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| A group of white nationalists and skinheads who support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign who were involved in a stabbing attack in California have announced that they will be at the Republican National Convention this July in Cleveland.The group, who call themselves the Traditionalist Worker Party revealed their plans.A group of white nationalists and skinheads who held a rally in Sacramento over the weekend where at least five people were stabbed plans to show up at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month to make sure that the Donald Trump’supporters are defended. The violent clash at the California state Capitol accentuates concerns about the Republican National Convention, with political tensions high and thousands of pro- and anti-Trump protesters expected to descend on Cleveland.Matthew Heimbach, who leads the group, has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as someone considered by many to be the face of a new generation of white nationalists. At a Trump rally in March, after Trump told protesters Get out of here. Get Out. Out. Out Out! Get out, Heimbach was one of the mean caught on video roughing up a black woman. The woman said Trump’supporters in the crowd chanted racial and sexual epithets at her as she was removed.During previous protests at his rally, often from black and Latino activists, Trump has lamented that it is no longer acceptable to rough up dissenters, and even said he would consider paying the legal fees of a man arrested after punching a protester at a Trump rally.Heimbach has said he wants to create a new homeland for whites around the entire world in America and said California is full of Mexicans and that s sort of a problem. Trump, of course, has accused Mexican immigrants of bringing crime to America and described them as rapists. Heimbach, discussing immigrants: Stay in your own nations, we don’t want you here. Trump has promised to build a beautiful wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.Featured image via YouTube |
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| U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he had not been contacted by the FBI about new investigative steps being taken related to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she led the State Department. The FBI on Friday said it was investigating more emails in what the Democratic presidential candidate described as “deeply troubling” behavior 10 days before the U.S. elections. “I haven’t been notified of anything, no, I haven’t been requested of anything, no, I’m not aware of the department being requested, and I have no further comment to make,” Kerry told a news conference in Ireland. “As an American citizen and former nominee of the party, there is a lot I’d like to say about what is going on, but I can’t and I am just going to remain out of this,” he added. Clinton on Saturday challenged FBI Director James Comey to provide a fuller explanation of investigative steps he is taking related to her use of a private email server. Comey had decided in July that the FBI was not going to seek prosecution of Clinton. But on Friday he said the agency was trying to determine whether additional emails contained classified information. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has been reeling for weeks from the release of a 2005 audio tape in which he boasted about groping women, has seized on the FBI move as evidence Clinton is unfit to lead the country. Kerry was in Ireland to accept the Tipperary International Peace Award, joining recipients like former South African President Nelson Mandela, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Kerry is due to travel to London on Monday for talks on Libya that will seek to break a political stalemate over the country’s U.N-backed unity government. |
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| As a Wellesley graduate, I was shocked and dismayed by Hillary Clinton s commencement address. Actually, that is #FakeNews. I was neither shocked nor dismayed by Mrs. Clinton s speech (but I did graduate from Wellesley with honors!) It was exactly the kind of self-pitying, leaden and all-about-me performance that I would have expected from the entitled former Democrat candidate and now sore loser.Watch a few of Hillary s greatest hits during her commencement speech at Wellesley College:Also, it revealed this: Hillary hasn’t learned a thing. As her friend Mike Bloomberg recently told an audience of Harvard Business School grads Hillary lost the election because she had absolutely no message. She’still doesn’t.In addition, she is utterly lacking in self-awareness. She’spoke at length about what she’sees as a full-fledged assault on truth and reason, telling the graduating seniors that the future of America, indeed the future of the world, depends on brave, thoughtful people like you insisting on truth and integrity right now every day. This, from a woman who ran for our nation s highest office while distrusted by nearly two-thirds of the country, with good reason.As long as Mrs. Clinton and her loyalists blame James Comey, Vladimir Putin, sexism and the alt-right for her loss, Democrats will never rebuild their bridges to the working class Americans who elected Donald Trump.In her remarks, Hillary criticized people aka Trump followers, presumably on social media for sowing division at a time when we desperately need unity, and then proceeded to give a highly partisan and divisive speech.Did she ever consider that there might be families in the audience who voted for her opponent? That they might not enjoy her taking veiled potshots at President Trump, and that this was their daughters day too?Echoing the liberal media, Hillary went after President Trump through innuendo and clich s, talking about the dangers of fomenting fear and of alternative facts. Good thing there was no Q&A; someone might have wanted further clarification of how she came under sniper fire in Bosnia, or how a video caused the Benghazi attack or how the Monica Lewinsky scandal stemmed from a vast right-wing conspiracy and not Bill Clinton s unruly libido.Hillary trod dangerous pathways as she remarked, when people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society. She is correct, of course, but a cursory review of her multiple dodges and lies about her mishandling of classified information and efforts to destroy evidence reveals a woman who fully earned her low trustworthiness ratings from Americans.The election is over, but Hillary cannot let it go. This is good news for Republicans. As long as Mrs. Clinton and her loyalists blame James Comey, Vladimir Putin, sexism and the alt-right for her loss, Democrats will never rebuild their bridges to the working class Americans who elected Donald Trump.Hillary Clinton missed an opportunity at Wellesley. She could have delivered a message of unity, and helped our anxious country begin to heal. Her followers need to see her putting country above politics; they need to see her as she briefly appeared at the inauguration, supporting the peaceful and legitimate transfer of power. Apparently, that is just too heavy a lift for Mrs. Clinton. She is happier nursing her wounds, and continuing to inflict them on the country.The former First Lady could also have talked about the dramatic changes taking place in our economy, and how women are thriving as entrepreneurs. She could have talked about the founders of Rent the Runway, or Sarah Blakely, who created Spanx, or Essie Weingarten, who bet her life s savings on a new idea and created a nail polish empire sold to L Oreal in 2010. These women are inspirational; they’didn’t shatter glass ceilings, they ignored them. It is true we need women in politics, and running NGOs, but we also need women making money and boosting the economy. That s where the funding for free college tuition and refugee services comes from a lesson Hillary may never have learned.The New York Times tells us that the’students cheered Mrs. Clinton thunderously. Of course they’did. They have been weaned on courses like Love and Intimacy in the Women s and Gender Studies department or Changing Gender Constructions in the Modern Middle East in the History Department. There s nothing wrong with those studies, unless they crowd out learning how the progressive policies of Bernie Sanders and Mrs. Clinton have failed in France, for instance, leading to a stagnant economy with few opportunities for progress. Or how capitalism has delivered billions from poverty, including in Communist China, where the growth miracle of recent decades was facilitated by policies that encouraged entrepreneurship and private enterprise.Hillary Clinton missed some history lessons too, apparently. She alluded to Nixon s presidency which would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice. That isn’t true, of course; Nixon resigned from office. It was her husband Bill who was impeached. Amazing she would get that wrong, in delivering what was sure to be a much-reviewed address. Maybe a little too much of that Chardonnay, Mrs. Clinton? FOX NewsFor more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter@LizPeek. |
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| The White House said on Saturday it had ordered that Iran, Venezuela and four African nations be added to a U.S. list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking, a step that further isolates them from the United States. The White House said it also was increasing restrictions on North Korea, Eritrea, Russia and Syria, which already were on the list, by constraining them from engaging in educational or cultural exchange programs with the United States. In addition, President Donald Trump’s administration instructed the U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund and U.S. executive directors at other multilateral development banks to vote against extending loans or other funds to North Korea, Russia and Iran for fiscal year 2018, which begins on Sunday. Under a 2000 U.S. law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the United States does not provide non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance to any country that fails to comply with minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and is not making efforts to do so. The White House said in a notice that Iran, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and Sudan had been added to the list of countries subject to these restrictions for the new fiscal year. The move came six days after Trump included Venezuela and Iran on a list of eight countries targeted for travel restrictions to the United States. The restrictions on Venezuela focused on government officials who the Trump administration blamed for the country’s slide into economic disarray. The travel ban on Iranians was broader. That travel ban list lifted previous restrictions on citizens from Sudan. |
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| Opposing views and beliefs has much of this country in a heated feud. With Donald Trump being recently inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, citizens have been going to war with one another with their polar points of view.On Wednesday, Milo Yiannopoulos, a strong right-wing social figure, was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley. However, protests that grew into violence between members of opposing sides broke out causing Yiannopoulos speech to be canceled.In the midst of the violence being carried out in the area, Jake Shields was present and apparently helped a man from being severely beaten. BjPennWatch MMA fighter Jason Shields embarrass the cowards with their faces covered who were part of the mob of 20 men from a domestic terror group, that identifies with an anti-fascist movement, severely beating an innocent man attending Milo Yiannopoulos speech.Following Shield s brave act that could have saved the life of an innocent man being attacked by 20 cowards, one of the anti-fascists involved in beating walks up to Shields to ask if he’s okay?Shields tells the cowards in the masks: There s no f*cking reason (to have beaten this man). Dude, you guys have your faces covered, you’re attacking people, you’re being f**king fascists. Look at you guys. You re f*cking embarrassing. You don’t let 20 people jump a man. It s not okay! The coward in the mask answers: There s a f*cking Nazi thing at the University, that why everybody s here. Shields responds: What Nazi thing? Who s a Nazi? The Jew guy that was speaking? The gay Jew? Coward in mask responds: He s not a Jew, he’s Greek! what exactly did he’say? Every kept saying he's a nazi but know knew why. They call everyone with a different opinion a nazi Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017The idiocy of these violent people just looking for a fight can pretty much be summed up with that one completely uneducated sentence. These freaks are apparently there protesting a Nazi, yet have no idea what a Nazi is or that when you say someone is Jewish, you are speaking about their religion and not their nationality.Watch:The aftermath of me helping a guy after being jumped by thugs. The police and 100's of civilians stood and watched. pic.twitter.com/7hN2iJ4kkf Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017I was in Berkeley and watched a man getting beat by a mob with no police help. I was the only person to jump in and help Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017Shields tweeted, it was sad to watch 20 people beat a man with no one helping. it was sad to watching 20 people beat a man with no one helping Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017 |
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| New York’s top Democratic legislator drove home his budget priorities on Friday, touching on the minimum wage, paid family leave and education ahead of the release of the state Assembly’s spending plan scheduled for later that day. Assembly speaker Carl Heastie highlighted the proposals that have become a rallying point for Democrats both in the state and nationally, saying that he was “very optimistic” an agreement could be reached over a state-wide $15 minimum wage with the Republican controlled Senate. Heastie, speaking at an event in New York City, stressed his support for paid family leave. The Assembly passed a bill in February that would allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or a sick relative. The initiative is supported by Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat. The speaker highlighted $1.7 billion in higher education spending for the state and city public university systems, including funding a two-year tuition freeze, and a $2.1 bln increase in education funding for the state’s public schools. The Assembly’s school spending proposal is $1.2 billion over Cuomo’s executive budget. Confidence in the state capital Albany was shaken last year after the convictions on corruption charges of the speakers of both the Senate and the Assembly. Heastie became speaker after charges were brought against his predecessor Sheldon Silver. Heastie said he will release ethics proposals also on Friday that seek to limit outside pay for legislators, and put conditions on roles legislators can take in the private sector. The Assembly’s budget will be released later on Friday and passed by the Assembly on Monday, Heastie’s spokesperson Mike Whyland said. It follows the release of Cuomo’s $145 billion executive budget in January. The Senate has also released parts of its one house budget, promising to cut middle class tax rates by 25 percent through 2025, leading to a reduction in the tax burden of $3.5 billion. The three budget plans need to be reconciled by the start of the state’s financial year on April 1. Cuomo has made passing an on-time budget a barometer of good governance and has managed to pass all five of his previous budgets on time. |
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| Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the death of hundreds of Rohingya in Myanmar over the past week constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region. Nearly 400 people have died in fighting that has rocked Myanmar s northwest for a week, new official data showed, making it probably the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the country s Rohingya Muslim minority in decades. There is a genocide there. They remain silent towards this... All those looking away from this genocide carried out under the veil of democracy are also part of this massacre, Erdogan said at his ruling AK Party s Eid al-adha celebrations in Istanbul. The army says it is conducting clearance operations against extremist terrorists to protect civilians. Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam, has long strived to take a position of leadership among the world s Muslim community. He said it was Turkey s moral responsibility to take a stand against the events in Myanmar. Around 38,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, United Nations sources said, a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counteroffensive. Erdogan said the issue would be discussed in detail when world leaders convene for the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 12 in New York. |
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| U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he thinks there is some connection between climate change and human activity and “clean air is vitally important,” a New York Times reporter said in a tweet. Trump, who met Times reporters and editors in New York, “says he is keeping ‘an open mind’” on the issue, the Times’ reporter wrote on Twitter. Trump has previously called man-made global warming a hoax. “I think there is some connectivity” between humans and climate change, Trump said in the Times interview. |
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| Dan Rather, an often unbiased and objective presence in what was once credible media, has officially bucked his long-held objectivity and completely and utterly destroyed Donald Trump after his now infamous Second Amendment comment.Taking to Facebook, Rather, who has gone on the record questioning Trump’s antics on the campaign trial, blasted the GOP nominee for directing threats at Hillary Clinton, saying his comments now no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament, but something more nefarious:No trying-to-be objective and fair journalist, no citizen who cares about the country and its future can ignore what Donald Trump’said today. When he’suggested that The Second Amendment People can stop Hillary Clinton he crossed a line with dangerous potential. By any objective analysis, this is a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics. This is no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament. This is a direct threat of viol ence against a political rival. It is not just against the norms of American politics, it raises a serious question of whether it is against the law. If any other citizen had said this about a Presidential candidate, would the Secret Service be investigating?Candidate Trump will undoubtedly issue an explanation; some of his surrogates are already engaged in trying to gloss it over, but once the words are out there they cannot be taken back. That is what inciting violence means.Rather is absolutely right. Had anyone else but Donald Trump’said this, they would have been arrested and thoroughly interrogated, no questions asked.And Trump is already making up excuses. It was a joke. He meant more bodyguards and armed citizens. He meant protecting the Second Amendment in the Court. Yadda yadda yadda. More excuses from the candidate that tells it like it is. For the people who like Trump because he’speaks his mind, they certainly have to make excuses for what he’says all the time.It s time the other media heads follow Rather and break this objectivity that stops them from criticizing Trump when he’says something stupid. For too long the media has allowed him to get away with his insane rhetoric.Featured image Kirk Irwin/Getty Images |
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| In their rush to make radical Muslims terrorists feel as though they are welcome in Belgium, coupled with their naive belief that if they coddle them enough, they will assimilate, the authorities have clearly forgotten about the victims of a horrific terror attack that took place in Brussels only months ago. When european nations start coddling terrorists and terror recruiters who are attracting Muslims from their homeland to commit horrific acts of violence against innocent people, the entire nation is screwed Erin McLaughlin of CNN told the’story of a young man, a teen who became caught up in the ISIS recruiting web after a vacation in Belgium. Eight months after that trip to vacation in Belgium, Salia said her son became radicalized. He sent her a Facebook message to let her know he was in Syria.Then came a chilling phone call. the Syrian guide said, Congratulation, congratulation. Your son died as a martyr, and then he hung up.It was horrible. when I heard about his death, I felt like I died myself. she’says her son was the happiest of her four children. She didn’t know the most dangerous jihadist recruitment network in Brussels approached her son.It was the most dangerous of webs. Some were convicted and given lengthy prison sentences but, remarkably, were free on bail.It is veteran jihadists and recruiters. Some would go on to carry out the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Authorities prosecuted for man 60 recruiters and foreign fighters. One of them was Sala. His recruiters were declared guilty as you see here, the judge allowed them to walk free pending their appeal. CNN tracked down one of the recruiters to his home address that is neighborhood of a convicted recruiter.Her son said he pleaded, he wanted to come home. The recruiter said, no . We re here to ask him why.We ring the doorbell. His mother answers. She’screams at us to leave her alone. As we walk away, the recruiter appears and confronts us. His words are not welcoming. He refuses to talk to us on camera.Families living in the complex don’t even know they are living amongst them. It must be the EU PC.Belgian authorities tell CNN they have NOT notified residents that a convicted jihadist recruiter is living in their midst.We saw a teenage boy entering the’same apartment building. the president of Brussels tribunal says in Belgium it is not unusual for a criminal to go free while they’re waiting for appeal. If they’re not considered a flight risk. How s it that a convicted member of a terrorist organization sentenced to seven years in prison is allowed to walk free after his trial? They re free, the official said, because they behaved during the trial.His mother said it s like her son died twice seeing his recruiters running loose on the’streets.For entire story: Independent Sentinel |
