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When looking at any Donald Trump event lately, it can almost be guaranteed that there will be some sort of protest. With his vitriolic and racist rhetoric, he s bound to have at least a few people stand up and say something. Now, with Trump getting closer and closer to being the clear Republican nominee, these protests are becoming even more frequent. And Trump always makes sure any dissenting voice is removed, because god forbid anyone disagree with what he has to say.In an effort to remove these protesters as fast and as peacefully as possible, the Trump campaign has been playing this announcement before every event: This is a peaceful rally. In order to notify the law enforcement officers of the location of the protester, please hold a rally sign over your head and start chanting, Trump. Trump. Trump. Ask the people around you to do likewise til the officer removes the protester. Thank you for helping us make America great again. Now, if you re like me and thought, no way, that can t be real, that has to be a voice over, because it s just too goddamn creepy. Well, upon further research, it is, in fact, true. According to NBC News, as of a couple of months ago, Trump began running this announcement at the beginning of his rallies. Attendees were instructed ahead of the event to not harm the protesters, an announcement that is becoming more frequent at the start of Trump s events.Audience members followed those rules as far as could be seen, cheering Trump and U-S-A until the interrupters were escorted out by event security and law enforcement. So, it seems this announcement is not only very real, but it is why we hear the Trump! Trump! USA! chants at every rally surrounding a protester using their freedom of speech to openly dissent.Check out the extraordinarily bizarre announcement here:An announcement before Trump s rally on how his supporters should deal with protestors. pic.twitter.com/WT4NqSbGI2 Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) February 29, 2016Featured image: Flickr
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Why would this actor go to a place where violence, crime and murders are a regular occurrence and believe they wouldn t jump at the opportunity to steal whatever he or his crew had that was of any value? Remember, these are people who are leaving their homeland because they were being persecuted, so their violent behavior should be ignored by their host country right? I mean, they ve been through so much already. Who could blame them for stealing from, and beating the a*ses of celebrities who come to help them?A security team guarding Jude Law was attacked by migrants as the Hollywood star visited the jungle camp in Calais.The 43-year-old actor was in France with a film crew and Brit-winning singer Tom Odell , 25, to witness the horrors of the squalid makeshift village, which is due to be demolished.But shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, their minders were ambushed by some of the migrants and had their phones stolen.It is understood Jude was already on the production team s bus when the thugs struck.For entire story: Mirror UK
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VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) A Vancouver man confronted a known panhandler recently near NE Andresen Rd. and NE Fourth Plain Blvd., after he saw the panhandler get into a newer Toyota pickup truck.Jimmy Severs works as a tattoo artist right across the street from where the panhandler sits. Severs said he became outraged when he saw the man get into the truck. Just to see somebody sitting out with a 2014, 2015 Toyota Tacoma holding a sign just imagine how much money that guy has made in the months of sitting there, that I ve personally seen him sitting there, Severs said.Severs posted his video to Facebook where it s been shared 1,000 times and has more than 43,000 views.
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The hypocrisy of the Hollywood elites who would hide the truth about a sexual predator is beyond the pale If I had a bucket list, I d say raising my four girls to be strong, good women would be number one. -Matt Damon, 2010 interviewReally Matt? What about the chance that you allegedly had in 2004 to save untold numbers of women from being victims of the disgusting Hollywood kingpin and billionaire Harvey Weinstein?Though the New York Times has been widely celebrated for its article exposing decades of sexual-harassment accusations against Harvey Weinstein, one journalist claims the paper sat on an earlier article detailing the producer s misconduct. Sharon Waxman, founder of the Wrap, writes that her own investigate reporting, which took her on an international trip to uncover rumors of Weinstein s sexual misconduct, was cut from the Times in 2004 under pressure from several Hollywood elites. Waxman alleges in the Wrap that Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her directly to dispel the reports she was following about Miramax s Italian head Fabrizio Lombardo, who was allegedly hired to take care of Weinstein s women needs. She says that because of their influence, and interference from Weinstein, whose company was a big advertiser in the Times, the article was edited to remove the more salacious details. Damon and Crowe had previously worked with Weinstein on pictures like Good Will Hunting, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Cinderella Man.Waxman claims that the gutted story could have exposed Weinstein much earlier. I had people on the record telling me Lombardo knew nothing about film, and others citing evenings he organized with Russian escorts, Waxman said. She also alleges that she tracked down an intern in London who had been paid off in a settlement with Weinstein. I was devastated after traveling to two countries and overcoming immense challenges to confirm at least part of the story that wound up running last week, more than a decade later, she writes. Vulture
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When asked why they might have booed, he speculated that it was because Glenn was a Democrat:He just moved on, said "maybe they'll come around." I think context was that Glenn was a democrat. Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 9, 2016Outspoken conservative and FOX News host Tucker Carlson confronted Kurt Eichenwald during his show. He touched on several subjects, but the one that sticks out the most, is the unfounded claim that Eichenwald made about Trump being in a mental hospital in 1999:Here s what the very liberal Washington Post had to say about Eichenwald s claim that Trump was in a mental hospital Kurt Eichenwald is an experienced investigative journalist, with a best-selling book to his credit and years of work at the New York Times, Vanity Fair and now Newsweek.There s no evidence that Trump was ever hospitalized for such a condition, and Eichenwald cited none.The tweet was quickly deleted from Eichenwald s account, though not before it received hundreds of retweets and likes, spreading it far and wide across the Twittersphere.After quite a bit of back and forth with the clearly embarrassed Newsweek Senior writer, Carlson finally let Eichenwald have it: You re entirely entitled to your opinion, my only point is that t you should label yourself as you are which is an advocate. https://youtu.be/wJCuUu_1TNsFor the record, this is the image Eichenwald uses as his profile picture on Twitter:Seriously? Is everything about this clown fake? Even his picture looks fake. It s time to drain the swamp of these arrogant journalists promoting fake news stories for mainstream sources who are attempting to label all conservative news sources as fake.
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21st Century Wire says Back in August 2013, United Nations investigators led by Carla Del Ponte found evidence that alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian military were actually staged by US, Saudi and Qatari-backed jihadist rebels. By definition, this was a false flag attack. Regardless of the facts, western media and political leaders still decided to blame Damascus for the incident. The object of this game was simple: to engineer a virtual violation of Obama s famous Red Line, providing the legal pretext, however spurious, for the use of Western military force against the nation state of Syria under the guise of the great 21st century western military intervention tactic known as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This video was uploaded by Storm Clouds Gathering on Sept 3, 2013, and it demonstrated how when the entire mainstream media is going one way pushing a fraudulent event for the purposes of generating a new war alternative media outlets were reporting the truth. History is on the side of alternative media, not for the likes of CNN, ABC, NBC, BBC and Al Jazeera. That was the week when everyone in the west thought that the US-led military action against Syria was a fait accompli. Thanks to a brief wave of sanity which swept through the British Parliament, the US could not proceed forward without appearing Hilteresque themselves. Despite all the hype and all the mainstream media fake news, Washington and London s official conspiracy theory was that Assad crossed a red line by using sarin gas against his own people. Here is a timely analysis, one with a wider geopolitical scope, delivered by Aaron Hawkins founder of Storm Clouds Gathering. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans passed a measure on Thursday that would permanently repeal Obamacare’s so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-provided insurance without a single Democratic vote amid a broader debate to repeal the healthcare law. The measure passed along party lines by a 52-48 vote. To become law, it will need to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
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ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Aid officials in Iraq said they were gravely concerned about the fate of about 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State militants relocated by Iraqi authorities, who did not warn aid organizations. The families had been held by Iraqi authorities since Aug. 30 in the Hammam al-Alil transit camp, south of Mosul. We are gravely concerned about these families, said Melany Markham, spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Iraq. The NRC is one of several aid groups that have provided humanitarian services to the families. We weren t informed where the families would be taken to, and we don t know if they will have access to assistance and protection, Markham said. They are a very vulnerable population. None of the aid groups supporting the families, including the United Nations, were given advanced warning by Iraqi officials about the move, according to Markham. The families were moved to Tal Keif, a town north of Mosul, an Iraqi police intelligence source confirmed. They are being housed in buildings rather than camp sites, under the supervision of Iraqi police officers. During a visit to the Hammam al-Alil camp earlier this week, several women told Reuters that they were terrified of leaving the camp and being taken under the exclusive control of Iraqi forces. A young Chechen mother told Reuters she feared the Iraqi special forces would rape or forcibly disappear her for her ties Islamic State if she were to be moved from the camp with her son. Photographs provided by the NRC and taken after the relocation showed the large tents at the camp were completely empty. Personal belongings, including children s toys and shoes, were left strewn across several tents. On Wednesday, Reuters reporters saw a group of coaches arrive at the camp, in what aid workers said was an initial attempt to remove the women. The buses ultimately left empty. More than 300 of the families came from Turkey, though many others came from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, according to the Iraqi army. Most of the families had fled to Tal Afar after Iraqi troops pushed Islamic State out of Mosul. Iraqi forces retook Tal Afar, a city of predominantly ethnic Turkmen that produced some of Islamic State s senior commanders, last month. It is the largest group of foreigners linked to Islamic State to be held by Iraqi forces since they began driving the militants from Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq last year, an aid official said. Thousands of foreigners have been fighting for Islamic State, or Daesh, in Iraq and Syria.
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Even if Illinois’ House of Representatives takes action to enact a new budget on Thursday, the state still risks a downgrade in its credit rating to junk, Moody’s Investors Service warned on Wednesday. The Democratic-controlled House on Thursday will attempt to overturn Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s vetoes of spending and tax increase measures aimed at ending the state’s unprecedented two-year budget impasse. Moody’s said it placed Illinois’ Baa3 rating, which is one step above the junk level, on review for a possible downgrade. The $36 billion fiscal 2018 budget and $5 billion income tax increase passed by lawmakers over the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, may fall short in addressing the state’s financial woes, particularly its huge unfunded pension liability and $15 billion unpaid bill backlog, according to Moody’s. “On both those fronts, it’s not yet clear if the legislation being enacted will have a substantial and clear positive effect,” said Moody’s analyst Ted Hampton. A stalemate between the Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature has left the nation’s fifth-largest state without a complete budget for two-straight fiscal years. Since fiscal 2018 began on Saturday, the House and Senate in bipartisan votes passed budget bills to avoid Illinois becoming the first-ever U.S. state whose credit is rated junk. Rauner vetoed the bills on Tuesday only to have that action quickly overridden by the Senate, leaving the fate of the budget in the hands of the House. Prior to Moody’s announcement, Rauner said his Democratic opponents should prioritize the opinions of Illinois residents over credit ratings agencies. “Don’t listen to some Wall Street firm,” Rauner told reporters Wednesday at a Chicago event. “That’s not what matters.” The governor also said he is working to sustain his vetoes. “I can tell you this, we are doing everything we can to push that my veto is not overridden,” he said. He lashed out at those who defied his wishes by voting for the Democrats’ budget package, including 15 House Republicans. “What we have is a continuing failure by elected officials in Springfield on both sides of the aisle that’s been led by Speaker Madigan for 35 years,” Rauner said, referring to House Speaker Michael Madigan. “The system is broken.” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin told Reuters that he and Rauner are attempting to persuade House Republicans supporters of the Democratic tax hike to reconsider their votes because “there’s a better deal to be had.” But Durkin stopped short of predicting the overrides could be blocked. “I think the Democrats, if they want to get it done, find the votes,” Durkin said. “I’ve seen this before.” Durkin said he had no plans to take punitive actions against those Republicans for their votes, but predicted “it’s definitely a possibility” some will face primary challenges from the Republican Party’s anti-tax wing in the 2018 elections. Illinois has relied on court-ordered and state-mandated spending to keep operating. The absence of a fiscal 2018 budget shuttered major transportation projects and forced the state out of the lucrative Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries.
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In a perfect world, there would be extraordinarily qualified presidential candidates coming from both sides of the aisle. We d have a battle of the minds. Those who differed in matters of political opinion and policy approach, but all respectable choices. Alas, we don t live in a perfect world. Currently, the United States has one major political party with two very respectable candidates, either of which would make a fine choice as Commander-in-Chief, varying only in strategy, but not terribly in ideology. The other major political party is basically made up of rejects from their high school student council who grew up and couldn t get into leadership roles within their home owner s association, so they decided to go in to politics. To be blunt, there is NO good choice for president running for the Republicans. They all make shit up as they go along.Case in point: Ben Carson.When asked a question regarding Christian values as compared to the social values of Republicans, and how they really don t go together, Carson replied: My stance is that, we the people have the responsibility to take care of the indigent in our society. It s not the government s job. You can read the constitution all you want, it never says that it is the government s job and I think where we ve gotten confused. In the old days of America when communities were separated by hundreds of miles, why were they able to thrive? Because if it was harvest time and the farmer was up in the tree picking apples and fell down and broke his leg, everybody pitched in and harvested his crops for him. If somebody got killed by a bear, everybody took care of their family. Who the hell is getting killed by a bear? Where the hell are they living? And is it a bear, such as one you d find in the forest, or one you d find in the Castro. These are all questions we d like to have answered. Don t leave us hanging like this, Ben. Sure, he s talking about the old days, but how far back are we going? If we re talking about the days when the nation was founded, well, we re not exactly living in the same sort of society with the same needs, and we now have different resources available.Carson s broader point seems to be, we don t need government if we can take care of ourselves and our communities. However, the nation is composed of many different types of communities that are all represented in this thing we call government. Which is an organizational structure in this little thing we like to call, civilization. Without which, we would slip into chaos and despair in what some would call Social Darwinism. So, while Carson s story is sweet, and weird, but actually kind of scary, the everybody that took care of the family is the community structure. Carson actually makes a very good argument for liberals, and especially Hillary Clinton s it takes a village argument.Anyway, watching Carson talk about a bear attack is very entertaining, and you ll likely watch it at least five times. So, enjoy! When asked about social values, Ben Carson reflects on ye olde times, when bear attacks were the norm. pic.twitter.com/eOZH4mR1Jz Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 18, 2016Video/Featured image from Twitter/Wikimedia
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DEMOCRATS Making free and fair elections impossible in America. Hmmm I wonder why Obama, Hillary and Bernie are fighting so hard to keep our borders open? According to a new report from The Extract, illegal immigrants in the United States in 2012 were sent to states with lax voter identification laws and told that they would be deported if they didn t vote Democrat.From the report:Report: Illegals Told to Vote Democrat or Face DeportationDocumentarian Jo Anne Livingston has been working with her husband, Luke, to take a comprehensive look at the ongoing border crisis as experienced by the illegals themselves. After numerous interviews, she recently reported a number of astounding revelations that only confirm some long-held suspicions among conservatives.Most notably, she indicated that witness after witness after witness asserted that they were given voter registrations prior to the 2012 election and sent to states without voter identification laws.Upon receiving the instruction, Livingston explained, they were informed that unless they show up and vote the democratic [sic] ticket, they would be arrested and deported. Another shocking allegation revolves around proposed legislation she reportedly accessed during research for the documentary. If passed, she noted that immigration judges would have their hands effectively tied when addressing the overwhelming problem of illegals skipping their court date. Via: Progressives Today
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PARIS (Reuters) - A grenade thrown at French soldiers wounded three civilians in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou shortly before the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron, Radio France International reported on Tuesday. The grenade was thrown late on Monday, just hours before Macron was due to speak before a university audience at Ouagadougou, the radio station, citing security sources, said. Two hooded individuals threw the grenade from a motorbike before fleeing the scene, the radio said. There was no immediate comment of the incident at Macron s office. Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to address an EU-Africa summit in Abidjan this week, focusing on education, investment in youth and economic development to prevent refugees and economic migrants from attempting the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean.
