be! | 1 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s support among Republicans is about even at a national level with party front-runner Donald Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, as the U.S. senator picked up a victory in Wisconsin’s primary. Cruz’s gains in the polling mark the first time since November that one of Trump’s rivals has threatened his lead in support among Republicans in the race to be party nominee for the Nov. 8 election. The gains coincided with a bumpy patch for Trump, who was forced to backtrack last week after saying women who had abortions should face punishment if the procedure is outlawed, and who voiced support for his campaign manager after he was charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly grabbing a reporter. Cruz, a senator from Texas, got 35.2 percent of support to Trump’s 39.5 percent, the poll of 568 Republicans taken April 1-5 found. The numbers put the two within the poll’s 4.8 percentage-point credibility interval, a measure of accuracy. Cruz and Trump were also briefly about even early last week. But as recently as a month ago, when Senator Marco Rubio was also still a candidate, Cruz trailed Trump in the Reuters/Ipsos polling by about 20 points. Ohio Governor John Kasich, the only other candidate left in the race for the Republican Party nomination, placed third in the April 1-5 poll with 18.7 percent. Trump’s support has faltered among women in particular in recent weeks. More than 70 percent of likely women voters said they had an “unfavorable” opinion of Trump, according to the rolling poll average for the five-day period ended April 5. In the Democratic race, front-runner Hillary Clinton held a nationwide lead in the poll of about 7 points over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Cruz and Sanders easily won their Wisconsin presidential primary contests on Tuesday night. Sanders would still face a difficult task overtaking Clinton as the nominating contest, but Cruz’s double-digit win over Trump was seen as a breakthrough for Republican Party forces battling to block him. | 0 |
This morning on @FoxAndFriends, I explored why Obama and Hillary are so eager to import refugees in droves. pic.twitter.com/gkAgLiXBXY Dinesh D Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 24, 2016 | 1 |
Make no mistake about it, the NFL needs to show their fans that their players are serious about playing football, or the owners are going to continue to face catastrophic financial losses. The owners didn t hire Goodell to be their social justice director Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones led a conference call with 17 NFL owners on Thursday to discuss the possibility of halting commissioner Roger Goodell s pending contract extension.The owners on Thursday s conference call are unhappy with Goodell and the NFL s front office for a variety of reasons, including the player protests staged during the national anthem, issues regarding the relocation of teams to Los Angeles and the league s handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case, sources told ESPN. You don t get to have this many messes over the years like Roger has had and survive it, one owner said during the call.Sources have previously said that Jones has tried to stand in the way of any extension for Goodell.Last month, ESPN reported that Jones was impeding the progress of contract negotiations aimed at an extension for Goodell. If not for Jerry, one owner said last month in regard to the contract negotiations, this deal would be done. The tension between Jones and Goodell is in part credited to the commissioner giving Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott a six-game suspension, which is currently being disputed in court.Another factor in the frustration with Goodell is the controversy surrounding players kneeling during the national anthem.Goodell won t mandate the players stand while Jones is threatening Cowboys onto their feet.Earlier this month, Jones said that any of his players who disrespect the flag won t be allowed to play. I know this, we cannot in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag, Jones, also the team s general manager, said after a 35-31 loss to the Green Bay Packers on October 8.The previous week, Jones knelt along with head coach Jason Garrett and all their players in the middle of the field on September 26 in a show of unity before they all stood for the anthem before their 28-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Spoke to Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys yesterday. Jerry is a winner who knows how to get things done. Players will stand for Country! President Trump tweeted.On the other side of the debate, Goodell strongly backed the players and criticized Trump for an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL. For entire story- Daily Mail | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, Christopher Wray, on Wednesday said he would refuse to pledge loyalty to Trump, rejected his description of the probe into Russian election meddling as a “witch hunt,” and vowed to quit if asked by the president to do something unlawful. Wray, nominated by Trump on June 7 to replace the fired James Comey as Federal Bureau of Investigation director, sought to stake out independence from the president and protect the agency from partisan political influence. Wray even said it would be “highly unlikely” he would agree to meet Trump in a one-on-one situation, as Comey reluctantly did. Wray, who seemed headed for U.S. Senate approval to fill the 10-year post, testified during a 4 1/2-hour hour Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing amid an uproar in Washington over 2016 emails released on Tuesday involving the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. The emails showed the Republican president’s son agreeing last year to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic White House rival Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow’s official support for his father. Wray deflected specific questions from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham about the president’s son’s emails, saying he had not read them. But Wray said, “Any threats or effort to interfere with our election from any nation-state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.” Trump’s son did not notify the FBI and wrote “I love it” about the Russian’s offer of information on Clinton. Trump fired Comey on May 9, igniting a political firestorm, and later cited the “Russia thing” as his reason. The Justice Department eight days later named Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race to help Trump win and potential collusion between Moscow and Trump associates. The Russia matter has dogged Trump’s first six months in office. Wray said he had no reason to doubt the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in part by hacking and releasing emails damaging to Clinton, a claim Moscow denies. Wray worked at the Justice Department under Republican former President George W. Bush when Comey was deputy attorney general and Mueller was FBI director. Wray also represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a political scandal. Trump has called the Russia probe a “witch hunt.” “I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch hunt,” Wray told Graham. Wray said he was “very committed” to supporting Mueller’s investigation, calling him a “consummate straight shooter and somebody I have enormous respect for.” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Wray to inform the committee “if you learn about any machinations to tamper with” Mueller’s probe. “Understood,” Wray responded. Wray said no one at the White House had asked that he pledge loyalty to Trump, as Comey said the president demanded of him on Jan. 26. Wray said he would not give such an assurance if asked. “My loyalty is to the Constitution, to the rule of law and to the mission of the FBI. And no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process, and I sure as heck didn’t offer one,” Wray said. Comey previously told the same committee Trump pressed him in a one-on-one session to drop the FBI investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. Comey said he felt he was fired in a bid by Trump to undercut the Russia probe. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy asked Wray, “If the president asks you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say?” “First, I would try to talk him out of it. And if that failed, I would resign,” Wray replied. The allegation involving Trump pressing Comey on Feb. 14 over the Flynn probe raised questions about whether Trump’s behavior amounted to obstruction of justice, a potential issue in any potential future effort in Congress to impeach the president and remove him from office. Wray sought to differentiate himself from Comey. Wray was asked about Comey’s July 2016 news conference announcing that no criminal charges were planned against Clinton over her use of a private email server to handle classified information but faulting her conduct. “I can’t imagine a situation where as FBI director I would be giving a press conference on an uncharged individual, much less talk in detail about it,” Wray testified. Graham questioned Wray about a January report by the U.S. news organization Politico that a Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee had met with Ukrainian embassy officials in Washington in a bid to help Clinton and expose links between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia. Wray said it would be wrong for Ukraine to meddle in the election and “I’d be happy to dig into it.” | 0 |
Liberals on Twitter accused President Donald Trump s son Eric of sporting a Nazi haircut when he debuted a new hairdo Sunday.Eric Trump sported a new hairstyle with the side of his head shaved in an interview with Fox News. Trump s trendy new style is far from unusual: celebrities like Macklemore, David Beckham, Brad Pitt, and Adam Levine have all sported the same look.But in recent years, members of the alt-right, including white supremacist Richard Spencer, have also started wearing their hair the same way. Some have even begun to call the style fashy, short for fascist.When a screenshot of Trump s hairstyle first hit the Internet, reporters and liberals assumed the worst. WFBEric Trump has a fascist haircut.This cannot possibly be unintentional. pic.twitter.com/9mqUbwENqQ Ali Gharib (@Ali_Gharib) June 25, 2017Political reporter for The Guardian asks if Eric Trump is wearing a fashy or in other words, if he s sporting a fascist haircut.Wait, does he have a fashy? Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 25, 2017This Twitter user is suggesting Eric Trump looks like white supremacist Richard Spencer.Looks like the Richard Spencer alt right special Chris (@bigtrix36) June 25, 2017This Twitter users profile says he s a mental health counselor ! It looks like someone could use a little mental health counseling themselves:It's not so new. pic.twitter.com/qdq8RpKyW5 David Slack (@slack2thefuture) June 25, 2017This dingbat Twitter user attempts to suggest that Trump s new haircut is some sort of dog whistle The officially call this haircut the Dog Whistle. pic.twitter.com/TeSkCQLRYh Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) June 26, 2017Meanwhile, Malia Obama s twerking and public weed smoking antics were virtually ignored by leftist social media users and most especially by the rabid leftist media who considered them off limits , like this picture of Malia hanging out with friends in a room with a huge bong in front of her.Or this video showing Malia standing on a stage and twerking in front of thousands of Lalapalooza fans in Chicago: | 1 |
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Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireWhen US Secretary of State, John Kerry, on Thursday said there was no point in pursuing further negotiations with Russia over Syria, you had to question on what basis this man is holding his current position as the nation s highest ranking diplomat. Really? No more diplomacy? At this point, even a conservative assessment would have to grade his performance as a failure.Regarding Russia, Kerry proclaimed, We are on the verge of suspending the discussion, adding, It is one of those moments where we re going to have to pursue other alternatives for a period of time. At the time of this statement earlier this week, Kerry was not clear about what those other alternatives would be, but yesterday, a new leaked audio presented by a New York Times journalist seems to answer this question According to a leaked taped conversation acquired by The New York Times of a backroom meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, John Kerry was never been interested in a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria. Quite the opposite: his priority has always been to topple President Bashar Assad by military means and through the implementation of a No Fly Zone which would most certainly give a tactical advantage to US and Gulf-backed terrorist proxy fighting groups like Al Nusra Front, Arar al Sham and others. I ve argued for use of force. I stood up. I m the guy who stood up and announced we re going to attack Assad because of the weapons, and then you know things evolved into a different process. There it is: after all the diplomatic doublespeak, the underlying US policy is and always has been regime change.More shockingly, he then told a US-backed opposition operatives that, you have nobody more frustrated than we are (the US) that the Syrian conflict is now being solved diplomatically a clear betrayal of his job description, but also of the fundamental principles on which the UN was founded.Kerry also added further insult to injury by admitting that both Saudi Arabia and NATO member Turkey are financing Wahabist terrorist fighters on the ground: The problem is that, you know, you get, quote, enforcers in there and then everybody ups the ante, right? Russia puts in more, Iran puts in more; Hezbollah is there more, and and Saudi Arabia and Turkey put all their surrogate money in, and you all are destroyed. In the audio, Kerry keeps referring to the opposition but is careful and never brackets the confab of terrorist forces on the ground in that conversation, thus making the theoretical fantasy of a ceasefire somehow viable in his own parallel universe.The reality is that if Syria and Russia grounded their airforces in a ceasefire, then Al Nusra Front, Jaesh al Fatah, ISIS and other terrorists (many of whom are armed by the US) would simply step-up their own advances and attacks on civilian and SAA protected areas. The US knows this, and would like to see that happen for reasons now revealed by John Kerry in this recording.Something else in the tape was significant. After saying that Russia do not observe international law , Kerry then admitted that, Russia was invited in (legally into Syria) while the US was not.Incredibly, Kerry also admitted that, Hezbollah are not plotting against us (the United States) , and that, Hezbollah are being targeted by the opposition who we (the US) are arming and training. Now, leaks are rarely if ever accidental in Washington, especially when a pro-Obama Administration newspaper like the New York Times is involved in the operation. Is Kerry trying to extricate himself from this 5 year-long foreign policy debacle? With Washington s crown jewel in the destabilzation project, Aleppo, due to fall any time now, perhaps he might be opening an intermediary exit door for this Administration from the current losing path to partitioning Syria. Time will tell.Listen to this incredibly informative leaked audio here: Interestingly, back in April, Raed Salah, the leader of the White Helmets, was denied entry into the US at Washington s Dulles International Airport and deported, supposedly told due to extremist connections. Salah was on his way to receive a humanitarian relief award at a gala dinner hosted by USAID. It turns that USAID has also pumped at least $23 million into the White Helmets. How did Salah get back into the US for this month s UN General Assembly festivities? Did Kerry intervene personally to help sidestep his travel ban? It seems that these days in Washington, the term conflict of interest has lost all meaning with the ruling Mandarin class.Samantha Power s MeltdownMuch could be gleaned by Samantha Power s flippant tantrum after walking out of a crucial UN Security Council emergency session after the US had attacked and massacred over 80 Syrian military soldiers after a Coalition airstrike on Dier Azor a US attack which allowed ISIS to strategically advance past Syrian Army defensive positions. Undoubtedly, this act by the US is what ruined any chance of a viable ceasefire agreement. Power then went on the blame Russia for the crisis.Here, the US was caught red-handed, and it seems that Power s only recourse was to lash out in an adolescent huff, indicating that she is not capable of maintaining a professional demeanor in public while tasked with managing the sensitive job of international diplomacy. As a result, many now believe that Power was promoted well above her own level of incompetence. Watch Power here: Kirby s Jejune Diplomacy As if the shrill antics of Power were not enough, US State Dept spokesman John Kirby did his part this week in undermining America s reputation a trusted international broker of diplomacy. What s telling, however, about Kirby crass, passive aggressive evasive diatribes is the sound of desperation. His defensive reactions make it sounds as if the United States is losing in Syria. The truth is they are losing very badly. Still, like a good corporate soldier, he s trying to project confidence, believing he s one of the good guys. While Kerry threatens to cut off all talks with Moscow over Syria unless they cease attacks on Aleppo (the US never want to say East Aleppo), Kirby added something even more toxic into the mix when he issued an unprecedented threat to Russia, saying: Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags.. Just like Kerry, Kirby s dangerous comment should disqualify Kirby from holding any diplomatic position in the US government. Maybe he should go back to the Pentagon where things aren t so complicated.Then Kirby began wielding his ISIS dog whistle, saying that Russia can expect terrorist attacks in Russian cities. Even more disappointing though, is Kirby s fallacious attempt to whitewash the war crimes of Saudi Arabia (and the US, too) in Yemen, as they wage an afront to international law and order with their undeclared war of aggression against their neighbor. In a verbal exchange with RT s correspondent Gayane Chichakyan over Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Kirby tries to avoid the uncomfortable question by attacking Chichakyan s network RT. Watch: Clearly, we are witnessing the internal implosion of the UN through systematic and institutional corruption, with the main players in this stage act being the United States and Saudi Arabia.Presently, the United States and its client in Saudi Arabia are in direct violation of the Nuremberg Principles that were established after WWII and which provide the legal and moral basis for both the Geneva Convention and the United Nations organization itself.So this is the dynamic trio that Barack Obama is hiding behind. American diplomats like John Kerry, Samantha Power, and John Kirby have a lot to answer for, because even though they may not be aware of it, everyone else now knows that their public outbursts are nothing more than smokescreens to cover the numerous lies and covert operations that the US government continues to sell regarding two dirty wars in Syria and Yemen.As it stands today, they are definitely on the wrong side of history.Here s more on John Kirby and US duplicity in Syria and Yemen RTUnless Russia stops the violence in Syria, extremists would exploit the vacuum to attack Russian interests and even cities, the US State Department has said. Extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations, which could include attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities. Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags, and will continue to lose resources, perhaps even aircraft, John Kirby, the State Department s spokesperson, told reporters at Wednesday s press briefing.If the war continues more Russian lives will be lost, more Russian aircraft will be shot down, Kirby said.Early on Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to end all cooperation between the United States and Russia to stop Syria s civil war, unless Moscow and Damascus ended the current attack on East Aleppo. We are working through steps that we might have to take to begin to suspend our engagement with Russia on Syria. We haven t taken those steps yet, said Kirby. The message to the [Russian] Foreign Minister today was that we are perfectly willing and able to move forward on those steps that would end with the suspension of US-Russia bi-lateral engagement in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presented a different version of the call with Secretary Kerry, with the demand that the US live up to its obligation to separate opposition forces from extremist groups.The US promised long ago to separate the rebels from terrorists and it needs to live up to that obligation, Lavrov told Kerry, bringing up the recent interview of an Al-Nusra commander about how the group is receiving outside support including American weapons as well as the statement of a Syrian opposition leader Riyad Hijab that he did not consider Al-Nusra terrorists.Foreign Minister Lavrov told Kerry that many US-backed groups are working side by side with the Al-Qaeda affiliate, and brought up media reports that Nusra was receiving weapons from the US.During the press briefing, Kirby said the US had influence over some of the [rebel] groups but not all. There are other nations that have influence. We have admitted that not all opposition groups on every single day have abided by it, and we have continued to work with them on that, Kirby said, asked about the rebels violations of the Syrian ceasefire.The Obama Administration has consistently called for regime change in Syria, and Kirby told reporters on Wednesday Obviously, we don t want to see the regime acquire any additional territory in Aleppo.In response to the statement that Russia was targeting Nusra Front and terrorists, Kirby said That s not what s happening. They re hitting hospitals, civilian infrastructure. When asked about the US arming Saudi Arabia, Kirby said the State Department had been critical about the lack of precision in some strikes in Yemen. We have a strong defense relationship with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is under attack from missiles that are finding their ways to Yemen from Iran, said Kirby, rejecting any comparison between what was happening in Yemen and what was happening in Syria, as a ludicrous exercise. Continue this story at RTREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesHelp support us by Subscribing and becoming a Member @ 21WIRE.TV | 1 |
3 Congressional IT employees have been fired for accessing members computer networks without permission. Maria s on the show, knows more about this. Can you fill me in a bit.Here are their names Stuart. let me tell you what the 3 people that were fired on Thursday: Abid, Imran and Jamal Awan. They were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives on Thursday because they accessed Congressmen and Congress people s computer networks unauthorized. At a minimum they were fired. At a minimum we know that they accessed computers unauthorized and they did so in foreign intelligence, foreign affairs and intelligence committees. Okay? So they were getting very important information, government information. They accessed these computers. That is the least of it. There s also some talk that people are looking into what ties they have into terrorism. Are they impacted by the Muslim Brotherhood? Are they a part of the Muslim Brotherhood? One of them has a criminal background!How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background! I hear what you re saying, I mean, these intelligence committees handle our terror strategies right? They got in on Benghazi by the way.Yes, and they also worked for many Democrats in the House. They are thinking that they may be also one of the reasons Debbie Wasserman Schultz got hacked. There s so much more to come on this Stuart, it s an incredible story. I think it s amazing!Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Their salaries and time were shared among dozens of Democratic members, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Despite the generous salaries, the four were involved in multiple suspicious mortgage transfers and a debt-evading bankruptcy. Abid had more than $1 million in debts following a failed business called Cars International that he ran in Falls Church, Va., from November 2009 to September 2010. Business associates said in court documents that Abid had stolen money and vehicles from them.It s unclear how Abid found time to run an automotive business while working full-time for Congress. He had been on the congressional payroll since 2005. A congressional credit union repossessed two of his personal cars before the business folded.Abid filed for bankruptcy in 2012, but somehow managed to keep ownership of two houses while telling the bankruptcy court and creditors that he had no assets with which to pay them. He signed a sworn statement that he and his wife, Natalia Soba, were living apart and needed separate residences. My spouse and I are legally separated under applicable non-bankruptcy law or my spouse and I are living apart other than for the purpose of evading the requirements of 707(b)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, Abid claimed in bankruptcy documents. But both houses had been in the family for years.Abid s record includes numerous driving- and alcohol-related legal problems, including driving with a suspended or revoked license, court records show. He was found guilty of drunk driving a month before he started at the House, and was arrested for public intoxication a month after his first day.A spokesman for Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas told TheDCNF Friday that Jamal s employment with our office has been terminated. Hilarie Chambers, a spokeswoman for Rep. Sandy Levin who employed Abid told TheDCNF that after being notified by the House Administration Committee, this individual was removed from our payroll. We are confident that everything in our office is secure. Not every Democrat is willing to terminate their connection with these four:Some Democrats have not terminated their connection with the four, including Wasserman Schultz, who employs Imran and who resigned from her DNC post last year after a computer hack revealed embarassing emails. Derrick Robinson, spokesman for California Rep. Karen Bass, refused to comment on Alvi s employment status.For entire story: Daily Caller | 1 |
Wow! CNN host Chris Cuomo tells viewers it s ILLEGAL to read the Wikileaks emails, but if you watch them, they will tell you what they say. And no he s not kidding! https://twitter.com/Always_Trump/status/787673496537092096Sounds pretty legit Here s leftist CNN host telling his viewers, We couldn t help Hillary anymore than we have. | 1 |
This guy is crazy! The last thing Americans needs is higher taxes! | 1 |
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China has condemned a Taiwan government probe into a tiny but passionately pro-China opposition party, the latest flashpoint between Beijing and a self-ruled island it considers its own. Taiwanese investigators searched the homes of four officials from the New Party, which currently has no members of parliament, on Tuesday on suspicion they had violated the National Security Act. A New Party delegation, including at least one of those whose homes was raided, party spokesman Wang Ping-chung, visited China last week as part of a scheduled trip to meet China s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office. The New Party has denounced the raids as politically motivated and retribution for their opposition to Taiwan independence and support for union with China. Taiwanese prosecutors and the government have not given details of what the party members are suspected of. Unlike in China, where the legal system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, democratic Taiwan has an independent judiciary. Taiwan media has reported that the case could be linked to that of Chinese citizen Zhou Hongxu, jailed by a Taiwan court in September for breaching national security laws. Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung said he knew Zhou, and that Zhou had attended party events held in the past. In 2014, when I successfully became a representative of the party, he came to an event to offer his support. Later he participated in our organization events so we of course know him. In a short statement released late on Tuesday, China s Taiwan Affairs Office praised the New Party for its stance in opposing Taiwan independence and upholding the one China principle, which states that Taiwan is part of China. Recently, the Taiwan authorities have shielded and connived with Taiwan independent splittists, and taken various moves to wantonly crack down on and persecute forces and people who uphold peaceful reunification, it said. We strongly condemn this and are paying close attention to developments, the office said. The New Party broke off from the Nationalists, who once ruled all of China, in 1993. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists. Relations between China and Taiwan have soured since Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections last year. China suspects she wants to push for Taiwan s formal independence. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s security. The Chinese military has stepped up air force patrols around Taiwan in recent weeks. China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it considers a wayward province under Chinese control. | 0 |