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| A wealthy Turkish gold trader charged in the United States with violating U.S. sanctions against Iran sought support from and invoked the name of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to advance his business, U.S. prosecutors said. The allegations against the trader, Reza Zarrab, had been detailed in a Monday federal court filing in Manhattan, but the Turkish lira fell more than 1 percent against the U.S. dollar after Bloomberg News reported the filing on Friday. Erdogan has not been accused of wrongdoing, but the case has complicated the U.S. relationship with Turkey, a crucial Middle East ally. Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Zarrab, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Turkish government officials could not immediately be reached. Prosecutors accused the Iranian-born Zarrab and co-conspirators of handling hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran s government and Iranian entities from 2010 to 2015, in a scheme to evade U.S. actions. Nine people have been criminally charged, but only Zarrab and a banker from Turkey s Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, are in U.S. custody. A trial is scheduled for Nov. 27. But in a filing late Friday, Atilla s lawyers requested a delay to January 2018, citing the amount of work still be done, much of it in Turkey, and the difficulty of trial preparation with Atilla housed in a Manhattan jail. In Monday s filing, prosecutors said the government anticipates that the evidence introduced at trial will show that Turkish government and banking officials were integral to the sanctions evasion scheme. The filing detailed recorded phone conversations and documents that according to prosecutors suggest Zarrab was looking out for Erdogan s interests. It said one call occurred on April 16, 2013, when Zarrab spoke with another defendant about his efforts to buy a bank to establish a conduit for Iranian transactions. Prosecutors said Zarrab and Erdogan, then Turkey s prime minister, had spoken four days earlier at a wedding. I explained it that day at the wedding, Zarrab told the co-defendant, according to prosecutors. I will go back and will say, Mr. Prime Minister, if you approve, give me a license, I will go though BDDK (the Turkish bank regulator) even if I bought the bank anyway. In a separate filing, Atilla s lawyers have said Zarrab has essentially not participated in the case and that Atilla might be the only defendant appearing at trial. This raised speculation that Zarrab might be preparing a guilty plea or to cooperate, or that charges against him may change. The case is U.S. v. Zarrab et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00867. |
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| A vanquished challenger to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the longtime Democratic leader, accusing him of using dirty tactics to beat him in a March primary election. Chicago Democrat Jason Gonzales accused Madigan of defaming him and crowding the primary with “phony” candidates to dilute his opposition. Gonzalez named the 45-year incumbent, the speaker’s political funds, a top aide and his two other opponents, among others, in a 39-count lawsuit over an alleged scheme to swing the four-way race in the speaker’s favor. “Madigan won because he engaged in dirty, illegal, fraudulent tactics,” Gonzales, who finished second in his bid to topple Madigan with 27 percent of the vote, said in a telephone interview. Madigan received slightly more than 65 percent. Madigan said in a statement that the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, was “without merit.” “Voters of my district soundly re-nominated me based on my strong record of service, giving me more than 65 percent of the vote, and they emphatically rejected Jason Gonzales because they knew he couldn’t be trusted,” said Madigan, who is Illinois’ longest-serving officeholder, representing Chicago’s southwest side since 1971. Neither Grasiela Rodriguez nor Joe Barboza, the two other candidates named in Gonzales’ lawsuit, could be reached for comment. Gonzales accused Madigan of falsely calling him a felon on television commercials and in political mailers based on several arrests and criminal convictions between 1991 and 1994, including the use of stolen credit cards as an 18-year-old. Gonzales alleged that Madigan improperly publicized those criminal records, which should not have been made public after former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn granted a pardon and expunged Gonzales’ criminal record in January 2015. “Madigan’s defamatory statement was one that harmed Gonzales’ reputation to the extent it lowered Gonzales in the eyes of the community and deterred the community from associating with him,” his lawsuit alleged. “As a direct and proximate result of the foregoing acts and/or omissions by Madigan, Gonzales suffered injuries of a personal and pecuniary nature, including emotional distress, damage to reputation and further punishment despite being granted full pardons,” the lawsuit said. Gonzales also accused Madigan and his aides of diluting the Hispanic vote in a legislative district that is about 70 percent Latino by planting two opponents with Hispanic surnames on the ballot. Neither of the candidates, who collectively received nearly 8 percent of the vote, actively campaigned. Gonzales’ case is being handled by Tony Peraica, a former Republican member of the Cook County board. “I couldn’t find a Democratic lawyer who was wiling to take the case,” Gonzalez told Reuters. “Everybody was scared of Madigan.” |
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| More and more evidence is revealed every day, that points to the real possibility that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was the person who leaked the DNC emails to Wikileaks, and that there is an all-out effort to cover it up, or completely dismiss it as a tin-foil hat theory by social media platforms, the leftist media and the Democrat Party. Twitter just suspended the WND account for posting a story that suggested disgraced DNC chief and top Democratic strategist Donna Brazile may have interceded in the Seth Rich murder investigation. In the WND exclusive story titled:Alicia Powe and Liz Crokin wrote the’story that was also posted to and deleted from the’social media platform by Twitter: Former Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazile is the high-ranking DNC representative who allegedly called police and the family of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich and demanded to know why a private investigator was snooping into Rich s death, the private eye revealed to WND Monday. The high-ranking DNC official that called the police after I inquired about Rich s case was Donna Brazile, veteran homicide detective Rod Wheeler told WND. Why shouldn’t I reveal who it was? Brazile, who was also a CNN contributor and a Hillary for America donor at the time, was caught providing Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton with questions that would later be asked of Clinton at a televised CNN town hall. In an interview with Fox News before the election, Brazile denied leaking the questions to Clinton. But in a March 17, 2017, column for Time magazine, she finally admitted doing so, saying it was a mistake I will forever regret. According to WND, their Twitter account was suspended because of this Seth Rich investigation bombshell. And now, Big League Politics is reporting associations the DC police chief who resigned only a month after Seth Rich was murdered ran in the’same circles as many close to Hillary and top DNC officials. The police chief who oversaw Seth Rich s unsolved murder case has socialized and been honored alongside key Hillary Clinton advisers and even Rich s own boss at the Democratic National Committee. Rich is widely reported to be the’source of Wikileaks damning 2016 email release that showed the DNC colluding to hand the nomination to Clinton at the expense of Bernie Sanders. He was gunned down in D.C. 12 days before Wikileaks release.On Sunday, July 10, 2016, at approximately 4:19 am, members of the Fifth District DC MPD were patrolling the area when they heard gunshots. Upon arrival on the’scene, members located an adult male victim conscious and breathing, and suffering from gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to an area hospital, where he’succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.The decedent was identified as 27-year-old Seth Conrad Rich, of Northwest, DC.Controversy continues to swirl around the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich, that detectives working for the MPD under Chief Lanier called a botched robbery (even though nothing of any value appeared to have been stolen from Rich s body) after he was shot several times only blocks from his home.Former Metropolitan Police Department chief Cathy Lanier resigned from her post the month after Rich s murder to accept a position running security for the National Football League. She’sits on the Washington Police Foundation board alongside Heather Podesta, the D.C. power broker who was married to Clinton campaign chief John Podesta s lobbyist brother Tony.In 2014, Lanier was honored on ELLE magazine s list of the ten most powerful women in Washington alongside top Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills and longtime Clinton friend and informal adviser Neera Tanden. Other honorees included NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue and Obama Cabinet official Penny Pritzker.Lanier did attend ELLE and Hugo Boss 2015 Women in Washington Power List dinner at the German ambassador s house. Here she is chatting with Clinton crony and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.Who else was at the dinner? None other than Amy Dacey, the CEO of the Democratic National Committee at the time of Seth Rich s murder, who resigned one month after the killing as the DNC was rocked with scandal.Who else was at the dinner? None other than then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. |
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| Members of the House Intelligence Committee are saying that Donald Trump and his treasonous cronies could find themselves behind bars. Two Democrats on the committee said today that jail time could’very likely be the outcome of the investigation into Russia s interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s possible collusion with them.On Tuesday, Rep. Joaquin Castro told CNN s Wolf Blitzer that he wouldn’t be surprised after all of this is said and done, that some people end up in jail. Blitzer pressed him on whether he meant not just one individual, but people, plural. The congressman wouldn’t point to anyone in particular but did say his impression was that more than one person could find themselves behind bars. You re confident that at least some Trump associates will wind up in jail? Blitzer sked. If I was betting, I would say yes, Castro replied.Congressman Denny Heck, another Democrat on the committee, went a step further than Castro during an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday evening while speaking with Chris Matthews. I want to respectfully disagree with my dear friend Joaquin Castro, next to whom I sit on the intelligence committee. He said he would not be surprised if people ended up going to jail. I will be surprised if people don’t end up going to jail, Heck said.Matthews asked about FBI Director James Comey s announcement that a special unit was being formed to handle the investigation of Trump’s shady ties with Russia. Heck replied that he was sure anybody associated with the Trump orbit that was involved in Russia s financial entanglements probably was calling their lawyer today. You can watch Castro s interview with CNN here:And Heck s interview with MSNBC here:Featured image via video screen capture |
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| U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that North Korea s missile launch over Japan put millions of Japanese into duck and cover before it landed in the Pacific Ocean, and added that top U.S. officials had fully coordinated after the test-launch. We have just got done with the calls we always make to coordinate among ourselves. Steady as she goes, Mattis told reporters traveling with him during a visit to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees U.S. nuclear forces. |
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| Russia has not promised to ensure a withdrawal of pro-Iranian forces from Syria, RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday. The presence of Iran in Syria is legitimate, Lavrov was quoted as saying by another agency, Interfax. |
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| There s nothing odd about Donald Trump getting blasted day in and day out by the media and those who didn’t support him in the first place, but the rate at which Trump gets crucified by his own Republican Party is unprecedented.The latest GOPer to take Trump to the woodshed is Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who pretty much obliterated Trump’s presidency today. In several tweets this morning, Wilson brutally blasted Trump by stating the obvious, which many conservatives are still afraid to admit: Trump is Is.Bad.At.Being.President. Pointing out that Trump’s poll numbers suck for a reason, here s what Wilson had to say about America s undeserving president: Then, Wilson lashed out at the remaining Republicans that are still defending Trump and standing by him despite all of his failures and shortcomings. In a shocking rant attacking conservatives that refuse to see how dangerous and incompetent Trump really is, Wilson continued: Wilson is 100% right. Trump is NOT presidential material, and he has made very little attempt to actually rise up to the challenge of his new role and responsibilities. His polling numbers alone are the most pathetic we’ve ever seen, and many Americans are in complete agreement with what Wilson is saying here.The Republican Party has screwed itself by allowing Trump to succeed. America will remember the GOP as the party forever attached to the least successful, most shameful president the country has ever had. Trump’s ties to Russia alone will brand the GOP as the least patriotic political party in existence. The damage Trump has done to the party is irreversible, and Wilson knows it. He s part of the group of Republicans that is increasingly frustrated by what he’sees of Trump and the GOP, and clearly, wishes this nightmare would be over already.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
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| A backlash has ensued after Donald Trump launched a war against black athletes who choose to sit rather than stand during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality and police brutality. Gen. Michael Hayden, a retired United States Air Force four-star general, who served in the military for 39 years, penned a column which savages the former reality show star over his NFL Twitter tantrums. At first, Hayden wasn’t enthusiastic about throwing his support behind Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who started the’silent protest of kneeling during the anthem.Hayden, who served as national security adviser and head the CIA after he left the military, wrote that the issues Kaepernick raised were both real and sincerely held. But then Trump crossed the line when he’spoke to a crowd in deep red Alabama and called black athletes who kneel sons of bitches. Hayden wrote that it s the way he has previously treated other groups like Mexicans (murderers and rapists), intelligence professionals (Nazis), immigrants (deeply unfair), refugees (dangerous), and Muslims (they hate us). As a 39-year military veteran, I think I know something about the flag, the anthem, patriotism, and I think I know why we fight, he wrote. It s not to allow the president to divide us by wrapping himself in the national banner. I never imagined myself saying this before Friday, but if now forced to choose in this dispute, put me down with Kaepernick. Trump lashes out at everyone, especially minorities in order to rile up his base. He literally loves conflict and chaos. When you elect a former reality show star to lead the most powerful country on earth, you’re begging for controversy and that s what Trump’s base wants. Trump had zero political experience for the job he’seems to loathe’so much and yet, here he is. Trump uses his Twitter account to divide the nation, and sometimes to try to start a war.After Trump is out of office, we’re really going to have to Make America Great Again but it will take years to correct all of the harm he’s done to this country.Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images |
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| Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held talks with Lebanon s Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai in Riyadh on Tuesday, al-Arabiya television reported, as a political crisis in Lebanon drags on. Al-Rai met earlier with Saudi King Salman on the second day of his first visit to Saudi Arabia. He also held talks with Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as prime minister of Lebanon from Riyadh on Nov. 4. |
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| Not knowing how many members of ISIS and other terrorist groups have slipped undetected into our country is yet another serious consequence of Obama s open borders Several thousand New York City uniformed and plain clothes officers will patrol the city this weekend.7,000 closed circuit security cameras will be closely watched.Air and water patrol will be equipped with radiation detection.Police officers will also be equipped with special radiation detection monitors to be put on their belts to detect for dirty bombs. America faces the highest threat level ever this year for the 4th of July.https://youtu.be/Zflo1wizClUVia: Gateway Pundit |
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| A nervous Nancy Pelosi responded Thursday to criticism from Democratic colleagues asking her to step down from her leadership post and President Donald Trump’s subsequent tweet mocking her for helping Republicans politically.Some Republican members have said that it would be good for their party if Pelosi remains the top Democrat in the House. These remarks followed heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers of Pelosi s leadership following Tuesday s special election losses in Georgia and South Carolina.Many within the Democratic party are calling for new leadership In other words, Nancy needs to go ASAP!President Trump went on Twitter to mockingly signal his support for the Pelosi:Conservatives like former speaker Newt Gingrich have been saying they hope Nancy Pelosi stays on as Minority Leader of the House She’s good for the Republican Party. She’s definitely on the hot seat right now but in true Pelosi fashion, she’s oblivious to the reality that it s time to go. She even said she’s a master legislator Um, no Check out the transcript of her comments at the press conference: So, you want me to sing my praises? Is that what you’re saying? Why should I? Well, I m a uh um master legislator, I am a, uh, strategic, politically astute leader, I am a uh, uh, my, uh, uh my leadership is recognized by many around the country and that is why I m able to attract the’support that I do, which is essential to our elections, sad to say. I m very pleased at the cooperation we’re doing working with all the, um, social media and small donor community to change how we communicate but also how we attract resources, intellectual and financial, uh, to the party. I have experience in winning the congress. When people said to us in 05, you’don’t have a chance, be ready for a, uh, permanent Republican majority , I said, Harry Reid and I said, we don’t accept that , so we proceeded, we took the president from 58 to 38, president Bush won’the election. But the fact is, they will always make a target. Senator Reid was a target, Senator Daschle was a target, Tip O Neill was a target, I am a target, and they always want to choose our leaders, and usually they go after the most effective leaders because they want to take us diminish us uh the opportunity that we have. We have a Democratic caucus where members participate in the decisions and right now, the members are putting together our messaging as we go forward. I could have written something down on the page and said, this is what I think , but we don’t do things that way, we listen to members, we’re very proud of our, uh, policy and communications committee. Yikes!!!! |
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| It s difficult to look at Romney coming out against Trump and not wonder if there are a few sour grapes? Romney s timing for questioning Trump’s character is very interesting, considering his former deputy campaign manager, Katie Packer was the key figure behind the anti-Trump’super-PAC, Our Principles created for the’sole purpose of taking down Trump that just announced yesterday that they’ve given up on their efforts. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stated that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Florida Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ought to release their taxes for the last two years that have already been filed and that there s good reason to believe that there s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes on Wednesday s Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel.He added, I think there s no question but that Donald Trump has the clearest path to become the Republican nominee. I think for the other people still in the race, their path is becoming a slimmer and slimmer opening, and they’re having a difficult time communicating to their supporters just how they could become the nominee. It s not impossible. I think it s very difficult for any one of the non-Donald Trump contenders to be able to be a real threat, unless perhaps the field narrows.Romney then said, when asked about his lack of an endorsement for anyone so far, Well, frankly, I d like to see a number of things from the candidates, not just their positions on issues in some detail, and some candidates are more thorough in laying out what they’re going to do than others, but I d also like to see their back taxes. I d like to see where they filed their taxes in the last several years. I m not talking about their taxes this year. I m talking about the taxes that have already been filed with the IRS. And Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have [not] shown us their back taxes. Romney further stated that the last two years that have already been filed would give us a real sense of whether these people are on the up and up, and whether they’ve been telling us things about themselves that are true or not. He then said, I think we have good reason to believe that there s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes. He explained, I think there s something there, either he’s not as anywhere near as wealthy as he’says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets, or to the disabled, like he’s been telling us he’s been doing. And I think that s the reason that I think there s a bombshell in there, is because every time he’s asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays and says, well, we’re working on it. Hey, we’re not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year. Of course they’re working on those. They won’t be ready for months. We re talking about taxes already filed, back taxes. And my back taxes, when I ran in 2012, my back taxes, I put out in January of 2012. We re now in late February and we still haven’t seen either Donald Trump’s, or Marco Rubio s, or Ted Cruz s taxes. And frankly the voters have a right to see those tax returns before they’decide who our nominee ought to be. Trump’s response to Romney s accusation:Romney said that the’scrutiny over his taxes when he ran back in 2012 is a good reason for getting these things out before the voters make their choices to who our nominee will be. He continued, I put my taxes out in January of 2012, and that gave people a chance to digest it, and decide whether I was going to be the nominee or not. And if in fact Donald Trump’s taxes, or Marco Rubio s, or Ted Cruz s, have some real problems in there, let’s get them out there and see them. But I think it s pretty clear that, given Donald Trump’s dodging and weaving and delay, I think the last time he was asked about his taxes he’said, well, it s going to be a month. Look, people have a right to know if there s a problem in those taxes before they’decide. Romney concluded, You know, Donald Trump has said he’s the best in the country for the disabled veterans, and for the disabled generally. Well, if his taxes show that he hasn’t made any contributions to the disabled veterans, or to the disabled generally, that would be a big issue. So and I m not saying that s the case. I have no evidence of that. But I m just saying there are things that could be issues, and when people decide they’don’t want to give you their taxes, it s usually because there s something they’don’t want you to see. Via:BreitbartPosted by Donald J. Trump on Thursday, 25 February 2016 Does Romney s concern over Trump and his taxes have anything to do with Trump’s go it alone attitude? Or perhaps The Donald has a point?.@MittRomney can only speak negatively about my presidential chances because I have been openly hard on his terrible "choke" loss to Obama! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2015Mitt Romney, the failed 2012 Republican presidential nominee who, alongside running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), lost the election to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, is lecturing 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on how a Republican can win the White House. I think Donald Trump has said a number of things which are hurtful, and he has said they were childish in some respects, and I think will be potentially problematic either in a primary or in a general election if he were to become the nominee, Romney said in a rare interview granted to former Obama strategist David Axelrod, according to The Hill newspaper.Romney added that he thinks Trump will have some challenges if he proceeds to the next stage and that he thinks to a degree Trump’s comments and style do hurt the GOP as a whole.While Romney previously predicted that Trump won’t win the nomination, his change of tone in this Axelrod interview seems to indicate he’s now entertaining the possibility of a nominee Donald Trump.Romney lost the election in 2012 after winning the nomination against a fairly weak GOP primary field. He also lost in 2008, failing to win the nomination against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Like Romney would four years later, McCain lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama. Even though Romney has lost every presidential election in which he’s ever competed, some Republicans still gravitate to him and his inner circle for political advice.Earlier this cycle, Romney met with several candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) the two leading establishment candidates vying for the nomination in New Hampshire. In the interview with Axelrod, Romney spoke very highly of both Rubio and Bush.In August 2012 during the heat of Romney s presidential race with President Barack Obama, then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)2% charged Romney hadn’t pay taxes for 10 years.Shortly after Reid made those allegations, Trump defended Romney in an interview with Fox News Channel s Greta Van Susteren on the August, 7, 2012 broadcast of On the Record. I think it s a very strong statement that Harry made, Trump’said. And I ve known Harry and I like Harry. But I think it s a statement that he probably wished he didn’t make. I don’t think there was a source. A lot of people don’t think there was a source. If there was a source, it s probably not allowed and it s probably not even legal. I mean, who would be able to do that? Who would be allowed to do that? I don’t think there is a source. WATCH Donald Trump defend Romney s alleged tax issues with Greta Susteren at the 3:10 mark: |