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SHARE this link with everyone you know. EVERY American should see this movie before they vote! The weekend Clinton Cash global release, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA, will set the tone for Hillary Clinton s nomination. MSNBC calls the movie devastating for presumptive Democratic nominee and says it powerfully connects the dots. CLICK HERE To get signed up to watch CLINTON CASH online for FREE this weekend!Via: Breitbart News
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz often tells supporters about his Supreme Court win against the federal government in 2008, defending Texas’ right to execute a Mexican man for murder, as evidence of his conservative and anti-establishment credentials. But there is one part of the story that goes untold. The Medellin v. Texas case, decided when Cruz was the state’s solicitor general, set the stage for years of diplomatic tension between the United States and its southern neighbor. Mexico has publicly protested U.S. executions of its citizens over the years, but interviews with diplomats and reviews of official Mexican government communiqués reveal that the turmoil caused by the Medellin case ran deeper, coming up at nearly every meeting between the United States and Mexico and leading to an official protest to the United Nations Security Council in 2014. Given the level of frustration, Cruz’s role in the court battle raises questions about U.S.-Mexico relations if he were to beat billionaire Donald Trump to the Republican nomination and win the U.S. presidential election in November. “I think relations would be complicated with a President Cruz,” said Sergio Alcocer, who was Mexico’s deputy foreign minister responsible for North America between 2012-2015. Alcocer praised Cruz as intelligent and pragmatic but said the senator was too inflexible on issues like immigration and the death penalty. “Cruz takes certain positions that are very clearly defined. And he’s much more conservative, much more dogmatic than Trump,” Alcocer said. A Cruz campaign official did not respond to requests for comment. In Mexico City, a foreign ministry spokesman said Mexico had no preference among the U.S. presidential candidates and would not comment on the election. In the Medellin case, Cruz defended the death sentence a Texas court imposed on Mexican citizen Jose Ernesto Medellin after he was convicted in 1994 for his role in the gang rape and strangling of two teenage girls in a Houston park. In 2004, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations ruled that Texas and other states had violated the Vienna Convention by failing to notify Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row of their right to contact the Mexican consulate after arrest. President George W. Bush ordered Texas and other states to review the sentences. Cruz argued that, while the United States had submitted to the international court’s decisions, the White House could not implement an international agreement that required states to change their court procedures without action by Congress. The Supreme Court agreed in a 6-3 decision. Winning the case raised Cruz’s profile in conservative circles. He has recently said he would appoint justices who would narrowly interpret the Constitution - as he did in the Medellin case - a crucial talking point in the election following the death of Supreme Court conservative icon Antonin Scalia. “It was an unusual thing at the time for the state of Texas to be standing up against the president of the United States in front of the Supreme Court, particularly when that president was a Texan and a Republican and the former governor of this state,” Cruz told cheering supporters at a Houston rally in February, one of the many times he has brought up the case. The Supreme Court ruling removed a potential legal barrier to three more executions of Mexican nationals in Texas who had been part of the same international court case as Medellin, even as U.S. allies such as the European Union and Switzerland criticized what they saw as ongoing treaty violations. Mexico pressed U.S. officials and Congress to follow the international court’s directive and require states to review death sentences where people had been denied consular access. “The issue came up as one of the top few issues (Mexico) raised in almost every bilateral meeting we had,” said Harold Hongju Koh, who was legal adviser to the U.S. State Department from 2009-2013. Alcocer, the former Mexican deputy foreign minister, confirmed the issue of consular access was raised during negotiations on other cross-border issues like the extradition of criminals. “It’s not resolved, and it’s something that Mexico needs to keep insisting on,” he said in an interview. Mexican officials said both the Bush and Obama administrations had been open to working on the issue. U.S. State Department officials supported consular-access legislation introduced in the Senate, but that was not enough to spur Congress to resolve the issue. Texas executed Medellin in August 2008, five months after the Supreme Court decision, drawing swift criticism from the United Nations court. Three years later, as Texas prepared to execute another Mexican national who had not received consular access, Mexico’s then-ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the action would “seriously jeopardize” cooperation on a range of issues. “It serves neither the United States nor the Mexico-U.S. relationship if the U.S. cannot live up to its treaty obligations,” said the letter, which was reviewed by Reuters. In 2013, Mexico warned Washington in another letter that the executions of Mexican nationals who had been denied consular access would mean “our whole forward-looking bilateral engagement could be questioned.” A year later the government wrote to the president of the United Nations’ Security Council expressing indignation over the executions of Mexican citizens in violation of the international court directive. Sarukhan, the former Mexican ambassador, said Mexico had few options to put pressure on the United States without harming cooperation in other areas. “March 31st marks now 12 years since the decision was rendered and the United States is yet to comply with its international obligations,” the government said in a statement, responding to Reuters questions about the Medellin case and Cruz’s involvement in it. Critics of the Medellin ruling, and Cruz’s boasts about it, say Texas could have simply reviewed the sentences as the international court had asked. “Texas could have provided that remedy 20 times over in the time that it took to litigate that case up and down through the Texas courts and the Supreme Court,” said Sandra Babcock, a law professor at Cornell University who was one of Medellin’s attorneys. “The long-term damage, the reputational damage to the United States is still ongoing.” But Cruz’s supporters dismiss such criticism. His job as solicitor general was to defend Texas, not to worry about the international implications, they say. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a former attorney general who was Cruz’s boss at the time of the Medellin case, introduced the presidential hopeful at the February rally in Houston. “He fought against the United Nations, the world court and the United States of America itself to defend Texas’ sovereignty,” Abbott said to cheers.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are refusing to endorse a Republican move to find out who paid the firm that commissioned a dossier alleging ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, a court document made public on Monday showed. The split was the latest sign of partisan feuding that current and former U.S. officials say is undercutting a House Intelligence Committee probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Republicans on the committee earlier this month subpoenaed an unidentified bank for the last two years of records of the accounts of Fusion GPS, the political research firm that hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to pull together the dossier on Trump. The move was an apparent effort to find out who had paid for the work that led to the dossier. The firm assures its clients it will not disclose their identities. A source familiar with the situation said the law firm Perkins Coie had retained Fusion GPS on behalf of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. “To aid in its representation of the Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie retained Fusion GPS, entering into an engagement for research services that began in April 2016 and concluded before the election in early November,” the source said. Perkins Coie’s involvement in paying for the research was first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday. Last week, Fusion GPS sued the unnamed bank in federal court in Washington, requesting a court order to block the subpoena. In a Monday night court filing, lawyers for the House, saying they represented the Intelligence Committee, asked the court to reject Fusion’s request. The legal challenge was made without support from Democrats, throwing into further question a tradition of bipartisanship in Congress on intelligence issues. Democrats, who are in the minority, and some Republicans on the House panel, want to investigate Russia’s role in the 2016 election, as well as allegations that Trump’s team colluded with the Kremlin. Moscow has denied meddling in the election and Trump has denied collusion. Representative Devin Nunes, the Intelligence Committee’s Republican chairman, and his allies have focused instead on other issues, including the activities of Fusion GPS. Some Republicans, including Senator Charles Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, have charged that Fusion GPS took Russian money while compiling the dossier on Trump. “Domestic American clients paid for Fusion GPS to research Donald Trump, period. No Russian was involved, in any way, in the payment to Fusion GPS for this work,” Joshua Levy, an outside attorney for the firm, said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday. A footnote in Monday’s court filing said that House lawyers went to court to enforce the subpoena with the authorization of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the entire House. But it added that the House’s “Democratic Leader and Democratic Whip decline to support the Group’s position in this case.” Representative Nancy Pelosi is the House Democratic leader, and Representative Steny Hoyer is the Democratic whip. The top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, was not immediately available for comment. In their court filing, the House lawyers argued that Fusion GPS had no right to quash a valid congressional subpoena. “The relief Plaintiff seeks is extraordinary and would directly impede an ongoing congressional investigation of the highest national importance,” they wrote in the filing. The filing confirmed that Nunes retained control of the committee’s Russia probe, despite saying in April he would step aside and let fellow Republican Representative Mike Conaway take charge. Nunes “did not ‘recuse’ himself from the investigation,” the document said.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday described U.S.-backed militias in eastern Syria as traitors , his office said in an online statement. In a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin at Syria s Hmeimim base, Assad also welcomed a United Nations role in Syrian elections as long as it was linked with Syria s sovereignty, his office cited him as saying. Assad has repeatedly vowed to take back all of Syria. A U.S.-led international coalition against Islamic State has given military support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias that now controls nearly a quarter of Syria. The SDF said Assad s comments were no surprise, accusing his government of sowing strife and sectarianism. We assert once again that we will go forward without hesitation in chasing terrorism, it said in a statement. This regime ... is itself a definition of treachery that, if Syrians do not confront it, will lead to partitioning the country, which our forces will not allow in any form, the Kurdish-led SDF added. Rogozin was quoted by Russia s RIA news agency as saying after the meeting with Assad that Russia would be the only country to take part in rebuilding Syrian energy facilities.
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THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic will appeal his conviction and life sentence, his legal team said on Wednesday after a U.N. war crimes tribunal found him guilty of genocide. It is certain we will file an appeal and the appeal will be successful, attorney Dragan Ivetic told journalists.
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Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) pummeled the Republicans for their xenophobia and racism following calls to create Muslim patrols in the United States in response to the terror attack in Brussels. Takono, whose parents were interned in concentration camps by the United States during World War II, said: Responding to Brussels [terror attacks] by advocating for patrols of Muslim neighborhoods or suggesting that we torture our enemies is not only counterproductive, it violates the moral code that separates us from our enemies. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktJsrBrUIBw]Takano compared today s Islamophobia with the way his own family as well as over 100,000 Japanese Americans were treated in the U.S. during World War II when they were singled out and relocated to concentration camps for simply being Japanese. Takono said:Seventy years ago, my parents and grandparents were held prisoner during World War II without trial and without a reason other than their Japanese heritage. In that moment, no one was willing to speak up for them. We cannot ignore the lessons of history. Takono was responding to Republican calls to target Muslim communities in the wake of the Brussels attacks. Senator and presidential contender Ted Cruz has called for draconian measures including Muslim patrols. He said: We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. Not to be outdone, Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump also called for targeting Muslims. He echoed Ted Cruz s calls to patrol Muslim communities and he also advocated for the use of torture.Takono s impassioned speech should be a wakeup call for Republicans, whose divisive rhetoric and Islamophobia will divide Americans rather than unite it and make it safer. Featured image via video screenshot.
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WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) - Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday after President Donald Trump halted the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, sources at Cairo airport said. The passengers, arriving in transit to Cairo airport, were stopped and re-directed to flights headed for their home countries despite holding valid visas, the sources said. Trump on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries, saying the moves would help protect Americans from terrorist attacks. He said his most sweeping use of his presidential powers since taking office a week ago, barring travelers from the seven nations for at least 90 days, would give his administration time to develop more stringent screening procedures for refugees, immigrants and visitors. “I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don’t want them here,” Trump said earlier on Friday at the Pentagon. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people,” he said. The bans, though temporary, took effect immediately, causing havoc and confusion for would-be travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Besides Cairo it was not immediately clear whether other airports of countries listed by Trump had swiftly implemented the ban. Arab officials of the listed countries would not comment on the matter. The order seeks to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution, a move Trump separately said was aimed at helping Christians in Syria. That led some legal experts to question whether the order was constitutional. One group said it would announce a court challenge on Monday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the order targets Muslims because of their faith, contravening the U.S. Constitutional right to freedom of religion. “President Trump has cloaked what is a discriminatory ban against nationals of Muslim countries under the banner of national security,” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Trump has long pledged to take this kind of action, making it a prominent feature of his campaign for the Nov. 8 election. But people who work with Muslim immigrants and refugees were scrambling to determine the scope of the order. Even legal permanent residents - people with “green cards” allowing them to live and work in the United States - were being advised to consult immigration lawyers before traveling outside the country, or trying to return, according to Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group in Washington. On Friday evening, Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said he had fielded about 100 queries from people anxious about the order, which he said he believed could affect traveling green card holders, students, people coming to the United States for medical care and others. “It’s chaos,” Ayoub said. During his campaign, Trump tapped into American fears about Islamic State militants and the flood of migrants into Europe from Syria’s civil war, saying refugees could be a “Trojan horse” that allowed attackers to enter the United States. In December 2015, he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, drawing fire for suggesting a religious test for immigrants that critics said would violate the U.S. Constitution. His idea later evolved into a proposal for “extreme vetting.” Trump’s order also suspends the Syrian refugee program until further notice, and will eventually give priority to minority religious groups fleeing persecution. Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that the exception would help Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there. Legal experts were divided on whether this order would be constitutional. “If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution,” said Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration. But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump’s action would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions. “It’s a completely plausible prioritization, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted,” Spiro said. The order may also affect special refugee programs for Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government as translators after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is already affecting refugees and their families, said Jen Smyers of the Church World Service, a Protestant faith-based group that works with migrants. Smyers said she spoke to an Iraqi mother whose twin daughters remain in Iraq due to processing delays. “Those two 18-year-old daughters won’t be able to join their mother in the U.S.,” she said. Democrats on Friday were quick to condemn Trump’s order as un-American, saying it would tarnish the reputation of the United States as a land that welcomes immigrants. “Today’s executive order from President Trump is more about extreme xenophobia than extreme vetting,” said Democratic Senator Edward Markey in a statement. Some Republicans praised the move. Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, said Islamic State has threatened to use the U.S. immigration system, making it important to do more screening. “I am pleased that President Trump is using the tools granted to him by Congress and the power granted by the Constitution to help keep America safe and ensure we know who is entering the United States,” Goodlatte said in a statement. Without naming Trump, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday it was no time to build walls between nations and criticized steps towards cancelling world trade agreements. Trump on Wednesday ordered the construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall, a major promise during his election campaign, as part of a package of measures to curb illegal immigration. “Today is not the time to erect walls between nations. They have forgotten that the Berlin wall fell years ago,” Rouhani said in a speech carried live on Iranian state television. He made no direct reference to Trump’s order regarding refugees and travelers from the seven mainly Muslim states. Rouhani, a pragmatist elected in 2013, thawed Iran’s relations with world powers after years of confrontation and engineered its 2015 deal with them under which it curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions. Rouhani said earlier this month that Trump could not unilaterally cancel the nuclear deal and that talk of renegotiating it was “meaningless”. France and Germany voiced disquiet on Saturday over Trump’s new restrictions on immigration. “Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at a joint news conference with German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel. “The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbor is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people,” said Gabriel. “I think that is what unites us in the West, and I think that is what we want to make clear to the Americans.”
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This Facebook user s comment about Donald Duck is in reference to new video that was just released today by Project Veritas, showing direct collision with Hillary Clinton and underground Dem group who admits to committing massive voter fraud: While you re at it Hillary, you may want to look into an assisted living arrangement. We re pretty sure neither one of you are in any shape to be without constant medical supervision
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is “extremely concerned” about a security breach at the CIA that led to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks publishing agency documents on its hacking tools, the White House said on Wednesday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing that the Trump administration intends to be tough on leakers. “Anybody who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law. We will go after people who leak classified information. We will prosecute them to the full extent of the law,” he said.
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Hillary Clinton has just launched the first ad directly aimed at Donald Trump s campaign. The ad is all about New York, in time for the April 19 Democratic primary there, but uses the opportunity to criticize the current Republican frontrunner on his home territory.The 30-second TV spot that will begin airing ahead of the April 19 primary a Clinton spokesman said the timing of the ad launch in the expensive New York media market was still to be determined uses grainy footage from a Trump rally earlier this month were a white supporter sucker-punches an African-American protester. When some say we can solve America s problems by building walls, banning people based on their religion, and turning against each other, well, this is New York. And we know better, Clinton says while the camera pans over a sign advertising a new Trump hotel that is coming 2016. In the ad, Clinton also talks up the diversity of New York, themes that she has used in her campaign and a nod towards the diverse coalition of voters that delivered two presidential terms to President Obama: No, we don t all look the same. We don t all sound the same, either. But when we pull together, we do the biggest things in the world. The ad then cuts to time-lapse footage of the newly built Freedom Tower in downtown Manhattan, which was built on the site of the former World Trade Center.The ad follows a campaign event in Wisconsin where Clinton took on Trump s habit of inciting violence and hate at his rallies. She noted, What Donald Trump has been doing over these last months is inciting violent behavior, aggressive behavior that I think is very dangerous and has resulted in attacks on people at his events, including this charge that was brought against his campaign manager. The most recent polling in New York have Clinton ahead of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders by an average of 34.5 percent. She is currently ahead of Trump nationally by an average of 11.5 percent. In 2012, President Obama beat Republican nominee Mitt Romney by 28 percent in New York.Featured image via YouTube
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Donald Trump can be a stickler for things that seem to be weighted to benefit the other guy so to speak, and his stand on an upcoming debate between him an Hillary is no different.He recently told CNBC over a phone interview, I think we should have a debate with no moderator, just Hillary and I sitting there talking. Trump came up with this idea a week after a candidate forum last week in New York City with Matt Lauer left many Clinton supporters angry with host network NBC. Lauer thoroughly grilled Hillary about her e-mail scandal and he was roasted by Democrats nationwide for it, even though it is an important point to the Presidency. If one can not run her emails correctly then how can one run this country?But in the true fashion of Trump it appears that he would like a fair and level playing field for BOTH parties at the first debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, LI. The debate will be moderated by Lauer s NBC colleague Lester Holt, and Trump would rather simply sit with Hillary and debate amongst only each other.No loaded questions, no moderator attacks, no chance of anyone planting any type of false or inflammatory rhetoric to sway the people with falsehoods or one-sided political points. Instead Trump wants to simply let the people listen to two adults discussing the real issues and then choose for themselves who they would prefer based on that alone. Sounds like the perfect debate setting to me.Trump said, The fact is, they are gaming the system, and I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate. I think the system is being rigged, so it s going to be a very unfair debate.He is probably correct. Call us all a basket of deplorable conspiracy nuts but we have been proven right time and time again throughout this campaign and it will not be surprising for it to happen again.On another note , Trump recently made a surprise and low-key appearance at a nonprofit event in New York City. He stopped in very briefly at the BGC Partners Charity Day on Monday. He was invited by Danny Lavecchia, a member of Trump s golf course in New Jersey and a managing partner of the brokerage, which used to be part of Cantor Fitzgerald. He purely came here to raise money for charity, as a friend of mine, Lavecchia, a Clinton donor, said. Lavecchia said he fully intends to vote for Trump, and will now be asking for Clinton to return his $2,700 donation.H/T [ NY Post ]
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(Reuters) - Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump resumed holding meetings at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following the Christmas holiday as he prepared to take over the White House from Democrat Barack Obama on Jan. 20. Below is a list of meetings for Wednesday, according to Trump’s transition team. *Co-CEO, founder and director of Carlyle Group * CEO of Marvel Entertainment, a unit of Walt Disney Co * Co-owner of Runway Vineyards * Under consideration for agriculture secretary * Former U.S. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety under President George W. Bush * Under consideration for agriculture secretary * Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush * Will discuss health care reform * President of the World Jewish Congress
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Half-term Governor of Alaska and professional grifter Sarah Palin faceplanted while rock running so naturally, she took to her Facebook account to bash Hillary Clinton. Sarah seems to think that Hillary is in hiding and she links to several Breitbart posts to prove it. Stop laughing. She s super-serious. We re not going to link to the Alt-Right site but those links are on her page.Sarah somehow connected her accident to Hillary Clinton. Leave Hillary Alone, Bullies, Sarah sarcastically writes in her post. Aww, c mon guys, give her a break. Anyone can be out of commission . for weeks on end whilst in the heat of battle for the highest office in the land. No press conferences for nearly a year?, she continues. No scheduled campaign events for days upon days? No statements, no answers, no accountability, no problem. Layin low to run out the clock before November, but you re SEXIST for noticing it. And you re MISOGYNIST for questioning a female s fitness. Good thing media didn t hound the crap out of 08 candidate John McCain for his decades-old military medical records or I d guess them to be hypocrites, she writes, with no respect for the English language. Leave Hillary alone! All that email-evidenced yoga, and wedding planning, and cookie-baking-grandma-duty wears you out. Believe you me, she states. Seriously though, is that an actual sentence? Heck, even those of us claiming to be fit as a (seasoned?) fiddle, hit bumps in the wellness road. Even I. Especially I. (Remember Piper s middle name is Grace ; mine isn t.), she writes. Rock-running recently, I tripped over my own two feet and crashed & burned face-first. I recovered with the doc s SuperGlue, and now any man who asks what happened? I ll refer to as just a mean ol SEXIST bully, Palin continues. Glad for Hillary s protective media s precedence. The next woman running for POTUS has no need to answer to much of anything, for we ve got weddings to plan, and Down Dogs to do, and cookies in the oven! So just leave us alone, boys, she concluded. We do not speak Turnip at Addicting Info, so it s beyond our capabilities to translate that psychotic woman s Facebook-babble. Sarah Palin is wrong and if she could master Googling then she d learn that Hillary Clinton has a full schedule ahead of her. Every single day. Sarah is feeding the conspiracy theory that Hillary is unstable and needs assistance walking up stairs. The fact is, Hillary slipped while walking up the stairs. You know, sort of how Sarah Palin slipped while rock running. Speaking of hiding, where are Donald Trump s taxes?We hope Sarah feels better, though. She seems to be suffering from a brain injury.Featured image via Facebook
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has hired two people with close ties to U.S. organized labor to try to lock down support from union members as Republican candidate Donald Trump makes courting working-class voters central to his campaign. The two new staffers, Lori D’Orazio and Michele Gilliam, are to be deputy labor campaign directors, according to a campaign aide. D’Orazio is moving to the campaign from the biggest U.S. labor federation, the AFL-CIO. Gilliam is a former staffer for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was Clinton’s fiercest primary competitor. Clinton and Sanders battled fiercely over union support during the Democratic primary, with Clinton, the presumptive nominee, ultimately securing the bulk of the national endorsements from labor unions. But she will need to harness the on-the-ground manpower of unions in crucial battleground states ahead of November’s general election match-up with the populist presumptive Republican nominee, Trump. The aide said the campaign is counting on D’Orazio and Gilliam to do just that. Although organized labor is a traditionally Democratic constituency, Trump has made a play to win over rank-and-file union members by criticizing international trade deals such as the pending Trans Pacific Partnership, which labor opposes. Even so, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned last month when the federation endorsed Clinton that a Trump presidency would be disastrous for U.S. workers and vowed to mobilize the group’s resources to defeat him. The AFL-CIO is the largest U.S. federation of labor unions that collectively represent more than 12 million workers. Before joining the AFL-CIO, D’Orazio worked for another large U.S. union, the United Auto Workers, and Gilliam once served as an organizer for a local chapter of the Transport Workers Union.