This is a MUST WATCH!According to American News, Raso began by calling Clinton out for a lie she told an audience in order to make herself appear as courageous as American soldiers. Of course, he was referring to the lie Clinton told about dodging enemy fire in Bosnia. I remember landing under sniper fire, Clinton once said. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicle to get to our base. It was a moment of great pride for me. Raso pointed out that video footage proves Clinton was greeted warmly with handshakes that day. She tried to blame her lie on a mistake, calling it a misstatement. In my 12-year military career, I never heard an excuse like that from my leadership, Raso told reporters. It s impossible to even imagine that happening. Only someone completely arrogant, ignorant and disrespectful of what happens in war could say something like that, he concluded. Hillary was willing to lie in order to take advantage of that feeling of gratitude and awe Americans have for those who serve. Via: Conservative Post | 1 |
SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in violence-racked northwest Myanmar are pleading with authorities for safe passage from two remote villages that are cut off by hostile Buddhists and running short of food. We re terrified, Maung Maung, a Rohingya official at Ah Nauk Pyin village, told Reuters by telephone. We ll starve soon and they re threatening to burn down our houses. Another Rohingya contacted by Reuters, who asked not to be named, said ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the same village and shouted, Leave, or we will kill you all. Fragile relations between Ah Nauk Pyin and its Rakhine neighbors were shattered on Aug. 25, when deadly attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine State prompted a ferocious response from Myanmar s security forces. At least 430,000 Rohingya have since fled into neighboring Bangladesh to evade what the United Nations has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". About a million Rohingya lived in Rakhine State until the recent violence. Most face draconian travel restrictions and are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Tin Maung Swe, secretary of the Rakhine State government, told Reuters he was working closely with the Rathedaung authorities, and had received no information about the Rohingya villagers plea for safe passage. There is nothing to be concerned about, he said when asked about local tensions. Southern Rathedaung is completely safe. National police spokesman Myo Thu Soe said he also had no information about the Rohingya villages but that he would look into the matter. Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department s East Asia Bureau made no reference to the situation in the villages, but said the United States was calling urgently for Myanmar s security forces to act in accordance with the rule of law and to stop the violence and displacement suffered by individuals from all communities. Tens of thousands of people reportedly lack adequate food, water, and shelter in northern Rakhine State, spokeswoman Katina Adams said. The government should act immediately to assist them. Adams said Patrick Murphy, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, would reiterate grave U.S. concern about the situation in Rakhine when he meets senior officials in Myanmar this week. Britain is to host a ministerial meeting on Monday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss the situation in Rakhine. Ah Nauk Pyin sits on a mangrove-fringed peninsula in Rathedaung, one of three townships in northern Rakhine State. The villagers say they have no boats. Until three weeks ago, there were 21 Muslim villages in Rathedaung, along with three camps for Muslims displaced by previous bouts of religious violence. Sixteen of those villages and all three camps have since been emptied and in many cases burnt, forcing an estimated 28,000 Rohingya to flee. Rathedaung s five surviving Rohingya villages and their 8,000 or so inhabitants are encircled by Rakhine Buddhists and acutely vulnerable, say human rights monitors. The situation is particularly dire in Ah Nauk Pyin and nearby Naung Pin Gyi, where any escape route to Bangladesh is long, arduous, and sometimes blocked by hostile Rakhine neighbors. Maung Maung, the Rohingya official, said the villagers were resigned to leaving but the authorities had not responded to their requests for security. At night, he said, villagers had heard distant gunfire. It s better they go somewhere else, said Thein Aung, a Rathedaung official, who dismissed Rohingya allegations that Rakhines were threatening them. Only two of the Aug. 25 attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) took place in Rathedaung. But the township was already a tinderbox of religious tension, with ARSA citing the mistreatment of Rohingya there as one justification for its offensive. In late July, Rakhine residents of a large, mixed village in northern Rathedaung corraled hundreds of Rohingya inside their neighborhood, blocking access to food and water. A similar pattern is repeating itself in southern Rathedaung, with local Rakhine citing possible ARSA infiltration as a reason for ejecting the last remaining Rohingya. Maung Maung said he had called the police at least 30 times to report threats against his village. On Sept. 13, he said, he got a call from a Rakhine villager he knew. Leave tomorrow or we ll come and burn down all your houses, said the man, according to a recording Maung Maung gave to Reuters. When Maung Maung protested that they had no means to escape, the man replied: That s not our problem. On Aug. 31, the police convened a roadside meeting between two villages, attended by seven Rohingya from Ah Nauk Pyin and 14 Rakhine officials from the surrounding villages. Instead of addressing the Rohingya complaints, said Maung Maung and two other Rohingya who attended the meeting, the Rakhine officials delivered an ultimatum. They said they didn t want any Muslims in the region and we should leave immediately, said the Rohingya resident of Ah Nauk Pyin who requested anonymity. The Rohingya agreed, said Maung Maung, but only if the authorities provided security. He showed Reuters a letter that the village elders had sent to the Rathedaung authorities on Sept. 7, asking to be moved to another place . They had yet to receive a response, he said. Relations between the two communities deteriorated in 2012, when religious unrest in Rakhine State killed nearly 200 people and made 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya. Scores of houses in Ah Nauk Pyin were torched. Since then, said villagers, Rohingya have been too scared to leave the village or till their land, surviving mainly on monthly deliveries from the World Food Programme (WFP). The recent violence halted those deliveries. The WFP pulled out most staff and suspended operations in the region after Aug. 25. Residents in the area s two Rohingya villages said they could no longer venture out to fish or buy food from Rakhine traders, and were running low on food and medicines. Maung Maung said the local police told the Rohingya to stay in their villages and not to worry because nothing would happen, he said. But the nearest police station had only half a dozen or so officers, he said, and could not do much if Ah Nauk Pyin was attacked. A few minutes walk away, at the Rakhine village of Shwe Long Tin, residents were also on edge, said its leader, Khin Tun Aye. They had also heard gunfire at night, he said, and were guarding the village around the clock with machetes and slingshots in case the Rohingya attacked with ARSA s help. We re also terrified, he said. He said he told his fellow Rakhine to stay calm, but the situation remained so tense that he feared for the safety of his Rohingya neighbors. If there is violence, all of them will be killed, he said. | 0 |
(Reuters) - CNN, the news division of Time Warner Inc, said on Wednesday its decision to publish “carefully sourced reporting” on unverified intelligence documents concerning President-elect Donald Trump is “vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos.” CNN’s statement came after Trump called the news outlet “fake news” and refused to take a CNN reporter’s questions at his first formal news conference since his Nov. 8 electoral win. BuzzFeed on Tuesday published a story about a dossier of documents it said were unverified and “potentially unverifiable” allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives. Included in the documents were claims that Russian intelligence had compromising information about Trump. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti in a memo to employees on Wednesday defended the decision to publish the dossier, referring to it as a “newsworthy document.” Throughout the news conference, Trump decried a CNN report on Tuesday that said U.S. intelligence officials had presented Trump with claims that Russian operatives said they had compromising personal and financial information about him. | 0 |
HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received compensation worth $27.4 million last year when he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, regulatory filings showed on Thursday. He and other senior executives got raises even though Exxon’s net income fell more than 50 percent in 2016 as the company, like many of its peers, tried to cut costs and weather a period of low oil prices. The value of Tillerson’s compensation package last year rose about 0.5 percent largely due to a 4 percent boost in his salary to $3.2 million and an 8 percent jump in the value of stock awards to $19.7 million, an Exxon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The value of perquisites Tillerson received from Exxon last year, including personal security and a life insurance policy, rose 7 percent to $575,850. Tillerson, 65, was nominated by then President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of state in December. Tillerson retired from Exxon at the end of the year. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in early February. His current post carries an annual salary of $207,800, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management tables. As part of an ethics agreement when Tillerson assumed his government post, Tillerson forfeited unvested Exxon stock worth $2.8 million and potential for a bonus of $3.9 million. He also waived his right to retiree health benefits. Tillerson’s vested Exxon stock was put into a trust worth about $180 million at the time, the proceeds of which will be paid out over the next decade, much in the same way proceeds are paid out to all Exxon retirees. The trust is prohibited from investing in Exxon. Tillerson will not be allowed to work anywhere in the oil and gas industry for the next decade. If he does, the entire trust’s value would be donated to a charity that neither he nor Exxon chooses, according to the regulatory filings. Darren Woods, Exxon’s CEO as of January, saw his compensation rise 64 percent last year, when he was Exxon’s president, to $16.8 million. Woods saw his base salary rise 36 percent to $1 million and the value of stock and stock option awards, his pension and company perquisites, including the cost of a home security system, rise as well. | 0 |
With a battle heating up between Republicans and Obama on a Supreme Court nomination, the president chooses to skip the funeral of longtime Supreme Court Justice Scalia. This is a classless move by Obama who s got a track record of not showing up at important funerals. He expects the Republicans to be bipartisan, yet he shows his true colors when he does something like this. The White House has confirmed reports that President Barack Obama will not be attending the funeral of late Supreme Court Justice Scalia s funeral which is scheduled for Saturday. Instead, the president and first lady Michelle Obama will pay their respects to Scalia on Friday, when the Justice s body lies in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building. The White House added that Vice President Joe Biden will attend Saturday s funeral at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.The last supreme court justice to pass away was Justice William Rehnquist in 2005. Then-President George W. Bush not only attended the service, but delivered a eulogy along with Justice Sandra Day O Connor.Critics claim that his decision not to attend Justice Scalia s funeral is just the latest in a string of snubs over the past several years. While Obama has attended some high profile funerals like those of former South African President Nelson Mandela and Senator and ex-KKK member Robert Byrd, the president has skipped out services for a number of high-profile conservatives and members of the U.S. military:Margaret Thatcher When the Iron Lady passed away in 2013, the Obama administration sent what the Daily Signal referred to as a low-level delegation similar in size and scope to the delegation sent to the funeral of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. Chris Kyle After Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle was murdered on a gun range in 2013, the president opted not to attend his Texas funeral. Furthermore, the president ruffled even more feathers by failing to acknowledge Kyle in his State of the Union address which was held on the same day.Major General Harold Greene Army Major General Harold Greene became the highest ranking combat fatality since Vietnam after he was ambushed by an Afghan police officer in August of 2014. The president was not present when Greene was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. The administration also came under criticism for failing to even releasing a statement upon receiving news of the president s death.Zeinuti Onyango The funeral of President Obama s aunt Zeinuti Onyango was not the high-profile affair of a high ranking government official, but the fact that the decided to play a few rounds of golf instead of attending is somewhat telling. The Kenyan-born Onyango passed away at the age of 61 in 2014.The list could go on and on but here s some great advice from a liberal pundit for Obama:MSNBC host Chris Hayes: Some amazing advice my mom gave me once: If you re wondering whether you should go to the funeral, you should go to the funeral. Read more: Hannity | 1 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the United Nations on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump had made our rockets visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable by calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rocket man . Through such a prolonged and arduous struggle, now we are finally only a few steps away from the final gate of completion of the state nuclear force, Ri told the annual gathering of world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly. It is only a forlorn hope to consider any chance that the DPRK (North Korea) would be shaken an inch or change its stance due to the harsher sanctions by the hostile forces, he said. | 0 |
***WARNING***This video will make your blood boil. Do NOT watch it if you have high blood pressure. There is also some hood approved language that many sane may find offensive. Can someone please explain to me why any man or woman would want to risk their lives to help these people? This is only going to get worse before it gets better. As long as we have a President of the United States who is condoning this behavior by remaining silent, this situation is going to get much worse. East Precinct Officer Matthew Cammarn, who has been named Officer of the Year, should be out of the hospital soon. He was trying to arrest Brian Shannon, 22, when Shannon and a crowd attacked him in one of Nashville s projects as he tried to make the arrest.Shannon is jailed on charges of felony aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, evading arrest, criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and drug possession. A 17-year old was also arrested.The officer, a hero cop, saw Shannon assaulting a woman when Shannon aggressively approached the officer who then tried to arrest him.While Officer Cammarn was on the ground fighting with Shannon, people in a crowd pulled and pushed Cammarn to try and free Shannon. Others stood by recording the assault on their cell phones. Via: Independent Sentinel | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote to renew sanctions on Iran for 10 years before adjourning next month, the chamber’s Republican leader said on Wednesday, sending the bill to the White House, where President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for the decade-long extension of the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and deter the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The act will expire at the end of 2016 if it is not renewed. “We’re going to take up the House bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Senate’s weekly Republican leadership news conference. “... And we’re going to pass it.” The Obama administration and other world powers reached an agreement last year in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. But members of Congress said they wanted the ISA to stay in effect to send a strong message that the United States will respond to provocations by Iran and give any U.S. president the ability to quickly reinstate sanctions if Tehran violated the nuclear agreement. White House officials have said they did not think the reinstatement was needed, now that the nuclear agreement has been in effect for almost a year. But they also have not raised concerns that a renewal would violate the deal. Apart from the ISA, the nuclear agreement’s longer-term future became more uncertain when Republican Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 8, and Republicans kept their majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Every Republican in Congress opposed the nuclear agreement. And Trump was harshly critical of it as he campaigned. | 0 |
We love this guy! Factory worker Keith Ketzler: For eight horrible years I heard, We don t have control of the House. We don t have control of the senate. We don t have the presidency and when we get in we got a plan and we re going to change stuff. Well I tell you what, you re in there now and all I see is infighting. It s very dysfunctional.This guy just said whatever American would like to say to Paul Ryan! Notice how the answer was just more rhetoric blah, blah, blah All talk and NO ACTION!Paul Ryan is in the back pocket of the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups. He s talking out of both sides of his mouth. He needs to go!PAUL RYAN AUDIO GIVES US INSIGHT INTO HOW HE REALLY FEELS ABOUT TRUMP:AUDIO RELEASED: Paul Ryan Caught On Tape: I am not going to defend Donald Trump not now, not in the future We all know Paul Ryan was no fan of President Donald Trump while he was running for office. Sadly, unlike the Democrats who held their noses and went all in for Hillary, our Republican Speaker of the House went out of his way to NOT support Trump during his highly contentious campaign. Now that a new audio tape has emerged, proving that Ryan went out of his way to make sure his colleagues in the House understood that he would never support Trump, this leaves Ryan looking pretty foolish considering the public support Trump has offered Ryan and his increasingly unpopular Obamacare Lite proposal.On a never-before-released private October conference call with House Republican members, House Speaker Paul Ryan told his members in the U.S. House of Representatives he was abandoning then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump forever and would never defend him ever again. In the Oct. 10, 2016 call, from right after the Access Hollywood tape of Trump was leaked in the weeks leading up to the election, Ryan does not specify that he will never defend Trump on just the Access Hollywood tape he says clearly he is done with Trump altogether. I am not going to defend Donald Trump not now, not in the future, Ryan says in the audio, obtained by Breitbart News and published here for the first time ever.Now, Ryan still the Speaker has pushed now President Donald Trump to believe his healthcare legislation the American Health Care Act would repeal and replace Obamacare when it does not repeal Obamacare. Ryan has also, according to Trump ally Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), misled President Trump into believing that Ryan s bill can pass Congress. Paul and others believe the bill is dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate since a number of GOP senators have come out against it, and there are serious questions about whether it can pass the House. This is the first major initiative that Trump has worked on with Ryan and the fact it is going so poorly calls into question whether Speaker Ryan, the GOP s failed 2012 vice presidential nominee who barely supported Trump at all in 2016, really understands how Trump won and how to win in general.The October conference call apparently was intended only for House Republican members. It s unclear which or how many House Republicans took part in the call, whether the participants knew it was being recorded, who made the recording, or whether a recording exists of the entire call. The remarks on the portion provided to Breitbart News certainly sound like they were coming from Speaker Ryan, who seemed to be abandoning his party s presidential nominee altogether just weeks before the election. He says not only will he not defend the Access Hollywood comments, but he will not campaign with Trump at all between this call on Oct. 10, 2016, and the general election for the presidency on Nov. 8 and that Ryan would not defend Trump on anything generally. For entire story- Matthew Boyle, Breitbart NewsLISTEN: | 1 |
SEOUL (Reuters) - The North Korean soldier who was shot while defecting to South Korea on Monday suffered massive internal damage, the surgeon leading his treatment said on Wednesday. I ve never seen such injuries outside of a textbook in more than 20 years of my career, Lee Cook-jong, the surgeon in charge of the soldier, said at a media briefing. The soldier was being operated upon for a second time on Wednesday, the hospital treating him said. | 0 |
Trump has just made his campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, his new chief strategist, and that doesn t bode well for anybody who might hold out some hope that Trump doesn t have fascist tendencies. Bannon is the former CEO of Breitbart News, and Breitbart is positively reveling in Trump s win. They feel it gives them legitimacy, and Bannon s placement gives them unprecedented access to and influence over a presidential administration.The New York Times published a report on this, and Alexander Marlow, Breitbart s editor-in-chief, told them: So much of the media mocked us, laughed at us, called us all sorts of names. And then for us to be seen as integral to the election of a president, despite all of that hatred, is something that we certainly enjoy, and savor. They re thrilled now because they think this makes them legitimate. What they apparently don t see is that people laughed at and dismissed Breitbart because they became an alt-right conspiracy site, as opposed to a legit conservative media site. They want to shape narratives like everyone else, but Bannon s dictatorial rule turned them into just another InfoWars. His placement on the transition team (along with the blowjobs he probably gave Trump in order to get on the campaign) makes this dangerous.It opens a very wide door to a state-run media outlet. Throughout his entire campaign, Trump vilified any media outlet that dared criticize him. He openly and repeatedly claimed to want to open up libel laws so it would be easier to sue outlets for saying bad things about him. He only liked media outlets that gave him favorable coverage, and he wanted to burn any outlet that didn t.Make no mistake, this is a reason to be nervous. State-run media is nothing more than a government s propaganda arm, and Breitbart s newfound fame reaches a lot of people. They re even talking about expanding into Paris, Cairo, and Berlin, according to the Times report.State-run media uses a variety of methods to control information, and one that could become true here very quickly is known as the big lie. What is the big lie? According to North Korea s media, for instance, it s the idea that there s no poverty and everyone would have laid down their life for their late dictator, Kim Jong Il. The media even claimed that people ran into buildings damaged by a munitions explosion to save paintings of Kim before they tried saving their own family members.Who believes that actually happened and that North Korea is so prosperous under the Kims that there s no poverty? Really.Yet, Breitbart already does things like this, too. They ran unsubstantiated rumors about Hillary Clinton s health; they ve claimed the rash of hate crimes since Election Night is fake, and they turned their backs on one of their own reporters, Michelle Fields, after Corey Lewandowski grabbed and bruised her.Furthermore, Mike Pence himself tried to start a state-run media outlet in Indiana. He wanted it to compete with Indiana s independent media. They would even break stories ahead of everyone else, most likely to shape the narrative before the mainstream media had a crack at it. There s a good chance he d be on board with Breitbart being the administration s own personal propaganda machine.Then there s the liar of liars himself. Trump just lied about The New York Times again after a campaign filled with these lies:@realDonaldTrump @nytimes fact: surge in new subscriptions, print & digital, with trends, stops & starts, 4 X better than normal. NYTCo Communications (@NYTimesComm) November 13, 2016Breitbart can easily start pushing these lies, too, and anything else they see fit. Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesman who quit earlier this year, voiced worry over the idea that Breitbart was suddenly so close to the White House: It will be as close as we are ever going to have hopefully to a state-run media enterprise. Think it really can t happen, because we re already full of independent journalism along with a Constitutional right to a free press? Think again. The Times floated this small fact in their report: [T]he site s influence on social media, where more and more Americans now consume information, has been palpable. On election night, Breitbart s Facebook page received the fourth-highest number of user interactions on the entire platform beating Fox News, CNN and The New York Times. If they get big enough and command a large enough audience, other media outlets could fade to irrelevance. It snowballs from there. Of course, The Times says that Breitbart s editor-in-chief totally rejects the idea that they could become Trump s own propaganda mill, which is baloney: Our loyalty is not going to be to Donald Trump; our loyalty is to our readers and to our values. That s regardless of what role Steve has.If Trump runs his administration and honors the voters who voted him in, we re all good. But if he is going to turn his back on those values and principles that drove his voters to the polls, we re going to be highly critical. We re not going to think twice about it. Trump and Bannon can quietly use Breitbart to push whatever they want. They can use its propaganda to counter what the mainstream media is saying, and people will buy it up lock, stock and barrel.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus said his group of conservative Republican lawmakers remained opposed to Republican leaders’ proposed bill to rollback Obamacare, raising doubts about the legislation’s future ahead of a planned Thursday vote. “The opposition is still strong. They don’t have the votes to pass this tomorrow. We believe that they need to start over,” Representative Mark Meadows told reporters after a meeting of his group following earlier talks at the White House. | 0 |
Congressional Republicans plan on dogging Hillary and the FBI about her emails and use of a private server from now until kingdom come. It s a matter of mishandling classified info, they say. She potentially put our national security at grave risk, they claim. We have to investigate every last letter of every last word of every last sentence here, they insist. But when it comes to investigating a true threat to national security, they re blocking attempts at every turn.Of course, we re talking about Donald Trump s potential ties to Russia. Congressional Democrats keep running into roadblock after roadblock in trying to open an investigation into that. GOP staffers told The Daily Beast that while it seems their bosses are privately concerned about the issue, they would rather continue harping on Hillary.It s politics. Disgusting politics that really does put us at risk. The problem is likely that Trump is their nominee which really should make it all the more concerning. Given the GOP s apparent need to protect our security (they re angry with Obama for not going after ISIS the way they want in addition to insisting that Hillary jeopardized our security with her email server), one would think they d be all over this.Intelligence briefings given to both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees point to Russia using hacking as a means to influence our elections: Communications and documents stolen in those hacks have been selectively leaked online since, by a hacker claiming to be unaffiliated with the Russians going by Guccifer 2.0. But analysis by private-sector cybersecurity firms have concluded that the character is most likely a front for the Russians to cast doubt on their culpability.Two other hacks both of state election boards have also been loosely tied to potential Russian hackers. In Illinois, thousands of voter role records were accessed, and Arizona was also targeted. Though nothing was done to influence elections in those states, experts believe Russian hacking is designed to cast doubt in the security and validity of the election. It s true that some Republicans are suffering some measure of buyer s remorse over the party s nomination of Trump, but in blocking investigations that are this important, all they ve done is unmask themselves as the impostors they are. To some, this is black-and-white. Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek went on Twitter to call them out for this blatant hypocrisy:GOP Congress spends a year and a half investigating Clinton emails, but refuses to investigate whether Russia is hacking our election? WTF? Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 30, 2016And he s got it. Republicans have attacked Hillary on everything under the sun because they hate her, and they fear her, and they don t want her to be president. It s not about national security with her. They won t go after Trump for something far more dangerous and frightening because they re protecting their own. It s Republican politics at its finest.Featured image via Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images | 1 |