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| In the 50 years since Israel captured Jerusalem, the rhetoric of leaders in the Middle East has reflected the deep division over the fate of the city. Jerusalem remains at the heart of the conflict in the region. Here are some of the statements made since 1967: * Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president from 1970 to 1981, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem in 1977: There are Arab lands which Israel occupied and continues to occupy through armed force. We insist on the complete withdrawal from them, including Arab Jerusalem ... It is inadmissible that anyone should conceive the special status of the city of Jerusalem within the framework of annexation or expansionism. * Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, to Time Magazine in 1973: Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided - not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing. The only way we will lose Jerusalem is if we lose a war, and then we lose all of it. * Yasser Arafat, Palestinian president and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization until his death in 2004, said more than once: Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Palestinian state. Whoever accepts this, fine. Whoever does not, let him drink from the sea at Gaza. There is absolutely nobody among us who will surrender one grain of the soil of noble Jerusalem. * Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, in a speech to the Knesset in 1995, the year of his assassination: I said yesterday, and repeat today, that there are not two Jerusalems; there is only one Jerusalem. From our perspective, Jerusalem is not a subject for compromise. Jerusalem was ours, will be ours, is ours and will remain as such forever. * Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and its current leader, in a 2010 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington: The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It s our capital. In a May 2017 event marking 50 years since East Jerusalem s capture, he said: Fifty years ago, we didn t occupy, we liberated; by the heroism of our warriors and the love of our people, Jerusalem was liberated. I say to the world with a clear voice: Jerusalem was and always will be the capital of Israel. The Temple Mount and the Western Wall will always remain under Israeli sovereignty. In another speech, he said: We will continue to ensure that Jerusalem is an open city accessible to all religions; a city where Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims co-exist and enjoy freedom of religion and access to religious sites. * Mahmoud Abbas, current Palestinian president, in a speech to the 2007 Annapolis peace conference in the United States: We want East Jerusalem to be our capital - a capital where we will have open relations with West Jerusalem and where we will guarantee for believers of all religions the freedom to practice their rituals. In another undated speech, he said: Unless it is written in thick and clear letters that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine, there shall be no peace with them. * Khaled Meshaal, former leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in a 2010 speech: Jerusalem belongs to its people, to the Arab and Muslim people of Palestine. It s the gate to heaven and it is not fitting to make Jerusalem a gate to surrender and sellout. No Palestinian, Arab or Muslim leader, regardless of his stature, can sign a deal that gives away Jerusalem, or provide cover for such a deal. * Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, in a 1981 address marking al-Quds day (Jerusalem day), which he declared as falling on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan: In order to liberate al-Quds (Jerusalem), machineguns relying on faith and the power of Islam must be used, and political games redolent of compromise and keeping the superpowers happy laid aside. |
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| Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, celebrated in the West for championing democracy and helping end the Cold War, sees little chance Russia will turn from czarist-reminiscent, strongman government anytime in coming decades, the U.S. author of a new biography said on Monday. Pulitzer Prize-winning William Taubman interviewed Gorbachev, now 86, eight times for his Gorbachev: His Life and Times and said in the Reuters Global Markets Forum online chat room that Gorbachev was widely disliked in Russia. Here are edited excerpts: Question: How do Russians now see Gorbachev, who was popular in the 1980s? Answer: He is widely despised in Russia. People blame him for the collapse of the USSR, loss of its empire, the economic crash that accompanied the collapse, and also for seeming to be (to them, at any rate) a weak, indecisive leader. Q: Why does Russian President Vladimir Putin ignore Gorbachev, even as he memorializes much Russian history? A: Putin has only gained by ignoring or criticizing Gorbachev. In many ways, Putin s program is the opposite of Gorbachev s. It is as if Gorbachev has bequeathed the program, namely, the reverse of his own. As for Russia s dissatisfaction today, it is apparently growing as economic conditions worsen. But Putin has rallied support by annexing the Crimea, by depicting the West as Russia s enemy, by invoking the old czarist Trinity of principles: autocracy, nationality, and Orthodox religion. Q: Does Gorbachev have much hope of seeing a more democratic government? A: Gorbachev himself says it might take decades to democratize Russia, even the whole 21st century. This from a man who had hoped to see democracy come to the USSR in a few short years. Q: Is Gorbachev content in his late life? A: He insists he is. But I can t imagine he really is. His innate optimism may sustain him. But in addition to all the political attacks on him that continue, he now lives largely alone (except for bodyguards, chefs and chauffeurs) in a big house in the suburbs. ((This interview was conducted in the Reuters Global Markets Forum, a chat room hosted on the Eikon platform.)) |
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| Australia’s center-left opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday endorsed U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton over her chief Republican rival, Donald Trump, who he said would be “very difficult” to work with. Shorten, who is campaigning against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ahead of national elections on July 2, pledged to continue Australia’s close relationship with the United States regardless of the outcome of the U.S. election. But he made no secret of which candidate he preferred. “In terms of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, I have to say that if I was in America, I would be voting for Hillary Clinton,” Shorten told reporters. “Whoever America elects we’ll deal with but there’s no doubt in my mind that Trump would be very difficult, I think, to deal with.” Trump’s often controversial comments on everything from Muslims and women to the future of NATO and relations with Russia have drawn criticism from Berlin, Paris and other European capitals. British Prime Minister David Cameron this week stood by his description of Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States as “divisive, stupid and wrong” after Trump said that he was unlikely to have a good relationship with Cameron. |
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| Rape allegations leveled against foreigners are fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy ahead of elections due early next year, when migration is likely to top the political agenda. Anti-immigration politicians have leapt on the crimes to ram home their message that the center-left government has been lax on border controls, allowing more than 600,000 migrants, mainly Africans, to enter the country over the past four years. There are too many of them. I will send quite a few home, Matteo Salvini, the head of the rightist Northern League, wrote on Twitter this week after police said a Bangladeshi man had been arrested in Rome on suspicion of raping a Finnish au pair. The Rome case came two weeks after a young Polish tourist said she was gang raped by four Africans, three of them aged under 18, on a beach in the Adriatic resort of Rimini. The woman s partner was badly beaten by the youths and a Peruvian transsexual said she was raped and assaulted by the same quartet later the same night. The leader of the gang was named as a Congolese asylum-seeker who had been allowed to stay in Italy on humanitarian grounds. The other three were Moroccan brothers aged 15 and 17, who were born in Italy, and a 16-year-old Nigerian. A gang of Maghreb worms, said Georgia Meloni, head of the rightist Brothers of Italy party, which is expected to be allied with the Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party at the election. An opinion poll in la Repubblica newspaper on Wednesday showed 46 percent of Italians thought migrants represented a threat to their personal safety and to public order against 40 percent in the last such survey in February. Five years ago the figure stood at just 26 percent. Opposition parties say the government cannot ignore the issue, pointing to official data showing that in the first seven months of the year 1,534 Italians were arrested or accused of rape compared with 904 foreigners suspected of the same crime. Some 40 percent of rapes are being committed by foreigners who make up 8 percent of the population. You can t sweep this under a carpet, said Deborah Bergamini, a lawmaker with Forza Italia. The influx of migrants is having major consequences. Though Italy was a colonial power in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries and migrants have come to Italy for decades, the country mainly served as a transit route for the rest of Europe and so remains an overwhelmingly white country. However, EU migration policy means that increasing numbers of would-be asylum seekers are having to stay to secure residency permits, meaning many more Africans and refugees from the Middle East are trying to make Italy their home. Rising public concern over the inflows is starting to affect government policy-making, with the ruling center-left Democratic Party on Tuesday freezing a long-promised bill that would have granted citizenship to the children of immigrants. Some 70 percent of Italians backed the measure earlier this year, but support has now plummeted to just 52 percent, according to the la Repubblica survey. Interior Minister Marco Minniti has also intervened to stem the flow of migrants. I feared for democracy in this country, Minniti said last month, explaining why, after months of a de-facto, open-door policy, the government finally introduced measures aimed at preventing people from leaving Libya for Italy. Over the past 2-1/2 months, the number of migrants reaching Italy has fallen 70 percent from the same period a year ago to some 16,500, but the rape cases have ensured that media headlines have remained highly negative about the newcomers. German media were accused last year of initially ignoring allegations of sex assaults by migrants at New Year festivities in Cologne in order not to fuel anti-foreigner sentiment. The Italian media has no such hesitancy. First poverty, now they bring us disease, a front page headline in Libero daily said this month when an Italian child died of malaria just days after she had shared a hospital ward with two African children suffering the same illness. Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and cannot be passed person-to-person. It was eradicated from Italy in 1970 and doctors do not know how the girl, who had never been abroad, caught the disease. Cecile Kashetu Kyenge, a Congolese-born European parliamentarian with the ruling Democratic Party, says those sorts of headlines show how racism is on the rise. The newspapers turn migrants into the enemies of Italy and people start to believe this nonsense, said Kyenge, a former minister who receives regular racist abuse on social media. Racism is used as a political weapon and the situation is getting worse. The problem is we are living in a perpetual election campaign and politicians play on peoples fears. The Northern League has led the anti-migrant charge with its leader, Salvini, regularly denouncing migrants on Facebook. The party has been rewarded by a jump in support from 6 percent in 2014 to more than 15 percent today, making it the third largest political force in Italy in many opinion polls. The rise of the Northern League can be put down to the party s anti-migrant stance and Salvini s undoubted ability to play the populist card, said pollster Renato Mannheimer. He predicted that the issue would continue to predominate. The economy is a much more important issue, but sadly I think it will take a back seat to immigration in the coming election campaign, he said. |
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| Obama has encouraged this type of behavior with his divisive rhetoric, as he proves himself to be a true disciple of the Reverend Wright s church of Black Liberation Theology (hate against whites) After a month that saw law enforcement officers from Texas to New Orleans being targeted and gunned down because they were cops, a new viral video features a self-described black supremacist calling for more deadly assaults on police.https://youtu.be/brX0XcmtVUY It s open season on killing white people and crackers, King Noble says in a chilling Youtube rant. The Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t enough. Noble calls for more execution-style killings of police officers similar to the’slaying of Texas sheriff s Deputy Darren Goforth. It s not safe no more to be white in America. Lurking behind any corner could be an angry black man ready to take yo ass out. It s a reality, he’said. It s open season on killing whites and police. Via: Breitbart News |
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| Donald Trump’s new campaign manager said on Wednesday she would encourage the Republican presidential nominee to focus on substance and continue delivering policy speeches as he has done in the last week. “Keep giving these policy speeches, because I tell you ... there’s absolutely zero evidence that the voters want this election to be about this content-free cacophony with no substance and no issues,” Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with Fox News. Conway was named to the position on Wednesday by the Trump campaign in a shake-up that also appointed the head of conservative website Breitbart News to the new position of campaign CEO. |
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| The parents and lawyers of a Philippine high school student shot dead last week filed a murder complaint on Friday against three anti-narcotics policemen amid rare public outrage about the country s war on drugs. The death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos on Aug. 16 in a rundown area of Manila has drawn huge domestic attention to allegations by activists that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers, a charge the authorities deny. The head of the Public Attorney s Office (PAO) and the parents of the slain youth submitted the complaint against the three policemen at the justice department, calling for them to be charged with murder and breaches of a law on torture. The PAO, a government agency, provides indigent litigants free legal assistance. Delos Santos was found dead in an alley with a gun in his left hand. Police said they killed him in self defense, but his family said he had no weapon, was right-handed and had no involvement in drugs. Security cameras showed the officers aggressively escorting a man matching delos Santos description in the direction of the spot where he was killed. The three policemen admit they were the people shown in the video, but that they were escorting another suspect, not delos Santos. PAO and police pathologists who did separate autopsies told a Senate hearing that delos Santos was shot from above, from close range. It was cold-blooded murder, he was shot while kneeling down, PAO chief Persida Acosta told news channel ANC. We are here for truth and justice so we have to file this immediately. The complaint, if accepted, would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over President Rodrigo Duterte s war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments. Most Filipinos however support the campaign, according to opinion polls, and domestic opposition has been muted. Several police commanders relieved of their duty over the student s killing told a Senate inquiry on Thursday that delos Santos was not the target of their operation, and his links to drug were known to them only the day after his death. Officers said they learned of his suspected links to drugs from another drug suspect, a cellphone and chatter circulating on social media. Delos Santos was among more than 90 people killed last week in three nights of intensified raids dubbed One Time, Big Time , which had Duterte s steadfast support. The term refers to a coordinated police drive to stamp out crime in a particular district. The teen s killing puts focus on Duterte s repeated promises to police administering the crackdown that he would insulate them from any legal consequences. Critics say his rhetoric is tantamount to giving police a license to kill. Duterte took a softer tone on Wednesday, telling police to arrest suspects and kill only if their lives were in danger, adding that he would not protect those who killed unarmed people. |
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| Frustration is mounting among leading foreign policy officials in President Donald Trump’s administration as they chafe at some policy and bureaucratic defeats and complain they lack independence to do their jobs, officials say. The clash between internationalists urging the traditional U.S. leadership role in the world and advocates of an “America First” approach has worn down foreign policy and intelligence professionals inside the government, according to the officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he sees as disorganization and indiscipline on key policy issues inside the White House. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Tillerson was “very upset at not having autonomy, independence and control over his own department and the ability to do the job the way the job ... is traditionally done.” The source said he had heard nothing about any possible departure, but added: “The situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better, and in some respects appears to be getting worse.” R.C. Hammond, Tillerson’s spokesman, denied Tillerson was considering leaving or that his frustrations were boiling over, saying he had “plenty of reasons to stay on the job, and all of them are important to America.” “There’s a desperate need for American leadership in the world and that’s where the secretary’s focusing his attention,” he said. Tillerson scored a policy win last week when the administration certified, albeit reluctantly, that Iran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal under which Tehran agreed to restrain its atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief. He was upset, however, by fierce internal criticism from Trump, as well as his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and White House aide Sebastian Gorka, over the decision, said another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The secretary does not feel that White House staff members should be in a position to conduct hostile cross-(examinations) of Cabinet officials,” the official said. Hammond disputed the account of harsh discord between Trump and Tillerson regarding recertifying the Iran nuclear deal, saying: “I don’t buy this whole thing that there are tensions. Developing public policy is about vetting out ideas,” he said. Following last month’s move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to boycott Qatar, which they accuse of financing extremist groups and supporting terrorism, Tillerson publicly asked the nations to ease their blockade, and put the onus on both sides to end the crisis. Less than 90 minutes later, Trump accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism and suggested he had helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders. “As a government we offered some confusing signals, but we’ve since been able to clear up and clarify that,” Hammond said. Politico reported last month that Tillerson was furious with Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to key State Department posts. Senior national security officials said McMaster was dismayed that his recommendations, backed by his senior director for Russia, Fiona Hill, about taking a tough stance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, had been ignored. Trump has questioned the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to try to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. McMaster, a three-star Army general who once praised Trump as a “disruptive” figure, is also troubled by a protracted debate about sending more U.S. forces to help Afghanistan reverse gains by the Taliban, officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. Asked to respond to the characterizations of the views of McMaster and other officials, a White House official said: “Assertions not of fact but of state of mind in internal thought have no place in a story like this.” While circumspect, Tillerson talked about the challenges of his new job earlier this month, telling reporters that it differed from his former role as chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, where “I was the ultimate decision-maker. That always makes life easier.” “I knew what to expect and we had very long-standing disciplined processes and decision-making,” he said. “Those are not the characteristics of the United States government.” |