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WIKILEAKS released more e-mails and guess what Hillary detests everyday Americans . Is anyone except the left surprised by that? After all, it has been proven with these e-mails that she s very much an elitist who admittedly can t relate to regular folks .Why in the heck would we EVER want a president who detests everyday Americans ? Hillary built her entire campaign on being the champion of everyday people
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21st Century Wire says Here is a perfect example of a story where the mainstream media will treat the surface narrative without identifying the real underlying scoop The Reuters report below reveals how a recent police raid of a phony back alley US Embassy in the African capital city of Accra, Ghana, netted seizures of a number of illicit travel documents, including authentic European Union Schengen Zone travel visas. It turns out that this organized crime operation was being run by a Turkish crime syndicate This is distrurbing when considered in conjunction with recent demands by Turkey and its President Tayip Erdo an, to be given Schengen Zone free travel throughout the EU for all Turkish citizens (Image Source: California Courier)Last year, Turkey was effectively using the Syrian refugee crisis to blackmail the EU into paying Ankara 3 Billion Euros in cash as well as Schengen free movement for Turks in and out of the EU. 21WIRE raised the alarm over one year ago that if Turkey was given a green light by bureaucrats in Brussels for EU travel, then this would potentially enable thousands of ISIS, Al Nusra Front and other salafi terrorists who ve been allowed to roam freely since 2011 into Turkey (with the blessing of the Turkish government) over the Syrian border. Terrorism and organized crime go hand in hand. Can the Turkish government, who is already implicated in aiding and abetting terrorist fighters along its Jihadi Highway, really guarantee that there will not be mass document fraud including Turkish passports for various terrorists moving freely throughout its country?The Ghana syndicate shows just how deeply entrenched Turkish organized crime is in the business of forging visa travel documents. Another reason to be worried about opening up Europe to Turkey . Reuters Authorities in Ghana have busted a fake US embassy in the capital Accra run by a criminal network that for a decade issued illegally obtained authentic visas, the US State Department has said.Until it was shut down, the sham embassy was housed in a rundown, pink two-storey building with a corrugated iron roof and flew an American flag outside. Inside hung a portrait of the US president, Barack Obama. It was not operated by the United States government, but by figures from both Ghanaian and Turkish organised crime rings and a Ghanaian attorney practising immigration and criminal law, the State Department said in a statement.Turkish citizens who spoke English and Dutch posed as consular officers and staffed the operation. Investigations also uncovered a fake Dutch embassy, the State Department said.Officials in the Netherlands were not immediately reachable for comment on Sunday.The crime ring issued fraudulently obtained but legitimate US visas and false identification documents, including birth certificates at a cost of $6,000 ( 4,700) each, the statement said.During raids that led to a number of arrests, authorities also seized authentic and counterfeit Indian, South African and Schengen zone visas and 150 passports from 10 different countries along with a laptop and smartphones Continue this article at The GuardianREAD MORE TURKEY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Turkey Files
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he will meet with his rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to press her to embrace his progressive agenda, saying he wants to know what she will stand for if she becomes president. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday, Sanders did not concede he had lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Clinton, who is leading in Democratic primaries and is the party’s presumed nominee. Sanders said he and Clinton would discuss “if she wins, what kind of administration she will have.” “What I need to see (is) a commitment that there will be progressive taxation,” he said, saying corporations and billionaires should pay higher tax rates. He repeated his stance that he would do “everything I can” to ensure Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will not become president. Sanders said he wanted to see Clinton embrace his view that healthcare should be a universal right in America and public universities should offer education for free. “Will she go as far as I would like her to go? No, she won’t,” he said. “But I think millions of people want to understand and see is what kind of commitment she has to addressing the real crises in the country.”
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About 2,000 of the emails I got were of support. There were four hateful, so that s not even 1 percent. Compare that the the hateful onslaught of messages that Memories Pizza in Indiana got from the left after only answered a hypothetical question about gay marriage. They were forced to close down after death threats from the Gay Mafia, yet the media never bothered to report the truth about this business who never refused service to anyone based on their sexual orientation.We ll tell you about this story, because you will likely not hear about it in the mainstream media. Just try however, to refuse to make a cake for a gay couple and the media will descend like buzzards on a fresh carcass. The Colorado Civil Rights Division has ruled that a baker who refused to make cakes with anti-gay messages did not discriminate.Marjorie Silva, owner of Azucar Bakery in Denver, says she got the news on Friday but knows that Bill Jack, a Christian from Castle Rock, Colo., will likely appeal the decision. I m happy that we were not just morally right but legally right, she said in an interview with Yahoo News. Hopefully this will lead to a better world where we are friendly to each other. In March 2014, Jack asked Silva to make him a Bible-shaped cake with anti-gay messages, such as Homosexuality is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:22. He also wanted the cake to include two men holding hands with a large X over them.She agreed to make the dessert in the shape of a book but declined to include the hateful content.Silva has been inundated with messages of support from LGBT people and their allies since refusing to reproduce the homophobic messages. About 2,000 of the emails I got were of support. There were four hateful, so that s not even 1 percent. So it looks like humanity is going in the right direction and things are changing for good, she said.Via: Yahoo News
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that visa restrictions imposed on Gambia earlier this year will be lifted as of Dec. 12 after Banjul took steps to ensure its citizens ordered to leave the United States are re-admitted to the West African country.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously approved the nomination of Christopher Wray to be FBI director following the dismissal of the agency’s former chief, James Comey, by President Donald Trump. All 20 members of the committee voted to approve Wray, a white-collar crime lawyer and former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, sending his nomination to the full Senate for a vote. Trump nominated Wray last month after firing Comey during an FBI investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with the Russians to help him with the 2016 presidential election.
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Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Randy J of 21Wire, Jay Dyer from Jays Analysis, Branko Malic of Kali Tribune fame and Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East. Tonight the Boiler Gang is in celebration mode as we ve hit our one year broadcast anniversary, accolades will be given, classic clips will be played and new analysis will be found on Brussels, Syria, Palmyra We re going over media fakery with Jay Dyer an the crew, be it in Brussels, Paris, Boston or San Bernardino. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! REFERENCE LINKS:
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GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian factions stepped up efforts on Thursday to finalize a Hamas handover of the Gaza Strip to President Mahmoud Abbas as protests broke out in the enclave against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Under Egyptian mediation, the factions have sought to end a schism dating back to 2007, when Islamist Hamas seized Gaza in a civil war with Abbas s Fatah. A Dec. 1 deadline for giving Gaza to Abbas was postponed to Dec. 10 amid disputes. U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement on disputed Jerusalem on Wednesday infuriated Palestinians, who see the city as their future capital, prompting Hamas to call for a revolt against Israel and demand that Abbas abandon American-sponsored peace-making. Worried that the recrimination could disrupt the reconciliation efforts, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah and other Fatah delegates arrived in Gaza on Thursday to meet Hamas. This historical stage requires that we all unite and speed up the steps of uniting the homeland, Al-Hamdallah told reporters. After Hamas call for an intifada , or uprising, dozens of Palestinians gathered at two points on the Gaza border fence with Israel and threw rocks at soldiers on the other side. One Palestinian was wounded by army fire, medics said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report. In cities inside Gaza, thousands of Palestinians rallied, some chanting: Death to America! Death to the fool Trump! and burning tires.
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President Trump was right again! He said mob rule of removing statues is a slippery slope. Where does it end? A great example of the problem is the latest statue to be vandalized:On top of people calling for the removal of George Washington s statue and the Jefferson Memorial, vandals in California have pointed their crosshairs at recently-canonized St. Junipero Serra.According to a CBS Local report, a photo circulating the rounds on Facebook shows that a statue of Junipero Serra alongside a Native American boy in a park across from Mission San Fernando was vandalized with red paint and the word murder written in white. The Native American boy had a swastika painted across his chest.City officials could not confirm the photo s authenticity. However, when investigators went to the site, they did indeed see red paint on Serra s arm and a swastika painted on the child next to him, which means the neighboring Catholic mission apparently cleaned the statue as best they could to avoid drawing controversy.That would make perfect sense, considering that whenever the Left gets their hands on controversy like this, they always show up to get their inner Bolshevik on.Some of the people interviewed by CBS expressed disapproval of the statue s presence, falsely claiming that St. Junipero Serra sought the destruction of Native American culture.Read more: Daily Wire
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump s top national security advisers stressed efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis to Congress on Wednesday, staying far from Trump s tough talk of potential fire and fury military responses to Pyongyang s missile program. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford held classified briefings on North Korea and Afghanistan for the entire House of Representatives and Senate. Lawmakers said the officials discussed efforts including consultations with allies, sanctions, pushing for action at the United Nations and military options. But they said the briefings tone was sharply different from some of Trump s recent public statements. After recent missile launches and nuclear tests by North Korea, the president has vowed to stop the weapons program and said he would unleash fire and fury if Pyongyang threatened U.S. territory. Mattis also warned of a massive military response if the United States or its allies were threatened. Each of them was very professional, very measured in what they were saying, and understand the stakes that are in play here. So there s nothing over-the-top, no over-the-top rhetoric, just a layout of where they are in trying to deal with this issue, Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters. Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said after the briefing it was clear that the administration would like to negotiate an agreement with North Korea. There was really no bluster whatsoever, Engel said. Members of Congress from both parties called for stricter sanctions against North Korea, and said the United States should seek to work closely with allies like South Korea, push China to do more and see action at the United Nations. The best strategy would be deploying sanctions... sustained financial pressure in which we do not let up on those financial institutions that are assisting North Korea, said Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House committee, who just returned from a trip to South Korea. Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said there had been more members of the House at the briefing than he could remember at similar sessions. There was a tremendous amount of interest, he said.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators reached an agreement on Monday on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia, including a provision that would prevent the White House from easing, suspending or ending sanctions without congressional approval. The agreement, to be filed as an amendment to an Iran sanctions bill, is intended to punish Russia over issues including its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for the government of Syria in that country’s six-year-long civil war. [L1N1J41LS] The Iran bill is due come up for a vote as soon as this week. Besides the provision setting up a process for Congress to review changes in sanctions, the measure would put into law sanctions previously established via presidential executive order, including some on certain Russian energy projects and debt financing in some industries. It would impose new sanctions on Russians found to be guilty of human rights abuses, supplying weapons to Syria’s government and conduct cyber attacks on behalf of Russia’s government, among others. The measure also would allow new sanctions on Russian mining, metals, shipping and railways. The legislation is backed by both Republicans and Democrats, and is expected to easily pass the Senate. It was introduced amid an intense focus in the U.S. capital on relations with Russia, and investigations by the Department of Justice and congressional committees of whether Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. elections to help elect Republican President Donald Trump, and whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow as it sought to influence the election. To become law, the legislation would have to pass the House of Representatives and be signed into law by Trump. If Trump objected, some of its backers said they expected enough congressional support to override a veto. “These additional sanctions will ... send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. Russia has denied attempting to interfere in the U.S election, and Trump has dismissed any talk of collusion. The measure also authorizes “robust assistance” to strengthen democratic institutions and counter disinformation in European countries that might be targeted by what the legislation’s sponsors described as Russian aggression. In December, the final full month of President Barack Obama’s administration, Washington sanctioned Russian businessmen and companies for Moscow’s role in Ukraine via executive order.
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Way before the election ever took place, the left had strapped on their battle gear and were preparing for the ultimate war against Donald Trump. Democrats, their media allies and George Soros, chief financier of violent anti-Trump protests, were all preparing for what they believed was the remote possibility Trump would win the presidential election. Trump stunned the world when he pulled off a stunning victory against the anointed Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and now, the desperate left has been reduced to using character assassination of Trump, his family, anyone in his administration and even his supporters as a means diminish his immense popularity with American voters.Here s a sampling of the left, hard at work trying to destroy our new president: Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, the left has been unable to turn Americans against President Trump and his new poll numbers are proving he s only becoming more popular as he continues to do what he promised during his campaign.Today, Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday, April 17, shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump s job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.This is the first time the president s overall approval rating has been back in the 50s in nearly a month. Just after his inauguration, Trump s job approval peaked at 59% and remained in the 50s every day until early March. It s gone as low as 42% since then.Here are former President Obama s approval ratings by comparison.On April 17 2009 the allegedly wildly popular Barack Obama s approval rating was at 55% after accomplishing absolutely nothing in office. The latest figures for Trump include 30% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -9. (see trends). Rasmussen
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A new ad by the Hillary Clinton SuperPac Priorities USA was released on Tuesday. It s perhaps the most frightening of all because it directly quotes Trump saying, I love war, and specifically, he loves nuclear war.Here s the ad:FactCheck did their due diligence with the ad and the biggest complaint they could find is that the direct quotes from Trump came from two different times. Still, here are his entire quotes:Trump, Nov. 12, 2015: This is the Trump theory on war. But I m good at war. I ve had a lot of wars of my own. I m really good at war. I love war, in a certain way, but only when we win.And then the second half, a few months later he talked about nukes:Trump: It s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them.So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.Wallace: With nukes?Trump: Maybe they would be better off including with nukes, yes, including with nukes.So, now that we ve confirmed that yes, Trump does love war, how is his campaign going to spin that?Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway appeared on Good Morning America on Wednesday and it was clear she was out of her league, even though most of the questions weren t that hard hitting.At first, she deflected:Conway responded that what is actually irresponsible is taking little, cherry-picking little snippets of what he said and not giving the full context of the sentence let alone the speech. This woman was secretary of state for four years. And I think the reason she s struggling in the polls part is because aren t really fond of that record and she will be held account for that record, Conway said, ripping into Clinton over her recent polling troubles. She s actually been in control of many aspects of our national security and our troops and our defense and I think that given all of her advantages, including her super PAC including her campaign hang spent over $200 million most in paid advertising one wonders why is she not at 50, 60 percent in the polls. Why isn t she at 60, 65 percent among women? Hillary Clinton has a Hillary Clinton problem. Source: PoliticoWhen pressed further, she still had no explanation: I d have to see the entire snippet there but obviously many commanders in chief have made the very difficult decision to go to war, Conway responded. You have Hillary Clinton as secretary of state calling a Russia reset that didn t work, she was wrong on Libya, she was wrong on Syria, she was certainly wrong on Benghazi and I think they ll both be held to account for that. Here s her spin: ABC Breaking News | Latest News VideosThe fact is that Trump does love war and he has no concept whatsoever of the ramifications of his actions. In a national security briefing, Trump asked three times why we can t use nuclear weapons. If you aren t frightened by Trump s racism, sexism or xenophobia, please be frightened by the fact that he has complete disregard for the damage war, and in particular, nuclear weapons, can inflict. Be frightened over his dangerous stupidity.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was unaware of any plans to oust him when he spoke to Senator Bob Corker on Thursday, Corker said. “He’s conducting business, as is the norm, and is unaware of anything changing,” Corker, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday China will be more open and transparent to foreign companies, including those from the United States. U.S. companies are also welcome to take part in China’s Belt and Road initiative, Xi told a briefing in Beijing after talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. China’s door to the world will only open wider, he said.
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A society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable: the aged, the infirm, the disabled and the unborn. Mike PenceVice President Pence cast a tie-breaking Senate vote Thursday to pass legislation that will allow states to withhold federal funds from Planned Parenthood and other health care providers that perform abortions.The measure, which now goes to President Trump for his signature, dismisses an Obama-era rule banning states from denying federal funds to such organizations.Pence s vote was needed to break a 50-50 tie. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska broke with their party, voting against the measure.Republicans have said the Obama rule should be overturned to allow states the right to steer funds away from abortion providers, if they choose.Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said the measure reverses a rule that attempted to empower federal bureaucrats in Washington and silence our states. Democrats condemned the measure throughout the day, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York calling it another example of the Republican war on women. It would let states treat women as second-class citizens who don t deserve the same access to health care as men, he said.The House in February had voted 230-188 largely along party lines to reject the rule under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn recently enacted regulations.Via: USA Today
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Donald Trump has been gallivanting across America for months now talking about his own popularity and boasting about poll numbers. He gave the impression that he was invincible and his bid for thew presidency infallible. There s one thing you can t take from Donald Trump: He s extremely confident.Regardless of how he performed in the polls up until about a week ago, Trump made a mistake that an unlikely enemy to a Republican, Fox News, couldn t help but gloat over. Whether you call it ego, narcissism, pride or the delusional rantings of a bloviating blowhard, Trump s decision to boycott the last GOP debate may have just jumped up and bit him on the ass.It was just the Donald missing in South Carolina. It was his supporters; the idiots who will clap and shout for him no matter how stupid he sounds, creating a mob mentality and increasing his popularity among the fools who vote Republican in this country. In his absence, Ted Cruz and his supporters were able to steal the show, catapulting his campaign to a win in Iowa Monday night.Fox wasted no time gloating about the fact that trump s little bout of butcher is most likely what handed him his first taste of defeat. Fox correspondent John Roberts told anchor Bret Baier that Marco Rubio s surge with people who were later in deciding who to vote for showed that Trump s refusal to be in the same room with Megyn Kelly probably cost him the win.Baier, being the good little puppet that he is, ran with that theory and began polling other Fox actors and actresses how they felt. Charles Krauthammer was hesitant to give all the credit to the skipped debate, adding that Rubio s performance was worthy of a bump, meaning he was watching a different debate than people who live in the real world. Rubio did nothing but yell generalities at the crowd in an attempt to seem less timid.Other Fox hosts were more eager to give their network at least some of the credit. According to Talking Points Memo:Baier floated the idea to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, asking her to look at the numbers and the surge that perhaps other candidates, Ted Cruz, Rubio had, and weigh in on the debate had any effect on these numbers? Baier presented the question to Fox News contributor Stephen Hayes as well, asking him if can we definitively say that not going to the debate hurt Trump, a strategic error, that close? Pundit Kirsten Powers suggested that Trump missed an opportunity to make his closing arguments and it looks like he s paying a price for it here. Fox News commentator Dana Perino argued that two polls that showed Rubio gaining traction were a direct result of the debate, comparing it to the last cycle, when 45 percent of people decided after the last debate in 2012. I think that looks like it could be true this time as well, she said.While skipping the doom and gloom of a Fox News debate may not seem like a big deal to normal people, It certainly doesn t seem to have helped Donald Trump out at all.Featured image by Media Matters screen capture
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KATY, Texas (Reuters) - As Democrats try to win control of the U.S. Congress in next year’s midterm elections, their hopes of picking up a Senate seat in Republican-dominated Texas rest with a telegenic ex-punk rocker who wants to impeach President Donald Trump and legalize marijuana. Beto O’Rourke’s long-shot bid to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz illustrates the tightrope Democrats must walk as they gear up for the November 2018 elections. Democrats will have to win in areas that backed Trump last year in order to gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate but even in Texas the party’s left-wing base is pressing candidates to stop the president by any means necessary. O’Rourke, who currently represents El Paso in the House, is drawing big crowds across Texas as he calls for universal healthcare and new restrictions on gun ownership. At a recent rally outside Houston, hundreds of supporters stood in line for up to an hour to shake his hand. O’Rourke, 45, said Trump’s surprise victory last year was a big reason he decided to run for the Senate. He said Trump’s racially charged rhetoric and divisive governing style have led him to support impeachment. “I’m now convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that Donald Trump is unfit for that office,” O’Rourke told Reuters in an interview. “This is a moment unlike any other, certainly in my lifetime, I think in this country since the Civil War, where we have to really decide who we are, and there are two very clear paths that we can take,” he said. The end of the path laid out by Trump “is tyranny, it is not democracy,” O’Rourke said. O’Rourke’s unapologetic progressivism stands out among Democrats who are campaigning outside the party’s liberal strongholds in the Northeast and on West Coast. In deeply conservative Alabama, Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones has been running as a pragmatist ahead of a Dec. 12 special election, saying he wants to be a “voice for reason” in Washington. He has run ads attacking Republican opponent Roy Moore over a sex scandal, but has steered clear of harsh anti-Trump rhetoric. In Virginia, Ralph Northam denounced Trump as a “narcissistic maniac” as he sought the Democratic nomination for governor, but dialed back the rhetoric during the general election, telling voters ahead of his Nov. 7 victory that he would work with Trump when it was in his state’s interest. In Congress, a handful of rank-and-file House Democrats have filed articles of impeachment even though U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is still investigating whether Trump’s campaign worked with Russia in last year’s election. Russia has repeatedly denied meddling and Trump has called the investigation a “witch hunt.” Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi said earlier this month that she would not make impeachment a priority if her party won the House next year but Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has said it is premature to consider impeachment. Even some of O’Rourke’s supporters say impeachment talk is counterproductive as long as Republicans control Congress. “Otherwise, in my view, it’s just chest-beating,” said Nikki Redpath, a Houston-area homemaker and O’Rourke campaign volunteer. O’Rourke is seen as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination in March but analysts say his progressive views could prove a liability as he tries to reverse his party’s long losing streak in the Lone Star State. Trump finished nine percentage points ahead of Democrat Hillary Clinton in Texas last year and the state has not elected a Democratic governor or senator since 1994. Democrats have lost recent statewide elections by double-digit margins and have struggled to recruit top-tier candidates for major races. Still, O’Rourke’s anti-Trump message has resonated with oil-industry executive Katherine Stovring, who said she used to vote for candidates from both parties but now has been motivated to work for Democratic candidates as a way to stop Trump. “I’m looking for ways to engage. This is our democracy at risk,” she said. Texas Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said he thought O’Rourke would be trounced by Cruz unless voters turn en masse against Trump nationally. “He’s a more interesting candidate than the traditional sacrificial lamb the Democrats put up,” Mackowiak said. “But he’s far too liberal to be elected statewide.” In an era where differences between Republicans and Democrats are stark, candidates like O’Rourke have little incentive to moderate their positions, said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. At this point there is little downside for O’Rourke to make polarizing statements on impeachment and other issues. “I think you can expect to hear a lot more of that as the campaign unfolds,” he said.