The FBI defines terrorism as the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. FBI Director says this will be investigated as a hate crime and not terrorism: | 1 |
.@KrisKobach1787: Trump has made clear that sanctuary cities could lose federal grants if the mayors continue to defy federal law pic.twitter.com/mGrYjDCdFi FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) November 15, 2016 | 1 |
VIENNA (Reuters) - The leader of Austria s main conservative party, Sebastian Kurz, has reached a deal to form a governing coalition with Heinz-Christian Strache s far-right Freedom Party (FPO). Below are some of the policies that Kurz s People s Party (OVP) and the FPO have already agreed on. For the entire program in German please click [here] ** Oppose deeper political integration among EU members states, seek to have more powers returned to national governments. Oppose Turkey s bid to join the EU. ** Rule out a referendum on Austrian membership of the EU. ** Move some departments that deal with European affairs, including the task force preparing Austria s EU presidency in the second half of 2018, to the chancellery headed by Kurz. (The FPO will take control of the Foreign Ministry). ** Push for more relaxed relationship between West and Russia. ** Introduce tougher minimum sentences for violent and sex crimes. ** Make fighting political Islam a priority. ** Secure Austria s borders nationally to stop illegal immigration until the EU has secured external frontiers. ** Put around 2,100 more policemen on the streets. ** Extend the maximum working day to 12 hours from 10. ** Facilitate immigration only for qualified workers in sectors that are struggling to find suitable Austrian employees. ** Simplify administrative framework in highly federalized Austria. ** Support construction of third runway at Vienna Airport. ** Focus on improving test results in basic skills such as reading, writing and numeracy, allow children to start school only if their German is good enough. ** Cut social benefits for parents who fail to comply with certain requirements, like ensuring attendance and that their child speaks German well enough. ** Cut public spending to fund tax cuts. Kurz and Strache repeatedly said during their campaigns that they planned to cut public spending by around 12 billion euros ($14.1 billion). ** Reduce corporate tax burden, for example by exempting profit reinvested in Austria. ** Not introduce wealth or inheritance taxes. ** Introduce public debt brake in the constitution. ** Push, also at a European level, for higher taxes on online transactions with foreign companies. ** Block newcomers from accessing many social services in Austria in their first five years in the country. ** Cap the main basic benefit payment at 1,500 euros a month for families and provide refugees with a light version of regular benefits. ** Cut benefits for refugees and turn cash payments into benefits in kind so as to minimize what they say is a pull factor attracting immigrants to the country. ** Reform the state pension system to reflect Austria s aging population. ** Give families a tax cut worth 1,500 euros per child per year. ** Merge Austria s 22 public health and other social security funds into five entities to cut administrative costs. ** Produce 100 percent of Austria s power from renewable sources by 2030, compared with roughly 33 percent at present, and keep the national ban on nuclear power plants. ** Gradual introduction of legislation to allow a referendum to take place if at least 900,000 voters support the issue. ** Rule out referendums on Austrian membership of the EU; support the European-Canadian trade deal CETA. ** Overturn a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants that is due to come into effect in May 2018. | 0 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airbase on Friday will elevate political tensions but is not expected to lead to a military escalation, said a senior official in the military alliance supporting President Bashar al-Assad. “No doubt this will leave great tension on the political level, but I do not expect a military escalation. Currently I do not believe that we are going towards a big war in the region,” the official told Reuters. The official, a non-Syrian, spoke on condition of anonymity, saying this was a personal assessment and not said as a spokesman for the alliance. Assad has been backed in the six-year-old war by Russia, Iran and Shi’ite militias from countries including Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan. “I doubt that the Russians will escalate towards military friction with the Americans,” the official said. | 0 |
Irish journalist and documentary filmmaker Ann McElhinney took down a clueless liberal student during a discussion on global warming Ann is the quickest and smartest at debate. This liberal picked on the wrong person The student insults Ann with the following comment: I can t take anything you said seriously because you said that washing machines were more liberating than the birth control pill, the student yelled as a friend tried to calm her. You don t know anything! You are the least credible human being I ve like ever encountered in my life. She then called Ann a Goddamn idiot. Ann proceeded to give this student a BIG reality check on the EU and then American exceptionalism. Bravo Ann!On a side note- If you ever have the chance to hear Ann McElhinney speak, DO IT! She is one of the best speakers around!We ve had the pleasure of hearing her speak and came away very impressed!Her latest project is on the Gosnell abortion case: | 1 |
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An attempt by U.S. authorities to identify an anonymous critic of President Donald Trump on Twitter has set off alarm bells among Democratic and Republican lawmakers and civil liberties advocates fearful of a crackdown on dissent. Twitter Inc on Friday succeeded in beating back a demand for records about a Twitter account called ALT Immigration (@ALT_uscis), which pokes fun at Trump’s immigration policies and appears to be run by one or more federal employees. The U.S. government withdrew an administrative summons that customs agents had sent the company in March demanding the records. But the government backed away only after Twitter filed a federal lawsuit accusing it of violating the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. Customs agents could still continue the investigation using some other methods, civil liberties attorneys said. Although authorities retreated, the case has laid bare the broad power of the U.S. government to demand information from technology companies, sometimes with no oversight from the courts and often with built-in secrecy provisions that prevent the public from knowing what the government is seeking. The summons that Twitter received came from agents who investigate corruption and misconduct within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Even after it was withdrawn, some lawmakers had questions about the agency’s actions. “CBP must ensure that any properly authorized investigation does not disregard the rights to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” two Republican U.S. senators, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Mike Lee of Utah, wrote in a letter on Friday to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. The senators asked whether the agency would ever ask a private company to divulge private records about a customer based solely on “non-criminal speech.” Senate Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon called for an investigation of whether customs agents had violated a law by retaliating against an internal critic. The Department of Homeland Security plans to respond directly to the senators, an official said on Friday. There are two primary ways the U.S. government can obtain information from internet companies without a judge’s approval using a law known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to experts in privacy law. Agencies with enforcement power, such as the Internal Revenue Service, can issue administrative subpoenas demanding user records. Prosecutors can also ask grand juries investigating a crime to issue a subpoena. An aggressive agency, for example, might demand information about a Twitter account that used an agency logo on the grounds that it is deceptive, said Georgetown University law professor Paul Ohm. Similarly, a prosecutor could ask a grand jury to issue a subpoena based on the idea that a federal employee, suspected of criticizing the administration anonymously, was misusing government resources. “It doesn’t take a brilliant legal mind to think of hypotheticals,” Ohm said. Further, such subpoenas are usually kept secret, making them more difficult to challenge. Some other government tools, such as a national security letter, are intended to be used for narrow purposes related to counter-terrorism investigations. But they do not require judicial approval either, instead relying on internal safeguards. Challenging such demands is difficult and often requires deep pockets, attorneys familiar with such orders said. “It’s important to keep in mind how formidable the government’s range of investigatory powers is,” said Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for digital rights. In the case of ALT Immigration, Twitter said it was not bound to keep the summons a secret, and the company informed the account holder of the government demand. That person then found legal representation with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Esha Bhandari, the ACLU staff attorney representing the dissident, said she thinks the speed with which the government withdrew its summons - less than a day after Twitter sued - means the customs agents will cease investigating, but she cannot be sure. “It’s impossible to predict, of course, but I’m hopeful that this really is a recognition that people have the ability to speak online including in ways that are critical of the government,” Bhandari said. The Department of Homeland Security has not said what its plans are for the investigation. After Trump’s inauguration in January, anonymous Twitter feeds that borrowed the names and logos of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies appeared to challenge the president’s views on climate change and other issues. They called themselves “alt” accounts. Twitter has declined to say if it has received any other government demands to reveal such anti-Trump critics. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon will meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Washington next week, the State Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The meeting is set for Monday. Russia canceled an earlier meeting between the two senior diplomats last month after the United States added 38 individuals and organizations to its list of those sanctioned over Russian activities in Ukraine. “We’re pleased to have the meeting on the books,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday. | 0 |
PARIS (Reuters) - The head of France s parliament on Tuesday admonished newcomers from President Emmanuel Macron s party for noisy partying in the assembly s bar after late-night sessions. In one such case, lawmakers from the centrist president s Republic on The Move (LREM) party improvised a party with music at the National Assembly s bar after a debate on the social security budget. The bar staff were obliged to work late until the lawmakers had left, parliamentary sources said. Macron s 313 lawmakers, many of whom are new to politics, were initially criticized after the June election for their inexperience, though this has not stopped the swift adoption of wide-ranging reforms, including security and labor laws. But the partying after late-night votes has to stop, the assembly s president Francois de Rugy told them on Tuesday, saying it was not fair on the staff who work there. De Rugy also said lawmakers must stop brandishing objects in parliament, something its rules and regulations forbid. That remark appeared aimed at lawmakers from the far-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed), who in July piled up pasta and a pot of tomato sauce on their bench in parliament to show how much students would lose out on with a 5 euro cut in housing subsidies. It is crucial that the presidents of (parliamentary) groups remind each and every member about the proper conduct of parliamentary proceedings and the necessary dignity of lawmakers, de Rugy said in a statement. | 0 |
The American-led UN Command just released very dramatic video showing a North Korean soldier trying to escape across the border into South Korea. The tricky thing is that four soldiers were firing on him the entire time The video starts with a lone soldier driving a dark olive-green jeep down a straight, tree-lined road, past drab, barren fields and, headlights shining, across the replacement for the Bridge of No Return, which was used for prisoner exchanges during the Korean War, the Associated Press reported.Fellow North Korean soldiers realize that one of their comrades is trying to defect to South Korea and start chasing the jeep through the Korean Demilitarized Zone, or DMV, until the defector crashes and exits the vehicle under fire. He then sprints across the border before hitting the ground in critical condition but alive.The four soldiers unloaded an estimated 40 rounds from multiple types of firearms.The defector a 24-year-old soldier surnamed Oh, according to CNN was taken to a South Korean hospital in critical condition from the gunshot wounds and lost nearly half of his blood. Oh s surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, said that he found four major wounds on the soldier, who received four pints of blood.The soldier underwent multiple surgeries to repair damage, and in doing so, surgeons found dozens of parasites including a 10.6-inch roundworm, possibly indicating improper nutrition in North Korea s military. His condition has become much better since yesterday. We ve turned on the TV for him since yesterday, Lee told reporters.Read more: WFB | 1 |
(Reuters) - Colorado voters rejected a ballot measure on Tuesday to create the nation’s first statewide universal health insurance program, according to local NBC News affiliate 9News. The proposition, called Amendment 69, would have created one of the most dramatic overhauls to a public healthcare system in U.S. history. Colorado’s 9News reported that the amendment was defeated on Tuesday night, after early results showed an overwhelming defeat. Dubbed ColoradoCare, the program would have been funded largely through a new 10 percent payroll tax increase intended to raise $25 billion in 2019, the first year the program could launch, according to the Colorado Health Institute. ColoradoCare was intended to greatly reduce the number of uninsured residents in the state, but opponents feared the tax hike and sweeping changes to public policy would ripple through the state’s economy. James Merilatt, 43, an unaffiliated voter who supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s election, said he opposed the single-payer healthcare measure. “It’s way too complicated and would have opened up a Pandora’s Box,” said Merilatt, who works in the publishing industry. | 0 |
Given the fact that Donald Trump has often bragged that he intentionally used his numerous bankruptcies as a way to exploit the government (and taxpayers) into paying his debts, it s not exactly surprising to learn that the billionaire business mogul has a spotty track record with philanthropy, but the scope of his greed, revealed in a new deep dive analysis by the Washington Post, is shocking.Trump loves to brag that he has given over $100 million to charity in the past five years, but like nearly everything the Republican frontrunner says, the truth is much different. Trump published a list of 4,844 contributions he s made, which seems impressive until you actually start to look at what the donations are.As the Washington Post discovered: many of the gifts that Trump cited to prove his generosity were free rounds of golf, given away by his courses for charity auctions and raffles.Trump s campaign also counted a parcel of land that he d given to New York state although that was in 2006, not within the past five years.The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump s biggest charity, was especially notable for its lack of well Trump. Between 2008 and 2014, Trump didn t donate a single penny of his own money to the foundation, instead he leaned on rich friends to give their money and he then sent out the checks to the charities under his name. What a guy.And while some of that money undeniable went to good causes, Trump also used a lot of his donations to shore up his political and business interests. The Washington Post again:His foundation, for example, frequently gave money to groups that paid to use Trump s facilities, and it donated to conservatives who could help promote Trump s rise in the Republican Party. The foundation s second-biggest donation described on the campaign s list went to the charity of a man who had settled a lawsuit with one of Trump s golf courses after being denied a hole-in-one prize.Trump s campaign had a truly stunning response when asked to explain why Trump s charitable giving was so weak: They didn t want to make Trump an easy mark for other charities. We want to keep them quiet, said Weisselberg, who is also treasurer of the Trump Foundation. He doesn t want other charities to see it. Then it becomes like a feeding frenzy. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.And while Trump certainly isn t the only rich person to horde his money for himself, his friends, and his business interests, it s worth noting that other billionaires have rejected this egregious level of greed and actually given vast amounts of their wealth to real, world-changing causes. Bill Gates, for example, has given $28 billion already and he says he s not done. It wasn t given to give friends free tickets to a game of golf, either. Gates and his wife have spent years fighting to eradicate the scourge of polio off the face of the earth, something he calls a gift for the rest of time. Likewise, Warren Buffett set a charity record in June 2015 around the time Trump was teasing his presidential run by donating $2.8 billion in one lump sum.Donald Trump has gotten pretty far in the election by impressing his supporters with his wealth. Many cite his business skills (debatable as they are) as the primary reason they will vote for him. However, is it not just as important to see what he does with the money once he has it? Unlike other people fortunate enough to have billions, it s clear he believes giving away his money to fight disease, poverty, or other social causes is a waste. He s repeatedly taken advantage of his wealth to influence people and get ahead.Somebody might want to pull him aside and let him know that money isn t something you can take with you when you die. He may even thank you for the advice with a free golf pass.Featured image via Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images | 1 |
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the appointment of former FBI chief Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian efforts to sway the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump and whether there was any collusion between Trump’s campaign team and Moscow. “There is nothing to comment on. It is an internal matter for the United States,” he said. | 0 |
ROME (Reuters) - Italy s government approved on Monday a low-key 2018 budget which includes measures to raise youth employment, tackle poverty and encourage investments ahead of an election in the spring. The financial package aims to lower the budget deficit to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from a targeted 2.1 percent this year, while avoiding painful pre-election belt-tightening measures. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni s task has been made easier by stronger-than-expected economic growth and low interest rates which reduce the cost of servicing Italy s huge public debt the highest in the euro zone after Greece s. The budget certifies that the Italian economy is at a turning point and it contains resources aimed to reinforce the turnaround, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters. The package will now be sent to the European Commission for review and at the same time begin its passage through parliament, where it must be approved by the end of the year. It is likely to be one of the last pieces of legislation passed by parliament before the president dissolves the upper and lower houses and calls the election. Last month the government increased its GDP growth forecast for this year to 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent, and hiked next year s outlook to 1.5 percent from 1.0 percent. The debt-to-GDP ratio is targeted to edge down in 2018 to 130.0 percent from a targeted 131.6 percent this year. Overall, the budget is expansionary because, according to the Treasury s estimates, if current policies had been left unchanged the deficit would have fallen to 1.0 percent of GDP next year rather than 1.6 percent. However, Italy is constrained by its massive debt which precluded a give-away pre-election package. Most of the resources available were used to avoid increases in sales tax which had been previously pencilled in for next year. Padoan said the measures might seem modest, but were well targeted, while Gentiloni, in typically understated tones, called it a slim budget that will be useful for our economy. The European Commission is expected to sign off on the package even though Italy hiked the deficit target previously agreed with Brussels, as it has done repeatedly in recent years. Public finance disputes with Brussels may intensify after next year s election. All the main parties say they will raise the budget deficit rather than reduce it as the European Union s fiscal rules prescribe. In an effort to tackle a youth unemployment rate of almost 40 percent, the budget offers a 3-year reduction in the pension contributions of companies that hire people under the age of 35 on regular, open-ended contracts. It also offers tax breaks for firms that invest in new machinery, increases income support for the poor, and sets aside funds to raise public salaries for the first time in almost a decade and hire 1,500 university researchers, Padoan said. Extra revenue for the state will come from a partial amnesty for people who settle tax disputes with the authorities by paying a discounted sum. Gentiloni appealed to parliament to show a sense of responsibility in approving the budget, after a leftist group last week said he could no longer count on its support following a political row over a new electoral law. However, a majority is likely to be found to back the budget to clear the way for elections now widely expected in March. | 0 |
America has proven time and time again that liberals in Hollywood can say just about anything. The vile comments actress Melissa Gilbert made about child rape while hosting The View sound more like something a member of ISIS would make, than someone who is running for Congress. It s interesting how the oh-so-easily-offended Left is never offended when one of their own makes a highly controversial comment, but if the same remarks were made by a conservative, they would be on a 24/7 news loop. Melissa Gilbert, the actress who brought Laura Ingalls Wilder to life in Little House on the Prairie, made some comments on a TV show in 2009 that are coming back to haunt her.And they should. Gilbert moved to Michigan from California and is running for Congress in the 8th District, challenging Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.But running for office opens the door to past skeletons.As a guest host of The View seven years ago, Gilbert and the other hosts discussed the arrest of famous movie director and producer Roman Polanski in Switzerland for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl three decades earlier. Polanski had pleaded guilty of assaulting Samantha Geimer in 1977, but fled the U.S. before he was sentenced.Hollywood is loyal to its own, and on the show, Gilbert downplayed Polanski s crime, saying that it s gray area when momma is in the building, in reference to reports that Geimer s mother was at the house when the rape occurred.Gilbert went on to say that the punishment at this point may be excessive. For entire story: Ingrid Jacques, The Detroit News | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives plan a vote as soon as mid-November on a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, congressional aides told Reuters on Tuesday, setting up a potential showdown with the White House and Senate. The Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, which expires on Dec. 31, allows trade, energy, defense and banking industry sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile tests. Its fate is one of the major pieces of unfinished business facing lawmakers when they return to Washington on Nov. 14 for the first time after the Nov. 8 elections. U.S. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is expected to introduce the 10-year renewal as soon as Congress gets back, aides said. Congressional aides said a “clean” renewal, meaning unchanged from the current legislation, was likely to pass the House. Its fate in the Senate was much less certain, and a White House spokesman would not say whether President Barack Obama would sign it into law. Republicans control majorities in both the House and Senate, and every Republican in Congress opposed the international nuclear deal announced in July 2015, in which Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. Republicans have since tried repeatedly to pass legislation to clamp down on Iran, accusing Obama of being so eager to burnish his foreign policy legacy that he conceded too much to Tehran in the nuclear talks. Some Senate Republicans want more than a clean renewal of the ISA. They are trying to build support for legislation that would renew it but also do more to punish individual Iranians and businesses over the country’s ballistic missile tests and what they see as its support for terrorism. Some senators have also pushed for a law that would eliminate the president’s right to waive sanctions for security reasons. Obama’s administration had asked Congress to hold off on renewing the ISA, saying it has enough power to reimpose economic sanctions if Iran violates the nuclear agreement even if it expires. White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to say how Obama would respond to the bill if it passed both houses of Congress and reached his desk. “I won’t prejudge at this point whether or not the president would sign that bill,” Earnest told reporters traveling with the president in Los Angeles. “The president and the Treasury Department retain significant sanctions authority that already has been used to impose costs on Iran for their flagrant violation of their international obligations,” he said. White House opposition to the bill could generate resistance from Democrats in the Senate, making it more difficult for any legislation to garner the 60 votes needed to move ahead. Because Republicans hold only 54 seats in the 100-member chamber, they would need Democratic support to move any bill. Renewing the sanctions bill could also increase frustrations in Iran. Iranian officials have been complaining for months that remaining U.S. sanctions have frightened away trade partners and robbed it of too many benefits it was promised under the nuclear deal. A House Foreign Affairs Committee aide said addressing the ISA before it expires is a “top priority” for Royce. “The Iran Sanctions Act was enacted to curb Tehran’s support for terrorism and its very dangerous weapons proliferation. It should remain in place until the regime stops exporting terror and threatening us and our allies with deadly weapons,” Royce said in a statement sent to Reuters. “That’s why I’ll be introducing a bipartisan, long-term extension of these important sanctions,” he said. | 0 |