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| Earlier today, President Trump tweeted about the Alabama Senate race where Republican candidate for Senate Judge Roy Moore has been the target of the left ever since he won in the GOP primary race in September, against the less conservative candidate, Luther Strange.The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017Since the first day I took office, all you hear is the phony Democrat excuse for losing the election, Russia, Russia,Russia. Despite this I have the economy booming and have possibly done more than any 10 month President. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017Unfortunately for the Democrats, their attempt at destroying the character of Roy Moore, by attempting to paint him as a sexual predator of teenage girls, continues to fall apart. Roy Moore s team is coming out and demanding that the high school yearbook used as evidence by one of Moore s accusers is more looked at by forgery experts after it was discovered that the’signature doesn’t match that of Roy Moore s and that two different colors of ink were used for the’signature. The’stepson of the woman who used what many are saying was a forged Roy Moore signature in her yearbook, has also come out to say his stepmother is lying about her encounter several decades ago with Roy Moore. Even the high-profile, leftist, media-whore lawyer, Gloria Allred, who represented the accuser with the yearbook, appears to have gone into hiding. Meanwhile, polls are showing that Roy Moore is ahead by anywhere from 5-15 points and that the left s shameful attempt at stealing the election from the popular conservative candidate in Alabama, is quickly falling apart.Now that President Trump has endorsed Roy Moore, the left appears to be giving up the’ship Sunday on ABC s This Week, network analyst Cokie Roberts said now that President Donald Trump had supported Alabama GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore, it will be very hard to defeat Moore in the December 12 special election.Roberts said, He doesn’t have to go to Alabama. He s done plenty for Roy Moore. Moore can put it in his ads, which he’s doing. He s clearly got the endorsement of President Trump. Without the endorsement of President Trump, he won’the primary. I think with the endorsement of President Trump, it will be hard to defeat him in the general election. Breitbart News.@CokieRoberts tells @ThisWeekABC Roy Moore clearly has the endorsement of Pres. Trump: Without the endorsement, he won’the primary. I think with the endorsement, "it is going to be very hard to defeat him." pic.twitter.com/Hyw6wSligG ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 26, 2017 |
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| Kellyanne Conway is definitely going to whine about this.CNN may have reversed their ban on Kellyanne Conway, but if Mika Brzezinski has her way, she won’t ever be able to spread her lies on Morning Joe again.In the latest backlash against Donald Trump, the Morning Joe host declared that Kellyanne Conway will not be booked on the MSNBC program ever again because or her constant lies in defense of her tyrannical boss. I know for a fact she tries to book herself on this show, Brzezinski said on the air. I won’t do it. I don’t believe in fake news or information that is not true. That is every time I ve ever seen her on television something is askew, off, or incorrect. Indeed, Kellyanne Conway lies so much on every media outlet’she appears on it s a wonder her nose hasn’t grown like Pinocchio s.Ever since she joined Trump’s campaign she has been whining about how the media covers Trump and has insisted that her lies are the truth. Fact-checkers have had to work overtime to make sure the American people know that she is lying.Joe Scarborough opined that Conway lies because she isn’t as close with Trump as shes says she is. She’s just saying things just to get in front of the TV to prove her relevance because behind the’scenes she’s not in these meetings and any reporter can ask anybody in that White House and they will say the’same thing. She’s not in these meetings. So why does the president allow her to keep going out and spreading false information? Apparently, Trump is hoping that if Kellyanne Conway keeping repeating the lies that Americans will accept them as the truth.But Mika Brzezinski refuses to take part in that effort, so she made it very clear that Conway will not be invited on to Morning Joe as long as she is hosting. Kellyanne Conway does not need to text our show, as long as I m on it, Brzezinski said. It s not happening here. Here s the video via YouTube.Conway has been an embarrassment since day one. Her most recent embarrassments include peddling Ivanka Trump’s product line in violation of federal ethics rules and making up a terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Kentucky in defense of Trump’s travel ban. Beyond that, she fumbles so much that we’ve lost count.The media should ban Conway from appearing on all shows across the board. All she does is spread propaganda and false information, and if Scarborough is right that she really doesn’t know what s going on inside the White House then she’shouldn’t be considered a source worthy of interviewing.Featured image via screenshot |
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| Protesters clashed with thousands of police at a South Korean village on Thursday as Seoul deployed the four remaining launchers of the U.S. anti-missile THAAD system designed to protect against mounting threats from North Korea. The South s defense ministry confirmed on Wednesday the launchers would be installed on a former golf course near Seongju City some 217 km (135 miles) south of Seoul. Two launchers and a powerful radar are already in place at the site as part of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system. Early on Monday, around 8,000 South Korean police gathered in the village of Soseong-ri, along the only road that leads up to the golf course, to break up a blockade of around 300 villagers and civic groups opposed to THAAD. Some 38 protesters were wounded in tussles with police, with 21 sent to hospital, according to a Seongju Fire Station official. None of the injuries were life-threatening, said Kim Jin-hoon. The Soseong-ri residents say they do not have a political motive but are against the deployment of THAAD as their lives have been disrupted by the dozens of military helicopters, buses, trucks that travel through the small melon-farming town of 80 residents. The decision to deploy THAAD, designed to shoot down short- to medium-range missiles mid-flight, has drawn strong objections from China. It believes the system s radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance. South Korea s defense ministry has said the deployment is necessary due to the imminent threat from North Korea, which has launched numerous missiles since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office in early May. Pyongyang also conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sunday, prompting vehement reprimands from neighboring Japan and the United States. According to a United Nations draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday, the United States wants the United Nations to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban the country s exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers as part of new sanctions on the North. |
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| In an ironic twist of politics Barack Obama has decided it would be wise to jump from his regular day job and hit the campaign trail for Hillary as she takes a break from campaigning due to her diagnosis of pneumonia. He said at a Pennsylvania Dem rally, Hillary Clinton is steady and she is true. I need you to work as hard for Hillary as you’did for me. This is actually the third rally that Obama has stood in at for Hillary and no one wants to address the fact that he is using taxpayers money to make these trips. So while Obama spins Hillary s failures he is also committing acts that violate the American people.Trumps party has a statement to make towards Obama about it that states many Republicans feelings on the matter: Shouldn t you be at work? it read. President Obama would rather campaign for Hillary Clinton than solve major problems facing the country. This is not the first time that Trump has had to point out the unethical actions of Obama abusing the taxation system. When Hillary and Obama took Air Force One for a spin to campaign was an event that he addressed.Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016The biggest issue is this: The Federal Election Commission personal contribution guidelines require campaigns to reimburse individuals $1,000 for travel expenses on behalf of presidential candidates. Individuals can also spend up to $2,000 for party-designated travel and be reimbursed, but the maximum of $3,000 the Clinton campaign would give back to the president pale in comparison to the total costs of operating Air Force One. Judicial Watch estimates the cost of keeping POTUS in the air at $206,000.Lets not forget that the current administration has refused numerous times to make Obama s travel expenses available to the public for his entire tenure in office.So, while we have Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf harassing our Navy, Isis continuing their tirade across the middle east, hidden terrorist cells in on our own country, and an economy and society that are currently falling well below any level of secure that America has ever seen, Obama is playing substitute on ur dime for the most vile and hated woman in American history.Yet while Hillary calls 3/4th of the country a basket of deplorables and Obama claims that Repulicans are fanning anger and hate, he’still stands at that podium and says that he has successes on diplomacy, health care, winding down the war in Afghanistan and reviving economy, which showed new strength Tuesday in a Census report documenting a jump in household incomes in 2015.As someone who claims no title either way in the political game I for one am one American’that is disgusted with the way in which Obama and Hillary have lied and destroyed this country time and time again. |
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| .@DiamondandSilk wasn’t pleased by the underhanded way that @MerylStreepPage used her platform, @goldenglobes, to insult @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/zVjDw9rah6 Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) January 9, 2017 |
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| A new U.S. rule aimed at restoring consumers’ ability to band together to sue financial companies has survived its first challenge, as a top banking regulator on Monday said he would not petition for it to be suspended. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule abolishing “mandatory arbitration clauses” was released on July 10, and was immediately threatened by Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration. Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika publicly argued with CFPB Director Richard Cordray, appointed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, over whether the rule could endanger the banking system. Many had expected Noreika to ask colleagues on the Financial Stability Oversight Council consisting of the country’s chief financial regulators to stay the rule. But in Monday’s statement he said he was unable to complete a thorough review of the rule in time to make a petition. “Nothing so far diminishes my concerns that the rule may adversely affect the institutions within the federal banking system and their customers,” Noreika said, adding it “may have unintended consequences” such as increased costs. The CFPB declined to comment. Still, Noreika backing down was a victory for the independent agency, which spent years researching and writing the rule. The rule bans companies from requiring customers to sign an agreement when opening new accounts that they will not join a group lawsuit, or class action, in the event of a dispute. Instead they must take disputes to secret arbitration. Critics of the rule say class actions mostly benefit lawyers, while arbitration is quick, cost-effective, and renders large awards for complainants. Supporters, though, say citizens are entitled to a day in court and companies often hire the arbitrators, rigging the process against the customers. They also say public proceedings are effective at ending bad corporate behavior. “The rule is a well thought-out response to the serious consumer harm of forced arbitration,” said Brian Marshall, policy counsel for advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. Noreika’s threat is not the only one levied against the regulation. But it was the first time a stay from the oversight council was seriously considered to dismantle a rule. Noreika added he hopes congressional efforts to kill the rule succeed. Even though the House of Representatives passed a resolution repealing it earlier this month, Republicans hold a slimmer majority in the Senate and will struggle to gather enough votes for a similar resolution, analysts said. |
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| The Russian frigate Admiral Essen fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Islamic State targets near the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday to help a Syrian army offensive in the area, the Russian Defence Ministry said. The strike, which was launched from the Mediterranean, destroyed command and communications posts, as well as ammunition depots, a facility to repair armored vehicles, and a large group of militants, the ministry said. The strike had targeted Islamic State fighters from Russia and the former Soviet Union, it added. |
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| A suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday in Syria s eastern city of Deir al-Zor, killing and injuring dozens, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. Deir al-Zor, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, is the largest and most important city in eastern Syria, and is the center of the country s oil production. The Syrian government on Friday declared victory over Islamic State in Deir al-Zor, a big blow to the jihadists as their last stronghold in Syria crumbles. Earlier on Saturday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least one Islamic State car bomb killed dozens of people at a refugee gathering on the east side of the Euphrates River. |
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| ***LANGUAGE WARNING***I admittedly (and intentionally) haven’t seen too many Ben Affleck movies, but watching this rabid defender of Islam, Ben Affleck go off the rails over the deflate gate controversy left me wondering about this belligerent Hollywood leftist. Does Affleck typically slur his 4-letter words while appearing to be cross-eyed during interviews?Here is Affleck defending Islam in an over the top response to leftist Bill Maher s comments: |
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| The newly-elected Czech lower house of parliament on Wednesday picked a speaker from the biggest party ANO, a source in the voting committee said, opening the way for the government to resign and ANO chief Andrej Babis to become prime minister. Babis, whose ANO party won the October election by a large margin on pledges to uproot corruption and streamline functioning of the state, has been asked by President Milos Zeman to form a government but has so far failed to find majority support. Electing the speaker is one of the constitutional conditions for the parliament to conclude its first session. After that, the outgoing government led by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka resigns, and a new prime minister and eventually a full cabinet can be appointed. |
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| This is disgraceful and it is an insult to every American who has ever lost a loved one to gun violence.Democrats are sick and tired of Republicans offering nothing more than thoughts and prayers instead of doing something substantial to prevent mass shootings, so they took to the House floor on Wednesday to protest GOP inaction in order to force House Republicans to allow a vote on gun control bills that Senate Republicans rejected on Monday.Led by legendary civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Democrats were preparing to hold a sit-in when Texas congressman and NRA shill Ted Poe called for a recess. We have been too quiet for too long, Lewis declared. There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time. Lewis and 60 Democratic colleagues sat on the House floor, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and chanted, no bill, no break. But Republicans called for a break anyway and then they censored the’sit-in by literally shutting off the video feed that allows Americans to see what is happening in the people s House.Here s the video via YouTube.Afterwards, Rep. Karen Bass told MSNBC that Republicans are running scared because they fear the NRA more than they fear the voting public. If you are constantly shut down, if if your voice cannot be heard, then it s time to take extraordinary measures, Bass said of the’sit-in. I think the NRA s influence is very profound. A lot of times, people think of it as an individual campaign contribution, that s not the issue. The issue is the fact that for a lot of members, if they’do not have an A from the NRA, they’re concerned about the NRA running campaigns against them, supporting their opponents or running independent expenditure campaigns against them. That s the fear. Indeed, Republicans in the Senate fear the NRA so much that they literally rejected a measure that would have banned suspected terrorists from legally buying guns. We re not talking about la -abiding citizens who are not being investigated for having ties to terrorist groups. We re talking about people who may have been radicalized and are being looked at by law enforcement. Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was a suspected ISIS sympathizer, but he was able to buy his assault rifle legally because the FBI was powerless to ban him from doing so because Republicans are apparently just fine with terrorists buying guns in America to kill Americans with.That s outrageous and should rally every voter in the country to throw Republicans out of office. Because the GOP and their NRA puppet masters are now just as much a threat to national security as the terrorists.Featured image via screenshot |
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| Puerto Rico’s governor on Wednesday signed an emergency bill allowing the government to halt payments on its debt, throwing into doubt broader restructuring plans to stave off a financial collapse of the U.S. territory. The measure, which earlier passed Puerto Rico’s legislature, lets Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla declare a moratorium on any debt payment he deems necessary and could alter the structure of the Government Development Bank (GDB), the island’s primary fiscal agent. “This legislation provides us with the tools to address the highest priority of needs — providing essential services to our people — without fear of retribution,” Garcia Padilla said in a statement. Puerto Rico, burdened by a $70 billion debt load it says it cannot pay, a 45 percent poverty rate and shrinking population, faces economic collapse without measures that either change its laws or involve an agreement with creditors. Wednesday’s emergency law was rushed into existence as the GDB faces possible default on a $422 million debt payment due on May 1. Garcia Padilla had said he would consider a debt moratorium ahead of that deadline. GDB and its creditors are trying to work out a consensual restructuring. But the new law could spark “a new era of litigation” from creditors, said Daniel Hanson, an analyst with Height Securities. “We believe the overwhelming majority of Puerto Rican issuers have violated their creditors’ rights,” he said in a Wednesday note. Some GDB creditors on Monday sued to prevent a run on the bank, asking a federal court to block depositors from taking out their money while talks continue. The passage of the law drew a quick rebuke from some creditors. Stephen Spencer, a financial adviser to bondholders including OppenheimerFunds and Franklin Advisers, said it might violate the terms of a prior restructuring deal at PREPA, the island’s power utility. That deal, under which creditors agreed to take 15 percent repayment cuts, “should be explicitly preserved, rather than being cast into a state of uncertainty,” Spencer said in a statement. He said the law could “close the door to anyone extending new credit to Puerto Rico, seriously impeding its ability to meet citizens’ needs.” In a statement on Wednesday night, PREPA Executive Director Javier Quintana Mendez said the agreement “remains in place and should not be negatively affected by the new law.” “We continue working in collaboration with our creditors, focused on the implementation of our recovery plan,” Quintana said. A second group of creditors holding debt issued by Puerto Rico’s sales tax authority, COFINA, expressed support for the debt freeze bill, citing delays in legislative efforts by federal lawmakers in Washington to address Puerto Rico’s crisis. “With entrenched private institutions obstructing the legislative process in Washington, it is understandable that Puerto Rican leaders are taking steps to equip the island with the tools it needs,” Susheel Kirpalani, counsel to the COFINA Senior Bondholders Group at law firm Quinn Emanuel, said. A rescue bill being drafted by the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee so far uses U.S. bankruptcy rules as guidance for a solution, something many creditors oppose. Hearings are expected next week in Washington. Relations between Puerto Rico and its creditors are growing tenser as major debt payments in May and July loom. On Tuesday, some of Puerto Rico’s general obligation bondholders criticized the debt moratorium law, at the time still being debated by lawmakers, saying Puerto Rico was ignoring their offer to restructure debt by extending principal payments. Garcia Padilla appeared to fire back on Wednesday, saying “our creditors have engaged in public relations efforts that contain falsehoods about their proposed ‘fixes’ – all of which are aimed at misinforming the public and dissuading Congress from doing what is right for our 3.5 million American citizens.” Puerto Rico’s benchmark 2035 GO bond 74514LE86=MSRB is down sharply since talk of a debt moratorium bill surfaced earlier this week. On Wednesday the bond fell 2.45 points in price to bid 63.299, yielding 13.33 percent, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board data. “Puerto Rico’s problems stopped being legal problems and they’ve started being a math problem... at the end of the day Puerto Rico can’t pay,” said Nicholas Venditti, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, speaking at a luncheon for reporters in New York. |