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Handwriting experts have noticed something very strange about Melania Trump s signature it look almost exactly like her husband s angular sharpie .It was first noticed after Melania sent a personal thank you note to actress and animal rights activist Pamela Anderson, who presented the First Lady with a faux fur coat. Anderson posted the note on Twitter.@flotus Dear Melania, Thank you for your sweet note. It is heartwarming to see you manage your position with such beauty and grace. Pamela pic.twitter.com/h9mmdqxp0h Pamela Anderson (@pamfoundation) May 3, 2017By contrast, here is Trump s signature.Image via Quartz Media.While the two signatures aren t identical, they both share some pretty striking similarities.As handwriting expert Sheila Kurtz told Yahoo, Hers looks just like his, which is absolutely amazing. Both signatures have been described as spiky with thick black lines.There has been speculation about the unusual likeness, with Uproxx s Kimberly Ricci writing, Is President Trump answering his wife s letters? Did he sign this letter and keep the coat as a fancy bathrobe? Is he a fan of Baywatch? Lots of questions need to be answered here. Source: AOLTwitter didn t miss the similarities either:@pamfoundation @FLOTUS You ve been duped. It appears Donald Trump signed it for Melania. Either that or she s using Donald Trump s hand to sign it. ? Rosaline (@NotYourDarling2) May 3, 2017@pamfoundation @FLOTUS Ummm that looks a lot like Donald s signature. pic.twitter.com/TMb8dtu70i ((TrumpLies)) (@JustTheJune0101) May 3, 2017@pamfoundation @FLOTUS So weird that her sig is so much like Donny s. Freakishly weird. Linrose ?#Resist (@Rosie909294) May 4, 2017@pamfoundation @FLOTUS Donald signed that. Now he s posing as his wife? kendal unruh (@unruhkendal) May 5, 2017There are several possible explanations, and all but one should send chills down the spines of feminists:1. He is signing her name That would either indicate that Melania is completely illiterate, and even I don t believe that, or that she married a complete control freak. Either way, doesn t he have something better to do than micromanage his wife s communications?2. It s a stamp or a computer simulation While this is the most likely scenario, it s only slightly less disturbing. If so, he clearly instructed someone to create a signature that was just.like.his. so his wife would only be seen as an extension of him and his gawdawful style. He s like one of those husbands who insists on a joint Facebook page.3. She has been trained to have a signature that looks just like his Gross.4. She actually has a signature that looks just like his. Very weird, but not entirely creepy.The least he could let her do is use an elegant pen instead of a sharpie.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images.
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Hillary may find out she needs more than black women drag her lying criminal ass over the finish line Actress and Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon recently received shock and criticism for suggesting she may not vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election. She s not alone. According to a recent McClatchy-Marist Poll conducted on March 29-31, 25 percent of Sanders supporters would not support her, while 69 percent would. Sanders voters are even more committed to him and perhaps against Clinton, McClatchy DC suggested that after Sanders s Tuesday win in Wisconsin.While voters under 45 are among the most likely to eventually support Hillary, they could play a role in her possibly losing to the Republican nominee. Even if they don t vote for a Republican, staying home could cause Hillary to come up short.Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, called the possibility potentially worrisome for Hillary. Age seems to be the most significant factor, he noted.Professor Carlos L. Yordan of Drew University made a similar point recently, noting the particular importance of young people in swing states. Hillary might also risk a loss if she faces off against Ted Cruz in November, as a recent Fox News poll found he s preferred by millennials.Via: Red Alert Politics
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More information about Donald Trump s Russian ties keeps coming out and now another shoe has dropped. According to the Associated Press, Paul Manafort, who served as Trump s campaign manager in 2016, spent about ten years working to benefit Vladimir Putin. His job? To make Putin not look like a murderous dictator.The AP reports:Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse. Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.Trump, his administration, and Manafort himself have spent months downplaying his involvement with Russia, even after he left the campaign because of his Russian ties. But it turns out that Manafort was apparently far closer to Putin than he ever let on.In a memo to Deripaska in 2005, Manafort wrote that we are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success. The effort, he explained, will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government. Manafort responded with a statement that said his dealings with Deripaska are being unfairly painted as inappropriate or nefarious and insists this is all just part of a massive smear campaign. I worked with Oleg Deripaska almost a decade ago representing him on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments, Manafort said. My work for Mr. Deripaska did not involve representing Russian political interests. This latest disclosure comes after FBI Director James Comey confirmed on Monday that the bureau is investigating not just Russia s interference in the U.S. election, but also the possibility that Trump colluded with them to sway the election.You can watch more on this story here, via MSNBC:Featured image via video screen capture
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Where was the media s outrage when a sitting United States senator, John McCain went on a wild goose chase, that led him overseas, in an effort to obtain what he believed was incriminating evidence that could be used to harm President Trump? How is it okay for Senator John McCain to actively seek dirt on a sitting president, but not okay for Donald Trump Jr. (who is NOT a government official) to meet with a Russian lawyer in an attempt to discover potential dirt on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton?Sen. John McCain commented on Tuesday about Donald Trump Jr. s meeting with the Russian lawyer. How serious do you think this particular shoe is? Raju asked, referring to Donald Trump Jr. s meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after being promised dirt on Clinton that was reportedly part of a Russian government effort. I don t know. But it s certainly another shoe that s dropped that needs to be pursued and looked at, McCain said. TPMWatch RINO Senator John McCain express his concern overt the seriousness of Donald Trump Jr. s meeting with the Russian lawyer about the lifting US sanctions on Russian adoption. It s curious that the reporter never asked McCain about his efforts to smear our president with a unsubstantiated dirty dossier from an ex-spy:Before we go any further into the messy details of John McCain s international dealings to find dirt on our sitting president, it s worth mentioning that as far as we know, no one was murdered as a result of Donald Trump Jr. s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who entered the US without a visa under extraordinary circumstances thanks to the efforts of Barack Obama s DOJ. The same cannot be said about McCain s dealings with the dirty dossier on Trump. Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is also said to have ties to Fusion GPS, the sketchy secretive Washington firm that commissioned the dubious intelligence dossier on Donald Trump.According to the Daily Caller The Russian lawyer who offered Donald Trump Jr. damaging information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly has ties to the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier on President Donald Trump.When the June 2016 meeting took place, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was in New York to defend Prevezon, a Russian holding firm accused of laundering money for corrupt Russian businessmen. Veselnitskaya had been working on the case for years with assistance from Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that compiled the Trump dossier.Fusion GPS denied any knowledge of, or role in, facilitating the meeting between Veselnitskaya and Trump Jr.According to The Sun: A FORMER KGB spy chief suspected of helping Brit spook Christopher Steele compile the Trump dirty dossier has been found dead in his car under mysterious circumstances.Oleg Erovinkin, described as a key source behind the widely discredited document, was found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Boxing Day.Today, the Daily Mail reports: Sen. John McCain said he did what any citizen would do in turning over the dirty dossier, which contained unconfirmed secrets about the president-elect, over to the FBI.The Guardian charted the path of how the dossier came to be and how it was that McCain got his hands on the controversial documents.In turn, that firm outsourced the research to a retired western European former counter-intelligence official, with a long history of dealing with the shadow world of Moscow s spooks and siloviki (securocrats), explained the Guardian.Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal identified the ex-spy as Christopher Steele.The Guardian pointed out that just because a Democrat was willing to pay for the information that didn t mean that said Democrat was Hillary Clinton s campaign or the Democratic National Committee.Sometimes donors seek out this information in order to ensure they ve made a sound investment.***Yeah okay!***The contractor, who the Guardian didn t name, but the Wall Street Journal identified as Steele, reportedly found the information that he dug up to be concerning. He and another ex-British diplomat, Christopher Burrows, run their own company, Orbis Business Intelligence. If the allegations were real, their implications were overwhelming, the Guardian wrote.On November 18, at the Halifax International Security Forum, McCain was introduced to a former senior western diplomat who had set eyes on the documents and knew who put them together, telling the Arizona Republican that the individual was highly reliable. That man can now be named as Sir Andrew Wood, British ambassador to Moscow from 1995 to 2000.Wood told the Independent that he had met McCain, spoken to him about Trump, and about the potential for him to be compromised.In a carefully nuanced statement he said: Yes I did meet Senator McCain and his aides at the conference. We spoke about the kind of activities the Russians can be engaged in. We also spoke about how Mr Trump may find himself in a position where there could be an attempt to blackmail him with Kompromat [a Russian term for compromising material] and claims that there were audio and video tapes in existence. He added: I would like to stress that I did not pass on any dossier to Senator McCain or anyone else and I did not see a dossier at the time. I do know Christopher Steele and in my view he is very professional and thorough in what he does. He did not however address whether he told McCain there was a dossier and how to get it.Clearly, somebody did.From there, McCain dispatched a trusted emissary who flew across the Atlantic to meet the source of the documents at an airport that the Guardian did not name.The aide was instructed to look for a man with a copy of the Financial Times and that s how the individuals met, with the source taking McCain s emissary back to his house and giving the American a copy of the documents.Within 24 hours, the dossier was in Washington, though the contents of the file couldn t be verified without an investigation. McCain, the Guardian said, was worried that his actions might be interpreted as revenge for some of the controversial comments Trump made about him such as knocking the fact that the longtime senator had been a prisoner of war.However, McCain decided to hand over the documents to FBI Director James Comey on December 9. Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI, McCain said Wednesday in a statement about that matter. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue, McCain said.For entire story: Daily Mail
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But..b but it isn t fair to ask for voter ID says the party that dominates the states that refuse to cooperate with Trump s election commission. The more corruption that s exposed through post-election voting investigations, the more we begin to understand why so many Democrat pundits and liberal media outlets were so sure Hillary had the election in the bag..Eleven counties in California have more registered voters than voting age adults in the county.Judicial Watch announced it sent a notice-of-violation letter to the state of California and 11 of its counties threatening to sue in federal court if it does not clean its voter registration lists as mandated by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Both the NVRA and the federal Help America Vote Act require states to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voting rolls. The August 1 letter was sent on behalf of several Judicial Watch California supporters and the Election Integrity Project California, Inc.In the letter, Judicial Watch noted that public records obtained on the Election Assistance Commission s 2016 Election Administration Voting Survey and through verbal accounts from various county agencies show 11 California counties have more registered voters than voting-age citizens: Imperial (102%), Lassen (102%), Los Angeles (112%), Monterey (104%), San Diego (138%), San Francisco (114%), San Mateo (111%), Santa Cruz (109%), Solano (111%), Stanislaus (102%), and Yolo (110%).In the letter, Judicial Watch noted that Los Angeles County officials informed us that the total number of registered voters now stands at a number that is a whopping 144% of the total number of resident citizens of voting age. Remember when the Huffington Post denied voter fraud was an actual thing in America, while calling Hillary Clinton, (the candidate who clearly benefitted from illegal voting practices) the legitimate President-Elect? Under Section 8 of the NVRA, states are required to make a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from official lists due to the death of the registrant or a change in the residence of the registrant, and requires states to ensure noncitizens are not registered to vote.There is strong circumstantial evidence that California municipalities are not conducting reasonable voter registration list maintenance as mandated under the NVRA, Judicial Watch wrote in the notice letter sent to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Via: Judicial Watch
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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s new Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge said on Tuesday she is committed to continuing the sprawling Car Wash corruption investigation that has implicated dozens of Brazilian politicians, including President Michel Temer. In her first news conference since taking office on Sept. 18, Dodge declined to comment on charges filed against Temer by her predecessor Rodrigo Janot, but she said she could not withdraw them. Janot charged Temer with obstruction of justice and being a member of a criminal organization days before leaving office based on plea bargain testimony by the owners of meatpacker JBS SA. Janot had to revoke that plea deal after evidence emerged of crimes committed by the witnesses. Dodge, however, told reporters that the revoking of a plea deal did not erase the evidence provided. The lower house of Congress, which has the authority to decide whether a president should stand trial, began to discuss the new charges on Tuesday and is expected to block them as it did last month with an earlier graft charge brought against Temer for allegedly accepting bribes paid by JBS. Dodge said the Supreme Court must decide whether the Federal Police can also negotiate plea bargains with criminals, an authority currently limited to prosecutors who have opposed sharing the function with the police. Plea bargains have been instrumental for prosecutors in the uncovering of a massive network of bribes and political kickbacks in Brazil s largest corruption scandal. I am sure that the Supreme Court will hand down a ruling that will turn this into an valuable tool, she said.
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Take a look at @PublicTheaterNY's first Shakespeare in the Park production of 2017, a Trump-inspired Julius Caesar https://t.co/iTPiJMSSaq pic.twitter.com/t5VfDfZVRe Playbill (@playbill) May 30, 2017In an interview with Mediaite, Laura Shaeffer who saw a recent performance of the play, which opened May 23 said that the character of Julius Caesar in the Public Theater adaptation wears a business suit and has his hair styled in a manner similar to Trump s.Sheaffer added that the character of Calpurnia, Caesar s wife, speaks with a Slavic accent similar to that of First Lady Melania Trump.As happens at the end of the original play, the (Trump-inspired) Caesar is brutally stabbed to death by his associates in the Senate. Sheaffer said Caesar s death scene was particularly graphic, with blood spewing everywhere, and an American flag hanging overhead. To be honest I thought it was shocking and distasteful, Shaeffer told Mediaite. If this had happened to any other president even as recently as Barack Obama or George W. Bush it would not have flown. People would have been horrified. The Trump connection in the Oskar Eustis-directed production was not intended to be subtle, though the president is reportedly never referred to by name during the show.The actor playing Caesar, Gregg Henry (who also happened to play a caricature of Trump in Shonda Rhimes ABC show Scandal), told Backstage in an interview last month that while the similarities between the Roman general and the current president don t always align exactly, there was still much to be gleaned from Trump s presidency and then injected into his portrayal of Caesar. The idea for me was to try and do some things that will represent and show you and I have great costumes and wigs that show you that this could be Trump, Henry told Backstage. But I m also trying to bring in the larger knowledge of tyrants. It s sort of a tyrant s greatest hits in [the way I play] the speeches and in the nature of the ego and belief that one man is more important, is above the law, is the law. Those tyrannical beliefs in terms of how to deal with power. For her part, Shaeffer told Mediaite that while she found the parallels between Trump and Caesar fascinating, the onstage murder of a character that so closely resembled Trump was a step too far. I don t love President Trump, but he s the president. You can t assassinate him on a stage, she told the outlet. BreitbartBy now, everyone knows how comedian Kathy Griffin expressed her opposition to our president, when she held his bloodied and decapitated head while making what turned out to be a career-ending video. So is this disgusting and violent behavior by the intolerant the left the new norm? Are Americans supposed to just accept this simply because the media refuses to report about it?