(Reuters) - Oregon’s governor blasted the federal government’s response to the occupation of a wildlife refuge by a group of armed men saying the situation was “absolutely intolerable” and costing the state about $100,000 a week. Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, said she had been asked by federal officials to limit her public comments about the protest which began on Jan. 2 at the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and that she had no wish to escalate the situation. “But I will say this ... The situation is absolutely intolerable and it must be must be resolved immediately. The very fabric of this community is being ripped apart,” Brown said on Wednesday at a news conference. “The residents of Harney County have been overlooked and under-served by federal officials’ response thus far.” The takeover at Malheur was the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over the U.S. government’s control of millions acres of land in the West. The occupiers have declared their move is in support of two local ranchers who were returned to prison this month for setting fires that spread to federal land. The ranchers’ lawyer has said the occupiers do not speak for the family. Law enforcement officials have so far kept their distance from the buildings at the refuge, 30 miles (48 km) south of the small town of Burns in rural southeast Oregon’s Harney County, in the hope of avoiding a violent confrontation. One of the occupiers was arrested last week after he drove a government vehicle to a local supermarket. Brown called the situation a “spectacle of lawlessness” which must end and said she had conveyed her very grave concerns to the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House. “Federal authorities must move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable,” the governor said. “And until Harney County is free of it, I will not stop insisting that federal officials enforce the law.” The chair of the local Native American tribe has also called on the federal government to remove the occupiers. Brown said the standoff was costing Oregon about $100,000 per week, mostly in additional law enforcement costs, and that she has asked her finance officials to “scour the budget” so they could subsidize the expense to Harney County. “We will be asking federal officials to reimburse the state for these costs,” she said. | 0 |
SULAIMANIA/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior Iranian military commander repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said. Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, traveled to Iraq s Kurdistan region to meet Kurdish leaders at least three times this month before the Baghdad government s lightning campaign to recapture territory across the north. The presence of Soleimani on the frontlines highlights Tehran s heavy sway over policy in Iraq, and comes as Shi ite Iran seeks to win a proxy war in the Middle East with its regional rival and U.S. ally, Sunni Saudi Arabia. Soleimani met leaders from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq, in the city of Sulaimania the day before Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered his forces to advance on Kirkuk, according to a PUK lawmaker briefed on the meeting. His message was clear: withdraw or risk losing Tehran as a strategic ally. Abadi has all the regional powers and the West behind him and nothing will stop him from forcing you to return back to the mountains if he decides so, the lawmaker quoted Soleimani as telling the PUK leadership. The Iranian general evoked late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein s massive attack on a Kurdish rebellion in 1991, when almost the entire Kurdish population fled northern Iraq to the mountains, the PUK lawmaker said. Soleimani s visit ... was to give a last-minute chance for the decision-makers not to commit a fatal mistake, said the lawmaker, who like others interviewed in this story declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Commanders of the Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, have accused Iran of orchestrating the Shi ite-led Iraqi central government s push into areas under their control, a charge senior Iranian officials have denied. But Iran has made no secret of its presence in Iraq. Tehran s military help is not a secret anymore. You can find General Soleimani s pictures in Iraq everywhere, said an official close to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Now, beside political issues, Kirkuk s oil is a very key element for Iran, which is an OPEC member. Control of those oil fields by Iran s enemies would be disastrous for us. Why should we let them enter the oil market?. Kirkuk fell to Iraqi government forces on Monday. Their offensive followed a referendum last month in which the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region voted to secede from Iraq against Baghdad s wishes. Kurds have sought an independent state for almost a century, after colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and left Kurdish-populated territory split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. But Iraq s two main Kurdish parties have been at odds over both the referendum and the approach to the crisis in Kirkuk, which the Kurds consider to be the heart of their homeland. The PUK, a close ally of Iran, accused its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), of putting the Kurds at risk of military intervention and isolation by pushing hard for the vote, which won wide approval for independence. Soleimani has been allied to the PUK for years, but the referendum has drawn him even closer to Kurdish politics and expanded Iran s reach in Iraq beyond the Baghdad government. The Iranian general is no stranger to conflicts in Iraq, which fought an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s. He has often been seen in footage from the frontlines, and Iran has long helped Baghdad to carry out its military strategy through paramilitary Shi ite militias which it funds and arms. Before the referendum, Soleimani suggested to Kurdish leaders that holding a vote on secession which Iran feared would encourage its own Kurdish population to agitate for greater autonomy would be risky. The Iranians were very clear. They have been very clear that there will be conflict, that these territories will be lost, said one prominent Iraqi Kurdish politician who met Soleimani ahead of the Sept. 25 referendum. On Oct. 6, barely a week after the vote, Soleimani attended the funeral of PUK leader Jalal Talabani. Again, he wanted to make sure even his closest Kurdish allies understood the dangers of not withdrawing from Kirkuk, officials said. A senior Iranian diplomat in Iraq and an official in Iran close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei s office said Soleimani met with Kurdish leaders after Talibani s funeral and urged them to withdraw from Kirkuk and in exchange Tehran would protect their interests. Soleimani met with one of Talabani s sons, Bafel, a few days after his father was buried, one of the PUK officials said. Soleimani said Abadi should be taken very seriously. You should understand this, the official said. An Iranian source in Iraq said Soleimani was in Kirkuk two nights before the Iraqi government offensive for a couple of hours to give military guidance. Iraqi intelligence sources said Tehran sent a clear signal to the PUK. We understand from our sources on the ground that neighboring Iran played a decisive role in making the PUK chose the right course with Baghdad, one Iraqi intelligence official told Reuters. Tensions over the referendum and Kirkuk have deepened divisions between the two main political parties in northern Iraq. The KDP accused the PUK of betraying the Kurdish cause by capitulating to Iran and striking a deal to withdraw. The Talabani clan were behind the offensive on Kirkuk. They asked Qassem (Soleimani) for help and his troops were there on the ground, said a source close to Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government and head of the KDP. It is becoming clear that Iran is directing the operations to destroy the KDP. The PUK strongly denies this. Talabani s son Bafel accused the KDP of missing a zero-hour chance to avoid losing Kirkuk by failing to reach a deal over a military base which Iraqi government forces had demanded to take back. Unfortunately we reacted too slowly. And we find ourselves where we are today, Bafel told Reuters. Two other Kurdish political sources gave a similar account. Iran and Soleimani offered early assistance to northern Iraq s Kurds in the fight against Islamic State, a rallying point for the Kurdish community. But after the devastating loss of Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurds have been left disillusioned. They (both PUK and KDP leaders) just make decisions on their own and play with people s lives. In the end, we pay the price, said pensioner Abdullah Ahmed in Sulaimania. This is a disaster for everyone. Everyone was united against Daesh (Islamic State). Now they are back just looking out for themselves. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Thursday he would not endorse anyone in the 2016 Republican presidential race, despite the candidacy of a senator from his home state, Marco Rubio. “I trust the voters, so I will not try to tell the Republican voters in Florida how to vote by endorsing a candidate before our primary on March 15. I believed in the voters when I first ran for office, and I still believe in them today,” Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0 |
During her Tuesday interview with MSNBC s Andrea Mitchell, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice for the first time admitted to unmasking U.S. persons included in intelligence reports. There s no equivalence between unmasking and leaking. The effort to ask for the identify of an American citizen is necessary to understand the intelligence report in some circumstances. Daily CallerBut only less than 2 weeks ago, on March 22nd, Susan Rice told PBS host Judy Woodroof that she knew nothing about the unmasking of people being investigated. Watch the video below, as she pretty much lies through her teeth. | 1 |
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya s eastern-based parliament voted on Tuesday to approve some U.N. proposals aimed at unifying the divided North African nation, although major obstacles remain for a deal to stabilize the oil producer. The U.N. launched a new round of talks in September to end years of turmoil in Libya following a 2011 NATO-backed uprising and unite the rival governments and parliaments in Tripoli and the east. Choosing the members of the presidency and the government, and settling the question of military leadership are seen as the biggest hurdles to any deal. Only a minority of members of the House of Representatives in Benghazi took part in Tuesday s vote, so it is unclear to what extent it will advance the latest push for a political deal. Opposition in the House had been a key obstacle to previous U.N. peace efforts. A rival assembly in Tripoli is also meant to approve the proposals. The U.N. talks were suspended in October, but the organization has been working behind the scenes. Its envoy Ghassan Salame said last week that delegations from rival assemblies were close to a consensus . On Tuesday, a majority of about 75 members of the House present approved U.N. proposals regarding the broader structure of a future government, said Fathi al-Marimi, an adviser to House speaker Agila Saleh. An unspecified number were flown in by Saleh on a private plane, he said. The House session had originally been planned for Monday but was postponed when a U.N. flight carrying some deputies based in western Libya was prevented from landing. The U.N. proposals are aimed at relaunching a deal signed in December 2015, which produced a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli that has struggled to assert its authority and never been accepted by factions that control the east of the country. Salame said last week that he was planning to hold a national conference in February to agree how to finalize a transition, and that the U.N. was working to establish the right conditions for holding new elections. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to slash taxes on so-called pass-through businesses is testing lawmakers’ ability to design rules to prevent wealthy people from dodging taxes by paying a lower rate meant to help small businesses grow. Businesses ranging in size from the corner Mom-and-Pop shop to accounting firms and industrial conglomerates are called pass-throughs because their profits flow to owners and are taxed as individual income, often at the top 39.6 percent rate. By contrast, publicly held corporations have their own top corporate income tax rate of 35 percent, at least on paper. Corporate profits are further taxed when they flow through to shareholders as dividends. Republicans including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan have vowed to get tax legislation to Trump’s desk before the end of 2017, but pass-throughs are one of the thorniest issues in their effort to enact the first comprehensive tax overhaul since 1986. The Republican timeline is in doubt because of complexities posed by pass-throughs and other difficult issues that could roll the debate into 2018 and beyond, analysts and lobbyists said. Trump and Republicans, who control the House and Senate, want to give pass-throughs their own tax rate of 15-25 percent, saying such a low rate would help unleash economic growth by leaving owners with more money to hire and invest. The danger with this proposal is that high-income people who pay the top individual tax rate could reap enormous windfalls simply by reclassifying their wages and salaries as pass-through business income to qualify for the new low rate. Tax avoidance schemes along these lines could erase up to $584 billion from government coffers over the next decade, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimates that over 28 million businesses are organized as pass-throughs. Income from them has been taxed at the same rates as wages and salaries since the individual income tax was enacted in 1913. “These are tough, tough questions. And politics aside, they’re what has held up tax reform for so long,” said one corporate lobbyist, who asked not be identified. “This is an area where there’s still a lot of discussion and no solution.” To address this, policymakers are looking at limiting how much of a business owner’s income should get pass-through treatment. But that’s hard to define because pass-throughs range from sole proprietorships and partnerships to S-corporations. Rebecca Boenigk, chairman and chief executive of the pass-through manufacturer Neutral Posture, worries that Congress could choose solutions that inadvertently add complexity for small businesses and deny business owners the capital they need. “There’s always a rule that’s put into place to take care of the 1 percent of people who are bad, and that rule ends up affecting the 99 percent of people who are good,” said Boenigk, who began making ergonomic furniture with her mother 28 years ago in their family garage. One proposal under consideration would apply the pass-through rate to only 30 percent of a business owner’s income, while giving taxpayers the option of qualifying for more favorable treatment from the Internal Revenue Service, congressional sources and lobbyists said. The remaining 70 percent of income would be taxed at the higher individual rate. The National Federation of Independent Business, a small business lobbying group in Washington, wants Congress and the Trump administration to apply the lower tax rate to 50 percent of a business owner’s income. Some lobbyists warn against the idea of allowing business owners to qualify for a higher percentage of income for the pass-through rate with the IRS, saying an additional layer of complicated procedures could backfire and encourage fraud. Keith Hall, president of the National Association for the Self-Employed, would rather see business owners pay individual tax on a portion of their income set by living standards data for the geographical areas in which they live. But if lawmakers adopted the 70-30 approach, Hall said, higher earners should see the larger portions of their income qualify for the pass-through rate to maximize the amount of capital they can invest in their businesses. Other proposals would limit the pass-through rate according to the business owner’s capital or stock value; exclude income from partnerships engaged in “personal services” such as law, accounting, medicine and engineering; or exclude passive income from royalties, rents, dividends and income. With Republicans pushing to overhaul the tax code before year-end, analysts say tax legislation could include a number of anti-abuse rules. “Lawmakers aren’t going to know which anti-abuse measures work. If they’re risk-averse, they may throw in more than one,” said Scott Greenberg, senior analyst at the Tax Foundation. | 0 |
AMMAN (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday underlined Britain s support for the nuclear deal concluded with Iran which came into force in October 2015. We must stand firm in our support for the ....deal, she told reporters in Jordan at the end of a brief visit to the Middle East. U.S. President Trump has called the Iran deal the worst of its kind ever struck by a U.S. administration. | 0 |
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) announced Tuesday he will not seek another term in Congress in 2018, telling supporters he has already stayed far longer than I had originally planned. Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was first elected to the House in 2002 and is described by the Dallas Morning News as a staunch Constitutional conservative. PASSED OVER FOR TREASURY SECRETARY:Hensarling s future has been a source of speculation for months. He was passed over to be Trump s Treasury Secretary, a gig that ended up going to Steve Mnuchin. And Hensarling s term as House Financial Services chairman will expire at the end of next year.HENSARLING TRIES TO ROLL BACK OBAMA REGS:Hensarling in June saw the House OK his roll back of far-reaching banking regulations created under President Barack Obama but the Senate has not moved on the bill. He s also been unable to get much traction on his plans to overhaul a beleaguered flood insurance program. I HAVE ALREADY STAYED FAR LONGER THAN I HAD ORIGINALLY PLANNED Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned, Hensarling wrote to supporters on Tuesday.He added, Since my term as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee comes to an end next year, the time seems right for my departure. Although I will not be running for reelection, there are 14 months left in my congressional term to continue the fight for individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited constitutional government the causes for which I remain passionate. Hensarling s retirement announcement comes as Democrats look to 2018 as their best chance to take back the majority since losing the House in 2010.ONE OF THE NOTABLE THINGS HENSARLING TRIED TO DO:Texas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling told a conference of mortgage bankers Wednesday his 2013 bill that would have ended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still remains the best path forward for reform of the housing finance market.Appearing at a meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association Wednesday morning in downtown Washington, the conservative chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said the legislation still represents the best vehicle for reform. The bill cleared the committee with Republican votes in 2013, but failed to advance in the House thanks to finance industry skepticism.Notably, it would have dissolved the bailed-out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In their stead, it would have created a privately-run utility to facilitate the creation of mortgage-backed securities and support a secondary market for home loans.The bill would have removed government backing for mortgage-backed utilities, though. At the time, many industry groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, argued eliminating the government backstop for mortgage-backed securities would make 30-year fixed-rate loans unavailable.READ MORE: DALLAS NEWS | 1 |
The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - To each member of the graduating class from the National Academy at Quantico, CONGRATULATIONS! [1235 EST] - You are always there for us – THE MEN AND WOMEN IN BLUE. Thank you to our police, thank you to our sheriffs, and thank you to our law enforcement families. God Bless you all, and GOD BLESS AMERICA! #LESM [1428 EST] - Today, it was my tremendous honor to visit Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) at the Marine Corps Air Facility in Quantico, Virginia. I am honored to serve as your Commander-in-Chief. On behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for your sacrifice and service. We love you! [1658 EST] - DOW, S&P 500 and NASDAQ close at record highs! #MAGA [1900 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 0 |
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The leader of Thailand s military junta said on Thursday that Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister he ousted three years ago, was in Dubai, where she fled last month to avoid being jailed over a rice subsidy scheme that lost billions of dollars. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief who led the coup, said Thailand would pursue Yingluck through diplomatic channels and police cooperation using Interpol. His remarks came a day after the country s top court found Yingluck guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced her in absentia to five years in prison. She is in Dubai, Prayuth told reporters, adding that the foreign ministry had been tracking Yingluck s movements. The police will now have to proceed and coordinate with the Foreign Ministry and Interpol. Thaksin s Puea Thai Party did not comment to Reuters on Prayuth s disclosure. But a source in the United Arab Emirates said Yingluck left Dubai for London on Sept. 11, without giving further details. The Supreme Court delayed giving its judgment last month after Yingluck failed to show in court and police discovered she had slipped out of the country. The Thai authorities had not disclosed Yingluck s whereabouts before, though senior party members had told Reuters she had gone to Dubai where her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for graft, has a home. On Thursday, asked by Reuters whether Yingluck had left Dubai for London, Thai deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul declined to comment. Photographs posted on the photo-sharing app Instagram by one of Thaksin s daughters show Thaksin in London since Sept. 15. None of the photos feature Yingluck. For more than a decade, Thai politics has been dominated by the power struggle between the Shinawatras and Thailand s establishment, which includes the armed forces and urban middle class. The Shinawatras remain popular with rural and poor voters, and the rice subsidy scheme had helped Yingluck shore up her support base to get elected in 2011. Throughout her trial, Yingluck said she was innocent and not responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme, arguing that she was a victim of political persecution. The ruling junta has promised to hold an election in 2018, though changes to the constitution have ensured the military holds on to some role governing the country. Thai police on Thursday raided Yingluck s home in eastern Bangkok, armed with a search warrant. Around a dozen police from the forensics unit entered the large compound carrying gloves and metal boxes, to be met by a lawyer for Yingluck and one of her bodyguards. | 0 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has arrested 22 people in the past three days as part of a crackdown on gays after a rainbow flag was raised at a concert, activists and rights groups said on Monday. At least 33 people have been arrested since Sept. 23, a day after a group of people were seen raising the flag, a rare public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the conservative Muslim country. The public prosecutor announced an investigation after local media launched a highly critical campaign against those who raised the rainbow flag at a Mashrou Leila concert, a popular Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay. On Monday police arrested Ahmed Alaa and Sarah Hegazy, the latter being the first woman involved in such an incident in years, in relation to the case, their lawyer said. They were both charged with joining a group formed in contrary to the law and propagating that group s idea . Hegazy faced a further charge of promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery and the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered them detained for 15 days, lawyer Amr Mohamed told Reuters. Two men had been arrested earlier in relation to the flag incident but one was released. The remaining arrests were unrelated to the incident but have all been over the perceived sexual orientation of the defendants and came after it. At least 10 men were arrested between Sept. 28-30 and six others earlier that week, judicial sources said. All 16 went on trial on Sunday charged with promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery , euphemisms for homosexuality. A verdict is due on Oct. 29. One man has been sentenced to six years in jail over similar charges. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. Those arrested are subjected to anal examinations to determine whether they have had gay sex, which rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say amounts to torture. Five such examinations have taken place, Amnesty International said on Monday. Judicial sources do not deny the examinations take place but say they are legally carried out and are not a form of abuse. In a matter of days the Egyptian security forces have rounded up dozens of people and carried out five anal examinations signaling a sharp escalation in the authorities efforts to persecute and intimidate members of the LGBTI community following the rainbow flag incident, said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty. In 2001, 52 men were arrested when police raided a floating disco called the Queen Boat. | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China s envoy to North Korea appears to have had little impact in addressing tensions with North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday after Pyongyang test fired its most advanced missile earlier this week. The Chinese envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man, Trump said in a post on Twitter, referring to North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un. A Chinese envoy reportedly visited North Korea earlier this month. | 0 |
(Reuters) - Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara took several shots at the administration of President Donald Trump on Thursday, calling for “facts not falsehoods” as the basis for political discourse and a more welcoming stance towards immigrants in his first public speaking event since being fired one month ago. Bharara sprinkled the hour-long speech with humor, including a joke about the size of the crowd clearly aimed at Trump. But Bharara also made a series of thinly veiled criticisms of the new administration, referring multiple times to Trump’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington. “You don’t drain a swamp with a slogan. You don’t drain it by replacing one set of partisans with another. You don’t replace muck with muck,” Bharara, 48, said at the Cooper Union in New York. “To drain a swamp you need an army corps of engineers, experts schooled in service and serious purpose. Not do-nothing, say-anything, neophyte opportunists who know a lot about how to bully and bluster but not so much about truth, justice and fairness.” Bharara was fired by Trump on March 11 after refusing to step down. While he was among 46 U.S. attorneys told to submit their resignations, his dismissal was a surprise because Trump had asked him in November to stay in the job. Bharara has said it was not made clear to him at first whether or not he was being dismissed. He joked about that initial confusion with a reference to Trump’s TV reality show in which he regularly fired people on the spot. “I don’t really understand why this was such a big deal, especially to this White House. I had thought that was what Donald Trump was good at,” Bharara said. As the chief federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Bharara oversaw several notable corruption and white-collar criminal cases, as well as cases involving national security. He said he was equally proud of the less high-profile work his office did to combat gangs and consumer fraud. Bharara said he expected his successor to carry on with the office’s reputation for independence. He did not comment on who his possible successor. As for his own future, Bharara ruled out running for public office. “I don’t have any plans to enter politics just like I have no plans to join the circus. And I mean no offence to the circus.” | 0 |
As our limp-wristed President flies around on taxpayer funded Air Force One campaigning for Hillary, Putin sells Castro s Cuba nuclear technology.Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016A Russian government-controlled company signed an agreement to sell nuclear technology to Cuba this week.Cuba plans to purchase nuclear medical technology, radiation research, training for nuclear specialists, and staff to help manage radioactive waste. Ultimately, the country may purchase nuclear reactors and storage space for nuclear waste from Russia.This is not the first time Cuba has attempted to build a nuclear reactor. With the help and financial assistance of the former Soviet Union, Cuba tried the to build two 440-megawatt nuclear power reactors near the city of Cienfuegos. Construction of the reactors began in 1983, but the collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted construction.Former Cuban President Fidel Castro says that the country invested $1.1 billion into the project, and cost estimates to complete the partially constructed reactors range from $300 million to $750 million. The U.S. government has consistently opposed Cuba s plans to build a nuclear reactor, although President Barack Obama recently normalized relations with the country.Read more: Daily Caller | 1 |