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| The horrible result of socialized medicine may be seen in the plight of Charlie Gard. The brain-damaged British baby whose parents recently lost a legal battle to keep him on life support has now tugged at heart strings as far away as the Oval Office.President Trump tweeted out his willingness to lend a hand and in doing so exposed the debate over who should make life-and-death decisions for Charlie to a massive audience. If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so, Trump wrote.The tweet, which noted a similar call for compassion from Pope Francis on Sunday night, comes just ahead of Trump’s second international trip later this week, during which he ll meet with world leaders at the G-20 summit it Germany a conference at which Trump could cross paths with British Prime Minister Theresa May.Trump’s tweet also implicitly highlights perceived pitfalls in the British health care system a publicly funded system at a time the U.S. is undergoing yet another debate about medical coverage.Gard s parents have fought the courts to keep their son on life support. Chris Gard and Connie Yates want to bring Charlie to the U.S. for experimental therapy. But doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, who have been caring for Charlie, were granted permission by a court to turn off his life support. Though it was expected Charlie could be removed from the essential devices as soon as Friday, the hospital said in a statement it was putting together unspecified plans to give the 11 month old and his parents more time together as a family. BUT WAIT A MINUTE! PRESIDENT TRUMP AND A US HOSPITAL ARE NOW SAYING THEY WILL HELP FREE OF CHARGE!DAILY MAIL IS REPORTING SOME GREAT NEWS!Members of the TRUMP administration have spoken to the family in calls facilitated by the British government. The President is just trying to be helpful if at all possible. Due to legal issues, we can not confirm the name of doctor or hospital where the baby could be treated in the United States. |
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| The leader of Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had forced Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to resign, and called for calm and patience in Lebanon. Hariri, a political ally of Saudi Arabia resigned on Saturday in an unexpected declaration from the kingdom, citing a plot to assassinate him and slamming Hezbollah and its Iranian backers for sowing strife in the Arab world. The resignation of the prime minister, a Sunni Muslim, toppled a coalition government that included Hezbollah. The resignation was a Saudi decision dictated to prime minister Saad al-Hariri and forced on him, Nasrallah said in a televised broadcast, adding that there was no domestic reason for Hariri s decision. Nasrallah urged Lebanese not to hold protests in response to the resignation, saying this will not lead to any result . We urge against political escalation, he said. Nasrallah also said legitimate questions were being raised in Lebanon over whether Hariri was being detained in Saudi Arabia. Hariri allies in Lebanon have denied suggestions that he had been detained. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom s most prominent businessmen. |
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| Former Illinois U.S. congressman Mel Reynolds was found guilty in federal court on Thursday for failing to file federal income tax returns, marking the latest legal trouble for the one-time Democratic Party rising star. Reynolds, 65, faced four counts of failing to file a federal return after not filing in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman gave the verdict after a bench trial in federal court in Chicago, prosecutors said. The ruling followed Reynolds’ previous convictions for sexual assault, child pornography, bank fraud and misusing campaign funds. Reynolds, who represented himself during the trial, declined comment to Reuters. However, he told the Chicago Tribune he planned to appeal the verdict. “I disagree with the judge finding me guilty of a misdemeanor, and I’m going to be addressing all of the issues for a new trial in a motion that I’m filing early next week,” Reynolds told the newspaper. Reynolds’ sentencing will be scheduled later, prosecutors said. Each count comes with a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Reynolds received gross income exceeding the minimum amount required to file a tax return, prosecutors said. Prosecutors argued Reynolds collected $433,000 for consulting work he did in Africa during the four-year period he failed to file tax returns, the Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times said. But Reynolds said the money was not income, rather it was for travel and other expenses, and as such, it did not need to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service, the Tribune said. Reynolds, first elected to Congress in 1992, was indicted in 1994 for having a relationship with a 16-year-old campaign worker and was re-elected that year in his Chicago district without opposition. The case ended with a conviction on sexual assault and child pornography charges in 1995 and Reynolds resigned. Before his scheduled release from prison in 1997, Reynolds was convicted of bank fraud and misusing campaign funds and sentenced to serve additional time. He was released in 2001. Reynolds tried politics again but in 2013 lost a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives seat of Jesse Jackson Jr., who had resigned before pleading guilty to fraud charges. |
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| Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday he agreed with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs were not permissible. Tillerson, a former oil executive, arrived in Japan late on Wednesday on his first trip to Asia and will also visit South Korea and China. Tillerson told a news conference with Kishida that they had affirmed a “strong and enduring” friendship between their countries, and U.S. commitment to Japan remained unwavering. |
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| Trump has been very clear for the last week or so he will not accept the results of Election Night if he’s not the winner. He even said at a rally in Ohio: I would like to promise and pledge, to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win. He also told Chris Wallace, the moderator of the final presidential debate, that he will keep us all in suspense until Election Night is over. And he’s made noises about contesting the results if Hillary wins, presumably because there s no way Crooked Hillary could win in his world.He s in for a shocker, though. Election law doesn’t really allow a candidate to just contest election results because he’s butthurt over losing. We have 43 states that allow losing candidates to call for recounts, and half of those have trigger margins, where a recount is automatically triggered when the vote is within those margins.They re typically very narrow, though. If Trump is hoping that automatic recounts will be triggered in some of the battleground states, he will probably be badly disappointed. If he thinks he can just say, I don’t like the results in that state, please recount, because he thinks that s what Al Gore did in 2000, he’s got another think coming. Despite that, he’s actually said: If Al Gore and George Bush had agreed three weeks before the election to concede the results and waive their right to a legal challenge or a recount, then there would be no Supreme Court case. I m being asked to waive centuries of legal precedent designed to protect the voters. The truth there is that Florida s results were so close that their automatic recount was triggered. That, in turn, led to the longest, most annoying dramatic presidential election imaginable.Electoral votes are sent on to the Senate for certification in early January, and then the Senate President, who s actually Joe Biden, signs off. It s not likely that very many in Congress will want to help draw out Trump’s drama if the election s results are clear in their view (which very well could be different from clear in Trump’s view).Trump has taken a ton of flak for his cries of RIGGED! and for his statements that he might not accept the results if he loses. That could be true even if he loses bigly, despite his claims of being willing to accept a clear result. He ll no doubt make noises about sending investigators to all the battleground states that went to Hillary to check for the widespread fraud he ll be sure gave her the win. He won’t concede, which many don’t like. Even Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008 and had to swallow that loss and give a concession speech, says: I had a duty to concede, and I did so without reluctance. A concession isn’t just an exercise in graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of the American people, a respect that is every American leader s first responsibility. Trump isn’t a leader, though. He s a narcissistic toddler who plans on screaming and crying and stomping his feet in front of all of America on Nov. 8 if he loses. He ll have so much fun watching Paul Ryan, possibly alongside Mitch McConnell, give his concession speech for him.Featured image by Mark Makela via Getty Images |
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| Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders won his first endorsement from a fellow U.S. senator on Wednesday, and he and rival Hillary Clinton both announced backing from New York City labor unions as they battled to win next week’s state primary. The Transport Workers Union Local 100, representing 42,000 workers in the New York region, backed Sanders as he struggled to dent Clinton’s lead in a state each has called home. Deriding “fierce attacks” against unions over the last several decades, Sanders called organized labor the last line of defense against corporate greed in America. “We’ve got to stand together, take on the big-money interests and make it clear that our government works for all of us, not just the 1 percent,” the U.S. senator from Vermont said. Following his endorsement announcement, Sanders joined a picket line of Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) workers, who went on strike on Wednesday after contract talks hit an impasse. He thanked the workers for fighting corporate greed and told them: “Today you are standing up not just for justice for Verizon workers. You’re standing up for millions of Americans.” Clinton, a former two-term senator from New York, scored her own union endorsement from Local 3 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing more than 27,000 area workers. Sanders trails Clinton in the number of delegates won in primaries and caucuses. The former U.S. secretary of state has 1,758 delegates to Sanders’ 1,069, according to the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination to be the party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 election. Clinton on Wednesday also won backing from New York’s Daily News, which called her a “superprepared warrior realist” who understands the economic toll the country has faced, while labeling Sanders “utterly unprepared” with “politically impossible” goals. The newspaper’s editorial board interview with Clinton’s Brooklyn-born rival this month prompted criticism of Sanders as lacking detailed understanding of some of his main policy initiatives. U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, announced his endorsement of Sanders in a New York Times column, saying he supports Sanders for his work battling economic inequality, opposing trade deals and fighting for the middle class. “It is time to recommit ourselves to that vision of a country that measures our nation’s success not at the boardroom table, but at kitchen tables across America,” wrote Merkley, the junior U.S. senator from Oregon. Merkley’s announcement precedes Oregon’s May 17 primary. |
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| The White House on Friday said it will rely on international experts to ensure that Iran is living up to its commitments to curtail its nuclear program. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report on Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement is more than a technicality and there is ample reason to distrust Iran. |
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| Apparently the only thing the National Rifle Association and the White House can agree on is that President Obama would smoke them in a debate on gun control.CNN extended an invitation to the NRA, the nation s most powerful gun lobby, to join Obama during a live town hall on Thursday evening in Virginia to discuss the issue of gun violence. They gracelessly declined.NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam seemed willing to assume the NRA would come out of the debate looking very badly. He claimed the White House would rig the event and turn it into a public relations spectacle. In other words, the NRA believes it would lose and Arulanandam is desperate to think of a good excuse as to why that is.Undermining this excuse, however, is the fact that it is CNN, not Obama, that is organizing the event.A CNN spokesperson said that it was the network, not the White House, that proposed the idea of a town hall on guns, and noted the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment including NRA members as well as groups that back gun regulation.The only ones too afraid to show up to this mixed crowd are NRA representatives.And while it s laughable that the NRA already threw in the towel before the debate even began, they are justified in being worried about what they would face if they were brave enough to show up. As Obama proved numerous times during his two presidential elections, he’s a formidable debate opponent. It is also clear that the issue of gun control is an area that Obama is fired up about. For years, Republicans in Washington and their pro-gun benefactors have stymied any and all attempts to address mass shootings. Entering his last year in office, Obama is done playing games. Earlier this week, he gave an emotional and powerful speech about the need for better gun control and what he plans to do about it. Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying, Obama said. I reject that thinking. We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence, he added.The NRA seems content to fight against any conceivable campaign to stop needless gun violence. This includes floating reckless lies that Obama is a tyrant seizing people s guns. On social media, the lobbying group regularly promotes misinformation to its gullible followers. They aren’t used to being called out on it.Now that it is time to actually face Obama, it s no wonder they can’t do it.Feature image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr |
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| The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to confirm former Republican senator Dan Coats to be President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence and to approve Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster’s transfer to become his national security adviser. The vote was 85-12 to confirm Coats, who also served as ambassador to Germany under former President George W. Bush. Fifty-one votes were required for confirmation. The only Republican who voted against Coats was Senator Rand Paul, one of the Senate’s leading privacy advocates, as are several of the Democrats who also voted against Coats. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden had said he would object to Coats’ nomination because he felt the office of the Director of National Intelligence had not provided the committee with enough information about how many Americans’ communication records had been subjected to government surveillance. McMaster was approved as Trump’s second national security adviser in an 86-10 vote. No Republican senator voted against him. McMaster had faced some opposition from Democratic senators who cited concerns about his past decision to allow two service members accused of assault to advance their careers while the case against them was open, in violation of Army regulations. The Senate does not normally approve a president’s national security adviser but McMaster’s reappointment to his new position had to be considered by the Senate because he is an active-duty military officer. McMaster, 54, who is known for speaking his mind and challenging his superiors, replaces retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser on Feb. 13 after reports emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about speaking to Russia’s ambassador to the United States about U.S. sanctions before Trump took office. Coats, 73, replaces James Clapper, who retired as President Barack Obama left office in January. Coats was a member of the Senate’s intelligence committee until he retired from the Senate at the end of last year. He pledged during his confirmation hearing on Feb. 28 to support a thorough investigation of any Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. |
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| Senate Republicans sink to a new disgraceful low in their childish effort prevent President Obama from filling the vacant Supreme Court seat.When asked about potential Supreme Court nominees, John Cornyn, the’second highest ranking Republican in the Senate literally issued a threat to anyone who might accept the nomination from President Obama that their career and reputation will be intentionally ruined by Senate Republicans. I think they will bear some resemblance to a pi ata, Cornyn said according to CNN. What I don’t understand is how someone who actually wants to be confirmed to the Supreme Court would actually allow themselves to be used by the administration in a political fight that s going to last from now until the end of the year. Because there is no guarantee, certainly, after that time they’re going to look as good as they’did going in. Yes, Senate Republicans are so desperate to get their way that they are willing to destroy the life of anyone President Obama nominates to fill the empty Supreme Court seat even if that person has impeccable credentials and is absolutely qualified to do the job.This angered Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid so much that he entered the CNN article into the Congressional Record, where it will remain as an example of just how petulant Republicans have become, and then he took to the Senate floor to blast Cornyn and the GOP. Think about that. They don’t know who the nominee is, they’don’t know anything about the person, but they already have in their mind they are going to beat this person like a pi ata. It doesn’t matter who it is. Man, woman, old, young, it doesn’t matter. Doesn t matter what their education is, what their experience is, they’re going to beat them like a pi ata. I think they’ve been listening to Donald Trump too much. The Republicans need to stop and listen to this disgusting rhetoric they’re spewing This is vile behavior that is beneath the dignity of this institution. Here s the video of Reid remarks via YouTube:And the American people overwhelmingly agree with Democrats on this issue.Three major polls, including a Fox News poll, reveal that most Americans WANT President Obama to nominate a replacement for Scalia and they WANT Senate Republicans to do their jobs and hold fair confirmation hearings even more. A Rasmussen poll says the’same thing, and so does a CNN/ORC poll released this month.But rather than backtrack his remarks and apologize for his utter lack of professionalism, Cornyn doubled down on his threat and this time used the Senate floor to repeat his offensive promise to destroy the reputation and career of anyone who accepts the nomination, suggesting that President Obama would be at fault if Senate Republicans did such a thing. I would be surprised if any person who actually aspired to be on the United States Supreme Court, a current judge or a legal scholar or lawyer, would allow themselves to be used by this administration in making a nomination to the Supreme Court for a seat that will not be filled during the remainder of President Obama s term. Knowing that they won’t be confirmed. This is totally outrageous and Senate Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. They have thumbed their nose at the American people and are an embarrassment to the nation and Constitution they claim to serve.Featured Image: Wikimedia |
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| According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 2012 approximately 51 percent of all immigrant households collected welfare: HOW THE USDA Helps Illegal Aliens Get FREE Benefits Paid For By YOU! This is a problem. A lot of American households also collect welfare, and that is a problem as well.A liberal newspaper claims it has obtained copies of two of President Donald Trump’s upcoming executive orders that if implemented would once and for all stop immigrants from leeching off the American’taxpayer.Obtained by The Washington Post, the orders would reportedly deny admission to any alien who is likely to become a public charge and set up standards for determining whether an alien is deportable for having become a public charge within five years of entry. The underlying goal would be to make the U.S. immigration system more merit-based, so those with the potential to contribute to the country would be welcome, whereas those more likely to be a burden to the American’taxpayer would be kept out.According to New York magazine, the order would also bar undocumented immigrants from accessing the child tax credit, even when their children are U.S. citizens, which would be a huge blow to illegal immigrant families hoping to cash in on their anchor babies.The’simple fact is that as a sovereign nation, the United States reserves the right to demand the very best from anyone who aspires to live here. It is a fact that the U.S. actually has much more lenient immigration policies than a large number of Western countries that liberals profess to admire. Try immigrating to Canada or Western Europe if you’don’t believe it.If an immigrant works hard, obtains citizenship and leads a good life but is later laid off and needs to collect welfare for a bit, that s one thing. But when someone immigrates here and then immediately boards the welfare train, that is another and it s a problem that President Trump hopes to finally resolve.For entire story: Conservative Tribune |