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STERLING, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump golfed with a vocal Republican critic of his healthcare push on Sunday, as he insisted efforts to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law were not dead. Senator Rand Paul and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney joined the president at Trump National Golf Club outside of Washington. The trio was “discussing a variety of topics, including healthcare,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. The outing came hours after Trump tweeted that talks to rework the nation’s healthcare law were still under way. “Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!” Trump tweeted early on Sunday. “Talk on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck,” he added in a second message. Republican-led efforts to replace Obama’s healthcare law were thrown into disarray 10 days ago after Republican leaders in the House of Representative had to withdraw their own legislation ahead of a vote due to insufficient support from conservative and moderate members of their own party. Trump had worked towards the bill’s passage, but Paul had been a prominent critic and had aligned himself with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group that helped torpedo Trump’s first major legislative effort. On Thursday, Trump had threatened to defeat members of the group in next year’s congressional elections if they continued to defy him. In an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, Trump was adamant he wanted to get a healthcare bill passed, and said he would turn his back on the Freedom Caucus and negotiate with Democrats if that is what it took. “If we don’t get what we want, we will make a deal with the Democrats,” he said.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced legislation requiring the disclosure of sexual harassment case settlements involving members of Congress and their staffers. The move came amid a snowballing number of revelations about harassment of co-workers and others by members of Congress, as well as high-profile entertainment and media figures’ being accused of workplace improprieties. If the legislation were to become law and such settlements came to light they potentially would have a ripple effect on politicians and elections. Republicans control the House, but it was not clear whether Speaker Paul Ryan would throw his weight behind the legislation. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A House committee hearing on overhauling existing procedures dealing with harassment cases is set for Dec. 7. Ryan called reports that Democratic Representative John Conyers was involved in a settlement over allegations of sexual impropriety “extremely troubling.” An aide to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi noted that she has indicated she would support legislation such as the bill offered on Wednesday, although it would have to respect the wishes of victims who want to remain anonymous. Under current practice, the names of lawmakers and aides who settle sexual harassment cases at taxpayer expense have not been divulged. The bipartisan “Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Act” was introduced with at least 21 co-sponsors. It would require disclosure within 30 days of all settlement payments, the reason for the payment and nature of the allegation, as well as the lawmakers and staffers implicated. The public disclosure of lawmakers would be retroactive under the bill and any payments as a result of settlements would be the responsibility of members of Congress and staff involved, instead of taxpayers. Over the years, more than $15 million in taxpayer dollars have been paid out in an array of settlement claims, including those involving sexual harassment, noted Representative Ron DeSantis, a Republican and one of the bill’s authors. Separate legislation has been introduced on tightening procedures for Congress handling sexual harassment cases. On Wednesday the full House approved a resolution requiring lawmakers and their aides to take courses aimed at preventing harassment.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey’s long-anticipated congressional testimony set off a social media storm on Thursday with millions of people jumping into the fray but there was one notable absence - the tweeter in chief himself. President Donald Trump’s ordinarily red-hot Twitter handle, @realDonaldTrump, was dormant during the three-hour hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, although another Trump helped carry the mantle. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, live tweeted throughout Comey’s testimony, taking the ex-FBI director to task for his version of what the president told him. Twitter had a field day with other moments of Comey’s testimony, including his revelation that he broke a date with his wife in order to have dinner with Trump and his use of the exclamation “Lordy.” Comey’s disclosure that the person who leaked his memos of meeting with Trump was a Columbia Law School professor led to a stampede on the school’s website, causing it to crash. Here are some highlights of what excited Twitter during the testimony. Trump Jr. took issue with Comey’s comments about whether the president was ordering him to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “Knowing my father for 39 years when he ‘orders or tells’ you to do something there is no ambiguity, you will know exactly what he means,” he tweeted. (here) “Hoping and telling are two very different things, you would think that a guy like Comey would know that,” he concluded, adding the hashtag “#givemeabreak”. (here) With his father’s Twitter handle silent, @DonaldJTrumpJr became the 10th most mentioned Twitter handle in the Comey conversation, according to social media analysis firm Brandwatch. One remark in particular from Comey got the Twittersphere buzzing. “Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” he told the committee regarding whether Trump had recorded their conversation. “Lordy” quickly became the focus of numerous memes, animated graphics and calls for T-shirts. Even the Merriam-Webster dictionary got into the act, tweeting out the definition of “Lordy” as a word used to “express surprise or strength of feeling.” (here) Twitter said Comey’s “Lordy” remark was among the top three most tweeted moments during the testimony. Social media also poked fun when Comey revealed a presidential intrusion into his domestic life. “I had to call my wife and break a date with her,” Comey said. “I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night.” “Moral of the #Comey testimony: Don’t cancel a date with your wife,” said CBS-Chicago reporter Jeremy Ross on Twitter. (here) Columbia Law School’s website became overburdened after Comey said he had asked a good friend who is a professor there to leak memos from his meeting with Trump to the media. Daniel Richman later confirmed to Reuters he was the one to whom Comey referred in his testimony. Shortly after the mention by Comey, the school tweeted: “Columbia Law’s site is down at the moment. We are working on a solution. Stay tuned.” (here)
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If you had it in your head that the only defense for Donald Trump s Muslim ban is that we should completely ignore reality, you were more right than you knew. On Saturday out borders reopened after Judge James Robert blocked President Asterisk s Muslim ban, correctly pointing out that there is no support for The Donald s argument that we have to protect the U.S. from individuals from the seven countries affected by the ban.Robert s decision, which also block the Trump administration from enforcing its limits on refugees, was celebrated nationwide as Trump and his allies stewed and our so-called President unleashed a ridiculous attack on the so-called judge who foiled his evil scheme. After learning about checks, our unbalanced President whined:The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017But here s the thing: even the Trump administration doesn t believe that their fear and bigotry-based attempt to keep members of an entire religion out of our country. I m also asked to look and determine if the executive order is rationally based, Robart told Trump s attorney. Rationally based to me at least implies to some extent I have to find it grounded in facts as opposed to fiction. Trump s attorney s baffled the world, responding that the facts simply do not matter: Well Your Honor, we don t think you re supposed to look at whether it s rationally based. We think that the standard is facially legitimate. Seriously, she said this:The moment Trump lawyer tells judge Robart of travel ban: "We actually don't think you're supposed to look at whether it's rationally based" pic.twitter.com/u9PRy4cKGT Rob S Silver Surfer (@RobPulseNews) February 5, 2017Robart is correct, as no one from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan or Yemen has committed a terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. I m sorry, there s no other way to put it, Robart said of the order. It s Keystone Kops. It really is. And that s not just me speaking, that s Republican members of Congress. Robart was referencing incompetent 20th-century cops who appeared in silent films early last century.Naturally, she is now the subject of widespread mockery.@spencerwoodman @EnterElysium where did that women get a law degree out of a cereal box Resender (@Resender2be) February 4, 2017@spencerwoodman @KipperBedwas She's a career DoJ lawyer. She's forced to defend the indefensible. The judge confirmed 2x she did her job. Bob Blaskiewicz (@rjblaskiewicz) February 4, 2017@spencerwoodman The administration would like to crack down on all rationally based thought, words or actions. Citizen (@kathylun) February 4, 2017@spencerwoodman there you have it folks Trumps not interested in anything being RATIONAL which is why he is so irrational judy (@endhomelesnes) February 4, 2017Amazing. Trump has Gov't arguing that his EOs do not have to be rationally based. Trump's next EO: Cows must say Bah instead of moo https://t.co/L8wJtnAeoA (((ProfessingProf))) (@Professing_Prof) February 5, 2017Now that we have seen this, we know for certain that Donald Trump and his administration don t care about facts (or reality) at all and Trump s policies reflect that.You can see more of the exchange below:Featured image via screengrab
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LONDON (Reuters) - London police said an item that had prompted a security alert in the financial district of the city on Tuesday morning was non-suspicious, after authorities had closed St Paul s underground station as a precaution.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the crucial last weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton has dramatically widened her advantage over Republican rival Donald Trump in ad spending, according to campaign finance reports released on Thursday. The newest filings showed Clinton’s campaign and Super PAC outspending Trump in the first three weeks of October by a factor of two to one on everything from national TV ads to local outreach on smartphone screens. At the same time, the two Super PACs associated with Trump’s White House bid have seen their fundraising start to stall out, with one of the groups reserving no broadcast or cable ads between Oct. 20 and Election Day, according to data from ad-tracking firm SMG Delta. Clinton and Priorities USA, the Super PAC that supports her, have spent $360 million on all types of advertising since the beginning of the campaign, said the new reports, which covered spending through Oct. 19. That total blows away the $147 million spent on advertising by Trump and his two affiliated Super PACs during the same period. What’s more, for the period beginning Oct. 20 and running through the Nov. 8 election, Clinton and her Super PAC have reserved an additional $55 million in TV ads, according to SMG Delta, including $30.5 million from her campaign and $25 million from her Super PAC. A Super PAC is a fund-raising group that must operate separately from political campaigns but can raise unlimited sums. The Trump campaign has committed to spending $32.4 million during the same period, with the Trump Super PAC known as Great America PAC saying it would also contribute another $2.35 million in broadcast and cable ads. The newest batch of campaign finance filings also reveal that the celebrity businessman’s recent vow that he would contribute in excess of $100 million to his campaign out of his own fortune has also fallen short. Trump contributed $56 million through the end of September, chipping in an additional $31,000 since then. Spending on television commercials does not decide an election. Trump, with his controversial statements and inflammatory tweets, has mastered the art of garnering free media coverage, which is expected to top $5 billion by Election Day, more than double the amount Clinton is likely to earn, according to data analytics tracker mediaQuant. But ever since Trump’s campaign began to falter last summer after he criticized the family of a slain U.S. soldier, Clinton has been able to use her ad spending juggernaut to repetitively pound at criticisms of Trump, which several strategists said had exacerbated his slide in polls, where he now lags Clinton by eight percentage points. Trump could pour more money into his ad operation in the final 11 days of the campaign. Republican presidential campaign operatives said areas where Trump could still spend included battleground states, national ad buys and digital outreach and phone banking. But they also said it may be too late for such outlays to make a difference. “The stations would gladly take his money,” said Fred Davis, a major Republican ad maker. “I just don’t think he will.” During the Republican nominating contests, Trump vanquished 16 opponents in part by eschewing campaign finance mainstays such as ads and pollsters. “He felt he won the primary with basically no ad spending by being a larger-than-life TV personality. It worked,” Davis said. But the general election, he added, was “a whole new ballgame.” Many of Clinton’s TV ads have focused on upbeat messages featuring her work on behalf of women and children. She’s also spent a large amount of her advertising budget attacking Trump, including a commercial that showed children listening to some of his most demeaning remarks about women. Trump’s ads, by contrast, paint a dark picture of America, besieged by violence and on the brink of economic destruction. Rick Wilson, a former strategist for Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, said “ads don’t matter, until they do,” adding that comments by Trump that critics have called racist and sexist were providing maximum ammunition for Clinton. Trump may not be able to rely on his small cadre of big donors, either: Make America Number 1 PAC – a super PAC formed by conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer - raised nothing between Oct. 1 and 19. At the same time, Trump has also stopped doing high-dollar fundraisers. Overall, the reports released on Thursday night showed how much Trump and his lean campaign operation have been dwarfed by Clinton’s big money juggernaut. In total, Trump has raised $292 million between his campaign and affiliated Super PACs, including his own contributions, whereas Clinton has hauled in more than twice that, at $718 million.
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Florida government official is serious about the BBQ aroma infraction.LOL! The environmental laws are creeping into our everyday normal activities like grilling out. Big government is way out of control! Once our homes were our castles. Now they are the government s. Not even the most trivial details of how we make use of our own property escapes bureaucratic regulation in the name of the environment. For example:Cobb County [Georgia] is telling a Kennesaw family to apply for permission to park their kids cars in their own driveway.The Oviedo family got a notice of violation for having four cars in the driveway. The family has relatives visiting and two kids home from college. They got a visit Friday from code enforcement, acting on an anonymous complaint. The neighborhood is zoned an Open Space Community. A recent rule changed, and enacted a limit of two cars parked in the drive. After Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland got the county on the phone, officials decided to let the issue slide this summer, but put the family on notice next summer would require a permit to park four cars in the driveway. I m having to pay to park on a property that I already pay tax on, said [Kim] Oviedo.But think how grateful the polar bears will be!Cobb County s Open Space Community zoning was established to encourage the preservation of natural resources within residential development. Once environazis get their heads in your tent, you have been relegated to sleeping out on the sand. Via: moonbattery
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Caitlyn Jenner has joined the list of celebrities who are considering running for political office in the United States following the election of former reality television star Donald Trump as president. Jenner, who as former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner in 2015 became the highest-profile American to transition to a woman, said she would decide in the next six months or so whether to run for the U.S. Senate in California. Jenner told John Catsimatidis on his “CATS Roundtable” New York radio show on Sunday, that she is working with activist groups to improve the Republican Party’s stance on lesbian, gay and transgender issues. “Over the next six months or so I gotta find out where I can do a better job. Can I do a better job from the outside working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talking to anybody, or are you better off from the inside? “We are in the process of determining that. But yeah, I would look for a senatorial run,” she said. Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein is up for re-election in California in 2018. Jenner, 67, is a Republican but in February she criticized the Trump administration for reversing a federal directive that allowed transgender students to use public school bathrooms of their choice. “From one Republican to another, this is a disaster,” she said in a video message to Trump at the time. The success of Trump, a businessman who found fame through TV reality show “The Apprentice,” has encouraged others with no political experience to consider running for office. Last week country-rock singer Kid Rock, a supporter of Trump, hinted he intends to run for the Senate in 2018 but he has yet to make any official announcement. He has not mentioned where he would run. Actor and former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has said he might run for the White House someday but has not mentioned a political affiliation. Previous celebrities who made the transition to politics include action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served two terms as California governor, and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, who was elected Minnesota governor.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Germany’s foreign minister warned during a trip to Washington on Tuesday about a rise in the use of populist fear tactics by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, describing this as a threat to Europe, the United States and transatlantic relations. Speaking at George Washington University on Super Tuesday, the biggest single day of state-by-state presidential nominating contests, Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not refer to Donald Trump or other candidates by name but he said he was concerned about the tone of the U.S. campaign. “In Germany and in Europe, something is gaining momentum in our domestic politics - and to be honest, I am also seeing it here in the United States during the primary campaigns. It’s the politics of fear,” Steinmeier said. Politicians in Germany and elsewhere in Europe have watched nervously as businessman and reality TV star Trump has moved from a long shot to the front-runner among Republicans seeking the party’s nomination to run in the Nov. 8 general election. Trump has described Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming policy towards refugees as “insane” and predicted it would cause rioting in Germany. He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been at odds with Europe since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region two years ago. Germany does not face a federal election until next year. But a new anti-immigrant party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), has emerged as a threat to Merkel’s conservatives. The AfD wants Germany to shut its border to migrants and use force to repel them if necessary. “They pretend that we can seal ourselves off and leave the world outside to deal with its own problems. But that’s wrong,” Steinmeier said, referring to politicians in Europe and the United States. “The worst thing we could do is seal ourselves off,” he said. In a subtle dig at Trump, who has promised to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and make the Mexicans pay for it, the German foreign minister added: “So if you ask me: building walls is a very bad idea - no matter who pays for them.”
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(Reuters) - Billionaire Carl Icahn will advise Donald Trump on rescinding what the activist investor called “excessive regulation” on U.S. businesses, the president-elect’s transition team announced on Wednesday. Icahn will serve as a special adviser, not a federal employee, and he will not have specific duties, Trump’s team said in a statement. He will not take a salary, a transition aide said. The pick could draw scrutiny because Icahn, whose major investments include insurer American International Group and oil refining business CVR Energy, could help shape rules meant to police Wall Street and protect the environment. In the transition team statement released on Wednesday, Icahn said it was time to “break free of excessive regulation” and let businesses create jobs. Icahn, an early supporter of Trump’s White House bid who has at times been outspoken about regulation, has already helped the transition team weigh candidates to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has held meetings at his New York City office, not far from Trump Tower but away from reporters staked out there, people familiar with the talks said. Current SEC Chair Mary Jo White will leave in January. Candidates to replace her have included former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins and Debra Wong Yang, a former federal prosecutor, a source familiar with the matter said. Over the years, Icahn’s businesses have had occasional regulatory run-ins, according to disclosures with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He is a large investor in nutrition supplement maker Herbalife, which said at one time it was investigated by the SEC. “Voters who wanted Trump to drain the swamp just got another face full of mud,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Eric Walker said in a statement, referring to Trump’s pledge to clean up Washington. Icahn, who was once known as a corporate raider, said in a recent Reuters interview the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking law “went too far.” He is a critic of the U.S. biofuels program that requires oil companies to use renewable fuels such as ethanol. “I do believe that, to some extent, we have gone overboard concerning the environment. But I leave that to the experts in that area,” Icahn told CNN in a recent interview. Trump and Icahn share some history in the casino business. Icahn this year helped shutter the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resorts in Atlantic City, two years after buying it out of bankruptcy. The casino was once a prized part of Trump’s empire.
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Start Counting. Keep Counting. Stop Counting? Michigan's election recount hearing set to start in Detroit. Will judge change course? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Hallroom chatter in Michigan recount: Some think the judge has been cornered & he ll have to end the recount; some say he ll keep pushing.U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith is ready to take the bench in #Michiganrecount. And we are OFF! Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Michigan recount Schuette s lawyer John Bursch up first: 6th circuit couldn t have been more clear, this is case about michigan election lawSchuette lawyer talking about Bush v Gore case; says US Supreme Ct. clear on this: federal courts must defer to state in election matters.Judge just asked AG atty John Bursch: has the Mich. Supreme Court ruled on this? his answer: not yet. state high court hasn t heard case.AG atty Bursch: This is the law of Michigan, there is no dispute about that. Unless, of course, Stein appeals to MI Supreme Ct.AG atty Bursch shifts to Jill Stein, and whether she s an aggrieved party. Appeals ct. says no, so do Republicans & Trump.AG atty Bursch: purpose of recount law is to change the outcome of the election. Judge: how do we know that? AG atty Bursch: state's top election official says goal of recount law is to change outcome, not to see if there's a problem; Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016AG atty Bursch: court has already held that it's not right to make taxpayers pay millions for a recount that's not justified Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016AG atty Bursch: Stein s entire purpose is to audit the Michigan system. That s not what our recount law is for.Michigan recount hearing: Judge: how do we know that Stein only got 1%; what if she got more but fraud took place?Judge to AG atty: what if Stein got 20% of the vote; is that enough for her to say she was aggrieved?MI Rep Party atty now up: the michigan courts have ruled, he says, urges judge to end the recount.MI Rep Party Atty: State court has concluded: "it's very unlikely that 2 million mistakes have been made" Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge continues to press: is there any court case that says recounts must produce a change in the outcome in order for them to be allowed?Michigan Rep. Atty: recounts should be used to figure out who should have won the election. Aggrieved means someone who has been harmed Mich. Rep. Atty: Aggrieved does not apply to someone who came in 4th place. #Michiganrecount law is being misused by Jill Stein. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016 This candidate is not aggrieved in any sense of the word Mich. Rep Atty says of Jill Stein; urged judge to dissolve ruling & end recount.Pro-recount atty up: It s quite possible that a recount (in Michigan) would reveal a winner. Not Stein. she doesn t expect that.Pro-recount atty: Michigan recount law isn t just about changing outcome; can also be used to show fraud in election system.Judge Goldsmith discusses cost of recount to taxpayers. Asks Stein atty what she thinks of that? Answer:the law explicitly allows for that.Stein atty notes #Michiganrecount battle not over. the state court decision is not final. going back to appeals court.Judge asks Stein atty: What do you want now? I ordered immediate recount. What s your issue now ? notes there s no federal right to recount.Stein atty: There is no way of knowing whether fraud occurred without conducting the recount. Judge Goldsmith to Stein atty: Why are you coming to court now w hen you knew about the deficiencies beforehand? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge Goldsmith to Stein atty: you could have addressed Michigan's vulnerable voting machines months ago. Why didn't you? why now? Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Judge to Stein atty: is there anything about the recount that will tell us whether there was cyber attack or if machinery malfunctioned?Stein atty: the recount can raise clear flags about whether something went wrong, triggering a forensic audit.Stein atty just ended. says Michigan law allows for recounts, and that it should be continued. AG atty is now up, in a rebuttal.Judge Goldsmith asks about voting machine problems in Detroit; says he s read about problems. AG atty says not as many as being reported.AG atty: the court of appeals has spoken. there is no right for stein to have a recount. that s the end of the story.AG atty to Judge Goldsmith: you might be the 1st judge in history to order recount for a candidate who took 1% of the vote. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Recount shows so far: 10 counties have been recounting; 66 total vote change between Clinton & Trump so far. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Election lawyer: I have not known of anyone to come in and say i believe the system has been compromised or hacked Stein atty: It is way to early to say whether any fraud can be ruled out.Stein atty: Until the Michigan State Supreme Court weighs in, the recount must continue as ordered by the federal court.MI AG atty: "dont' become the first federal court in the country to order a recount for a candidate who lost by 2 million votes." Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016MI AG atty seeks bond: it's costing $500,000 a day for recount. it's not right to impose that kind of "irreparable harm" on the citizens. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016Stein atty: Sec of state doesn t want recount, so don t trust $5 million cost or other numbers being thrown by folks who just don t want it.Stein atty: No bond should be set.Judge Goldsmith orders recess for 20 minutes. he will issue a written order or rule from the bench: I understand the time sensitivity Judge Goldsmith will issue a written opinion on whether to let Michigan presidential election recount continue, or end. Stay tuned. Tresa Baldas (@TBaldas) December 7, 2016
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s executive gave Poland on Tuesday one month to address concerns over a judiciary overhaul or face a court challenge, stepping up pressure over Warsaw s reforms which critics say undermine the independence of the courts. The Commission opened legal proceedings against the nationalist government in Warsaw over judicial reforms in July and said on Tuesday that Poland so far failed to address the points that had been raised. It therefore moved to the second phase of the EU s infringement procedure and said it could escalate the case further if Warsaw does not address the concerns in a month. If the Polish authorities do not take appropriate measures, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU, the Commission said in a statement.
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It only took what 14 years for this to happen? 9-11-01 is a memory that is etched in the minds of every American. One of the most distinctive memories many of us have following the attack by Muslim extremists on our country, was the deafening silence from the huge Muslim community in Dearborn, MI.The protest against ISIS in the majority Muslim community of Dearborn, MI is a good start. Americans can t help but wonder though, why it took so long for Muslims to protest these acts of terror by Islamic extremists? Is it because they ve come to the realization that ISIS is not particularly discriminating about who they target? You can t help but notice the Muslims in this video are carrying a huge sign telling Muslims that 99.9% of ISIS victims are actually Muslims. And you certainly can t help but question where were all the protests when Al-Qaeda and other terror networks announced they were specifically targeting the West.There is no doubt there are Muslim Americans who love this country. Why wouldn t they? We offer freedom of religion, free education, housing, healthcare and food benefits. What we really need to see is that love for country extended to the love for their neighbors, for their Christian and Jewish neighbors specifically. This protest is a good start, but when Muslims make an honest attempt to assimilate in our country, instead of coming here with the intent of maintaining Sharia law and replacing our cultures and religious values with theirs. When they make an attempt to assimilate, that s when we ll know and believe they are truly interested in becoming Americans, not transplanted Muslims from overseas working to turn America into a Sharia compliant nation.