ANKARA (Reuters) - Exhausted and exposed to freezing cold, survivors of a weekend earthquake in western Iran begged authorities for food and shelter on Tuesday, saying aid was slow to reach them. Iranian officials called off rescue operations earlier in the day on the grounds that there was little chance of finding more survivors from the quake, which killed at least 530 people and injured thousands of others. It was Iran s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade. Survivors, many left homeless by Sunday s 7.3 magnitude quake that struck villages and towns in Kermansheh province along the mountainous border with Iraq, struggled through another bleak day on Tuesday in need of food, water and shelter. Iran has so far declined offers of foreign assistance to deal with the aftermath of the tremor, which officials said damaged 30,000 homes and completely destroyed two villages. The U.S. government expressed condolences to the Iranian people despite President Donald Trump s aggressive policy towards the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported. We are hungry. We are cold. We are homeless. We are alone in this world, a weeping Maryam Ahang, who lost 10 members of her family in the hardest hit town of Sarpol-e Zahab, told Reuters by telephone. My home is now a pile of mud and broken tiles. I slept in the park last night. It is cold and I am scared. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged state agencies on Tuesday to speed up aid efforts. President Hassan Rouhani paid a visit to the stricken region, promising to resolve the problems in the shortest time . Thousands of people huddled in makeshift camps while many others chose to spend another cold night in the open because they feared more tremors after some 230 aftershocks. In some areas, no building was left standing and those that were had been deserted for fear they could come crashing down at any moment. Houses in impoverished Iranian villages are often made of concrete blocks or mudbrick that can quickly crumble and collapse in a strong quake. State television aired footage of weeping villagers carrying away bodies wrapped in bloodied blankets and bed sheets and scrabbling with their bare hands through rubble in search of friends and relatives. It was my cousin s birthday ... All the relatives were there ... like 50 people. But now almost all are dead, Reza, who refused to give his full name, told Reuters from Sarpol-e Zahab town. He lost 34 members of his family on Sunday. We spent two nights in the cold. Where is the aid? On the Iraq side of the frontier, nine people were killed and over 550 injured, all in the northern Kurdish provinces. Television showed rescue workers combing through the rubble of dozens of villages immediately after the quake. But by Tuesday morning Iranian officials said there was no longer any likelihood of finding survivors and called off the search. Hospitals in nearby provinces took in many of the injured, state television said, airing footage of survivors waiting to be treated. Hundreds of critically injured were dispatched to hospitals in Tehran. Iran s Red Crescent said emergency shelter had been provided for thousands of homeless people but a lack of electricity and water, as well as blocked roads, hindered aid supply efforts. People in some villages are still in dire need of food, water and shelter, said Faramraz Akbari, governor of Qasr-e Shirin county in Kermanshah province. State TV showed dozens of green and white tents dotting Sarpol-e Zahab, many containing two or three families. Groups clustered around bonfires trying to warm themselves. It is cold. My children are freezing. We have water and food but no tent. The quake did not kill us but the cold weather will kill us, a woman in her 30s said. The mayor of the city of Ezgeleh said 80 percent of its buildings had collapsed. Survivors desperately needed tents with elderly people and babies as young as a one-year-old sleeping in the cold for two straight nights. People are hungry and thirsty, a local man told ISNA news agency. There is no electricity. Last night I cried when I saw children with no food or shelter. Some people were angry that among the collapsed buildings were homes built under an affordable housing scheme initiated in 2011 by then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The people should build their own houses. They build better houses than those built under projects and schemes, Rouhani said in Kermanshah, state TV reported. I promise you, those responsible will be punished. Iran is crisscrossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed some 31,000 people. | 0 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it viewed U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent statements on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as anti-Russian and said they were unlikely to improve fragile relations between Russia and the United States. Obama on Tuesday strongly criticized Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and for appearing on a TV channel, RT, funded by the Russian government. “Unfortunately, we see continued displays of often hard-core Russophobia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Obama’s intervention, told a conference call with reporters. “We can only express regret in this regard. “This rhetoric, which is being formulated in electoral campaign style ... is unlikely to help fledgling fragile attempts to build at least some sort of mutual trust.” | 0 |
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireThis week some devastating news befell John Sidney McCain III.On Wednesday, his staff announced that the US Senator had been diagnosed with a brain tumor called glioblastoma discovered during recent testing at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.Since then warm wishes and tributes have been pouring in for the former Republican Presidential candidate. Both the US media and political establishment have closed ranks and are rallying around the Senator to help soften the blow.Putting previous feuds aside, President Donald Trump was magnanimous and cordial to the Arizona Senator, wishing him and his family the very best. Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family, said Trump. Get well soon. Even former electoral rival President Barack Obama pitched in a little love for the 80 year old:John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I've ever known. Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 20, 2017Regarding McCain s diagnosis, we all can acknowledge the difficulties and risks involved with various cancer treatments, especially with brain cancer. Likewise, nearly everyone these days can attest to losing a friend, a loved one or family member to the disease.As with anyone suffering from this terrible condition, we wish the Senator well, along with a successful treatment and recovery.Still, McCain has a lot in his favor. Unlike most Americans, he will not have to worry about his medical care, and will be receiving the best cancer treatment money can buy, if not the best in the world, and with absolutely no expense spared. In this way, the Senator is extremely fortunate.And for those reasons, this is not an easy article to write. For fear of appearing too cruel in the face of his dramatic medical disclosure, one would be expected to suspend any political critique for now. Hence, the media has placed an unofficial moratorium on any negative coverage of McCain.That said, he is a special case. As much as any political leader he deserves to be panned, even under the present circumstances, because his geopolitical handiwork continues to cause havoc in certain corners of the world.Cancer Treatment in SyriaImmediately after McCain s major health announcement, the US mainstream media and Republicans began fretting over the prospect that his extended absence from the legislature might jeopardize his party s ability to pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare).With that in mind, maybe it s worth asking: how many innocent Syrians have been denied basic medical treatment, supplies and pharmaceuticals as a result of the harsh US-led regime economic sanctions imposed on Syria? This brutal campaign of collective punishment has been led by US Senator John McCain.Of course, the idea of sanctions as a form of economic warfare hardly registers in the West as being at all harmful to the population of Syria. Sanctions? They re not against the people of Syria, only against Assad. That s the general mainstream phantasm when it comes to sanctions, even though the official numbers show a vivid tale of devastation.One can only imagine how many among Syria s population of 20 million are no longer able to receive cancer treatment in Syria as a result of McCain s insistence on punitive sanctions. Before the conflict in Syria began in 2011, citizens were able to get free medical treatment including high-end state-of-the-art cancer treatment (consider that one simple aspect of this war, as men like John McCain still claim to be delivering freedom to the Syrian people by backing armed terrorist factions).Before the terrorist forces occupied the eastern part of the city, Aleppo was home to one of the Middle East s top cancer treatment centers, Al-Kindi Hospital. This is important because after McCain s secret trip to the Aleppo area in May 2013, the very same rebels he was cavorting with and supplying weapons to the Free Syrian Army (under the command of Jabbat al Nusra aka al Qaeda in Syria) would later order the bombing on this cancer treatment hospital.Professor Tim Anderson explains the destruction of Al Kindi Hospital in December 2013, including the shameful spin applied after the fact by BBC and western mainstream media:In an Orwellian revision of events the BBC (21 December 2013) reported the destruction of Al-Kindi with the headline: Syria rebels take back strategic hospital in Aleppo . The introduction claimed the massive suicide lorry bomb had managed to seize back a strategic ruined hospital occupied by Assad loyalists. Al-Kindi was said to have been a disused building and according to an unconfirmed report, 35 rebels died in the attack . In fact, these rebels were a coalition of Free Syrian Army and Jabhat al Nusra, while the Assad loyalists were the staff and security guards of a large public hospital.Watch as McCain s freedom fighters in Syria drive a suicide truck bomb into the ground level of Al Kindi Cancer Treatment Center in Aleppo:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCwWgTUpGpE . How many Syrian lives were needlessly cut short as a direct result of that bombing carried out by McCain s own Free Syrian Army? For the cost of McCain s treatment at the world-famous Mayo Clinic, who knows how many Syrians could have received desperately needed treatment at Al Kindi or other similarly crippled facilities in Syria? One hundred, or possibly one thousand?Add to this, how many have died or suffer permanent health afflictions as a direct result of US economic sanctions which have crippled Syria s own National Health Service? One hundred thousand, or maybe five hundred thousand? One million? One day, those figures will be recorded and we will have the answer.The other piece of US legislation currently on the table which Republicans are desperate to pass is the $1-trillion US infrastructure spending package. Juxtapose that scene next to the systematic destruction of Syria s infrastructure by US Coalition and IDF airstrikes and destruction by proxy militant forces on the ground. Estimates for the cost to Syria range from $180 billion to $275 million. If the conflict continues past 2020, then these numbers could easily double.In spite of all this, John McCain claims to have no regrets about the damage that he and his fellow war hawks have inflicted on Syria.The Cancer of ConflictAt the same time that political figures like Barrack Obama dutifully respect the official Washington line on John McCain as the consummate Vietnam War hero , very few in the establishment would dare to criticize the powerful Arizona Senator for his central role in engineering instability and violent conflict in foreign countries.John McCain sneaks into Syria illegally in May 2013 to meet with known terrorists, promising them weapons and regime change by way US bombs would drop in the Fall of 2013.. Americans should be reminded that more than any other single US official, John McCain has been the driving force behind the training and arming of violent jihadist and terrorists fighting groups in Syria, and that those same terrorists have slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent civilians including women and children in Syria and beyond all sacrificed at the altar of a US-led geopolitical power play in the Middle East, and in the name of Israeli security interests. Back in 2012, a delusional McCain, along with another dotty war enthusiast, Connecticut Senator Joe Liberman, insisted that the US needed to arm the rebels in Syria in order to save lives. Their statement read: The bloodshed must be stopped, and we should rule out no option that could help to save lives. We must consider, among other actions, providing opposition groups inside Syria, both political and military, with better means to organize their activities, to care for the wounded and find safe haven, to communicate securely, to defend themselves, and to fight back against Assad s forces. From the onset of hostilities in 2011, the bold-faced lie that McCain and partner Lindsey Graham have promulgated is that violent jihadists were nothing more than affable moderate rebels. That piece of Washington fiction has been widely discredited by now.Later on in 2015, McCain announced that the US should be supplying stinger missiles to the so-called rebels in Syria: We certainly did that in Afghanistan. After the Russians invaded Afghanistan, we provided them with surface-to-air capability. It d be nice to give people that we train and equip and send them to fight the ability to defend themselves. That s one of the fundamental principles of warfare as I understand it, said McCain.Soon after that statement, thousands of US-made TOW Missiles were smuggled into Syria and used by terrorists groups under the command umbrella of Al Nusra.In her recent expos for Trud Newspaper, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva revealed the massive scale and scope of the illegal US-NATO weapons trafficking operation to arm thousands of terrorist fighters in Syria.Despite the overwhelming destruction in Syria and the abject failure of his policies, McCain has never given up on the policy of illegal weapons trafficking in Syria. Just this week, McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, openly protested against the Trump Administration s latest announcement to bring an end to the CIA s failed program of illegally arming and training anti-Assad terrorists in Syria. Rather than admitting what everyone else in the world seems to know already that the US train and equip program has been a debacle instead he feigns defiance, while demonstrating a breathtaking level of ignorance by accusing the White House of being part of a Russian conspiracy: If these reports are true, the administration is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin. Making any concession to Russia, absent a broader strategy for Syria, is irresponsible and short-sighted. When promoting their latest war, McCain is normally part of a tandem act, accompanied by his geomancing interest, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who arguably views the world through an even more deranged, albeit binary comic book prism: Breaking Syria apart from Iran could be as important to containing a nuclear Iran as sanctions. If the Syrian regime is replaced with another form of government that doesn t tie its future to the Iranians, the world is a better place. Like a world view gleaned straight from Ian Fleming s Goldfinger.In his seminal 2008 interview with McCain heading to the GOP presidential nomination, The Atlantic magazine s Jeffrey Goldberg asked, What do you think motivates Iran? . to which McCain replied: Hatred. I don t try to divine people s motives. I look at their actions and what they say. I don t pretend to be an expert on the state of their emotions. I do know what their nation s stated purpose is, I do know they continue in the development of nuclear weapons, and I know that they continue to support terrorists who are bent on the destruction of the state of Israel. You ll have to ask someone who engages in this psycho stuff to talk about their emotions. McCain s views on Iraq were even more disturbing, essentially surmising that the invasion and occupation was a good thing, and that we shouldn t have left because leaving Iraq gave rise to al Qaeda. OK. Admittedly, it s a bit counter intuitive, but it works for neoconservatives.These statements by McCain and Graham are not admissions made by normal well-adjusted individuals, but rather by cold, dark hearted sociopaths who generally view the lives of Arabs (along with Slavs, Russians and others) as necessary cannon fodder in the pursuit of military industrial profits for a select cadr of transnational corporate defense contractors whose interests Senator John McCain represents in his home state of Arizona; Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and the list goes on, and on.The geopolitical hubris doesn t end there, as McCain still maintains even after 6 years of absolute implosion of his own foreign policy agenda that removing Syrian President Bashar al Assad from power is still a key pillar of the US strategy for Syria. The administration has yet to articulate its vision for Syria beyond the defeat of ISIL, let alone a comprehensive approach to the Middle East, said McCain this week.The reality, of course, is that ISIL/ISIS could have been defeated already had the US-led Coalition and Israel not illegally intervened in Syria territory. Far from doing much to defeat ISIS since they have invaded Syrian airspace since 2014, the US has conveniently stretched-out the ISIS problem through the extension of its own self-styled international mandate which was originally intended to serve as a precursor to the eventual break-up of Syria into federal states and ethnic cantons. This might explain McCain s rush to enact regime change in Syria before lording over the eventual break-up of the sovereign nation-state.All Things RussianThe other country which McCain is determined break is Russia. Vladimir Putin is a murder and a KGB thug, crowed McCain on CNN last year, as he protested against positive statements about Russia made by then candidate Trump.Suffice to say, he, along with the boards of Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, are all extremely happy about NATO pressing right up against the Russian border in eastern Europe.But 2013 was indeed a busy year for the Senator stirring up trouble internationally. As part of his opening gambit against Moscow, it was McCain who was the driving force behind the US-backed coup d etat in Ukraine in February 2014 which ultimately led to a bloody civil war which continues to this day in the Ukraine. Apparently, this was McCain s way of stopping Putin. His is a very dodgy track record; whether it s NeoNazis, or Jihadi Terrorists, McCain seems always ready to do a deal with the devil, and that s what makes him particularly dangerous.Below we can see McCain helping to whip-up Nazi-linked, neofascist street mobs in Kiev helping to bring the ensuing junta into power. Some mainstream US pundits have claimed that this never happened, and that it s just a conspiracy theory invented by Russian propagandists to discredit McCain. Unfortunately for them it is true, and here is the photo to prove it:Senator John McCain (AZ) shares the stage in Kiev with far-right, NeoNazi Right Sector strongman, Oleg Tyhanbock, ahead of violent street protests in Ukraine in December of 2013, in advance of the US-backed coup.. Looking back at his erratic and flippant behavior, attacking nearly anyone who even suggested d tente with Russia or that supplying lethal arms to militants in Syria was a bad idea, it s no surprise that cognizant onlookers have questioned whether or not McCain is in a normal frame of mind.Frankly speaking, how could any one in their right mind be so consistently on the wrong side of every issue? How could any politician s judgement be that poor? Unless there was something else going on below the surface The questions didn t stop there. McCain s performance during a recent Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing on Russian Influence in US Elections was an embarrassment. Onlookers were stunned when McCain lost the plot during the hearing when asking former FBI Director James Comey: Well, at least in the minds of this member, there s a whole lot of questions remaining about what went on, particularly considering the fact that as you mentioned, it s a big deal as to what went on during the campaign, so I m glad you concluded that part of the investigation, but I think that the American people have a whole lot of questions out there, particularly since you just emphasized the role that Russia played. And obviously she was a candidate for president at the time. So she was clearly involved in this whole situation where fake news, as you just described it, is a big deal took place. You re going to have to help me out here. In other words, we re complete, the investigation of anything former Secretary Clinton had to do with the campaign is over and we don t have to worry about it anymore? to which Comey replied: With respect to I m a little confused. With respect to Secretary Clinton, we investigated a criminal investigation with her use of a personal email server. McCain then finished digging his own hole by responding: So at the same time you made the announcement there would be no further charges brought against then-Secretary Clinton for any activities involved in the Russia involvement and our engagement and our election. I don t quite understand how you can be done with that but not done with the whole investigation of their attempt to affect the out of come our election. It was clear McCain had no idea what was going on. At that point any reasonable person would have concluded that John McCain had in fact lost his mind and was no longer fit to serve in public office. In fact, 21WIRE made this very same case back in 2013 after McCain was caught playing video poker on his iPhone during a Senate Committee where lawmakers were debating the very war of which he is a chief architect. Here is the photo:As stunning displays of ignorance go, the video poker incident was one of McCain s greatest ever, and certainly should have been a warning to everyone that this man had no business making military decisions, let alone litigating war and peace between nuclear superpowers like the United States and Russia.Perhaps an announcement is forthcoming, but it s surprising after being diagnosed with brain cancer at 80 years old why McCain has not yet announced his resignation from office?It s fair to say that while this Senator is being treated in the world s leading medical facilities, thousands of innocents will have died needlessly because of US sanctions and support for terrorists all in the name of defense, energy and ever vast corporate profits. Strange as that might sound to some, for those who consider themselves members of a ruling elite and its mandarin management class, that is perfectly acceptable quid pro quo in 2017.After World War II, the military industrial complex and the international arms trade has spread conflict like a disease across the planet, metastasizing in ways, in places, and on a scale which no one could have previously imagined before. Undoubtedly, over the last decade, John McCain has played a key role in spreading that anguish. For the people of Syria, Afghanistan and the Ukraine, that will be his legacy, not the chimerical image of a maverick Senator or the war hero. Once again, we implore the Senator to do the right thing by the American people and for those innocents around the world who have suffered at the hands of an arms industry whose interests John McCain represents Please, just retire.*** READ MORE MCCAIN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire John McCain FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1 |
After being assaulted by Trump haters, the Trump supporters are speaking out. | 1 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The newly appointed second-in-command at the U.S. Justice Department faced a weighty task just two weeks after taking office - writing the rationale for firing FBI Director James Comey. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein argued the case for Comey’s sacking in a three-page memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday. President Donald Trump acted swiftly to dismiss the director later that day. Rosenstein cited Comey’s controversial public statements about the bureau’s investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. “It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do,” Rosenstein wrote of Comey’s public comments. Spokespeople for the Department of Justice and the FBI did not return calls seeking comment late Tuesday. Comey’s firing will likely be seen as further evidence of Washington’s hyper-partisan upheaval. Rosenstein has drawn fire from Democrats who allege political motives in the White House decision to dismiss Comey - and particularly, its timing. “Why did it happen today?” asked Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York. “We know the FBI has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians ... Were those investigations getting too close to home for the President?” The rationale for canning Comey, however, came from a 26-year Justice Department veteran who is widely viewed by his peers and many lawmakers as uncommonly nonpartisan. Named as Maryland’s top prosecutor by President George W. Bush, Rosenstein stayed in office through the Obama administration. Rosenstein was the longest-serving U.S. attorney when he was nominated by Trump last January. When he was confirmed by the Senate, he enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support - a 94-to-6 vote - despite the deeply divided culture of today’s Washington. Bonnie Greenberg, a federal prosecutor in Maryland told Reuters in March that Rosenstein was admired as a rare career prosecutor who could insulate himself from political pressure. “He only does something if he thinks it’s right,” said Greenberg, who worked with Rosenstein for 11 years. Many in the Justice Department saw Rosenstein’s appointment as a counter-balance to the extreme partisanship surrounding accusations of Russian interference in last year’s election. And he was immediately swept into that fray. Before Rosenstein was confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate, some Democratic lawmakers asked him to pledge he would appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. He was easily confirmed despite rebuffing those demands. Some Republicans have been angered by Comey’s public statements about the FBI investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. But Rosenstein’s criticism of Comey focused on actions seen to have damaged Democratic candidate Clinton. Rosenstein focused in particular on Comey’s news conference last July, when the director announced his conclusion that Clinton should not be prosecuted - while at the same time publicly bashing her use of a private email server for sensitive U.S. government business. That day, Rosenstein wrote, Comey usurped the authority of the U.S. Attorney General - who has authority over whether prosecutions should proceed, based on the quality of FBI investigations. Comey also violated longstanding practice by “gratuitously” releasing damaging information about Clinton - even as he acknowledged the evidence against her was insufficient to warrant continued investigation, Rosenstein wrote. “We do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation,” Rosenstein wrote, adding that Comey “laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial.” U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the timing of Comey’s firing was suspect - coming so long after the election of Trump and Comey’s alleged mishandling of the case. He directly criticized Rosenstein. “I am very disappointed with this deputy attorney general, who I was told had a good reputation,” he said. “But signing this letter saying that he recommends firing Comey because of Comey’s actions with Hillary Clinton nine months ago, or 10 months ago? That doesn’t pass any smell test.” Rosenstein, in his letter, cited broad, bipartisan agreement on Comey’s errors in judgment. Last summer, Comey defended his decision to speak publicly about the Clinton investigation, saying “the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest.” Last week, before a Senate committee, Comey defended his decision in October - two weeks before the presidential election - to publicly announce the bureau had discovered new emails that might be related to the closed investigation into Clinton. “To not speak about it would require an act of concealment in my view,” Comey said. Rosenstein wrote that he was perplexed at Comey’s continued defenses of his handling of the probe. “I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken,” Rosenstein wrote. “It is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.” | 0 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday promised a thorough investigation into any direct links between Russia and Republican Donald Trump during his successful 2016 run for the White House. Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Mark Warner, its top Democrat, pledged at a joint news conference that they would work together, in contrast with the partisan discord roiling a similar probe by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Burr was asked if the Senate panel wanted to determine if there was anything suggesting a direct link to Trump, and responded: “We know that our challenge is to answer that question for the American people.” Trump’s young presidency has been clouded by allegations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to help him win, while connections between his campaign personnel and Russia also are under scrutiny. Trump dismisses such assertions and Russia denies the allegations. The Senate committee intends to begin interviewing as many as 20 people, including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, beginning as early as Monday. Burr served as a security adviser to Trump’s campaign but said he had not coordinated with him on the scope of the committee’s investigation. He insisted he could remain objective. Burr declined to go along with the White House’s denial of collusion between the campaign and Russian hackers, who U.S. intelligence officials believe favored Trump in last year’s campaign at the expense of Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. “We would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation,” Burr said. “Let us go a little deeper into this before you ask us to write the conclusions. That’s clearly something we intend to do down the road.” Burr and Warner would not comment on the investigation in the House, where the chairman of the intelligence committee, Trump ally Devin Nunes, has been under fire over his handling of the matter. Many Democrats, including Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, called for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation after he met last week with an unidentified source at the White House complex, accusing him of colluding with the White House. Before telling his committee colleagues, Nunes met with House Speaker Paul Ryan, and then Trump, and told reporters the source provided him with evidence that information on Trump’s transition team had been collected during legal surveillance of other targets. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said the discord surrounding the House committee has made the Senate investigation more important than ever. “Clearly in the Senate, it appears that both Democrats and Republicans are acting like adults and taking this matter seriously,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern told Reuters. Warner and Burr both stressed the importance of exposing the activity of Russian hackers, which Warner said included reports of “upwards of 1,000 paid Internet trolls” who spread false negative stories about Clinton. Warner and Burr did disagree slightly, with Warner alluding to some difficulties getting particular documents from intelligence agencies, and Burr defending them. The two senators also indicated they had communicated with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, who was fired last month after misrepresenting meetings with the Russian ambassador. “It would be safe to say we have had conversations with a lot of people and it would be safe to say General Flynn is a part of that list,” Burr said. Neither Burr nor Warner gave a timeline for finishing the investigation. “This is one of the biggest investigations the Hill has seen in my time here,” said Burr, who has been in Congress since 1995. The senators said they also wanted to call attention to what they described as Russia’s attempts to influence upcoming elections in France and Germany. | 0 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mastermind of the “Bridgegate” lane closure scandal that helped torpedo New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s presidential bid should not be sentenced to prison due to his cooperation, U.S. prosecutors said in a court document filed on Tuesday. David Wildstein, who helped the government convict two former Christie associates after he pleaded guilty in 2015, is set to be sentenced in federal court in Newark on Wednesday. Wildstein, 55, admitted overseeing a scheme to shut down access lanes at the busy George Washington Bridge in 2013 to create massive traffic gridlock as punishment for a local Democratic mayor who refused to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign. U.S. prosecutors charged Wildstein, former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and a former executive of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Bill Baroni, with concocting the plot. The Port Authority supervises operations for the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan and New Jersey and is one of the world’s busiest crossings. Christie, who has denied any involvement, was not charged. But the fallout dogged his bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 and has contributed to his current record-low approval rating of 15 percent in New Jersey. Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2015 and agreed to cooperate with authorities, eventually appearing as the star witness at Kelly and Baroni’s trial for eight days of testimony. “Put simply, were it not for Wildstein’s decision to cooperate and disclose the true nature of the lane reductions, there likely would have been no prosecutions related to the bridge scheme,” U.S. prosecutors wrote in arguing that Wildstein should receive probation but no prison time. Kelly and Baroni were sentenced to 1-1/2 and two years in prison, respectively. Wildstein testified at trial that he and Baroni joked with Christie about the traffic jams caused by the lane closures as they were occurring, an assertion that Christie and Baroni both denied. He also told jurors that he and Baroni used the Port Authority as a “goody bag” to dole out favors to local officials in exchange for support for Christie’s re-election. In a court submission made public on Tuesday, Wildstein’s lawyer also requested probation, noting that Wildstein voluntarily met with investigators at the start of their probe. “Mr. Wildstein remains alone in taking responsibility for his role in the George Washington Bridge lane realignment issue, even though others were clearly involved,” Alan Zegas wrote. | 0 |
We ve been following this push to remove all statues related to the Civil War. It was basically ramrodded through by the Mayor and other pc idiots. This is our history and is honoring those who fought in the Civil War. Is anyone else sick about this? If you ve ever been to New Orleans you would remember the beautiful statues sprinkled around the city. It s part of the charm and the rich history of New Orleans. This is wrong, wrong, wrong! THANK YOU TO THE HAYRIDE FOR ALL THE TRUTH IN THIS THAT SHOWS WHAT A SHAM IT IS:The New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 today to remove four historical monuments in the city: Robert E Lee Circle, PGT Beauregard s City Park statue, the Jefferson Davis monument and the Liberty Place monument.Mayor Mitch Landrieu first requested the proposal back in June after the AME Charleson Church shooting. At the time, Landrieu said he wanted to hold a 60-day discussion period so that residents could converse about the four monuments on the chopping block.Though, the Hayride exclusively reported how the Landrieu administration knew that they had the votes to remove all four monuments before even proposing the idea. Also, the Mayor s administration apparently has been looking into warehouse spaces and construction companies to remove the monuments since August, even though the 60-day discussion period was not over.Councilman Jared Brossett compared the monuments to the Berlin wall, while Councilwoman Susan Guidry said she and others were justifiably offended by the monuments.Councilwoman Latoya Cantrell and Councilwoman Stacy Head, however, felt differently. Cantrell said she felt disrespected by Landrieu for proposing the idea with no input from residents or the City Council.Councilman Jason Williams, though, said that other council-members should not be too upset with the Landrieu administration for bringing up the issue.Cantrell also took a major issue with the fact that Landrieu suddenly got an anonymous donor to pay for the removal of the monuments. Cantrell said she and the residents of New Orleans deserved to know who was behind removal of the monuments.The Hayride exclusively reported months ago that the anonymous donor was Democrat-funder John Cummings, however Cummings denied being the anonymous donor.Head, the only no vote on the monuments issue, said removing the monuments will do nothing for the city, saying that she asked for a compromise, but that compromise was not given any chance. Last month, Head confirmed exclusive Hayride reports which found that the Landrieu administration had been looking into construction companies and warehouse spaces for months now.Cantrell also confirmed last week that she was actually against removal of monuments because she felt as though the Landrieu administration had rammed the process through the city, taking no input from historians or residents.Read more: The Hayride | 1 |
VIENNA (Reuters) - Support for Austria s ruling Social Democrats has slipped since a scandal embroiled the party ahead of an Oct. 15 election but they are in a tight battle with the far right for second place, a poll showed on Thursday. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz s conservative People s Party had 34 percent ahead of the far right Freedom Party on 27 percent, according to the Research Affairs poll published by tabloid daily Oesterreich. Chancellor Christian Kern s Social Democrats had 22 percent down 2 percentage points but given a margin of error of 4.3 percent second place was too close to call. The Social Democrats said last weekend it was unwittingly involved in two Facebook accounts that made unsubstantiated allegations against Kurz and the party chairman announced his resignation. Details of the scandal were unclear. The party launched an investigation and a spokesman for the Vienna prosecutor s office said on Thursday it had opened a defamation inquiry against persons unknown based on a complaint by the Social Democrats. We are conducting an investigation against persons unknown for defamation, a spokesman for the Vienna prosecutors office said. Of course, we must now approach Facebook and ask if they can help us further in seeking out these persons unknown. Facebook said on Wednesday in response to a request for help from the Social Democrats: We are assessing the request and will reply once that assessment is complete. Like many polls in Austria, the online survey carried out from Monday to Wednesday had a relatively small sample size of 600 people and a wide margin of error. The People s Party shot to first place in opinion polls when Kurz took over as its leader in May. Other parties were on 6 percent or less. | 0 |
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is not ruling out seeking special post-Brexit arrangements for itself and Northern Ireland as a fallback option in the negotiations on Britain s departure from the EU, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday. Ireland has proposed that Britain and the EU reach a bespoke customs union partnership to eliminate the risk of a hard border returning between it and Northern Ireland, which will be the UK s only land frontier with the EU after its departure. Varadkar said this remained EU-member Ireland s position in the negotiations being led by Brussels but that it of course has fallback positions if things don t work out. We re determined to secure a customs union partnership and a free trade agreement or area between Britain and Ireland when it comes to the post-Brexit scenario, Varadkar told parliament. We certainly don t rule out seeking special arrangements for Ireland and Northern Ireland but that s not our negotiating position or preference by any means. The Irish border is one of three formidable issues Brussels wants broadly solved in the first stage of negotiations with Britain before talks on a future trading relationship can start. It is particularly sensitive given the decades of violence in Northern Ireland, a British province, over whether it should be part of the United Kingdom or Ireland. Around 3,600 people were killed before a 1998 peace agreement. Fifty-six percent of Northern Irish voters voted Remain in the Brexit referendum last year, split roughly between pro-EU Irish nationalists and more eurosceptic pro-British unionists. But both sides fear a re-hardening of the border, with its likely hammer effect on the economy, could reignite violence. Britain has said there should be no immigration checks or border posts along the 500-km (300-mile) frontier post-Brexit. But Brussels and Dublin say London has failed to explain how it would square this objective with its stated intention to leave the EU s customs union. With close trading links to Britain, Ireland s economy is also widely considered the most exposed in the EU to any future trade barriers, and Varadkar said Dublin did not want to sacrifice or give up its free trade with Britain at this stage. An analysis by Ireland s finance ministry showed last month that 11 of the 15 EU goods most exposed to Britain are Irish exports, highlighting the extreme vulnerability to Brexit of some Irish firms. However a special arrangement that kept Northern Ireland in the customs union would raise the prospect of checks being required on goods moving between it and Britain, a proposal firmly opposed by pro-Brexit unionists in the province. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up the Conservative government in the British parliament, reiterated on Tuesday that there could not be any barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. | 0 |
ANKARA (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel s comments about stopping arms exports to Turkey are not appropriate for a foreign minister, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday. Gabriel said on Monday Berlin had put most arms exports to NATO partner Turkey on hold due to deteriorating human rights in Turkey. However German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday rejected a total ban. [nB4N1FT01N] Cavusoglu told reporters that Turkey found Merkel s stance more suitable, and added that attempts to drum up support by attacking Turkey ahead of Germany s election later this month would yield no result. | 0 |
GOA, India (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday shrugged off new U.S. threats to retaliate against alleged Russian hackers, saying such statements only confirmed that Washington used cyber attacks for political ends. Speaking after a summit of developing economies in India Putin also said he believed that the hacking allegations were mainly election campaign rhetoric by the White House, and that he hoped bilateral ties could improve after the U.S. elections. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told NBC News television on Friday that “we are sending a message” to Putin, and that retaliation for Russia’s hacking attacks “will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact”. The U.S. government this month formally accused Russia for the first time of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. “You can expect anything from our American friends. But what did he say that was new? Don’t we know that official bodies of the United States are spying and eavesdropping on everyone?” Putin told reporters after the summit of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “The only new thing is that for the first time the United States has recognized at the highest level ... that they themselves do it (cyber attacks).” Putin said that by “playing the Russian card” in the current election campaign, the outgoing U.S. administration sought to distract voter attention from its failures, which include huge state debt, weak diplomacy in the Middle East and strained relations with its allies in that region. “I would like to reassure everyone, including our U.S. partners and friends - we do not intend to influence the U.S. election campaign,” he said. Putin said he would work with any U.S. leader willing to work with Russia. “If someone wants confrontation, this is not our choice,” he said. “On the contrary, we would like to find common ground and cooperate in solving the global problems that confront both Russia and the United States.” On Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the Obama administration of destroying bilateral relations in the run-up to the elections, saying that “the level of Russophobic propaganda coming from the very top is now starting to go off the scale”. | 0 |
In a case that could have far-reaching consequences on the outcome of future elections, the US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on whether electoral maps that are deliberately drawn to favor a certain political party, a process also known as gerrymandering, are constitutionally acceptable.Last November, the state of Wisconsin appealed a lower court ruling that state Republican lawmakers violated the constitution when they created legislative districts that put Democrats at a disadvantage and now the Supreme Court is going to hear their case. The state s argument was that the recent Wisconsin election results favoring Republicans is a reflection of Wisconsin s natural political geography with Democrats concentrated in urban areas such as Milwaukee and Madison.A panel of federal judges in Madison ruled 2-1 that the state s Republican-led redrawing of legislative districts amounted to an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, violating the US Constitution s guarantees of equal protection under the law and free speech by sabotaging Democratic voters abilities to turn their votes into seats in Wisconsin s legislature.The Supreme Court has ruled state electoral maps invalid based on grounds of racial discrimination, such as it did with North Carolina on May 22, when the power of African-American voters was diminished statewide due to Republican legislators drawing two electoral districts. However, they ve been reluctant to throw out maps that give one party a distinct advantage over the other. Until now that is. Wisconsin s gerrymander was one of the most aggressive of the decade, locking in a large and implausibly stable majority for Republicans in what is otherwise a battleground state, said redistricting expert Thomas Wolf of the Brennan Center. It s a symptom of politics going haywire and something that we increasingly see when one party has sole control of the redistricting process. If the Supreme Court finds the state of Wisconsin at fault, it could affect congressional maps in about half a dozen states and legislative maps in about 10 states in the short term, but the long term effects are still unknown. State and federal legislative district boundaries are redrawn every decade to hold roughly the same number of people after each census, the next being in 2020.The original court ruling that the state is appealing ordered the redrawing of legislative boundaries to be in place by November 1, in time for the 2018 Wisconsin state election.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1 |
DANIEL GREENFIELD NAILS IT! This is one of the best resourced and stated takes on what America s going through that I ve ever read. Thank you Mr. Greenfield! Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.The Congressional Black Caucus is the most ridiculously corrupt part of an already corrupt Congress. A study two years ago found that a third of black congressmen had been named in an ethics probe during their careers. 5 of the 6 members under review by the House Ethics Committee that year were CBCers. In 2009, every single member of Congress under investigation was from the same old gang.Like the Clinton Foundation, the CBC exists to trade money for influence. The Caucus takes in tens of millions from major corporations and spends it on parties for its members and funnels the rest into fake non-profits. Even the minority scholarships endowed with great ceremony as a way of providing opportunity to their underprivileged constituents have a way of going to their own children and friends.The Congressional Black Caucus claims that it s the conscience of the Congress when it s actually the tip of a corrupt urban political machine that keeps black people in chains. Its members are lying idiots whose only response to criticism (including the ethics charges leveled against them) is to shout racism because that is the job they were chosen for by their real backers and masters.Consider Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; the dumbest member of the CBC notorious for believing that we won the Vietnam War and that our astronauts had planted a flag on Mars.Back in 2002, Sheila Jackson Lee announced on CNN, I happen to represent Enron here in Houston. That was an accurate summary. Her campaign had been funded by Enron. After Enron disappeared, other companies came along eager to funnel money to Sheila Jackson Lee and the CBC.Attempted major mergers between AT&T and T-Mobile and between Time Warner and Comcast were financed with major donations from the participants to the CBC. CBC members enthusiastically signed on to the AT&T merger claiming that it would help black people.It wouldn t have, but it certainly helped CBC members.Cell phone companies, dirty banks and drug companies all benefit from CBC intervention at the expense of their constituents. Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the CBC is an example of the merger between corporate corruption and urban political corruption masquerading as civil rights. That s why CBC members are not only noted for being ridiculously corrupt, but also for being ridiculously stupid.In addition to Sheila Jackson Lee, there s Hank Johnson who claimed that an added Marine presence might cause the island of Guam to tip over, Maxine Waters who accused the CIA of selling crack in black neighborhoods or Frederica Wilson who claimed that the term illegal alien is offensive because To me an alien is somebody who is from another planet . Much like the brain of the average CBC member.And who could forget Marcia Fudge s stirring condemnation of the Tea Party. These same people believe if you do not work, you are lazy. These same people believe that if your children don t get a good education, something is wrong with you. These are the craziest people I have seen in my life. Just absolute nuts. They don t understand that the government s job is to take care of its people. Like Sheila Jackson Lee, their stupidity was not an accident.The best corrupt politicians are too stupid to understand the consequences and too shameless to care about ethics. CBC members are carefully selected for their worst qualities. They are national examples of the corrupt urban political machine that has crippled black communities around the country.The next wave of CBC members who sought statewide and national office appeared to be made of better stuff. The wave hit its peak with Obama, who campaigned as a modern non-tribal politician striving for national excellence. Unlike Jesse Jackson, Obama appeared to be a fundamentally different type of urban politician. Their mutual hostility only reinforced that.But the CBC s next wave of smooth-talking Ivy League pragmatists who were supposed to save black communities proved to be just as rotten. After all the publicity, Cory Booker not only didn t turn Newark around, he turned out to be using it as a springboard for higher political office. Once in office, Obama proved to be every bit as tribally racist as any CBC member and twice as corrupt as the worst of them.As he presides over national race riots that he helped fuel, the whole country is getting a taste of what living under the governance of the urban political machine in the inner city looks like.In Baltimore, the latest flash point of Obama s race riots, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an Oberlin grad and the daughter of an important politician, was supposed to be a step up from the incompetence and corruption of her predecessor who had been convicted of stealing gift cards meant for the poor. Instead she promised that casinos would fix everything and when they didn t, she went on spending.Even without the #BlackLivesMatter riots, Baltimore was on the road to financial ruin just like Chicago and Detroit. The urban political machine found the riots convenient because while it destroyed businesses, it let them blame the city s economic disaster on racism instead of corruption.State s Attorney Marilyn Mosby s already botched prosecution of the police officers is just more political theater to distract the people of the city from what their political establishment has done to them. Like Rawlings-Blake, Mosby and her husband have shown us that the next generation of the political machine is slicker, but no cleaner or more competent than its predecessors.The Baltimore political establishment panders to criminals because it s run by criminals. This is a city whose mayor only has her job because her predecessor was convicted and whose NAACP boss tried to claim that her son s heroin was really insulin which he was using to kill mice in the NAACP offices. Meanwhile Mosby is claiming that someone hacked her Twitter account to favorite racist tweets.When Obama moved into the White House, the corruption of the urban political machine joined him there. His attorney general had been slammed by Congress over Pardongate s paid pardons for fugitives. Holder set the tone for an administration that casually traded cash for political favors. It lied about the economy and terrorism, and when the lies were exposed, it touched off race riots to distract everyone.America is now being run just like Baltimore.Read more: Front Page | 1 |
It s time to drag Donald Trump out of office. Because if we don t act soon, the Constitution will be put through a shredder.NBC News has multiple reliable sources. And when those sources tell them something, they pass the information on to the public, whether Trump approves or not.That s because the free press in this country do not answer to a petty tyrant who thinks he should have a say in what the media reports.In response to reports concerning General John Kelly and growing tension between him and Trump, Trump lashed out on Twitter.The Fake News is at it again, this time trying to hurt one of the finest people I know, General John Kelly, by saying he will soon be .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017 fired. This story is totally made up by the dishonest media.The Chief is doing a FANTASTIC job for me and, more importantly, for the USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017Then Trump attacked the media for not crediting him with economic achievements that are a continuation of the Obama economy.It would be really nice if the Fake News Media would report the virtually unprecedented Stock Market growth since the election.Need tax cuts Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017It should be pointed out that the unemployment rate was already under 5 percent and declining, while the stock market had already reached record highs and climbing before the 2016 Election. Trump has not even passed a budget of his own yet and has not signed a single piece of economic legislation. However, the economic regulations he has killed has resulted in the first monthly job losses after over 70 straight months of growth.Trump then exploded in rage against NBC for reporting on Trump s desire to dramatically expand America s nuclear arsenal, and threatened to strip them of their broadcasting license.Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a tenfold increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017Basically, Trump just threatened to punish a news organization for doing their job.Just imagine if President Obama had threatened to pull Fox News broadcasting license. Conservatives would be losing their minds and accusing him of violating the right to free speech and freedom of the press.If Donald Trump follows through on this threat, however, the next Democrat to hold the White House should retaliate by immediately yanking Fox News broadcasting license. Then we can watch as hypocrites whine and cry.Featured Image: Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images | 1 |