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| A political feud erupted on Wednesday over the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s probe of suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, with charges that the panel’s Republican chairman subpoenaed the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency without telling Democratic members. Committee aides complained that the chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, who publicly recused himself from leading the Russia probe in April following a secret visit he paid to White House officials, failed to consult Democrats on the subpoenas. The subpoenas asked the agencies to provide details of any requests made by two top Obama administration aides and the former CIA director to “unmask” names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts, congressional sources said. The former officials named in the subpoenas were Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and former CIA Director John Brennan. “Subpoenas related to the ‘unmasking’ issue would have been sent by Chairman Nunes acting separately from the committee’s Russia investigation. This action would have been taken without the minority’s (Democrats’) agreement,” said a senior committee aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another congressional source, who also requested anonymity, said Democrats were “informed and consulted” before the subpoenas were issued. The CIA declined to comment on the subpoenas and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NSA did not immediate respond to requests for comment. U.S. privacy laws and intelligence regulations require that Americans’ names picked up in foreign communications intercepts be concealed unless senior officials request them to be disclosed for intelligence or law enforcement purposes. Any such requests undergo rigorous legal reviews. Several U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that all such requests by Obama administration officials were properly scrutinized and appropriate. SUBPOENAS FOR TRUMP LAWYER, EX-AIDE The spy agency subpoenas were not mentioned in a bipartisan announcement on Wednesday that the panel approved subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in connection with the Russia probe. The committee also approved subpoenas to the two men’s firms, Flynn Intel Llc, and Michael D. Cohen and Associates PC, the committee statement said. “As part of our ongoing investigation into Russian active measures during the 2016 campaign, today we approved subpoenas for several individuals for testimony, personal documents and business records,” Republican Representative Mike Conaway and Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, who are leading the committee probe, said in a joint statement. Conaway assumed Republican leadership of the probe after Nunes recused himself. Nunes retained his power to issue subpoenas. U.S. intelligence agencies reported in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a campaign of computer hacking, fake news and propaganda intended to swing the election to Republican Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Putin has denied conducting such a campaign. Trump denies any collusion between Russia and his campaign and has questioned the veracity of the U.S. intelligence finding. Trump fired Flynn in February for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. The retired Army general is the subject of congressional, Justice Department and Defense Department investigations into his apparent failure to disclose payments he received from Russian and Turkish entities. Cohen is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in an FBI examination of possible contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia, according to the New York Times. It reported that Cohen was involved in a back-channel plan, which never came to fruition, that would have involved a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, and the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Moscow. CNN reported on Wednesday night that congressional investigators were looking into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an undisclosed private meeting with Kislyak during the campaign, citing Republican and Democratic sources in Congress and intelligence officials briefed on the probe. The focus of the probe is on whether such a meeting took place on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where Trump delivered his first major foreign policy address, CNN reported. During his confirmation hearing in January, Sessions testified that he “did not have any communications with the Russians” during the campaign and said in a written statement given to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the campaign. It was reported in March that he met with Kislyak twice during the campaign, once at the Republican National Convention in July and once in his Senate office in September. Sessions later admitted having the meetings but said they were part of his Senate duties and were unrelated to the campaign. He later recused himself from the Russia probe. |
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| As Spain and Catalonia head toward a constitutional collision over the region s claim to independence, lawmakers on both sides of the crisis are pointing to a way out: north, to Basque Country. Among the verdant mountains of Basque Country, which borders France, a once-violent campaign for independence has petered out, with generous fiscal autonomy from Madrid helping to keep popular agitation for independence in check. We don t have that economic resentment, Aitor Esteban, organizer for the Basque National Party in Spain s parliament, told Reuters in an interview at party headquarters in Bilbao. People don t feel that need to act upon a grievance about money; that makes a big difference. The Catalan government is not calling for a Basque-style deal, insisting instead on independence after declaring overwhelming support for secession in an Oct. 1 referendum banned by Madrid. But the most moderate lawmakers in the region s ruling coalition privately say they could drop independence claims if they were given the tax autonomy that Basque Country enjoys. In Madrid, some socialists have suggested it could serve as a model for a compromise that would defuse Spain s biggest political crisis since a failed coup in 1981, although the cost to the central government would be significant. Basque staged modest protests over Madrid s violent crackdown on Catalonia s referendum, but the crisis has failed to rekindle secessionist fervor on the streets of Bilbao, the Basque capital nestled on the banks of the Nervion. Catalan flags hang from balconies alongside the Basque flag in a sign of solidarity, but Bilbao is prosperous and peaceful. Where once unionist politicians needed bodyguards and car bombings were a constant fear, tourists now crowd the taverns of the old town and the world-famous Guggenheim museum. Just 17 percent of Basques want independence and less than half would like to hold a referendum on the issue, according to a poll carried out by the university of Deusto. Basque militant group ETA, which killed more than 850 people in a decades-long campaign to carve out a separate state, effectively ended its armed resistance this year when it surrendered its weapons. The region now has one of the highest economic outputs per capita and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Spain. The independence debate is on standby in Basque Country because of great fatigue after years of violence and uncertainty after the economic crisis, said Xabier Barandiaran, professor of sociology at Deusto University. Basque s fiscal autonomy is among the most generous of any region in Europe, dating back to the 19th century and enshrined in Spain s 1978 constitution. If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national production, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros, according to a 2014 study by research house CSIC. That would equal about 13 percent of next year s budget and affect Spain s deficit and borrowing costs. For that reason, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has ruled out such generous treatment for Catalonia. Under Basque s accord with Madrid, the region collects nearly all its own taxes, which are forecast to total 13 billion euros ($15 billion) this year. It is due to return 800 million euros to Madrid in what is known as an annual quota to cover the costs of national expenses such as defense or infrastructure. Rajoy has sweetened that arrangement since he regained power at the head of a minority government last year, as the price of securing Basque National Party support for his 2017 budget. It has proved unpopular with other regions who would almost certainly oppose any similar deal for Catalonia, as it would mean cutting their share of state revenue. Typically, regions pass taxes to Madrid which redistributes money back to them according to a formula that favors the poorer regions. Former Catalan leader Artur Mas tried to hold talks with Rajoy in 2012 about granting Catalonia powers to raise and spend its own taxes, but the prospect of negotiations in the current climate look bleak. Catalonia has long said it pays a disproportionate level of taxes to Madrid in relation to the central funding it receives. A study backed by the Budget Ministry says Catalonia pays to the state 9.9 billion euros more than it receives. The Catalan economy ministry says this is even higher. Economists say an overhaul of the fiscal relationship between Madrid and the regions is overdue because the current system has led to intense tax competition between regions. Some autonomous communities have become under-financed, resulting in cuts in public services. Now the situation is so critical, there might just be the political momentum needed to tackle it, said Antonio Garcia Pascual of Barclays Capital. |
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| Paul Ryan is just like all the other establishment politicians from both sides of the aisle who have sold the American worker down the river for cheap labor. Foreign workers have been coming in to America by the droves to take over jobs that Americans had. In some cases, the American worker is required to train’the foreign worker who s taking their job. Disney has been called out on doing this to its workers who fought back against it. The Chamber of Commerce is in the pocket of the establishment and they are all for more and more immigration that will ultimately hurt the American worker. In a Tuesday morning interview with radio host Bill Bennett,Paul Ryan defended his omnibus bill s controversial expansion in the H-2B visa program, which would allow foreign workers to fill blue-collar American jobs, by arguing that if the provision were not included, American companies would be forced to shut their doors.Bennett pressed Ryan on the details of the H-2B visa expansion, slipped 700-pages into Ryan s 2,009-page omnibus spending bill asking Ryan directly, Do you believe there are not enough Americans to fill these jobs? In response, Ryan described the H-2B visa expansion as a very small, discrete provision. Despite the nation s high levels of unemployment and stagnating wages, Ryan continued on to assert, without offering evidence in support of his claim, that corporations are facing a shortage of labor, which rendered the provision necessary. Ryan said:The reason that this was passed is because there was some seasonal surge jobs that they can’t find local workers to fill, like the’seafood packaging industry in Chesapeake Bay. You have seafood season, you need people to package those things, to can’them. In the North, we have the’summer tourism industry. What it is is there s seasonal industries where they can’t find local people to do the jobs: kids are already in college or things like that where you have a surge in workers.Ryan explained that the provision was passed specifically to help small business who cannot find labor when there s a surge in demand for their labor like seafood processing, or tourism. Ryan warned, The point is these businesses would have shut down without this and that s what we didn’t want to see happen. We didn’t want to see businesses, who are seasonal, shut down because they couldn’t get the labor. That s why this provision was passed in July. The data, however, demonstrates Ryan s claim to be unsubstantiated. As Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)80% has highlighted, the Economic Policy Institute has documented how, wages were stagnant or declining for workers in all of the top 15 H-2B occupations between 2004 and 2014. Unemployment rates increased in all but one of the top 15 H-2B occupations between 2004 and 2014, and all 15 occupations averaged very high unemployment rates Flat and declining wages coupled with such high unemployment rates over such a long period of time suggest a loose labor market an over-supply of workers rather than an under-supply.Cries of so-called labor shortages are frequently invoked by corporations and immigration expansionist who want to see large increases in low-wage labor. As immigration attorney Ian Smith has explained, Ryan s resurrection and expansion of the controversial provision in Sen. Marco Rubio s Gang of Eight bill to increase guest-worker programs will disproportionately hurt America s most vulnerable workers such as black workers, single women, the elderly, and first-generation immigrants.While Ryan argues that more low-wage immigrant labor is needed to fill labor shortages, National Review s Rich Lowry has previously declared, The next time I hear a Republican strategist or a Republican politician say that there are jobs that Americans won’t do, that person should be shot, he’should be hanged, he’should be wrapped in a carpet and thrown in the Potomac River. Ryan s push to expand immigration comes on top of the nation s existing federal policy of autopilot visa dispensations. Under current policy, every day the U.S. brings in enough new immigrants to fill an overcrowded, metropolitan high school. Every week, the United States brings in enough new immigrants to fill the Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Lakers play. Every year, we add an immigrant population the’size of Dallas. And every three years, the U.S. adds another entire city of Los Angeles, made up of foreign-born immigrants.Ryan, however, seems to believe these numbers should be even bigger, even as the U.S. foreign-born population is already at an all-time high of 42.4 million.Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Ryan s using conservative talk radio platforms to make arguments for expanded immigration is that the Republican Party is now in the position of having an electorate that is almost universally opposed (92 percent according to Pew) to immigration increases, but it is led by a House Speaker who has a two-decade long history of pushing for higher rates of immigration. This means that one segment of the electorate, perhaps most in favor of immigration reductions, now has as its leader one of the politicians most associated with pushing for expanded immigration.Read more: Breitbart |
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| The Attorney representing the illegal aliens who were arrested alleges that, Other than drunken driving, and driving without a license, and entering the country illegally, they’ve done nothing wrong LOL! The popular Aroma Buffet & Grill in York, Pennsylvania reopened Wednesday after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep that nabbed several employees forced owners to close down.The restaurant s new manager, Kyle Lin, told the York Daily Record he was recently hired to run the place but he’s not sure whether the former manager s role in hiring four kitchen employees who were arrested by ICE agents two weeks ago. I m not sure if the previous manager hired them or knew of their proper status, or if those employees provided false information, Lin said.Attorney Stephen Converse is representing the four employees all men in their 20s who were in the country illegally from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador.Converse would not identify his clients, but told the news site they’re not serious criminals. He alleges that other than drunken driving, and driving without a license, and entering the country illegally, they’ve done nothing wrong.Converse credited the Trump administration with removing them and numerous other illegal immigrants he is currently representing. The Obama administration very methodically focused on criminal aliens, he told the Daily Record. Now they’re targeting everyone. The defense attorney said he’s personally spoken with 16 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE agents in York County over the last three weeks, and contends another 14 were arrested in Carbon County.Converse also complained that local courts will no longer simply release illegal immigrants back into society as they await a hearing, and are now holding them for ICE.ICE officials would not discuss operations with the Daily Record, which cited a U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement that more than 680 illegal immigrants were arrested last month in large metropolitan cities.ICE field office director for greater Los Angeles, David Marin, told the Associated Press in mid-February that those sweeps were planned before the (Trump) administration came out with their current executive orders on immigration. The American Mirror |
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| Just a few months before reports of her sexual assault lawsuit against Donald Trump rocked the campaign, cosmetics executive Jill Harth lobbied to be the then-candidate s make-up artist.On Monday, The Hill detailed the’story of Harth s repeated efforts to become Trump’s campaign makeup artist and to pitch her new male cosmetics product line, Made Man. Her solicitations, in both emails and in person, came a few months before her 1997 lawsuit was brought to light, along with several other sexual misconduct allegations against the candidate. The Hill learned of her appeals to Trump in an interview with Harth in December about her friendship with celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom; Trump’s lawyers then provided the emails. The Hill followed up with Harth, who defended both her attempts to work with the man she accused of sexual assault and her current call for him to be impeached.In 1997, Harth sued Trump for allegedly pushing her up against a wall and trying to get his hands up her dress during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in 1993. She eventually withdrew the lawsuit as part of a settlement over Trump allegedly pulling out of a business deal. But as The Hill notes, the tone of her emails to Trump in 2015 was starkly different than the tone of her 1997 lawsuit and the interviews she gave about it in 2016.The Hill provides some examples of the emails Harth personally sent to Trump between the’summer of 2015 and early 2016: Hi Donald, you are doing a tremendous job of shaking things up in the United States. I am definitely on Team Trump as so many others are, Jill Harth wrote the future president in an Oct. 1, 2015, email sent to him through his New York company s headquarters. I can’t watch television without seeing you or hearing your name everywhere! It s a good thing for sure but PLEASE let me do your makeup for a television interview, a debate, a photo session, anything! Harth wrote. It kills me to see you looking too orange and with white circles under the eyes. I will get your skin looking smoother and even toned, she added, boasting she would sculpt your face to look good on high-definition television sets.The Hill also notes that Harth is one of the accusers who financially benefited from her work with Bloom on the allegations: the attorney set up a GoFundMe page for Harth that paid off her mortgage and an email revealed that Harth s sales soared after Bloom appeared on TV to discuss her allegations. Daily WireBIG PAYDAYS FOR TRUMP ACCUSERS:According to FOX News, Legal powerhouse Lisa Bloom tried to line up big paydays for women who were willing to accuse President Trump of sexual misconduct during the final months of last year s election, according to an explosive report.Proud to call Attorney @LisaBloom my friend. She is very warm, smart, caring, & REAL. Watch her interview on The View . You ll see what I mean. She even mentions me. pic.twitter.com/rAW9CvxGYn Jill Harth (@jillharth) November 11, 2017The Hill reported Friday that Bloom worked with campaign donors and tabloid media outlets to arrange compensation for the alleged victims and a commission for herself, offering to sell their stories. In one case, Bloom reportedly arranged for a donor to pay off one Trump accuser s mortgage and attempted to score a six-figure payment for another woman. The former ultimately declined to come forward after being offered $750,000, the clients told The Hill. |
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| A 15 percent corporate tax rate backed by President Donald Trump may not be possible, but businesses will see a “competitive” rate as Republicans push their tax reform plan through Congress, the U.S. treasury secretary said on Tuesday. “Ideally, he’d like to get it down to 15 percent. I don’t know if we’ll be able to achieve that given the budget issues, but we’re going to get this down to a very competitive level,” Steven Mnuchin said, speaking at an conference hosted by CNBC. |
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| U.S. industry groups have submitted hundreds of pages of recommendations to President Donald Trump’s administration in recent weeks, detailing ways they think he could ease their regulatory burden. The comments can be found at the following web sites: here and here Here is a selection of some of their suggestions: * GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING RULE - Modify the U.S. Clean Air Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting rule to create incentives for carbon capture and storage technology, in which carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored underground. * STACK TESTING - Eliminate redundant stack testing currently required under parts of the U.S. Clean Air Act. * ONCE IN-ALWAYS IN - Eliminate a provision of the U.S. Clean Air Act that requires a major source of emissions to always be treated as a major source, even if it later adds technology to reduce those emissions. This change was also requested by other groups, including the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. * NEW SOURCE REVIEW - Modify the New Source Review permitting process required under the U.S. Clean Air Act to eliminate the need to consider emissions increases from non-modified affected emission units at a plant, and allow “project netting” that accounts for emissions reductions elsewhere at a plant. * NATIONAL AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS - Review an EPA decision to tighten ozone standards in a way that would likely expose more company facilities to tougher Clean Air Act rules. * RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD - Ensure average mandated ethanol content in gasoline does not exceed 9.7 percent of projected U.S. demand. * RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD - Ensure EPA continues to boost the mandated volumes of biofuels in gasoline and other road fuels. * AIR PERMITS: Reduce the burden of air and ozone permitting regulation to make it easier to greenlight projects. * EPA TRANSPARENCY: Increase the transparency of the science EPA relies upon in its rule-making. * NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: “Streamline specific NSPS and NESHAP regulations to eliminate redundant requirements, conflicts between rules, and undue complexity, resulting in practical and understandable regulations without reduced protection of the environment.” * NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: Review rules seeking to limit fugitive emissions from oil and gas installations. * NATIONAL AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS: Like AFPM and others, IPAA wants a review of planned tightening of ozone standards that could ramp up regulatory burdens. * MORE COLLABORATIVE ENFORCEMENT: “EPA needs to thoroughly review and revise its federal enforcement process. It needs to create an enforcement program that treats the regulated community with fairness, respect and dignity.” * NEW SOURCE REVIEW: “There continues to be a need for NSR reforms that simplify and streamline permitting.” * NATIONAL AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS: Review various aspects of ozone standards and enforcement to ease regulatory burdens. * GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING RULE - Require less frequent, and less arduous reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. * NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: Reconsider aspects of this regulation, including those requiring a New Source Review permit for a plant undergoing any modification - “an enormous additional environmental review process that stifles modernization and efficiency upgrades.” * FINANCIAL ASSURANCE FOR HARD ROCK MINING: Eliminate EPA rule that would require an increase in funds available to reclaim post-mining sites. * ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: Overturn “misuse of the Endangered Species Act which has put 10 million acres across a few western states off limits from mining.” |