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This blogger s piece is a glimpse into the future of America. Unless we all find a way to stand together and stop Barack Obama and the Democrat party s fundamental transformation from happening we ll be looking for another country who cares more about its citizens than its immigrant population This is the last post on this blog. I am leaving Sweden for good shortly, and will no longer be following its descent from what was once the third most prosperous country in the world. Frankly, it s just too damn depressing.I was born and raised in Sweden, which leaves a cultural mark even though I moved to USA in the 1990s and have spent the better part of my adult life as an American. Coming back for a few years has been a shocking experience.When I was a child, Sweden was a dull yet very safe place to live. Yes, there was a heavy blanket of socialism and collectivist values covering everything, but there was a core of pragmatism beneath the redness. The intention and goal was always to benefit the citizens, even though they went about things in a backwards manner.Prime minister L fven Today, it s as if the inmates are running the asylum. The politicians are participating in a chicken race of goodness where everybody tries to one-up each other in caring for the citizens of OTHER countries while Swedish retirees, school children, handicapped and other vulnerable categories of people are thorougly ignored. Violence is exploding. Jihadist Trojan horses are flowing through the porous border along with the tens of thousands ID-less refugees.But what makes me the most pessimistic about Sweden s future is how the social fabric itself has been undermined.Now, to be clear, it is my opinion that modest immigration is healthy for society and beneficial for trade, cultural development and so forth. Protectionism as a concept is counter-productive, while free trade and the ability for skilled labor to go where they re in demand is beneficial for everyone.Having said that, what Sweden is doing is something completely different. The once homogenous population has been forever altered by a rapid and massive addition of people from vastly different cultures and value-systems. 26,8% of the population is now foreign-born or with at least one foreign-born parent, and the national census bureau estimates that some 150 000 per year will arrive to the country of just 9,8 million residents.There simply is no possible way to absorb and assimilate such volumes of people, period. Then you are merely creating ethnic enclaves, which due to incompatible language, culture and job skills become ghettos, which in turns brews crime, misery and extremism. Once the inflow has exceeded the capacity for absorbtion, further immigration only makes the problem worse.It s like someone having read that a cup of green tea per day is healthy, so they make it a policy to chug four gallons per day, every day. It s a good thing overdone to the extreme until it becomes toxic.Then you have the Swedish school system. There really is no nice way to put it; it s a complete disaster. The minister of education is a man-boy who spends his time making Youtube-videos showing heart-signs with his hands to boost school results, while university-level students can t read and comprehend the course literature.Education minister Gustav FridolinSince there is a delay in the changes in the school system, it is only in recent years the full impact of the knowledge-averse progressive school system is starting to be felt. Hard facts are largely irrelevant; the important thing is to sit in a group and discuss things until a consensus is reached. But with no hard facts to base the conclusions on, it becomes an exercise in futility because it s all random assumptions and opinions. As a university-level history student (!) was quoted as saying in newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the other day: Why would all these dates matter? Who cares in what order things happened? That s not exactly fertile soil for creating the researchers and engineers of the future.Financially, Sweden is an oddity in that it never had its real estate correction when Lehman Bros went belly-up and the housing market everywhere in the West crashed. Sweden just kept steaming ahead, which means housing is ridiculously overinflated. In Stockholm, the real estate prices increased 19% and in Gothenburg 24% in the last 12 months alone from an already sky-high level.Tear-down abandoned house from 1932 with small, unremarkable lot in the outskirts of Stockholm. Current bid: 7,5 million SEK, or close to $900,000.As a result, personal debt of the Swedish population is at an all-time high. To keep all this afloat the normal mortgage interest rates are at 2% with central bank Riksbanken at -0,25%, and yet a significant portion of the borrowers are hanging by a thread. If and when foreign banks and investors decide it s time to turn their backs on Sweden (as happened in the early 1990s) there s going to be a lot of pain.Then you have the financial obligations going forward. Like much of the western world, there is a demographic change where fewer tax-paying adults are to support a glut of retirees. What makes it especially dire for Sweden is that in addition to the old Swedes, there s also a ton of elderly immigrants that are granted family visas based on younger relatives having been granted asylum. They ve never paid a dime in taxes, yet enter the system with full benefits from day one. In theory, this would be made up for by the younger relatives working and paying taxes. Sadly, this is not the case; while ethnical Swedes have a 82% employment rate, immigrants only have 57% with non-Europeans coming in at just 51%.If Sweden was a person, it d be like the guy with three mortgages, seven maxed-out credit cards and four collection agencies chasing him that just signed a lease for a brand new BMW X6. Simply put, there s a lot of red ink in the future; it just hasn t been fully realized yet.Finally, there s the sorry state of the Swedish defense. After decades of constant slashing of the defense budget, the extent of Swedish ambition is to stall an invader for a week in a limited area. This with war raging in Europe, Russian missiles pointed at Sweden in Kaliningrad, and Russian submarines and bomber jets openly thumbing their nose at Sweden as they intrude on Swedish territory on a regular basis. The power vacuum in Scandinavia is so tangible you can almost hear a sucking sound as you fly over it. This, too, will require massive investments when the penny finally drops amongst Swedish politicians.So while I can t claim to be any kind of authority on macroeconomics or social predictive models, I see red lights across the board.In some ways, I d compare the country to a farm. Previously, Sweden acted like a sensible farmer and planted wheat here, carrots there, potatoes over there et cetera, by implementing free schooling, sound infrastructure investments, state-financed research and so forth. A few decades later, they reaped the rewards and climbed the prosperity ladder.In the late 1960s, this pragmatic line was abandoned as leftist idealist Olof Palme took over. But there was plenty to harvest from previous years, so Sweden continued to be the land of milk and honey for a good long while. Then things started drying up, and the process has been one of gradual erosion and decline since the 1990s.The famous Swedish health care system is a good example. 120 000 hospital beds in the late 1960s became 20 000 today. Cancer patients are put on waiting lists for months. Entire emergency wards shut down for summer. The crumbling Swedish railroad system is another symptom I examined in-depth last year. The aforementioned defense that now consist of about three fat generals and a rusty rifle (bullets withheld for budgetary reasons).A sensible farmer would see the problems for what they are and hurry to plant new seeds, so as to return to bountiful harvests of wheat, carrots, potatoes etc. Instead, the Swedish politicians goes by dogma and plants what they think SHOULD grow. So they plant M & Ms, hot dogs and pretzels. The results won t be fully evident for a few years yet, but as the last reserves of the old harvests are depleted, things will get Interesting.From what I can see, there simply is no plausible scenario where these social tensions and future financial committments will not lead to a downward spiral of hardship and strife. I hope I m wrong. I really do, because I have friends and family I care about that will remain here to see it all play out.But I won t. I ll be back in the US being mad at Obama for being a lying scumbag. And if Trump manages to get elected in 2016? Whoo boy. A racist ignoramus who takes pride in the worst qualities of a cranky eight-year old should make George Dumbo Bush seem like Abe Lincoln by comparison. So every country has its problems. USA has its corrupt yokel in office, just as Sweden has Stefan L fven. Via: The Sweden Report
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For too long, media networks have allowed Donald Trump to have unfettered access to their shows via phone, and now Trump is starting to lose that privilege.It all started on Fox & Friends long before Trump announced that he was running for president. The hosts of that show would constantly invite his disembodied voice to make an appearance in order to bash President Obama or throw out some other ridiculous opinion on the story or issue of the day.And that laziness ended up being adopted by most networks after Trump threw his hat in the presidential ring. Even the Sunday shows that traditionally require candidates to actually show up in person allowed Trump to phone it in for the sake of ratings. This gave Trump a major advantage in that he wouldn t have to fly into New York to make appearances and get media coverage. He could get media coverage all the time without interrupting his campaign schedule.Interestingly, only Fox News Sunday showed some integrity and refused to let Trump call into the show. Host Chris Wallace made that decision early on calling the rule a line worth holding even if the network took a hit in the ratings.And now Meet The Press host Chuck Todd is cutting Trump s phone line as well.According to the New York Times,On Friday, Chuck Todd, the moderator of Meet the Press, told me he had only grudgingly allowed Mr. Trump to call in to his show earlier in the campaign, determining that he would rather have Mr. Trump take questions via phone than not at all.Now, Mr. Todd said, he will no longer allow Mr. Trump to do prescheduled interviews by phone on the NBC program.In addition, CNN has told the Times that it would think twice before giving full coverage to a Trump news conference that devolves into an infomercial. Is the media finally beginning to realize that they are partly responsible for the rise of Trump? Has the media finally decided that they need to be more serious about this election and stop giving Trump free advertising? Are they finally going to start holding Trump accountable for what he says and does instead of letting him get away with saying and doing whatever he wants?For now, it looks like the media is heading in that direction, but ABC s This Week With George Stephanopoulos continues to let Trump phone it in and every network still covers every little thing Trump says, writes, or does for the sake of ratings instead of performing the journalistic duties Americans need them to do. They especially need the crucial Sunday news programs to start doing their jobs and stop letting Trump have his way. He needs to be forced to look the American people and news anchors in the eye when he is talking, and that s why his should have his phone taken away like a petulant child who refuses to get off the phone even after the parents tell him to. After all, as the New York Times points out, the programs were named Face the Nation and Meet the Press not Call the Nation or Phone the Press. So if Trump wants media coverage, he ll appear to show up in person. That should always be the way it works.Featured Image: YouTube
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If Rudy Giuliani is going to continue bringing up 9/11, he should at least have the common decency to not lie about what happened that day and in the aftermath.After all, thousands of pictures were taken that day and in the days after in addition to hundreds of videos. So one would think Giuliani would know better than to blatantly lie.But that s exactly what he did during a rally in Florida on Wednesday in support of serial groper Donald Trump. Don t tell me if you said that you remember September 11, 2001, Giuliani said in reference to Hillary talking about being in the city. I remember September 11, 2001. Yes, yes, you helped to get benefits for the people who were injured that day. But I heard her say that she was there that day. I was there that day, I don t remember seeing Hillary Clinton there. That was like when she said she had to run through gunfire. That turned out to be, what do we call it? A lie. But don t tell me that you subscribe to the notion that all of us who were there on September 11, and we re lucky to have been alive and lost so many friends. I lost so many friends on September 11, I think about it every day. Don t tell me you belong to our very, very tight group of never forget. Don t tell me that. Here s the video via Twitter.Rudy Giuliani: I was there on 9/11, I don t remember seeing Hillary Clinton there. https://t.co/iRB09cQ8eH ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 12, 2016Hillary Clinton was serving her first year as a United States Senator representing New York at the time the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. She was in Washington D.C. heading to the Senate when evacuations were underway.The next day, Hillary went to New York City to stand in solidarity with Giuliani and Governor George Pataki, both Republicans, and tour the devastation.As for Giuliani never seeing Hillary, a single photo makes everything pretty damn clear as my colleague Oliver Willis pointed out On Twitter. I don t remember seeing Hillary Clinton on 9/11 Rudy Giuliani, just now. Look to your left, Rudy. pic.twitter.com/zJbVFMDhuf Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 12, 2016 Look to the left, indeed.It s completely unfair for Republicans to pretend that they were the only ones who went through 9/11. The fact is that the entire country went through it, even if they were not physically there. Besides, Hillary was in our nation s capital that day when terrorists flew a plane into the Pentagon.But, hey, at least Giuliani s memory is improving. Only a few weeks ago he forgot that 9/11 ever happened.Featured Image: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a Jamaican fashion model against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s modeling agency, the judge’s office said. Alexia Palmer accuses Trump Model Management LLC of lying to the federal government in its work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year salary while living in the United States, according to court documents.RECOMMENDED: Iran tests more missiles, says capable of reaching Israel Instead, according to court papers, Palmer received a total of $3,880.75 during the three years she was under contract with the agency. The complaint alleges “fraudulent misrepresentation” and violations of U.S. immigration and labor laws. It asks for $225,000 in back pay. The suit was originally filed in October 2014. A decision on a pending motion by Trump Model Management to dismiss is expected by the end of March, the clerk for Judge Analisa Torres, who is presiding over the case in the U.S District Court, Southern District, told Reuters. If Torres rules the case can proceed, it could revive attention on Trump’s foreign labor practices at a time when the celebrity billionaire’s rise in American politics has riveted the world’s attention. Trump’s lawyers have called the case “frivolous” and “without merit.” In court documents, they said Palmer wasn’t an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a “very brief stint as a fashion model,” which they say amounted to less than 10 days of work over three years. Reuters could not independently confirm that assertion. “At the end of the day, this model just didn’t have a successful career, and we fully expect to win,” said Lawrence Rosen, a lawyer for Trump Model Management. Although Trump owns the modeling agency, the suit does not name him. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement that Trump Model Management’s treatment of Palmer was in line with “standard practice in the modeling industry.” Palmer’s lawyer, Naresh Gehi, says his client was cheated of earnings and seduced by a life of glamour that never materialized. “The visa application the company filed with the government requires that people are paid the full amount,” Gehi said. “It’s a requirement.” Palmer, who was 17 when she came to New York in 2011, was not available to comment. Sylvia Ayass, a lawyer who has worked with models on visas like Palmer’s, said agencies typically pay what they state on visa applications. Trump has won Republican frontrunner status in the 2016 election in large part by positioning himself as a champion of the American worker who will deport illegal immigrants, build a wall with Mexico and do away with the off shoring of U.S. jobs. This is not the first time Trump’s labor practices have drawn criticism. A Reuters story published in August revealed that Trump’s companies sought to import at least 1,100 workers on temporary visas since 2000. Of those, 250 were filed for foreign fashion models, according to the Reuters analysis of federal Department of Labor data. Using a federal visa program called H-1B that allows U.S. employers to hire “specialized” foreign labor, Trump’s modeling agency offered Palmer “at least $75,000 per year” for three years. It listed that salary on her H-1B visa application in 2011, according to the court documents reviewed by Reuters. It’s not the industry norm to use H-1B visas, which are usually reserved for highly skilled specialized labor like engineers, programmers and medical specialists. O-1 visas are more common, modeling agency lawyers and executives said. The O-1 is typically used by artists and athletes. Though H-1B use is rare, a Reuters analysis found that in the past three years, modeling agencies have submitted 181 applications for H-1B visas for foreign models. Of those, 173 stated that the model would be paid an hourly wage, ranging from as little as $8.40 an hour to as much as $500 an hour. The Trump Model yearly salary listed in the federal database of H-1B applications was the outlier. Rosen, the lawyer for Trump Model Management, said the $75,000 a year figure was simply a guess, not a guarantee. Under that contract, Palmer agreed “to promptly reimburse” Trump Model Management “for any and all costs and expenses” that the agency incurred relating to her modeling. According to the suit, the agreement stipulated that Trump Model Management would take a 20 percent cut of Palmer’s earnings but instead took 80 percent by deducting charges for everything from postage to walking lessons to mobile phone costs and limousine rides, as well as $4,000 in “administrative fees,” according to court documents. The suit said it was seeking class-action status to represent other models who believe they were misled and underpaid after coming to the United States with sponsorship from Trump’s modeling agency.
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Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka warned Syrian President Bashar Assad after evidence arose earlier this week that the Assad regime could be planning another chemical weapons attack on its people. Gorka says, if you do this again, there will be significant damage done to your forces and to your interests. We are there to destroy Isis. CHEMICAL WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT? SYRIA S ASSAD COULD BE PLANNING ANOTHER ATTACK: Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the United States had recently seen activity at Shayrat airfield, the same base targeted by a U.S. cruise missile strike on April 6. This involved specific aircraft in a specific hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical weapons use, Davis said.Davis said the activity occurred during the past day or two. He did not say how the United States collected its intelligence.The White House said on Monday it appeared the Syrian government was preparing for another chemical weapons attack and warned Assad that he and his military would pay a heavy price if it went ahead.REMEMBER WHEN WE HAD A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF WHO DECIDED HE WOULDN T HONOR HIS THREAT TO SYRIA:THE RED LINE READ MORE: REUTERS
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government has denied a U.N. report accusing it of a sarin attack in April that killed scores of people, state media said on Friday. Damascus sent the United Nations a letter asserting that Syria has not and will not use toxic gases against its people because it does not have them in the first place , state news agency SANA said. U.N. war crimes investigators said this week that Syrian forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during the six-year conflict. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said a government warplane dropped sarin on Khan Sheikhoun in insurgent-held Idlib province in April, killing more than 80 civilians. The attack prompted a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian government air base. A fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) previously identified the attack as containing sarin, an odorless nerve agent. But that conclusion did not assign blame. The Syrian government has said before that air strikes in the town of Khan Sheikhoun hit a weapons depot belonging to rebel factions. The U.N. investigators dismissed this. President Bashar al-Assad s government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons in the war and says it only targets militants. In 2013, hundreds of civilians died in a sarin gas attack in the suburbs of the capital Damascus, in an attack that Western states blamed on Assad s government. Damascus blamed rebels. In the wake of the atrocity, the United States and Russia brokered a deal under which Syria joined the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria declared it had 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons or industrial chemical stocks, surrendering it to the international community for destruction. U.N.-OPCW investigators have said that the government continued to use chlorine, which is widely available and hard to trace. Chlorine is not a banned substance, but the use of any chemical is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. A series of U.N.-OPCW investigations found that various parties in the war have used chlorine, sulfur mustard gas and sarin.
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded outside the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday killing the driver, police said, and a witness said there were at least two bodies. The explosion happened around noon in the village of Markaz, just over 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, Police Major Nur Ali told Reuters, adding that police had not reached the scene which he called an area inhabited by hardline Islamists . A witness in the village who gave his name as Ahmed told Reuters by telephone that he had seen two dead bodies. The car was ruined and the dead bodies were cut in halves, he said. The number killed in twin bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu last weekend has risen to 358, the government said late on Friday. It was the deadliest attack in the country s history. The Islamist insurgency al Shabaab was blamed for Saturday s blasts, which happened when a car bomb and a truck bomb headed for the airport detonated prematurely.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday praised Saudi Arabia for exposing Iran s role in Yemen and Tehran s provision of missile systems to Houthi militia fighting there, following the interception of a missile fired toward the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday. We continue to maintain strong defense ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and work together on common security priorities to include combat operations against violent extremist organizations, and neutralizing Iran s destabilizing influence in the Middle East region, said Pentagon spokesman Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate passed the first broad energy bill in nine years on Wednesday, legislation containing modest measures popular with both Republicans and Democrats to modernize the power grid and speed the permitting process for liquefied natural gas exports. The bill, which passed 85-12, attempts to protect the power grid from extreme weather events such as ice storms and hurricanes, and from cyber attacks. It also aims to spur innovations in storage of power from wind and solar energy. The House of Representatives passed a similar bill last year. The Energy Policy and Modernization Act would increase U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), eventually helping to give European consumers alternatives to relying mainly on Russia for gas. After disagreements held the bill up for months, senators last week dropped measures from the bill to aid Flint, Michigan overcome a drinking water crisis, in which children have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead, and on offshore drilling. Lawmakers from both the House and Senate will next iron out differences over the bill. The Senate bill, for instance, requires the Department of Energy to issue a decision on LNG projects within 45 days of an environmental assessment, while the House bill directs the DOE to make the decision on permits after 30 days. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state who co-sponsored the bill, said shortly before it passed that she hoped the chambers would move quickly “so that we can realize the opportunity to help our businesses and consumers plan for the energy future.” The White House has signaled that President Barack Obama would sign the Senate bill. Energy policy analyst Kevin Book of ClearView Energy Partners said the chances the bill would be signed into law this year were about 65 percent, because the White House has had some differences with the House bill. Charlie Riedl, the head of industry group the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, said the vote was a “big step forward” and that certainty about the regulatory process is “crucial” for projects that cost billions of dollars to build. Rob Cowin, director of government affairs at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group, said the bill falls “far short” of what is needed to promote wind and solar power, but is “better than doing nothing.” The Senate on Tuesday passed several amendments to the bill, including restricting most sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when oil prices are low.