Donald Trump is still struggling to wriggle out from under his abortion blunder as evidenced by this interview on Fox News Sunday.Unable to phone it in thanks to host Chris Wallace refusing to choose ratings over holding on to the last shred of journalistic integrity Fox has left, Trump was asked point-blank if he is blowing his campaign because of offensive remarks he made last week when he said women should be punished for getting an abortion which has drawn outrage from pro-choice groups and faux outrage from anti-choice groups who only pretend that they don t want to punish women in some way for making the choice they disagree with.The outrage forced Trump to backtrack and he continued to spin his comments after telling Wallace that he thinks his campaign is still going strong despite them.Trump slammed anti-choice groups for not being conservative enough, a charge that these groups often use to justify defeating Republican incumbents in primaries, which only makes Congress more extreme resulting in the obstruction and cruel anti-women legislation we see today. Look, it was asked as a hypothetical, and talked about if it s illegal and it was hypothetically asked, Trump claimed. A very strong conservative group would have said that was the appropriate answer. I m not saying it was the appropriate answer, I say it s the doctor s fault or whoever performs the act, it s their fault. But there was a time when that would have been. After being asked why he singled out women for punishment, Trump again claimed that it was a hypothetical question. Because it was asked hypothetically, Trump said. I said the woman because it was asked hypothetically. I also corrected it, and I made it very much so that I think everybody it s acceptable now to everybody. Here s the video via YouTube.Trump has explained his remarks in other ways besides claiming that it was a hypothetical question. He has accused both MSNBC and CBS of editing his remarks and taking them out of context. He has also taken five positions on abortion in the last three days.The bottom line is abortion rights are protected by the 14th Amendment and is a legal and necessary medical procedure. So women and their doctors should not have to face any punishment at all.Anti-abortion groups can claim they don t want to punish women all they want but the fact of the matter is that just by outlawing abortion alone they would be punishing women by forcing them to seek dangerous methods to end their pregnancies in absence of a safe procedure in an equipped medical environment. Women would also be punished because conservatives would also ban many forms of contraception they wrongly believe cause abortions. Clinic closures have also left thousands of women without services such as cancer screenings and STD treatments.And let s not pretend anti-abortion groups haven t threatened, stalked, or harassed women who go to clinics to end their unwanted pregnancies. And forcing women to carry an unwanted pregnancy alone would be a punishment because many women who seek an abortion do so because they cannot afford to bring another child into the world. Basically, conservatives would be punishing women financially. And then there are women who got pregnant as a result of rape. Banning abortion would punish these women by forcing them to give birth to their rapist s baby, sentencing them to many years of having to deal with their rapist, especially in states where rapists can seek parental rights.In addition, Republicans have passed laws ranging from mandatory invasive ultrasounds to waiting periods to fetal homicide laws, which punish women every day. Some are even investigated and have been sent to jail just because of a miscarriage.So, yes, anti-abortion groups want to punish women. To believe otherwise is foolish. Donald Trump was simply repeating their real stance out loud. Featured image via Screenshot | 1 |
The Houston Police Department and Texas Rangers are investigating after a gun nut opened fire on the office of Democratic state Senator John Whitmire a day before President Obama is scheduled to speak in Austin.Early Thursday morning around 12:30am, a shooter fired several rounds into the two-story office. There are bullet slugs everywhere, Whitmire said. One lodged in a framed picture. It s pretty amazing. Whitemire, a gun control advocate, surmised that the weapon used in the attack was an AR-15 because the bullets were .223 caliber. No one was harmed in the shooting but Whitmire and his staff along with law enforcement officials are taking the incident seriously. We ll take precautions. But it s part of the job, unfortunately, in this day and time, Whitmire said. They are checking in this general area to see if anyone else received any gunfire. We don t know yet. I don t know yet. The targeting of Whitmire s office occurred the day before President Obama is scheduled to appear at the South by Southwest tech and music festival on Friday where he is delivered a keynote address.Upon hearing of Obama s schedule, Texas open carry gun nuts stated their desire to attend the event with their guns to hand out pro-law literature. But one of the gun nuts had a different idea for what his buddies should do. If you get a clear shot, please fire for effect! conservative gun nut Kriss Elliot wrote on Facebook.So not only has the Texas open carry obsession resulted in violence against a Democratic office, it has resulted in gun nuts actually wanting to assassinate President Obama, and now it s much easier for them to do this because they are legally allowed to carry deadly firearms in public view.Make no mistake, these people belong in jail or at the very least an FBI watch list, but as long as Republicans control the state it will remain an exaggerated and embarrassing version of the Wild West.Featured Image: OnlyInYourState.com | 1 |
Donald Trump s weak response to the racially motivated, white supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia has been a sombering moment for America. While many Americans did not have any high hopes for Trump as POTUS, some at least thought he would be decent enough to condemn violence and bigotry, or at least not publicly defend racism. Unfortunately, we have been severely disappointed.Trump has failed so miserably to denounce hate that even several Republicans are disgusted by the lazy tweeter in chief. And while many of them are speaking up, most of them don t have the guts to call Trump directly out or make any sort of passionate statement on the matter. However, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is beyond done with Trump. In response to Trump s continued failure to respond appropriately to the Charlottesville crisis, Graham has issued a blistering statement calling Trump out by name and accurately accusing the disgraced president of dividing America.Here s Graham s statement, which we hope will inspire many more conservatives to openly criticize our modern-day Hitler:In his statement, Graham also brilliantly pointed out that Trump is basically welcoming neo-Nazis and KKK members with open arms by making comments that defend racists.Graham s statement was much needed, as much of the Republican Party has not stood up to Trump s inaction in a strong enough way. An innocent life was lost in Charlottesville, and Trump has defended the people who were responsible. That should make GOPers across the country ashamed of even being associated with Trump.Condemning racism and white supremacy should be a no-brainer. It is extremely odd that the Republican Party s leader and many other conservatives are having a hard time calling this out and taking the strong stance that Graham has. Now is not the time to be silent and stick to party lines.Featured image via Sean Gallup / Getty Images | 1 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon believes Saad al-Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia, from where he resigned as Lebanese prime minister, two top government officials in Beirut said, amid a deepening crisis pushing Lebanon onto the frontlines of a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. A third source, a senior politician close to Saudi-allied Hariri, said Saudi Arabia had ordered him to resign and put him under house arrest. A fourth source familiar with the situation said Saudi Arabia was controlling and limiting his movement. In a televised statement indicating deep concern at Hariri s situation, his Future Movement political party said his return home was necessary to uphold the Lebanese system, describing him as prime minister and a national leader. Hariri s resignation last Saturday, read out on television from Saudi Arabia, came as a shock even to his aides and further embroiled Beirut in a regional contest between Riyadh and Tehran. Hariri s exit fueled wide speculation that the Sunni Muslim politician, long an ally of Riyadh, was coerced into stepping down by Saudi Arabia as it seeks to hit back against Iran and its Lebanese Shi ite ally, Hezbollah. In his resignation speech, Hariri denounced Iran and Hezbollah for sowing strife in Arab states and said he feared assassination. His father, a former prime minister, was killed by a bomb in 2005. Saudi Arabia has denied reports he is under house arrest. But Hariri has issued no statements himself to that effect, and has not denied that his movements are being restricted. Keeping Hariri with restricted freedom in Riyadh is an attack on Lebanese sovereignty. Our dignity is his dignity. We will work with (foreign) states to return him to Beirut, said the senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government had yet to declare that position. Saudi Arabia says Hariri resigned because Hezbollah, which was included in Hariri s coalition government, had hijacked Lebanon s political system. Hariri aides had until Thursday denied he was under house arrest but took a dramatically different tone after a meeting of the Future Movement convened at Hariri s Beirut residence on Thursday. A statement read by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said his return was necessary to recover respect for Lebanon s internal and external balance, and in the framework of full respect for Lebanese legitimacy . Hariri s aunt, Bahia, sat next to Siniora as he read the statement. The party stood behind his leadership, it said. Hariri came to office last year in a political deal that made the Hezbollah-allied Christian politician Michel Aoun head of state and produced a coalition government grouping most Lebanese parties including Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia blessed the government at the time, but has been fiercely critical of the Hariri-led government since he stepped down, saying it failed to act against Hezbollah, whose guerrilla army is far more powerful than the weak state. Saudi Arabia had wanted Hariri to take a tougher stance toward Hezbollah, and he failed to do so, the fourth source said. He was functioning as if it is business as usual, so the Saudis had to accelerate the process and to force a resignation. Saudi Arabia this week lumped Lebanon together with Hezbollah as parties that are hostile to it, breaking with a long-established policy that has drawn a line between them and raising concerns of further Saudi measures. Hariri flew to Saudi Arabia last Friday. The top Lebanese government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: Lebanon is heading toward asking foreign and Arab states to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to release Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. The official said Hariri was still Lebanon s prime minister, echoing other Lebanese government officials who say his resignation had not been received by Aoun, and his government therefore remained in place. The resignation of Hariri, a business tycoon whose family made its fortune in Saudi Arabia, happened at the same time as a wave of arrests of Saudi princes and businessmen accused of corruption by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The senior Lebanese politician close to Hariri said: When he went (to Saudi Arabia) he was asked to stay there and ordered to resign. They ordered him to read his resignation statement and he has been held under house arrest since. Two U.S. officials said the Saudis, led by Crown Prince Mohammed, had encouraged Hariri to leave office. The fourth source said: He is under controlled movement by the Saudis, limited movement. Hezbollah s parliamentary bloc said Saudi Arabia must halt its interference in Lebanese affairs. He made a one-day flying visit to the United Arab Emirates, a close Saudi ally, earlier this week before returning to Saudi Arabia. Hariri s office said in a statement he had received the French ambassador to Saudi Arabia at his Riyadh residence on Thursday. He had also met the head of the EU mission to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, and on Tuesday the British ambassador and the U.S. charge d affaires. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed U.S. Charge d Affaires Chris Henzel met with Hariri. Asked about reports Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia, Nauert declined to elaborate on his status or what was discussed, calling the talks sensitive, private, diplomatic conversations. Nauert indicated the United States would not treat the Lebanese government any differently as a result of the uncertainty over Hariri. Saudi Arabia warned its citizens on Thursday against travel to Lebanon and said those already there should leave. It has issued similar advice about Lebanon to its citizens before. Lebanon s Maronite patriarch will visit Saudi Arabia next week and has received a positive response from Saudi officials over the possibility of seeing Hariri, his spokesman said. Patriarch Beshara al-Rai s visit had been decided on a long time ago. In light of the developments, his mission has become national, Walid Ghayyad said. The patriarch will take a message to the kingdom that Lebanon cannot handle conflict. | 0 |
Donald Trump s pick for Communications Director took an already vulgar administration down another notch or 3,000 in an interview with the New Yorker. It sounded more like the ramblings of a low-level mob hitman than of a Harvard Law grad who s been tapped to manage the message of the supposed leader of the free world. Here are a few snippets (not suitable for most children, or for most adults):On Chief of Staff Reince Priebus: Reince Priebus if you want to leak something he ll be asked to resign very shortly. And Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.' On leakers: What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people. On Steve (whatever his job is) Bannon: I m not Steve Bannon, I m not trying to suck my own cock. The interview, which would have made Richard Nixon blush, was potentially more than just obscene. It may have been a felony. In talking about leaks (he wants to kill all the leakers), one quote got the attention of the FBI: This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, O.K.? Scaramucci said. Because I nailed these guys. I ve got digital fingerprints on everything they ve done through the F.B.I. and the fucking Department of Justice. Source: Daily BeastThere s just one problem. Scaramucci doesn t actually work for the White House yet. He has no security clearance. He isn t supposed to have any digital fingerprints or any information from the FBI or the fucking Department of Justice. If he does have that information, he s potentially in a lot of trouble. If an FBI agent turned over digital evidence demonstrating who did particular leaks, that would be wildly inappropriate, said Ken White, a former federal prosecutor who now practices criminal defense and first amendment litigation. It could be illegal. It could be a felony depending on the nature of the evidence and how it was acquired. It would certainly be a flagrant breach of FBI protocol. Of course, Scaramucci is a Trumpster, which means that as with any Trump marriage, he and truth likely sleep in separate bedrooms. Or, as White says, Scaramucci s claim is just dumbass popped-collar chest bumping, which describes pretty much the entire Trump fiasco of an administration.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images. | 1 |
Leaked documents from left-wing financier George Soros s Open Society Foundations continue to reveal the extent to which the group has influenced the political response to Europe s refugee crisis. Internal documents show OSF used $600,000 in reserve funding in March 2016 to bring pro-refugee positions into the political mainstream. Jordi Vaquer, OSF s regional director for Europe, approved a $600,000 proposal entitled, Countering the anti-migrant rhetoric and toxic narratives surrounding migration in Europe. According to OSF documents, half of the $600,000 would go towards lobbying efforts. All $600,000 came from OSF s Europe Reserve Fund. A summary of the proposal notes that the proposed reserve fund allocation will allow for additional resources to be allocated towards countering xenophobic attitudes in Europe, move parts of the political mainstream towards more pro-refugee positions, and build constituencies around a more progressive approach to migration and asylum. Read more: Daily Caller | 1 |
On the eve of the upcoming 2017 White House Correspondents Dinner, President Trump will be miles away from DC and from the lion s den of so-called reporters who would love nothing more than to destroy him at the event. President Trump has chosen instead to spend the evening connecting with the voters who shocked the nation when they overwhelmingly turned out for him on election day in the formerly blue state of Pennsylvania.Trump made the announcement on Twitter: Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it! Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2017Only 6 years ago, hundreds of leftist media hacks were doubled over in laughter while Barack Obama openly mocked Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents dinner.Little did the media at that White House Correspondents Dinner know, that the man they were so thrilled to see being mocked by our former Community Organizer in Chief would be our next President. They never dreamed that the man they were mocking while he sat defenseless that night would literally turn the once trusted media on its head. For the first time ever, Trump forced the media to play defense instead of assuming the offensive posture they d been used to taking against Republicans and conservatives for decades. Trump shamed them for using their publications and networks to promote the Democrat Party and their radical agenda, and America cheered.McKay Coppins of Buzzfeed wrote about the mistake Obama made that night when he brought the birther nonsense to a head which (according to her) overrode Obama s better judgment and led him to tear into Trump to his face:On the night of the dinner, Trump took his seat at the center of the ballroom, perfectly situated so that all 2,500 lawmakers, movie stars, journalists, and politicos in attendance could see him .But as soon as the plates were cleared and the program began, it became agonizingly clear that Trump was not royalty in this room: He was the court jester.The president used his speech to pummel Trump with one punchline after another When host Seth Meyers took the mic, he piled on with his own rat-a-tat of jokes, many of which seemed designed deliberately to inflame Trump s outer-borough insecurities: His whole life is models and gold leaf and marble columns, but he still sounds like a know-it-all down at the OTB. The longer the night went on, the more conspicuous Trump s glower became. He didn t offer a self-deprecating chuckle, or wave warmly at the cameras, or smile with the practiced good humor of the aristocrats and A-listers who know they must never allow themselves to appear threatened by a joke at their expense. Instead, Trump just sat there, stone-faced, stunned, simmering Carrie at the prom covered in pig s blood. Watch:Obama, of course, had his reasons for wanting petty vengeance over the birth certificate controversy, which he not-unreasonably regarded as racist. But he s also the prime example of a guy who has always been the coolest kid in the room ( I m LeBron, baby ), and the spectacle of him using the platform of an event originally designed for l se-majest to lock arms with a TV comic and gang-tackle Trump s ego to his face to the laughter of a crowd that Obama fit into and Trump didn t is one of the more graceless things he s done. His speechwriters, John Favreau and Jon Lovett, express some remorse now for having let the circus-like atmosphere goad them, and Obama, into it. One doubts that the president has any second thoughts; he rarely does.But what comes off clearly is that the WHCD has become just another vehicle for amplifying, rather than leavening, the presidential megaphone and the bitterness of our present politics, while widening the gulf between the DC cool kids and the rest of the country. It s a tradition that has outlived its usefulness, and should die. National ReviewObama used his last White House Correspondents dinner to joke about it possibly being perhaps the last White House Correspondents Dinner . It may have been the only thing he said that night that may actually turn out to be true. | 1 |
(Reuters) - Democrats claimed historic gains in Virginia’s statehouse and booted Republicans from state and local office across the United States on Tuesday, in the party’s first big wave of victories since Republican Donald Trump’s won the White House a year ago. Democrats must figure out how to turn that momentum to their advantage in November 2018 elections, when control of the U.S. Congress and scores of statehouses will be at stake. From coast to coast, Democratic victories showed grassroots resistance to Trump rallying the party’s base, while independent and conservative voters appeared frustrated with the unpopular Republican leadership in Washington. Democrats won this year’s races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, but successes in legislative and local races nationwide may have revealed more about where the party stands a year into Trump’s administration. Unexpectedly massive Democratic gains in Virginia’s statehouse surprised even the most optimistic party loyalists in a state that has trended Democratic in recent years but remains a top target for both parties in national elections. “This is beyond our wildest expectations, to be honest,” said Catherine Vaughan, co-founder of Flippable, one of several new startup progressive groups rebuilding the party at the grassroots level. With several races still too close to call, Democrats were close to flipping, or splitting, control of the Virginia House of Delegates, erasing overnight a two-to-one Republican majority. Democratic Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam also defeated Republican Ed Gillespie by nearly nine percentage points in what had seemed a closer contest for Virginia’s governor’s mansion, a year after Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state by five points in the presidential election. The losing candidate had employed Trump-style campaign tactics that highlighted divisive issues such as immigration, although the president did not join him on the campaign trail. In New Jersey, a Democratic presidential stronghold, voters replaced a two-term Republican governor with a Democrat and increased the party’s majorities in the state legislature. Democrats notched additional wins in a Washington state Senate race that gave the party full control of the state government and in Republican-controlled Georgia, where Democrats picked up three seats in special state legislative elections. “This was the first chance that the voters got to send a message to Donald Trump and they took advantage of it,” John Feehery, a Republican strategist in Washington, said by phone. The gains suggested to some election analysts that Democrats could retake the U.S. House of Representatives next year. Republicans control both the House and Senate along with the White House. Dave Wasserman, who analyzes U.S. House and statehouse races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, called the Virginia results a “tidal wave.” Even after Tuesday’s gains, however, Democrats are completely locked out of power in 26 state governments. Republicans control two-thirds of U.S. legislative chambers. Desperate to rebuild, national Democrats this year showed newfound interest in legislative contests and races even farther down the ballot. The Democratic National Committee successfully invested in mayoral races from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Manchester, New Hampshire. “If there is a lesson to be taken from yesterday, it is that we need to make sure that we are competing everywhere, because Democrats can win,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said on a media call. Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee executive director Jessica Post said national party leaders must remain focused on local races, even in a congressional year. “We don’t focus enough on the state level, and that is why we are in the place we are,” she said. “But when we do, we win.” | 0 |
LOME (Reuters) - Four people were killed in Togo on Wednesday in clashes between security forces and demonstrators calling for an end to a half century of Gnassingbe family rule, the security minister said. Opposition activists have been demonstrating since August against Gnassingbe s administration and say a constitutional reform he has proposed would allow him to rule the West African country until 2030. Colonel Damehame Yark, the security and civil protection minister, told a news conference that one person was shot dead and around sixty others arrested in the capital, Lome. Another three died of gunshot wounds in the second-biggest city, Sokode. These are too many deaths. We d be wise to preserve the peace, he said. The latest bout of protests followed the arrest in Sokode on Monday of a Muslim imam accused of urging his followers to murder soldiers. Clashes erupted after the arrest. A crowd killed two soldiers and one other person died in unspecified circumstances, the government said in a statement. About 20 other people were injured, it added. The deaths reignited a mass protest movement against President Faure Gnassingbe, who succeeded his late father Gnassingbe Eyadema in 2005. The protesters are calling for his resignation. We deplore this toll and we say that backing down is out of the question. Despite what we have suffered, we will maintain our call for protests tomorrow, said Brigitte Adjamagbo, one of the leaders of the opposition movement. She said the coalition was aware of two people killed, including an 11-year-old child, as well as twenty others who were seriously injured and dozens of arrests. In a bid to curb demonstrations, the government has banned marches and mass protests on weekdays. But young protesters in Be, a working-class neighborhood in eastern Lome, defied the ban on Wednesday. They erected barricades with bricks and burning tyres and threw stones at security forces, who responded with volleys of tear gas. This is our last bastion, shouted one demonstrator, Ayi Koffi. We have no arms, no gas. We do not have cars to pick up people. We have come out barehanded to say, enough! In a statement, the International Organisation of La Francophonie, a group comprised mainly of French-speaking countries including Paris s former colonies, said that nothing justified the violence. Dialogue must be prioritised in all circumstances, it said. The controversial constitutional reform will be decided by popular referendum after the bill failed to win approval from parliament following a boycott by opposition lawmakers last month. | 0 |
Political grandstanding has become a blood sport It s obvious that the CNN anchor set up the question so Dyson s answer could be to slaughter our president with his words shameful! Professor Dyson and Mitt Romney (who supports Antifa) are CLUELESS!Dyson: This man is lethally ignorant, incapable of even having a kindergartner s comprehension of race. For those who say look, the confederacy is about history and heritage, it is. The history and heritage of racism! The history and heritage of bigotry. Building their sense of biological and in many cases theological and national identity upon a lie, a mythology of white supremacy. The belief that some people are inherently superior and some people are inherently inferior.For the president then to defend the actions against taking down Robert E. Lee, or Stonewall Jackson remember, these people hated America enough to want the secede from it. The people that we claim, black lives matter, the antifa movement and so on, are interested in preserving the fabric of America. Mr. Miller says again, that there was violence there, but the problem is to equate that violence in reaction to the bigotry, with the bigotry itself is to misunderstand the fact that when you go to cancer treatment, the radiation is tough treatment, but it is meant to remove the cancer.So what he fails to understand and what the president especially fails to understand is that you are complicit with the worst currents of bigotry in this country when you try to draw a false equivalence between secessionists, racists and confederate defenders and bigots and Neo-Nazis and African-American and white people and others who have defended the rights of this nation to really seek a path of healing beyond the consternation we see now. That s the problem with this president, he ain t got the right moral vision, he doesn t have the right words to express that moral vision and he lacks an understanding of American history. This is the most illiterate, incompetent president in the history of this nation and it shows and it tells on him in the midst of this racial crisis where he is incapable of showing basic decent compassion for those who are vulnerable and who are victims of white supremacy in this country. DOES HE REALLY BELIEVE THE BULL SH*T HE SPEWS? IT S LIKE ONE BIG BOWL OF WORD SALAD HERE S ANTIFA IN ACTION: | 1 |