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| Poland s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo will announce a cabinet reshuffle in coming days, she said on Tuesday, declining to respond to talk that her own job might be at risk. Media and market speculation about a reshuffle has been rife, with the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party thought to be planning to get rid of some ministers weighing on the party s broadly positive popularity ratings as it prepares for regional elections in 2018. On Monday, weekly Sieci Prawdy suggested Szydlo, 54, might herself be replaced by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who heads the right-wing PiS to which they both belong. Tabloid Fakt said on Tuesday that Szydlo was likely to keep her job, but that others including Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Environment Minister Jan Szyszko both relatively unpopular among the electorate might be replaced. Kaczynski, 68, a divisive figure who is one of the least trusted politicians in Poland, exerts huge influence behind the scenes and media have said he might be targeting Szydlo s job ahead of national elections due in 2019. I do not want the speculation regarding changes in the government to continue. My decisions will be announced soon, Szydlo told private broadcaster TVN 24. This decision has been taken - there will be changes in the government. I have discussed this decision with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, which is a natural thing. Asked about her own possible departure, Szydlo said she did not want to speculate, adding she was not tired or burned out. Opinion polls show Szydlo is the second most trusted politician in Poland, just behind President Andrzej Duda. If the reshuffle is limited to a few ministers, then it will done out of the natural desire to get rid of the weakest links (in the cabinet), said Jaroslaw Flis, a sociologist at the Krakow-based Jagiellonian University. The PiS government has divided opinion, putting Poland on a collision course with the EU with policies including increasing control over the judiciary and state media that critics say undermine the rule of law. But the party continues to enjoy strong backing from voters. In a survey released (when) by state pollster CBOS, 44 percent of respondents described themselves as supporters of the government, the largest share in six years. |
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| President Barack Obama said in a commencement speech on Saturday that U.S. race relations have improved over the last three decades, but that significant work still needs to be done. “I tell you this not to lull you into complacency, but to spur you into action because there’s still so much work to do,” Obama told about 2,300 Howard University graduates in Washington, acknowledging that racism and inequality still persist. “We cannot sleepwalk through life,” he said. The United States has faced a number of racial controversies in recent years, including the 2014 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, that sparked sometimes violent protests. The United States has a racial gap in economic opportunities, Obama said, noting that the overall U.S. employment rate is around 5 percent, but it is near 9 percent for African-Americans. Obama, the son of a white mother and African father, told the graduates to embrace their racial identity. “Be confident in your blackness,” Obama said, adding “there is no one way to be black ... There’s no straightjacket, there’s no constraints, there’s no litmus test for authenticity.” He added that “my election did not create a post-racial society,” but was one example of how attitudes have changed. Obama also urged the crowd not to try to prod colleges and universities into disinviting controversial speakers - something that has taken place regularly at campuses throughout the United States. Howard University is one of about 100 historically black colleges and universities in the United States. Obama argued that the United States and the world has progressed dramatically since 1983 when he graduated from college. “America is by almost every measure better than it was” in 1983, Obama said, noting that U.S. poverty rate is down, the number of people with college degrees is up and the number of women in the workforce have risen. Obama said today’s college graduates are better positioned than any other to address the country’s tough outstanding problems. “You need a strategy,” Obama said, adding passion and anger are not enough to effect political change and encouraging them to embrace compromise. “Not just hashtags but votes.” He noted the low voter turnout among young people in the 2014 congressional elections. He told the graduates they needed to vote “every time ... not just when you’re inspired.” But Obama noted an area that has not improved in recent decades - the U.S. prison population - currently at 2.2 million, it is up more than fourfold from 500,000 in 1983. African-American men are six times more likely than white men to be incarcerated, Obama said, and urged the graduates to lobby the U.S. Congress to pass a pending criminal justice reform measure. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, praised Obama’s remarks on Twitter, writing “even conservatives would applaud it.” |
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| Here s the evidence of just how much danger we’re in:Globalist and one world demon George Soros is mentioned over 50 times in the Wikileaks emails. Doesn t that tell us so much about what the Democrats are up to? Who runs the US? Apparently George Soros.The liberal billionaire funder, who has been tied to a globalist elite pushing the Muslim migrant crisis and multiculturalism onto Western societies, comes up a lot in private discussions between top Hillary Clinton campaign officials.A search by American Lookout showed Soros has been mentioned at least 56 times throughout the 11 batches of emails put out by Wikileaks which show collusion between elites, the mainstream media and the Hillary campaign.Likewise, Soros was directly mentioned in multiple subject headlines on emails, often times requesting a meeting with top Clinton official, John Podesta.Take a look:There s even one email where the Clinton operatives speak of Hillary wanting to please Soros. Who the hell is in charge here? A Hungarian anti-semite?Don t forget that Obama is heavily connected to Soros too.So which will it be for America?Do we choose a puppet like Hillary or a man who refuses to be bought by the establishment?PLEASE CHOOSE FREEDOM! PLEASE CHOOSE TRUMP!Read more: GP |
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| French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will meet German officials in Berlin this week to discuss the future of the euro zone and assess his own prospects of becoming the next chairman of the Eurogroup forum of finance ministers. French and German officials confirmed Le Maire would be in Berlin on Wednesday, when he will meet acting Finance Minister Peter Altmaier, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Le Maire is also due to see Christian Lindner, leader of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), and Cem Oezdemir, co-leader of the Greens party. Both are in discussions with Merkel s conservatives on forming a coalition government. France s Emmanuel Macron has made euro zone reform a central goal of his five-year presidency. But any changes will require the support of Merkel and her new government, which is not expected to be in place before Christmas. Lindner has been critical of Macron s idea to create a budget for the euro zone. We want to follow up on the president s Sorbonne speech and exchange views on the future of the euro zone, a French finance ministry official said, referring to a speech by Macron in September when he laid out his vision for EU reform. While Le Maire s visit - his first to Berlin since the German election - is about strengthening contacts with likely members of the new government, officials indicated that it would also be an opportunity to sound out Berlin on the Eurogroup presidency, a powerful position that will be elected next month. Since it was created in 2005, the Eurogroup, which brings together the euro zone s 19 finance ministers, has had only two presidents: Luxembourg s Jean-Claude Juncker, who served from 2005 to 2013, and former Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is due to step down in January. The position involves chairing monthly meetings and driving policy around economic and monetary union, including ensuring that all member states stick to strict targets on deficits and debt. The post has been dubbed Mr Euro . Le Maire, 48, is regarded as sharp, ambitious and more than capable of leading the group. But some euro zone officials are wary about the presidency ending up in the hands of either Germany or France, the two largest economies in the single currency bloc and already dominant forces in policymaking. A further complication for Le Maire is France s poor record of meeting its own deficit targets over the past decade. German officials are not ruling out Le Maire, but they have also expressed a preference for giving the post to a smaller country. Last week, one official in Berlin mentioned two possible alternatives: Pierre Gramegna of Luxembourg and Peter Kazimir of Slovakia. The official also floated the idea of extending Dijsselbloem, seen as a close ally of Berlin, even though he is not part of the new Dutch government. It is still quite unclear who will come forward, the German official said when asked about the presidency. At this stage there does not seem to be one candidate everyone is rallying behind. There is no natural candidate. The Eurogroup president will be chosen on Dec. 4, an EU official said last week, with the formal call for candidates opening in mid-November. It is not a done thing, the German official said of Le Maire s candidacy. He will only apply if he gets the impression that he is the one. The talks in Berlin on Wednesday could be decisive in determining whether he does throw his hat into the ring. If Le Maire were to get the job, it could have repercussions for other top euro zone jobs. Mario Draghi will end his term as president of the European Central Bank on Oct. 31, 2019, and Germany s Jens Weidmann is already being mentioned as a potential successor. Euro zone watchers say that if the French secure the presidency of the Eurogroup, it may be harder for them to argue against a German candidate taking over the ECB. Still, as one senior French official told Reuters on condition of anonymity last month, Weidmann at the helm of the ECB would be a problem for a lot of countries, not just for France . |
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| The U.S. Senate intelligence committee wants some former aides of President Donald Trump to testify in its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, CNN reported on Thursday, citing senators who sit on the panel. CNN said lawmakers wanted to hear directly from former Trump aides who have been named in news reports, including Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager; retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser; and Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign. |
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| It s no secret that NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre is totally fricking nuts. Unfortunately for him, his newest online video won’t ameliorate his reputation for being a well-financed escaped mental patient.Cutting to the chase, LaPierre s video goes something like this:1) Background checks should be expanded. 2) Background checks shouldn’t be expanded. 3) The NRA helped create background checks!I m not exaggerating. LaPierre opens by discussing how the NRA has been actively pushing for the background check system to be augmented to include mental health records, which, LaPierre says, would’ve prevented a long list of recent mass shootings. By the way, smart move, Wayne. Thanks for reminding us about some of the most tragic gun related killing sprees of our lifetime. I m not sure whether acknowledging the roster of homicidal killers is the best way to pitch the NRA s pro-gun position, but there it is.He continued by taking a sharp right-hand turn criticizing the expansion of background checks to include gun shows and internet sales after having just seconds earlier supporting the idea. See, apparently expanding background checks to include mentally ill people is somehow better than expanding them to include gun shows.The video wraps with yet another whiplash-inducing pivot. LaPierre explains how the NRA was instrumental in establishing the National Instant Check System in the first place, an obvious admission that the NRA once supported a gun-regulation measure, the expansion of which is now inexplicably forbidden.Okeedokee.The bottom line: yes, the’system could be heftier. The problem is that LaPierre and his flying monkeys spend millions of dollars intimidating or buying-off lawmakers who render ineffective any efforts to improve the’system. In other words, any weaknesses in the’system can almost entirely be blamed on the NRA. And if a bill that fortifies the’system is introduced, the NRA will inevitably kill it. Why? Anything that makes it more difficult for consumers to buy guns will be opposed simply because the NRA is solely tasked with selling guns. LaPierre knows the Second Amendment is nothing more than a convenient marketing gimmick for selling deadly weapons to sociopaths.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLTMkg1RLW0]Featured image via video screen grab |
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| U.S. President Donald Trump and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang underscored the importance of free and open access to South China Sea, in a joint statement issued on Sunday. The two leaders called for the “full and effective implementation” of the declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea, and for all claimants to clarify their maritime claims. Trump and Vietnam’s Quang said parties should halt escalatory action and militarisation of disputed features. |
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| Slovenia would be a good place for a first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia’s Vladimir Putin said on Friday, but he said the choice of venue would not be Moscow’s alone. Putin made the comments after Slovenian President Borut Pahor offered Ljubljana, his country’s capital, as a venue for a meeting between the Russian and U.S. leaders who have not met since Trump’s inauguration last month. Trump and Putin have both said they would like to try to mend battered U.S.-Russia ties, which fell to their lowest level since the Cold War after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. Putin made it clear that no date for such a meeting had yet been agreed, but said he was keen to try to restore Russian-U.S. relations in full. “As regards Ljubljana, Slovenia in general, it is of course a brilliant place to have a dialogue of such a sort. But it doesn’t depend only on us, it depends on a whole series of circumstances,” Putin told reporters after meeting Pahor in Moscow. “If these meetings ever happen, we don’t have anything against Ljubljana,” Putin said. European Union member state Slovenia was the venue for the first meeting between George W. Bush and Putin in 2001 where the then American leader made what became a famous comment about looking Putin in the eye and getting “a sense of his soul.” It is also where Melania Trump, the U.S. president’s wife, grew up. The Kremlin sees Slovenia as an ally in its quest to end Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. Russia was a big export market for Slovenian food products before the Ukraine crisis, and Slovenia remains keen to be a transit country for Russian gas supplies to southern Europe. |
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| Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States met in Oman on Monday to try to find ways of reviving peace talks with Afghan Taliban militants, two officials in Pakistan s foreign ministry said. But it was not clear if any Afghan Taliban had joined the talks, which have so far failed to restart a tentative process that collapsed in 2015. Taliban sources had previously said they would stay away from the discussions in Muscat, casting doubt on prospects for reviving long-stalled negotiations. The Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information, said the talks had resumed on Pakistan s initiative. The Pakistani team was led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua. There was no immediate comment from the United States, China or Afghanistan about the talks resuming. The four-nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QGC), comprising Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States, which last met in Islamabad early last year, has been trying to ease the path to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, with little success. Amin Waqad, a close aide to Agfhan President Ashraf Ghani and a senior member of the High Peace Council (HPC), said last week his country would participate in the Muscat meeting, and that the Taliban representatives would also be there. The Taliban denied that they had received any invitation. Efforts to kick-start negotiations have failed due to the Taliban s refusal to attend talks after their last leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last year. The United States wants Pakistan, which it accuses of harbouring Afghan Taliban commanders, to exert more influence on the group to bring them to the negotiating table. Pakistani officials deny sheltering Taliban militants and say their influence on the group has waned. |
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| After Donald Trump declared that he would do far worse things than waterboarding, it has left the questioned to be begged, what should be done to gain intelligence that doesn’t involve torture? A very valid question, and one that our intelligence community probably grapples with daily considering, no, you can’t torture people to gather intelligence.When posed with this question on CNN, Ben Carson replied that he would promote a much more humane medical way of intelligence gathering.Pressed on what this medical way would be by CNN s Poppy Harlow, Carson responded: I believe there are a number of ways to extract information. Including, you know, some medical ways of, you know, putting people into a less than conscious state which allows information to be extracted much more humanely. Carson was then asked to explain further, so he’said: Well, the average person might understand it as truth serum. But, you know, there are ways where you’decrease a person s conscious defenses and they might be much more willing to give up information. Seemingly perplexed by the concept of a truth serum as though it were coming from a Harry Potter novel, Harlow again asked Carson to explain in greater detail what he means. Carson explained: Sodium amytal, but you know there are a variety of different things we can use now. We ve made some advances in that kind of science. So, instead of torture people, Carson is advocating drugging them against their will. It may seem more humane, but it s not necessarily more ethical.Carson never did actually answer the question regarding if waterboarding should be used, and pivoted away into a non-answer of I don’t think we necessarily need to be broadcasting what we do. Well, okay then. Why answer questions anyway? It s not like he’s running for Commander-in-Chief or anything.Watch the interview unfold here:Featured image: YouTube |
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| Mexican opposition leader Ricardo Anaya said on Sunday he would seek to win the presidency in a left-right alliance after stepping down as head of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Anaya resigned as leader of the PAN on Saturday, a day after his party officially joined forces with the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Citizens Movement party in the For Mexico in Front coalition. If selected, Anaya will likely take on leftist former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and former Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade, who is seeking the nomination for the ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Meade, who has served in both PRI and PAN administrations, resigned as finance minister in November and PRI officials hope he will help the party recover from a spate of corruption scandals. This corrupt and inefficient PRI government has been an absolute national disaster, Anaya said on Sunday, adding that his own party did not make fundamental structural changes during its two presidential terms from 2000 to 2012. Anaya saw a split in his party in October when former first lady Margarita Zavala left to launch a bid for the presidency as an independent candidate. Zavala, the wife of former President Felipe Calderon, said she quit the PAN because the party base had been subordinated to the interests of its leadership. The left-right coalition on Friday presented its official request with the electoral institute to compete in the July 2018 vote. The group must still pick its leader, with Anaya, who had been leader of the PAN since 2015, considered the front-runner. Anaya, 38, has faced criticism in the Mexican press for his family s inexplicable level of wealth, although he denies any wrongdoing. In a voter poll published on Wednesday, Anaya came in second behind Lopez Obrador, who leads the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party, but ahead of Meade. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who was seen as a contender for the coalition, said on Saturday he would not run and criticized what he said was an undemocratic selection process. |