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WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s vow to “send in the Feds” if Chicago is unable to cut shootings and killings is a pledge to provide law enforcement or other federal assistance so that the city’s citizens will feel safe, the White House said on Wednesday. “We’ll hopefully get a dialogue started with Mayor (Rahm) Emanuel to try to figure out what a path forward can be so that we come up with a plan that can keep the people of Chicago safe,” said White House spokesman Sean Spicer. Emanuel told reporters that he has always welcomed federal help in Chicago and he would like to see the city’s partnership with federal law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency enhanced and strengthened. “Chicago, like other cities right now that are dealing with gun violence, want the partnerships with federal law enforcement agencies in a more significant way,” Emanuel said. Emanuel added that he was opposed to deployment of the National Guard, which he said would be counterproductive to reinvigorating community policing in the city, calling it “antithetical” to these efforts. “The National Guard has nothing to do with public safety,” he said. The mayor, who noted Chicago is not alone in seeing spiking crime rates, said the problem must also be addressed with programs for after-school activities, summer jobs, and mentoring, as well the “certainty of sentencing” at the state and federal levels for gun crimes. Last year, the Midwest city of 2.7 million saw a surge of violence with 762 murders, an uptick of 57 percent from the previous year. The mayor and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson have said that those who commit shootings do not fear the repercussions due to lax sentences for gun offenders. Trump has periodically cited Chicago’s violence as an example of rising inner city crime. Urban violence, drug trafficking and poverty were recurring themes in Trump’s campaign appearances. (Story refiled to add missing letter to word “last” in paragraph 8)
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Years ago, Donald Trump tweeted that he hoped Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would become his new best friend. During the debates, he looked immensely sad as he said the words he s not my best friend when he was accused of being a Russian puppet. But now that Vladimir Putin has helped him get elected and Trump has taken to openly praising the Russian president on Twitter, it seems that they are finally ready to buy matching friendship bracelets and make it official.On Friday, Vladimir Putin announced that he would not immediately retaliate against the United States for expelling 35 suspected Russian intelligence agents. Putin, who personally directed an effort to hack Donald Trump s opposition in what the CIA has confirmed was a far-reaching effort to install Donald Trump as President, has been earning nothing but praise from The Donald, who says with a wink-and-a-nod that he totally knew nothing about anything that was happening and denies that Russia is responsible for the hacks.Putin says that instead, he will wait for Donald Trump to become President before he decides how to move forward a fairly concrete sign that the two are working in collusion. At any point, Trump could say no more! At any point, he could be honest with the American people about their relationship and possibly even avoid prison time. Unfortunately, this is Donald Trump we re talking about, and he seems to be immune to scrutiny, prosecution, or anything else he deserves. Further steps toward the restoration of Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of the policy which the administration of President D. Trump will carry out, Putin said Friday.This is another time trump could have stepped up. He could have cemented his place as a strong President by telling Putin that he stands by the decision to expel 35 suspected spies. Instead, he sided with Russia yet again, praising his President for the delay something that will virtually ensure that Putin gets whatever he wants.Great move on delay (by V. Putin) I always knew he was very smart! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016Of course, The Internet does not take kindly to the incoming President praising Russian dictators, especially after spending years bashing our President:The Narcissist in Chief is now praising the dictator who hacked our election. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/lAMx6XUGDX Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump Trump sides with Russia against America. I knew it. Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump gives continuous praise to a dictator who kills journalists. _( )_/ Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) December 30, 2016Keep acting like a foreign agent, @realDonaldTrump. We re already seeing discord in GOP congress over your un-American behavior. Keep going. https://t.co/XYrIjD1HTc John Aravosis (@aravosis) December 30, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Don't you think it might be more appropriate for you to praise the American president instead of the Russian president? Simon Hedlin (@simonhedlin) December 30, 2016@Qu33fyDUBBZ @realDonaldTrump His continuing and sweaty embrace of a murderous thug speaks volumes. About him. About his supporters. HarleyPeyton (@HarleyPeyton) December 30, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Yeah we know, you love him: pic.twitter.com/ll0cKXiFME Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump As usual, Russia comes first in the Trump administration Matt Peterson (@mattbpete) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump Maybe you should take the intelligence briefing. They can do puppets if you give them a day's notice. pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump You're sucking up to the guy who just made a mockery of the US election. Beyond embarrassing. Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump your tweets are going to get you fired (like a normal person) and it's going to be fucking hilarious justin lew block (@JBlock49) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump You're supporting a Russian dictator for attacking America. Seriously what is wrong with you? Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) December 30, 2016.@realDonaldTrump but who is your *favorite* journalist Putin had murdered? Joe Berkowitz (@JoeBerkowitz) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump You two are so cute! Jon Bershad (@JonBershad) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump why don't you just invite him to live with you at the White House already if you're so f*cking fascinated with him Whitney Meyer (@itswhitneymeyer) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump can't wait for your treason trial, you walking cock puppet #article3section3 Roxanne Benjamin (@roxanne73) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump you think you're smart but you're just an insecure man-child trying to make the dad who disapproved of you proud. Nat Love (@WittyHendrix) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump I am trying to find something good in you and the only thing I continue to see if how unfit you are to be President! Smurfette (@dsmurf22) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump And they call it puppy love. It's love, folks. Silvia Ramirez (@shoutthetruth2) December 30, 2016@realDonaldTrump YOU FUCKING TRAITOR Boycott Trump SCION (@puppymnkey) December 30, 2016For years, conservatives have accused President Obama of treason every time he so much as sneezed. Under 18 U.S. Code 2381, treason is defined as such:Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.While nothing Obama has done has come close, isn t Trump s repeated praise of Putin a man who personally oversaw an attack on our nation giving aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere? Isn t the fact that the Russian President s delay until his puppet was in office a move Trump praised adhering to an enemy of the United States?I won t wish death on Trump, even if his actions call for it under our nation s laws. Death would give him an easy out and prevent him from learning what it s like to wake up every day staring at the cold walls of a prison cell.Featured image via Getty Images (Justin Sullivan)/screengrab
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On Friday, The Daily Show did a segment on the Flint Water crisis. During the segment, host Trevor Noah began the segment by offering this bit of advice, I have a very simple rule in rule If the water s brown than me, I don t drink it. In April 2014, Flint s emergency manager forced the city to switch from using Detroit s water system to using the Flint River for water. The decision to do so was touted as a means to cut costs for the city. It turned out to be a disaster. There is an unusual amount of salt in the Flint River. The river is also extremely contaminated. So when the salt began to corrode the pipes of Flint s water system, lead leaked into people s drinking water. One study found the pipe corrosion problem could have been solved for as little as $100 a day. Now it is estimated that it will cost up to $1.5 billion dollars to fix Flint s water system.Noah noticed that the problem with Flint s water is so bad, that it reminded him of the ads that charities run, that try to raise money for people in Africa. A hundred dollars a day? Why didn t you say something? I want to call out to all my people in Africa right now watching The Daily Show. Because my friends: for only a hundred dollars a day, we can save a village in America and get these people drinking the water that they so badly need. There has been massive outcry over the water system transition since day one. When evidence was shown that Flint s water had become contaminated, Snyder and the emergency manager choose not to act. That s why Snyder is currently being investigated by the EPA.Republican policies have officially destroyed an entire city s water infrastructure, making Flint resemble a third world nation when it comes to infrastructure. For so called fiscal conservatives the policies that led to the Flint water crisis are born out of the same values that most Republicans hold dear. Cut spending, at all costs. It doesn t matter if any entire city is poisoned. In their view, a pound of cure is worth more than an ounce of prevention.You can watch the segment below, in full.The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Get More: The Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,The Daily Show Video ArchiveFeatured Image Credit: Screenshot via Comedy Central
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The way in which Donald Trump has handled the aftermath of Hurricane Maria s impact on Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, has been nothing short of terrible and incompetent, leading many to question his ability to even locate Puerto Rico on a map. The only thing more disgusting than the actions of President Trump is the behavior of his blind followers and Fox News reporter and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera set the bar relatively low recently.San Juan Mayor Carmen Yul n Cruz reached out to Trump first by pleading in an interview for him to save us from dying, but to no avail. Cruz then tried in the only way proven effective, by taking to Twitter almost a week after Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Puerto Rico since 1928, struck the country and left most of the population without power or fresh water. She began by retweeting the pleas of others and then attempted to get Trump s attention directly:Se or Presidente no eliminar las leyes de cabotaje es inmoral. Es un acto de opresi n financiera que solo lograr agravar nuestra crisis. pic.twitter.com/6UujyEUlTD Carmen Yul n Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) September 28, 2017Her first tweet to Trump was a plea to eliminate the Jones Act, an outdated and antiquated maritime law requiring all goods transported by water between US ports be carried on US-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by US citizens, and crewed by US citizens and US permanent residents, a law that is drastically holding up relief efforts. Cruz s tweet read in Spanish, Mr. President, not to eliminate the laws of cabotage is immoral. It is an act of financial oppression that will only aggravate our crisis. It is almost certain that Trump can t read Spanish or comprehend the fact that Cabotage is a real term to refer to coastal navigation and trade, so naturally, he saw this as an insult:The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017 Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017 want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017While Trump put off visiting Puerto Rico for another week, Geraldo Rivera decided to make the trip on behalf of Fox News to see what Cruz was so concerned about. There are all people at all municipalities literally starving, dehydrating, Cruz told Rivera. We have had our hospital try to go back to speed but then the electricity goes off and we have to do all the bacteria testing, which takes three to four days. Geraldo wasn t convinced and felt the need to interject. But are people dying? he interrupted. I ve been traveling around, I don t see people dying. I spoke to the doctors, they say they saw 53 patients and they had a person who was septic, but nobody dying. Mayor Cruz tried her best to reason with the mustachioed one. Dying is a continuum, she explained. If you don t get fed for seven, eight days and you re a child, you are dying. If you have 11 people like we took out of a nursing home severely dehydrated, you are dying. Watch the madness unfold below and, in case you were wondering, the death toll in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria stood at 16 as of Sunday with only nine hospitals connected to the electric grid.Featured image via screenshot
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration and top U.S. Senate Republicans pushed on Tuesday for action on a bill to dismantle Obamacare, but time was running out and they were still hunting for the votes needed to pass their latest attempt to gut the 2010 healthcare law. Vice President Mike Pence lunched with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to urge them to approve the legislation introduced last week by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy. Pence said President Donald Trump backs the bill. “Now is the time. We have 12 days” to pass it, Pence said before the lunch. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who fell a single vote short of securing passage of another healthcare overhaul bill in July, said the Graham-Cassidy legislation “has a great deal of support,” but would not commit to bringing it to the Senate floor for consideration. After Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year, procedural rules will make it much more difficult for Republicans. The bill after Oct. 1 would need 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to be brought up for consideration, rather than a simple majority until the end of the month. Despite controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, Republicans this year have failed to make good on their seven-year effort to dismantle a law that was the top legislative achievement of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. Having suffered the humiliating failure in July, Republican congressional leaders only want to hold a vote on legislation they know can pass. “At the end of the day, I really believe we’re going to get 50 Republican votes,” Graham told reporters, but he would not say how many committed votes he has now in a Senate that his party controls 52-48. Dismantling the Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, was a central campaign promise last year by Trump. Republicans call that law a government overreach into the healthcare system. Democrats point out that it has expanded health insurance coverage to some 20 million more people. The new bill could give Republicans one last shot this year on healthcare. It proposes to replace Obamacare with a system giving states money in block grants to run their own healthcare programs. It would allow states to opt out of certain Obamacare protections for consumers and waive regulations requiring insurers to cover certain health benefits. It also would end the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and disabled. “Similar to proposals that were considered in the Senate in July, we believe the Graham-Cassidy amendment would result in millions of Americans losing their health insurance coverage, destabilize health insurance markets, and decrease access to affordable coverage and care,” said James Madara, chief executive of the American Medical Association. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans were “grossly irresponsible” to consider the Cassidy-Graham legislation before getting a full assessment of its effects from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Several Republicans, including the same three senators whose “no” votes blocked the earlier bill in July, are still undecided, including Graham’s close friend John McCain. A bipartisan group of 10 governors wrote a letter to Senate leaders asking them not to consider the Cassidy-Graham bill, and instead urged support for bipartisan talks on healthcare legislation now going on in the Senate health committee. Alaska Governor Bill Walker was among those who signed the letter. One of his state’s two senators, Republican Lisa Murkowski, is among those undecided on the Cassidy-Graham bill. Meanwhile the clock is ticking. The Senate will not be in session Wednesday through Sunday. The Senate Finance Committee said it will hold a hearing on the bill next Monday. Graham said House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan has told him that if the Senate passes the Cassidy-Graham bill, the House will, too. Ryan has told McConnell that the separate bipartisan healthcare effort in the Senate that aims to protect some subsidies being paid to insurance companies to help people buy insurance policies would not be viable in the House, according to a source familiar with the discussion who asked not to be identified. Trump’s administration has repeatedly threatened to cut off payments made directly to insurers, called cost-sharing reductions, that help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income consumers. It faced a deadline on Wednesday to make the payments for the month of September, and insurers expected to receive the payments. If the bill were to go through, it would likely affect revenue at most insurers, including small companies like Centene Corp (CNC.N) and Molina Healthcare (MOH.N) that focus on Medicaid, and larger more diversified companies like Anthem Inc (ANTM.N), Aetna Inc (AET.N) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), Wall Street analysts said. Aetna shares were off 2.8 percent on Tuesday and UnitedHealth was down 2.3 percent while the stocks of hospital chains were also lower on the possibility of less government funding, including HCA Healthcare’s (HCA.N) decline of 2 percent.
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(Reuters) - After weeks of discussions behind closed doors, the U.S. Senate unveiled a draft of its healthcare bill on Thursday that would overhaul the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The House of Representatives narrowly passed its healthcare bill last month. If the Senate passes its bill, the House will either have to vote on the Senate version of the legislation or the two chambers will have to reconcile their differences in a conference committee. Obamacare extended coverage to some 20 million additional Americans through both subsidized private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. Since its passage in 2010, Republicans have campaigned on repealing the program and argued that the law is too costly and represents undue government interference in Americans’ healthcare. Here is how the two bills compare on their main provisions: Under Obamacare, more than 30 states, including about a dozen states with Republican governors, expanded the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Both bills would roll back the expansion and significantly overhaul the program, which provides insurance to nearly 70 million people. SENATE: The draft legislation would phase out Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid over three years, from 2021 to 2024. It would then overhaul the program and reduce its federal funding more than the House bill would, beginning in 2025. HOUSE: The bill would allow the Medicaid expansion to continue until Jan. 1, 2020. After that date, expansion would end, and people who enrolled in the expansion could not re-enroll once they leave. Medicaid funding would be capped on a per-person basis. SENATE: The bill would repeal most Obamacare taxes beginning after Dec. 31, 2016, including the 3.8 percent net investment income tax on wealthy Americans. The tax on branded prescription brands would be repealed in 2018, and the legislation would delay the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-provided insurance. It would also provide more generous tax credits for the purchase of private health insurance for people between zero and 350 percent of the federal poverty level based on income. Under Obamacare, those between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level were eligible for tax credits. HOUSE: The bill would repeal most Obamacare taxes retroactively after Dec. 31, 2016, and delay the Cadillac tax to 2026. It would provide flat age-based tax credits for the purchase of private health insurance ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per year that would be capped at upper-income levels. Both bills would repeal the penalties associated with the individual mandate that nearly everyone purchase health insurance or else pay a fine, and the mandate that employers provide insurance to employees. SENATE: The legislation would maintain the popular Obamacare provision that young adults be allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. It would also prevent insurers from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions, but would give states flexibility to opt out of so-called essential health benefits, such as maternity care and prescription drug coverage, that experts said could make it harder for some sick people to find affordable plans. The bill would also allow insurers to charge older Americans up to five times more than younger Americans. HOUSE: The bill would allow young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. It would allow states to opt out of essential health benefits and Obamacare’s requirement that insurers charge sick and healthy people the same rates. It would also let insurers mark up premiums by 30 percent for those who have a lapse in insurance coverage of about two months or more. Insurers could charge older Americans up to five times more than younger Americans.
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On September 15, Hillary apparently held a rally in the Old Student Recreational Center at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, NC. This was her first public appearance since she convulsed and had to be lifted into her van following the 9-11 memorial in NYC. Hillary s campaign was quick to blame the heat until they discovered conservative websites were able to quickly access the weather and determine that it was a balmy 74 degrees in NYC! Hillary was quickly whisked away to her daughter Chelsea s apartment following her incident, passing more than one hospital on the way to recuperate. Did Hillary recover from her incident or was this rally faked to make it look like she did?Here is the first video of Hillary s Greensboro, NC rally that was causing viewers to ask what the heck are those cameras in Hillary s audience pointing at? If you look closely, it sure isn t Hillary!Watch this video first, and then the video below to get a closer analysis of what appears to be a phony rally for Hillary at https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU5/status/777263623915745280This stunning video takes the viewer through and shows step-by-step where the audience is faked:Here is the actual video from C-Span to prove nothing was doctored in the videos above. Holy moly!
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The White House published what they claim is Donald Trump s 2005 tax information 25 minutes before Rachel Maddow aired it on her show Tuesday night.BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC.(Seriously). Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 14, 2017Speaking on background, a White House official said, You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago. Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required, the official continued. That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that. Despite this substantial income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns. The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans. Daily Caller
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is prepared to ramp up sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, European Council President Donald Tusk said. The EU stands ready to sharpen its policy of sanctions and invites North Korea to restart dialogue on its programers without condition, Tusk said in a statement. We call on the UN Security Council to adopt further UN sanctions and show stronger resolve to achieve a peaceful decentralization of the Korean peninsula. The stakes are getting too high.
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel s president on Sunday turned down a pardon request by an ex-conscript who is serving an serving a 14-month jail term for killing an incapacitated Palestinian assailant. In September, Israel s military reduced by four months the 18-month jail term of Elor Azaria who was caught on videotape shooting dead a Palestinian who was lying wounded after taking part in a stabbing attack on other Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March 2015. A statement issued by President Reuven Rivlin s office said that he had reviewed the plea and after Azaria had already received reductions to his sentence, it would not be right to grant a pardon. The president believes ... that an additional reduction in punishment would undermine the strength of the military, its values, and of the state of Israel, part of the statement read. It added that the president understood that Azaria was due to face a parole board shortly and could be released in three months time. Azaria became a right-wing cause celebre in Israel, where most Jewish men and women are drafted at 18 for military service. One poll found that nearly half of Israeli Jews believe any Palestinian attacker should be killed on the spot. Azaria said he shot Abd Elfatah Ashareef because he feared the Palestinian could carry out another attack, but a court-martial found contradictions in the testimony and convicted him of manslaughter. The verdict was upheld on appeal. Right-wing ministers and lawmakers, including Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, criticized Rivlin s decision, saying he should have pardoned Azaria. President Rivlin had an opportunity to end an affair that has rocked Israeli society, Lieberman wrote. Beyond the price that the soldier and his family have paid ... I believe ... that (there is a need) to heal the rifts in society ... we must not forget that this was a case of (Azaria), an exemplary soldier (facing) a terrorist who came to kill. After being discharged from the military, Azaria went to prison in August and appealed to the armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, to reconsider his sentence, citing the cost to his family of the acrimonious trial. In a response letter, the military informed Azaria that Eizenkot had decided to cut the jail term on grounds of compassion and mercy ... taking into account your past as a combat soldier in an operational theater . But the letter also faulted the former soldier over grave actions for which you did not take responsibility and for which you did not express regret, adding that the important messages in the court rulings should be heeded . The Palestinian government said Azaria s jail term had given Israeli soldiers a green light to kill with impunity. Under Israeli law, manslaughter can carry a maximum 20 years behind bars. Military prosecutors had asked the appeals court to impose a three- to five-year sentence on Azaria, but were turned down.