Does anyone else notice there are never a shortage of moderate Muslims watching these heinous acts committed by ISIS against the infidel? As soon as Obama gets back from campaigning around the world for his next job as UN Secretary General, and from fighting his dangerous war on global climate change, he should probably focus on the growing threat of radical Islam Images have emerged of a heavily-built executioner ramming a knife through the chest of a man deemed to have committed crimes against the caliphate .The victim, named by news agency ABNA as Abdulhadi Essa al-Salem, was stabbed in the heart before being shot in the head in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.Shocking photos, posted on Twitter by Syrian activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, show the victim then being crucified in public. Via: Express UK | 1 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has upended the presidential primaries this year by relying heavily on free air time and Twitter at the expense of local-ad buying, throwing into question estimates that the November presidential election could translate into $6 billion spent on TV advertising. Now, with no Trump TV ads scheduled going into the 11-state Super Tuesday primaries, some investors and analysts are growing increasingly concerned that Trump could continue with an advertising-light strategy built on bruising debate performances and large rallies - often shown on cable TV - even if he wins the Republican Party nomination. “For the broadcast industry, which has pinned its 2016 on local TV ad spend, you have to believe that someone who is pretty amazing at leveraging the power of social media would be a real problem for television,” said media analyst Rich Greenfield with New York-based equity firm BTIG Research. “I think Trump elevates that to a whole new level.” So far, some $10-million has been spent on advertising for Donald Trump, compared with $32 million for Hillary Clinton, $49 million for Marco Rubio, and almost $85 million for Jeb Bush, according to data from Ad Age. Bush dropped out of the Republican contest earlier this month after trailing badly. “I would be worried if I was a broadcaster if Trump won,” said media industry analyst Michael Nathanson with MoffettNathanson Research. Trump’s decision to steer clear of political action committees and use most of his own money makes it hard to assume that he will act like a traditional candidate, he said. The concern over Trump’s impact comes at a time when shares of many broadcasters who were counting on a strong political advertising market are hurting. So far this year, shares of Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc are down 23.9 percent, Gray Television Inc’s stock has fallen 29.2 percent, and shares of E.W. Scripps Co, which Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker had previously pegged as one of the most likely to benefit from political spending, are down 9.2 percent. Wells cut its outlook for Scripps on Monday. “It’s just not looking like the kind of environment that we were counting on,” said one prominent small-cap fund manager who says he has been selling shares of E.W. Scripps because of Trump’s candidacy. He did not want to give his name because his trades are not yet public. Broadcasters, like all media companies, have also been hurt by the growing trend of consumers canceling their cable subscriptions, a practice known as “cord cutting,” not to mention an economy that has been less than robust. To be sure, some analysts caution that it is still relatively early in the election cycle, and that Trump will likely pivot to a more advertising-heavy campaign should he become the Republican nominee, especially as he is likely to face a battery of TV ad attacks from Clinton, who is widely expected to be the Democrat candidate. Any pullback in spending on Trump’s part will likely be offset by spending to influence votes at state and local level on various measures that will be on the November ballot, as well as ad buys for other Congressional elections, said Tracy Young, an analyst at Evercore. The death earlier this month of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has made the key Senate races more important as the next Senate is likely to play a key role in who his successor will be. If New York businessman Michael Bloomberg or another prominent figure decides to stand as an independent or third-party candidate it could also drive total political spending higher. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has told his aides to draw up plans for an independent campaign for the U.S. presidency and has indicated he would be willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own money, a source familiar with the situation said last month. A total $3.8 billion was spent on all political TV advertising in 2012, the last presidential election year, according to research firm Kantar Media CMAG. Of that total, spending by the Obama and Romney campaigns and related advocacy groups was only $953 million. “We view the political season as a bonus we get every two years,” said Salvatore Muoio, whose firm, New York-based S Muoio & Co LLC, invests in a number of local broadcasters such as Tegna, Nextar and Media General, and is still bullish on the sector. Companies, meanwhile, are telling investors that they are not worried. A Trump nomination would not be “a negative effect because once it becomes a nationwide campaign post-convention, money will need to be spent to win,” Nexstar Broadcasting, which expects to bring in $100 million from political spending this cycle, told analysts on its earnings call last Wednesday. The Democrats and Republicans both hold their conventions in late July. Nexstar owns, operates or provides programming to 104 television stations reaching 62 markets across the country, including Florida, Texas, California and West Virginia. Steven Marks, co-chief operating officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has 164 stations stretching from Iowa to Ohio and Florida, told analysts Thursday that “I would suspect that if he’s the nominee, and this is just me thinking out loud, the RNC (Republican National Committee) is going to have no choice but to back him and the money will flow. The prize is too big.” Still, little of that money will likely come from Trump’s campaign itself, said Steve Passwaiter, business development lead at Kantar Media Intelligence. “This guy is the king of earned media,” Passwaiter said. “When every tweet you send out is posted on 3 billion websites you don’t have to spend a whole heck of a lot of money.” (Reporting by David Randall and Jessica Toonkel. Ediitng by Linda Stern and Martin Howell) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0 |
Let s just say that if you consider being white the best thing about yourself, you must live one sad, lonely, and pathetic life. One of these pathetic people apparently felt the need to create a whites only website to meet like-minded folk. And not just any website, a dating website.What is this dating website called? Where White People Meet, of course. Duh.Of course, they re not gonna just come out and say they re racist. They re just going to make the website, in the predominantly white state of Utah, and claim that it s just like any other dating website. Here s what it says in their About Us! section: We developed this dating website as an alternative to the other dating websites that cater to certain groups. We simply want to help people connect in a safe and fun online environment without costing them a ton of money. Enjoy! Except, who is it an alternative for? It looks as though, for just $4, it s an exclusive alternative for anti-gay white supremacists. It seems as though one can t search for a same-sex pairing, and the website doesn t state where it stands on polygamy.via WhereWhitePeopleMeet.com What s even more bizarre is the fact that they would advertise this whites only on billboards in Utah, a state that is 91.4 percent white. Is it really that hard to find other white singles in Utah? Chances are, if you run into a single person, they re going to be white. So, why bother, unless you just want to be a racist douchebag?West Valley billboard promotes Utah-based dating site geared toward white people: https://t.co/aiEKVRuMD8 pic.twitter.com/5PY1rs58pc Salt Lake Tribune (@sltrib) December 31, 2015Of course, the website states that it has nothing to do with racism: I am sure some of you are wondering about the concept and need for a dating website titled Where White People Meet.Com. Our answer to that would be why not? There are various dating websites that promote and cater to just about every origin, race, religion and lifestyle out there. So again, why not Where White People Meet.Com ? Basically, it s a don t forget white people exist, too website. Which is often code among white supremacists who feel they are being overrun by people born with more melanin in their skin. They have to make sure they are seen and heard. So, while they try to say things like: As you navigate the website and begin to interact with other members, please remember the golden rule of treat others as you want to be treated. The staff here at Where White People Meet will not tolerate rude, aggressive or racist behavior. The last thing we want it to have to remove a member of this community but please know that we will. They should be aware that creating a website in a nearly entirely white state to cater to only white people is pretty damn racist in and of itself. And while the NAACP has determined that it doesn t seem to be the work of a hate group, the whole thing just seems really weird and unnecessary. In fact, if this whole thing turned out to some satirical joke, it wouldn t at all be surprising. It s that weird.Featured image: WhereWhitePeopleMeet.com | 1 |
It s about time! The White House has been leaking like a sieve. New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci flatly said Sunday that he as going to fire all future leakers on his watch: We re as strong as our weakest leak A smug John Dickerson asked Scaramucci why President Donald Trump had tweeted a day earlier about his ability to grant pardons. Scaramucci said the leaks of that conversation and other leaks were unprofessional, injurious to the government, and possibly felonious. He s done absolutely nothing wrong. There s no need for him to pardon anybody, Scaramucci said. But he just doesn t like the fact that he has a two-minute conversation in the Oval Office or in his study, and then people are running out and leaking that. What happens to leakers on your watch? Dickerson asked. They re going to get fired, Scaramucci said.Scaramucci said he would hold a staff meeting on Monday and make it clear that anyone who wants to stay on will not leak private conversations to the press. We re as strong as our weakest leak, he said. So if you guys want to keep leaking, why don t you guys all get together and make a decision as a team that you re going to stop leaking. But if you re going to keep leaking, I m going to fire everybody. | 1 |
It s beginning. While some dismissed Donald Trump s campaign promises to ban Muslims from entering the country, dismantle our country s healthcare, build a giant goddamn motherfucking wall to keep brown people from entering the country, and every other horrific thing you can think of and more as just words he was using to get stupid people to vote for him, he meant every single one of them and he s been proving it.One of President Asterisk s first acts was an executive order that is the beginning of his efforts to dismantle Obamacare. He followed up by signing away our environment and authorizing the building of two controversial pipelines, stripping federal funds from international health organizations that so much as mention abortion (in an order conveniently following millions of women lining the streets to protest him). He then withdrew us from a major trade agreement without a single thought about the repercussions, began funneling our tax dollars into his stupid wall, ordered a weekly report on crimes committed by aliens and banned Muslims from seven countries he hates from entering the country.Trump even authorized the building of new camps in which undocumented immigrants could be concentrated for a limited time, of course until they could be deported (I feel like there s a term for these things, but I can t quite place it). The Washington Post reports: The presidential directives signed Wednesday aim to create more detention centers, add thousands of Border Patrol agents and withhold federal funds from what are known as sanctuary cities, which do not comply with federal immigration laws. One order calls for the immediate construction of a physical wall. In short, if you re a member of this group that Trump considers undesirable, you ll be sent to one of these camps and any city that might otherwise harbor you will face extreme penalties for doing so. We are going to restore the rule of law in the United States, Trump told a crowd of DHS employees Wednesday. Beginning today, the United States gets control of its borders. Trump also vowed to investigate alleged voter fraud in blue states particularly in urban (that s right-wing slang for black ) areas so he can prove once and forgodamnall that he actually won the popular vote, because he really is that petty.It hasn t even been a week since Trump took office and he has already made it clear that he has declared war on the American people. The question remains: just how much are we going to take of this bullshit?Make no mistake about it: people will die in Trump s camps and his supporters will applaud.This. Is. Not. OK.Featured image via Getty Images (Pool) | 1 |
Millennial propaganda tool for the Democrat Party, Buzzfeed news publication attempted to do a hit piece on Eric Trump. They claim that when Eric was giving his list of reasons his father chose to run for office, which included the insanity of the political correctness we see today, that he incorrectly stated the White House Christmas tree is called a Holiday Tree. But did he really misspeak?Buzzfeed never addressed the core of Eric Trump s comments, which were really about the ruin of our nation over political correctness. Instead, Buzzfeed chose to dissect one small part of what Eric Trump said about the White House Christmas tree, which, as it turns out, was actually mostly accurate.The White House Christmas tree was renamed the Holiday Tree in the 1990 s, Republican House Speaker Denny Hastert changed the name back to Christmas tree in 2005. This is the garbage young Americans are reading every day in their social media newsfeed. It s one of the primary reasons we see so many young people walking around in a stupor with Bernie Sanders or Hillary bumper stickers on their Prius .From Buzzfeed Eric Trump, listing off reasons his father is running for president, said in an interview this week that one of the motivations was the renaming of the White House Christmas tree to holiday tree. The tree placed on the White House lawn during the holiday season is still called the National Christmas Tree. He opens up the paper each morning and sees our nation s leaders giving a hundred billion dollars to Iran, or he opens the paper and some new school district has just eliminated the ability for its students to say the pledge of allegiance, or some fire department in some town is ordered by the mayor to no longer fly the American flag on the back of a fire truck, Trump told James Robison in an interview posted this week.Buzzfeed never questioned the validity of the ransom money our President covertly paid to Iran. They never questioned whether or not schools and local governments are attempting to eliminate the pledge of allegiance, so as not to offend immigrants or refugees. It s funny how they never suggested the story about the firemen being forced to remove the American flag from the back of their trucks was not 100% accurate. Nope just the accuracy of the Christmas tree comment Or he sees the tree on the White House lawn has been renamed Holiday tree instead of Christmas tree, continued Trump. I could go on and on for hours. Those are the very things that made my father run, and those are the very things he cares about. Chain emails that began when President Obama took office falsely claimed that tree had been renamed. A tree on Capitol Hill was briefly called a Holiday Tree in the 1990s, but the name was changed in 2005 at the direction of then-Speaker Dennis Hastert.Watch Eric Trump s awesome speech at the RNC, where he talks about why his dad is running and why he s the most qualified man in America to step in and assume the office of President of the United States: | 1 |
Donald Trump s coronation party has just kicked off, and it is not going well at all. The Colorado delegation, led by Free the Delegates founder Kendal Unruh, walked off the convention floor after the convention refused to give them a vote regarding a roll call vote and change the rules regarding the binding obligation to vote for Trump.And that s just the beginning. One top fundraiser for the RNC and the Trump campaign has had enough.Gary Emineth, who signed on in recent weeks to help the Republican Party get Trump elected, is done with the whole GOP circus. He was an unbound delegate, but he wanted to have the bound delegates be able to vote their conscience on the convention floor. Instead, Reince Priebus and the rest of the party brass refused to give these delegates a voice at all. Here is what Emineth had to say: I was on the Trump finance committee and I just resigned because that bully tactic is absurd. I just texted them right now. Why can t the people be heard? I ve been texting Reince for 10 minutes. He said we didn t have the votes. We had 10, 1l states. They peeled people back. They were calling delegations asking people to step off the committee. You don t do this in America. You do this in other countries. Despite the fact that the delegates had signatures from delegations of 11 states and followed the rules themselves to have a voice for the #NeverTrump movement, they were still denied the opportunity to speak. So, in other words, the Republican Party brass broke their own rules in their determination to crown Trump the official King of the GOP.Granted, the #NeverTrump people don t even have anyone to replace Trump even if their efforts were to succeed. It s the principle of the thing the party brass that fell in line behind the literal fascist that is now their standard-bearer and a danger to their nation have no principles, and they don t want to give a voice to those in their party who do.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1 |
Donald Trump has been raising a lot of eyebrows lately with his new and pathetic attempts to win over African American voters, despite the fact that he only has about 2 percent of the black vote as of right now. As usual, Trump s delivery has been nothing but problematic, because he s been giving his speeches to mostly-white crowds in mostly-white areas because he doesn t feel safe in urban neighborhoods. This sparked a conversation on CNN that erupted into a heated exchange of words between guests Charles Blow and Bruce LeVell.Don Lemon started the discussion by rolling a ridiculous clip of Trump claiming that he would be able to win 95 percent of the black vote after he serves four years in the White House. LeVell, who was representing the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, got into an argument with Blow so intense that Lemon could hardly contain it and the two men forced CNN to skip a commercial break.Many of the two guests jabs at each other were delivered in low voices but things got extra heated when Blow, a New York Times columnist, accurately called Trump out for being a bigot and then accused LeVell for supporting bigotry. LeVell responded by trying to place blame on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign by saying that they had purposely portrayed Trump to look like a bigot. This was all too much for Blow to handle. He erupted and laid into LeVell: I m not part of the Clinton campaign. I m a black man in America and I know a bigot when I see a bigot and you are supporting a bigot and that makes you part of the bigotry that s Donald Trump. LeVell fired back, I know someone who doesn t tell the truth on national TV when I see it, sir. Lemon eventually had to jump in and mediate, and was probably thankful that his guests hadn t been in the same studio for this discussion. You can watch the chaos unfold below:Featured image is a screenshot | 1 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it was fully committed to a Cold War-era pact with the United States banning intermediate-range cruise missiles, a day after Washington accused Moscow of violating the treaty. The U.S. State Department said on Friday Washington was reviewing military options, including new intermediate-range cruise missile systems, in response to what it said was Russia s ongoing violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The warning was the first response by President Donald Trump s administration to U.S. charges first leveled in 2014 that Russia had deployed a ground-launched cruise missile that breaches the pact s ban on testing and fielding missiles with ranges of 500-5,500 kms (310-3,417 miles). Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said those allegations were absolutely unfounded . They are not supported by the technical characteristics of the launch installation which allegedly does not comply with the treaty, or by flight telemetry data. Nothing. And it is understandable why - because it simply does not exist, he said in written comments published by the foreign ministry. Echoing previous Russian statements, Ryabkov said Moscow was fully committed to the treaty, had always rigorously complied with it, and was prepared to continue doing so. However, if the other side stops following it, we will be forced, as President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has already said, to respond in kind, he added. The U.S. allegation has further strained relations between Moscow and Washington, and the State Department on Friday hinted at possible economic sanctions over the issue. Washington has already sanctioned Russian entities and individuals, including people close to Putin, for Moscow s 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied interfering in the election. Ryabkov said the attempts to frighten us with sanctions were laughable. It s time for American politicians and diplomats to understand that economic and military pressure on Russia will not work, he said. (This version of the story has been refiled to clarify in paragraph 2 that it is U.S. administration, not State Department, reviewing military options) | 0 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian militant group Hasm claimed responsibility on Sunday for a small explosion at Myanmar s embassy in Cairo, saying it was in retaliation for that country s military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. Egypt s interior ministry has not commented on Saturday s blast, which residents and media initially reported as probably the result of a faulty gas pipeline. Two security sources told Reuters that traces of explosives had been found at the scene. This bombing serves as a warning to the embassy of murderers, killers of women and children in the Muslim Rakhine State, and in solidarity with the sons of this weakened Muslim population, Hasm said in its statement. It was the first time that Hasm, a group blamed for several attacks targeting judges and policemen around Cairo since last year, has claimed an attack on a civilian target. (We have used) utmost caution to ensure that there were no civilian casualties or innocent people (hurt) during the operation, or else you would have seen a burning hell you could not have stopped, Hasm said in the statement. Myanmar s government spokesman urged citizens abroad to be careful. Pls take care Myanmar nationals around the world, the spokesman, Zaw Htay, said on his Twitter feed. The latest wave of violence in western Myanmar s Rakhine State began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people. The Myanmar military response has sent more than 410,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, escaping what they and rights monitors say is a campaign aimed at driving the Muslim population out of the majority-Buddhist country. Egypt accuses Hasm of being a militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood denies this. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police have been killed fighting an Islamist insurgency in Sinai that has gained pace since mid-2013, when General-turned-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule. | 0 |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan s prime minister has vowed to make education and childcare a priority over balancing the budget after winning a new mandate from voters on Sunday, as a rapidly-ageing population threatens to undermine his efforts to reflate the economy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s ruling coalition scored a landslide victory at the polls, boosted by his campaign promises to invest more heavily on education and childcare, aimed partly at encouraging more women to join the workforce. Abe also made clear he would continue to press cautious Japanese firms to spend their record cash piles on boosting employees wages to stoke a virtuous growth cycle. With his Abenomics recipe centered on hyper-easy monetary policy likely to continue, Abe s solid election win also raised expectations he would reappoint Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda in early April when his five-year term expires. Abe's election victory lifted world stocks and the dollar on Monday, sending Japan's Nikkei share average .N225 to 21-year highs. The index ended up 1.1 percent at 21,696.65, up for a record 15th straight session. Abe swept to power in late 2012, pledging to pull Japan s economy, the world s third largest, out of nearly two decades of deflation and stagnation. The economy is recovering gradually but sluggish wage growth keeps consumer spending and inflation from accelerating, while corporations face labor shortages due to a low birth rate and fast-ageing population. The premier promised to offer free pre-school for all children aged three to five and for children aged two or below from low-income households. The key to Japan s sustainable growth is how we respond to ageing of the population, which is the biggest challenge for Abenomics, Abe told a news conference. We aim to exit deflation by accelerating wage growth through innovation on productivity. If free pre-school education is applied to all children now, it would cost 1.2 trillion yen ($10.54 billion), government estimates show. SMBC Nikko Securities estimates that free pre-school education would relieve households of a financial burden of around 1 trillion yen. If half the reduced cost is spent on consumption, that would push up real gross domestic product by 0.1 percent, the securities firm said. Furthermore, Abe has vowed to expand education benefits with the aim of offering free higher education for low-income households. Abe said he would go ahead with a planned sales tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent in 2019 and use some of the revenue to create a social security system for all generations , by diverting the funds to education instead of paying down public debt. The premier had earlier admitted that would make it impossible to meet the pledge to balance the primary budget excluding debt-servicing and new bond sales by the year ending March 2021. While Abe s plan to spend more on education and childcare has helped buoy stocks of some related companies such as JP-Holdings Inc that operates nursery schools, the specter of bigger spending raises concerns about looser fiscal discipline. Fiscal reform is a matter of urgency. Japan s public debt tops twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, making it the industrial world s heaviest debt burden. Nonetheless, Abe, who prioritizes growth, has pushed back the primary budget-balancing target without setting a new goal yet, while vowing to compile by the year-end an extra spending plan worth around 2 trillion for human capital investment. Simply boosting benefits for all generations means politically putting off the pain to future generations, which can be criticized as pork-barrel spending, said Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute. Diverting sales tax revenue could open the door to expanding fiscal spending further. In order to prevent fiscal discipline from slipping, Japan must continue efforts needed to restore public finances. | 0 |
Everyone is rightfully stunned and outraged that Donald Trump decided to inexplicably fire the man who was investigating his 2016 presidential campaign s ties to Russia, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey. People are (also rightfully) suggesting that this firing is all part of a cover-up an attempt to squash the Russia investigation. While there was likely nervousness related to the Russia investigation that went into this decision, there is a much more Trumpian reason for it, according to Politico: a Trump temper tantrum over the media s coverage of the criminal probe into the possibility of Trump/Russia collusion.Comey recently testified on Capitol Hill that there is an ongoing investigation into Russia s 2016 election meddling. Said probe includes the possibility that Trump campaign officials coordinated with the Russians in an attempt to tip the election to Trump. Of course, Trump was outraged at this public scrutiny, and his ego cannot take the idea that anything but his own supposed brilliance won him the election. From Politico:He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.So, there you have it. Trump was angry that Comey s testimony had brought the Russia story that refuses to go away back into the spotlight, and he was angry at his and his staff s inability to control it. Trump has reportedly been considering getting rid of Comey for roughly a week, which would mean that it was right around the time of Comey s Capitol Hill testimony that the easily agitated president put his FBI Director in the line of fire over Russia.This is nothing short of a Constitutional crisis. We have no choice but to DEMAND a 9/11-style independent commission on Russia, as well as a special prosecutor for this case. No one appointed by Trump ESPECIALLY Attorney General Jeff Sessions should be anywhere near this probe.This isn t partisan. This is about the soul of the republic, and we must get to the bottom of this, even as Trump continues to make Nixonian moves in fits of rage and attempts at cover-ups.Featured image via Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images | 1 |
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