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| Backwards logic: Since muslims won’t integrate, then we must segregate or something like that.A British theme park is the latest organization to offer segregated events in an attempt to be culturally sensitive towards its Muslim visitors. Water World, in Stoke-on-Trent, in Britain s West Midlands region, is hosting sisters only and brothers only events, demanding visitors wear Islamically appropriate attire.The water-park which claims to attract nearly half a million visitors a year is believed to have hosted dozens of events over the past few years, with Islamic Fundays as well as fundraising events for Gaza charities dating back as far as 2009. The park even goes so far as to claim that female guards will keep men out of the venue for the day.Water World s website reads: Our sisters only event is an event restricted to female gender only and boys up to the age of 4 years old. All rides and attractions are open as normal. Clothing during this event must be both culturally and islamically appropriate for the event. There is a designated prayer area located in the reception area. All windows are blacked out with only female staff/lifeguards on duty throughout the night, Female staff will guard the front entrance to make sure that no males enter the facility. Breitbart London has seen other invitations to the water park, on behalf of Islamic charity Interpal, which has hosted fundraising events for Gaza. Interpal has been accused of fundraising for the Hamas terrorist organisation on three separate occasions, and while it has been cleared by Britain s Charity Commission, one of their recent findings also claimed that Interpal had not put in place adequate due diligence and monitoring procedures to be satisfied that these organisations were not promoting terrorist ideologies or activities. Where procedures were in place, they were not sufficient nor fully implemented .The group was also forced to sever any links to the Union of Good group, which, according to the U.S. government, was an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization. One invitation to a Sisters Only Funday even went so far as to promote certain’types of clothing. It reads:Dress Code Please ensure that your Awrah [nakedness] is covered at all times. Below are a few suggestions on what you can wear: Top Long Loose T-Shirt/Top. Bottoms Leggings 3 Quarter/Full Length Jogging Bottoms. We would also suggest wearing a leotard under the T-shirt or belt over it as it is likely to float up when you enter the water. A dark coloured T-shirt is recommended as white can become transparent when wet.The most recent Sisters Only day was held on May 17th 2015. The cause , it stated, was Rebuilding Lives in Gaza Providing Clean Water , this time hosted by the Human Appeal international charity, which is listed on an unverified CIA report from 1996 into NGOs (non governmental organisations) with Terror Links . Human Appeal reject the validity of the document, despite it being cited by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the 2007 book, Understanding Islamic Charities .The organisation, listed as Human Appeal International on the Companies House register, is similarly named to a UAE-based organisation called Human Appeal International, though the Israeli government has linked both groups, as well as an Australian office. The organisation has not made the claim of mistaken identity, and indeed has liked the Human Appeal International (UAE) page on Facebook, via the UK organisation. Human Appeal UK told Breitbart London’that the CIA document is a fake and that they have previously claimed damages from the Jewish Chronicle newspaper for alleging that the group is a terrorist organisation, which it is not, with further reference to alleged links to Hamas.The Australian Broadcasting Corporation website still carries a report from 2003 that states: The document, obtained by Lateline, outlines a close relationship between Human Appeal International and Hamas, as well as the US-based Palestinian charity the Holy Land Foundation For Relief and Development, which was raided and shut down three months after the September 11 attacks, and Wikileaks reveals that a State Department cable from 2005 stated, In 2003, there were indications that HAI was sending financial support to organizations associated with Hamas and that members of its field offices in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya had connections to al-Qa ida associates . It is not clear which Human Appeal organisation these reports refer to.The GulfNews website however goes further, and continues to host a diagram linking Human Appeal (UK) to the UAE organisation, and ultimately, Hamas. Human Appeal was banned in 2012 from hosting an event at Manchester Parrs Wood High School. Britain s Department of Education stated: Since the concerns about HAI have come to light, Parrs Wood has performed further research including consulting local Jewish community representatives. As a result they have decided not to allow HAI or other charities which appear to have links to political organizations to use the’school in future. Via: Breitbart News |
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| President Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republican senators, an approach he may regret if he is someday impeached and the Senate has to weigh charges against him stemming from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. More than half of the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would be central to any proceeding to remove Trump from office, have tangled with the Republican president, including on Thursday when he fired off early-morning tweets. In one Twitter series, Trump called Senator Lindsey Graham “publicity seeking” and said he “just can’t forget his election trouncing” in the 2016 presidential race. Trump also assailed Senator Jeff Flake, another Republican critic, as “a non-factor in the Senate,” adding, “He’s toxic.” Flake and Graham are members of the Judiciary Committee, whose Chairman Chuck Grassley has urged Trump to tone it down. “He should be 100 percent sticking to ideas and forget about personalities,” Grassley said on Friday when pressed on whether Trump might find himself without the friends in Congress he would need to defend himself in an impeachment proceeding. For his part, Grassley said his views would not be colored by past presidential sniping. “Let’s say the House of Representatives impeached the president of the United States. Then I’m a juror,” Grassley said. “The Senate is the jury that decides whether he should be impeached. The jury is supposed to be impartial.” There is little serious talk being heard in Congress about removing Trump from office. Two House Democrats have introduced an article of impeachment alleging obstruction of justice by the president in connection with an ongoing investigation of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Moscow. But Republicans control the House, as well as the Senate, and the article of impeachment has gained little traction. Under the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives can vote to approve an impeachment measure. If that happens, it goes to the Senate, which acts as a jury and weighs the charges in the House measure. A two-thirds Senate vote is needed for conviction. Approval leads to removal from office. Two presidents have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was convicted by the Senate. President Richard Nixon, facing almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal, resigned in 1974. In the Clinton impeachment fight, the committee was a resource for the full Senate and could play a similar role in any future trial. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Having friends would help any president facing impeachment, said Charles Brain, a White House liaison to Congress during Clinton’s impeachment. Without such friendships, Brain said, lawmakers “can just be quiet,” refusing to share information with the White House and letting attacks on the president gain momentum. Besides Flake and Graham, Trump has had run-ins over various issues before and after his election with Republican Senator Ted Cruz, and other Judiciary Committee members, including Grassley, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, Thom Tillis and Ben Sasse. The president has also at times attacked Republican senators not on the committee, including Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election. Grassley’s committee also is looking into the matter, as are other congressional panels. The Kremlin denies any election interference. Trump has dismissed the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion. In the end, Mueller could end up clearing Trump and his aides of any wrongdoing. If not, at least two questions will loom large in a possible impeachment inquiry, said senior fellow Elaine Kamarck of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution think tank. One would be about the severity of any possible charges. Another, she said, would be “do you have friends, do you have people who believe in you and want to save your presidency?” |
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| U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will underscore the U.S. partnership with Israel during a trip to the Middle East next week while seeking to shore up U.S. relations with the Arab world after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Pence, a strong supporter of Trump s decision, will spend three days in the region with stops in Israel and Egypt, the first high-level official to visit after the president reversed decades of U.S. policy and announced the United States would start the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv. The status of Jerusalem, which holds Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who were furious over Trump s move and have declined to meet with Pence. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the full city. Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal capital, while Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of theirs to be in the city s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. Pence, an evangelical Christian who had planned to highlight the plight of Christian minorities during his trip, will not meet with Palestinian Christians or with officials from the Coptic Christian church, who declined a meeting in response to the U.S. move. Officials said Pence still would discuss the persecution of Christians as well as the Jerusalem decision, countering Iran, defeating Islamic State militants and fighting extremist ideology. The dates of his trip have been in flux because of Trump s U.S. tax overhaul push and the possibility that Pence would be needed to provide a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. He is now scheduled to depart Washington on Tuesday, arriving in Cairo on Wednesday for a meeting with Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He flies to Israel later on Wednesday and will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, deliver a speech to the Israeli parliament, and visit Jerusalem s Western Wall. We can t envision a scenario under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel, one administration official told reporters on a conference call. The trip will be dominated by the continuing fallout from Trump s announcement. The last couple weeks in the region have been a reaction to the Jerusalem decision, another administration official said. This trip is part of ... the ending of that chapter, and the beginning of what I will say is the next chapter. That view may not be shared by Arab leaders. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the United States abdicated its responsibility as a mediator on peace and Pence s planned visit to Bethlehem was scrapped. Pence does not plan to encourage Egypt to pressure the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, an official said. We think it s appropriate for the Palestinians to digest what has happened. And once they review the president s remarks clearly, they will realize that nothing has changed in terms of being able to reach an historic peace agreement, he said. Arab legislators have announced they will stay away from Pence s speech to the Knesset. In Egypt, the Sisi government will have a chance to discuss the recent U.S. decision to suspend some of Egypt s military aid package because of Washington s concerns over civil liberties. Egypt is a strategic U.S. partner because of its control of the Suez Canal and Sisi presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants in the region. On Friday Pence departs Israel for Germany, where he will visit U.S. troops on his way back to Washington. |
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| With a very dramatic flair, Senator John McCain joined his Republican colleagues, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, in torpedoing the GOP s Trumpcare bill. But just days earlier, everyone with any sense was absolutely furious with McCain for voting yes to advance Trumpcare to the Senate floor for a full vote.We all felt betrayed, particularly since that yes had come from a man recently diagnosed with a very aggressive type of cancer. He has to return to his home state of Arizona for treatments most people can’t afford without insurance, that many can’t afford even with insurance, and that could bankrupt entire families later on if things like lifetime caps on coverage are ever reinstated.But it s possible that McCain actually had a grander plan, and his yes vote, moving the bill out of committee, was carefully calculated. The Senate was trying to pass Trumpcare under a process known as reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority to pass, instead of the usual 60-vote threshold. Check this out:Amazing. Also clear now that McCain s yes on motion to proceed is what killed the bill. https://t.co/4CRz8VABeE pic.twitter.com/jzqVqmiZmJ Steve Simitzis (@s5) July 28, 2017Essentially, what McCain did was make it so they can’t advance another Trumpcare bill to the floor and try to pass it as a reconciliation measure, at least, not without some massive changes to what they’re trying to do. The Senate can actually try to pass up to three reconciliation measures each year, but only one each for spending, revenues, and debt limit. They can also put any two or all three into a single bill.While Republicans are still trying to scramble to put something together, they ll have a very difficult time getting another reconciliation bill to the floor.So McCain seems to have made a point of advancing the bill specifically so he, along with Murkowski, Collins, and the entire Democratic wing of the Senate, could effectively kill it for the rest of the fiscal year. And it was a giant f*ck you to McConnell as well, who was sure he had the votes to pass it since McCain had voted yes on the procedural motion.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images |
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| Zimbabwe takes its next step into the post-Mugabe era soon, when its new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, names two vice presidents - appointments that will signal whether he is breaking with the country s old guard. Mnangagwa, whose sacking as vice-president triggered the removal of Robert Mugabe, made no comments to the media on Wednesday before the first meeting of the ruling ZANU-PF party s bosses. Party spokesman Simon Khaya-Moyo has said he will choose his deputies either this week or later. Khaya-Moyo told reporters after the meeting that Mnangagwa assured senior party officials they would serve their full terms, comments that allayed concerns of a purge of the G40 faction loyal to Mugabe and his wife, Grace. Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, who was considered an ally of the G40, has already been sacked from the party and his post, and some Mnangagwa supporters have called for unspecified action against G40. But the president has urged citizens not to undertake any form of vengeful retribution . Party and government officials have refused to comment on speculation in privately owned newspapers and on social media that Mnangagwa is likely to make military chief General Constantine Chiwenga one of his deputies, as a reward for spearheading the de facto coup that ended Mugabe s rule. The new president has been criticized by some Zimbabweans and opposition parties for appointing Air Marshall Perrance Shiri as lands, agriculture and rural resettlement minister and Major-General Sibusiso Moyo as foreign and international trade minister, rather than bringing in younger candidates less associated with the Mugabe era. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is the party s legal affairs secretary, presented a report on the economy at Wednesday s meeting, where he reiterated that the new dispensation in the country had brought hope and confidence in the economy, Khaya-Moyo said. Chinamasa promised in a budget speech last week to re-engage with international lenders, curb spending and attract investors to revive the economy. Mnangagwa is under pressure to reverse the economic decline before elections next year and has vowed to focus on rejuvenating the struggling economy and creating jobs. Once seen among Africa s most promising economies, Zimbabwe now has an unemployment rate exceeding 80 percent. |
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| Mar-a-Lago Trump rally !Blacks for Trump &Trump VolunteersMarch 4 Trump !Trump Tower#fisa#wiretapping#wiretap pic.twitter.com/w8b2wqWfBZ Charles Trump2020 (@charlespm777) March 4, 2017BREAKING: President Trump’stops Motorcade near Mar-A-Lago to wave at supporters and say Thank You #Florida #BreakingNews #March4Trump pic.twitter.com/5TAzftYWPm Florida Street Team (@ChatRevolve) March 4, 2017WATCH as President Trump as exits his vehicle to show his appreciation for Trump’supporters: Breaking Video Pres. Trump gets out of motorcade at Mar-a-Lago Rally! #fisa#wiretap#march4trump#blacksfortrump#Obamagate #Trump pic.twitter.com/aqjH5A8QhK Charles Trump2020 (@charlespm777) March 4, 2017 |
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| Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and top challenger Ted Cruz ended a longstanding truce in spectacular fashion on Thursday night with bitter exchanges during what may have been Trump’s strongest debate performance to date. The New York billionaire and the Texas senator appeared to have a split decision by the end of the night, a sign that for all the bluster, little took place that could derail Trump from his lead position with a contest in Iowa on Feb. 1 to begin the search for a Republican presidential nominee. Projections that the debate would be a free-for-all were accurate. Beyond the Trump-Cruz theatrics, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida turned in a pugnacious performance with attacks on Cruz and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Florida Governor Jeb Bush presented himself as a voice of reason against Trump. A Google snap poll showed viewers believed Trump, who in the most recent debates was at times less engaged, won the night with 37.3 percent to Cruz’s 26.6 percent and Rubio’s 12.1 percent. Until the Fox Business Network debate in North Charleston, South Carolina, Trump and Cruz had been friendly because they have both been chasing conservatives of the Tea Party movement and did not want to anger them. With Trump now needing to fend off Cruz’s rise in Iowa, he pushed his charge that Cruz may not be constitutionally qualified to serve as president because he was born in Canada. The U.S. Constitution says only “natural born” citizens can become president of the United States. “Who the hell knows if you can even serve in office?” Trump told Cruz, drawing a scattering of boos in the audience. Born in Calgary, Alberta, to a U.S. citizen mother and a Cuban father, Cruz accused Trump of bringing up his birthplace simply because Cruz was leading some polls in Iowa. Cruz said Trump, who led the movement questioning whether the Hawaiian-born President Barack Obama was really from the United States, had asked his lawyers to look into the issue of Cruz’s birth in September and concluded there were no issues. “Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have,” Cruz said. “And I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are dropping in Iowa, but the facts and the law here are really clear.” Trump said Democrats would sue if Cruz were on the Republican ticket, putting their party’s chances of winning at risk. Cruz shot back that he had spent many years studying constitutional law: “I’m not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.” The birthright issue has dogged American politics before: 2008 Republican nominee John McCain survived questions about his birth in Panama because he was born on a U.S. military installation there and it was judged to be U.S. soil. In 1967, Republican candidate George Romney faced questions about his birth in Mexico, but his candidacy never advanced far and the issue was abandoned. While Cruz seemed to have parried the attack for now, he was stung by Trump on another issue: Whether people who live in New York City have the same values as other Americans. Cruz has lately begun denouncing “New York values” to connect Trump to the city’s famous liberalism. “Everyone understands that the values of New York City are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage,” Cruz said. Trump, in perhaps his most heartfelt remarks of the night, harked back to New York’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to defend his home city. “The people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death... And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. “And we rebuilt Downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made,” Trump said. Rubio, in third place behind Trump and Cruz in Iowa and hoping a strong outcome there will help him in the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, frequently inserted himself into arguments and tried to put pressure on Cruz. He accused Cruz of proposing a value added tax as part of his tax plan and of being soft on immigration. “That is not consistent conservatism,” he said. “That is political calculation.” He attacked Christie as well, accusing him of have liberal positions on education policy and abortion. Christie interrupted a Rubio-Cruz exchange with this blast: “I’d like to interrupt this debate on the floor of the Senate. You had your chance, Marco you blew it,” he said. Cruz, who has taken the lead in some polls of Iowa Republican voters, did well on social media. Social media monitoring tool Zoomph saw total positive mentions for Cruz climb by more than 150 percent while he sparred with Trump. Trump is far ahead nationally. A Reuters/Ipsos rolling national poll on Jan. 12 showed Trump had 39 percent of the vote, Cruz 14.5 percent, Bush 10.6 percent, Carson 9.6 percent, while 6.7 percent favored Rubio. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales from the Trail” (here) (In paragraph 5, corrects to Fox Business Network from Fox Business Channel) |
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| We wish President Trump could clone SENIOR ADVISOR Stephen Miller! He s so brilliant and knows immigration like no other! We can’t say the’same for the White House Press Corp! The Trump administration made some positive announcements on immigration and the left went nuts! Miller got the best of them!Stephen Miller has been with President Trump from the earlier days of the 2016 campaign. He would give incredible speeches to the rally audience. He s so well versed on immigration and American history that he could take on anyone and win in a debate! We love the guy! He s a PATRIOT!FYI: The Statue of Liberty had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with immigration. The Emma Lazarus poem that Acosta refers to was affixed to the pedestal as an ex post facto inscription in 1903. ONE OF OUR FAVORITE MILLER MOMENTS WAS A SPEECH DURING THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT AWESOME!Trump’spokesperson Stephen Miller just hammers Hillary Clinton! You will love every minute of this!HERE S A PREVIOUS REPORT WHERE MILLER RIPS INTO CHUCK TODD ANOTHER AWESOME MILLER MOMENT!There was a big hit piece in WaPo on Stephen Miller that called him every nasty thing in the book. He battled back and steamrolled over Chuck Todd. Keep it up Stephen Miller! We absolutely love how you’re calling out the left!WATCH Stephen Miller SMOKE @chucktodd on Immigration. Chucky keeps trying to interrupt Miller steamrolls over him! pic.twitter.com/kOurG4cpWH Boston Bobblehead (@DBloom451) February 12, 2017 |
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True-Fake-News
These are collected news articles from various sources with curated labels aligning to true of fake classification.
Dataset Description
The dataset contains two types of articles fake and real News. This dataset was collected from realworld sources; the truthful articles were obtained by crawling articles from Reuters.com (News website). As for the fake news articles, they were collected from different sources. The fake news articles were collected from unreliable websites that were flagged by Politifact (a fact-checking organization in the USA) and Wikipedia. The dataset contains different types of articles on different topics, however, the majority of articles focus on political and World news topics.
Dataset Sources [optional]
- Repository: Kaggle Repo
Uses
Text classification or question answering would be ways to use this dataset.
Dataset Structure
| Classification | Total Number of Articles | Article Type | Article Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-News | 21,417 | World | 10,145 |
| Political | 11,272 | ||
| Fake-News | 23,481 | Government | 1,570 |
| Middle East | 778 | ||
| US | 783 | ||
| Left-Leaning | 4,459 | ||
| Political | 6,841 | ||
| General | 9,050 |
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Models trained or fine-tuned on AlexanderHolmes0/true-fake-news