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POTOMAC, Md. (Reuters) - As Hillary Clinton sets her sights on becoming the first female president of the United States, the Democratic front-runner has found herself in another role - the subject of children’s books. In “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do All the Good You Can,” author Cynthia Levinson charts her rise from her youth in Park Ridge, Illinois, to her work as a U.S. senator and secretary of state. Levinson brought Clinton’s story this week to fourth graders at Cold Spring Elementary School in suburban Washington, whom she found were paying close attention to the presidential race. “I hope kids enjoy the book, and I hope that it’s thought-provoking for them,” said Levinson, who went to Wellesley College with Clinton and interviewed mutual acquaintances and the former first lady for the book. The book is among several recent children’s biographies on Clinton. They include “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls are Born to Lead” by Michelle Markel and Jonah Winter’s picture book “Hillary.” While the books all include the theme of female strength, Levinson said she was keen to highlight both Clinton’s successes and failures, such as her vote for the U.S. war in Iraq and bungled healthcare initiative while first lady. The grade-schoolers were divided over whether Clinton, 68, was the woman for the job. “I’m more on Bernie Sanders’ side. Hillary Clinton is less direct than Bernie Sanders,” said Sudhish Swain, 10, referring to Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination. Many students said they got their news about the election, which will be held in November, from the radio or school bus debates. “We mostly agree that Donald Trump would not be a good president,” said Tianlai Yang. Katherine Pease, 9, added: “He lies, he’s a hypocrite, he’s a megalomaniac, and he’s delusional, which, really, those four qualities aren’t good for a president.” She showed off an op-ed piece she had submitted to the Washington Post urging Republicans to rally around one candidate to counter Trump. She said she hoped that candidate would be Ohio Governor John Kasich. Kyle Baer said he liked Clinton but still would not vote for her if he were old enough. “The only thing I have against her is that she’s already been a resident of the White House before, and I don’t think she should be a resident again,” he said. (Reporting by Vanessa Johnston, writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Richard Chang) 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.
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The last thing this country needs right now is a president who will only cause tensions between our allies and ourselves. Mexico is getting sick and tired of being bullied by Donald Trump so they are doing something about it.Trump has threatened to punish Mexico economically is they do not pay for his wall along the border and he has promised to nullify treaties such as NAFTA that promote free trade between Canada, Mexico, and the United States.And now, in the wake of Trump s recent embarrassing trip to Mexico, our southern neighbor is weighing legislation that would possibly nullify the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War and gave the United States the territories of Texas and California in addition to areas of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.To put it bluntly, Mexico is essentially telling Trump to go f*ck himself. Mexico could also nullify any other treaty or agreement that the two nations have ever made with each other.Introduced by Mexican Senator Armando Rios Piter, the bill would not only cancel the treaty, it would also ban state funds from being used to pay for future Trump visits to the country and from being used to pay for the wall.Furthermore, if Trump retaliates against Mexicans living in the United States, Mexico will respond by placing additional taxes upon the one million Americans who currently live in Mexico. It was a historic error for our president to invite a person like that to our country, Piter said. Mr. Trump used us as a campaign tool. The goal is to foresee and prevent any negative effects on Mexico if Trump becomes president of the United States. As a Mexican, I already feel attacked and outraged at Trump. That s why we have to act. We can t take a partisan view of this. All parties in the senate are in agreement that Mexico needs to stand up for itself and strengthen its relationship with the United States. We want to shut Trump s mouth, which has been spewing this hateful speech. This is the kind of diplomatic disaster that electing Donald Trump would cause. It would be a humiliating moment in American history and would signal to the rest of the world that they can also nullify treaties with us. This would be devastating to our leadership role in the world and would make us the laughingstock of the international community. Hundreds of years worth of treaties with countries all around the world would be in jeopardy of being trashed simply because Donald Trump is incapable of not insulting and bullying others. He is the most significant threat facing our country and the rest of the world today and the only way to put that threat down is to make sure he never becomes president.Featured image via Getty Images
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Trump doesn t have a plan about how, exactly, he will build his wall on the Mexican border but Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus surely has some idea where he can get his supplies. Recently, the retired CEO and chairman of the home improvement supplies company wrote a piece for Real Clear Politics in which he expressed both his hatred for Barack Obama and his love for the 2016 Republican nominee.In his unsolicited ravings, the billionaire says that Trump is the only hope for America. In rhetoric typical of those on the far Right, he informs us that Barack Obama is destroying our country and the one who can fix everything make America great again if you will is The Donald:I know Donald Trump, but we re not close friends. However, I believe he will begin on Day One undoing the damage done by President Barack Obama. I stand ready to help him at every turn.Like many, I am deeply concerned about the US Supreme Court. When Trump recently released his list of potential appointees, I grew confident in his resolve to keep our court balanced. Even more important: Clinton will push the court leftward for generations. She must be stopped. I genuinely believe that if we to [sic] started The Home Depot today, he adds, we would fail because of the hurdles government, especially the current administration, places in front of small business owners. He laments the future of the Supreme Court under a Clinton presidency. According to Marcus, Clinton will push the court leftward for generations and must be stopped. And, once again, the one to stop her is Trump:Donald Trump is right: To inspire more of these men and women, we must make America great again. Record-breaking numbers of Republican primary voters agree. They overwhelmingly want Donald Trump to lead this sea change, and we believe he can. But he needs to stand on our shoulders; he cannot do it alone.One of the greatest lessons we took away from The Home Depot is to always listen to your customers. Without their input, we surely would have failed. Republican leaders must listen to their customers, too their voters and they have spoken clearly. As Americans, the choice is abundantly clear: If you want four more years of President Obama, vote for Hillary Clinton; if you want to take the country in a new direction, vote for Donald Trump, he says, urging Americans to stand up for hate (and wall building).He s right, though. Given those two choices, it is important to vote for the best one to lead America forward, the one who can be trusted to continue and expand upon Trump s policies and with Sanders almost out of the picture (please don t kill me; I voted for him), that choice is very clearly Hillary Clinton. While Democrats disagree over which of our two very qualified candidates should run against Trump, the most important thing we can do is ensure that Donald Trump doesn t make it anywhere near the White House.The next President will nominate multiple judges to the Supreme Court. Like Marcus said, the fate of numerous equality measures rests on Donald Trump not getting elected. Featured image via algemeiner.com
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Education Department has left thousands of student-loan borrowers who were defrauded by Corinthian Colleges Inc in limbo by prolonging a process created by the Obama administration that was supposed to speedily cancel their debts, according to 20 state attorneys general and regulators. In the final months that President Barack Obama, a Democrat, was in office the department finalized a regulation easing the way for students from struggling for-profit colleges such as Corinthian and ITT Tech to quickly receive debt relief that they were entitled to by law. In a letter sent on Monday to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the state attorneys general said they were concerned about growing backlogs of applications for the relief and of loans approved for discharge that simply need a sign-off. The letter, signed by the top lawyers of Illinois, California, Massachusetts and other states, was released on Tuesday. They said they were particularly troubled that some borrowers had been notified their loans were eligible for fast discharge under the regulation but that the cancellation has not yet happened. According to the letter, the Department stated in January it had notified 23,000 borrowers that their loan forgiveness should be complete within the 60 to 120 days, but in many cases loans have not been canceled. That means some of Corinthian’s students could still be on the hook for monthly payments or possibly face debt collection. Work on discharging loans that have been approved is underway, according to Education Department Press Secretary Liz Hill. “We are working with servicers to get these loans discharged as expeditiously as possible,” Hill said in a statement. “Some borrowers should expect to obtain discharges within the next few weeks.” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said about 5,000 past Corinthian students in the state received letters last December directing to apply on-line for relief. Since then, his office has received queries about delays in the process. “Delay in canceling this debt, especially for students who have already been approved, could put even greater financial strain on students in Virginia and around the country,” he said in a statement. Amid federal and state investigations in 2015 into its post-graduation rates, for-profit Corinthian filed for bankruptcy and abruptly closed its 28 schools.
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is seeking to reopen its embassy in Libya pending security conditions, officials said on Tuesday, offering further political support for the Tripoli government struggling to establish control. EU leaders will announce at their summit in Brussels on Oct. 19-20 that they encourage work underway to rapidly establish a permanent EU presence in Libya , according to their draft joint statement seen by Reuters. But the statement makes clear no such move is imminent as it would be conditional on improving the security situation on the ground. The EU moved its mission to neighboring Tunisia in mid-2014 as security worsened in Libya amid escalating fighting between rival factions since the 2011 fall of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, ousted by rebels during a NATO bombing campaign. Of 28 EU states, only Italy, Libya s former colonial master and still the most influential European state on the ground, has an embassy in the country, where the United Nations has officially recognized the government of Fayez Seraj. The EU has also engaged increasingly with Seraj, especially as it sought Libya s help in curbing the flow of African refugees and migrants, hundreds of thousands of whom have been boarding smugglers boats on the coast of the lawless state to cross the Mediterranean for Europe. The bloc has financed, equipped and trained Libya s border and coast guards, despite rights groups sounding alarm over grave abuses refugees and migrants suffer in Libya.
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(This version of the story from 8th October has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline) MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian firefighters on Sunday used specially equipped helicopters to dump water on a construction goods market on the northwestern edge of Moscow that caught fire. The fire at the market sent a thick cloud of gray smoke billowing into the air, footage broadcast on Russian television showed. The fire was causing tailbacks on the nearby Moscow orbital highway, according to live traffic data. Three thousand shoppers and staff have been evacuated from the market, Russian media quoted emergency services officials as saying. There were no reports of any casualties.
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I m convinced that whenever Trump says most people don t know, it really means I just learned.' That was Chris Hayes s takeaway from watching Trump s flailing attempt to talk about Abraham Lincoln a man he clearly knew nothing about. The fact that he was ignorant of one of America s most famous presidents was painfully obvious.An infamous bullshitter, Trump is either getting worse at it or we re getting better at spotting it.Trump was at a fundraiser for Republicans when he decided to share a little hidden gem about Abraham Lincoln that he assumed nobody knew: Lincoln was a Republican.For most people who graduated elementary school that is common knowledge. For Trump, it was a revelation. He was so impressed by it that he ordered Republicans to start paying to promote the fact. Great president. Most people don t even know he was a Republican. Right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don t know that. We have to build that up a little more. Naturally, even that statement was a lie. A recent Pew study found that over half of respondents knew that Lincoln was a Republican.Nevertheless, he instructed right-wing Political Action Committees to start buying television ads to inform the public that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The crowd politely laughed, unsure if it was a joke or not:The remainder of Trump s speech was equally insane. At one point, he noted a few rival real estate developers in the crowd and had an on-stage meltdown. He s President of the United States and still engaged in petty feuds with business tycoons that he views as his competitors. His unfiltered rant is like watching his brain go to war with itself. He knows he should be more dignified, less petty, but he just can t help it.This is, by far, my favorite bit from the president s speech tonight. pic.twitter.com/xDTMZy9zeI Hunter Walker (@hunterw) March 22, 2017Truly unhinged behavior.Featured image via Twitter
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to advance the nomination of President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency and a final vote could occur on Friday. The Senate voted 54 to 46 to advance Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of oil and gas producing Oklahoma. Pruitt has come under criticism from many lawmakers for suing the agency he intends to run 14 times on behalf of Oklahoma. One Republican, Senator Sue Collins, said this week she would not vote for Pruitt in the final vote.
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NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga withdrew on Tuesday from a court-ordered re-run of the presidential election due on Oct. 26, saying the vote would not be free or fair and leaving President Uhuru Kenyatta as the only candidate. Kenyatta said the election would proceed as planned, promising to get more votes than he did in August and saying his party had no time for empty rhetoric and divisive politics . The election board said on Twitter it was meeting and would communicate the way forward. But the announcements could further prolong nearly three months of political uncertainty that has worried citizens and blunted growth in Kenya, East Africa s biggest economy and a staunch Western ally in a region roiled by conflict. An ally of Odinga called for nationwide protests from Wednesday, raising the prospect of more clashes between police and demonstrators. For now though there was little sign that the demonstrations could boil over into ethnic clashes. Protests and ethnic violence killed 1,200 people after a disputed 2007 election. In his announcement, Odinga repeated previous criticism of the election board, called the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), for not replacing some officials, who he blamed for irregularities in the Aug. 8 poll. On Sept. 1, the Supreme Court nullified incumbent Kenyatta s win due to procedural irregularities and ordered a new election between Kenyatta against Odinga to be held within 60 days. There is no intention on the part of the IEBC to undertake any changes to its operations and parts of the personnel to ensure that the illegalities and irregularities that led to the invalidation of 8th of August do not happen again, Odinga told a news conference in the capital of Nairobi. Indications are that elections scheduled for the 26th of October will be worse than the previous one, he said. In the interest of the people of Kenya, the region and world at large, we believe that all will be best served by (opposition alliance) NASA vacating the presidential candidature of elections. Since the Supreme Court ruling, police have repeatedly used teargas to disperse small protests by the opposition demanding the election board change some officials. Senator James Orengo, a key Odinga ally, called for countrywide protests after Odinga spoke. Tomorrow all over the country there are going to be demonstrations the basis will be no reforms, no elections, Orengo said. Kenyatta told a political rally the election would proceed as planned and he was sure he would win again, citing the majority that his party won in both houses of parliament and among the country s 47 governors. We have no problem going back to elections. We are sure we will get more votes than the last time, Kenyatta said in the southern town of Voi, speaking in Kiswahili in a speech carried on local television. Among a series of comments later on Twitter, he said: We don t have time for empty rhetoric and divisive politics. Our agenda is to fulfill our promises to the Kenyan people. Murithi Mutiga, a senior Horn of Africa analyst for the global thinktank International Crisis Group, said the country looked headed for a protracted political stand-off that could rapidly escalate if there was a miscalculation by either side. The economy has already been battered by months and months of endless electioneering and now we see a protracted stalemate. Kenyatta will try everything to make sure the election goes ahead and Odinga might go back to the Supreme Court, he said. The political elites have really squandered the opportunity to consolidate the countries democracy ... both sides will inevitably try to assert themselves, including on the streets. We may see clashes between protesters and police. It looks grim. On Monday, a Kenyan rights group said 37 people had been killed during protests immediately after the Aug. 8 election. Almost all of them had been killed by the police. On Tuesday, legislators from the ruling party were debating proposed amendments to the election laws, which said if a candidate boycotted an election, the remaining candidate automatically wins. Opposition legislators boycotted the session. The draft amendments require another reading and a presidential signature before they become law. Ruling party legislators told Reuters on Monday that the amendments were designed to head off a constitutional crisis if Odinga pulled out of the election. The uncertainty, combined with a regional drought and a slowdown in private sector credit, led the Kenyan government to trim this year s growth forecast from 5.9 percent to 5.5 percent last month. We are not talking about a prolonged period of violence like we saw in 2007 and 2008 but more about a prolonged period of uncertainty about getting a government in place and the fiscal outlook, said Kevin Daly, a member of the Aberdeen Standard Investments investment committee. As a fixed income investor you worry not only about the growth story but also the fiscal outlook.
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I wonder how many government funded trucks will be following Mooch s kids this summer? Oh, that s right she s a good mom. There s no need for government intervention Government-sponsored food trucks will be stalking students this summer with the goal of giving out thousands of healthy free lunches officials don t trust parents to provide.Officials at St. Paul public schools recently announced they re working with the local food bank Second Harvest to dispatch a mobile food truck to expand locations offering students free lunches during the summer. Last year the district supplied 71 locations, and the truck will help to add another 10 to 15 in 2015, KSTP reports.The district s director of nutrition services, Stacy Koppen, said the truck will drive around to different locations between 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help feed the city s needy youngsters. The truck will track down students at spots like suggested basketball courts or fields where kids like to play, according to the news site.The very expensive-looking specially rigged step van features a billboard with grinning teens alongside the message Kids and teens: Get your free meals here. The district apparently didn t offer the details on how the new program is financed, or how much the truck cost, and the news station didn t bother to ask. School officials said the truck will be manned by volunteers.Koppen said the district serves 29,000 lunches a day during the school year, but only 6,000 a day during the summer, so officials reasoned a truck is necessary to make sure students aren t starving. Time and again, we such a steep decline that we wonder, Where are these children going? Are they getting the healthy, nutritious food they need for their health and academic success? Koppen told KTSP. We want to make sure that when children return to school for the next school year, that they are at the optimal health status and that they are ready to learn, she said, adding that the free food is available to all, not just low income kids.Minneapolis Public Schools have used food trucks to give away lunches since at least 2013. The Hopkins district in Minnesota, as well as districts in Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, California, Tennessee, and other states have also launched trucks to take free food to students during the summer.In New York City, organizations can also apply to have school food trucks deliver meals to students on site upon request.Most, if not all, of the school food trucks seem to be funded at least in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as part of the federal free and reduced-price school lunch program. Each summer, the United States Department of Agriculture reimburses school districts for all meals prepared and served at no cost to any child under the age of 18, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports.The news site explained that School District 51 expanded its free summer lunch program to dispatch a food truck to patrol local neighborhoods and seek out students. The USDA will pay for food and staff labor but not for the purchase of a food truck or the cost of running it, according to the Daily Sentinel.In District 51, the cost of the truck and expenses are covered by a $50,000 grant from the Western Colorado Community Foundation.Via: EAG News
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What will the world be like post-Donald Trump? A new hashtag, #AfterTrumpImplodes, is working its way through Twitter, carrying people s predictions about what such a world will be like. This is especially on target right now because Trump is, in fact, imploding, and he s taking the GOP with him. That s inevitably good for a strong social media lashing.Of course, there are predictions about what will happen to the GOP:#AfterTrumpImplodes I ll sell the leftover scraps of the GOP on eBay. JohnyActionSpacePunk (@JohnyAction) August 6, 2016 #AfterTrumpImplodes The resulting black hole will swallow the Republican Party. Mama Says No (@Mamasaysnonono) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes He ll leave behind a noxious green globule, which will get the GOP nod. Crutnacker (@Crutnacker) August 6, 2016There are tweets making fun of Trump s blatantly unworkable Mexican border wall: #AfterTrumpImplodes this will be the only wall with his name on it. pic.twitter.com/5bTiGaFGIP Linda Childers (@LindaChilders1) August 5, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes he s gonna build a wall, a beautiful wall, around his asylum, and he s gonna make the voices in his head pay for it. Richard Jeter (@MilesToGo13) August 5, 2016 maybe we can build a wall around them #AfterTrumpimplodes https://t.co/zuqlyJX0a1 Kimanne123 (@kimanne123) August 6, 2016And tweets mocking his penchant for touting his own greatness and blaming everyone but himself when the media reports otherwise:He and his followers will blame it on everyone and everything but he and his followers. #AfterTrumpImplodes Lizbuddie (@lizbuddie) August 6, 2016 #AfterTrumpImplodes he ll claim that his mind was rigged, by people with small hands. Token White Karim (@KarimKovacevic) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes tries to sue Hitler AND Mussolini for flawed campaign strategies as taught at Hitler University Andrew Brodie (@andrewbrodie331) August 6, 2016There s an attack on something that just came to light about Trump s campaign the fact that people with recurring donations can t cancel them: You MIGHT be able to cancel your recurring campaign donation #AfterTrumpImplodes.Then again, maybe not. https://t.co/HU7ESDkr7D Sue Jensen (@suedinym) August 5, 2016And there s the general mocking that always goes along with a hashtag like this:#aftertrumpimplodes Wikileaks will leak the long awatied TrumpTax Returns, we will see he has paid no taxes for the last 12 yrs Michael (@griffbos) August 6, 2016 We all have to lick that orange dust off our fingers for a year. #AfterTrumpImplodes Dean Lopata (@DLoIndustries) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes Americans can travel to Europen without pretending to be Canadians (((katesavage))) (@katesavage) August 6, 2016 #aftertrumpimplodes He ll demand to have the codes to Implosions . AEGreallive (@AEGreallive) August 6, 2016It s pretty clear what people think of a Trump implosion. There are some Trumpkins trying to fight the onslaught by saying that he won t implode, that it s Hillary who s imploded, and blah blah blabbity blabbity blah the typical delusional ranting from that crowd. They re mostly being drowned out by people who see Trump for who he really is.Featured image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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